That's it for today
With just 18 days until election day, both presidential candidates had a busy day campaigning across Michigan. The day ended with Trump taking the stage at a Detroit rally and Harris speaking from Oakland County, Michigan.
Earlier, a federal judge allowed the release of hundreds of documents used in special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion case against Donald Trump, but the majority of them are redacted. What we can see mostly concerns the legal strategy Trump and his allies concocted to block Joe Biden from taking the White House, which may be presented to jurors whenever the case goes to trial. Meanwhile, reports have emerged that Trump has canceled interviews because he is “exhausted” – something his campaign denies – and is also considering holding a town hall with one-time rival Nikki Haley in a bid to woo female voters.
Here’s what else has happened today:
Trump said that some of the jokes he told at last night’s Al Smith dinner were written by employees of conservative network Fox – a breach of ethics, if confirmed.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the president of Germany, warned in unusually direct terms of the threat Trump could pose if returned to the White House, during a visit by Joe Biden to the country.
Kamala Harris’s campaign has enlisted singer-songwriter Marc Anthony for a campaign ad aimed at Latino voters in which he condemns Trump’s comments about Puerto Rico.
A House oversight committee report accused Trump of exploiting tax payer money by charging Secret Service agents and other federal officials higher-than-normal rates at his DC hotel.
Trump hit back on reports that he’s too tired to attend events.
An unnamed White House employee told an investigator for the January 6 committee that Trump watched the attack on the Capitol unfold from a White House dining room while drinking a Diet Coke. The detail was included in hundreds of pages of mostly redacted documents in the federal case against Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Signing off.
Johana Bhuiyan, Diana Ramirez-Simon, Chris Stein, Anna Betts and Daniel Lavelle
Harris wrapped up her speech reminding her Detroit audience of about 3,500 to vote. In Michigan, early voting for most jurisdictions begins 26 October. For Detroit, it begins on 19 October. “Our vote is our voice and your voice is your power.”
Trump is concluding his rally with a reminder of his campaign promises.
“In conclusion, with your vote this November we are going to fire Kamala and we are going to save America. We will teach our children to love our country honor our history…we will cut your taxes, crush inflation, slash your prices, raise your wages and create the greatest job boom the world has ever seen…we will do that very easily.
We will hire American, buy American, build American, grow American and show the whole world the American dream is back.
I will stop the global theft of American jobs. I will turn America into the manufacturing superpower of the world. I will end the war in Ukraine immediately…stop the chaos in the Middle East and prevent World War 3. We are very close to World War 3…because we have incompetent people.
I will crush violent crime and give our police the…support that they so dearly deserve. We will strengthen and modernize our military…you know I rebuilt our military. We will build a missile defense shield all made in the USA. And we will put the stars and stripes on the surface of Mars and maybe with the help of Elon we’ll get it done quickly. We’ll rebuild our cities including our capital in Washington DC. We will get…and remember this one, we will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our schools.”
“But for that to happen we must defeat Kamala Harris…we want a landslide and it looks like that could be happening,” he ended.
He closed out his rally by clapping and dancing to YMCA by the Village People.
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Harris says she will 'proudly sign in to law' a bill restoring reproductive freedoms
Harris went in on outlining her other policies and criticizing Trump for having only “concepts of a plan” to which the audience echoes “Concepts!”.
She emphasizes her fight for freedom, especially in relation to abortion rights, describing the downfall of Roe v Wade and vowing that when a bill restoring national abortion rights comes across her desk she will “proudly sign it in to law”.
Harris rehashed Trump’s job losses in Michigan, calling him “one of the biggest losers of manufacturing jobs in American history”. She reminded her supporters of Trump’s broken promises over losing auto plants during his presidency, resulting in “thousands of Michigan auto workers losing their jobs”.
She says Trump is making the same empty promises that he made before. “But we’re not falling for the okey doke. And we won’t be fooled!” she said as the crowd hollers “Nooo!”
Harris vows to her Detroit audience to invest in American manufacturing and industry such as steel, iron and the auto industry.
“And contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive” Harris said, addressing Trump’s claim that her administration would “mandate” electric vehicles.
Trump called for the death penalty for any migrant who kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.
Trump said that his administration will also restore the US borders.
“I think it’s the worst thing that has happened to us. 21 million people. When I win on November 5, the migrant invasion ends and the restoration of our country begins. I have no choice.”
Many of Trump’s claims about the Biden administration’s immigration policies have been previously debunked. For instance, Trump claims the Biden administration opened the borders but in fact the administration increased the number of expedited removals and added more sections to the U.S. Southern border walls.
A study that looked at 150 years of census data has also shown that despite Trump’s claims, the vast majority of immigrants do not commit crimes and are significantly less likely to commit crimes than those born in the US.
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Trump has addressed a few topics in a span of a few minutes. Trump addressed what he calls an electric vehicle “mandate” that the Biden administration has set. However, the administration has set no such requirement. They have set a goal of having 50% of car sales be electric vehicles by 2030.
