We’re wrapping up our live US politics coverage for the day, thanks for following along.
Here is our news story on the Kamala Harris interview on Fox news:
Kamala Harris said her presidency “would not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency” in a testy interview with the rightwing Fox News channel on Wednesday night as she criticized Donald Trump over his continuing threats against “the enemy within”.
The 25-minute interview, conducted after Harris held a rally with more than 100 Republican officials in Pennsylvania, was the first time Harris had sat for a conversation with Fox News, which has been a consistent supporter of Trump.
Bret Baier, Fox News’s chief political anchor, is seen as a straight news counterbalance to the vitriol of Fox News’s evening shows, but still came with a laundry list of rightwing topics, including immigration, the rights of transgender people and Joe Biden’s performance, as Harris attempted to sell herself to the channel’s older, largely Republican, audience.
Trump describes 6 January 2021 as 'day of love from the standpoint of the millions'
The event featured pointed questions for Trump, about his wife Melania’s support for abortion rights, noted in her new memoir, and about the 6 January, 2021, Siege of the US Capitol by his supporters who breached the building in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election results.
“Your own vice-president doesn’t want to support you now,” said Ramiro Gonzalez, of Tampa, Florida, a Republican who said he was no longer registered with the party but wanted to give Trump the chance to win him back. Gonzalez was referring to former vice-president Mike Pence, who has disavowed Trump in light of 6 January.
Trump’s response: “Hundreds of thousands of people come to Washington. They didn’t come because of me. They came because of the election. They thought the election was a rigged election. That’s why they came.”
“That was a day of love from the standpoint of the millions,” Trump told Gonzalez.
Updated
Trump defends mass deportations in Univision town hall
More now from Trump’s Univision town hall. During the event, hosted by Univision, America’s nation’s largest Spanish-language network, Trump defended his call for mass deportation of immigrants who are in the US illegally, even as he nodded to a need for immigrant labour, the Associated Press reports.
“We want workers, and we want them to come in, but they have to come in legally, and they have to love our country,” the Republican presidential candidate said during the event, scheduled to air Wednesday evening. Trump was answering the question of Jorge Velásquez, a farm worker who said most people doing such jobs are undocumented and suggested, if they’re deported, food prices will increase.
Trump then returned to his criticism of Harris for being a critical player in the Biden administration’s that presided over an influx of migrants with criminal backgrounds.
Updated
Here is some analysis from the associated press of Trump and Harris’s recent media appearances:
Both candidates have largely avoided traditional interviews during the campaign, preferring to sit before friendly hosts, often in nontraditional media settings. The two-day interview marathon was a noteworthy partial break from that strategy.
Harris, whom the Trump campaign hammered for not doing interviews after replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, has ramped up the pace this month. The vice-president appeared on ABC’s “The View,” spoke with radio host Howard Stern and taped a show with late-night comedian Stephen Colbert, among other appearances. She also sat down with the newsmagazine “60 Minutes,” as is traditional for presidential candidates, while Trump canceled his appearance with the show.
Harris’ appearance on Fox with anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday seemed designed to show her willingness to face any questioner, especially after Trump bailed on “60 Minutes.” The risks of that became apparent quickly as Baier challenged her immediately on immigration and often interrupted her afterward.
In contrast, Trump, in his Chicago interview Tuesday, frequently spoke over Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait and even insulted him as the audience cheered Trump on. Micklethwait challenged Trump’s support for tariffs and his plans to pay for his campaign promises.
The former president also faced a friendly all-women audience in a Fox News town hall before participating in a town hall on the Spanish-language network Univision, where he faced pointed questions from Latino voters. Like Harris, Trump is trying to broaden his coalition to get the key votes he needs to win the neck-and-neck race. So, for him as well, every interview counts.
Trump stands by false remarks about immigrants eating pets in Ohio at Univision town hall
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday stood by debunked claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets, telling Latino voters during a town hall he was “just saying what was reported.”
Trump in recent weeks has amplified a false claim that has gone viral that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing residents’ pets or taking wildlife from parks for food. There have been no credible reports of Haitians eating pets, and officials in Ohio – including Republicans – have repeatedly said the story is untrue.
At a town hall hosted by Univision, an undecided Latino Republican voter from Arizona, a battleground state, asked Trump whether he truly believed that immigrants were eating pets.
“I was just saying what was reported. All I do is report,” Trump replied during the event held in Miami. “I was there, I’m going to be there and we’re going to take a look.”
Trump added that “newspapers” had also reported on the claim, without naming any or providing any details.
Here is more of that exchange on Iran earlier.
Baier asked Harris,“Which foreign country do you consider to be our greatest adversary?”
She said, “Iran”.
Baier said, “A number of experts thought you would say China…But you said Iran. If that’s the case, what do you say to critics who look at the actions of your administration and say you’re not acting like Iran is the number one threat?”
Harris said, “Well, I will tell you most recently, whether it was in April or in October, and then several hours on each occasion that Iran posed a threat to Israel, I was there. Most recently in the Situation Room, in the most recent attack, working with the heads of our military in doing what America must always do to defend and to support Israel in its requirement to defend itself and to give American support to be able to allow Israel to have the resources to defend itself against attack, including from Iran and Iran’s terrorist proxies in the region.”
Here is Harris calling out Fox News’s Bret Baier for playing a clip of Trump that was “not what [Trump] has been saying about the enemy from within”:
WOW -- Kamala Harris forcefully calls out Bret Baier for playing a deceptive clip whitewashing Trump's comments about "the enemy within" pic.twitter.com/JmIwSQXVjv
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 16, 2024
Harris interview on Fox news: key takeaways
US vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris sat down for an interview on Wednesday evening with Fox News host Bret Baier.
The interview was combative, with Harris, towards the end, speaking over Baier as asked him to interview her “grounded in full assessment of the facts”, and called him out for playing clips that she said were not relevant to what they were discussing.
Harris was asked about the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle a surge in illegal immigration at the southern border, and laid the blame on Republicans for failing to pass a border bill.
