COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance have agreed to debate each other on Oct. 1, setting up a matchup of potential vice presidents as early voting in some states gets underway for the general election.

CBS News on Wednesday posted on its X feed that the network had invited both Vance and Walz to debate in New York City, presenting four possible dates — Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 — as options.

Walz reposted that message from his own campaign account, “See you on October 1, JD.” The Harris-Walz campaign followed up with a message of its own, saying Walz “looks forward to debating JD Vance — if he shows up.”

Vance posted on X that he would accept the Oct. 1 invitation. He also challenged Walz to meet on Sept. 18.

Officials with the Kamala Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Vance’s acceptance of the earlier debate that he said would be on CNN or whether Walz would participate in that one as well.

Representatives for CNN confirmed that Vance had accepted the network’s debate invitation.

“CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of “Face the Nation” will moderate the Oct. 1 debate, according to the network.

Whether or not Walz and Vance would debate before the Nov. 5 general election had been in question. In just the past several weeks, President Joe Biden left the campaign and Democrats selected Harris to lead their ticket.

Vance has largely kept his focus trained on Harris, whom he would have been set to debate before Biden’s departure from the race. Vance has lobbed critiques against Walz, including questioning the retired Army National Guardsman’s service record.

Former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, has said he wanted Vance to debate Walz on CBS, which had been discussing potential dates for that meeting.

The debate is expected weeks after the Sept. 10 top-of-the-ticket debate recently solidified between Trump and Harris on ABC News.

Trump has said he negotiated several other debate dates, on three different networks. Fox News has also proposed a debate between Harris and Trump to take place on Sept. 4, and NBC News is angling to air one on Sept. 25.

During an appearance in Michigan, Harris said she was “happy to have that conversation” about an additional debate.

AP Media writer David Bauder in New York contributed to this report.

Voters in Tuesday’s Democratic primary are the ones who will likely decide whether a changing of the guard at the Broward Sheriff’s Office is necessary, or a second full term for Tony is warranted. The Republican Party did not put up a candidate for November, leaving an independent candidate, BSO retiree Charles Whatley, as the lone challenger for the November general election..

The Sheriff’s Office is a far-flung enterprise that employs about 5,500 law enforcement, fire department and medical services personnel. It contracts public safety services to a dozen of Broward’s 31 towns and cities. It provides protection and security for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, county courthouses and Port Everglades, the massive seaport. It also operates a forensics unit and real-time crime center that received a $1.5 federal million grant this year.

Challenging the incumbent are:

• Steven “Steve” Geller served 28 years with Plantation Police as a patrol officer, school resource officer, major case detective and captain, supervising internal affairs and other units. After retiring in 2018, he joined the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, where he was involved in use-of-force investigations of local police officers. Geller, 55, holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in criminal justice from the State University of New York, Albany, and a master’s in public administration from Florida Atlantic University. (Geller is not to be confused with long-time County Commissioner Steve Geller, who is also a former state legislator.)
• David Howard is a West Palm Beach police retiree who most recently served as Pembroke Park’s police chief for nearly three years after starting the department from scratch. He served nearly three decades in West Palm Beach, retiring as a watch commander. A U.S. Air Force retiree with 30 years of active and reserve service, he spent a year as a first officer with Silver Airways, the South Florida-based regional airline.
• Alvin Pollock is a retired BSO colonel who served in a variety of capacities through 40 years with the office, finishing his career as third in command. He oversaw the Department of Law Enforcement and all patrol support services and was a watch commander overseeing patrol functions and operations. As courthouse commander, he was responsible for security and operations within the county’s  courthouses. He also served as a road patrol sergeant who supervised deputies, as a detective with the organized crime task force, and as a deputy sheriff.

Rollercoaster term

To say that Tony is vulnerable to a challenge is an understatement. Appointed as the county’s top law enforcement officer by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2019 to replace Scott Israel, who was removed from office, the sheriff has been on a rollercoaster ride this year.

Tony has taken a variety of hits for cost overruns during the building of a new $74 million training center, complaints from client cities that they’re being charged too much, and criticism for 21 jail deaths over four years and episodes involving two pregnant women who gave birth while incarcerated.