“On day 1 of the Trump administration I will terminate Kamala’s insane electric vehicle mandate and we will end the green new scam once and for all. We will quickly become energy independent and we will frack, frack, frack and drill, baby, drill. I will cut your energy prices in half within 12 months of taking office. That’s going to bring everything down. I will massively cut taxes for workers and we will also have no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on social security benefits for our seniors.”
Back at the Harris rally, she says, “I’m gonna just go off script for a moment.” She begins to talk about the difficulties of taking care of an aging relative and the financial toll it can take.
“My plan is to fix Medicare to cover the home health costs for seniors because it’s about dignity.”
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“This is the worst mic I’ve ever had in my life,” Trump quipped.
After playing two campaign videos, Trump calls Kamala Harris the “tax queen” and claims her tax proposals will kill “almost a million full-time jobs”. “It will be economic armageddon for Detroit,” he said.
Trump’s microphone is working again.
He’s talking about his “build it in America plan”. “When CEOs call me to complain about my tariffs, my answer will be very simple, build it in America. And to be specific, build it in Detroit, and we’ll give you good electricity.
His plan is to impose tariffs on companies to discourage them from building manufacturing plants outside of America.
“The centerpiece of his plan will be a 15% made in America corporate tax rate. So we brought the rate down from close to 40% to 21%…now we’re going to get it down to 15% but only if they build it in America,” he said. “For those who don’t make their product in America they will be forced to pay tariffs.”
Harris is back.
She begins again, starting with addressing the devastation in Gaza and Lebanon.
“I know this year has been very difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon. It is devastating. And now Sinwar’s death must be a turning point. Everyone must seize this opportunity to end the war in Gaza. Bring the hostages home. And end the suffering once and for all.”
Kamala Harris takes the stage at Oakland County rally
Kamala Harris began by thanking the members of the Arab- American communities at the rally.
Harris, however, suddenly stopped her remarks to call for a medic. Harris made a few comments about it being warm in the room.
While Trump waits for the technical difficulties to be fixed, Kamala Harris is taking the stage at her dueling rally in Oakland County, Michigan.
Donald Trump is indeed on stage at the rally but there are technical difficulties with the microphone it turns out. He began speaking but the sound cut out and he’s now standing around as the crowd cheers for him.
Trump takes stage in Detroit, days after criticizing the city
Trump takes the stage in Michigan with his usual self-confidence, acknowledging the cheers of the crowd who are waving “Make Detroit Great Again” signs. “We win Michigan, we win the whole ballgame,” he said, as he’s promised every other city he’s visited lately.
However on his previous visit to the city, he bashed it as a “mess” and a “developing nation”. “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president. You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” Trump said, referring to Kamala Harris.
Trump surrogates who have spoken before Donald Trump takes the stage have all hit on talking points we’ve heard repeatedly throughout his campaign. In addition to getting back jobs for American workers, including auto workers, and rising costs of living, nearly everyone who has taken the stage has decried what they describe as mass illegal immigration. They also made promises to Detroit residents specifically.
“Detroit once was the city that powered the entire world, every car worth driving in the entire world was manufactured here,” said former Trump adviser Stephen Miller. “Not in Mexico, not in China, not in Japan. Donald Trump has a plan to make Detroit and to make Michigan the economic center of the world.”
However, just last week, Trump criticized the city during a speech at the Detroit Economic Club.
“The whole country will be like — you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit,” the Republican presidential nominee said. “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president.”
At the time, Detroit’s Democratic mayor Mike Duggan responded and cited the city’s recent drop in crime.
“Lots of cities should be like Detroit. And we did it all without Trump’s help,” Duggan said.
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Donald Trump is slated to speak at a rally in Detroit in a few minutes. Follow along here.
While Donald Trump spent the last few minutes of his round table in Michigan talking about returning jobs to American auto workers, Kamala Harris is reminding auto workers what he’s previously said about their work.
According to Politico, at a campaign event at the United Auto Workers Local 652 in Lansing, Harris played the room full of auto workers remarks Trump made earlier this week at the Economic Club of Chicago. In addition to saying a child could do their jobs, Trump said car manufacturers “don’t build cars” and just “take them out of a box, and they assemble them”.
Both candidates are fighting to win over auto workers as well as working class voters in Michigan.
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The round table has concluded. He ended the event by talking about tariffs in response to a United Auto Workers member. He said he plans to use tariffs to discourage people from building plants in other countries and taking jobs from American workers.
Donald Trump will be speaking at a rally in Detroit at 7pm. Stay tuned for more updates.
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Donald Trump is hearing from audience members in Michigan. Among them have been a Teamster representative as well as a holistic wellness practitioner and the president of the Police Officers Association of Michigan.
Jim Tignanelli, the group’s president, described what he says is the loss of honor for police. He said three officers were shot in Michigan over the last 90 days.
In response, Trump said he wants to call for the death penalty for anyone killing a police officer. Trump also called for qualified immunity for police. “One thing we’re going to be doing is … immunity for some of these police,” Trump said.
“If police officers are doing their job … if they make a mistake, and that happens … we have to help people out now. We’re going to do the immunity thing. We have to stop being politically correct. You’re always going to have some bad apples but very few of them,” Trump said.
