Closing summary
This blog is closing now – thanks for following along. You can read our US elections coverage here. Here are the major developments from today:
Michelle Obama joined Kamala Harris for a rally focused on reproductive freedom in Kalamazoo, Michigan (or as Obama called it, “Kamala-zoo”). The former first lady and the vice-president emphasized the stakes for abortion and reproductive healthcare if Donald Trump is re-elected. Earlier in the day, Harris spoke with reproductive healthcare providers at a clinic in Portage, Michigan.
On the first day of early voting in Michigan, Donald Trump also held a rally in Michigan. At an event in Novi, the ex-president was joined on stage by several imams and other leaders of the state’s large Muslim and Arab American community, who denounced Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza.
Later in the evening, Trump spoke at a second event in State College, Pennsylvania, where he again promised to ban sanctuary cities and launch a massive deportation program all while unleashing more personal attacks against Harris.
Elon Musk, who has become a vocal critic of “open borders”, worked illegally in the United States early in his career, the Washington Post reports. After arriving in the United States for a graduate program at Stanford, Musk never attended classes and did not have work authorization when he started building the company that became Zip2.
Joe Biden campaigned for Harris across Pennsylvania today, speaking with the Laborers’ International Union of North America in Pittsburgh.
Nika Soon-Shiong, whose family owns the Los Angeles Times, says the paper’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate was made by her family due to Kamala Harris’s position on the war in Gaza. Her father, Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the paper, said his daughter was speaking in her personal capacity.
Senator Bob Casey addressed members of the Carpenters Union in Philadelphia and attacked his Republican opponent, Dave McCormick, over allegations that he fostered a toxic work environment as CEO of the hedge fund Bridgewater, describing the claims as “disqualifying”.
Harris is expected to campaign across Philadelphia tomorrow while Trump gears up for a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York.
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Trump ends his rally begging supporters to deliver a 'landslide'
Donald Trump concluded his roughly hour-long rally in State College, Pennsylvania, with a request for all of his supporters to go to the polls on 5 November.
“With your vote this November, we’re going to fire Kamala, and we are going to save America,” Trump said.
Again raising the specter of Democratic election meddling despite no evidence of such fraud in the 2020 presidential race, Trump implored his supporters to deliver a “landslide”.
“We must defeat Kamala Harris and stop a radical left agenda with a landslide that is too big to rig,” Trump said. “We will never ever back down, and we will never surrender.”
Trump then walked off the stage with the sound of YMCA by the Village People playing in the background.
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Donald Trump unleashed more personal attacks against Kamala Harris at his Pennsylvania rally, dismissing her as a “radical left lunatic”.
He then gave a detailed account of his photo opp at McDonald’s last week to recirculate baseless claims that Harris lied about working at the fast-food chain when she was in high school.
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Donald Trump again promised to ban sanctuary cities and launch a massive deportation program if he wins the presidential race, making xenophobic comments about how US towns have been “conquered” by immigrants.
“These are dangerous people. These are really dangerous people,” Trump said. “There’s nothing you’re going to do about it to make them less dangerous.”
A report compiled by the American Immigration Council estimated the annual cost of deporting one million immigrants per year to be roughly $88bn.
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Donald Trump briefly touched on his baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election as he addressed supporters in State College, Pennsylvania.
Trump noted that he won more votes in 2020 than any president in US history. That statement is true, but crucially, Trump’s 74m votes fell short of Joe Biden’s 81m votes in the 2020 race. Trump unsurprisingly sidestepped that fact in his remarks.
“I got the most votes in the history of our country for a sitting president. Can you imagine? But they say they beat us,” Trump said. “[Biden] got a few more votes – sitting in his basement, not talking – and it’s a disgrace.”
Trump then repeated his boast that he would easily defeat Kamala Harris, saying, “We’re going to pull this off. It’ll be the greatest victory in the history of our country for all of us – not for me, for all of us.”
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Donald Trump griped about Kamala Harris’s campaign rally with Beyoncé in Houston last night, mocking the event as a “disaster”.
Beyoncé endorsed Harris at the rally, telling the 30,000 people assembled at Shell Energy stadium: “For all the men and women in this room, and watching around the country, we need you.”
Despite some speculation that Beyoncé would perform, she did not, prompting ridicule from Trump.
