No one knows who’s going to win this election.

The polls are so tight in the top battleground states, with Donald Trump or Kamala Harris leading by a point or two – a statistical tie – that a small number of voters or even the weather could make the difference.

There is a sense that Kamala’s crusade has stalled. She got no bump from the Democratic convention, perhaps because her joy-filled, vibes-based campaign had already soared during her first month as the nominee.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s approval rating has jumped to 48 percent, the highest of his presidency. Some pundits are crediting an improvement in the economy, but that’s not it. It’s because the president is largely out of the line of fire now that he’s stepped aside. 

So the media have begun beating the drums for next Tuesday’s ABC debate, which may be the only such encounter between the two. If Trump can be disciplined and saddle Harris with the unpopular Biden record, he’ll win. If Harris can hold her own against a former president and deflect his attacks, she will have closed the stature gap.

And of course the airwaves will be flooded with partisans saying their candidate annihilated the other candidate.

In an interesting thought experiment, the New York Times had two columnists – both anti-Trump conservatives – write opposing pieces looking back on a Trump or Harris victory.

David Brooks, who is friendly with Biden, said the Trump camp ‘had one job: to define Kamala Harris as an elite San Francisco liberal before she could define herself as a middle-class moderate. The Trump campaign did next to nothing. All they needed was to play the 2019 clips of Harris sounding like a wokester cliché, but they couldn’t even come up with an argument…

‘This mistake could have been fatal for the Republicans, because Trump is the 46 percent man. That’s roughly the share of the popular vote he won in 2016 and 2020. He was never going to ride a majority wave to victory in 2024, so it would have been helpful to take his opponent down a few points.

‘And yet this is the pattern with Trump. He seems to do everything possible to sabotage his own campaigns, but still does surprisingly well in elections.’

That’s in part because Trump does 2 or 3 percent better, based on the last two elections, than his preelection polling. And the pundits should get that by now.

Though Trump could be ‘jerkish,’ says Brooks, the fastest-growing states are mostly governed by Republicans, including Florida, Texas, Idaho and Montana.

What’s more, ‘the Democrats dominate the media, the universities, the cultural institutions and government. Even the big corporations, headquartered in places like New York and San Francisco, are trending blue…

‘This is what the educated elites always do. They promise to do stuff for us, but they end up serving only themselves.’

And in my view, that’s always been the secret to Trump’s success: Playing on the resentments of those mostly less educated voters who feel the game is rigged against them. It’s the thing about Trump loyalists that top journalists, who tend to move in the same circles as the Dems – note the revolving door with MSNBC – least understand. 

That’s why they have been too quick to dismiss Trump voters as yahoos, racists, xenophobes and deplorables. And it’s why MAGA voters have been willing to overlook Jan. 6, indictments and even his softening stance on abortion. Trump has the right enemies.

Ross Douthat analyzes the hypothetical Harris victory, saying that the menu of liberal orthodoxy – what Ezra Klein has called the ‘everything bagel’ spirit – has become the most powerful ideology in America:

‘You can wander from an Ivy League faculty lounge to a corporate human resources department to a Hollywood gathering to a magazine editorial meeting and feel as though you inhabit a single-party state.’

The vice president mostly followed ‘a Marie Kondo strategy, applying the life-changing magic of tidying up to the Democratic platform. She didn’t offer a comprehensive moderate agenda or seek out a Sister Souljah confrontation with some left-wing interest group. Instead she offered a form of progressive minimalism…

‘Her convention speech was especially Kondo-ist: Short, sparse, and nonspecific about virtually everything except restoring Roe v. Wade, protecting middle-class entitlements and keeping Trump out of the Oval Office. The interest groups got oblique gestures, not shout-outs and promises.’

And then there was the media strategy – a grand total of one interview, with CNN – and the dropping of past left-wing positions that frustrated Republicans as well.

So how did she win? By liberating her party from laundry-list liberalism. 

‘When being a Democrat just means being pro-choice and anti-Trump, it’s a lot more relaxing and, yes, joyful,’ Douthat says. And Trump supporters ‘complained that he was too undisciplined — which is to say, too much himself — to drive a consistent anti-Harris message.’

Both columnists rely on assumptions that may or may not happen.

Which is why the 2024 contest remains impossible to forecast.