Nearly a year ago, the agency was rocked by the crash of an aging fire rescue helicopter that took the lives of its pilot and a civilian on the ground in Pompano Beach. A public argument ensued between the sheriff and county commissioners over maintenance and the pace and funding of fleet modernization.

Earlier this summer, Tony pitched Broward County commissioners a 2024-25 fiscal year budget of $1.53 billion, a 48% increase. The request for the agency’s first billion dollar-plus budget was roundly panned by commissioners, who pointed out that such an outlay would trigger a 33% increase in property taxes.

Tony argued he needs more money to hire more people to guard and operate the county’s detention centers, patrol roads, and provide security at the burgeoning international airport from a new substation. He also argued that higher pay is needed to retain and recruit staff and keep his office competitive with other agencies that are in pursuit of the same law enforcement talent.

“Broward County’s population has increased almost 13% since 2010 and is estimated to grow to over 2 million by 2030,” he wrote in his formal budget request. “This unprecedented growth has increased the need for better tools and increased personnel to provide public safety services.”

The final word on the budget will come in September.

This past spring, an administrative law judge recommended that the sheriff should receive a written reprimand and be required to undergo ethics training after concluding that Tony violated state law by failing to disclose in 2019 that his driver’s license had previously been suspended. Judge Robert L. Kilbride also said Tony should be placed on “probationary status” for 18 months.

A hearing on the recommendations scheduled for Thursday by the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission, an arm of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, has been postponed, according to a public agenda reviewed by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Critiques

Given the opportunity, the three challengers served up a variety of critiques when asked in a Sun Sentinel candidates’ questionnaire to evaluate Tony’s first term. The sheriff declined to engage in the exercise.

“Sheriff Gregory Tony’s tenure as the head of the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) has been fraught with controversy and allegations of deception,” Geller said. “From the very beginning, Tony has been under intense scrutiny due to a lack of transparency. There are serious concerns about his integrity, particularly in relation to his failure to disclose critical information about his past, including an incident during his adolescence where he shot and killed a man. This information was not revealed during his appointment process, despite specific questions about any past arrests.

“What sets me apart as the best candidate is my unwavering commitment to honesty, integrity and ethical standards,” Geller said, adding that he has “maintained an impeccable record throughout my career.“ He said he never has faced termination, “been asked to resign, or faced any disciplinary action.”

Pollock, the retired colonel, took a sharp pencil to Tony’s public safety track record, which he said “has been marked by significant controversy and disapproval both organizationally and county-wide. It is not my assessment but the public’s assessment that is important.

“The public is clearly unsatisfied with public safety provided by BSO. Recently, Lauderdale Lakes and Pompano Beach called on Tony numerous times for a meeting regarding increasing violent crime,” Pollock wrote. “Tony’s response, he didn’t want to ‘over police’ the community. The public is being underserved and only gets lip service after pleading with BSO for help.”

He also took note of the deaths in Broward’s jails, as well as the women giving birth while incarcerated, which he called “completely unacceptable.”

“Public safety is compromised under Tony’s direction due to his top-heavy command structure, ineffective leadership, lack of accountability, and mishandling of BSO’s budget,” he added.

Howard said he would offer a “responsible and balanced budget proposal” for public safety needs that would not place “an undue financial burden on residents.”

He listed violent crime, gang activity, and staffing shortages in corrections as priorities, and said he’d conduct a “thorough review of existing programs and initiatives.” and develop a “multi-year” strategic spending plan.

“I would identify and eliminate any redundancies or inefficiencies to free up funds for more pressing needs,” he wrote.

Strong support for the incumbent

Despite the challengers’ efforts, Tony commands a level of support that appears to collectively outstrip the dollars and other backing garnered by his opponents.

State campaign records show Tony’s  Broward First PAC, which was formed several years ago, had collected more than $2.6 million through the most recent reporting period. It’s received contributions from large law firms, wealth managers, entrepreneurs, as well as the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which gave $30,000 last spring.  The money in his campaign fund also exceeds his opponents’ funds.

Endorsements have arrived from large groups such as the Broward County AFL-CIO and The Hispanic Vote PAC. An endorsement from the Dolphin Democrats, though, went to Geller.