“The people went there because they thought they’re going to hear Beyoncé sing,” Trump said at his rally in State College. “Then she turned around [and] she left.”
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Donald Trump should “never again” serve as president of the United States, Kamala Harris says, evoking the ex-president’s authoritarian tendencies.
“Someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States,” Harris said, before leading the crowd in a chorus of “never again”.
“To love our country is to know that one of the highest forms of patriotism, I believe, is to then fight for the ideals of our country,” she added.
Donald Trump’s rhetoric against Kamala Harris has turned increasingly vitriolic in the final days of the presidential race, and he continued that trend at his rally in State College, Pennsylvania.
Promising a “new golden age” for the nation if he wins, Trump lambasted Harris and Joe Biden’s leadership over the past four years.
“Pennsylvania, you have to stand up and you have to tell Kamala that you’ve had enough. You’re not going to take it anymore. You’re the worst vice-president,” Trump said. “You’re just horrible, Kamala. You’re fired. Get out of here.”
Echoing Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris is trying to draw a through-line between her ancestors in the civil rights movement, her work to preserve reproductive freedom and gen Z’s advocacy around a host of issues.
“You, who have only known the climate crisis, are leading the charge to protect our planet and our future. You, who grew up with active shooter drills, are fighting to keep our schools safe. You, who now know fewer rights than your mothers and grandmothers, are standing up for reproductive freedom. And for you, all these issues are not, they’re not political. They’re your lived experience. And I want to tell you I see you, and I see your power,” Harris said.
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Kamala Harris is lauding the Affordable Care Act and speaking about reproductive freedom at her Kalamazoo rally.
“I believe healthcare should be a right and not a privilege of those who have the money to afford it. On the other hand, we’ve got Donald Trump, who intends to end the Affordable Care Act, or as we like to call it, Obamacare,” Harris said.
“I did an event in Texas last night in Houston and if you saw it, you probably saw some of the stories about what has been happening in our country, the suffering,” she added, refering to women and families who shared their stories of struggling to access medical care under abortion bans.
Noting that Michigan has protected abortion access, Harris added, “if there’s a national abortion ban, nobody is safe.”
Donald Trump takes stage in State College, Pennsylvania
Arriving about an hour-and-a-half late, Donald Trump has taken the stage for his campaign rally in State College, Pennsylvania.
In his typical boasting manner, Trump claimed he is “leading in all the polls”. even as surveys suggest the presidential race is a true toss-up with just 10 days left before election day.
“We’re leading, but we’ve got to close it out,” Trump said. “On November 5, America will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than ever before.”
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Senator Bob Casey attacked his Republican opponent, Dave McCormick, over allegations that he fostered a toxic work environment as CEO of the hedge fund Bridgewater, describing the claims as “disqualifying”.
“I’ve always placed a priority on combating sexual harassment in the workplace, and apparently at Bridgewater, it was just a whole different story,” Casey told reporters this morning.
“So he’s being held accountable for that, and he should be held accountable. I think that alone is disqualfiying. If you’ve engaged in that kind of activity in the private sector, you should not be a public official at any level.”
The Casey campaign released an ad this week highlighting claims that McCormick attempted to silence or retaliate against female employees of Bridgewater who came forward with harassment claims.
Casey’s campaign manager also penned a letter calling on McCormick to demand that Bridgewater release employees who reported harassment from their non-disclosure agreements.
“It is your responsibility to ensure the voters of Pennsylvania have complete information about your record before casting their votes,” Tiernan Donohue, Casey’s campaign manager, wrote in the letter. “They deserve the full story.”
Speaking to reporters after his event with the Carpenters Union, Senator Bob Casey said he believes the momentum and enthusiasm on the ground in Pennsylvania will lift Democrats to victory in 10 days.
“I think it is close. There’s no question about that,” Casey said. “That energy and intensity on the ground is starting to uplift our side. I’ve never seen the number of volunteers that we’ve seen in this state. Every weekend they’re breaking another record.”
Asked about how close the race feels 10 days out, Casey said momentum is on Dems’ side.
— Joan Greve (@joanegreve) October 26, 2024
“That energy and intensity on the ground is starting to uplift our side. I've never seen the number of volunteers we've seen in this state. Every weekend, they're breaking another record.“
Asked specifically about whether young voters will turn out to vote for him and Kamala Harris, Casey expressed confidence that they would.
