Closing summary
This blog is closing now – thanks for following along. You can find the latest US elections coverage here. Here are today’s highlights:
With Hurricane Milton expected to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday night, Joe Biden has said it “could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century”. Scientists at Noaa are working to collect data from inside the storm, astronauts aboard the International Space Station have captured images of the storm, and fleeing Floridians are facing gas shortages.
Kamala Harris continued a week of media appearances on three New York shows today: The View, the Howard Stern Show and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Trump secretly sent Covid-19 testing machines to Vladimir Putin in 2020, and has called the Russian leader as many as seven times since leaving the White House, investigative journalist Bob Woodward has reportedly written in a forthcoming book.
The FBI never acted on tips received about Brett Kavanaugh during his supreme court nomination process, a Democratic senator opposed to the Trump appointee revealed in a report.
Updated
As Hurricane Milton approaches, Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida has gone into Hurcon II, one of five rankings the center maintains for which preparations should be made before an approaching hurricane.
The spaceport is now restricted to essential personnel only. Tropical storm-force winds are expected to reach the center by Wednesday evening, with hurricane-force winds expected early Thursday.
The center, with support from SpaceX, has already secured the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Updated
As Hurricane Milton barrels toward Tampa, staff at the city’s zoo and aquarium are taking preparations to ride out the storm with animals that can’t be relocated.
Many animals have already been transported out of town, but about a dozen zoo and eight aquarium staff are expected to stay in Tampa to care for those that haven’t, the Washington Post reports. That includes animals too large to transport, like elephants and giraffes, which staff are relocating to a hurricane-proof barn with enough food and water to survive for a few days in case the building isn’t immediately accessible.
Updated
New footage from the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University captures the eye of Hurricane Milton.
The clear, breathtaking eye of Hurricane Milton.
— CIRA (@CIRA_CSU) October 8, 2024
Milton is once again a powerful Category 5 storm. pic.twitter.com/wgqjZIJnNj
More videos of the hurricane, including a lightning show at the center of the storm, are available on the institute’s website.
As Floridians in the path of incoming Hurricane Milton rush to evacuate, gas stations across the state are running out of fuel. As of 6:30pm ET, Reuters reports, 17.4% of the state’s gas stations had run dry.
Demand for gasoline had jumped, said Patrick De Haan, an analyst at GasBuddy, a fuel markets tracker: “These numbers will continue to rise very fast.”
Florida is the third-largest gasoline consumer in the US, but there are no refineries in the state, making it dependent on waterborne imports. More than 17m tons of petroleum- and natural gas-related products move through Tampa Bay in a typical year, according to the Energy Information Administration.
More on those fuel import pauses from Reuters:
Kinder Morgan (KMI.N) has shut its Central Florida Pipeline system, which moves refined products between Tampa and Orlando, the company said in an emailed statement. It has closed all fuel delivery terminals in Tampa, but expects trucks to be able to pick up fuel from Orlando wholesale racks until winds exceed 35 miles per hour.
Fuel trucks cannot safely deliver at wind speeds exceeding that threshold, wholesale distributor Mansfield explained, and said it expects wind conditions to bring all Florida fuel deliveries to a near-halt by Wednesday.
Refiner CITGO Petroleum and infrastructure and logistics provider Buckeye Partners are also shutting down their Tampa terminals, the companies told Reuters.
Mansfield has moved all Florida markets to its ‘Code Red’ classification, requiring a 72-hour notice to make new deliveries.
It is also requesting 48-hour notices for new deliveries in southern Georgia.
Milton could potentially be the biggest disruptor to Florida’s gasoline supply since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, said Tom Kloza, head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service.
‘I’d be hard pressed to come up with an area that could be more prone to lingering problems should a Cat3 or greater storm hit the infrastructure,’ Kloza said. ‘It’s hard to anticipate any tankers or barges coming in to Tampa Bay until Sunday or Monday,’ he added.
Updated
In an attempt to reach more Americans and counter rampant disinformation, the White House is launching a Reddit account to share updates on Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Scripps News reports.
The @WhiteHouse is launching a Reddit account. The goal: keeping the public informed on Hurricane Helen/Milton response, recovery & preparedness.
— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) October 8, 2024
They will also be sharing info on state-based sub-Reddits, & larger sub-Reddits like r/politics, where they can correct misinfo
Launched in 2005, Reddit is a forum-style social media platform conducive to Q&As.
Still grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, hospitals and healthcare facilities on Florida’s Gulf coast are now preparing for Milton to make landfall.
The state is currently seeing its “largest evacuation ever”, said Steve McCoy, the chief of the Florida department of health’s bureau of emergency medical oversight.
Ten hospitals have reported evacuations as of Tuesday afternoon, the Associated Press reported, and 300 healthcare facilities have evacuated, including 63 nursing homes and 169 assisted living facilities.
“I’ve lived on the Gulf coast my entire life and in Sarasota for 20 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” said David Verinder, CEO of Sarasota Memorial health care system. “Our anxieties are high, but we’re as prepared as we know how to be.”