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Donald Trump is speaking at a roundtable in Auburn Hills, Michigan
Donald Trump started the conversation by again criticizing Kamala Harris’ decision not to attend the Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, which raises funds for Catholic charities.
You can follow along here.
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Upon landing in Michigan, Donald Trump touted the support he’s received from the Arab-American community after many have expressed disappointment in how the Biden administration has responded to Israel’s assault on Gaza. Just last month, Trump was endorsed by Amer Ghalib, the Democratic mayor of Michigan suburb, Hamtramck. Forty percent of Hamtramck’s residents are of Middle Eastern or North African descent.
But minutes later, Trump said that he planned to speak with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and tell him that “he’s doing a good job”.
“[Biden] is trying to hold him back,” Trump said to reporters. “They probably should be doing the opposite. I’m glad that Bibi decided to do what he had to do.”
Trump says he's about to speak to Netanyahu and says, "Biden is trying to hold him back ... he probably should be doing the opposite, actually." pic.twitter.com/i12koY0z1s
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 18, 2024
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A new investigation by 404 Media found that an Elon Musk-funded PAC called Future Coalition is targeting Muslim and Jewish populations in Michigan and Pennsylvania with extremely contradictory ads.
The ads are being delivered to Snapchat users and targeting them by zip code. Those who live in an area with a large Muslim population in Michigan are being served ads that paint Kamala Harris as pro-Israel while those who live in parts of Pennsylvania that have a high percentage of Jewish residents are seeing ads that says Harris stands with Palestine.
You can read the investigation here.
Trump rejects claim he is exhausted and has canceled events
Meanwhile in Michigan, Donald Trump answered questions from the press and denied reports that he’s exhausted and canceling events.
“What event did I cancel,” Trump said. “I haven’t canceled. She doesn’t go to any events. She’s a loser. She didn’t even show up for the Catholics last night at the hotel. It was insulting. All they are is soundbites.”
Trump said he has gone 48 days without a rest. “Tell me when you’ve seen me take even a little bit of a rest.”
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According to a new House oversight committee report that accuses Donald Trump of fleecing tax payers and exploiting the presidency, former president Trump charged secret service agents who were staying at his hotel while protecting him far more than the hotel charged private patrons.
The report says Trump “turned the U.S. Secret Service into an ATM for his personal enrichment” by charging the agency, in at least one case, more than 5 times the rate approved by the government. “Amazingly, that same night, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., rented out more than 200 rooms to private parties at just $125 or $170 each.”
The report goes onto say that at least five people who received pardons from Trump as well as four federal judges who Trump nominated and were later given lifetime appointments also stayed at the hotel.
“Our report also details startling instances in which state and federal officials, as well as individuals actively seeking federal jobs and presidential pardons, used the D.C. hotel as a channel to put money into the Commander-in-Chief’s pocket,” Representative Jamie Raskin said in a statement.
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Hey all, Johana Bhuiyan taking over from my colleague, Chris.
I’ll be tuning into Donald Trump’s speech in Michigan which starts at 5pm ET but in the meantime I’m going through a new report from the House committee on oversight and accountability.
Citing hotel guest logs, the report claims Trump used his DC hotel to take “ethically questionable payments” from the US Secret Service, federal and state officials, federal job seekers as well as people seeking a federal pardon during his presidency.
“These payments demonstrate how Donald Trump violated the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause as he used the Secret Service as his personal ATM and repeatedly took payments that raise the specter of pay-to-play corruption from individuals who sought and, in many cases obtained, favors from the Commander-in-Chief,” the press release read.
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Harris announces events with Barack, Michelle Obama as early voting begins in key states
Kamala Harris will campaign alongside Barack Obama and Michelle Obama in two separate events next week aimed at encouraging voting in swing states, the vice-president’s campaign said.
On Thursday, Harris and Barack Obama will campaign in Atlanta, with the goal of encouraging supporters to take advantage of the early voting period. The vice-president will then head to Michigan on Saturday, the first day of early voting in that state, for an event with Michelle Obama.
Donald Trump has meanwhile arrived in Michigan, ahead of his 5pm campaign event in Detroit.
His campaign is sharing photos and video of him taking questions from reporters upon his arrival, saying it’s not the sort of thing Kamala Harris would do:
President @realDonaldTrump lands in Michigan and takes questions from the press 🇺🇸
— Margo Martin (@margommartin) October 18, 2024
You’ll never see Kamala do this! pic.twitter.com/Ij7iOI8vKZ
Reporters traveling with the vice-president to Grand Rapids said she spoke to them before going onstage.
A key message of Kamala Harris to voters in Michigan today was encouraging them to cast ballots when early voting begins next Saturday.
“Election Day is in 18 short days, okay? And here in Michigan, early voting starts on Saturday, October 26, which is one week from tomorrow,” the vice-president said as she concluded her speech.
“Now is the time to make your plan to vote. Make a plan.”
Unions have long played an outsized role in Michigan, particularly when it comes to its automotive industry.
Kamala Harris has focused much of her speech on how she would be more friendly to organized labor than Donald Trump.