“I think the turnout is going to be high,” Casey said. “Young voters might engage a little late, but I think they’re ready to vote.”
Kamala Harris is drawing out the personal and political differences between her and Donald Trump.
“I grew up in a middle class neighborhood with a working mother who kept a strict budget and did everything she could to make sure my sister and I had all that we needed. I come from the middle class, and I will never forget where I come from,” Harris said.
Trump’s “agenda is all laid out in Project 2025, which I still must say, I cannot believe they put that in writing,” she added, before going on to talk about her plan for a child tax credit and to lower housing and healthcare costs.
Senator Bob Casey addressed members of the Carpenters Union in Philadelphia this morning, as the three-term Democrat enters the final 10 days of his race against Republican Dave McCormick.
Casey, whose race has grown increasingly close in recent weeks, again criticized McCormick over his leadership of the hedge fund Bridgewater and his recent residency in Connecticut.
Senator Bob Casey is speaking to the Carpenters Union in Philadelphia this morning.
— Joan Greve (@joanegreve) October 26, 2024
With 10 days left until Election Day, Casey is hitting his opponent, Republican Dave McCormick, for his record as a hedge fund manager and his recent residency in Connecticut. pic.twitter.com/PZcV8VKsyS
“He was investing in Chinese oil companies, investing in Chinese steel companies and betting against US Steel – hurting our workers, hurting our companies. That is his record as a hedge fund CEO,” Casey said.
“I’ll put my record – fighting for families in this state, investing in communities in this state and fighting for working men and women – I’ll put that record up against his record any day of the week.”
Thanking the union for its support throughout his political career, Casey added, “I’m going to work night and day for the next 10 days, like I’ve been working my whole life, to earn your votes and to earn your trust.”
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Gaza protesters interrupt Harris rally
Protesters demonstrating against the war in Gaza briefly interrupted Kamala Harris’s rally in Kalamazoo.
The crowd chanted over the protesters before Harris continued, “And listen on the topic of Gaza, we must end that war, and we must end the war and bring the hostages home, but now I am speaking about 2024.”
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Michelle Obama has welcomed Kamala Harris to the stage in Kalamazoo.
Michelle Obama has welcomed Kamala Harris to the stage in Kalamazoo.
“The stakes are high, because, as [Michelle Obama] reminds us, as my mother taught me, don’t just complain about injustice, do something,” Harris said.
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Michelle Obama says Kamala Harris will defend reproductive freedom “not because she’s a woman, but because she’s a decent human being.”
“She will usher in a new generation of American leadership and send the ugliness of Donald Trump and his politics, back where it belongs. The past,” Obama said, before encouraging the crowd in Kalamazoo to “do something” and talk to their family and community about voting.
Michelle Obama is painting a picture of what restricted reproductive health care could look like across the United States if Donald Trump is re-elected.
“We will see more doctors hesitating or shying away from providing life saving treatments because they are worried about being arrested. More medical students reconsidering even pursuing women’s health at all. More OB-GYN clinics without enough doctors to meet demand, closing their doors, leaving untold numbers of women in communities throughout this country without a place to go for basic gynecological care, which in turn, will leave millions of us at risk of undiagnosed medical issues like cervical and uterine cancers,” Obama said.
“To the men who love us, let me just try to paint a picture of what it will feel like if America, the wealthiest nation on Earth, keeps revoking the basic care from its women, and how it will affect every single woman in your life,” she continued.
“I am asking y’all, from the core of my being, to take our lives seriously,” she said. “Do not put our lives in the hands of politicians, mostly men, who have no clue or do not care about what we as women are going through.”
Michelle Obama is asking the crowd at Kamala Harris’s rally in Kalamazoo to consider which presidential candidate they think will look out for their civil and reproductive rights.
“If you’ve ever been out there marching and weeping for justice, who do you think is going to have your back? Is it Donald Trump, who once took out a full-page ad to demonize innocent young Black teenagers in New York City, who has dreamed openly about his own version of a purge, where, in his words, he has said for one day, one real rough, nasty day, he says he will allow cops to use violence indiscriminately?” Obama said.
“There’s more at stake than just protecting a woman’s choice to give birth, and sadly, we as women and girls have not been socialized to talk openly about our reproductive health. We’ve been taught instead to feel shame and to hide how our bodies work,” she added, describing the stigma many women feel discussing everything from menstruation to menopause.