More from the AP:
Health officials are using almost 600 vehicles to take patients out of the storm’s path, tracking them with blue wristbands that show where they were evacuated from and where they are being sent. They plan to keep getting patients out through the night, until winds reach sustained speeds of 40 mph and driving conditions become unsafe.
Tampa General Hospital has stocked up on more than five days of supplies, including food, linens and 5,000 gallons of water, in addition to an on-site well. In the event of a power disruption, the hospital also has an energy plant with generators and boilers located 33 feet above sea level.
Tampa General deployed an “aquafence” to successfully prevent storm-surge flooding during Hurricane Helene two weeks ago. The barrier will be up again when Milton makes landfall and can withstand a storm surge of 15 feet. The U.S. National Hurricane Center estimates Milton’s surges will be 10 to 15 feet high at their peak.
Updated
Hurricane Milton is bringing business and tourism to a halt in large swaths of Florida as the state readies itself for a storm officials have warned will be “extremely dangerous” and potentially among the most destructive on record in the area.
Orlando international, one of America’s busiest airports, said it would cease operations Wednesday morning while Tampa international closed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Universal Studios and Disney World said its theme parks would close Wednesday afternoon. Retailer Target said it would temporarily close or adjust hours at some locations.
Waffle House, which famously often stays open during extreme weather, announced that it would close multiple locations in south-west Florida.
Updated
A team of “hurricane hunters” from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) flew through Milton as the category 5 hurricane barrelled towards Florida’s coast.
The team shared footage of their bumpy ride into the storm to gather data that will provide information for forecasting and hurricane research.
Milton is expected to be one of the worst hurricanes to hit the US in decades. Joe Biden warned that evacuation orders for those in the storm’s path were a matter of “life and death” while the Tampa mayor told residents: “If you choose to stay … you are going to die.”
Updated
Hurricane Milton strengthens back into category 5 storm
The National Hurricane Center is reporting that Milton has strengthened back into a category 5 hurricane.
Hurricane #Milton Advisory 15: Milton Back to Category 5 Strength. Florida Residents Should Get Their Families and Homes Ready And Evacuate If Told to Do So. https://t.co/tW4KeGe9uJ
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 8, 2024
Milton’s maximum sustained winds were up to 165mph, the agency said Tuesday afternoon. It will likely fluctuate in intensity, but will continue to be a “dangerous major hurricane” when it makes landfall in Florida Wednesday evening.
“This is a very serious situation and residents in Florida should closely follow orders from their local emergency management officials,” the National Hurricane Center said. “Evacuations and other preparations should be completed today. Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida.”
Updated
Fema has stationed major resources in Florida to support the state before Hurricane Milton makes landfall, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.
The agency has dispatched dozens of teams overseeing incident management, search and rescue, swift water rescue, disaster medical assistance and temporary power along with 300 ambulances and 30 “high water vehicles” from the defense department. More than 20m meals and 40m liters of water are available as needed, Fema said.
“The National Hurricane Center forecasts Hurricane Milton will be a large and extremely dangerous hurricane when it approaches the west coast of Florida tomorrow, bringing devastating hurricane-force winds and life-threatening [storm] surge,” the statement read. The agency also warned “time is running out to prepare for the hurricane’s potentially deadly impacts”.
The announcement comes as the Biden administration grapples with the effects of back-to-back hurricanes as well as misinformation spread by Donald Trump and his supporters and others about the federal response to recent storms and false claims that Fema is preventing people from evacuating in Florida.
Updated
Large number of gas stations in Florida out of fuel amid mass evacuation
As Florida residents prepare to flee Hurricane Milton, which is expected to be one of the state’s strongest storms in a century, gas stations are running out of fuel.
About 1,300 of the state’s 7,500 gas stations, or 17.4%, were out of gas on Tuesday afternoon, CNN reported, citing data from GasBuddy. In areas under evacuation orders, the shortages were even more dire: on Monday night, 70% of stations in Fort Myers were without gas.
“These numbers will continue to rise very fast,” Patrick De Haan, an analyst at GasBuddy, told Reuters.
The state’s governor said that officials are working with fuel companies to continue bringing in gasoline before Milton makes landfall on Wednesday.
“We have been dispatching fuel over the past 24 hours as gas stations have run out,” the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, said. “So we currently have 268,000 gallons of diesel, 110,000 gallons of gasoline. Those numbers are less than what they were 24 hours ago because we’ve put a lot in, but we have an additional 1.2m gallons of both diesel and gasoline that is currently en route to the state of Florida.”
Updated
Meanwhile, the supreme court’s latest term is under way, and the nine justices heard oral arguments today in a case challenging the Biden administration’s regulation of “ghost guns”. As the Guardian’s Cecilia Nowell reports, the conservative-dominated body seemed ready to take the government’s side. Here’s more:
The US supreme court signalled a willingness to uphold the regulation of “ghost guns” – firearms without serial numbers that are built from kits that people can order online and assemble at home.
The manufacturers and gun rights groups challenging the rule argued the Biden administration overstepped by trying to regulate kits.
Justice Samuel Alito compared gun parts to meal ingredients, saying a lineup including eggs and peppers isn’t necessarily a western omelet. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, though, questioned whether gun kits are more like ready-to-eat meal kits that contain everything needed to make a dinner like turkey chili.