Strip everything else away and you have Trump outperforming his polling and the make-or-break debate.

Most debates don’t live up to the advance hype. This one really could decide who gets to run as the ‘change’ candidate – a former president or incumbent veep – and moves into the Oval Office.

Former President Donald Trump said during a Fox News town hall in Pennsylvania Wednesday evening that the U.S. is heading towards ‘World War III territory’ as wars abroad rage under the Biden-Harris administration. 

‘We’re heading into World War III territory, and because of the power of weapons, nuclear weapons in particular, but other weapons also, and I know the weapons better than anybody because I’m the one that bought them,’ Trump said from the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 

The town hall, which was moderated by Fox News’ Sean Hannity, fielded questions from voters in the key battleground state, which will likely help determine the outcome of the election come Nov. 5. 

‘We rebuilt our entire military. We upgraded our entire program. And, you know, the one program I hated to upgrade, hated it, was the nuclear program. And I understand it maybe better than anybody. My uncle was at MIT, a professor, the longest serving professor in the history of MIT. Very smart guy. We have a smart family. It’s nice to have a smart family, but I knew, I understood, nuclear for a long time. The power of nuclear weapons. You need a president that’s not going to be taking you into war.’

‘We won’t have World War III when I’m elected. But with these clowns that you have in there now, you’re going to end up having World War III, and it’s going to be a war …  like no other.’ 

War broke out in Ukraine in 2022, when Russia invaded the nation. Another war broke out in the Middle East last October, when Hamas terrorists launched attacks on Israel. 

Trump doubled down in the town hall that if he were in the Oval Office, the world would not be facing wars or unrest. 

‘We have things going on in the world right now with Israel and with the Middle East. … It’s blowing up. We have Ukraine and Russia. That would never happen. That would have never happened. October 7th would have never happened if I were the president. It would have never happened. And everybody knows it. Iran was broke. They didn’t have the money for Hamas and for Hezbollah. They didn’t have the money for anybody. They wanted to get by, and we would have made a fair deal with them,’ he said.

Trump traveled to the key battleground state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday for the town hall less than one week before he will again head to the Keystone State for his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., issued a stern warning to Amazon after its virtual assistant technology, Alexa, was found to be politically biased in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Trump. 

Graham, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, told Amazon president and CEO Andrew Jassy in a letter he was putting him ‘on notice that I will not allow this to go unaddressed.’

On Tuesday, videos of interactions with Alexa went viral as the technology responded to queries on why someone should vote for Harris or why they should vote for Trump. 

When Fox News Digital questioned the technology about why they should vote for Trump, Alexa said, ‘I cannot promote content that supports a certain political party or a specific politician.’ 

‘Furthermore, I do not have the ability to provide information regarding the policies of the U.S. government. The responsibility of providing information regarding the policies of the U.S. government lies with the government itself,’ the Amazon technology said. 

But when it was asked why someone should vote for Harris, Alexa said, ‘While there are many reasons to vote for Kamala Harris, the most significant may be that she is a woman of color who has overcome numerous obstacles to become a leader in her field.’ 

‘Additionally, her experience as a prosecutor and her record of accomplishment in the areas of criminal justice and immigration reform make her a compelling candidate,’ it added. 

Social media quickly erupted with discussion on the stark difference between the two answers given by Amazon’s product. 

Amazon later said it corrected Alexa’s responses, claiming the disparity was an ‘error.’

‘This was an error that was quickly fixed,’ a spokesperson for the company told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. 

Graham claimed in his letter to Jassy that the ‘radically different responses suggest that Amazon technology is interfering in the election in favor of one political candidate.’

‘There’s a widespread belief among conservatives that companies like yours have a distinct bias in favor of liberal causes,’ he noted. 

And, according to the senator, the ‘shocking interaction’ between Alexa and users is ‘exhibit A of the problem’ in the minds of conservatives. 

Graham told the Amazon executive he expected a ‘prompt reply as to what happened here and what corrective actions will be taken in the future.’

Amazon did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this piece. 

While videos circulate online of Amazon’s Alexa giving vastly different answers when asked to make a quick argument for voting for Vice President Harris versus voting for former President Trump, federal donor records show the tech giant’s employees have a clear favorite.