“To be honest with you he is very articulate; he came across with a lot of passion,” said Andy Madtes, president of the umbrella labor union group. “I don’t have any skin in the game here. He came across as someone who really wants to change the trajectory of the agency.”

Sheriff uses image of VP Harris in mailer to Democratic primary voters, funded partly by Republican DeSantis allies

Madtes said the AFL-CIO screening and endorsement process normally involves member unions casting votes. But for the sheriff’s race, Madtes said, “we deferred to the unions that work directly with the sheriff’s office because they have more of an interaction.”

“It just turned out the unions … feel he’s trying to look out for the workers,” he added. “They think he’s done a decent job.”

Tony has picked his spots when discussing issues publicly. He declined to participate in candidate interviews with the Sun Sentinel editorial board  (which endorsed Geller) as well as a forum hosted by the Broward League of Women Voters.

Besides the visit with the Broward AFL-CIO, he also spoke with Hispanic Vote.

Eric Johnson, one of Tony’s campaign consultants, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that his client prefers not to discuss flashpoints such as the budget request and the driver’s license case.

“We’ve kept the campaign very positive on his record for public safety and emergency response,” Johnson said.

“Crime is down in Broward County,” he added. “Emergency response times are faster. And ultimately next Tuesday the voters will make a determination on his record as sheriff, and we are confident he will have an overwhelming victory.”

A mailer from Tony’s PAC features a picture of him with Harris, paired with a quote from former President Barack Obama.

It’s notable for the speed. The mailer from the Broward First PAC arrived in Democratic voters’ mailboxes in Broward County on Friday, just 20 days after Harris entered the presidential race when President Joe Biden ended his campaign for a second term.

Harris has generated enormous excitement among Democratic voters — exactly the supporters he needs in the four-way primary for sheriff. (A Florida Atlantic University poll released Wednesday found that 94% of likely Democratic voters in the state said they’d vote Harris for president).

The winner of the Democratic primary for sheriff — Tony, Steve Geller, David Howard or Al Pollock — faces only nominal opposition from an independent candidate in November, and is virtually certain to win the general election.

The photo of the sheriff in uniform standing next to the vice president was taken in March, on the day Harris toured the site of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting to discuss gun-violence prevention efforts. The photo was posted months ago on Tony’s Instagram page.

The Broward First mailer is one of many about the sheriff’s race landing in Democratic voters’ mailboxes from candidates and their associated political committees.

The mailing featuring Harris is careful. It doesn’t state that there’s an endorsement of Tony from Harris or Obama.

Its theme is “change,” given that Harris would be the nation’s first woman president and the first with parents who were from Jamaica and India. It reminds voters that Tony changed the agency as “the first African American to serve as Broward County’s sheriff.”

In case all that’s too subtle, the Obama quote states, “We are the change we seek.”

There’s an ironic element to Tony’s Broward First committee paying for a mailer featuring Harris.

Some of the financial muscle behind Broward First comes from Republicans close to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is not exactly a fan of the Democratic presidential nominee. Example of a DeSantis comment: “Her tenure as VP has been disastrous.”

Tony is sheriff because of DeSantis, and the Stoneman Douglas massacre.

DeSantis appointed Tony in 2019 after he suspended previous Sheriff Scott Israel. The governor charged Israel with incompetence and neglect of duty in connection with the 2018 school massacre, in which 17 people were killed and 17 injured, and the 2017 mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, in which five people were killed and six injured.

In 2020, when Tony ran and won a full term as sheriff, his political action committee Broward First got fundraising help from big-name Republican DeSantis allies. As he geared up for the 2024 election, the Republican heavyweights close to the governor again helped raise money for Broward First.

Since Broward First geared up its fundraising for this year’s campaign in the spring of last year, it has raised $820,000. About two-thirds came during the second six months of 2023.

Voters have received some negative information about Tony as well. Democrats received an anti-Tony, pro-Geller mailer from a committee called “Honesty and Integrity for Broward Citizens.”

“Gregory Tony is a proven liar who is not fit to serve,” it declares above a picture of the incumbent.

The flip side declares that “Our current Sheriff has lied and broken the rules time and time again.”