Chief Justice John Roberts seemed skeptical of the challengers’ position that the kits are mostly popular with hobbyists who enjoy making their own weapons, like auto enthusiasts might rebuild a car on the weekend.
Many ghost gun kits require only the drilling of a few holes and removal of plastic tabs.
“My understanding is that it’s not terribly difficult to do this,” Roberts said. “He really wouldn’t think he has built that gun, would he?”
A ruling is expected in the coming months.
Updated
Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, says he expects Hurricane Milton to reach the state’s west coast by tomorrow night or early on Thursday morning.
He also says his administration has taken steps to help people flee areas under evacuation warnings, including negotiating lower hotel prices and arranging free rides with Uber:
As of this morning, Hurricane Milton is still a major Category 4 hurricane. While some weakening is possible before landfall, we expect Milton to be a strong and extremely dangerous storm when it reaches the west Florida tomorrow night or early Thursday morning.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 8, 2024
Heed all… pic.twitter.com/80Mch7NPvL
Updated
From his perch on the International Space Station, Nasa astronaut Matthew Dominick got a view of Hurricane Milton as it churned across the Gulf of Mexico towards Florida’s west coast:
We flew over Hurricane Milton about 90 minutes ago. Here is the view out the Dragon Endeavour window. Expect lots of images from this window as this is where I’m sleeping while we wait to undock and return to Earth.
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) October 8, 2024
Timelapse coming in a separate post.
1/6400 sec, f8, ISO 500 pic.twitter.com/zkhJdTlag7
Timelapse this image was taken from: https://t.co/6XOFOlBvHy
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) October 8, 2024
Updated
Biden says his team is doing everything 'to save lives and help communities'
Speaking in Milwaukee at an event to promote his efforts to rid the US of lead pipes, Joe Biden repeated that his administration was prepared for Hurricane Milton, and that Floridians should heed the warnings of authorities.
“We’re prepared for another horrible hurricane to hit Florida. I directed my team to do everything they can to save lives and help communities, before, during and after this hurricane. The most important message today for all those who may be listening to this and the impacted areas: listen to the local authorities. Follow safety instruction, including evacuation orders,” Biden said.
Updated
The rest of Kamala Harris’s interview with Howard Stern was mostly free of heavy topics, with the vice-president answering, and occasionally parrying, questions on an array of subjects.
Such as what she eats for breakfast every morning: “I don’t eat Raisin Bran every morning,” Harris replied. She said she was a fan of Special K, and that her mother used to make Special K cookies.
Stern wondered whether Liz Cheney, the former Republican representative who lost her primary after breaking with Donald Trump and co-chairing the January 6 commission, might be someone she would appoint to her cabinet.
“I gotta win, Howard,” Harris replied.
Stern pondered the pressures of being both vice-president and also a candidate for the presidency, and asked Harris whether she might consider going to therapy. “This is my form of therapy right now, Howard,” the vice-president replied.
Her interviewer then brought up people who might not vote for Harris because is a woman. She responded: “Listen, I’ve been the first woman in almost every position I’ve had. I believe that men and women support women in leadership. And that’s been my life experience and that’s why I’m running for president.”
Updated
Harris says report of ex-president sending Covid tests to Putin is a 'stark example of who Trump is'
Kamala Harris continued her media blitz in New York City, making the second of three stops scheduled today at the studios of Howard Stern, the one-time shock jock who has lately become known for conducting in-depth interviews.
Stern asked the vice-president for her reaction to the revelation – from a forthcoming book by investigative journalist Bob Woodward – that Donald Trump sent Vladimir Putin Covid-19 testing machines during the period when the virus was at its worst.
Harris replied:
That is just the most recent stark example of who Trump is, that he secretly sent Covid test kits for the personal use of Putin of Russia, an adversary to the United States, when he was talking about Americans should be putting bleach in their blood. Think about what this is. …
This election is about strength versus weakness. The weakness of someone who puts himself before the American people, who does not have the strength to stand for their needs and make sure we’re a secure nation.
Updated
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aircraft Operations Center posted a video on social media on Tuesday, showing one of their aircraft flying through the hurricane to collect data to improve forecasts and to support hurricane research.
Bumpy ride into Hurricane #Milton on @NOAA WP-3D Orion #NOAA43 "Miss Piggy" to collect data to help improve the forecast and support hurricane research.
— NOAA Aircraft Operations Center (@NOAA_HurrHunter) October 8, 2024
Visit https://t.co/3phpgKNx0q for the latest forecasts and advisories
Visit https://t.co/UoRa967zK0 for information that you… pic.twitter.com/ezmXu2Zqta
Milton wind speeds increase to about 155mph
Aircraft data and satellite images of Hurricane Milton indicate that Milton’s maximum sustained winds have increased to near 155 mph with higher gusts, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.
“While fluctuations in intensity are expected, Milton is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through landfall in Florida” reads the 2pm advisory.
It adds: “Today is the last full day for Florida residents to get their families ready and evacuate if told to do so.”