Harris was asked to defend the administration’s early decision to reverse some of Republican rival Donald Trump’s restrictive policies, and to respond to a mother who testified in Congress about the loss of her child at the hands of an illegal immigrant. “I’m so sorry for her loss, but let’s talk about what is happening right now,” Harris said.
Harris said Trump told Republicans to reject a bipartisan immigration bill because “he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.” The interview was part of a direct appeal by Harris on Wednesday to Republican voters in this year’s US presidential election, as she highlighted Republican support for her campaign in a battleground county in Pennsylvania before appearing on conservative-leaning Fox News.
Harris was asked in the Fox News interview about her recent comment that there was “not a thing” she would change about the actions of the Biden administration, responding: “let me be very clear, my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” but she did not elaborate. Earlier, in Bucks County, outside of Philadelphia, Harris emphasised Trump’s attempt to overturn his election loss four years ago, when he lost the White House to current President Joe Biden.
Harris said Trump’s actions violated the US Constitution and, if given the chance, he will violate it again. “He refused to accept the will of the people and the results of a free and fair election. He sent a mob, an armed mob, to the United States Capitol, where they violently assaulted police officers, law enforcement officials and threatened the life of his own vice president,” Harris said.
“No matter your party, no matter who you voted for last time, there is a place for you in this campaign,” Harris said.
Harris was asked “Which foreign country do you consider to be our greatest adversary?” She said Iran. She has worked with the heads of the military to do what America must always do, which is to allow Israel to have the resources to defend itself from attack, “including from Iran and Iran’s territist proxies in the region. And my commitment to that is unwaivering”. The screen showed a graphic listing “Iran oil revenue”.
Harris talked over Baier, continuing her answer about the Middle East as he tried to press her. He stopped speaking. She said, “I would like that we have a conversation that is grounded in the facts”. “Yes ma’am,” he said.
“Madam vice-president they’re wrapping me very hard here, I hope you got to say what you wanted about President Trump,” Baier said. Harris said she has a lot more to say about Trump. She invited people to visit her website. Baier interrupted her again, she talked over him, listing the policies that would be found on her website.
Updated
Former Democrat congressman Harold Ford Junior, on Fox news, says that Harris should be proud of her performance tonight, and that it shows that there are benefits to coming on Fox.
“Tonight was a sign and a signal to the country about why we need more debates between candidates,” he says.
He says Harris “Has to be pleased with how she performed this evening”.
Brit Hume, Fox political analyst, says Harris was strong in some ways, but avoided answering other questions, including how she will differ from Biden.
He says partisans will be pleased with her performance, they’ll say “Yay, Kamala,” he says.
“But if people have doubts about her I don’t think she cleared them up”.
Fox news presenters have said, variously, that Harris was strong on some answers, thin on others, and that other answers “won’t pass the smell test” – that last comment from Fox news host Dana Perino.
She was praised for coming on Fox and allowing herself to “think on her toes” in a tough interview, rather than the interviews until now, which a Fox host said had been soft.
'I would like that we have a conversation that is grounded in the facts', says Harris
The screen shows a graphic listing “Iran oil revenue”.
Harris is talking over Baier. He stops. She says, “I would like that we have a conversation that is grounded in the facts”.
“Yes ma’am,” he says.
“Madam vice-president they’re rapping me very hard here, I hope you got to say what you wanted about President Trump,” he says.
Harris says she has a lot more to say about Trump. She invites people to visit her website. Baier interrupts her, she talks over him, listing the policies that would be found on her website.
Updated
Harris is asked about the Middle East and the threat posed by Iran.
She says she has worked with the heads of the military to do what America must always do, which is to allow Israel to have the resources to defend itself from attack, “including from Iran and Iran’s territist proxies in the region. And my commitment to that is unwaivering”.
Harris pressed on Biden's 'mental faculties', defends him and pivots to Trump's fitness for office
Harris is asked “when did you first notice that President Biden’s mental faculties appeared diminished"?”
She says Biden had the judgment and experience to do what he needs to do on behalf of the American people.
Baier presses her. “You met with him once a week for three years, you didn’t have any concerns?”
Harris said the people who knew Trump (not Biden) best, have said he is unfit to be president ever again.
Harris appears unruffled and forceful, but Baier is pressing her.
She is pressed again on how she would differ from Biden, and answers again by talking about how she would differ from Trump.
Baier asks, if people are sick of Trump, why does half the country support him.
“It’s not supposed to be easy,” Harris says. Baier asks if the people supporting Trump are “misguided”, or “stupid”.
“Oh no, I would never say that,” Harris says forcefully. She pivots to Trump talking about the “enemy from within”.
Baier plays a clip of Trump saying he has been prosecuted repeatedly.
Harris says, that was not the clip of him talking about the enemy from within.
“You and I both know,” she says, that he has talked repeatedly about the enemy within, locking up people who don’t agree with him.
Harris’s voice is rising – you can hear a faint echo as it gets louder in the room in which they’re sitting.
Harris pressed on how she would differ from Biden
They want a president who has a plan for the future, Harris continues.
Trump would give tax cuts to billionaires, she says.
Baier then plays a clips of Harris being asked how she is different about Biden, and her replying without saying she would do things differently.
Harris responds saying that she welcomes ideas, including from Republicans, on what to do differently when she is president.
She mentions her plans for first-time home buyers and small business owners.
Baier says “we’ve heard a lot about those plans in recent days”, and then asks Harris, referring to her campaign slogan, how she would turn the page.
Harris says that Trump’s rhetoric is based on who you would beat down. She says she would turn the page on rhetoric people “are frankly exhausted of, Bret”.
Updated
Harris says that she is the only person running for president who has prosecuted criminals.
Baier turns to an ad from the Trump campaign that plays a clip of Harris supporting gender-affirming surgery for prisoners. Part of the ad is played.
Harris says, again, she supports the law.
She says that the ad is like throwing stones from a glass house.
Baier asks if she would still advocate for using taxpayer dollars to fund gender-affirming surgery.
She says again that she will follow the law, and pivots to Trump. He spent $20m on that ad, she says. She says that Trump does not have a plan, and pivots to the economy.