“Make no mistake, Donald Trump is no friend of labor,” the vice-president said. She continued:
He encouraged automakers to move their plants out of Michigan so he could pay they could pay their workers less. Understand what that was about, so they could pay their workers less. And when the [United Auto Workers (UAW)] went on strike to demand the higher wages they deserved, Donald Trump went to a non-union shop and attacked the UAW, and he said, he said, striking and collective bargaining don’t make ‘a damn bit of sense’.
“Strong unions mean higher wages, better healthcare and greater dignity for union members and for everyone, whether or not you are part of a union: get that straight,” she said.
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Harris whacks Trump over reports he canceled interviews due to 'exhaustion'
Kamala Harris seized on reports that Donald Trump had backed out of interviews because he was “exhausted”, saying that they were proof he is not up to the job of being president.
“He has no plan for how he would address the needs of the American people, and he is, as we have seen, only focused on himself, and now he is ducking debates and canceling interviews,” Harris told the crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“And check this out. His own campaign team recently said it is because of exhaustion. Well, if you are exhausted on the campaign trail, it raises real questions about whether you are fit for the toughest job in the world.”
Kamala Harris is on stage now, with familiar walk-out song Freedom by Beyoncé playing.
The vice-president was introduced by carpenters union official Brian Hein, who decried Donald Trump as someone “who has never done a hard day’s work in his life”.
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Harris to campaign in hotly contested Michigan
Kamala Harris is soon to begin speaking in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as she looks for an edge among voters in a swing state that Donald Trump is looking to reclaim.
The western Michigan city lies in historically Republican territory where Democrats have only recently begun showing strength. From a stage set up in a park, the vice-president was introduced by Michigan’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer, who said:
Donald Trump has shown us that he is incapable of handling a crisis. He is a petty man who tells dangerous lies and is always looking for someone else to blame. We don’t need that. We need leaders who are going to put politics aside and work together to solve problems. As our next commander-in-chief, Kamala Harris will ask, what do you need? How can I help you? Are you okay? That’s what a leader does.
White House employee said Trump watched January 6 attack while drinking Diet Coke
An unnamed White House employee told an investigator for the January 6 committee that Donald Trump watched the attack on the Capitol unfold from a White House dining room while drinking a Diet Coke.
The detail was included in hundreds of pages of mostly redacted documents in the federal case against Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, which a federal judge allowed to be released today.
“They’re rioting down at the Capitol”, the employee recalls telling Trump in an interview with an unnamed investigator.
“Oh, really?” Trump replied.
The employee recalls going with Trump to the dining room where he often spent time, and where a television was set up:
And then we walked back to the back. I’m taking off his outer coat that he’s wearing right now, and I get the TV, like, ready for him, and I hand him over the remote, and he starts watching it. And I stepped out to get him a Diet Coke, come back in and that’s pretty much it for me as he’s watching and, like, seeing it for himself.
A federal judge blocked an effort by authorities in Florida to keep off the air a television advertisement in support of the state’s abortion access ballot initiative, the Guardian’s Carter Sherman reports:
Florida’s health department can’t block a TV advertisement in support of a ballot measure that would protect abortion rights, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, after the department sent letters to local TV stations commanding them to stop airing the ad or risk criminal consequences.
“The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false’,” US district judge Mark E Walker wrote in his ruling. “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”
Florida is one of 10 states set to vote on abortion-related ballot measures in November. If enacted, Florida’s measure would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution and roll back the state’s six-week ban on the procedure, which took effect in May.
Earlier this month, Florida’s health department sent cease-and-desist letters to TV stations running an ad by Floridians Protecting Freedom, the campaign behind the measure. In the ad, a woman named Caroline speaks about being diagnosed with cancer while pregnant.
“The doctors knew if I did not end my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life and my daughter would lose her mom,” Caroline says in the ad. “Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine.”
Vice-president Kamala Harris will be hosting a campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, where she will be joined by singer Usher, her campaign said.
This comes as the Democratic National Committee announced today that it is launching a Taylor Swift-themed “I Will Vote” campaign to increase engagement among young voters in battleground states.
The campaign will kick off in Miami, the DNC said, with billboards around the city, a mobile billboard on a boat near Taylor Swift’s concert venue in Miami where the singer is playing this weekend, and exclusive Snapchat filters.
Rosemary Boeglin, DNC Communications Director, said in a statement that Democrats “are reaching out to young voters where they are, from concert venues to social media platforms, to make sure they have the resources they need to cast their ballot.”
Forever & always reaching voters where they are 💗 pic.twitter.com/ThDJKpibik
— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) October 18, 2024
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Former president Donald Trump will be visiting Asheville, North Carolina on Monday to see the devastation of Hurricane Helene first-hand and deliver remarks, his campaign announced on Friday.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida three weeks ago, before moving across parts of the south-east, quickly becoming the deadliest hurricane to hit the US mainland since Katrina in 2005.
Parts of western North Carolina, including Asheville, were among the hardest-hit areas.
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On Thursday, the first day of early in-person voting for the 2024 election in the battleground state of North Carolina, more than 350,000 voters North Carolinians cast their ballots, setting a new state record, officials announced.
