Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are locked in an extremely tight contest for the White House, with voters virtually split evenly between the two candidates, an NBC News survey of registered voters indicates.

When the poll, conducted Oct. 4-8, asked respondents who they would choose, Trump and Harris each earned 48% in a hypothetical one-on-one matchup.

When third-party figures were included in the mix, the overall result was 47% support for Trump versus 46% for Harris. 

Specifically, 42% indicated that they would definitely support the Republican presidential ticket, while another 42% said they would definitely pick the Democratic ticket. Additionally, 4% indicated that they would probably vote for the GOP ticket while 3% noted they would probably vote for the Democratic ticket. And 1% leaned toward the Democratic ticket while another 1% leaned toward the Republican ticket. 

‘As summer has turned to fall, any signs of momentum for Kamala Harris have stopped,’ Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt, who performed the survey with GOP pollster Bill McInturff, noted, according to NBC News. ‘The race is a dead heat.’

The contest is very close even as Election Day, which is on Nov. 5, 2024, draws near.

‘The challenge for Kamala Harris: Can she meet the moment and fill in the blanks that voters have about her?’ Horwitt noted, according to NBC News. ‘The challenge for Donald Trump: Can he make the case that the chaos and personal behavior that bothered so many about his first term will not get in the way of governing and representing America?’ he said. ‘The next month will tell whether the candidates can meet these challenges.’

The poll results also reflect a deep divide regarding people’s preferred outcome for the upcoming congressional elections, with 47% preferring a Republican-controlled Congress and 47% preferring a Democrat-controlled Congress.

The survey notes that, ‘[t]he margin of error for 1,000 interviews among registered voters is ±3.10%.’

Vice President Kamala Harris argued this weekend that former President Donald Trump is ‘hiding’ from the American people and attempted to goad him into releasing updated records about his health after she did so herself on Saturday.  

‘Donald Trump refuses to release his medical records, and he is unwilling to meet for a second debate,’ Harris said Sunday. ‘Why does his staff want him to hide away? Are they afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable to lead America?’

On Saturday, Harris’ physician released a two-page ‘Healthcare Statement,’ which insisted that ‘in summary,’ Harris ‘remains in excellent health.’ The statement from Harris’ doctor also indicated she had her most recent annual physical exam in April of this year. Trump released his own health records while campaigning in 2016, and once he took over the White House he continued the trend. In August, with the 2024 election quickly approaching, Trump told CBS News that he would release updated medical records to the public. However, he has yet to do so, with roughly three weeks until Election Day.

‘He won’t put out his medical records,’ Harris insisted Monday morning during an interview with podcast host Roland Martin. She also slammed Trump for refusing to debate a second time and questioned why Trump’s ‘staff’ would not allow him to do an interview with CBS’ ’60 Minutes,’ particularly when it is tradition for both presidential candidates to do a sit down with the show.

‘It may be because they think he’s just not ready and unfit and unstable and should not have that level of transparency for the American people,’ Harris suggested. 

The Trump campaign shot back against Harris’ accusations, pointing out the former president has already released voluntary updates about his health. They also noted that he shared records from a July screening conducted by Dr. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician turned GOP congressman, following the second assassination attempt on his life. 

‘All have concluded [Trump] is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief,’ said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung. ‘He has maintained an extremely busy and active campaign schedule unlike any other in political history.’ Meanwhile, Cheung slammed Harris as being ‘unable to keep up with demands of campaigning,’ arguing that compared to Trump her schedule ‘is much lighter because, it is said, she does not have the stamina of President Trump.’

On Sunday, during a rally in Arizona, Trump himself discussed his health and argued critics look for any reason to say he is not cognitively or physically fit to be president.

‘If I pronounce the word slightly wrong … I speak for hours, mostly without a teleprompter … one mispronunciation of a word: ‘He’s cognitively impaired. He’s getting old. He mispronounced a word like the name of the gang.”