“And look, I don’t expect any man to fully grasp how vulnerable this makes us feel, to understand the complexities of our reproductive health experiences. In all honesty, most of us as women don’t fully understand the breadth and depth of our own reproductive lives,” she said. “There’s a huge disparity in research funding for women’s health, and if you happen to look like me and report pain, you’re more likely to be ignored even by your own doctors,” she added, to a chorus of agreement.
“If we keep dismantling parts of our reproductive care system piece by piece, as Trump intends to do, I want folks to understand the chilling effect, not just on critical abortion care, but on the entirety of women’s health.”
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Michelle Obama urges Michigan crowd to 'turn the page on the ugliness'
Still speaking in Kalamazoo, Michelle Obama has criticized Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic and January 6 attack.
“When the American people fired him from a job that was too big for him to begin with, he tried to steal it,” Obama said. Referencing the growing list of former Trump administration officials who have noted the ex-president’s authoritarian tendencies, Obama added, “These folks know that nothing this man says or does is funny in any way. So I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn.”
“I hope that you will forgive me if I am worried that we will blow this opportunity to finally turn the page on the ugliness once and for all, because, believe me, if Donald Trump is president again at some point or another, that ugliness will touch all of our lives.”
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In an interview with Meet the Press, JD Vance has tried to explain Donald Trump’s comments on “the enemy from within.
Vance told moderator Kristen Welker: “I think what Donald Trump said is that those folks pose a greater threat to United States’ peace and security because America is strong enough to stand up to any foreign adversary.” The full interview will air tomorrow.
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Although she says she hates politics, Michelle Obama says the stakes of this election were too high for her to sit it out.
“I wanted to do everything in my power to remind the country that I love that there’s too much we stand to lose if we get this one wrong,” the former first lady said.
Obama also called out the higher standards that Black women are held to as some have criticized Harris. “They accuse her of not providing enough policy detail. Some wonder, do we really know her? Is she too aggressive? Is she not aggressive enough? There are folks sowing seeds of doubt about whether she’s who she appears to be,” Obama said. “Now, don’t get me wrong, voters have every right to ask hard questions of any candidate seeking office, but can someone tell me why we are once again holding Kamala to a higher standard than her opponent?”
“For Trump, we expect nothing at all, no understanding of policy, no ability to put together a coherent argument, no honesty, no decency, no morals.”
Speaking at the Harris campaign’s rally in Kalamazoo, Michelle Obama seeks to draw a stark comparison between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Kamala Harris is “showing us what a sane, stable leader looks like,” the former first lady said. “That’s because Kamala Harris is a grown-up. And Lord knows we need a grown-up in the White House.”
“This is someone who understands you, all of you, someone from a middle class family raised mostly by her mom, like so many of us, leaning on her neighbors, like we all do, that’s what you want in a president,” Obama said.
“With all that being said, I got to ask myself, well, why on earth is this race even close?” she added “It’s clear to me that the question isn’t whether Kamala is ready for this moment, because by every measure, she has demonstrated that she’s ready. The real question is, as a country, are we ready for this moment.”
Michelle Obama speaks at Harris rally in Michigan
Michelle Obama is speaking now at Kamala Harris’ rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The former first lady, who was welcomed onstage to uproarious applause, called the city “Kamala-zoo”.
Hello, Michigan! Who’s ready to elect the next President of the United States, @KamalaHarris? I hope you’ll tune in as I talk about the importance of voting in this election: https://t.co/JsLhXpMe6M
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) October 26, 2024
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As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump prepare to make their closing arguments in the final week of the presidential election, the National Park Service has just approved a permit request for an estimated 20,000 people to attend Harris’ Tuesday rally at The Ellipse. The park just south of the White House was where Trump rallied his supporters on January 6 before they stormed the Capitol.
JUST IN: The National Park Service has approved a permit request for the Kamala Harris campaign to host an event Tuesday night on the Ellipse, next to the White House. Estimated total attendees: 20,000. pic.twitter.com/LvVDS0Ac1P
— Ben Dennis Reports (@broadcastben_) October 26, 2024
Daughter of LA Times owner says decision not to endorse Harris due to Gaza
Nika Soon-Shiong, whose family owns the Los Angeles Times, says the paper’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate was made by her family due to Kamala Harris’s position on the war in Gaza.
