By Jillian Frankel
MOSINEE, Wis. — Former President Donald Trump, who makes frequent false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through rampant fraud, warned Saturday that he would try to imprison anyone who engages in "unscrupulous behavior" during this year's race.
He issued the threat on Truth Social, his social media website, and repeated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, accusing Democrats of "rampant Cheating and Skullduggery."
“The 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again," he wrote.

Donald Trump speaks at the fall meeting of the Fraternal Order of Police National Board of Trustees in Charlotte, N.C., on Friday.
He continued, “Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
The threat was one of the most wide-ranging he has made running for president after his 2020 defeat — going beyond threatening old foes and issuing warnings to those involved with the current election.
While he spent much of the 2016 campaign threatening to jail his opponent, Hillary Clinton, he tends not to go after people on the periphery, like donors and election workers.
Election workers across the country have been subject to threats, most famously Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, two election workers whose entire lives were uprooted when Trump and his allies targeted them after the 2020 election with false accusations of fraud.
In the lead-up to the 2020 election, Trump began making baseless warnings of election interference, which grew louder after he lost and culminated in a mob attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to block certification of Joe Biden’s election. He has begun making similar statements ahead of this year’s election.
He also emphasized the GOP’s focus on election integrity this cycle during a speech Saturday in Wisconsin, suggesting that if Republicans stop Democrats from cheating, he does not need to continue campaigning.
“We gotta stop the cheating. If we stop that cheating, if we don’t let them cheat, I don’t even have to campaign anymore,” Trump said. “We’re going to win by so much. In the meantime, too big to rig, too big to rig.”
Trump and his allies filed dozens of unsuccessful cases after the 2020 election in an attempt to overturn the results. Some Democrats say Republicans' new legal fights in battleground states ahead of the November election raise concerns that Republicans are trying to sow seeds doubts about the result if Trump loses.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign could not immediately be reached Saturday night to provide additional context about Trump’s plan.
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A federal judge this week sided with the prediction market Kalshi’s motion for summary judgment in its legal battle with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This decision opens the door for U.S. citizens to place bets on the upcoming November election. However, the ruling isn’t the final word just yet, as the CFTC can still appeal. Following the judge’s order, the commodities regulator immediately filed an emergency request for a two-week stay.

Kalshi’s Legal Victory Could Change U.S. Election Betting Landscape, CFTC Files Emergency Motion

In a legal twist last year, Kalshi, a financial exchange and prediction market, took the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to court. Kalshi, established in 2018 by Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara, allows users to trade on real-world event outcomes. The lawsuit, filed in November 2023, challenged the CFTC’s decision to block the company from offering specific event contracts, particularly those related to betting on the U.S. election, on its federally regulated platform.

On Sept. 6, 2024, Judge Jia Cobb delivered a decision in favor of Kalshi, rejecting the CFTC’s cross-motion for summary judgment. Bloomberg Law reported that Kalshi’s CEO, Tarek Mansour, called the ruling a milestone. “Election markets are now legal in the United States for the first time in 100 years,” Mansour remarked. On the firm’s website, it states:

Election markets are coming to Kalshi. We did it! Stay tuned for more info, and God bless America!

Paradigm’s vice president of government affairs, Alexander Grieve, shared on X that he was delighted his firm supported the amicus. “Proud Paradigm contributed an amicus in this case, as (if it wasn’t clear already) the outcome of November’s election will have profound impact on the direction of crypto in this country,” Grieve said. “American companies need the ability to hedge political risk,” the Paradigm executive added.

