Latest on the 2024 campaign and highlights from the GOP debate

We've wrapped up our live coverage for the day. You can read more about Biden's speech here, or scroll through the posts below.

President Joe Biden warned of extremism and threats to US democracy in remarks in Arizona on Thursday, where he was also honoring his friend, the late Republican Sen. John McCain.

“There’s something dangerous happening in America now," Biden said, arguing that the far-right movement within the Republican party was out of step with the "basic beliefs of our democracy."

The stark message was Biden’s most forceful attempt at calling out Trump’s antidemocratic behavior since the former president was criminally charged for his attempts to subvert the 2020 election results.

It offered a taste of Biden’s forthcoming reelection message, one centered on Trump’s own words and actions as threats to democracy. Biden said his predecessor was guided not by the Constitution or decency, but by “vengeance and vindictiveness.”

Here are some of the key themes:

Republican silence: Biden referenced his most likely GOP challenger by name, saying, “Trump says the Constitution gave him the right to do whatever he wants as president."

“I’ve never heard presidents say that in jest," he added.

He alluded to Trump’s recent suggestion that Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, could be executed, and said Republican silence on the comment was “deafening.”

Violence: Stopping the erosion of democratic institutions and values was central to Biden’s decision to run for president in 2020, and campaign officials have said it will once again be core to his reelection bid.

“I believe in free and fair elections and peaceful transfer of power. I believe there’s no place in America — none, none, none — for political violence,” Biden said Thursday.

Setting aside partisanship: In his speech, Biden called on Americans to “put partisanship aside, put country first.”

At that moment, he was interrupted by climate activists. A protester stood up and called on Biden to take further action to address fossil fuels.

“I tell you what, if you shush up, I’ll meet with you immediately after this,” Biden said, before resuming remarks. (A protester later said on social media that they were escorted off the grounds and did not meet with the president.)

“Democracy is never easy – as we just demonstrated,” Biden joked.

A solution to threats: The answer to overcoming the threats facing America's democracy is engagement, the president said, and the preservation of the country's institutions will be up to the next generation.

Lost in the cross talk that engulfed Wednesday night’s messy debate, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott successfully pinned down Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the first time on whether he would support a 15-week federal abortion ban.

“Yes, I will,” DeSantis replied to Scott. 

It’s a commitment DeSantis has avoided since entering the presidential campaign, at times drawing sharp criticism from a top anti-abortion group over his refusals to commit to such a policy. DeSantis instead has campaigned on the six-week abortion ban he signed in Florida earlier this year while suggesting other states may have different approaches based on their political environments. 

But with his window closing to gain ground in the GOP presidential nominating fight, DeSantis has made abortion a focal point of his efforts to drive a wedge between former President Donald Trump and the conservative base, particularly in Iowa. 

The exchange with Scott came shortly after DeSantis said Trump should be on the debate stage defending comments that some Republican states have pursued “terrible” state-level restrictions on the procedure. Scott jumped in to press DeSantis, saying, “But would you support (inaudible) a 15-week limit?”

Off camera, DeSantis affirmed he would, as one of the moderators asked Christie a new question. The little-noticed exchange was first reported by the Daily Signal, a conservative outlet. 

DeSantis signaled a willingness to back a federal ban in a recent interview on Radio Iowa, telling the host: “I’ve said this from the beginning of this, as president, you put pro-life legislation on my desk, I’m going to look favorably and support the legislation.” 

But Wednesday’s response to Scott marked the first time DeSantis weighed in so directly on a 15-week ban.

As DeSantis doubles-down on anti-abortion policies, Trump has instead said he is willing to compromise with Democrats on abortion to find “peace on that issue.” Trump has privately blamed the party’s recent electoral defeats on the GOP’s anti-abortion push following the fall of Roe v. Wade. He recently called Florida’s ban “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,” a remark that DeSantis has seized on as he seeks to win over evangelical and anti-abortion voters in Iowa. 