“As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children,” Soon-Shiong said in a statement to the New York Times.
On X, she elaborated in a post: “For my family, Apartheid is not a vague concept. My father was an emergency surgeon at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto. He treated students shot by the police during the Soweto Uprisings – where 176 died protesting the brutal system of racial segregation.”
Her father, Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the paper, said his daughter was speaking in her personal capacity. Mariel Garza, who resigned from the paper on Tuesday following the announcement that it would not endorse a candidate, said that explanation had not been communicated to the editorial board.
“If the family’s goal was to ‘repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children,’ remaining silent did not accomplish that,” Garza said.
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Harris will speak at another packed rally, this time at an event center in Kalamazoo, where the local ice hockey team plays.
The Saturday afternoon event featuring Michelle Obama is drawing thousands of people, many of them women sporting all kinds of Harris’s merchandise that, like the campaign, has grown ever more targeted in the final days of the election.
A group of women wore shirts emblazoned with “Kamalazoo” – a play on the name of the host city. Others were more blunt: “Feminists vs Fascists” was printed across one woman’s sweatshirt.
Pink pussy hats came out of the closet, and pearl necklaces were the accessory du jour.
Cousins Teressa Randle and Kisha McAllister of Kalamazoo said they were ecstatic to have the vice-president visit.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the first woman, first Black woman and first south Asian woman president,” Randle said. “I couldn’t stay home.”
Both women had already cast their ballots and said they could not understand anyone who had not yet made up their minds. “If you’ve been paying attention to anything that’s happened over the last eight years, it should not be a question,” Randle said.
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Pro-Palestinian activists protest outside Harris event
Outside the Harris event, pro-Palestinian activists protested the Biden-Harris administration’s policy toward Israel. Waving Palestinian flags and holding signs that read “not another bomb”, they called on Harris to support an arms embargo.
The protesters stood in line, linked by a chain of baby clothes that they said represents the thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese children who have been killed by Israeli airstrikes over the course of the yearlong war.
A group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest outside of Harris’s rally in Kalamazoo. pic.twitter.com/qoMqcHfqoL
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) October 26, 2024
Michigan is home to a sizeable population of Arab and Muslim voters furious over the president’s handling of the war. Many say they will skip the election or vote for the Green party candidate, Jill Stein, as a way of expressing their discontent that Harris has refused to meaningfully separate herself from Biden.
Polls show the race in Michigan deadlocked, suggesting that even the smallest defections could swing the result.
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Kamala Harris visited with reproductive healthcare providers and medical students in Portage, Michigan, en route to her rally in Kalamazoo this evening.
Harris spoke with six female providers at the offices of Dr Rockelle Rogers and Dr Amanda Henry, according to White House pool reports.
“We represent not only a safety net for our region here in the Midwest, but over the last 18 months, we’ve seen an influx of patients that are coming, particularly from the south,” one of the doctors told Harris.
Asked how abortion bans are affecting where they decide to practice medicine, one medical student told the vice-president: “I think as medical students, we kind of found ourselves in this sort of limbo. You know, we put all this hard work and time into doing what we want to but we’re supposed to be excited about that, but there is this decision to make on November 5 that has this chance to monumentally impact our careers before they even start.”
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Ahead of Harris’s event in Kalamazoo, Liz Morley of Oxford, Michigan, sells homemade pearl necklaces with a Chuck Taylor – two of the vice-president’s favorite accessories.
Outside of Harris’s event in Kalamazoo today, Liz Morley sells homemade pearl necklaces with a Chuck Taylor - a nod to two of the vice presidents favorite accessories. pic.twitter.com/Tozr9lQaEJ
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) October 26, 2024
In the battleground state, where the election has divided neighborhoods and families, Morley said she’s found that some Harris voters prefer more subtle displays of support.
“A lot of people are afraid to put lawn signs out and bumper stickers, and they feel better putting something on their person,” Morley said. Even in her own town, loyalties were split “50-50”. “It’s like every other house,” she said.
Both Harris and Trump will be in the state today, one of their many stops in an effort to claim Michigan’s (potentially decisive) 15 electoral votes.