Right after the verdict, the CFTC swiftly filed an emergency motion requesting a two-week stay. They argued that “without the benefit of the court’s reasoning, the CFTC is unable to make an informed decision whether to appeal, nor is it able to fully brief a motion for stay pending any forthcoming appeal.” The regulator further added:
Time is of the essence in the issuance of a stay. The CFTC expects that Plaintiff Kalshi will immediately list the relevant election contracts and that trading will begin as soon as the contracts list. Plaintiff has already announced on its homepage that ‘Election Markets are Coming to Kalshi!’
The news arrives at a moment when Polymarket, a blockchain-powered prediction platform, has seen a significant increase in volume and open interest, thanks to the upcoming 2024 election. Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, have been pressing the CFTC to crack down on election prediction markets. “The last thing that voters heading to the polls need are bets waged on the outcome of that election,” the policymaker’s letter argued.
What do you think about Kalshi’s win this week and the chance the CFTC may appeal the decision? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
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WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris is looking to neutralize a glaring vulnerability that has jeopardized her prospects since she replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee: voter frustration with high prices.
Harris is talking about the economy in hope of winning over voters who continue to feel nagging economic pain. It may be the most deliberate and clear break she has had with Biden since she took over the ticket.
Biden spent the past year touting "Bidenomics" and insisting that voters would come around and give him credit for a slew of legislative victories, without ultimately blaming him for the high cost of groceries and other necessities.
But Harris is more willing to lean into voter anxiety over the cost of living and pitch herself as the best candidate to mitigate pocketbook pressures. She isn't criticizing Biden. But her tone and message suggest she doesn't want to be cast simply as his protégée.
“We’ve lived through a historic inflation shock,” said a Harris campaign adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity. “That has affected every American economically in different ways, and it takes time for that to work through peoples’ lives.”
Harris has announced a flurry of proposals meant to assure voters that if she is elected she’d enact new laws to cut costs. She is also adopting a more populist message than Biden did when it comes to financial pressures that millions of people confront. Harris is casting profit-minded corporations and landlords as villains who've been jacking up grocery prices and rent.
Voters who've been crucial to Democratic victories in past elections hold a sour view of the economy, polling shows. Gen Z voters under age 30 ranked inflation and the cost of living as their biggest worry, far outstripping abortion, health care, threats to democracy and other issues, an NBC News survey this month found.
Inflation is already dropping. But prices remain about 20% higher than they were during the pandemic.
A CNBC survey of registered voters last month asked whether a victory by Harris or Donald Trump would leave them better off financially or whether their situations wouldn't change. A solid plurality, 40%, said they'd do better financially if Trump won, compared with only 21% who said they'd fare better under a Harris presidency.
Harris says her plans are good policy. But presidential campaigns aren’t think tanks; they’re built to win votes. What Harris is offering could boost her standing among key constituencies with whom she’s lagging or whose vote she needs to maximize.
Her face-to-face debate with Trump on Tuesday night is perhaps her best chance to drive her message that as the daughter of a single mother who struggled to buy a house, she empathizes with people's fears and has an antidote to economic anxiety.
"When I am elected president, I will make it a top priority to bring down costs and increase economic security for all Americans," she said last month in a speech in North Carolina. "As president, I will take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans, like the cost of food."
Appeals to younger voters
Harris has made younger voters who are starting families and buying homes a special focus. She has rolled out plans to give a $6,000 tax credit to parents of newborns, along with a $25,000 subsidy to help first-time homebuyers cover their down payments.
"Clearly, housing has been a big point of pressure for younger voters. She’s speaking directly to that,” said Brendan Duke, who was a senior adviser in the Biden White House’s National Economic Council.
Harris needs to galvanize young voters if she is to re-create the Democrats' winning coalition from 2020. In the NBC News survey of Gen Z registered voters under 30, 50% said they favored Harris, compared with 34% who preferred Trump.
Substantial though a 16-point margin sounds, Biden beat Trump by 24 points in 2020 among voters in that age group, according to a comprehensive study by the Pew Research Center.
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For decades, there have been reports by visitors and staff at George Washington's home of supernatural activity. Below are a number of Mount Vernon ghost stories staff have recorded over the years.
Washington’s Ghost Haunts Mount Vernon
In the early years of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, when the Ladies were at Mount Vernon, they would sleep in the Mansion.
The following account was reported in the New York World newspaper ca. 1890.
"Of course, the most interesting of all the bedrooms is the one belonging to the immortal George and in which he died. In it is the original four-poster bed whereon Washington passed his last moments."