“My plans for the economy will strengthen the economy,” she says. She says experts, including Nobel Laureates, have said so. She says that Trump’s plan would weaken the economy.
Harris pressed on immigration
Bret Baier has asked Kamala Harris repeatedly about immigration.
You supported allowing immigrants in the country illegally to apply for drivers licences and to apply for free healthcare, he says. Do you still support those things?
The vice-president says it was five years ago that she said those things, and that what she supports is the law. Baier presses her and again, she says she and Tim Walz believe in supporting and enforcing the law.
Updated
Harris sits for interview with Fox News
Kamala Harris’s interview with the rightwing Fox News TV channel airs in just a few minutes.
In perhaps the most dramatic moment yet in a recent media blitz by the Democratic presidential nominee, her sit-down with chief political anchor, Bret Baier, is due to be broadcast at the top of the hour.
It comes as Democrats have increased their presence on Fox News in an outreach to undecided voters and Republicans whom they hope are souring on Donald Trump and ready to switch.
The appearance is the latest in a string of media interviews intended to boost her candidacy with less than three weeks to go until the presidential vote.
The broadcast comes just a few hours after Harris held a rally in Pennsylvania with more than 100 senior Republicans, including former members of Congress, where she warned that Trump was a threat to US democracy and should never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States.
Updated
Armed man arrested near Trump rally sues sheriff – report
The man who was arrested on gun possession charges near a Donald Trump rally in California last Saturday has sued the sheriff who oversaw his apprehension, in federal court, according to a new report.
The man, Vem Miller of Las Vegas, accuses the sheriff whose deputies detained him, Riverside sheriff Chad Bianco, of knowingly defaming him by falsely saying he was a threat and may have even aspired to kill Trump, the Palm Springs Desert Sun newspaper reported.
Miller’s presence spurred significant safety concerns when he was arrested near the rally in Coachella Valley with guns in his truck, although he said he was a major supporter of the former US president and would never harm him.
The Desert Sun reported: “The lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court alleges Bianco spread those lies in several media appearances he made touting the arrest because he wanted to falsely portray himself as a ‘heroic sheriff’ who had saved Trump from another assassination attempt.” The lawsuit also names the country and 10 sheriff’s deputies, the outlet reports.
Updated
Kamala Harris said she wants to lead a campaign that is “not a fight against something, it is a fight for something”.
At the bipartisan event, the Democratic nominee presented herself as the face of “a fight for a new generation of leadership that is optimistic about what we can achieve together, Republicans, Democrats and independents who want to move past the politics of division and blame”.
The classic stump speech language was notable for the sharp contrast with Donald Trump’s raw, divisive style and pessimistic warnings at his rallies of a dystopian America under the Democratic party.
At the rally in Bucks county, just outside Philadelphia, were former members of Congress Adam Kinzinger, Denver Riggleman and Barbara Comstock, former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan and about 100 other Republicans. There has not been any sign of such bipartisanship with Trump, where groups of former Democratic politicians would endorse and rally for the Republican nominee.
Updated
People in the crowd are holding up signs saying “country over party” and Harris leaned into the bipartisan nature of the event as she gave blistering, unequivocal warnings about the threat she sees from Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president and her opponent in this 5 November election.
Before Harris wrapped up the succinct speech, she appealed to people across the party divide who also believe that Donald Trump should not return to the White House as president because he is unfit and a threat to US democracy.
“To those of you who are watching who share that view, no matter your party, no matter who you voted for last time, there is a place for you in this campaign. The coalition we have built has room for everyone who is ready to turn the page on the chaos and instability of Donald Trump,” she said.
She promised to reach across the aisle if voted in next month. And she closed by saying voters face the choice between her leadership “that builds consensus and focuses on making life better for you and … the choice of someone who I think we can guarantee will sit in the Oval Office plotting retribution, stewing in his own grievances and think only about himself and not you”.
Harris closed with a plea for people to stand up together for the rule of law, “our democratic ideals and for the constitution of the United States”.
Updated
'Trump must never again stand behind the seal of the president' - Harris
Kamala Harris is really fired up and not pulling her punches on this stage in Pennsylvania this afternoon, alongside Republicans including former members of congress.
“I have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution…and I have never wavered from upholding that oath. And this is a profound difference between Donald Trump and me. He who violated the oath…and…if given the chance will violate it again,” Harris said.
She then stated to loud cheers: “Donald Trump lost the 2020 election” but then he refused to accept the result.
Moments later she said that she believes Trump seeks “unchecked power” and she cited former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, in as much as he “is saying no-one has ever been as dangerous to our country as Donald Trump.”
She added: “Anyone who tramples on our democratic values as Donald Trump has, anyone who has called for, quote, the termination of the Constitution of the United States as Donald Trump has must never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States. Never again, never again.”
Updated
America's 'democratic ideals' at stake, says Harris
Kamala Harris is leaning on US history and her location to emphasize the significance of this bipartisan event under way in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania.
She is talking about how George Washington won a huge victory in the revolutionary war with a surprise attack in nearby Trenton after crossing the icy Delaware River with his troops and ultimately went on to help establish the United States with a constitution that upholds “free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power”, Harris said.
“These principles have sustained our nation for over two centuries because generations of Americans … have cherished them, upheld them and defended them,” she said.
“Now the baton is in our hands so I’m joined today by more than 100 Republican leaders from across Pennsylvania and across our country who are supporting my candidacy for president of the United States and I’m deeply honored to have their support,” she said.
Harris added: “At stake in this race are the democratic ideals that our founders and generations of Americans before us have fought for.”
Updated
Kamala Harris just took the stage in Pennsylvania.
She’s wearing a dark suit, and appears to be speaking in front of a barn with an American flag inside. Placards reading “Country over party” can be seen on the side of the stage.
First up to speak at Kamala Harris’s event in Pennsylvania was Adam Kinzinger, a former congressman who was one of two Republicans on the bipartisan House committee that investigated the January 6 attack.