Morley began making the necklaces in August after Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket. Competing with vendors selling Harris T-shirts and hats, Morley said her wares stood apart. Plus, at $10 a necklace, buying one was more affordable than buying a new pair of Converse or strand of pearls, she said with a smile.
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In response to our reporting earlier this week, former model Stacey Williams says she has been attacked by Donald Trump’s online supporters. On Wednesday, the Guardian exclusively reported that Williams, who says she met Donald Trump through the late sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein, has accused the former president of groping and sexually touching her in an incident in Trump Tower in 1993.
“Trump and his angry, divisive followers have attacked Stacey with the usual playbook of insults and lies,” said Mariann Wang of Wang Hecker, a representative of Stacey Williams. “As Stacey has courageously reported, Trump groped her breasts and entire body in front of his good friend Jeffrey Epstein as part of some kind of twisted game. Stacey was just 24 and Trump was almost twice her age. Stacey’s report is supported by the evidence, including a polygraph finding, Trump’s own handwriting on a postcard he sent her, and multiple witnesses she reported to over the years. Trump wants you to ignore Stacey – the most recent of dozens of women who have come forward to describe his assaults – and sweep all these women under the rug. Trump and his friend Epstein are one of a kind – men who believe their wealth and fame gives them power over young women and their bodies.”
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Tim Walz will play Madden NFL on Twitch with New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tomorrow. Earlier this month, the Harris-Walz campaign livestreamed one of Walz’s rallies during a World of Warcraft stream. Ocasio-Cortez has previously made news for her video game streams, which she’s used to engage with young male voters.
👾🚨This is a TWITCH Public Service Announcement 🚨👾
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 26, 2024
Me versus @Tim_Walz.
Madden. 🏈
TOMORROW 3pm EST on https://t.co/u9zNReAauY
You ready Gov? pic.twitter.com/4h9tEPyZNG
Tim Walz and AOC are going to play Madden together on Twitch (!)https://t.co/tOYZiMu9Rx
— Kevin Munoz (@munozka315) October 26, 2024
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Harris addresses Israel’s pre-dawn strikes on Iran
Moments ago, Harris took a handful of questions from reporters on the tarmac in Michigan about the situation in the Middle East. She said she had a “lengthy and important” conversation with Biden and members of the national security team earlier on Saturday, following Israel’s pre-dawn strikes on Iran.
“We maintain the importance of supporting Israel’s right to defend itself,” the vice president said. “And we are also very adamant that we must see de-escalation in the region going forward and that will be our focus.”
Underscoring her dual roles as vice president and candidate, Harris was briefed on the situation before stepping on the stage in Houston for a rally with Beyoncé on Friday night.
“This war must end. We must get the hostages out and work toward a two-state solution,” Harris told reporters.
Asked about the views of the US’s Arab allies, Harris said there was a “consensus among leaders in the region, and certainly it is the strong perspective of the United States that there must be the de-escalation and not an escalation.”
She stressed the US would always defend Israel against an attack by Iran.
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Donald Trump has been joined on stage by Bill Bazzi, the current and first Muslim mayor of Dearborn Heights, at his rally in Novi, Michigan.
“I have never seen the devastation that we’re seeing right now,” Bazzi said. “When President Trump was president, there was no wars.”
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Donald Trump joined on Michigan stage by Arab and Muslim leaders
At his rally in Novi, Donald Trump was joined on stage by leaders of the state’s Arab and Muslim communities.
“We as Muslims stand with President Trump because he promises peace. He promises peace, not war. We are supporting Donald Trump because he promised to end war in the Middle East and Ukraine,” one member of the coalition said. “We support Donald J Trump for his commitment to promoting family values and protected our children well-being, especially when it comes to curriculums and schools.”
Speaking to Michigan’s large Muslim community, which has expressed marked dissatisfaction with Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza, Trump decried Harris for campaigning alongside former Republican senator Liz Cheney.
“Kamala is campaigning with Muslim-hating warmonger Liz Cheney, who wants to invade practically every Muslim country on the planet,” Trump said, implying that the October 7 attack in Israel wouldn’t have happened if he’d been president.
Adding that he’d met with a coalition of local imams earlier in the day, Trump said that his campaign is “winning overwhelming support from the Muslim and Arab voters here in Michigan”.
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With just over a week left until election day, our latest polling shows that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are locked in a nail-bitingly close race.