"This historic chamber is haunted; of that there would seem to be little doubt. Many people within recent years have slept in it, and they declare that they were awed by the viewless presence of the nation’s first President. They deny earnestly that the notion is based on imagination. Few of these temporary occupants have been able to get any sleep. Obviously, it is one thing to see a ghost, and quite another thing to feel one—to be aware of the nearness of a strange and brooding spectre. They all agree that Washington visits his chamber in the still watches of the night."
"Mrs. William Beale and a friend of hers spent a night at Mount Vernon. At their own request, they were permitted to occupy Washington’s bedroom. In the middle of the night, they were awakened by the sputtering of their candle. They had lighted one surreptitiously and were burning it in the middle of a basin of water."
"Fancied they saw a spook. It went out with a noise, and they began to feel alarmed. Mrs. Beale said to her friend: 'You are on the side of the bed where Washington died!' The other replied: 'No, I’m not; he died on your side!' Finally they decided that the question was doubtful, and there was no more sleep for them that night. They got up, dressed themselves, and sat around until morning, scared by every squeak of the windows and at one moment were sure they heard Washington’s sword clank distinctly in a corner."
A Woman on the Stairs
During a typical day at work, ca. 1980s, while stationed in the Central Passage, something caught an interpreter's eye.
She saw the figure of an unidentified woman, dressed in 18th-century clothing, on the stairs. The figure was carrying a large punch bowl filled with a flower arrangement. The figure disappeared upon reaching the bottom of the staircase.

An Angry Gentleman
An interpreter was in the Central Passage, on a particularly crowded day in the spring or summer, ca. 1980s.
She thought she heard someone in the room behind her. Thinking that a visitor had gotten into the area by going under the rope barriers, she entered the Little Parlor to shoo them out. Much to her surprise, she found an older gentleman, sporting a large mustache and dressed in late 19th or early 20th-century clothing, with his sleeves rolled up and secured with garters.
When he saw that he had her attention, he shouted, “What the hell is going on here?”—a reference to the noise a school group or groups were making. The interpreter told him that she was trying to quiet them down and then the man disappeared. She later saw a portrait of the gentleman in question, Colonel Harrison Howell Dodge, Mount Vernon’s director for about 50 years until his death in the late 1930s.

A Flurry of Skirts
An interpreter was standing in the Central Passage, ca. 1980s.
She felt something brush past her, coming out of the Little Parlor. Looking down, all she could see were the feet and bottoms of the skirts of a young girl in an 18th-century dress, running across the Central Passage.
Putting Away His Horse
A head guard said that these events were not a one-time incident but happened with great regularity, ca. 1980s-1990s.
Quite frequently, an alarm would go off in the stable. Then, in about the time it would take to unsaddle and put up a horse and walk from the stable to the Mansion, an alarm would go off in the Washington Bedchamber. Guards dispatched to check out the situation invariably found nothing out of the ordinary.
This man's explanation was that the General was coming home, made his horse comfortable, and then went up to his room.

The Yellow Room
A 2006 supervisor from the History Interpretation Department recalls her first encounter.
My first encounter with a ghost occurred in the Yellow Room of the Mansion in 2006. I was a supervisor in the History Interpretation Department—supervisors clear and lock the Mansion after checking and rechecking for assurance that no one has been left in the Mansion after hours. After letting the last interpreter out the Study door, I walked up the backstairs, past the Washington Bedchamber, and into the Yellow Room. I suddenly felt myself being pushed, feeling the pressure of someone’s hands on the back of my shoulders. I turned to look and no one was there. It was obvious I wasn’t wanted in the Yellow Bedchamber.
This happened several more times, and I decided I would not go back upstairs alone. I invited another interpreter to stay with me and travel the backstairs to the Yellow Room—nothing happened. The next time, when I was alone, I was once again pushed through the room.
To keep this from being disturbed, I felt it was best that I not use the backstairs but to remove my shoes and cross through the downstairs bedchamber to the Central Passage and lock the door for the evening.