He described voting for Harris as “the conservative choice” saying she would uphold the country’s founding principles:
I know that Kamala Harris shares my allegiance to the rule of law, to the constitution and to democracy, whatever policies we disagree on pale in comparison to those fundamental matters of principle, of decency, of fidelity to this nation.
…
I, like you, believe that those values are worth defending, and if you think those principles are worth defending, I urge you to make the conservative choice vote for our bedrock values and Vote for Kamala Harris.
He also had this to say about Donald Trump:
As a military guy, I’ve always respected strength in leadership. And Trump is the opposite of that. He’s a whiny, weak, small, tiny man who is scared to death. You know, Donald Trump may be running as a Republican, but the truth is, he does not share those long-held Republican values of supporting democracy, of standing for the rule of law and of faithfulness to the constitution as a Republican.
Updated
Harris to rally with Republican Trump foes in battleground Pennsylvania
Later this afternoon, Kamala Harris will speak alongside Republican foes of Donald Trump in a Pennsylvania county that will be crucial in deciding which presidential candidate wins the state.
At the rally in Bucks county, outside Philadelphia, the Democratic vice-president will be joined by former members of congress Adam Kinzinger, Denver Riggleman and Barbara Comstock, former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan and around 100 other Republicans who are expected to warn against sending Trump back to the White House.
A senior Harris campaign official said that in her speech, held in a park not far from where George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware river during the Revolutionary War, the vice-president will accuse Trump of violating his oath of office by attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Her visit comes after in-person early voting began on Tuesday in Bucks county.
The speech appears set to be similar to one Joe Biden gave earlier this year in a different part of the Philadelphia suburbs, where he cast Trump as a threat to democracy, hoping to energize a presidential campaign that never quite caught on with voters. Here’s a look back at that:
Vance says Harris faces the 'hardest interview' on Fox News
Campaigning in Pennsylvania, JD Vance whipped up the crowd by casting Kamala Harris as an inept interviewer who is in for a shock when she sits down with Fox News interviewer Bret Baier this evening.
“I don’t know if you all saw, but, you know, there’s a big, big night for Kamala Harris tonight, because she’s got probably the hardest interview that she’s ever done,” Vance said during a rally in the town of Williamsport.
“Now, of course, it is major, major news, because Kamala Harris doesn’t really do interviews at all, and if she does do interviews, they’re a softball interview. Have you seen some of Kamala Harris’s interviews? I wouldn’t recommend it. You lose about 20 IQ points if you watch Kamala Harris give an answer to a question about public policy.”
The speech continued with Vance insulting and discrediting Harris, while promoting the policies he and Donald Trump would implement if they win the White House.
Harris did indeed spend much of the first weeks of her campaign avoiding the press, but has since been on something of a media blitz. Here’s more on the change in tactics:
With 100th birthday behind him, Jimmy Carter votes in presidential election
Jimmy Carter’s son has said that his father, who just turned 100, hoped to live long enough to cast his ballot for Kamala Harris. The Democratic former president may have gotten his wish.
The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe reports that the Carter Center announced that Carter has cast his presidential election ballot. Though it did not say who he voted for, Carter typically votes Democrat. Here’s more:
Updated
Republicans have filed a slew of lawsuits that appear to be aimed at seeding doubt about the outcome of the 2024 race in the event of a Donald Trump loss. This comes nearly four years after an aggressive legal effort to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 elections.
From 2023 until September of this year, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and local affiliates have filed or are involved in at least 72 cases, according to an analysis by Democracy Docket, a left-leaning voting rights news platform founded by the Democratic lawyer Marc Elias. At the same point during the 2022 midterm election, Republicans had filed 41 lawsuits.
There’s nothing unusual about an explosion of litigation over election rules ahead of a presidential election. But experts say what stands out this year isn’t the volume of the cases but their subject matter.
Many of the lawsuits are based on a theory that states are not adequately maintaining their voter rolls and that there could be scores of ineligible voters, including non-citizens, on them. They make weak legal claims, election experts say, and instead appear to be more of a public relations effort to motivate Republican voters and echo Trump’s falsehoods about voting.
Read the full report here.
Here are some more powerful scenes from the memorial service in Washington, DC this afternoon for Ethel Kennedy, the political activist and widow of Bobby Kennedy.
By the book:
The Pelosis. Paul Pelosi was savagely beaten by an intruder who broke into the family home in San Francisco in 2022 aiming to find Nancy Pelosi and do her harm. She was in Washington at the time. She spoke about the traumatic event in an interview with the Guardian’s Politics Weekly America podcast this week.
Campaign chat?
Updated
The funeral service for Ethel Kennedy is getting underway at the Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle in Washington, DC and Joe Biden is going to deliver the eulogy. Former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and House Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi are also attending and will deliver remarks.
Kennedy died last week at the age of 96 just days after suffering a stroke. She was the widow of Senator Robert F Kennedy and raised their 11 children after he was assassinated in 1968 while running for president, and she remained dedicated to social causes and the family’s legacy for decades thereafter. Here is the Guardian’s obituary.
Many Kennedy family members are attending the memorial and there will also be remarks from Martin Luther King III, a descendent of civil rights leader Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Stevie Wonder is due to perform at the service.
Biden became the first second US president to be a Catholic and the first since John F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963.
Updated
The day so far
In a Fox News town hall, Donald Trump called himself “the father of IVF” and said he and others in the Republican party support the fertility treatment – even though his congressional allies have blocked federal legislation to guarantee its availability. Kamala Harris said her opponent’s comments were “quite bizarre”, while her campaign held a press conference where victims of the migrant family separation policy implemented under Trump’s presidency testified about the harm they endured. Meanwhile, special counsel Jack Smith argued that Trump was responsible for the January 6 attack in a new filing, as he seeks to get his prosecution in the election subversion case back on track.
Here’s what else has happened today:
Trump also proposed doing away with sanctuary cities by executive order, though an earlier attempt when he was president failed.
Michelle Obama will on 29 October headline a rally in Georgia aimed at turning out young voters, while Barack Obama will next week campaign for Harris in Michigan as early voting begins.
