TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) — Michael Jordan arrived at Talladega Superspeedway about 30 minutes before the start of the playoff race and made his way directly to Bubba Wallace's pit stand for a quick visit with his guys.
The NBA great eventually made his way down pit road to Tyler Reddick's stand, where he sat on the wall and waited for Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins. Both NASCAR team owners have refused to sign NASCAR's charter agreement and last week filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the stock car series.
The brief exchange Sunday was planned as a show of solidarity by the only two teams that chose not to accept NASCAR's terms for its new revenue-sharing model. 23XI Racing and Front Row want a jury to decide if NASCAR is, indeed, “monopolistic bullies” as the suit alleges.
Jordan said before the race the lawsuit is on behalf of all Cup Series teams; 13 organizations signed the charter agreement, with 23XI and Front Row the only holdouts. Many team owners have said they signed on deadline and under threat of having the entire charter system revoked.
“I think everybody should have an opportunity to be successful in any business and my voice is saying it hasn't been happening,” Jordan told Fox Sports.
He said he had no intention of speaking with NASCAR chairman Jim France, who is named in the suit, while in Talladega over the weekend.
The legal battle has become the biggest talking point in NASCAR in the middle of its playoffs as the entire industry waits to see what happens next. NASCAR has declined to comment and France declined to discuss it at Talladega. NASCAR's court response could come as early as this week ahead of Sunday's playoff elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Michael McDowell, who won the pole for Sunday's race for Front Row, defended Jenkins' decision to battle NASCAR. McDowell decided months ago he was leaving the team he's driven for since 2018 at the end of the season, but is supportive of what Jenkins and 23XI are trying to accomplish.
"Bob Jenkins is so dedicated to this sport,” McDowell said. “He has spent millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of his own dollars to be in this sport and to be competitive. Nobody does that unless they’re insane or super passionate.
“He’s passionate about our race team and being competitive. It’s been a steady progression and I feel like we’re at a point now where we’re a contender,” McDowell continued. "There is nobody spending what we spend and performing how we perform. Nobody. And if he has to spend his own money, there is a problem.”
Denny Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing with Jordan and Curtis Polk, also defended taking the fight to court.
“It’s been stated in statements by Michael Jordan that he loves NASCAR,” Hamlin said. "We’ve obviously invested heavily in NASCAR and reinvested what I got out of this sport as a driver back into it as an owner. Certainly, we love the sport, just would love to see change as well.”
Asked if he thinks NASCAR has any appreciation for what Hamlin — who as a Charlotte Hornets season ticket-holder developed a relationship with Jordan and then persuaded Jordan to start a NASCAR team with him — and 23XI have done for the sport, Hamlin took a long pause.
“Probably not," he finally answered.
Jordan is the highest-profile team owner in NASCAR, and one of only two who are Black. 23XI also has one of the most diverse teams in the garage, from driver Wallace to crew members and non-competition employees.
The lawsuit has raised another concern around the garage: Team owner Richard Childress said he was not sure if the agreement he signed is the same terms that, say, Hendrick Motorsports received — and if 23XI and Front Row eventually reach an agreement with NASCAR will organizations that have already signed be guaranteed the same terms?
“I don't know what's going to happen because it's just so unprecedented in our sport,” Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks said. "There's no historical precedent. I think in other cases like this, in other sports, you have collective bargaining unions. So it's just a very, very different setting. I think we have a blank slate and we can land anywhere. I think whatever comes out of this, I have to believe that it should affect everybody the same.”
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Michael Jordan, co-owner of 23XI Racing, sits in his pit box during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Co-Owner Michael Jordan, of 23XII Racing, sits in his pit box during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Bob Jenkins, owner of Front Row Motorsports and Co-Owner Michael Jordan, of 23XI Racing, talk before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
Bob Jenkins, owner of Front Row Motorsports and Co-Owner Michael Jordan, of 23XI Racing, pose before a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill)
No one is likely to be happy with the projected higher deficits laid out in a new analysis of Kamala Harris’ and Donald Trump’s economic plans.
The analysis released Monday by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget suggests a Harris presidency could increase the national debt over 10 years by $3.5 trillion. The same analysis says former President Trump’s ideas could heap another $7.5 trillion onto the debt and possibly as much as $15.2 trillion.
Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here’s the latest:
It might seem curious that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared on Polish TV, as he did Monday.
Trump gave Poland’s Republika TV a 10-minute interview, during which he praised the country’s President Andrzej Duda, a conservative whom Trump hosted for dinner in New York in April, a “very good man.”
But considering states with some of the highest percentages of Americans of Polish ancestry — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — it makes more sense. The three states are among the most competitive on the 2024 campaign map and account for a combined 44 Electoral College votes. The states rank in the top 5 nationally in Americans of Polish ancestry, along with Illinois and New York.
“There is no president that’s been better to the Polish people,” Trump said during the interview.
Trump touted his administration’s decision to sell military equipment to Poland and to oppose Russia’s gas pipeline to Germany that would have increased Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
Poland has concerns for its own security in the face of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which borders Poland to the east. Poland supports Ukraine in the conflict.
Trump has promised to end the war, should he win the Nov. 5 election, before even taking office in November.
But Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has also upped her outreach to Polish Americans, notably by capitalizing on their animosity toward Russia and Trump’s hesitancy to back Ukraine publicly, such as during the debate with Harris last month.
There are an estimated 784,000 Americans of Polish descent in Michigan, 758,000 in Pennsylvania and 481,000 in Wisconsin, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ transition team has reached an agreement with the Biden administration on rules for accessing government offices and records should she win the November presidential election.
