By DAVID KLEPPER

WASHINGTON (AP) —

The U.S. State Department announced new sanctions on Russian state media Friday, accusing a Kremlin news outlet of working hand-in-hand with the Russian military and running fundraising campaigns to pay for sniper rifles, body armor and other equipment for soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

While the outlet, RT, has previously been sanctioned for its work to spread Kremlin propaganda and disinformation, the allegations announced Friday suggest its role goes far beyond influence operations. Instead, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, RT is a key part of Russia’s war machine and its efforts to undermine its democratic allies.

“RT wants its new covert intelligence capabilities, like its longstanding propaganda disinformation efforts, to remain hidden,” Blinken said Friday. “Our most powerful antidote to Russia’s lies is the truth. It’s shining a bright light on what the Kremlin is trying to do under the cover of darkness.”

RT has also created websites posing as legitimate news sites to spread disinformation and propaganda in Europe, Africa, South America and elsewhere, officials said. They say the outlet has also expanded its use of cyber operations with a new unit with ties to Russian intelligence created last year.

The crowd-sourcing effort sought to raise funds for Russian military supplies, some of which were procured in China, officials said. There were no obvious connections between RT and the fundraising campaign, or any indication that Chinese officials knew their products were being sold to Russia.

RT’s actions show “it’s not just a firehouse of disinformation, but a fully fledged member of the intelligence apparatus and operation of the Russian government,” said Jamie Rubin, who heads the State Department’s Global Engagement Center.

The sanctions announced Friday target RT’s parent organization, TV-Novosti, as well as a related state media group called Rossiya Segodnya, as well as Dmitry Kiselyov, Rossiya Segodnya’s general director. A third organization and its leader, Nelli Parutenko, were also sanctioned for allegedly running a vote-buying scheme in Moldova designed to help Moscow’s preferred candidates in an upcoming election.

Jennifer Epstein, Nancy Cook, Skylar Woodhouse | (TNS) Bloomberg News

Vice President Kamala Harris is looking to harness the momentum from her strong showing in Tuesday’s presidential debate with a tour of key swing states, even as her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, is about to embark on a trip to the West, where he’ll be pressed to show donors and supporters a plan to regain his footing.

For the Democratic nominee, visits to North Carolina and Pennsylvania — two crucial battlegrounds in November’s election — offer the opportunity to solidify support among swing voters considering her candidacy anew after her promising debate performance.

With early voting starting soon, Democrats are also eager to bank support, particularly as enthusiasm among the party faithful has swollen in the hours since the candidates squared off in Philadelphia.

Trump plans a fevered stretch of campaigning, including a press conference, rallies and high-dollar fundraisers across Arizona, Nevada, and California that have taken on new significance after his rocky debate performance that even some of his top supporters acknowledge could have gone better.

While the former president’s allies insist the debate is unlikely to be a make-or-break moment like his exchange with President Joe Biden in June, which effectively ended the president’s half-century political career, the pressure is back on Republicans to blunt Harris’s momentum.

Trump’s frustration in the aftermath of the debate has largely focused on ABC News moderators who fact-checked his claims in real time, leading allies to believe he’s not likely to shake up his campaign staff. But the Republican nominee could use his western swing to offer a new policy proposal to reshape the narrative, as he’s done in the past.

Harris’ team says it is shifting into a new, more assertive phase on the campaign trail. After limiting her interactions with the press — and facing criticism from Republicans and members of the media — she will begin sitting for more interviews, including some with battleground state outlets in the coming days and with the National Association of Black Journalists next week.

Former President Barack Obama will also appear at a major fundraiser for Harris in Los Angeles on Sept. 20, according to a person familiar with the schedule, which will help boost her campaign coffers and fund get-out-the-vote efforts.

The debate has the air of a missed opportunity for Trump, who has an Electoral College advantage and is favored to prevail if the race remains tight.

Polls have found Trump and Harris generally running neck-and-neck in surveys of the seven swing states expected to decide the election. A New York Times/Siena College poll on Sunday showed Trump led Harris nationally by a point.

“Our team could not be prouder of President Trump for delivering a masterful debate performance in a 3-on-1 fight against lying Kamala Harris,” said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, who accused the moderators of bias.

Trump spinHarris, by contrast, is riding high after the debate – and Taylor Swift’s endorsement – seeking to translate that boost into votes. Her debate performance saw her odds of winning the election increase in betting markets and 63% of registered voters say she did a better job than Trump in a CNN flash poll.