Harris will this evening appear on the conservative Fox News network for an interview with anchor Bret Baier.
Harris calls Trump comments on IVF 'quite bizarre'
Reacting to Donald Trump’s quip earlier today that he was “the father of IVF” and supported keeping the fertility treatment accessible, Kamala Harris said the remark was quite bizarre and flew in the face of the former president’s record on the issue.
“I found it to be quite bizarre”, the vice-president said just before boarding a flight in Detroit bound for Trenton, New Jersey. “He should take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state. What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working toward growing a family have … been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk.”
She added:
Let’s not be distracted by his choice of words. The reality is, his actions have been very harmful to women and families in America on this issue.
Harris also demurred when asked if she agreed with Barack Obama’s comments towards Black men encouraging them to vote for her:
Let me first say that I’m very proud to have the support of former president Barack Obama, and I think that the important point that I will make over and over again is I don’t assume to have the vote of any demographic locked down.
The Guardian’s Robert Tait reports that Kamala Harris has said Donald Trump is a “fascist”, an escalation in her rhetoric against him. Here’s more:
Kamala Harris has agreed that Donald Trump is a fascist in her most forthright statement yet in casting her presidential opponent as a potential autocrat harboring authoritarian visions should he return to the White House.
The US vice-president and Democratic nominee crossed a psychologically important boundary in addressing the issue of fascism in an interview with Charlamagne Tha God, an influential radio host whose audience reaches a predominantly Black audience of 8 million listeners monthly. The talk happened during a campaign stop in Detroit, the centre of a battle between the two candidates for the battleground state of Michigan.
Setting out the electoral options in the hourlong phone-in interview, Harris was initially cautious, telling her host that voters in the 5 November election “have two choices … and it’s two very different visions for our nation” before giving a vague definition of her vision.
Special counsel argues Trump is responsible for January 6 - report
Jack Smith, the special prosecutor leading the team that charged Donald Trump over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, alleged in a new filing that the former president bears responsibility for the violent January 6 attack on the Capitol, NBC News reports.
The statement comes as Smith tries to get his case back on track, after the supreme court earlier this year ruled Trump has immunity for official acts while in office.
Here’s more on the argument from Smith’s team:
In a filing responding to Trump’s attempt to dismiss the case, Smith’s team said it “is incorrect” for Trump’s team to assert that the superseding indictment returned against Trump in August does not show that Trump bears responsibility for the events of Jan. 6.
Trump, Smith’s team said, “willfully caused others” to obstruct the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory by repeating his false claims of election fraud and giving “false hope” to his supporters who believed that former Vice President Mike Pence might overturn the election, and by “pressuring” Pence and legislators to accept fraudulent certificates as part of the fake electors scheme.
“Those allegations link the defendant’s actions on January 6 directly to his efforts to corruptly obstruct the certification proceeding,” Smith’s team wrote.
“Contrary to the defendant’s claim... that he bears no factual or legal responsibility for the ‘events on January 6,’ the superseding indictment plainly alleges that the defendant willfully caused his supporters to obstruct and attempt to obstruct the proceeding by summoning them to Washington, D.C., and then directing them to march to the Capitol to pressure the Vice President and legislators to reject the legitimate certificates and instead rely on the fraudulent electoral certificates,” Smith’s team wrote.
Trump’s lawyers previously argued the indictment “stretches generally applicable statutes beyond their breaking point based on false claims that President Trump is somehow responsible for events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021” and sought to “assign blame for events President Trump did not control and took action to protect against.”
Calling himself 'father of IVF', Trump claims support for fertility treatment
Asked about his stance on IVF care, Donald Trump claimed at the Fox News town hall that he and the rest of the Republican party were in favor of the care that allows people struggling with fertility issues to have children, going so far as to call himself “the father of IVF”.
The question came after the Alabama supreme court issued a ruling earlier this year that briefly cut off access to the treatment in the deep-red state, raising fears that Republican politicians opposed to the treatment would press the party to ban it nationwide, or in other states.
After describing himself to the questioner as “the father of IVF” Trump said at the town hall that after the court ruling, he got a call from Katie Britt, “a fantastically attractive person” who is also a Republican senator from Alabama. She told him about the decision’s implications, and he said he then came out in favor of continued access to IVF. Here’s how he put it:
We really are the party for IVF. We want fertilization, and it’s all the way, and the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and we’re out there on IVF even more than them, so, we’re totally in favor of it.
Nonetheless, Republicans in the US Senate have repeatedly blocked passage of legislation that would guarantee access to the procedure nationwide:
Trump says he would 'end all sanctuary cities immediately' with executive order
Donald Trump said at his Fox News town hall that if he was elected, he would sign an executive order to ban sanctuary cities under a two-century old law.
“We are going to end all sanctuary cities immediately … I can do it with an executive order. I have to do it with an executive order. You can do it with … the Aliens Act of 1798, we can do things in terms of moving people out. We can move them out of the sanctuary cities,” Trump said.
After first taking office in 2017, Trump signed an executive order cutting cities who do not cooperate with immigration authorities off from federal funding, but it was later struck down by the courts. He has centered his most recent campaign on imposing hardline immigration policies, and plans to use the Aliens Act of 1798 to do so:
Trump says prices must come down but admits 'damage is done' in town hall
Fox News is now airing its pre-recorded town hall with Donald Trump and a group of female voters in Georgia.
It’s a friendly crowd, which greeted Trump with applause and cheers when he stepped onstage. Thus far, the former president has spent most of his time talking about how much better everything would be if he was in charge.
Moderator Harris Faulkner nonetheless made a modest effort to get him to back up some of his assertions, particularly when it comes to inflation. Trump has said prices will go down if he is elected, but Faulkner pointed out that prices that rise due to inflation typically do not go down, but rather grow at a slower rate.
Trump replied by changing the subject, before acknowledging that prices probably will not decrease:
So I feel so badly about what’s happened, because none of this would have happened just to start. There wouldn’t have been a war in Ukraine and Russia. There wouldn’t have been an October 7 in Israel. There wouldn’t have been this horrible, most embarrassing day in the history of our country, with Afghanistan, where we lost 13 soldiers, but they never talk about the soldiers that are so badly wounded. I mean, with legs and arms and face Obliteration, all these things, and there wouldn’t have been any inflation. And it’s so sad to say, we have to get prices down, because the damage is done.