Here’s Robert Tait with more analysis:
The Guardian’s 10-day polling tracking average shows Harris, the Democratic nominee and US vice-president, maintaining the single-point advantage over her Republican rival she had a week earlier, 47% to 46%.
Surveys for the seven battleground states are equally cliffhanging and provide little obvious clue as to who will reach the threshold of 270 electoral votes essential for victory.
According to poll averages, Harris leads by a single point in Michigan and by less than 1% in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada. Trump has a two-point lead in North Carolina and a one-point lead in Arizona.
Joe Biden is campaigning for Kamala Harris today at a voter turnout event with the Laborers’ International Union of North America in Pennsylvania.
“The choice couldn’t be more stark,” Biden said of the current election. “The only picket line Trump ever looks at is when he can cross, not walk, cross.”
Trump “doesn’t give a damn about union work. He views unions as getting in the way of the accumulation of wealth,” he added.
Liuna, which previously backed Biden, has endorsed Harris for president.
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Donald Trump is currently campaigning in Novi, Michigan – a Detroit suburb – while his rival, Kamala Harris, visits the Kalamazoo area.
Trump kicked off his remarks by denouncing Harris’ rally in Houston last night. “Beyoncé went up, spoke for a couple of minutes, and then left, and the place went crazy. They booed the hell out of everybody,” Trump said.
Harris’ rally in Houston – where she spoke alongside Beyoncé and various women and families impacted by Texas’ abortion ban – was the campaign’s largest to date, drawing 30,000 people.
Our latest polling shows Harris is leading in Michigan by a narrow one-point margin.
Kamala Harris will continue to highlight abortion access as she campaigns in Michigan on Saturday. Before rallying with Michelle Obama later this afternoon, Harris’s campaign said the vice president will meet with healthcare providers and medical students at a doctor’s office in Portage to make the case that their work could be threatened by a national abortion ban, even in a state where access is protected under the constitution.
On Friday night, Harris held a rally in deeply conservative Texas to elevate the stories of residents who have been harmed by the state’s harsh abortion ban. She made the case there that Trump should not be believed when he says he would not sign a federal ban. In her remarks, Harris name-checked battleground Michigan.
Harris stopped in Portage earlier this year before Joe Biden stepped aside for a moderated conversation on reproductive rights with a Republican voter and a former Trump official who has endorsed her.
In a social media post, Trump claimed abortion was losing salience, though polls show it remains one of voters top concerns. He repeated his preference that the matter be left to the states and that he supports exceptions for rape, incests and instances where the life of the mother is at risk.
But Harris is arguing that this approach has created the current “healthcare crisis” in which women in red states are falling gravely ill and in some cases dying because they have been denied an abortion.
Fueled by anger over the loss of abortion rights, women powered Democratic wins up and down the ballot in Michigan in the 2022 midterm elections. They also voted to enshrine abortion access into the state’s constitution.
Kamala Harris is expected to campaign across Philadelphia tomorrow while Donald Trump gears up for a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Harris is expected to focus her tour of Philadelphia on Sunday on the city’s Black and Latino neighborhoods. She’ll begin by attending service at a Black church in west Philadelphia before traveling to north Philadlphia to visit a local Puerto Rican restaurant.
Meanwhile, Trump will be joined by the who’s who of far-right political figures at his rally in New York. A lineup released by his campaign includes many of the ex-president’s most loyal associates, such as Rudy Giuliani, Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard.
The Trump campaign released a list of 29 people who will speak/perform at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden tomorrow. The list ranges from Mike Johnson to Rudy Giuliani.
— Libbey Dean (@LibbeyDean_) October 26, 2024
Not on the list: The 7 Republicans running in New York's competitive House races and Melania/Barron… pic.twitter.com/nptdofTNiC
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Donald Trump talks tariffs and RFK Jr on Joe Rogan's podcast
Over the course of a three-hour interview last night, Donald Trump told Joe Rogan about his plans to eliminate income taxes and appoint Robert F Kennedy Jr to tackle healthcare issues if he is elected president. He also shared that the biggest mistake he made during his presidency was hiring ‘disloyal people’.