The beneficiary of the mailer, Geller, is shown in a picture from his time in the Plantation Police Department and praised as a candidate of “Integrity. Leadership. Experience.”

And it attempts to remind voters of Tony’s links to DeSantis including a news headline when DeSantis called Tony a favorite Democrat. It came from December 2023, when DeSantis was seeking the Republican presidential nomination. Asked to name his favorite Democrat in Florida during a CNN town hall, he said Tony was one of the “good ones.”

The committee has taken in $172,000, according to reports filed with the Florida Division of Elections. All but $7,000 came via four contributions on July 6 and July 10, from Mark Groban, a family friend, of Rockville, Md.

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.

The plan includes large overlaps with efforts that the Biden administration has pursued for several years to target corporate consolidation and price gouging, including attempts to stoke more competition in the meat industry and the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit this year that seeks to block the merger of two large grocery retailers, Kroger and Albertsons.

It also follows through on what people familiar with Harris’ forthcoming economic agenda said this week would be a centerpiece of her plans: an aggressive rhetorical attempt to shift the blame for high inflation onto corporate America. Polls show that argument resonates strongly with voters, including independent voters who could decide the November election.

Progressive groups have urged President Joe Biden, and now Harris, to fully embrace that argument.

In a release announcing the policy, Harris campaign officials did not detail how a price-gouging ban would be enforced or what current corporate behaviors would be outlawed if it were enacted. They said Harris would work in her first 100 days to put in place a federal ban “setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries.”

The officials also said Harris would authorize the Federal Trade Commission to impose “harsh penalties” on corporations that fix prices. They said that she would direct more resources toward investigating price-gouging in the supply chain for meat and that she would push federal officials to closely scrutinize proposed grocery mergers.

They also said that Harris would unveil plans Friday related to housing costs and prescription drug prices. Many states ban price gouging, but the federal government does not.

Inflation and prices are an obstacle for Harris as she faces off with former President Donald Trump this fall. Price growth soared in the first two years of Biden’s administration. It is falling toward historically normal levels now, though prices remain elevated from where they were three years ago. On Wednesday, the annual inflation rate dipped under 3% for the first time since 2021.

Economists largely blame a mix of factors for the price surge, including snarls in global supply chains related to the pandemic recession and economic stimulus from the Federal Reserve and Congress — including increased federal spending and tax cuts approved first by Trump, then Biden.

Over the past year, as grocery prices in particular have dragged on Biden’s approval rating, progressive groups urged him to blame something else for high prices: powerful corporations, whose profits soared during the pandemic. Biden has partly complied. He has gone after meatpacking companies and oil companies over high prices. He admonished companies regarding so-called shrinkflation — reducing the size of a product, like a bag of chips or a candy bar, while keeping the price the same or even raising it.

An analysis this year by the White House Council of Economic Advisers found that corporate consolidation had contributed to recent elevated grocery prices but that corporate factors did not come close to accounting for the majority of the price increases.

Harris appears to be going further. People familiar with her plans said this week that she would seek to connect her price-gouging plans to her political biography, including her record of prosecuting corporate lawbreakers. The Wednesday release confirmed that strategy.

“In her remarks Friday,” it concluded, “Vice President Harris will discuss her lifelong commitment to fighting for the middle class and tackling powerful interests by invoking her time as California’s attorney general and going after corporate greed and price gouging — and winning.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

His effort has been unsuccessful. The news was first reported by The Washington Post.

“We’ve reached out repeatedly through the highest level intermediaries,” Kennedy wrote in a text message Wednesday night. “We’ve been told that they have no interest in talking with me.”

There was little chance the Harris campaign would engage with Kennedy. Public and private polling has found that as he spent the summer attacking President Joe Biden, he began to draw more support from voters otherwise predisposed to back former President Donald Trump. Now Harris does better in some surveys when Kennedy is included than when she is tested in a head-to-head matchup with Trump.

Kennedy, long seen as a potential spoiler in the race, has slipped in polls and struggled to raise money, and he has appeared to consider potential offramps as speculation has grown about whether he might drop out and, if so, whether he would endorse Harris or Trump.

On Wednesday night, Kennedy wrote: “I’ve always argued that we should be willing to talk with each other across party lines. I’m willing to meet with leaders of both parties to discuss the possibility of a unity government.”