Updated
Speaking of Donald Trump, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi shared her (outraged) thoughts on the former president, among other topics, in an interview with the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland yesterday.
It’s on the Politics Weekly American podcast, and you can listen to it here:
Texas congresswoman Veronica Escobar was also at the press conference.
The Democrat is a national co-chair of the Harris- represents the area around the border city of El Paso, and had this to say about Donald Trump’s immigration policies:
El Paso, Texas was where Donald Trump began his horrific policy of separating families, separating children, children as young as the kids just heard from, from their parents.
We are having this press conference because we want Americans to remember what Donald Trump did, not just at the border, but what he did to our country. We know that our immigration system is broken, and I can tell you, as a resident of the border, no one knows more that our immigration system is broken than those of us who live on the US-Mexico border and who’ve been working for immigration reform for decades.
But what Donald Trump presents are not solutions. Donald Trump doesn’t bring policy ideas to the table. Donald Trump did not fix a broken system. In fact, what Donald Trump did was take a broken system and he obliterated it. He uses cruelty as American public policy.
Here’s video of the children who were separated from their parents while entering the United States speaking at a Harris campaign event about their experiences:
Children ripped away from their parents under Trump speak out for the first time: “I suffered a lot of trauma... I go to a therapist, but I still have the fear of Trump being reelected… I don't want other kids to go through what I did” pic.twitter.com/O5YTsZfBLs
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 16, 2024
A little bit more detail on Billy who spoke earlier.
A reporter asked him how hold he was, and where he came from. He replied that he is 16, and came from Guatemala.
Billy was followed by a girl who gave her name as Janice Adriana and shared her own story of being detained when trying to enter the United States.
“They told us that they were going to separate me and my mom, and that’s when everything bad started to happen. I started crying, me and Mama started crying because we thought we were never going to see each other again” Adriana said.
She continued:
Then they took her away from me, and after that, I had to stay in this foster care for a week, and I asked them plenty of times when I was gonna see my mom again, and they told me I was gonna see her soon, but it never happened.
After that, they took me to my dad for and I stayed here with him for about two months, and I was feeling a little bit better because I was out of the foster care, and at least I was with my dad, but then they deported him to Honduras, and I had nobody with me, only my aunt, which I had to stay with her for three years. I couldn’t see my mom for those whole three years, which was really sad for me, because I thought I wasn’t going to see her more than that.
Adriana closed with: “Kamala Harris helped me and my parents get together again, and now me and my parents are happily living together, and I don’t want Donald Trump to be president again, because I don’t want other kids to go through what I did.”
Billy was eventually reunited with his father, but said the damage from their forced separation lingers:
I went and ran to my dad, I hugged him, and I told him I did not want this to happen ever again. And he promised me that he would not ever leave me again. And after that, we still fear. I go to therapists, but I still have the fear of Trump being reelected, and that same thing happening to me or other kids ever again.
Kamala Harris helped us be together again, and she helped us be a family again. And I don’t want this to happen to any more kids.
The Harris campaign organized the event ahead of a town hall Trump will participate this evening on Univision News, as part of his effort to woo Latino voters.
Victims of Trump-era family separation policy speak at Harris campaign event
Survivors of Donald Trump’s family separation policy are telling their stories at an event convened by Kamala Harris’s campaign to condemn the former president’s hardline immigration policies.
A young man who identified himself as Billy told a press conference in Doral, Florida, that he was detained after arriving in the United States and told he would see his father again soon.
“After that day, I never saw him again for 40 days,” Billy said, describing how he was instead flown to New York and put with a foster family.
“They told me that I wasn’t going to get to see my dad again and that I wasn’t going to be able to see my family again. As a nine-year-old, you can probably imagine how that felt, great sadness in front of me and very traumatic, something that I still hold to this day. The emptiness that I felt when I when they told me that I wasn’t going to be able to see my family again, was something out of this world, and something that no kids should go through.”
Joe Biden is headed to Arizona next week – but the White House says it’s for an official event (ie not a campaign event).
It’s not clear yet what brings the president to the battleground state that he won by just over 10,000 votes in 2020, becoming the first Democratic nominee to win Arizona since Bill Clinton.
Recent polling shows Kamala Harris trailing Donald Trump in the state, even as the Democratic candidate for Senate, Ruben Gallego, leads his Republican opponent, Trump ally Kari Lake.
Harris doesn’t need to win Arizona, since she has other paths to 270. But it is perhaps a worrying sign about her standing among Hispanic voters, who make up about a third of the state’s electorate. However, Democrats cannot hold on to the Senate without keeping the seat.
Michelle Obama to headline Georgia rally aimed at young voters
Michelle Obama will later this month hold a rally in Atlanta aimed at encouraging young voters to get to the polls, her nonpartisan organization When We All Vote announced.
The 29 October event will feature Atlanta-area college and high school students and is aimed at encouraging first-time voters to cast ballots in Georgia, which Joe Biden won in 2020 by a narrow 12,000 votes.
“The election doesn’t start on Election Day — it ends on Election Day. Thanks to our Georgia partners and volunteers who continue to make sure their communities are ready to vote, Georgia voters are fired up and ready to use their voices,” said When We All Vote’s executive director Beth Lynk in a statement.
Obama launched When We All Vote in 2018 with the aim of getting new voters out to the polls. The Atlanta rally will be her first public event since her speech to the Democratic national convention, where she artfully decried Donald Trump:
Harris set for evening interview on Fox News
It’s a big day for Fox News, where Kamala Harris will at 6pm sit for an interview with anchor Bret Baier, hours after Donald Trump’s pre-recorded town hall airs.
It will be something of a journey into hostile territory for the vice-president, since Fox’s coverage and viewership tends to skew conservative. We don’t know yet what they’ll talk about, but Baier yesterday said the interview would air without commercial breaks.