Election officials in the state said on Friday that a record 353,166 voters turned out statewide on Thursday, surpassing the previous record for the first day of early voting of 348,559 voters set in 2020.
“Yesterday’s turnout is a clear sign that voters are energized about this election, that they trust the elections process, and that a hurricane will not stop North Carolinians from exercising their right to vote,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections.
This comes as earlier this week, Georgia voters shattered Georgia’s early voting record, casting 328,000 ballots on the first day of early voting, which is more than double the previous record of 136,000, set in 2020.
You can read more about that here.
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Fox News has reportedly denied that any of its employees or freelancers assisted in writing the jokes that former president Donald Trump told at last night’s Al Smith dinner.
This comes as the former president appeared on Fox News this morning and said that some of his jokes were written by “a couple people from Fox”.
Fox News says in a statement it's not true: "Fox News confirmed that no employee or freelancer wrote the jokes.” https://t.co/zjjL5M9Vt0
— Jeremy Barr (@jeremymbarr) October 18, 2024
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The day so far
A federal judge allowed release of hundreds of documents used in special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion case against Donald Trump, but the majority of them are redacted. What we can see mostly concerns the legal strategy Trump and his allies concocted to block Joe Biden from taking the White House, which may be presented to jurors whenever the case goes to trial. Meanwhile, reports have emerged that Trump has canceled interviews because he is “exhausted” – something his campaign denies – and is also considering holding a town hall with one-time rival Nikki Haley in a bid to woo female voters.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Trump said that some of the jokes he told at last night’s Al Smith dinner were written by employees of conservative network Fox – a breach of ethics, if confirmed.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the president of Germany, warned in unusually direct terms of the threat Trump could pose if returned to the White House, during a visit by Joe Biden to the country.
Kamala Harris’s campaign has enlisted singer-songwriter Marc Anthony for a campaign ad aimed at Latino voters in which he condemns Trump’s comments about Puerto Rico.
Updated
Interestingly included among the documents are copies of the envelopes used to mail electoral vote tallies from states Donald Trump targeted to overturn the election result.
CBS News took a screenshot:
A third batch of Jack Smith court exhibits (500+ pages)
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) October 18, 2024
includes actual highlighted sections of Mike Pence's book (sections about pre-Jan 6)
And the mailing envelopes of electoral votes from states from which Trump baselessly claimed fraud
====>https://t.co/fi2lvSY4ky pic.twitter.com/LbQilNfmLh
The portions of the documents that are not redacted include statements by Republican swing state lawmakers and officials in late 2020, around the time that Donald Trump and his allies were pressing them to cooperate with his attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory.
As has been documented by the January 6 committee and other investigations, Trump and his allies attempted to convince Republicans in states like Arizona and Georgia to cast doubt on the validity of their state’s votes for Biden – largely without success.
Also visible in the documents are portions of Mike Pence’s memoir, where he described how his former boss leaned on him to go along with his plans to throw Biden’s election victory into doubt:
The documents released thus far consist of hundreds of blank pages, interspersed occasionally with what appear to be snippets of emails, text messages and interviews, parts of which are, themselves, redacted.
From what can be gleaned, much of it appears to relate to Trump and his allies’ strategy to create a legal basis to prevent Joe Biden from taking office – which is at the heart of special counsel Jack Smith’s case against the former president.
Federal court releases more evidence in Trump election subversion case
A federal court has unsealed hundreds of pages of evidence in the case against Donald Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
The release comes as special prosecutor Jack Smith’s team moves to get its case back on track after the supreme court’s ruling earlier this year that presidents have immunity from charges related to official acts.
Much of the documents released have been redacted, but we will let you know if any news emerges. Meanwhile, here’s the latest in the legal wrangling over the case:
Trump says Fox employees helped write jokes for Al Smith dinner
Donald Trump was on Fox News earlier this morning, and was asked about his jokes at last night’s Al Smith dinner.
He replied that some of them were written by “a couple people from Fox” – which, if true, would be quite the breach of media ethics, even for the right-leaning network. CNN captured a clip:
Doocy: Your material at the Al Smith dinner "was real funny, who helped you with it?" Trump: "I had a lot of people helping, a lot of people, a couple people from Fox – actually, I shouldn't say that, but they wrote some jokes. For the most part, I didn't like any of them." pic.twitter.com/hQSFzPNDkd
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 18, 2024
Here is our coverage of Trump’s zingers and insults from last night’s get-together:
Kamala Harris’s campaign has enlisted singer songwriter Marc Anthony to appear in a new ad in which he slams Donald Trump for comments he made about Puerto Rico during his presidency:
It’s part of Harris’s push to win the diverse group of Latino voters who could make the difference between winning and losing key swing states.
German president warns of threat of Trump's return as Biden visits
In a speech during Joe Biden’s visit to Germany, president Frank-Walter Steinmeier was unusually frank about the threat posed by Donald Trump if he returns to the White House.
“In this friendship, there have been and always will be times of proximity and greater distance, times of agreement and times of discord. Even recently, just a handful years ago, the distance had grown so wide that we almost lost each other,” Steinmeier said.