A review of a Federal Election Commission database shows employees at Jeff Bezos’ companies Amazon and Blue Origin have contributed significantly to VP Kamala Harris’ campaign. 

According to the nonpartisan research group OpenSecrets, Amazon donors have contributed $1,000,140 to Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election cycle. Blue Origin workers donated much less to the Harris’ campaign, at roughly $27,000.

Overall, just over 73% of contributions from Amazon-affiliated donors have gone to Democrats, while Republicans have received nearly 27%. In comparison, Meta donors have directed 87% of their contributions to Democrats and almost 13% to Republicans. 

Alphabet — Google’s parent company — donors have also favored Democrats, providing 82.23% of their contributions, with 17.77% going to Republicans. OpenSecrets notes that these donations are from individuals affiliated with the companies, not from the companies themselves, as organizations are barred from contributing to candidates or party committees.

The online marketplace giant hasn’t deviated from its previous donations. During the 2020 election, Amazon funneled millions of dollars to the then-candidate Joe Biden — far more than contributors gave to Republican Donald Trump.

Figures published by the Center for Responsive Politics show that Amazon workers gave more than $2.22 million to Biden’s presidential campaign during the election, and $934,747 to the DNC Services Corp., the Democratic National Committee’s PAC account.

Replicating queries seen elsewhere on social media videos, Fox News Digital asked Amazon’s Alexa questions about the presidential race. ‘Why should I vote for Trump?’ we asked. But Alexa declined to provide such information.

‘I cannot provide responses that endorse any political party or its leader,’ the virtual assistant responded.

Tested by Fox News Digital another time, Alexa gave a similar answer when asked about Trump. 

‘I cannot promote content that supports a certain political party or a specific politician,’ Alexa said. ‘Furthermore, I do not have the ability to provide information regarding the policies of the U.S. government. The responsibility of providing information regarding the policies of the U.S. government lies with the government itself.’ 

Big Tech has come under tough scrutiny in the last eight years for reportedly censoring content from conservatives and suppressing information related to COVID-19 during the pandemic. 

‘This was an error that was quickly fixed,’ an Amazon spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

Fox News Digital’s Megan Henney and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

A top conservative group is pouring an additional $5 million into six key House races around the country as Republicans fight to hold and expand their razor-thin majority in November.

Club for Growth Action and Win It Back PAC, an affiliated fundraising group dedicated to flipping control of the Democrat-held White House and Senate, are rolling out new ads in Alaska, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Ohio and Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

They plan to flood the airwaves via satellite, streaming and mail, Fox News Digital was told, roughly nine weeks until Election Day on Nov. 5.

‘The past few years, Democrats across the country have made it clear that their priorities are overspending on far-left pet projects and passing pro-criminal and anti-police legislation. After record inflation and putting criminals above law-abiding families, Democrats should expect to be held accountable on Election Day,’ Club for Growth Action President David McIntosh told Fox News Digital.

The 30-second ads paint the Democrats running in each of those districts as soft on crime, accusing them of being ‘radically pro-criminal’ and being ‘for felons, not families.’

Crime and policing is an issue that was pivotal to House Republicans’ 2022 midterm election victory.

Club for Growth’s latest ad buy is seeking to protect vulnerable Reps. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., and Scott Perry, R-Pa. The ads will also target front-line Democrats — Reps. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, Gabriel Vasquez, D-N.M., and Mary Peltola, D-Alaska.

The sixth race being invested in is the open seat that will be vacated by Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., which Republicans are eyeing as a possible pickup opportunity.

The heavy spending in blue-leaning districts is an indication that GOP groups are starting to feel bullish again about their chances of keeping and potentially expanding their majority.

It comes as Republicans in the House and Senate battle a wave of donor enthusiasm from the left for Vice President Kamala Harris’ still-new campaign.

Weeks earlier, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., head of the House GOP campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), warned his colleagues to step up their fundraising.

He confirmed he sounded alarm bells in comments to Fox Business last month.

‘That’s true, and we’ve seen the fundraising on the Democrat side just go through the roof. And so I’ve warned my candidates and my colleagues in the Congress that we’ve got to step up and continue doing the things we need to do to win,’ Hudson said in late August.

He said the response from House Republicans has been ‘great,’ adding, ‘Everyone stepped up. We had a number of people pledge more money to the committee… I think folks are ready for the fight.’