Harris will appear on Fox News as she continues a string of media interviews intended to boost her candidacy with less than three weeks to go until the presidential vote. Here’s more on that:
Fox News to broadcast town hall with Trump, Georgia women
At 11am today, Fox News will broadcast a pre-recorded town hall with Donald Trump and a group of women in swing state Georgia.
Expect a friendly encounter – Fox News is a conservative network, and a brief clip of the event broadcast yesterday shows Trump taking questions on immigration, an issue that is a mainstay of his speeches. Nonetheless, the event does serve a purpose for the former president: polls have shown that his standing is weak among some groups of women, and the event appears to be geared towards turning that around, specifically in a state that could decide the election.
“Women constitute the largest group of registered and active voters in the United States, so it is paramount that female voters understand where the presidential candidates stand on the issues that matter to them most,” Fox News presenter Harris Faulkner said in announcing the event.
State governments across the US are taking steps to eliminate protections for minors as rates of child labor violations, injuries and chronic school absenteeism rise, according to a report released today.
The report by Governing For Impact, the Economic Policy Institute, and Child Labor Coalition proposes actions the Biden-Harris administration can take in response to a recent surge in child labor violations around the country and a trend of some states passing legislation that rollbacks state-level child labor protections.
Its authors also warn that moves to weaken child protections will likely escalate under a second Trump presidency.
Obama to return to campaign for Harris as Michigan begins voting
Barack Obama will next week hit the campaign trail on behalf of Kamala Harris on Tuesday, when early voting begins in Michigan, the vice-president’s campaign announced.
The former president will rally voters in Detroit, Harris’s campaign said, without giving further details.
Obama made his first campaign appearance for Harris last week in Pennsylvania, where he encouraged Black men to cast ballots for the vice-president:
Donald Trump’s pro-Israel stance has alienated the far right, which is ramping up antisemitic attacks, Ben Makuch writes.
One campaign issue where the Maga world and the extremists of Telegram and other fringe social media sites have diverged, is the former president’s support for Israel in its several military operations across the Middle East.
The ideologies of the far right and Donald Trump have for the most part been in agreement since he took the reins of the Republican ticket at the RNC convention in July.
While supporters waved ultranationalist “MASS DEPORTATION NOW!” signs, Trump gave a speech mixed with hate, in a nomination that was roundly approved across the rightwing political sphere.
That sense of unity, however, has begun to crack under the weight of antisemitic attacks aimed at Trump for commemorating the anniversary of the 7 October attacks …
Updated
US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Washington was looking into reports that North Korea was sending troops to fight for Russia against Ukraine.
Western countries have long accused North Korea of sending weapons to help Russia fight in Ukraine. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the North was also sending personnel, becoming effectively a participant in the war.
Asked about that issue, Campbell said there were signs of the North’s enhanced material support for Russia “which is being felt on the battlefield”, but that Washington was still evaluating the reports.
Three officials from the US, South Korea and Japan earlier announced a new 11-nation team to monitor the enforcement of sanctions against the North after Russia and China thwarted a UN mechanism.
Tension has been growing on the Korean Peninsula recently, as the North accused the South of launching drones into its territory. Pyongyang also blew up inter-Korean roads and rail lines.
Products made by US computer chip company Intel sold in China should be subject to a security review, the Cybersecurity Association of China (CSAC) said, Reuters reports.
CSAC alleges the US chipmaker has “constantly harmed” the country’s national security and interests.
While CSAC is an industry group rather than a government body, it has close ties to the Chinese state and the raft of accusations against Intel, published in a long post on its official WeChat account, could trigger a security review from China’s cyberspace regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
Last year, CAC barred domestic operators of key infrastructure from buying products made by US memory chipmaker Micron Technology after deeming the company’s products had failed its network security review. A similar security review on Intel products could negatively impact the company’s revenues, over a quarter of which came from China last year.
The allegations come at a time when China is dealing with a US-led effort to restrict its access to crucial chipmaking equipment and components, in what Washington calls a bid to halt the modernisation of China’s military.
The Biden administration has warned Israel that it faces possible punishment, including the potential stopping of US weapons transfers, if it does not take immediate action to let more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
A letter written jointly by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, and Lloyd Austin, the defence secretary, exhorts Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to ease humanitarian suffering in the territory by lifting restrictions on the entry of assistance within 30 days or face unspecified policy “implications”.
The four-page missive, dated 13 October, was sent to Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, and Ron Dermer, the strategic affairs minister, and came to light after being posted on social media by Barak Ravid, an Israeli journalist who works for Axios, after apparently being leaked.
Kamala Harris will aim to appeal to Republican voters as she plans to visit a battleground county in Pennsylvania joined by Republican supporters and to appear on conservative-leaning Fox News later today, Reuters reports.
In Bucks County, outside of Philadelphia, Harris is expected to emphasise Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his election loss four years ago.
Over 100 Republicans will join Harris in Bucks County, including Adam Kinzinger, a former Congressman and member of the committee that investigated the 6 January attack on the Capitol by supporters of the then-president.
Trump will participate in a town hall hosted by Univision. And Fox News will air a separate Trump town hall with an all-women audience.
An Associated Press survey has found that more than 63,000 Georgia voters have had their eligibility to vote challenged since 1 July.
The news agency says that this represents a big surge from 2023 and the first half of 2024, when it found that about 18,000 voters were challenged.
Only about 1% of those challenged in recent months have been removed from the voting rolls or placed into challenged status, mostly in one county. Fewer than 800 voters since 1 July – mostly in the suburban Atlanta Republican stronghold of Forsyth County – have been removed from the rolls or placed in challenged status. Voters in challenged status can cast ballots if they prove their residence.
Most of the targeted voters appear to have moved away from their listed addresses, and activists argue letting them stay registered invites fraud. Challengers have been aided by tools which rely on change-of-address lists and other documents to help identify people who could be wrongly registered to vote.
The push to challenge voters in Georgia is part of a national effort coordinated by Donald Trump’s allies to remove people they view as suspect from the voting rolls. The effort to remove voters has drawn scrutiny from the US Justice Department, which has issued guidance that aims to limit challenges.