The Post reported last month that Kennedy had held talks with Trump about a possible Cabinet job, proposing a role in public health leadership, in exchange for his support. And in a leaked video of a phone call between the two men, Trump tried to cajole Kennedy to exit the race and endorse him.

“I would love you to do something,” the former president said. “And I think it’ll be so good for you and so big for you. And we’re going to win.” Kennedy said little in response on the call. The two men also met in person in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention.

Two people familiar with Kennedy’s campaign confirmed that advisers to Trump had raised the possibility of a Cabinet post with people close to Kennedy, but said the discussions were fluid and inconclusive. The political circumstances were also far different at the time, when Biden was still in the race and trailing well behind the former president.

A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kennedy has confronted a range of negative headlines and setbacks in recent weeks.

This month, he acknowledged he had left a dead bear cub in Central Park in Manhattan in 2014 because he thought it would be “amusing.”

That bizarre story overshadowed a more serious challenge: a court case in Albany that this week removed him from the ballot in New York. A judge said he had used a “sham” address to maintain his New York residency.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Trump will meet the press at 4:30 p.m. EDT as he steps up his criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris for not holding a news conference or sitting down for interviews since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed her to replace him.

The vice president has barely engaged with reporters since becoming the Democratic nominee, though she travels with journalists aboard Air Force Two and sometimes answers shouted questions while boarding or leaving the plane for campaign stops.

In one brief interaction last week, she told reporters she wants “to get an interview together by the end of the month.”

Trump on Wednesday made little effort to stay on message at a rally in North Carolina that his campaign billed as a big economic address, mixing pledges to slash energy prices and “unleash economic abundance” with familiar off-script tangents.

He aired his frustration over the Democrats swapping the vice president in place of Biden at the top of their presidential ticket. He repeatedly denigrated San Francisco, where Harris was once the district attorney, as “unlivable” and went after his rival in deeply personal terms, questioning her intelligence, saying she has “the laugh of a crazy person” and musing that Democrats were being “politically correct” in trying to elevate the first Black woman and person of south Asian descent to serve as vice president.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that Americans are more likely to trust Trump over Harris when it comes to handling the economy and immigration, issues that he has put at the center of his case for returning to the White House.

In his news conference last week, Trump taunted his rival, boasted of his crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, and lashed out at questions about the enthusiasm Harris’ campaign has been generating. He spoke for more than an hour and made a number of false and misleading claims.

Thursday’s news conference will be livestreamed on apnews.com.

In a three-page decision dated Tuesday, the judge, Justice Juan Merchan, slammed Trump’s filing seeking his recusal as “rife with inaccuracies” and repetitive, and dismissed the idea that he had any conflict of interest.

Trump’s lawyers had argued that the judge’s daughter “has a long-standing relationship with Harris” — a claim her colleagues have disputed — and cited her “work for political campaigns” as a Democratic consultant. But prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which secured Trump’s conviction in May on felony charges of falsifying business records, called his request “a vexatious and frivolous attempt to relitigate” an issue that Merchan had already twice dismissed.

Merchan, a moderate Democrat who was once a registered Republican, rejected Trump’s initial bid to oust him last year and did so again in April, on the first day of trial. The judge, who has no direct ties to Harris, cited a state advisory committee on judicial ethics, which determined that his impartiality could not reasonably be questioned based on his daughter’s interests.

Trump, who has stoked right-wing furor against the judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan, renewed the recusal request once President Joe Biden abandoned his presidential campaign and Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee. She is now locked in a tight race with Trump, who has falsely portrayed his conviction as a Democratic plot to foil his campaign.

Juan Merchan’s decision, while anticipated, is consequential nonetheless: It enables him to soon decide two crucial matters that will shape Trump’s legal fate.

On Sept. 16, the judge is scheduled to determine whether to throw out Trump’s conviction following the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling granting him broad immunity for official actions as president. The former president’s long-shot request was vigorously opposed by prosecutors, who urged Merchan to uphold the jury’s verdict, noting that the case had nothing to do with Trump’s official acts in the White House.