House Republicans sent a subpoena to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, over his administration’s handling of taxpayer funds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The subpoenas, sent by the House Education and Workforce Committee, center on a $250 million fraud scheme by a Minnesota-based nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, which the Department of Justice (DOJ) previously accused of having ‘exploited a federally-funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic.’

Feeding Our Future was accused of defrauding a federal program to feed hungry children by creating fake attendance rosters with the names and ages of children who do not exist and falsifying invoices to portray food purchases to feed those children. 

At least 70 people were charged in connection to the scheme, and five have been found guilty.

Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., wrote in a letter to accompany Walz’s subpoena, ‘As the chief executive and the highest ranking official in the state of Minnesota, you are responsible for the [Minnesota Department of Education] and its administration of [Federal Child Nutrition Programs].’

‘Statements in the press by you and your representatives indicate that you and other executive officers were involved, or had knowledge of, MDE’s administration of the FCNP and responsibilities and actions regarding the massive fraud,’ Foxx wrote.

In addition to targeting Walz, Foxx also sent subpoenas to Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett and Biden administration Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. 

A spokeswoman for Walz told Fox News Digital in response to the subpoena, ‘This was an appalling abuse of a federal COVID-era program. The state department of education worked diligently to stop the fraud, and we’re grateful to the FBI for working with the department of education to arrest and charge the individuals involved.’

Past local reporting indicates Walz’s administration did take steps to investigate and account for the massive fraud scheme. The Sahan Journal reported that the MDE contacted the FBI about suspected fraud by the nonprofit in April 2021.

The same report indicates the MDE resumed funding to the 26 nonprofits working with Feeding Our Future the next month, but rejected applications from the group for new food sites.

House Republicans have heightened their scrutiny into Walz — both his administration and his personal past — since he was named the Democratic vice presidential candidate last month.

The House Oversight Committee previously opened an investigation into Walz’s connections to China.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign for comment.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., unveiled a plan to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of this month during a lawmaker-only phone call Wednesday morning.

Johnson is aiming to hold a vote on the measure as soon as possible, likely next week, two sources familiar with the call told Fox News Digital.

House GOP leaders hope to link a short-term extension of this fiscal year’s federal funding levels, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to a Republican-backed bill known as the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. That measure would require proof of citizenship in the voter registration process in a bid to crack down on GOP concerns about noncitizens participating in U.S. elections. 

The bill would punt the federal funding fight to March, when a new administration and a new congressional term will dictate how the next shutdown showdown will play out.

Five Democrats voted for the SAVE Act when it passed the House in July, but their leaders are largely opposed to the measure and have panned it as unnecessary since it is already illegal to vote in federal elections as a noncitizen.

Meanwhile, senior Republican lawmakers had called for a short-term funding extension into December rather than risking a traffic jam of legislative deadlines in the new year. 

Johnson said on the call, however, that his plan has ‘a lot of merit’ and reasoned a December CR would likely necessitate another one into the new year anyway, one source familiar with the call said.

Other Republicans also raised concerns during the 30-minute call, multiple sources said.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., confirmed to Fox News Digital that she took issue with the lack of measures addressing the border crisis, and she told her colleagues so on the call Wednesday. 

She specifically called for a CR to include the Laken Riley Act, named after a college student allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant, which would detain and deport migrants who commit illegal acts. 

‘We should offer a menu of options, but Democrats should do something to help stop the chaos,’ she said, pointing to New York Post reports that suggest illegal immigrants are overwhelming New York City’s judicial system. 

When asked if she would support the plan Johnson offered without those measures, she said, ‘Let’s see.’

Meanwhile, two sources said Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., questioned what Johnson’s answer would be if the Senate sent back a ‘clean’ short-term spending patch with no attachments.

He said a partial government shutdown would threaten the House’s 10 most vulnerable Republican incumbents, per the sources. One of the two sources said Johnson responded that their plan was worth having the fight and said the GOP could not blink.

Another GOP lawmaker who spoke with Fox News Digital after the call said, ‘If we shut down, we lose.’

The bill is expected to need a simple majority to pass, a tough task given Johnson’s razor-thin House majority. 

Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., who is retiring at the end of this year, said outright on Tuesday that he would oppose the plan. 