Donald Trump has said that if he does not win the election, he may cry fraud and not accept the results – just as he did four years ago when he lost to Joe Biden. Reuters looks at what might happen if Trump rejects the election result again …
Republicans and Democrats expect that vote counting could drag on for several days after 5 November.
If it appears Trump is losing, the delay will give him an opportunity to attempt to undermine confidence in election officials, while also possibly encouraging his supporters to protest. He has already threatened to jail election workers and other public officials for “unscrupulous behaviour,” although he would need to win the election first.
As they did in 2020, Trump’s allies in key states – local election officials, state lawmakers and perhaps judges – could seek to delay certification, the confirmation of a state’s official tally, through claims of fraud.
Those efforts did not succeed last time, and election law experts say the laws in those states are clear that local officials lack the power to throw out ballots or derail the process. After the 2020 election, Congress passed a reform law that makes it more difficult for candidate to mount the kind of challenge Trump attempted last time round.
Any effort by Trump to suggest the election was rigged could potentially lead to civil unrest, as it did on 6 January, 2021.
Experts who monitor militant right-wing groups, such as Peter Montgomery of the People For the American Way, a liberal think tank, say they are less concerned about a violent response from these groups than they are about threats against election workers counting votes. There also could be violent demonstrations in the capitals of battleground states, Montgomery said.
Hundreds of people who were involved in the 6 January attack on the Capitol have been convicted and jailed for their actions, a powerful deterrent to others who may be considering taking similar actions.
Two US officials who resigned last year in protest over president Joe Biden’s policy on the Gaza war have launched a lobbying organisation and a political action committee (PAC) to advocate for a revamp of Washington’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Reuters reports.
Josh Paul, a former State Department official and Tariq Habash, who used to work as a policy advisor at the Department of Education, said the American public is no longer in favour of unconditionally sending US weapons to Israel, but that elected officials have lagged behind.
Their PAC, called “A New Policy”, would support candidates whose position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict align with US policies on human rights and equality and would ensure US arms transfers to all countries in the Middle East, including Israel, comply with both US and international law.
Washington’s support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza and more recently in Lebanon has emerged as a key reason for why Muslim and Arab voters, who resoundingly had backed Biden in 2020, may withhold their votes from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the upcoming election.
“American voters are clear: they do not want to be complicit in this humanitarian catastrophe and a majority want an end to the transfer of lethal weapons that are used to kill Palestinian civilians,” Habbash said.
Judge halts new hand-count rule in Georgia
A Georgia judge has temporarily halted a new rule requiring poll workers to hand count ballots in the 5 November election, in a defeat for Donald Trump, whose Republican allies pushed for the change after he lost the battleground state in 2020, Reuters reports.
The hand-count rule was passed last month by a pro-Trump conservative majority of Georgia’s election board, who said they were attempting to make the Nov. 5 election more secure and transparent.
Democrats had said the change would sow chaos and delay results.
Georgia, where early voting began in record numbers yesterday, is one of seven states likely to determine the presidential contest next month. In 2020, Trump made false claims of widespread voting fraud in the state.
Judge Robert McBurney said in his decision that it was appropriate to pause the vote counting rule because it introduced fresh uncertainty into the process just weeks before election day.
“Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public,” according to a copy of the decision posted by Democracy Docket, a website founded by Democratic lawyer Marc Elias that tracks election cases.
Elon Musk gave $75m to pro-Trump group
Elon Musk gave around $75 million to his pro-Donald Trump spending group in the span of three months, federal disclosures showed, underscoring how the billionaire has become crucial to the Republican candidate’s efforts to win the presidential election, Reuters reports.
America PAC, which is focused on turning out voters in closely contested states that could decide the election, spent around $72 million of that in the July-September period, according to disclosures filed to the Federal Election Commission.
That is more than any other pro-Trump super PAC focused on turning out voters. The Trump campaign is broadly reliant on outside groups for canvassing voters, meaning the super PAC founded by Musk – the world’s richest man – plays an outsized role in the razor-thin election between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
Updated
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. We’re now less than three weeks away from the US election on 5 November.
Earlier it was revealed Elon Musk gave around $75m to his pro-Donald Trump spending group in the span of three months, federal disclosures show, underscoring how the billionaire has become one of the largest Republican donors. Here’s a rundown of what’s been happening and what to expect on the campaign trail today:
The first day of early voting in the battleground state of Georgia saw a record turnout, with 328,000 people casting a vote in person or by mail. This more than doubled the previous record of 136,000 set in 2020.
Trump will launch a bus tour of north Carolina later today. The tour will travel across the state for three days before ending at the Wayne County Republican Party HQ on Friday. Early in-person voting begins tomorrow in the battleground state.
Kamala Harris will return to the battleground state of Pennsylvania for another campaign event later today, after she visited Erie on Monday. She will then head to Wisconsin to visit Milwaukee, La Crosse and Green Bay on Thursday.
Trump refused to say if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the 5 November election, in an interview with Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait. He claimed there had been a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election, despite his supporters’ violent attack on the Capitol on 6 January.
He also doubled down on his promise to levy tariffs on all imports in a bid to boost American manufacturing. Economists say this policy would probably mean higher prices for consumers and anger US allies.
Yesterday Harris defended her record as a prosecutor, pledged to decriminalise marijuana and push for police reform. She was aiming to shore up support among black men in an interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God.
The Harris Victory Fund, the Democratic candidate’s ‘big-dollar fundraising committee’, raised $633m in the three months from 1 July to 30 September. This was over a third higher than the amount raised by Biden in the same period in 2020, the New York Times reported.
President Joe Biden said Harris would “cut her own path” once she wins the 2024 election, as he hit the campaign trail to help win over sceptical voters three weeks before Election Day. “Kamala will take the country in her own direction, and that’s one of the most important differences in this election,” he said. “Kamala’s perspective on our problems will be fresh and new. Donald Trump’s perspective old and failed and quite frankly, thoroughly totally dishonest.”