Former President Donald Trump’s team has yet to reach a similar agreement, according to an administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss transition planning.
Congress called for the agreements to be reached by Oct. 1 of a presidential election year to enable all major party nominees to be prepared to assume the presidency on Inauguration Day.
It’s the latest transition planning milestone that Trump is behind on. The former president has also yet to reach an agreement to utilize General Services Administration support and official space, like the Harris team has, which Congress in the Presidential Transition Act, had wanted met by Sept. 1.
— By Zeke Miller
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance headlined a 1,500-strong rally Monday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“This terrible assault on the Jewish people must never be allowed to happen again,” Vance, an Ohio senator, told the crowds gathered near the Washington Monument. “Every single American of common sense and principle must reject it.”
The event took place under a massive security deployment due to both Vance’s presence and fear of attack.
Tall fencing draped with black fabric ringed a vast swath of lawn across the street from the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Multiple law enforcement agencies, including Secret Service and Park Police, on horseback, locked down the area.
Attendees said they came to send a message of solidarity with Israel.
“I think that Jews in America often feel like they have to apologize or feel bashful about their identity,” said Miriam Regev, who came from New York City to attend.
Regev said she wasn’t a Republican but was impressed by Vance’s words. She holds “serious concerns” about former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump, but added “there’s no doubt in my mind that a Trump-Vance administration would be much more strongly pro-Israel.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz visited an exhibition dedicated to some of the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
Walz, the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, attended the exhibition in Culver City, California, that was dedicated to the victims who were maimed, killed or kidnapped from the Nova music festival on that date.
Survivor Noa Beer and event producer Virginia Fout led Walz on a tour that featured original artifacts from the festival and displays that depicted the gruesomeness of the attack. Walz spent time at a Memorial Wall dedicated to those who were murdered.
Around 3,000 people were dancing in a field in Israel just miles from Gaza when heavily armed Palestinian militants rampaged through the festival, killing at least 364 people and taking more than 40 hostage. At least some are still held in Gaza.
North Carolina’s bipartisan state elections board unanimously approved an emergency resolution making several changes to how voters in 13 western North Carolina counties can cast their ballots by Election Day.
The resolution comes less than two weeks after deadly Helene destroyed large swaths of western North Carolina, displacing residents, damaging homes and washing away roads.
In a critical presidential election that may hinge on which way the battleground state swings, that widespread disruption also presents major problems for how residents can cast their votes.
“I’m generally very hesitant to make changes to the normal running our election,” said Stacy Eggers IV, a Republican board member from Boone in western North Carolina. “But these have been tailored to give flexibility to the county boards to meet those specific needs.”
One of the biggest changes allows affected voters to turn an absentee ballot in on Election Day by 7:30 p.m. to polling places operated by their county elections board.
Displaced voters may also turn in ballots to another county’s elections board by the same deadline.
The resolution also expands opportunities to pick up an absentee ballot in-person from a county elections office until the day before the election.
Trump claimed in a radio interview on Monday morning that he polls so well in Israel that he could run for office.
“I could run for prime minister, although Bibi’s doing a lot better right now,” he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking on WABC radio, the former president said that in the U.S., “very conservative Jews, very, very conservative, they’re all for Trump, every, 100% because I’ve done things that are — they understand it.”
“I heard I’m doing very well with New York, Jewish people from New York, I hear I’m doing well,” Trump said.
Trump appeared on the same radio program in July with host Sid Rosenberg and claimed Vice President Kamala Harris, who is married to a Jewish man, “doesn’t like Jewish people.”
He repeated his claims that the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas never would have happened if he were still president.
Soon, the ballots will be cast, the polls will close and a campaign marked by assassination attempts, animosity and anxiety will come to an end. But for U.S. adversaries, the work to meddle with American democracy may be entering its most critical phase.
Despite all the attention on efforts to spread disinformation in the months before the Nov. 5 election, the hours and days immediately after voting ends could offer foreign adversaries like Russia, Iran and China or domestic extremist groups the best chance to mess with America’s decision.
That’s when Americans will go online to see the latest results or share their opinions as the votes are tabulated. And that’s when a fuzzy photo or AI-generated video of supposed vote tampering could do its most damage, potentially transforming online outrage into real-world action before authorities have time to investigate the facts.
It’s a threat taken seriously by intelligence analysts, elected officials and tech executives, who say that while there’s already been a steady buildup of disinformation and influence operations, the worst may be yet to come.
Turning Point’s representatives have made two things clear in meetings with state and local Republican leaders — Donald Trump has blessed their conservative organization to help lead his get-out-the-vote effort, and local party officials ought to use the group’s new voter mobilization app.
Both prospects terrify fellow Republicans.
Soaring to prominence after Trump’s unexpected 2016 win, Turning Point earned a reputation for hosting glitzy events, cultivating hard-right influencers and raising prodigious sums of money while enriching the group’s leaders. They’ve had far less success helping Republicans win, especially in their adopted home state of Arizona.
Now the organization has leveraged its ties to Trump to expand its influence in a way that could be potentially lucrative. Turning Point has sought to lead an effort to remake the GOP’s get-out-the-vote effort based on the theory that there are thousands of Trump supporters who rarely vote but could be persuaded to in this year’s election. And they are pitching their new mobile app as vital to this effort’s success.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference at the state Capitol in Atlanta, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
This combination photo shows Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally in Flint, Mich., Oct. 4, 2024, left, and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Walker, Mich., Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo)
FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gestures as he finishes speaking at The Believers' Summit 2024 at a Turning Point Action event in West Palm Beach, Fla., July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force Two at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Saturday, October 5, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C., after a briefing on the damage from Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