He noted that the outcome of the election could impact an array of American and European foreign policy priorities, including the defense of Ukraine:
The choice on November the 5th is only Americans’ choice to make but we as Europeans have a choice too. We have the choice to do our part, to be unwavering in our support for Ukraine. To invest in our common security. To invest in our shared future. And as you have done sir, to stand by the transatlantic alliance no matter what.
From the bottom of my heart, in this time when democracy is under strain all around the western world, you Mr President have been the beacon of democracy ...
Decency is maybe what we are most at risk of losing.
Which is not to say Donald Trump has not been doing any interviews at all.
He spoke with Fox News personality and ex-professional wrestler Tyrus for an episode of his Outkick podcast released today, in which he repeated his comments warning of “an enemy from within”.
Here’s a clip, shared by the Kamala Harris campaign:
Trump says Americans who don’t support him are the “enemy” and are a bigger “problem” than “China and Russia”: “These are bad people. These are sick people” pic.twitter.com/a9shBYeB9g
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 18, 2024
Democrats have said the former president’s usage of the terminology to describe his political enemies is a dangerous escalation of rhetoric, and a sign that he is out for “unchecked power”:
Case in point: Donald Trump has turned down an invitation from CNN for a televised town hall just days before the 5 November election.
Kamala Harris has said yes to the invitation, CNN reports, and her town hall is set for 23 October. Here’s more:
The window has closed on CNN's offer to hold a town hall with Trump and voters. Last week the network proposed back to back town halls on October 23, and Harris accepted the invite, but Trump did not. (1/2)
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 18, 2024
"His campaign has not committed to participate, so we are moving forward with a Town Hall event with VP Harris taking questions from a live audience of Pennsylvania voters who are still undecided or persuadable in this election," CNN said in a statement this morning. (2/2)
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 18, 2024
Trump canceling interviews because he's 'exhausted' - report
Donald Trump has uncharacteristically been backing out of media interviews lately, and Politico has learned the reason why: the former president is “exhausted”.
Here’s what they found:
It happened just this week to planned Trump sit-downs with NBC in Philadelphia and CNBC’s “Squawk Box” — and that’s on the heels of him backing out of a “60 Minutes” episode earlier this month.
Why does this keep happening? Another outlet was recently given an explanation by Trump’s team for why their own interview wasn’t coming to fruition: exhaustion.
The Trump campaign had spent weeks in conversations with The Shade Room, a site that draws a largely young and Black audience — a demographic where Trump has been making inroads. It hosted an interview with Kamala Harris just last week.
But no interview has materialized. As Shade Room staff began feeling that feet were being dragged inside Trump’s campaign, they pressed earlier this week to set a date for a sit-down.
In response, a Trump adviser told Shade Room producers that Trump was “exhausted and refusing [some] interviews but that could change” at any time, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
Trump’s spokeswoman has denied the report:
Trump national press secretary Karoline Leavitt, while making clear she wasn’t part of the back-and-forth for the Shade Room interview, said last night that the idea that Trump was exhausted “is unequivocally false.”
“President Trump is running laps around Kamala Harris on the campaign trail,” Leavitt said. “And has done media interviews every day this week. He has more energy and a harder work ethic than anyone in politics.”
Evidence in Trump election subversion case to be unsealed today - report
The federal judge handling Donald Trump’s trial on charges related to subverting the 2020 election has allowed a new batch of evidence against the former president to be made public today, the Washington Post reports.
The evidence underpins a brief filed by special counsel Jack Smith that argues Trump’s conduct is not covered by a recent supreme court ruling that gave presidents immunity from prosecution for official acts. Here’s more from the Post on what we can expect to see when the evidence is released:
In a five-page order Thursday, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan said Trump had failed to address the legal system’s presumption in favor of public access to criminal court proceedings, and rejected the former president’s assertion that it could appear the court was trying to impact the election by making public potentially unflattering material about Trump in an appendix to Smith’s brief.
“If the court withheld information that the public otherwise had a right to access solely because of the potential political consequences of releasing it, that withholding could itself constitute — or appear to be — election interference,” Chutkan wrote. “The court will therefore continue to keep political considerations out of its decision-making, rather than incorporating them as Defendant requests.”
Trump’s attorneys earlier Thursday had asked Chutkan to postpone the release of the material, much of which was expected to be redacted, until nine days after the Nov. 5 election. That would fall after the former president is set to file his own blockbuster brief of up to 180 pages with its own appendix of sources arguing why he should not still face trial after the Supreme Court’s July ruling establishing that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts.
While Trump argued that release of the materials would poison the jury pool, Chutkan said that both sides’ filings ultimately would be available to potential jurors, any taint could be rooted out in jury selection, and Trump was free to make his own legal arguments in court and to the public.
While Donald Trump is believed to have made gains among Black and Hispanic voters, a new poll shows the Kamala Harris continues to lead among the former group, the Guardian’s Anna Betts reports:
A new poll has revealed that Kamala Harris continues to lead Donald Trump among Black likely voters in battleground states.