Hurricane #Milton Advisory 14A: Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters Find That Milton'S Intensity Has Rebounded. Today is the Last Full Day For Florida Residents to Get Their Families and Homes Ready and Evacuate If Told to Do So. https://t.co/tW4KeGe9uJ
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) October 8, 2024
Updated
The Florida Department of Corrections announced on Tuesday that over 4,636 inmates have been evacuated ahead of Hurricane Milton’s landfall on Wednesday.
“Additional evacuations are under way” the department added.
The Department also announced the cancelation of visitation statewide through Sunday, in response to anticipated inclement weather.
As of 1pm ET, at least 13 counties in Florida have issued mandatory evacuation warnings, and more than 50 counties are under a state of emergency as the state prepares Hurricane Milton’s arrival.
Milton became a category 4 hurricane on Tuesday morning, and forecasters predict that the hurricane’s center will likely make landfall along the west-central coast of Florida sometime on Wednesday night.
The day so far
Joe Biden is warning people who live in the path of Hurricane Milton to heed evacuation orders, saying it could be the “worst storm to hit Florida in over a century”. The president postponed his travel to Angola and Germany as the storm churns eastward, and the White House is stepping up its outreach efforts ahead of what could be the next major disaster to befall the southeast, after Hurricane Helene swept through the region not two weeks ago. Kamala Harris gave a similar warning in an live interview on popular talk show the View, while also outlining her plans to relieve the burden on families who support both children and aging relatives.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
On the View, Harris was asked what she would do different from Biden. The vice-president initially said nothing, then amended her answer, saying she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet.
The FBI never acted on tips received about Brett Kavanaugh during his supreme court nomination process, a Democratic senator opposed to the Trump appointee revealed in a report.
Trump secretly sent Covid-19 testing machines to Vladimir Putin in 2020, and has called the Russian leader as many as seven times since leaving the White House, investigative journalist Bob Woodward has reportedly written in a forthcoming book.
If you are an undecided voter, read this
The Guardian’s community team is hoping to hear from undecided voters in the seven swing states this election about their thoughts on the contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
If you vote in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona or Nevada and still haven’t picked a candidate, we have some questions for you, and you can find them below:
Updated
The Trump campaign has seized on Kamala Harris’s comment on the View that she wouldn’t do anything different from Joe Biden to (no surprise) cast her as unfit for the presidency.
“If you’re a voter who wants to turn the page from Joe Biden’s failed economy, open border, and global chaos then Kamala Harris is NOT the candidate for you,” an email from the campaign’s rapid response team reads.
While Harris initially said in the morning interview that she could not think of anything she would do differently than Biden, she later said he would appoint a Republican to her cabinet – something the president has not done.
Biden warns Milton could be 'worst storm to hit Florida in over a century'
Joe Biden issued a dire warning about the severity of Hurricane Milton, saying it could pose a historic threat to Florida.
“The current path is terminated … in the Tampa Bay area and cuts directly across the state, east to west, all the way across the state, with the potential for this storm to both enter Florida as a hurricane and leave Florida as a hurricane on the Atlantic coast,” Biden said at the White House.
“This could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century, and God willing, it won’t be but that’s what it’s looking like right now.”
He also added that he had spoken to Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida who yesterday refused a call from Kamala Harris.
“The governor of Florida has been cooperative. He said he’s gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday, and … I said, ‘No, you’re doing a great job. It’s being all being done,’” Biden said, adding he gave DeSantis his personal phone number.
The president also said he would find another time to travel to Germany and Angola, two trips he postponed as the storm approached.
Updated
Responding to question on how she'd be different from Biden, Harris says she would appoint Republican to cabinet
Kamala Harris has now revisited her answer on the View about whether she would do anything differently than Joe Biden, saying there is one way she would change things up.
“I plan on having a Republican in my cabinet,” Harris said, repeating a promise she has made before. “You asked me, what’s the difference between Joe Biden and me. Well, that will be one of the differences. I’m going to have a Republican because I don’t, I don’t feel burdened by letting pride get in the way of a good idea.”
The answer came as Harris discussed her proposals to help families in the “sandwich generation” better manage the burden of caring for both elderly parents and young children:
There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle. They’re taking care of their kids and they’re taking care of their aging parents, and it’s just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work. We’re finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress. And so, what I am proposing is that basically, what we will do is allow Medicare to cover in-home health care.
Updated
Kamala Harris made something of an eyebrow-raising remark earlier in the interview, in response to a question about whether she would do anything differently than Joe Biden.
“There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of, and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact,” Harris replied.
Biden has been a historically unpopular president, with his approval ratings below 50% for the majority of his time in office. Some of the dissatisfaction has been fueled by his visible ageing while in office, and also by the impact of inflation on US consumers, two things that Harris can’t do much about.
But the question did present an opportunity for the vice-president to break with her boss on his more controversial choices, such as the handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, or the surge in undocumented migrants who crossed the border with Mexico. For whatever reason, Harris did not take it.
Updated
Harris urges Floridians to heed evacuation orders as Hurricane Milton approaches
Floridians living in parts of the state where Hurricane Milton is expected to strike should follow recommendations to evacuate, Kamala Harris said in her interview on The View.