‘But they love it, you know, because Biden was obviously cognitively repaired,’ Trump added at the rally. ‘[Harris] should have reported him because that puts our nation in danger.’

Before President Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July, similar demands for his medical records were made. The medical records never came, but details from an exam of the president, which determined he had been exhibiting signs of Parkinsons Disease, eventually surfaced just days before Biden ended his run for president.

During his presidency, Biden’s personal doctor released at least three separate reports updating the American public on his health. Trump, similarly, produced at least three different health records while he was serving as president.  

On Sunday morning’s episode of NBC’s ‘Meet The Press,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson, R–La., was pressed by host Kristen Welker about whether he thought seeing detailed information about Trump’s health, such as his cholesterol level, was important. 

‘Kristen, the American people don’t care about the cholesterol level of Donald Trump. They care about the cost of living and the fact they cannot pay for groceries because Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s policies have put them in that situation. The medical records are irrelevant,’ Johnson responded. ‘Let’s talk about things that the American people care about. That’s why Donald Trump is surging in the polls because he’s doing that on stages, in interviews, nonstop around the clock. And Kamala Harris has done nothing.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

Former President Trump took a double-digit lead in the betting odds over Vice President Kamala Harris for the first time since July, signaling potential momentum for the former president as Election Day draws near.

Trump opened up a 10-point lead in the Real Clear Politics betting average on Sunday, his largest lead over Harris and the largest lead any candidate has enjoyed since the former president’s 10-point lead on July 31.

The lead comes as some in Democratic circles have attempted to quell panic within the ranks after recent polling that has seemingly trended toward Trump, with David Plouffe, who served as a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and now serves as a senior campaign adviser for Harris, appearing on the ‘Pod Save America’ podcast Sunday to argue that the fundamentals of the race have not changed.

‘I think the freakout is because there were a bunch of polls I’d say in the last month that showed a lead for Kamala Harris that was not real, it’s not what we were seeing. We’ve seen this thing basically be tied, let’s say, since… mid-September. So this is the race we have, it’s the race we expected, I don’t think it’s going to open up for either candidate,’ Plouffe said.

But the betting odds have also continued to move in Trump’s favor, perhaps indicating solid momentum for the former president outside typical public polling.

Trump at one point enjoyed an over 48-point lead in the Real Clear Politics betting average over President Biden on July 15, but that lead quickly began to evaporate after the president’s announcement that he would drop out of the race and Harris’ quick elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket.

Harris eventually took the betting lead in the race on Aug. 8 and saw that lead peak at 8.8-points a week later. The two candidates have since traded the lead multiple times and no candidate has enjoyed a lead as large as Trump’s Sunday advantage.

Harris’ last lead in the Real Clear Politics average was on Oct. 5, with Trump steadily gaining more momentum in the race on his way to the 10-point Sunday lead.

Trump himself has touted his betting advantage in recent days, telling Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that the betting odds were ‘through the roof’ in his favor.

The Real Clear Politics betting odds average tracks seven different platforms that release odds; Betfair, Betsson, Bovada, Bwin, Points Bet, Polymarket and Smarkets. None of those platforms show Harris with a lead in the race. Trump enjoys his largest lead of 12 points on Points Bet.

Neither the Trump nor the Harris campaign immediately responded to Fox News Digital requests for comment.

It’s not every day that a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus sits down to meet with the Democratic commander in chief, but national crises have a way of creating strange bedfellows.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital she was not expecting a call late last week when her phone screen flashed with an unknown Washington, D.C.-based government number. When she answered, it was President Biden’s voice on the line.

‘Well, I did not expect that. So I talked to him on the phone for about 10 minutes. First thing that he asked me was, what did I need for my constituents, and how did I fare with the storm. And then [we] moved forward into talking about the issues that we’re having with FEMA,’ Luna said.

The first-term Republican, whose district was hit hard by Hurricane Milton last week, said she also met with Biden when he surveyed storm damage in Florida over the weekend.