A Ghost at the Tomb
An interpreter from 2006 explains what happened to her at George Washington's Tomb.
The first time I experienced this “ghost” was Easter morning in 2006 when I was scheduled to open Washington’s Tomb. It was early and very quiet and there was no one around—the guests had not made their way from the Mansion. I stood in front of the open door, and I saw an ectoplasm in the far right corner of the Tomb. When I moved, the ectoplasm moved. I watched as it became a blur in my vision, and it continued to move around. I took a photo that showed a streak of light through the blur. The second photo showed the blur. As soon as voices of the guests coming down the hill could be heard, the ectoplasm disappeared. This happened on three different occasions.

A Woman from the Civil War
A member of Mount Vernon's Youth Programs team recounts her experience. 
Originally, my office was located in the Teacher Resource Center of the Education Center, which is now Be Washington. It was after hours and the staff had left. I gathered my coat and bag and set them on the table facing my desk—as I turned to put on my coat, I saw a female figure standing in the door of my office.
She was dressed in clothing from the Civil War period, and she was totally grey—her complete body and clothing were grey. She stood in the doorway looking straight ahead without moving—her stare was very stern. It happened quickly, and then she was gone. There was no doubt in my mind that Ann Pamela Cunningham, founder of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, had been in the room.
I stayed for a while, sitting quietly as I listened to the noises of cabinet doors opening and closing in Hands-on-History, but when I looked to see who was there, the room was empty.

Wandering in the Night
One night, ca. 2010s, a couple of security officers were driving around the Mount Vernon grounds very late at night.
They saw a little girl on the path ahead of them. So they stopped suddenly. Then the girl appeared right next to them. They quickly spun around and drove away as fast as they could. 
A Candle in the Night
A character interpreter tells what she experienced inside the Mansion in 2017.
I’ve worked at Mount Vernon on and off since 2004. I most recently returned in January 2017. The estate was abuzz with the latest spooky story. On December 15, 2016, some strange sounds were heard coming from the third floor and there had been reports of the temperature dropping by 20 degrees. When the tale was shared with me, I was determined to see if it would happen again.
On December 14, the anniversary of the General’s death, I was on the third floor waiting for some haunting but nothing happened. However, when I returned the next night, the vibe in the area had changed. Upon looking into the southwest bedchamber, I noticed an electric candle was on. “That’s strange,” I thought. “It was dark last night.” Had the Collections team come and turned it on? Not likely; the third floor isn’t open to the public. Then it hit me. George Washington died on December 14, 1799, and the next day Martha Washington shut up the bedroom they shared and moved to the southwest bedchamber. Apparently, she’s still marking that sad day.

The Mount Vernon Monster
Residents of the neighborhoods surrounding Mount Vernon endured months of nocturnal terror in 1979.
Police helicopters hovered with searchlights. Patrol officers on foot crouched in the woods, radios at the ready. A long May night passed quietly.
The Mount Vernon Monster was nowhere to be found.
This night, and the mystery that prevailed for the better part of 1979, was covered in a May 12, 1979, article in the Washington Post. “For the last nine months,” the article reads, “nocturnal screaming has come from a patch of woods about one mile from the historic home of George Washington.”
Theories abounded as to the source of the screaming, which the Post described as an “eerie, muted wail—like someone being strangled in the shower.” Residents offered differing explanations: “a wild boar, really loud frogs, some guy blowing in a wine bottle, a barred (or hoot) owl, a broken microphone on a CB outfit, a parrot, a mouse with an amplifier, a strangled dog, the ghost of George Washington and the ghost of George Washington's pigs.”
One resident described seeing a creature in her backyard, 6 feet tall and walking upright. Some neighborhood children captured audio of the wailing with portable cassette recorders in the middle of the night. But despite all efforts, the Mount Vernon Monster, as the mysterious creature came to be known, never revealed its secrets.
The brouhaha didn’t escape the notice of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, which noted in its internal 1979 Council Minutes:
Reports on an alleged ‘Mount Vernon Monster’ have appeared in the Washington area newspapers and have been circulated around the country by the Associated Press. No one has seen the ‘monster,’ but various people, including some Mount Vernon employees, claim to have heard its howls, screams, shrieks (descriptions of the ‘voice’ vary) from a wooded area within a mile of Mount Vernon.
The mystery was never to be solved. And though the creature wasn’t proven to be Georgefoot—neither was it disproven to be…

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