On the debate stage last night, DeSantis said: “I reject this idea that pro-lifers are to blame for midterm defeats.” Yet, though he has accused Trump of prioritizing politics over the unborn, DeSantis over the years has also carefully navigated the topic, suggesting his own political expediency around a sensitive issue. 

As former President Donald Trump forges ahead with his 2024 campaign, the multiple trials he faces loom large.

In a court filing Thursday, Trump's lawyers revealed he will not attempt to move the criminal charges brought against him by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to federal court. The former president and 18 co-defendants were indicted in Georgia in August in connection with their attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

The move comes as a surprise, as Trump was largely expected to try to move the Georgia case as part of a bid to invoke immunity protections for federal officials. Under federal law, criminal cases can be removed to federal court if the alleged behavior relates to their government duties.

His lawyers previously told Judge Scott McAfee that Trump “may” try to get the case moved into the federal system. Outside of court, the former president’s representatives had been more explicit in signaling their intention to try to move the case. The deadline for Trump to formally make the request was Friday.

Trump faces 91 criminal charges across four federal indictments.

Meanwhile, the trial in the New York State attorney general’s civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, his eldest sons, their companies, and several executives, remains on track to begin next week after a state appellate court on Thursday denied Trump’s motion to stay the trial.

This comes in the wake of New York state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling Tuesday that Trump and his co-defendants are liable for fraud for grossly inflating asset valuations on financial statements. 

CNN's Lauren del Valle and Kara Scannell contributed reporting to this post.

President Joe Biden called former President Donald Trump's trip to Michigan earlier this week "ridiculous," according to reports from the press pool.

Biden dug at Trump for making a speech at a non-union manufacturing facility, and mocked Trump's claim that he met with workers involved in the United Autoworkers strike, pool reporters wrote Thursday.

“The idea he goes to a union hall — not a union hall, it’s management — and he pays them to hold up signs saying they’re union members? Come on," Biden said.

Biden himself traveled to Michigan Tuesday and joined a picket line in Wayne County.  

The president also took aim at Republicans in Congress, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Biden told supporters that the looming government shutdown was “totally avoidable” after lawmakers reached a deal to raise the debt limit over the summer. 

The answer to overcoming the threats facing America's democracy is engagement, President Joe Biden argued during a speech in Arizona on Thursday.

“Democracies don’t have to die end of a rifle. They can die when people are silent, when they fail to stand up or condemn threats to democracy," the president said.

The preservation of democracy will be up to the next generation across the country, Biden said. He encouraged young people to vote and stand together.

Talking directly to students who were in the room and those across the country, Biden said, "You're the reason I'm so optimistic."

"It's not your burden alone. Your generation will not be ignored, will not be shunned, will not be silent. I've said it before. We're at an inflection point in our history," he said, adding that the actions taken in the next short period have the power to "determine the course of this country and the world for the next six or seven decades."

President Joe Biden starkly criticized "extremists" within the Republican Party Thursday as he gave a major address about ongoing threats to US democracy.

“There’s no question that today’s Republican Party is driven and intimidated by MAGA Republican extremists,” Biden said.

“Their extreme agenda, if carried out, would fundamentally alter the institutions of American democracy as we know it,” he continued.

Biden criticized "extremists in Congress" who he said are "more determined to shut down the government, to burn the place down, than to let the people's business be done."

President Joe Biden said that in order to maintain democracy in the US, we will have to "put partisanship aside and put our country first." He also said the country will have to "not hide from history, but make history."

The president went on to say that "democracy is maintained by adhering to the Constitution and the march to perfecting our union, by protecting and expanding rights with each successive generation."

President Joe Biden spoke against political violence during his speech in Arizona Thursday afternoon.

"Democracy is never easy — as we just demonstrated," he said, referencing climate action protesters who briefly interrupted him.

Biden went on to emphasize the need to reject and repudiate political violence.

"Such violence is never, never, never acceptable in America. It's undemocratic," he said. "And it must never be normalized to advance political power," Biden said