Live updates: Trump to travel to Texas and Oklahoma

Morning Rundown: Victim’s mother describes failed execution, Flydubai pilot hailed a hero, and Cornell student’s police statement reveals new details

The president will visit a truck factory outside Dallas this afternoon before holding a rally for GOP candidates in Oklahoma tonight.

Trump will hold a rally in Oklahoma for Republican candidates later today. Yuri Gripas / Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Kennedy Center will remained closed as safety assessments continue at the cultural arts center with no definitive reopening date, according to an email sent to staff overnight and obtained by NBC News.

“Our facilities, safety, and security teams are now conducting a detailed emergency egress assessment to determine whether, and under what conditions, the building can safely support occupants and be evacuated while these restrictions remain in place,” according to the email from the Center’s Executive Director Matt Floca. “The main building will remain temporarily closed, pending that determination.”

Floca writes that the assessment, ordered by Kennedy Center leadership, is expected to be completed within the next two weeks.

The main building of the Kennedy Center has been closed since September 15, after the Center’s board voted to close for renovations. In court filings, Floca explained the closure would be reconsidered on a week-by-week basis, depending on the status of the assessment.

It comes as a separate evaluation completed over the past three months by engineering firm Walter P Moore found significant corrosion and water damage on most of the exterior “soffit panels” that make up the Kennedy Center’s overhang. The documents, obtained by NBC News, call for “immediate” fixes to prevent further damage to the Center’s structure.

The Walter P Moore firm suggested replacing the entire soffit panel system — each individual panel weighing more than 2,000 pounds — with what they call “a more durable solution.” They also recommend replacing the roof’s drainage system and improve the enclosure in-between the roof and the panels, along with the roof deck itself.

The firm suggests keeping the plaza area outside the front of the Kennedy Center closed to the public. “Because the soffit is located 60 feet above areas regularly occupied by the public, continued deterioration of the panels and their support system presents a falling object hazard and life-safety concern,” the report states.

“Walter P Moore recommends the area under and adjacent to the soffit panels be closed to the public until repairs or further evaluation is performed,” according to the assessment.

While there is no programming currently scheduled for any of the theaters inside the main building of the Kennedy Center, events continue inside a physically separate, newer, and much smaller building on the Kennedy Center’s campus. There are free events scheduled between Thursday and Sunday each week over at that building, called “The REACH.”

On the legal front, the court battle over the naming of the Center — and the more closure of the center — continue, with Judge Christopher Cooper asking for weekly updates from the Trump administration on the repairs.

The Senate confirmed Keith Sonderling’s nomination to lead the Labor Department on a 47-41 vote along party lines last night.

Sonderling had been serving in an acting capacity since April, when Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid a misconduct probe. Sonderling had served in several roles at the department before Trump nominated him in June.

The vote was the Senate’s final one before the Nov. 3 midterms. It is scheduled to return Nov. 9.

Sen. Jon Husted, who faces a tricky path to keep his seat this fall in Ohio, is about to get another boost from national Republicans.

Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is pouring another $14 million into the state, according to details shared first with NBC News.

The White House removed CNN from the press pool that’s set to cover a trip by Trump today, escalating a feud with the cable network after a federal judge blocked the administration’s push to restrict its media access.

CNN had been designated to travel with Trump, according to a press rotation document the White House released Sunday. But when the daily guidance came out for his scheduled visit to a truck manufacturing facility in Denton, Texas, followed by remarks in Durant, Oklahoma, it did not list CNN as providing pool coverage.

Trump will travel south today to tour a motor facility in Denton, Texas, and deliver remarks in Durant, Oklahoma.

The president previously said he would campaign for Republicans in 35 races ahead of the midterm elections, which are a little over a month away. The Texas Senate race is considered a major battleground, but the president does not have a campaign event on his schedule in the state today.

In Oklahoma, Rep. Kevin Hern, a Republican, is facing off against Democrat N’Kiyla Thomas for the Senate seat while Republican Mike Mazzei and Democrat Cyndi Munson square off in the governor’s race. NBC News has classified both races as “solid GOP.”

Trump previously won both states in his presidential bids. Tomorrow, the president plans to hold a rally in Mobile, Alabama. That state, too, is considered solidly red.

Trump has previously urged his base supporters to turn out to vote and pretend like he is on the ballot as polling shows Republicans facing strong headwinds going into the final stretch of campaigning before the midterms.