Welcome to the online version of From the Political Bureauan evening newsletter featuring the latest reporting and analysis from the NBC News Politics team on the campaign, the White House, and Capitol Hill.
In today’s edition, senior political reporter Jonathan Allen analyzes the freebies Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are offering as part of their campaign platforms. Plus, a shocking CNN report on Mark Robinson shakes up the race for governor of North Carolina.
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Trump’s tax rollback marks a flood of freebies that will define the 2024 election
By Jonathan Allen
As president, Donald Trump eliminated a lucrative tax break that benefited coastal donors and suburban swing-state voters. Now he’s promising to bring it back — if they put him back in the White House.
Trump aides say he is not releasing any hostages or even changing his mind about the $10,000 annual cap he has imposed on the federal deduction taxpayers can claim on their state and local taxes — the “SALT cap,” in Washington parlance. Instead, a campaign official said, Trump is responding to new economic realities as he pursues a “two-pronged” solution. The first is to promote pro-growth policies and the second is to adopt tax positions that would allow people to keep more of their money.
According to Caroline Bruckner, director of the Kogod Tax Policy Center at American University, it’s not just the economic changes that Trump has brought about.
“The change in the cap on the deductibility of state and local taxes was an easy move to target revenue flowing to blue states,” Bruckner said of the 2017 law, which used the SALT cap as a budget offset to pay for other tax cuts. “Now it appears that higher-income taxpayers in swing states have successfully made their case to Trump.”
The reversal is one of several freebies that Trump and his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, are offering voters in the final stretch before Election Day. Together, they are promising the equivalent of a tax break in each pot.
Both candidates pledge to block tip taxes for service workers. Trump says he would protect seniors from taxes on Social Security. Harris is pumping steroids into Biden administration proposals to expand the child tax credit and subsidize first-time homebuyers. She’s also offering a deduction of up to $50,000 in the first year for small start-ups.
There are also big-spending promises, such as Trump’s announcement (the details of which have yet to be worked out) that he will offer free in vitro fertilization treatments to people trying to conceive.
“This is the time of the crazy times, where everything is free,” said former Rep. Charlie Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania, who was a leader among moderate GOP members in Congress.
Read more →
Mark Robinson vows to stay in race for North Carolina governor after reports of inflammatory comments on porn site
By Adam Edelman and Alexandra Marquez
Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, vowed Thursday to stay in the race after dozens of offensive and inflammatory comments he made on a pornography website message board more than a decade ago were reported.
The report, published by CNN, said that Robinson, in posts on a pornography website called Nude Africa, called himself a “black NAZI,” expressed support for bringing back slavery, said he enjoyed watching transgender porn and told sexually explicit stories, including one about his memory of “peeping” on women in the gym showers when he was 14. The posts were made under the username “minisoldr” from 2008 to 2012, CNN reported, before Robinson, who was elected lieutenant governor in 2020, entered politics.
In a video posted on X before the story was published, Robinson denied the report, calling it “tabloid trash.”
“Let me reassure you: The things you’re going to see in that story are not the words of Mark Robinson. You know my words, you know my character, and you know that I’ve been completely transparent in this race and before,” he said in the video.
“We are in this race, we are in it to win, and we know that with your help we will do so,” he added.
The report was the latest blow to Republicans in the crucial state contest, which pits Robinson, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump, against Democratic nominee Josh Stein. North Carolina has also become more important in the presidential race after Kamala Harris rose to the top of the Democratic ticket.
Read more →
Black voters in swing states overwhelmingly support Harris – with important differences in age and gender
By Stephanie Perry and Curtis Bunn
An overwhelming majority of Black voters in key states have said they will vote for Kamala Harris in November, but she must first strike a deal with some skeptical voters who have not yet decided to match Joe Biden’s 2020 margin among Black voters.
The data, from a new Howard University Initiative on Public Opinion poll of 963 Black likely voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — the seven key states in the race — shows that 82% say they will vote for Harris, while 12% say they will vote for Donald Trump. Another 5% are undecided, and 1% plan to choose another candidate.
According to 2020 exit polls in the same crucial states, 89% of black voters supported Biden, compared to 9% for Trump.
While black voters in swing states largely support Harris, there are some key differences among subgroups of black voters.
Among black voters aged 50 and older, 89% said they support Harris, but among voters under 50, that number drops to 75%.
Among black men under 50, Harris had a 50-point lead, compared with her 78-point lead among men 50 and older. Among young women, Harris’s margin is 65 points, but among older women it is 84 points.
Meanwhile, black swing-state voters with college degrees back Harris over Trump by 73 points, while black voters without college degrees back Harris over Trump by 68 points. The poll shows that younger and less educated voters are more likely to support Trump.
Read more →
🗳️ GOTV: The NAACP told NBC News it plans to spend $20 million to mobilize Black voters in 12 states this fall. Read more →
📊 Survey says: Mark Murray breaks down the series of national and swing state polls released in the past 24 hours. Read more →
🗞️ Today’s top stories
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🤝 Friend-friend: Henry J. Gomez and Allan Smith delve into the “buddy level” relationship between Trump and JD Vance. Read more →
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🌽 Omaha! Sen. Lindsey Graham met with Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and about two dozen Republican lawmakers on behalf of the Trump campaign as part of an effort to change the way Nebraska allocates its electoral college votes. Read more →
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🙅 Not yet decided: The Uncommitted Movement of pro-Palestine Democrats does not endorse Harris, while also making clear that it opposes Trump and other third-party candidates. Read more →
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💻 Aftermath of hacking: According to the FBI, Iranian hackers sent material stolen from Trump’s campaign to people associated with Biden’s campaign. Read more →
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✈️ Coming soon to Springfield: Trump said Wednesday he plans to travel to Springfield, Ohio, “in the next two weeks.” Read more →
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🗣️ Long history: Railing against illegal immigration has been a fixture of Trump’s presidential campaign since the day he announced his candidacy for 2016. Read more →
That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have any feedback — likes or dislikes — please email us at politicsnieuwsbrief@nbcuni.com
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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