The pair met for an ‘extensive’ discussion on a number of disaster aid reforms, Luna said. 

It’s not uncommon to see political foes work together after a natural disaster, but the congresswoman’s praise for Biden is a stark contrast from her fierce criticism of his administration – which she herself noted to Fox News Digital – including spearheading efforts to hold members of his Cabinet in inherent contempt of Congress.

‘I have obviously been very critical of President Biden in the past, but I will say that him stepping in and taking control of the situation to assist for the right reasons was very honestly kind of shocking for me,’ Luna said.

‘Obviously, you know, we’re still going to be holding FEMA accountable… But as far as I am seeing, FEMA has been very helpful, and I’ve been in direct communication with them. And they’re absolutely going to assist, because President Biden has told them to do so.’

Asked about their in-person conversation, Luna said they talked about the situation in Georgia and North Carolina after Helene battered the American Southeast, as well as Florida’s recovery after both storms.

‘The one thing that I really wanted to hammer home was obviously, you know, FEMA getting debris cleared and really not holding the cities accountable for not being able to move debris in time,’ Luna said. ‘So we sorted that out.’

She also advocated for reforming the National Flood Insurance Program, which Luna said has been largely unchanged since its inception in the 1960s.

In both of their conversations, Luna said Biden agreed with her that FEMA’s $750 upfront payment to disaster survivors was inadequate.

‘He said it was a ‘bunch of malarkey,’ which is 100% true, and that $750 was not enough,’ Luna said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for further comment.

Her measured response to federal relief efforts is notable, given the torrent of GOP-led criticism of the administration’s response efforts.

It’s worth noting that Biden also saw praise from the Republican governors of South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia after the storms.

On the federal level, Luna is among the bipartisan chorus of lawmakers calling for Congress to return for an early emergency session to deal with disaster relief – something Biden has also voiced.

But Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has signaled on multiple occasions that he’s unlikely to convene the House before their scheduled return the week after Election Day.

Johnson, who has criticized the Biden administration’s response, argued that the $20 billion that Congress freed up for FEMA last month would be enough to meet immediate needs, and that lawmakers could do little until a formal damage assessment and cost estimate was provided.

Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., whose district was among the hardest hit by Helene, echoed Johnson in an interview Friday.

‘I believe that what we’re seeing right now with the calls to come back into session to pass funds is more of a distraction from the administration for their inept reaction to getting folks here to help western North Carolina,’ Edwards said.

Years before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and started the latest war in the region, the terror group plotted other assaults, including a scheme to blow up a skyscraper in Tel Aviv while pressuring Iran to assist in its battle against the Jewish state, according to documents found by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, the Washington Post reported.

The documents seized from Hamas command centers uncovered planning for the attacks using trains, boats and even horse-drawn chariots, according to the newspaper. The 59 pages of documents include an illustrated presentation detailing possible options for an attack as well as letters from Hamas to Iran’s top leaders in 2021 requesting hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and training for 12,000 additional Hamas fighters.

‘Hamas is so determined to wipe Israel and the Jewish people off the map that it managed to drag Iran into direct conflict — under conditions that Iran wasn’t prepared for,’ an Israeli security official who has reviewed the letters and planning documents told the Post. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive documents seized by Israeli forces in Gaza.

The move to release the documents comes as Israel could possibly retaliate against Iran after the Islamic Republic launched nearly 200 missiles on Oct. 1 in response to the killing of Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group. 

In the letters written in 2021, Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar appeals to several senior Iranian officials, including the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, for additional financial and military support, pledging that, with Iran’s backing, he could destroy Israel completely in two years.

‘We promise you that we will not waste a minute or a penny unless it takes us toward achieving this sacred goal,’ states a June 2021 letter with apparent signatures by Sinwar as well as five other Hamas officials.

Iran initially declined to directly involve itself in the war between Hamas and Israel after Oct. 7. However, the conflict has expanded as its proxies continue to attack Israel on multiple fronts. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran accused Israel of spreading false information. 

