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A smiling Stephanie Ruhle slapped aside complaints and whining from Fox News personnel who spent the greater part of Thursday seemingly obsessed with her interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. She then made an offer to Donald Trump.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," co-host Joe Scarborough joked that Mika Brzezinski spends an inordinate amount of time watching Fox News and then pointed out that Ruhle and her Harris interview dominated their version of the news for the entire day.

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"I noticed [Fox personality] Howie Kurtz was saying you launched a softball interview with Kamala Karris, and you seem to be the running banner for about 30 minutes," Scarborough prompted his guest as Brzezinski exclaimed, "30 minutes? All day!" as her co-host continued and joked, "What a softball interview this interview was. Of course, nothing, nothing like Donald Trump and Sean Hannity, I'm sure. But I'm just curious what your thoughts were about Fox News desperately suggesting that she bombed a softball interview."

"Well to Fox News, I would say 'thank you,' because, as I learned from Donald Trump, all press is good press, so I am thrilled to be all over their air waves all day long," Ruhle joked.

After some snarky banter about Trump selling $100,000 watches, coins, trading cards and bibles, Ruhle pushed back, calling complaints about the interview a bunch of hot air.

"That's nonsense," she told the co-hosts. "Anybody who watched the interview I did with Vice President Harris, we sat down for 25 minutes and talked about one single topic, the economy. It is the number one issue for voters. If Donald Trump would like to sit down and have that same conversation, I'm ready for you."

'I think it's hugely important," she added. "It's a vulnerability for both candidates. It's tricky, Joe, because you obviously want to cover all of these topics, but to just do it with one candidate, it's hard, because many people feel like she's speaking in platitudes; she's speaking about an economic vision, and she's not giving details. She's got an 80-page detailed policy proposal."

"Do I think that she answers every single question and gives people exactly what they want?" she asked. "She doesn't. You know why? Because she's a politician, and none of them do."

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Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign wasted no time pouncing on newly revealed disparaging comments that Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) made about President Donald Trump's economic record in 2020.

In the comments to an unidentified individual, Vance argued that Trump "has just so thoroughly failed to deliver on his economic populism (excepting a disjointed China policy)" and months later predicted to the same individual that Trump would lose the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.

Hours after the remarks were revealed, Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa put out a statement that hammered Trump's economic record.

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"It is hard to conceive of a more scathing and definitive rejection of Donald Trump's economic record than his own running mate stating categorically that Trump 'failed' on the economy," Moussa said. "J.D. Vance himself was crystal clear: Donald Trump 'thoroughly failed' to deliver on his economic promises, and is only looking out for himself and his rich donors, not the American people."

The campaign's statement also pointed back to remarks Harris made earlier this week where she described Trump as "one of the biggest losers ever" when it comes to creating manufacturing jobs, as she notes that an estimated 200,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during his tenure.

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A New York appeals court five-judge panel appeared “skeptical” of the civil fraud verdict in the case charging Donald Trump, his company, some family members, and his Chief Financial Officer falsely overvalued and undervalued assets to obtain favorable loan rates and to pay less taxes. Judges appeared to suggest bans had a responsibility to beware.

Judge Arthur Engoron had imposed a $364 million sentence on Trump, which is approaching $500 millions with interest. Judges heard Trump’s appeal on Thursday.

The judges “seemed somewhat skeptical that the civil fraud verdict should hold,” HuffPost reports, “with one judge dubbing it an ‘disturbing’ amount and another suggesting that the ‘sophisticated parties’ Trump and Trump Organization engaged with were obligated to do their due diligence.”

Judges also appeared to suggest New York Attorney General Letitia James may have gone too far.

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“How do we draw a line, or at least put up some guardrails, to know when the AG [attorney general] is operating well within her broad — admittedly broad — sphere … and when she is going into an area that wasn’t intended for her jurisdiction?” Justice John Higgitt asked, The Hill reports.

