Trump news – live: Obama tells Michigan crowd that 'Joe Biden is my brother, and will make a great president' as Trump campaigns in Pennsylvania
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Barack Obama has delivered a passionate endorsement of Joe Biden, telling a crowd in Michigan: “Joe Biden is my brother, and he will be a great president.”
Mr Biden thanked him for his support, telling him he was proud of their eight years together in the White House. It is the first time they have been seen together since January 2017.
“President Obama and I created more jobs in the last three years of our administration than Donald Trump did in the first three years of his,” Mr Biden said.
“Only Donald Trump is going to have fewer jobs at the end of this presidency than when he started it. He’s done nothing but wage war on American labour. We believe you should be rewarding work, not wealth, in this country.”
Donald Trump, meanwhile, has landed in Pennsylvania, where he will have four rallies today in Newton, Reading, Butler and Montoursville.
With only three days left of campaigning both sides are giving it their everything.
Kamala Harris is in Florida, with rallies in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Lake Worth, while Mike Pence is in North Carolina.
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s up-to-the-minute coverage of all the latest from Donald Trump’s attempts to cling to the presidency amid an escalating coronavirus pandemic he remains determined to play down.
Here is the clip of Donald Trump baselessly - and falsely - suggesting that doctors are over-counting coronavirus deaths in order to get paid more money.
The comments were made during a campaign rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, that was littered with mistruths and misleading claims ranging from coronavirus to whether Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, is able to pronounce her own name.
Experts warn of ‘rapid increase’ in radical-right extremism following US election
Academic experts on the radical right have raised “alarm” that the US could see a “rapid“ rise in right-wing extremism and domestic terrorism following the 2020 presidential election.
In an open letter sent to The Independent, 17 specialists on radical right discourse warn that “anti-democratic methods will become normalised in pursuit of still darker, radical-right agendas.”
“We fear that should election violence or a contested outcome in the US come to pass, there could be a rapid increase in radical-right extremism, including increased risks of domestic terrorism,” the letter reads.
Read more:
Experts warn of ‘rapid increase’ in radical-right extremism and domestic terrorism following US election
‘We have seen this movie before,' open letter warns
Donald Trump’s latest tweet, sent at almost 2am this morning, wrongly claims suburban women are “trending strongly” to him because of Republican efforts to stoke fear about law and order.
In fact, polls show Joe Biden continuing to lead among the demographic - one Trump won in 2016 - by almost double-figures.
Armed Trump supporters have reportedly been harassing a Biden campaign bus in Texas, forcing Democrats to cancel events due to safety concerns.
Sheryl Cole, a Texas House representative, said the pro-Trump protesters had “escalated well beyond safe limits”.
Katie Naranjo, chair of the Travis County Democratic Party, said someone’s car had been rammed by the demonstrators.
Dr Eric Cervini, a Democratic activist, has provided a Twitter thread on armed Trump supporters in Texas intimidating a Biden campaign bus on its way to Austin.
The latest Fox News poll shows Joe Biden’s national lead narrowing slightly over Donald Trump to eight points, which is nevertheless a sizeable lead going into the final few days of the campaign.
David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s former campaign strategist, calls it “You’re fired” territory for Mr Trump.
One in four Americans think Trump and Biden are ‘too old’ to be president, Independent poll finds
How old is “too old” to be president? Most Americans think people aged 80 and older should not be in the running, according to polling from The Independent and JL Partners.
But 26 per cent – roughly one in four respondents – believe 60 or 70 is too old, meaning a quarter of Americans think current candidates Donald Trump, 74, and Joe Biden, 77, are too old to be president.
A threshold of 80 years old is also the consensus among younger people – 52 per cent of respondents aged 18-24, and 30 per cent of people aged 25-34.
Read more:
Exclusive: Polls show what Americans think about Trump and Biden's ages
Exclusive poll: Most Americans say candidates aged 80 and older shouldn’t run
Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton, says there’s a good chance we will not know outcome of the election come November 4, and that litigation in the courts is “very possible”.
Donald Trump finished his campaign rally in Michigan yesterday by making a series of false claims about coronavirus. He wrongly said “you get better” after catching the virus and that once you have it “you’re gonna be immune”.
In fact, many people do not get better from Covid-19, and there have been documented instances of people catching the illness a second time.
Mr Trump then claimed he has “made America safe again”, despite - as Vox’s Aaron Rupar has pointed out here - around 1,000 Americans dying everyday from coronavirus.
The US president followed the claim with his now regular jig to the song “YMCA”.
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