‘We regard the Israeli regime as a mendacious criminal, anti-human entity and place no credence in their illusions,’ a spokesman for the mission said. ‘They have a long history of spreading falsehoods, fabricating already-counterfeit documents, and conducting deceptive psychological operations.’

Some plans seized by the Israel Defense Forces include a computer slide presentation showing a Hamas outpost in northern Gaza with options and scenarios for attacking Israel, with targets ranging from military command centers to shopping malls.

Another described plans to destroy the Moshe Aviv Tower, a 70-story building in Tel Aviv that is Israel’s second tallest, as well as the Azrieli Center complex, which comprises three skyscrapers,a large shopping mall, train station and a cinema, according to the Post report. 

‘Working to find a mechanism to destroy the tower,’ the plan states. 

Other plans of attack included targeting Israel’s rail system and resurrecting horse-drawn carriages of antiquity as conveyances for fighters and weapons, the report said. 

Sources close to the White House report an ongoing rift between President Biden and his staff and Kamala Harris and her staff – with issues tracing back to the initial weeks following Harris’ nomination by the Democratic Party. 

The squabbles have ranged from whether Biden’s main surrogates should continue going on TV or be replaced with new Harris surrogates, to debates over whether Biden is undermining Harris’ messaging. Other issues have included complaints from the Harris camp that the White House has not moved quickly enough to add staff to the vice president’s office to help deal with the bigger workload. The revelations surfaced in a new report Axios published Sunday.  

‘Everyone from the president on down knows how important the election is, and we always anticipated a number of staff would want to transition from the administration to the campaign for the final stretch,’ a White House official told Axios. However, simultaneously, the White House has been frustrated over the Harris camp’s rules around who can be moved to her office and when, other sources inside the White House told Fox News.  

Meanwhile, Biden staffers have also reportedly felt dejected over Biden’s exit from the race, sources said, forcing them to play second fiddle to the vice president. 

‘They’re too much in their feelings,’ a Harris ally close to the campaign, told Axios.

One example of Biden not adequately coordinating his message and schedule, cited by Harris campaign aides, came on Friday. Biden held an impromptu press conference from the White House to update the American public on the government’s hurricane relief efforts. Meanwhile, Harris was campaigning in Michigan at the same time, and the dueling events served to effectively lessen the number of eyes on Harris.

Biden was supposed to be out of the country that day, but he reportedly felt it imperative to stay back and oversee response efforts to Hurricanes Milton and Helene.

The infighting did not stop there, either. Last week, Harris criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for playing political games and not doing what was best for the American people, after she claimed that the Sunshine State governor ignored her calls to discuss hurricane relief efforts. On Friday, when Biden was supposed to be overseas, he undercut Harris’ narrative about DeSantis when he praised the Florida governor’s work in the wake of the storm, calling him ‘cooperative’ and acknowledging he was doing a ‘great job.’ 

Sources inside the White House told Fox News that Harris creating a rift with DeSantis was a ‘dumb thing for her to do,’ adding that Biden’s team feels like it has done everything it can to provide Harris with opportunities to demonstrate leadership, but she has fumbled them. At least one source who spoke to Fox News said the Harris campaign’s poor messaging on this was due to its own poor planning, not the White House’s. 

The Harris campaign declined to comment when reached by Fox News Digital. But, Andrew Bates, White House deputy press secretary, extolled Biden’s continued support for Harris in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

‘President Biden endorsed Vice President Harris immediately after leaving the race, rejecting other approaches that would divide the party, and has attested to her leadership abilities and continually made clear his support for her,’ Bates said. 

‘While ensuring that all critical White House functions are fully staffed, we have made significant changes to guarantee the Vice President’s team has all of the support and resources that they need,’ Bates said. ‘This builds on a strong, trusting relationship between both teams, which has been critical to successfully executing an unprecedented transition to a new candidate.’