She also downplayed the significance of Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s decision yesterday not to take a call from her.
“This hurricane coming to Florida is … predicted to be historic in terms of how serious and devastating it will be. And I urge every and anybody who is watching or has family members in that area, please, please, take seriously your local officials admonition to you. If they’re telling you to evacuate, get your stuff and go,” the vice-president said.
She also remarked on DeSantis’s decision not to speak with her yesterday:
That’s why I called the governor about what Florida has received in terms of impact. We have to have an agreement that, at some point, we all need to work together to combine resources, especially federal, state and local resources around these kinds of disasters. And I think it’s a shame that that hasn’t happened.
Harris added: “When I’m president, I will continue to call him to see what he needs for help.”
Updated
Harris joins the View to share her ... views
Kamala Harris is on the set of long-running talk show the View to give a live interview, her first since becoming the Democratic nominee for president.
Her campaign says the vice-president will elaborate on her policies to support working families afford care for children and older adults. It’s a friendly audience – co-host Whoopi Goldberg introduced Harris as “the next president of the United States”. Harris strode out in a gray suit to Beyonce’s “Freedom”.
We will let you know if she makes news.
The Biden administration is stepping up its political response to Hurricane Milton, after Donald Trump seized on the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene weeks ago to argue that Democrats were ignoring the southeastern United States.
In addition to Joe Biden cancelling his travel to Germany and Angola, the White House is higjoighting how it is readying federal resources to respond to a storm that could do severe damage to the Tampa metro area, home to some three million people:
Our Administration is mobilizing resources and personnel to prepare for the impacts of Hurricane Milton.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 8, 2024
We urge Florida residents to stay alert, listen to local officials, and make preparations as needed. pic.twitter.com/FmyA7E0rU8
Ahead of Hurricane Milton, the Biden-Harris Administration urges people along the western coast of Florida to take steps to stay safe.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 7, 2024
☑️Listen to guidance from state and local officials
☑️Check on neighbors
☑️Keep gas tanks at least half full and maintain electric vehicle…
Trump campaign unleashes insults at Woodward after report that former president kept in touch with Putin
Amid reports that Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book would reveal that Donald Trump called Putin as many as seven times after leaving office and secretly sent him Covid-19 testing machines during the pandemic in 2020, the former president’s campaign has issued a flurry of personal attacks against the veteran investigative journalist.
In a statement, the campaign’s communications director Steven Cheung also said Woodward’s reporting was false:
None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true and are the work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Woodward is an angry, little man and is clearly upset because President Trump is successfully suing him because of the unauthorized publishing of recordings he made previously. President Trump gave him absolutely no access for this trash book that either belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section of a discount bookstore or used as toilet tissue. Woodward is a total sleazebag who has lost it mentally, and he’s slow, lethargic, incompetent and overall a boring person with no personality.
Updated
Biden postpones trip to Germany, Angola as Hurricane Milton approaches
Joe Biden has put on hold his planned travel to Germany and Angola – which would have been the first visit by an American president to sub-Saharan Africa in nine years – to deal with Hurricane Milton’s expected arrival on the Florida coast, the White House said.
“Given the projected trajectory and strength of Hurricane Milton, President Biden is postponing his upcoming trip to Germany and Angola in order to oversee preparations for and the response to Hurricane Milton, in addition to the ongoing response to the impacts of Hurricane Helene across the Southeast,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Milton was upgraded yesterday to a category 5 hurricane, and is set to strike Florida’s vulnerable Tampa area. Here’s more on the preparations for the storm’s arrival, just weeks after Hurricane Helene ravaged a swath of the southeastern United States:
Harris gains on Trump in poll of swing state Michigan
Kamala Harris is leading Donald Trump in Michigan, one of seven battleground states expected to decide the election, The Detroit News and WDIV-TV find in a new poll.
Among 600 likely voters surveyed over four days from 1 October, 46.8% say they would support Harris, and 44.2% are backing Trump. That gives the vice-president a lead of 2.6 percentage points, within the poll’s four-percentage-point margin of error.
While it’s certainly not determinative of who will win the state, this poll is good news for Harris for a couple of reasons. The first is that it gives Harris the strongest lead she or Joe Biden has had all year, and comes after absentee voting began in Michigan on 26 September.
In the most recent similar poll from The News and WDIV-TV, conducted in late August, Trump was beating Harris by 1.2 percentage points, 44.7%-43.5%. In late July, Harris had a narrow lead of 0.3 points, 41.6%-41.3%. And in January, Trump was ahead of Biden by 8.2 points, 46.8%-38.6%.
The data also indicates that the vice-president may have an avenue to overcome defections from Michigan’s Muslim and Arab American community over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Those communities are particularly large in Michigan, and many voters from those groups, which have leaned Democratic in previous elections, say they will not back Harris because of her involvement with Biden’s military support to Israel.