The poll, conducted by Howard University’s Initiative on Public Opinion from 2 October to 8 October, surveyed 981 Black likely voters in the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The results show that 84% of respondents said they planned to vote for the vice-president, while only 8% said they would support Trump for president in November, and another 8% remained undecided.
The survey also identified the most important issues for the respondents, with “democracy/voting rights/elections’” ranked as a top priority, followed by the economy and abortion rights.
We’ll hear more from Donald Trump at 7pm today, when he holds a rally in Detroit.
That’s the largest city in swing state Michigan, and a Democratic stronghold. Don’t be surprised if he presses his case to the city’s large African American population, a demographic where the Trump campaign is trying to make inroads, that they would be better off voting for him.
Kamala Harris, meanwhile, will also be in Michigan. She rallies in Grand Rapids at 2.30pm, then has another event in the state capital Lansing at 5.25pm, and a final event in suburban Detroit’s Oakland county at 8.10pm. Busy day!
Trump campaign considering holding town hall with Nikki Haley - report
Donald Trump’s campaign is pondering arranging a town hall with Nikki Haley, his former UN ambassador turned rival for the Republican nomination, who has since endorsed his candidacy, the Bulwark reports.
The joint appearance, which could be held with conservative commentator Sean Hannity on Fox News, is a bid to shore up his standing with women voters, who polls indicate are less enthusiastic about returning Trump to the White House than are men. Haley and Trump were at-times bitter rivals in the GOP primaries earlier this year, but she later endorsed him during a speech at the Republican national convention in July.
Nonetheless, Haley has lately noted that she still has her differences with Trump. Here’s what the Bulwark reports:
Since then, however, Haley and Trump have not appeared together. And she hinted that tensions still linger on her new SiriusXM satellite radio show last month.
“I don’t agree with Trump 100 percent of the time,” Haley said.
“I have not forgotten what he said about me. I’ve not forgotten what he said about my husband or his, you know, deployment time or his military service. I haven’t forgotten about his or his campaign’s tactics from, you know, putting a bird cage outside our hotel room to calling me ‘bird brain,’” Haley said on her show, adding that she’s still for Trump because she thinks he “will make the country better.”
Those comments garnered some attention in Trump’s orbit. One confidant of the ex-president privately joked that talk like that is usually taboo in his circles because “if you’re with him 99 percent of the time, you’re a fucking traitor in Trump’s eyes.”
Fox News anchor Bret Baier says he made “a mistake” when he failed to include a clip of Donald Trump referring to the “enemy from within” about his rivals during an interview with Kamala Harris on Wednesday.
Baier showed a clip that came from a town hall broadcast earlier in the day via Fox News’s “The Faulkner Focus”, in which Trump said he is “not threatening anybody.”
“That clip was not what he has been saying about the enemy from within. … That’s not what you just showed,” Harris said to the Fox News anchor.
“You didn’t show that, and here is the bottom line: He has repeated it multiple times, and you and I both know that, and you and I both know he has talked about turning the military on the American people.”
Baier said on “Special Report” on Thursday that he “did make a mistake” when it came to clips shown in the interview.
Trump brushed off concerns from President Biden about Election Day not being peaceful, saying, “the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroyed our country.”
“I think the bigger problem are the people from within,” Trump said. “We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics.”
Vice-president Kamala Harris appeared at the Al Smith charity dinner, a bi-partisan fundraising event traditionally attended by presidential candidates to trade lighthearted jokes at each other, via a pre-recorded video link.
Actress and former SNL cast member Molly Shannon appeared in the sketch, playing her fictional Catholic school pupil character Mary Katherine Gallagher.
Harris asked for advice; Shannon-as-Gallahgher suggests she doesn’t lie, as it is a sin. Harris replies you shouldn’t lie, especially, about “thy neighbour’s election results”.
She would never insult Catholics, Harris said – taking another jibe at Trump: “That would be like insulting Detroiters when you’re in Detroit.”
Harris’ sketch received a lukewarm reception by those in attendance at the dinner.
“As I watched that I couldn’t help but think now I know how my kids felt when I face-timed into a piano recital they were at,” Jim Gaffigan, the comedian who hosted the dinner, said.
The crowd cheered – not hugely enthusiastically, but more than just politely – following Harris’s appearance.
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Electioneering places a cost burden on local police forces. As the candidates descend on Michigan, a key battleground state in the upcoming election, local forces scramble to provide support to the Secret Service and other agencies.
The Detroit Free Press reports that by late last month, Kent County, home of Grand Rapids, had incurred more than $300,000 in expenses.
Assistant County Administrator Lori Latham said:
We anticipate additional expenses as we expect more visits leading up to the election.
Although we do not have a dedicated fund for these unforeseen costs, we use overtime and contingency funds to manage such unexpected expenditures.
Bob Stevenson, executive director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, said some areas feel the burden more than others:
The degree of the burden sometimes depends on the size of the city and their experience with it,” Stevenson said. “You take a town like Dearborn or Detroit or Battle Creek.
They have lots of people, they can probably divert a lot of their working people for that short period of time, and it’s not a problem. But you take some of the smaller cities, not only are they already short staffed, but now you’ve got to somehow come up with people.”