If Merchan denies Trump’s immunity motion, as expected, Trump could mount an emergency appeal. If that fails, the judge will then proceed with Trump’s sentencing on Sept. 18. Trump faces up to four years in prison, but could receive a far shorter sentence, or even probation.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

They sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and Shevaun Harris, secretary for the Florida Department of Children and Families, late Tuesday urging them to notify the federal government that they intend to apply to the program.

State officials passed up millions of dollars in new federal food assistance money this summer. They have consistently said they have more than enough programs to feed Florida’s hungry children and that the federal program had unwelcome “strings” attached.

But advocates for children and the hungry say one in five children in Florida go hungry during the summer because their families cannot afford enough groceries to make up for the free meals they got at school during the academic year.

“Florida has an opportunity to correct the egregious error made by DeSantis in 2024 when he decided to politicize food insecurity,” House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa said in a news release. “Floridians have had to suffer through political stunt after political stunt by this governor while they’re trying to address their affordability crisis.”

Florida was one of 13 states that decided not to participate in the 2024 summer program, called SUN Bucks, missing out on sharing $2.6 billion in federal food assistance benefits, House Democrats said in the letter.

The governor’s office and the department of children and families, which ran similar programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment about the letter.

SUN Bucks is a new program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which also runs the federal school lunch program.

The state would have had to put up $13 million, or half the administrative costs, to make SUN Bucks available to 2.1 million children this summer. The program would have provided families $120 per child to spend on groceries at local stores when schools were out of session. Democrats estimated the program would have had a $466 million economic impact on the state.

Fewer than 10% of the 672,324 elementary school children in Florida who get free or reduced-price lunches during the school year receive a summer lunch, according to a report by the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit organization working to end poverty-related hunger.

“Summer always means more demand as low-income families with very tight budgets absorb the extra financial hit of one or more children eating at home,” Greg Higgerson, chief development officer for Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, said last month.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With less than three months before the U.S. election, Iran is intensifying its efforts to meddle in American politics, U.S. officials and private cybersecurity firms say, with the suspected hack of Donald Trump’s campaign being only the latest and most brazen example.

Iran has long been described as a “chaos agent” when it comes to cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns and in recent months groups linked to the government in Tehran have covertly encouraged protests over Israel’s war in Gaza, impersonated American activists and created networks of fake news websites and social media accounts primed to spread false and misleading information to audiences in the U.S.

While Russia and China remain bigger cyber threats against the U.S., experts and intelligence officials say Iran’s increasingly aggressive stance marks a significant escalation of efforts to confuse, deceive and frighten American voters ahead of the election.

The pace will likely continue to increase as the election nears and America’s adversaries exploit the internet and advancements in artificial intelligence to sow discord and confusion.

“We’re starting to really see that uptick and it makes sense, 90 days out from the election,” said Sean Minor, a former information warfare expert for the U.S. Army who now analyzes online threats for the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, which has seen a sharp increase in cyber operations from Iran and other nations. “As we get closer, we suspect that these networks will get more aggressive.”

The FBI is investigating the suspected hack of the Trump campaign as well as efforts to infiltrate the campaign of President Joe Biden, which became Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign when Biden dropped out. Trump’s campaign announced Saturday that someone illegally accessed and retrieved internal documents, later distributed to three news outlets. The campaign blamed Iran, noting a recent Microsoft report revealing an attempt by Iranian military intelligence to hack into the systems of one of the presidential campaigns.

“A lot of people think it was Iran. Probably was,” Trump said Tuesday on Univision before shrugging off the value of the leaked material. “I think it’s pretty boring information.”

Iran has denied any involvement in the hack and said it has no interest in meddling with U.S. politics.

That denial is disputed by U.S. intelligence officials and private cybersecurity firms who have linked Iran’s government and military to several recent campaigns targeting the U.S., saying they reflect Iran’s growing capabilities and its increasing willingness to use them.

On Wednesday Google announced it had uncovered a group linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that it said had tried to infiltrate the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen people linked to Biden and Trump since May.

The company, which contacted law enforcement with its suspicions, said the group is still targeting people associated with Biden, Trump and Harris. It wasn’t clear whether the network identified by Google was connected to the attempt that Trump and Microsoft reported, or were part of a second attempt to infiltrate the campaign’s systems.