In a statement, Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democratic senator who today released a report revealing the failures of the FBI’s investigation of Brett Kavanaugh during his supreme court confirmation process, had this to say:
In 2018, I pledged to Christine Blasey Ford that I’d keep digging, for however long it took, and not give up or move on from Senate Republicans and the Trump White House’s shameful confirmation process for Justice Kavanaugh. A full, proper investigation is the bare minimum that victims who come forward – like Dr. Ford and Deborah Ramirez – deserve. This report shows that the supplemental background investigation was a sham, controlled by the Trump White House, to give political cover to Senate Republicans and put Justice Kavanaugh back on the political track to confirmation.
The lack of FBI investigative standards helped the Trump White House thwart meaningful investigation of the allegations against Kavanaugh, denying Senators information needed to fulfill their constitutional duties. The FBI must create real protocols so Senators and the American people get real answers – not manufactured misdirection – the next time serious questions about a nominee emerge late in the confirmation process.
You can read the full report here.
FBI never investigated tips about supreme court justice Kavanaugh - report
After two women made allegations of sexual misconduct against Donald Trump’s second nominee to the supreme court, Brett Kavanaugh, the then-president publicly said that he wanted the FBI to investigate those and any other claims against him.
But the Washington Post reports today that a forthcoming report from Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse finds the FBI did not have authorization to fullly investigate the allegations, and that messages phoned into the agency’s tip line about Kavanaugh were sent directly to the White House, and never acted upon.
The Senate, which was controlled at the time by the GOP, wound up confirming Kavanaugh, who has since become part of the court’s conservative supermajority, supporting decisions to overturn Roe v Wade and grant Donald Trump immunity.
Here’s more on the report, from the Post:
The president’s comments came as a surprise to the FBI, according to a new report from a Democratic senator based on previously undisclosed correspondence between the agency and the White House. FBI officials — directed to conduct a very limited inquiry in a week’s time — requested “additional guidance” from the White House, citing the public remarks by Trump and other officials describing a freewheeling investigation. But the White House never authorized the agency to independently probe the sexual misconduct allegations, which Kavanaugh staunchly denied.
The report, which was produced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a Judiciary Committee member and leading critic of the Kavanaugh confirmation, and provided to The Washington Post ahead of a public release on Tuesday, provides additional evidence of the tight control exercised by the White House over the FBI investigation — despite Trump’s claims to the contrary.
The report found that messages to the FBI tip line regarding Kavanaugh were forwarded directly to the White House and never probed, and that the FBI had no written protocols for the supplemental background investigation ordered by the White House. It notes that the FBI was instructed by the White House to talk to 10 potential witnesses and was not given the leeway to pursue corroborating evidence — the absence of which was cited by senators as they narrowly voted to confirm Kavanaugh, marking a major triumph for the conservative movement and locking in a right-leaning majority that would later overturn the constitutional right to abortion.
Trump ordered the additional inquiry following nationally televised testimony by Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh had groped her and tried to take off her clothes more than three decades earlier, when they were in high school at a party in suburban Maryland. Another accuser, Deborah Ramirez, had come forward in a New Yorker story, saying Kavanaugh had shoved his penis into her face during a dorm party when they were at Yale University in the early 1980s.
“The Congressional report published today confirms what we long suspected: the FBI supplemental investigation of then-nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh was, in fact, a sham effort directed by the Trump White House to silence brave victims and other witnesses who came forward and to hide the truth,” said Blasey Ford’s lawyers, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks.
Trump secretly sent Putin Covid testing machines, report says
Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book “War” also reveals that Donald Trump kept in touch with Vladimir Putin after his presidency ended, CNN reports.
Citing an aide to the former president, Woodward writes that there have been “maybe as many as seven” calls between the two since Trump left the White House.
Woodward also uncovers details of a moment from the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Trump secretly sent Putin testing machines:
But Putin — who infamously isolated himself over fears of Covid — told Trump on a phone call to keep the delivery of the Abbott machines quiet, Woodward reports.
“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin said to Trump, according to Woodward.
“I don’t care,” Trump replied. “Fine.”
“No, no,” Putin said. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”
Woodward writes that Trump has stayed in touch with Putin after leaving office.
In one scene, Woodward recounts a moment at Mar-a-Lago where Trump tells a senior aide to leave the room so “he could have what he said was a private phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
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New book reveals Biden's profanity laced comments on world leaders, fears of nuclear war - report
A forthcoming book by investigative journalist Bob Woodward, who has a long history of getting scoops involving US presidents and those around him, documents Joe Biden’s candid, often profane, assessments of world leaders, CNN reports.
“War”, which will be published 15 October, also reveals that US intelligence believed Russia was far more likely to use a nuclear weapon to gain the advantage in Ukraine than previously known.
But before we get into that, here’s who Biden likes to curse about:
“That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy. He’s a bad fucking guy!” Biden said earlier this year, as Israel’s invasion of Gaza ground on.
“That fucking Putin … Putin is evil. We are dealing with the epitome of evil.” Those were the president’s thoughts, sometime after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The fear of nuclear war spiked in September 2022, when it became clear to Russia that it would not easily triumph in Ukraine. US intelligence, which had learned of Moscow’s invasion plans months before Russian troops crossed the border, believed the likelihood that Vladimir Putin would order the use of a tactical nuclear weapon had spiked to 50%.