Though he repeatedly declared victory in his debate spin, Trump appeared to acknowledge that the night didn’t go particularly well. He visited the post-debate spin room — something candidates typically don’t do — and called into “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday morning to vent his frustrations.

Trump in the Fox News interview sounded agitated, frequently cutting off the hosts as he complained he’d endured “a rigged deal” and accusing ABC News’ moderators of siding with Harris.

Harris’ top aides began calling for a second debate before the candidates had even left the stage in Philadelphia.

Fox News has proposed three October dates for a matchup moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, who are seen as less partial to Trump than other network anchors. During his “Fox & Friends” interview, Trump instead suggested right-wing commentators Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters as hosts, an arrangement Harris is almost certain to reject.

“The first thing they did is ask for a debate because when a fighter loses, he says ‘I want a rematch,’” Trump said on Fox. “I’d be less inclined to because we had a great night, we won the debate, we had a terrible network.”

Later in the day, he told reporters he might be open to a debate moderated by Fox News or NBC News.

Three Trump advisers said they couldn’t see him committing to facing Harris again.

“I would not do a second debate if I were him. She would never agree to a debate where she doesn’t have a tag team,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a longtime ally, echoing Trump’s claims that ABC News was biased.

Early votingHarris, her running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, and their spouses will travel to the battleground states over four days, according to the campaign, which has pegged it as the “New Way Forward Tour,” seeking to persuade voters who desire change that Harris is their candidate. That could be a challenging message for a Democrat whose agenda is largely aligned with Biden, something Trump regularly points out.

The Harris campaign is also launching advertisements to underscore that message, including some featuring debate footage. In the first, released late Wednesday, Trump bemoans “a failing nation” while Harris offers a more optimistic view. Other ads will tout her proposals to make food, housing and prescription drugs more affordable.

Harris’ visits to North Carolina and Pennsylvania are also intended to secure early votes in the two states. Her Thursday stops in Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina, were timed to the planned distribution of absentee ballots.

North Carolina, however, delayed its distribution of ballots after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who abandoned his independent presidential campaign to endorse Trump, successfully sued to have his name removed.

Harris’ Friday rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, will occur three days before that battleground becomes the first in the nation to kick off early voting, with Virginia, South Dakota and Vermont following next week.

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(With assistance from Akayla Gardner.)

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©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Daniela Altimari and Mary Ellen McIntire | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON — The Democrats’ fragile hold on the Senate majority is likely to come down to the fates of a dirt farmer from north-central Montana, a Rust Belt populist and a trio of senators from battleground states.

Less than eight weeks out from Election Day, Montana’s Jon Tester and Ohio’s Sherrod Brown lead the list of Roll Call’s most vulnerable senators, followed by Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey, Nevada’s Jacky Rosen and Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin. The ranking is based on extensive conversations with campaign insiders, party officials and independent election analysts.

Roll Call typically focuses on the 10 most endangered members in each chamber, but as has been true all cycle, the Senate list keeps thinning. Our first assessment in May 2023 of the landscape for this fall featured Democrat Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, independent Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Republican Mitt Romney of Utah; all have since taken themselves out of contention by announcing their retirements.

And our most recent list, published in early May, was led by New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who resigned in August after he was convicted on federal corruption charges.

Republicans need a net gain of two seats to take the majority next year — or one seat and control of the White House, since the vice president breaks ties. And with Manchin’s retirement, the GOP is all but guaranteed to pick up the seat in ruby-red West Virginia.

While our list looks only at vulnerable incumbents, there are several high-profile open seats whose outcomes will also shape the balance of power in the chamber.

One of the biggest Senate battlegrounds is in Arizona, where Republican Kari Lake is running against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates that race Tilt Democratic.

In Michigan, Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin and former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers are vying for a seat being vacated by Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Inside Elections also rates that race Tilt Democratic.

The GOP’s hopes in Maryland rest with former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican who has been outspoken about his disagreements with presidential nominee Donald Trump. He’s facing Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in a race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin. The contest is rated Likely Democratic, a nod to the state’s deep-blue underpinnings.

There are two other races worth keeping an eye on as the campaign season winds down.

Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico was showing signs he might be vulnerable in his reelection battle against Republican Nella Domenici, the former chief financial officer of a large hedge fund who is the daughter of former Sen. Pete Domenici. Heinrich began airing ads in June, and he was among the Democrats publicly calling for President Joe Biden to drop his reelection bid. But Biden’s exit from the presidential race is seen as giving some down-ballot Democrats, such as Heinrich, a lift.

And in Nebraska, union leader Dan Osborn is waging a nonpartisan campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Deb Fischer. A poll by Split Ticket and SurveyUSA found the race essentially deadlocked, with Fischer at 39 percent and Osborn at 38 percent. But Fischer had $3 million on hand as of June 30, compared with $650,000 for Osborn. The race in a state Trump carried by 19 points in 2020 is rated Solid Republican.

Tester narrowly defeated a GOP incumbent in 2006, but since then, Montana has grown redder even as Tester has won by more comfortable margins. This year, he faces Republican businessman Tim Sheehy. An independent poll commissioned by AARP and released last week showed Tester trailing Sheehy by 8 percentage points. Tester had $10.9 million on hand at the end of June, while Sheehy had $3.3 million. Sheehy has already put $2.6 million of his own money into the race. Republicans have cast Tester as a D.C. insider who walks in lockstep with his party, while Democrats have portrayed Sheehy as a wealthy and untested candidate with weak ties to Montana who used racist stereotypes about the state’s Indigenous people.

Democrats are counting on ticket-splitters and Brown’s personal brand to boost him over Republican businessman Bernie Moreno in a state that’s expected to back Trump. Brown, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has raised $53 million so far this cycle, the most of any endangered Senate Democrat. He had $10.7 million on hand to $4.5 million for Moreno. An Emerson College poll released last week put Brown up by 2 points even as Vice President Kamala Harris was 10 points behind Trump. Cryptocurrency-aligned super PACs back Moreno, and they are already spending millions for fund ads on his behalf.

Casey’s battle with Dave McCormick, a former hedge fund executive who loaned his campaign $4 million as of June 30, moves up one spot since last spring’s list. Most public polls still show Casey, who is seeking a fourth term, with a lead over his challenger. But McCormick had $8.3 million on hand at the end of June, nearly as much as Casey’s $8.4 million, and his allies, including the Keystone Renewal PAC, are set to spend millions boosting his campaign over the next two months. As Republicans struggle to match Democrats’ spending advantage in other races, that could help McCormick in a state that both presidential campaigns are also aggressively targeting.

Rosen has appeared to be in a relatively strong position against Republican challenger Sam Brown, a retired Army captain. And that was true even before President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race. Rosen’s maintained a roughly 10-point lead over Brown in multiple public polls, with a margin-of-error race at the top of the ticket between Harris and Trump. Back at the end of June, Rosen had $9.5 million on hand, having brought in nearly $32 million. Brown had only $3 million on hand after raising $9.7 million.

Baldwin’s bid for a third term against Eric Hovde, the CEO of banking and real estate businesses who loaned his campaign $13 million as of July 24, remains competitive in a swing state that will also be hotly contested on the presidential level. The latest Marquette Law School poll released Wednesday found Baldwin leading Hovde, 52 percent to 47 percent, among likely voters when undecided voters were asked to pick. Baldwin has raised $36.5 million so far and had $6.3 million on July 24.

A prominent conservative with a national platform, Cruz faces a strong challenge from Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, a former NFL linebacker and Obama administration official. Cruz has defeated well-funded opponents before, but this is the first election since he traveled to Cancun during a devastating ice storm, drawing the wrath of many Texans. Recent polls have shown Cruz leading, however. An Emerson College poll with The Hill taken Sept. 3-5 had Cruz ahead by 4 points, while a Morning Consult survey taken Aug. 30 to Sept. 8 had him up by 5 points. He also had more money on hand: $12.7 million to Allred’s $10.5 million.

Polls show a tightening race in Florida, a state that has trended Republican in recent years and where the party had major success in the 2022 midterms. Democrats see a ballot referendum on abortion as helpful to former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign and have criticized Scott for an unpopular proposal he offered as Senate Republicans’ campaign chair in 2022 to sunset all federal programs, later exempting Medicare and Social Security. Still, Scott’s massive personal wealth could be daunting to overcome. He loaned his campaign $12.6 million as of July 31. He’s labeled his opponent as a radical and tried to tie her to the Democratic presidential ticket in Trump’s adopted home state.

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©2024 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.