The Washington Examiner, however, reported it “was not immediately clear where the panel might land once it reached a decision on the case. At times, the panel asked several pointed questions to James’s team of lawyers, while the judges appeared to listen more intently to the defense’s argument at other moments.”

Trump announced a press conference at Trump Tower for Thursday at 4:30 PM, although a topic was not included in the release.

As Hurricane Helene barrels closer to making landfall off of Florida’s coast, the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office offered residents ignoring evacuation orders a stark warning that stunned many: mark your bodies with a permanent marker so that you can be identified later.

Taylor County, home to 20,000 residents in northern Florida near the Big Bend region, was expected to take a direct hit from the Category 4 storm, according to NBC News. The storm was projected to make landfall Thursday night. Sheriff Wayne Padgett said the county will be “in the dead center of” the storm, the news station reported.

“If you or someone you know chose not to evacuate, PLEASE write your name, birthday and important information on your arm or leg in A PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and family notified,” the Taylor County Sheriff's Office wrote in a social media statement.

The post generated more than 3,000 shares and hundreds of comments ranging from comparisons of Hurricane Katrina before it struck New Orleans in 2005, to fear for those choosing to ride out Helene.

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“It cannot be stressed enough how serious of a situation this is for Florida,” Jordan Hall, an international storm chaser for MyRadar Weather wrote on X.

“This has to be the most scariest post I’ve ever read, prayers for everybody up there,” wrote Florida resident Tyler White in a Facebook comment to the sheriff’s office.

“I felt the same way reading this. Very surreal way to put it,” another Facebook user, Jen Marie, responded.

Another user Traci Elliott chimed in: “Morbid yes but also helpful.”

Democrats are keying on three races — in New York, Florida and Maryland — that they hope can boost Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) chances of gaining a majority, according to a report.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the official campaign arm for House Democrats, is flushing cash into candidates Whitney Fox of Florida, April McClain Delaney in Maryland and John Avlon in New York, Axios reported Thursday.

Fox is running in Florida's 13th Congressional District against incumbent Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who defeated Democrat Eric Lynn in 2022 with 53 percent of the vote in the right-leaning district.

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Meanwhile, Delaney is a former Commerce Department official, lawyer and philanthropist running against Republican Neil Parrott, a former state delegate, in Maryland's 6th Congressional District. The race is expected to be the state’s most competitive congressional race this year, according to Maryland Matters. The district has a very slight Democratic lean.

And Avlon, a former CNN anchor and political commentator, is running for Congress on in New York's 1st Congressional District on Long Island against Republican incumbent Rep. Nick LaLota. That district has a slight Republican lean.

A menswear fashion expert has no time for former President Donald Trump's new line of watches.

Derek Guy, a menswear expert who has contributed to the Washington Post and Esquire, publicly shamed Trump for shilling a $100,000 watches he described as an obvious scam.

"I don't understand how anyone can do this to their supporters," Guy wrote on X. "They play you as a sucker."

Trump the same day announced the release of his Tourbillon watches on Truth Social — where he often shares political messages — in an ad campaign from "your favorite president" standing in front of a row of American flags.

"That's a lot of diamonds," Trump says. "I love gold, I love diamonds."

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The Trump Watch website only offers 147 of the Trump Victory Tourbillon then a series of Fight Fight Fight watches that retail at between $499 and $799.

Guy argued this was a blatant attempt to exploit the halo effect, a marketing tactic that creates a false assumption of quality in lower cost items through association to similar high-price ones.

"This crappy $100k watch is a halo product to sell even crappier $500 and $800 non-Swiss steel and gold-plated watches with a cheap automatic movement," Guy wrote.

"The goal here is just to make money, not treat people with respect and offer them something of genuine value."

Guy — who has made a reputation explaining complicated men's fashion in straightforward terms while gently critiquing high profile male fashionistas — changed his tone when it came to discussing Trump.

"Buy watches from established watch brands or independent watchmakers who care more about watches than money," Guy told his followers. "This sort of behavior is genuinely disgusting."