The re-election of Bob Casey is one of the must-win races for Democrats, if they want to keep control of the Senate. He faces Dave McCormick, a Trump-backed candidate who doesn’t agree with everything the former president has to say. Here’s more on the race in a swing state that could decide the election, from the Guardian’s Joan E Greve:
Pennsylvania has come into laser focus in the 2024 election as the must-win state of the presidential election. But further down the ballot is another race in the battleground state – one that could decide whether Democrats are able to hold on to a one-seat majority in the Senate.
With the party bracing to lose a seat in West Virginia and incumbent Jon Tester’s prospects looking grim in Montana, a lot of attention and money is flowing into the Senate race between Democrat Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania.
Casey, who is seeking a fourth term in the Senate, hopes to turn one of Democrats’ largest vulnerabilities – the cost of living – into a campaign asset. He has focused much of his messaging on rising prices, a primary concern for voters, and the so-called “greedflation” of large corporations. He accuses those companies of gouging consumers during the high inflationary period of Joe Biden’s early presidency and warns that McCormick will not take action to hold them accountable.
But McCormick holds Democrats like Casey and Kamala Harris responsible for those same high prices because of their “wasteful government spending”, and he is betting that voters will, too.
Democrats and Republicans alike appear keenly aware of the importance of the contest, as outside spending groups have dropped tens of millions of dollars into Pennsylvania and prominent members of both parties have traveled to the state for campaign events. Appearing at a recent event alongside Casey in the Philadelphia suburb of Ambler, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts reminded supporters of the high stakes of the race.
“This is what control of the Senate is all about right now,” Warren told supporters. “If [Republicans] win on November 5, they are going to help the rich get richer and let everyone else eat dirt … We are all, as Democrats, in this fight because we will not let them take back the Senate.”
Biden set to visit key battleground states amid crucial Senate races for Democrats
The US president, Joe Biden, is set to campaign on Tuesday in Pennsylvania for a close ally, the Democratic senator Bob Casey, when he participates in a private campaign fundraiser.
Casey, an incumbent running against Dave McCormick, has a narrow lead in the race in CBS News polling from September.
Biden is also set to travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday to discuss his administration’s progress in replacing lead pipes and creating jobs.
Tammy Baldwin, the Democratic Wisconsin senator who was first elected in 2012 on a tide of progressive support, will be conspicuously absent. She is facing Eric Hovde, a real estate mogul and banker, in a critical Senate race for the Democrats.
Baldwin, who has managed to keep a support base among farmers and rural voters, has previously refrained from campaigning with Biden when he made stops in Wisconsin. You can read more about her up-to-now successful electoral coalition here.
Casey’s and Baldwin’s races are seen as must-wins for Democrats who are trying to maintain their razor-tight control of the Senate. As the presidential campaign has played out, Biden has largely stayed on the sidelines as he’s remained a flawed surrogate (in the eyes of many) for Harris and down-ballot Democrats.
Pennsylvania (which narrowly voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and for Biden in 2020) and Wisconsin (which voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020) are both critical swing states that Trump and Kamala Harris are fiercely trying to appeal to.
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Project 2025 would ‘unequivocally’ lead to more hurricane deaths, experts warn
With communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene, one of the deadliest storms ever to hit the US, further pain in the form of Hurricane Milton is about to hit Florida. Experts warn such disasters will be deepened if Donald Trump is elected and follows the policy plans of the controversial rightwing Project 2025 manifesto.
Under Project 2025, authored by numerous former Trump officials but disavowed by the former president himself, the federal forecasting of severe storms and aid given to shattered towns and cities would be drastically scaled back. Emergency management officials say the cuts would severely worsen the outcomes from a storm like Helene.
Project 2025 calls for “breaking up and downsizing” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which it calls a primary component “of the climate change alarm industry”. The agency’s climate research is “harmful to future US prosperity” and should be disbanded, the document says.
You can read the full story by my colleagues Dharna Noor and Oliver Milman here:
Donal Trump is set to hold a rally in Aurora, Colorado, on Friday, according to a release from his campaign. Trump is due to speak at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center at 1pm (MDT). The Republican presidential candidate has repeated the false claim that Venezuelan street gangs have overtaken Aurora, where he has said deportations would begin if he wins the election next month.
Trump has said members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang have “taken over” apartment complexes and “overrun” the city, a false claim refuted by the Aurora police department.
In the press release announcing his campaign stop in Colorado on Friday, Trump made several references to the gang, adding at the bottom of his statement:
Kamala’s border bloodbath has made every state a border state, leaving Colorado families at the mercy of criminals. The only solution to stop the border crisis is to elect President Trump, who will secure the border, deport dangerous criminals, and Make America Safe Again.
Joe Biden won 55.4% of the vote in Colorado on his way to winning the presidency in 2020, while Trump got 41.9% of the votes in the state, which he is not expected to win this year.
Key event
In a release on its website, the White House said the Biden administration is mobilising additional resources and personnel to prepare for the impacts of Hurricane Milton, and has contacted over 15 local officials in cities and counties in areas that will likely be hit by the storm.
The White House also said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has enough money to support disaster relief for both Milton and Hurricane Helene.