While discussing Trump’s planned tariffs, Rogan asked Trump if he was open to replacing income taxes with tariffs. “Well, OK,” Trump said, adding: “Yeah, sure. Why not? Because, we, ready, our country was the richest in the, relatively, in the 1880s and 1890s. A president who was assassinated named McKinley – he was the tariff king. He spoke beautifully of tariffs. And then around in the early 1900s, they switched over stupidly to frankly an income tax.”
Trump also spoke about his relationship with Kennedy – whom he has not agreed with on every issue. Trump said he has told Kennedy: “Focus on health, you can do whatever you want.” The two have released an agenda titled “Make America Healthy Again” which focuses on processed foods and the pharmaceutical industry.
Here’s Edward Helmore with more on the interview:
Trump used his interview with Rogan on Friday to repeat his claim that his defeat in the 2020 presidential election against Joe Biden was a “rigged” outcome. But Trump changed the subject when Rogan asked him if he was ever going to release evidence proving the election was “stolen”.
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Beyoncé shows up for Harris in Texas last night
Beyoncé lent her star power to Kamala Harris at a high-octane rally in Texas on Friday, declaring that the US was on the “brink of history” as the vice-president warned that the state’s near-total abortion ban could become the law of the land if Donald Trump were to be elected, the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino reported from the event.
In an apparent reaction to Kamala Harris’s campaign rally in Houston – which 30,000 people attended, Donald Trump has posted on Truth Social, saying that “Abortion has dropped way down as an issue”.
Here’s a Harris campaign staffer sharing the ex-president’s Truth Social post:
Trump is clearly worried about Vice President Harris’ powerful event in Texas last night with survivors of the consequences of the state’s abortion ban. Insists “abortion has dropped way down as an issue.”
— Ian Sams (@IanSams) October 26, 2024
It hasn’t.
He’s about to find out next Tuesday just how much it hasn’t. pic.twitter.com/cCLhsWbySj
And here’s Lauren with more from Houston:
With the presidential race effectively deadlocked, Harris detoured briefly from the seven battleground states to appear in deep-red Texas. Here in a place she called “ground zero for the fight for reproductive freedom”, Harris sought to lay out the stakes in November for voters who have yet to make up their minds about the candidates – or whether to cast a ballot at all.
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Report: Elon Musk worked illegally in the US early in his career
Elon Musk, who has become a vocal critic of “open borders”, worked illegally in the United States early in his career, the Washington Post reports. After arriving in the United States for a graduate program at Stanford, Musk never attended classes and did not have work authorization when he started building the company that became Zip2.
Here’s the Washington Post:
When the venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures poured $3 million into Musk’s company in 1996, the funding agreement – a copy of which was obtained by The Post – stated that the Musk brothers and an associate had 45 days to obtain legal work status. Otherwise, the firm could reclaim its investment.
“Their immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the U.S.,” said Derek Proudian, a Zip2 board member at the time who later became chief executive. Investors agreed, Proudian said: “We don’t want our founder being deported.”
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Good morning, with just over a week left before election day, the race is nail-bitingly close. We’ll be bringing you the latest headlines and analysis today as the campaigns continue.
This morning, we’re expecting Donald Trump to deliver remarks at a rally in Novi, Michigan, before traveling to State College, Pennsylvania. His running mate, JD Vance, will similarly speak in Atlanta, Georgia, before heading to Erie, Pennsylvania.
In her first event of the campaign, Michelle Obama will hold a get-out-the-vote rally alongside Kamala Harris in Kalamazoo, Michigan. M, Tim Walz will travel to Phoenix and Window Rock, Arizona – the capital of the Navajo Nation.
In Houston yesterday, Kamala Harris was joined on stage by superstar singer Beyoncé, congressman Colin Allred, musician Willie Nelson, actor Jessica Alba, several Texas-based OB-GYNs and families affected by the state’s abortion ban in what her campaign is calling their largest rally to date. Harris focused her remarks on the state’s abortion ban, which sparked a slew of abortion restrictions nationwide.
Donald Trump’s rally in Traverse City, Michigan, was delayed several hours last night after the ex-president’s interview with podcast host Joe Rogan lasted three hours.
Harris and Trump are tied at 48% each for the popular vote for the US presidential election, according to the final New York Times/Siena College national poll published on today.
The Washington Post declined to endorse a presidential candidate for the first time since the 1980s. Some staffers and reporters have said the decision was allegedly made by the Post’s owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos.
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