Security concerns have been the theme of this campaign, with two attempts on Trump’s life taking place in less than three months.
Vice President Kamala Harris is preparing for her first campaign appearances with Barack and Michelle Obama this month in Georgia and Michigan.
The Associated Press reports that the vice president will appear with Barack Obama in Georgia on October 24, and with Michelle Obama in Michigan on October 26.
The Obamas endorsed Harris in July and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August in Chicago.
The rally is being hosted by When We All Vote, a nonpartisan civic engagement organisation founded my Michelle Obama to encourage people to engage with politics.
Trump insults Harris in jibe-filled speech at Catholic charity dinner
Vice President Kamala Harris did not attend the Al Smith charity dinner in New York in person, appearing via a pre-recorded video sketch, instead. Her jokes didn’t appear to land with the audience.
The white-tie dinner raises millions of dollars for Catholic charities and traditionally candidates from both parties have attended.
Trump’s jokes were crude but seemed to be well received by those in attendance.
Trump mocked transgender people, aiming a jibe at vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz.
He also took aim at migrants and New York, saying he had to wrap up his speech so New York can “turn the room into an illegal migrant shelter”.
Regarding Harris’ absence, he posted on his Truth Social network:
Just found out that Lyin’ Kamala is doing a video message tonight instead of being at the Al Smith Dinner. She shouldn’t be allowed to do a video message.
Kamala should be there like almost every other Presidential Candidate in their History, except Walter Mondale, who lost 49-1. They didn’t give me the option of a video message, nor would I have done it. This is very disrespectful to everyone involved. She should be here, or lose the Catholic Vote!”
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Germany honours Biden for restoring 'Europe's hope in the trans-Atlantic alliance'
Germany have awarded US President Joe Biden the highest class of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his work improving the German-American friendship and the transatlantic alliance.
He was presented the award by Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Steinmeier said the friendship with the US is “and will always be existentially important” for Germany, but there have always been “times of proximity and greater distance.”
”Even recently, just a handful of years ago, the distance had grown so wide that we almost lost each other,” Steinmeier said, alluding to tense relations during Trump’s earlier presidency.
He said Biden “restored Europe’s hope in the trans-Atlantic alliance literally overnight.”
“In the months to come, I hope that Europeans remember: America is indispensable for us,” he added. “And I hope that Americans remember: Your allies are indispensable for you. We are more than just ‘other countries’ in the world — we are partners, we are friends.”
Updated
Trump accuses Zelenskyy of helping to start war in extraordinary attack
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the run-up to the US election as Donald Trump has claimed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy helped to start his country’s war with Russia.
The Republican presidential candidate’s extraordinary criticism – the war started when Russia invaded Ukrainian sovereign territory – comes as Joe Biden arrives in Europe for closed-door discussions with allies with Ukraine high on the agenda.
As Reuters reports, Trump’s comments indicate he is likely to radically shift US policy toward Russia if he wins the 5 November election.
The Republican former president has frequently criticized Zelenskyy on the campaign trail, repeatedly calling him “the greatest salesman on Earth” for having solicited and received billions of dollars of US military aid since the war broke out in 2022.
Trump has also slammed the Ukrainian leader for failing to seek peace with Moscow, and he has suggested Ukraine may have to cede some of its land to Russia to make a peace deal, a concession Kyiv considers unacceptable.
Trump’s comments on the PBD Podcast on Thursday with Patrick Bet-David went a step further than his previous criticism. He said Zelenskyy was to blame not just for failing to end the war, but for helping start it. “That doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start. The war’s a loser,” Trump said.
Meanwhile on Friday, Biden will seek to cement cooperation with key European partners on issues from the Ukraine war to conflict in the Middle East during a swift swansong trip to Berlin.
“We’re wheels down in Berlin,” Biden wrote in a post on X overnight. “Ready to greet old friends and strengthen our close alliance as we stand together for freedom and against tyranny around the world.”
We’re wheels down in Berlin.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 18, 2024
Ready to greet old friends and strengthen our close alliance as we stand together for freedom and against tyranny around the world. pic.twitter.com/zaTFtTOFMT
More on this shortly. In other developments:
Donald Trump laid into Kamala Harris and other Democrats on Thursday in a pointed and at times bitter speech as he headlined the annual Al Smith charity dinner in New York. The Republican nominee repeatedly criticised his Democratic campaign rival over her decision to skip the event. She sent a video instead.
Billionaire Elon Musk launched five nights of campaign events in Pennsylvania in support of Trump’s campaign last night. “This election, I think, is going to decide the fate of America and, along with the fate of America, the fate of Western civilization,” he said at a town hall event in Folsom, on the outskirts of Philadelphia. He also reportedly pushed the debunked narrative that voting machines had been used in a plot to rig the 2020 election.
Harris and Trump will both be scouring for votes in Michigan on Friday as they try to lock down support in this key political battleground. Harris is scheduled to begin her day in Grand Rapids before holding events in Lansing and Oakland County, which is northwest of Detroit. Trump has his own event in Oakland County in the afternoon before holding a rally in Detroit in the evening.