Iran has a few different motives in seeking to influence U.S. elections, intelligence officials and cybersecurity analysts say. The country seeks to spread confusion and increase polarization in the U.S. while undermining support for Israel. Iran also aims to hurt candidates that it believes would increase tension between Washington and Tehran.

That’s a description that fits Trump, whose administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of an Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

The two leaders of the Senate intelligence committee issued a joint letter on Wednesday warning Tehran and other governments hostile to the U.S. that attempts to deceive Americans or disrupt the election will not be tolerated.

“There will be consequences to interfering in the American democratic process,” wrote the committee’s chairman, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, along with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the vice chairman.

In 2021, federal authorities charged two Iranian nationals with attempting to interfere with the election the year before. As part of the plot, the men wrote emails claiming to be members of the far-right Proud Boys in which they threatened Democratic voters with violence.

Last month, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said the Iranian government had covertly supported American protests against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Groups linked to Iran’s government also posed as online activists, encouraged campus protests and provided financial support to some protest groups, Haines said.

Recent reports from Microsoft and Recorded Future have also linked Iran’s government to networks of fake news websites and social media accounts posing as Americans. The networks were discovered before they gained much influence and analysts say they may have been created ahead of time, to be activated in the weeks immediately before the election.

The final weeks before an election may be the most dangerous when it comes to foreign efforts to impact voting. That’s when voters pay the most attention to politics and when false claims about candidates or voting can do the most damage.

So-called ‘hack-and-leak’ attacks like the one reported by Trump’s campaign involve a hacker obtaining sensitive information from a private network and then releasing it, either to select individuals, the news media or to the public. Such attacks not only expose confidential information but can also raise questions about cybersecurity and the vulnerability of critical networks and systems.

Especially concerning for elections, authorities say, would be an attack targeting a state or local election office that reveals sensitive information or disables election operations. Such an incursion could undermine trust in voting, even if the information exposed is worthless. Experts refer to this last possibility as a “perception hack,” when hackers steal information not because of its value, but because they want to flaunt their capabilities while spreading fear and confusion among their adversaries.

“That can actually be more of a threat — the spectacle, the marketing this gives foreign adversaries — than the actual hack,” said Gavin Wilde, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former National Security Council analyst who specializes in cyber threats.

In 2016, Russian hackers infiltrated Hillary Clinton’s campaign emails, ultimately obtaining and releasing some of the campaign’s most protected information in a hack-and-leak that upended the campaign in its final weeks.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence have made it easier than ever to create and spread disinformation, including lifelike video and audio allowing hackers to impersonate someone and gain access to their organization’s systems. Nevertheless, the alleged hack of the Trump campaign reportedly involved much simpler techniques: someone gained access to an email account that lacked sufficient security protections.

While people and organizations can take steps to minimize their vulnerability to hacks, nothing can eliminate the risk entirely, Wilde said, or completely reduce the likelihood that foreign adversaries will mount attacks on campaigns.

“The tax we pay for being a digital society is that these hacks and leaks are unavoidable,” he said. “Whether you’re a business, a campaign or a government.”

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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this report from New York.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign suffered a blow this week when a judge in New York invalidated his petition to put his name on the state ballot, a ruling that could potentially create problems for the candidate as he faces challenges elsewhere.

Kennedy’s attorneys filed an appeal Wednesday to a ruling this week from Justice Christina Ryba, who said the residence listed on his nominating petitions was a “sham” address he used to maintain his voter registration and to further his political aspirations. The judge ruled in favor of the challengers, who argued Kennedy’s actual residence was the home in Los Angeles he shares with his wife, the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Cheryl Hines.

New York is just one of more than a half-dozen states where challenges have been made to Kennedy’s petitions from Democrats and their allies. Some of the challenges allege he falsely listed the same New York address that was the subject of litigation in that state, or that there were problems with petition signatures.

In Pennsylvania, challengers contend that papers filed by Kennedy list an incorrect address in New York and that he and his running mate demonstrated “at best, a fundamental disregard” of state law and the process by which signatures are gathered. An attorney for Kennedy said the challenge contained specious allegations. A court will conduct an evidentiary hearing next Tuesday in Harrisburg.