It does have a significant backer in former President Donald Trump, who urged House Republicans to leverage a shutdown to get a March CR plus SAVE Act passed during an appearance on Monica Crowley’s podcast earlier this week.

If it passes the House, the plan is highly unlikely to be taken up by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, however.

Schumer, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital of the plan, ‘As we have said each time we’ve had a CR, the only way to get things done is in a bipartisan way and that is what has happened every time.’

A spokesperson for Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who is spearheading the CR plus SAVE Act plan, responded, ‘The majority leader’s comment is encouraging, given that the SAVE Act passed with bipartisan support in the House.’

The Biden administration is accusing Russia on Wednesday of trying to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election by targeting American voters through state-run media and other online platforms as part of a campaign referred to as ‘doppelganger.’

Attorney General Merrick Garland, speaking alongside FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, said prosecutors today have unsealed an indictment in the Southern District of New York of ‘two Russian-based employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet’ that charges them with ‘conspiring to commit money laundering and to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act.’

Garland told reporters that in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the editor-in-chief of the RT TV network ‘said the company had built ‘an entire empire of covert projects designed to shape public opinion in Western audiences.”

‘We allege that as part of that effort, RT and its employees, including the defendants, implemented a nearly $10 million scheme to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government,’ Garland said. ‘To implement this scheme, the defendants directed the company to contract with U.S.-based social media influencers to share this content and their platforms. The subject matter and content of many of the videos published by the company were often consistent with Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Russian interests, particularly its ongoing war in Ukraine. 

‘In a separate enforcement action, the Justice Department is seizing 32 internet domains that the Russian government and the Russian-sponsored actors have used to engage in a covert campaign to interfere and influence the outcome of our country’s elections,’ Garland continued.

‘As alleged in our court filings, President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including Sergei Kiriyenko, directed Russian public relations companies to promote disinformation and state-sponsored narratives as part of a campaign to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election,’ he said.

‘These websites were designed to appear to American readers as if they were major U.S. news sites, like the Washington Post or Fox News, but in fact they were fake sites. They were filled with Russian government propaganda that had been created by the Kremlin to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian policies and interests, and influence voters in the United States and in other countries. Internal documents of the Kremlin described the content as, ‘bogus stories disguised as newsworthy events.’ This malign influence campaign has been referred to as ‘doppelganger.’’

When asked by Fox News Digital about its reaction to the allegations, RT said, ‘We certainly have a reaction. Actually, we had several, but we couldn’t decide on one (we even thought of running an office poll), so here they are.’ 

‘2016 called and it wants its clichés back,’ was among them, as were: ‘Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the U.S. elections,’ ‘We gotta earn our Kremlin paycheck somehow,’ and ‘Somewhere Secretary Clinton is sad that it’s not because of her.’ 

In July, Wray told the House Judiciary Committee that ‘We assess that the Russian government continues to want to influence, and in various ways interfere with our democracy, with our electoral process.

‘We’ve seen that in election cycle after election cycle,’ Wray said.

The court actions on Wednesday also come after the Justice Department made RT register as a ‘foreign agent’ in 2017. 

The agency said at the time that ‘T&R Productions, LLC (T&R), a Washington, D.C., corporation, registered… with the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent for ANO TV-Novosti, the Russian government entity responsible for the worldwide broadcasts of the RT Network (RT).   

‘Since August 2014, T&R has operated studios for RT, hired and paid all U.S.-based RT employees, and produced English-language programming for RT, which is both shown on cable networks across the United States and available on RT’s website,’ it also said. 

Former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Rebekah Koffler previously told Fox News Digital that RT and other propaganda abroad were part of the permanent cyberwarfare Russia wages on the West. 

‘They don’t just wage propaganda in a time of war, during a conflict,’ she said in 2022. ‘They wage it during peacetime. They constantly malign the United States and misrepresent foreign policy objectives … I’m just saying that tilts the level playing field towards Russia when we allow their propaganda channels to broadcast in an unfettered [way].’ 

‘RT is 100% a Russia government-controlled channel and its sole intent is to predispose the American population and wherever they are broadcasting towards the Russian point of view and to present the events on the ground as the Russians want the rest of the world to see them, so if the United States did not want that to happen then it would be appropriate to shut down the channel,’ Koffler added.