Biden yesterday approved Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ request for an emergency declaration, the White House said. This means the federal government will provide additional funding to designated counties, and federal support for emergency responses such as evacuation, sheltering and search and rescue missions.
Tonight, I spoke with Florida Governor DeSantis and Tampa Mayor Castor for firsthand reports on Hurricane Helene recovery and preparations for Hurricane Milton.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 8, 2024
My Administration is ready to support both leaders and the people of Florida with any further resources they may need. pic.twitter.com/imXXVXQnoD
NBC News reported on Monday that DeSantis, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination earlier this year, was ignoring calls from the US vice president, Kamala Harris, because they “seemed political”. “Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer,” the DeSantis aide told the outlet.
“We have to assume this is going to be a monster,” DeSantis told reporters on Monday afternoon, as he warned of a potentially higher storm surge and more power outages from Milton compared to Helene.
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Hurricane Milton delays Washington DC reception between Joe Biden and Irish PM
Joe Biden is expected to receive a briefing from homeland security advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall today as Hurricane Milton heads across the Gulf of Mexico.
Biden is reported to be delaying a reception in Washington DC with the Irish Taoiseach, Simon Harris, to deal with the response to the category 4 hurricane.
The two leaders are still planning to meet in the Oval Office – to mark the centenary of diplomatic relations between Ireland and the US - but the reception in the Rose Garden has been postponed, BBC News reports.
Officials warn Hurricane Milton poses an 'extremely serious threat' to Florida
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) has warned that Hurricane Milton, expected to bring heavy rainfall and storm surges as high as 15 feet, “poses an extremely serious threat to Florida”.
The densely populated west coast of the state is braced for landfall of the category 4 storm on Wednesday. More than a million people were ordered to evacuate from its path.
The NHC projected the storm was likely to hit near the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, home to more than 3 million people.
It comes days after Hurricane Helene caused devastation and destruction through large swaths of Florida and other parts of the south-east of the US.
The death toll from Helene- which made landfall on the Florida Gulf coast on 26 September – stands at about 230 people, but this is expected to increase.
It then ripped through Georgia and North Carolina, both of which are swing states and essentially must wins for the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump. Both Trump and the US vice president, Kamala Harris, are targeting these states hard.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) has already had to respond to rife misinformation concerning its response to Helene, amplified on the presidential campaign trail by Trump and some of his supporters.
Trump has falsely accused the US president, Joe Biden, and Harris of favouring migrants over disaster-hit areas. “They stole the Fema money, just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season,” Trump has said.
“Kamala spent all her Fema money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal immigrants.” Trump added the places worst hit are “largely a Republican area so some people say they did it for that reason”.
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Harris takes narrow lead in NY Times poll over Trump as she embarks on media blitz
Good morning, US politics readers.
The Democratic US vice-president, Kamala Harris, has taken a narrow national lead over her Republican rival, Donald Trump, in the race for the White House, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, conducted between 29 September and 6 October.
It is the first time Harris led Trump in the Times/Siena poll since July, when Joe Biden dramatically dropped out of the presidential race and urged fellow Democrats to support Harris after his disastrous debate performance against Trump on 27 June.
The poll – which surveyed 3,385 likely voters – shows Harris leading Trump by 49% to 46%. In mid-September, after the presidential debate between the two, which Harris was viewed by many to have won, the two candidates were both at 47%.
Here are some other main takeaways from the latest New York Times/Siena College poll:
Harris has gained support from Republican voters – 9% said this time round they would support her, an increase from 5% last month.
46% of respondents said Harris, 59, represented change this election, compared to 44% for Trump, 78.
61% of non-white voters see Harris as the change candidate, while 29% view Trump this way.
Trump was still viewed by more people as a “strong leader”, though this was by a small amount.
Trump is leading among male voters by 11 points. 42% of voters surveyed said they personally benefited from Trump’s policies, when he was president between 2016 and 2020, compared to Biden’s policies.
Respondents trusted Trump more than Harris to manage the economy, which 75% of the likely voters described as in a “fair or poor condition”, the same as last month.
The percentage of voters holding favorable or unfavorable views of Trump and Harris has not changed since September.
The margin of sampling error among likely voters in the poll was plus or minus 2.4 points for the national poll and about plus or minus five points for each state poll.
Despite Harris edging Trump in some polls, the race is essentially deadlocked, both nationally and in so-called battleground states. The victory on 5 November will be decided by the slimmest of margins. In order to appeal to voters in the critical swing states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin), Harris has embarked on a week-long media blitz, appearing largely in front of politically sympathetic interviewers.
Harris has already talked to the CBS News show 60 Minutes, along with the popular podcast Call Her Daddy. In the CBS News interview, Harris was pressed on issues including the Middle East, Ukraine, gun ownership and immigration. Trump was invited on the programme too, but declined to participate in it.
As Ed Pilkington, Guardian US’ chief reporter, notes in this story, on Tuesday Harris hits New York for appearances on ABC News’s daytime behemoth The View and the Howard Stern Show, followed by a recording with the late-night host Stephen Colbert. We will bring you all the latest news from these media appearances as they happen.
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