Kennedy’s campaign says it has collected enough signatures for ballot access in all 50 states and that it is officially on the ballot in 17 states.

His candidacy has at various times drawn concerns from both Democrats and Republicans who think he could siphon votes from their candidates.

National Democrats in particular have been active in trying to undercut his candidacy, while former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has alternated between criticizing Kennedy as liberal and courting his endorsement or the backing of some of his supporters.

Here’s a look at what is happening in New York, what it might mean and other ballot access challenges Kennedy faces.

What happened in New York? What’s next?

The ruling Monday followed a short trial in state court over whether Kennedy falsely listed a New York residence on his state nominating petitions.

The candidate listed a residence in the well-off suburb of Katonah, where he said he rents a bedroom in a friend’s house. Kennedy testified that he moved to California a decade ago so he could be with his wife, and that he always planned to return to New York, where he is registered to vote.

The lawsuit bought by several voters and backed by Democrat-aligned Clear Choice Action claimed Kennedy’s actual residence is in Los Angeles.

Days after the non-jury trial ended, Ryba ruled that using “a friend’s address for political and voting purposes, while barely stepping foot on the premises, does not equate to residency under the Election Law.”

In announcing the appeal Wednesday, the environmental lawyer and scion of a famous political family said the current Democratic Party was unrecognizable to him.

“The party of my father and uncle’s time was committed to expanding voters’ rights and understood that competition at the ballot box is an essential part of American Democracy,” he said in a statement.

Kennedy’s legal team also promised to seek injunctive relief in federal court in New York City. They argue that the U.S. Constitution’s 12th Amendment governs the residency of presidential and vice presidential candidates, not state law.

If upheld, will the New York decision affect challenges in other states?

Experts say officials in other states might pay attention to the ultimate ruling from New York courts about Kennedy’s residency.

The U.S. Constitution gives broad authority to individual states to oversee elections, said Keith Gaddie, a political science professor at Texas Christian University. He said many states have laws that outline strict signature-gathering details or other requirements for candidates to get on the ballot as an independent.

“The question is whether or not in other states where they have similar criteria (as New York), it could be used to disqualify RFK Jr. from the ballot,” Gaddie said. “It may not happen everywhere, but it will happen somewhere else.”

Speaking to reporters after court in Albany last week, Kennedy acknowledged that a loss in New York could lead to lawsuits in other states.

Clear Choice Action said Kennedy has listed the same New York address on nominating petitions in 17 other states.

“It’s up to each state to determine whether Mr. Kennedy violated their laws and statutes by providing a false residence and deceiving voters,” Clear Choice Action founder Pete Kavanaugh said in a prepared statement.

Richard Winger, the editor of Ballot Access News and an activist who supports ballot access for minor parties, said while some state-level challenges to Kennedy’s candidacy already have focused on the issue of his address, he doubted that new challenges will emerge because of the New York ruling.

“I don’t think they can just all of a sudden willy nilly change the basis of their objection,” he said. “I think generally it’s too late.”

He also doubted other laws in other states “make such a big deal” out of a candidate’s address.

Where else has Kennedy been challenged?

Winger said there have been challenges to Kennedy’s candidacy in states including Hawaii, Nebraska, New Jersey and Washington based on a variety of claims, such as problems with his address and the signatures needed to qualify him for the ballot.

The Democratic National Committee is backing challenges to Kennedy’s petitions in Nevada, Delaware and Georgia, according to a spokesperson. The committee is backing a separate lawsuit in New York.

Hearings will begin Monday in Georgia on challenges to ballot petitions filed by Kennedy and other-third party and independent candidates. Among other things, Democrats allege that Kennedy’s petitions are invalid because they are wrongly or incompletely filled out. The Kennedy campaign disputes those claims.

Outside of New York, Clear Choice Action is backing challenges to Kennedy’s petitions in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas. In Texas, an attorney for the group told state officials Kennedy’s listed New York address doesn’t comply with state election laws and that his candidacy should be invalidated.

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Murphy contributed from Oklahoma City. Also contributing were Associated Press writers Mark Scolforo, Jeff Amy and Nomaan Merchant.