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Trump and Harris campaign out West in final sprint to Election Day: Live updates

Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are out on the campaign trail, with the Republican holding an impromptu press conference from a garbage truck on Wednesday

Donald Trump, dressed as a garbage man, says he will protect women ‘whether they like it or not’

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With less than a week to go in the US presidential election race, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are making their final pitches to voters.

The Democratic presidential nominee has hit back at her Republican rival after he vowed to “protect” women “whether the women like it or not” at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.

“Donald Trump thinks he should get to make decisions about what you do with your body. Whether you like it or not,” Harris posted on X.

In a bizarre stunt prior to his speech, Trump had posed in a garbage truck dressed as a sanitation worker in an attempt to troll Harris and Joe Biden after the latter allegedly called MAGA voters “garbage” in anger over comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s already-notorious Madison Square Garden joke about Puerto Rico.

The publicity gimmick was not entirely a success, with Trump struggling to climb into the waste collection vehicle’s cab, looking ridiculous in a high-visibility vest and spending time circling the airport tarmac to no obvious end.

The latest swing state polling meanwhile puts Harris narrowly ahead in Wisconsin and Michigan.

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Trump aide pushes anti-vax conspiracy live on CNN

Howard Lutnick, co-chair of the prospective Trump-Vance transition team, spoke to Kaitlan Collins on CNN last night and questioned the effectiveness of vaccines in shockingly frank fashion, as though the last four years – or four centuries – had never happened.

On the same network, social media personality Leigh McGowan took the media to task for holding Kamala Harris to account for a remark Joe Biden made while Trump gets away with it yet again, also rebuking the Republican for behaving like a fascist.

She was backed up on that point by Abby Phillip, who duly ran a montage of the candidate referring to people as “scum”.

Joe Sommerlad31 October 2024 12:30
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Kamala HQ turns Trump’s latest sinister declaration into hard-hitting meme

The X account that describes itself as “the official rapid response page of Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign” has wasted no time in going after the Republican for his disturbing pledge to protect women “whether they like it or not” by pointing out the real-life consequences of his war on reproductive rights in the starkest terms possible.

This was Harris’s own response to the same line, incidently.

Joe Sommerlad31 October 2024 12:10
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Trump boasts to crowd no one leaves his rallies early – just as man gets up and walks out

“Everybody watches our rallies, everybody loves our rallies, we never have an empty seat,” Trump declared at his earlier event yesterday in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

“They try and demean us like that horrible, horrible person that I debated when she said ‘and people leave early.’ Nobody leaves early.”

At that very moment, a rally-goer donning a black T-shirt featuring the Republican’s mugshot got up out of his seat and left.

Too perfect.

Here’s Rihan Lubin’s report.

Trump’s boast fails after he says no one leaves his rallies early - as man exits

Trump has been fixated on crowd sizes throughout his election campaign

Joe Sommerlad31 October 2024 11:50
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Harris slams Trump for promising ‘abortion conspiracy theorist’ RFK Jr ‘control’ over public health agencies

Kamala came after the former independent candidate on X late yesterday, warning that him being put in charge of anything is evidence that Trump is “more unhinged than ever”.

Here’s Gustaf Kilander with more on the Republican’s apparent quid pro quo with Kennedy.

RFK Jr, known for his anti-vax views, says Trump promised him control of the CDC

Trump said during Madison Square Garden rally that he would let Kennedy Jr ‘go wild’ on health, food, and medicines

Joe Sommerlad31 October 2024 11:30
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Jimmy Kimmel roasts Trump’s ‘confusing’ garbage truck stunt

“Shouldn’t they have put him in the back of that?” the host quipped.

“The garbage goes in the back”.

James Liddell has more on a gift for late-night.

Jimmy Kimmel roasts Trump’s ‘confusing’ garbage truck stunt

‘Shouldn’t they have put him in the back of that? The garbage goes in the back,’ the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host quipped

Joe Sommerlad31 October 2024 11:10
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Trump claims he could have beaten George Washington in 2020 but for Covid-19 outbreak

Fox News aired more of the Republican nominee’s dungeon-shot interview with Sean Hannity last night, which found him claiming a fictional Trump-Lincoln ticket could have seen off Big George four years but for that pesky pandemic.

He also offered this flagrant lie about the reception Beyonce got in her native Houston, Texas, last Friday as she campaigned for Harris, insisting the crowd were devastated that she didn’t sing.

Joe Sommerlad31 October 2024 10:50
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Where are the candidates campaigning on Thursday?

Here’s where the main players will be today, with just five days to go.

  • Donald Trump will spend Halloween casting his sinister shadow over Albuquerque, New Mexico, Henderson, Nevada, and Glendale, Azirona, with the even ghastlier Tucker Carlson joining him for that last one.
  • Kamala Harris will be in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, before holding another “When We Vote, We Win” rally in Phoenix, Arizona. Her guests will be Jennifer Lopez and the Mexican pop-rock band Maná in Vegas and Los Tigres del Norte in Phoenix, pointed selections in light of garbage-gate.
  • Tim Walz will meanwhile be in Harrisburg and Erie, Pennsylvania, before moving on to Detroit, Michigan.
  • Byron Donalds, the Florida Representative, will be leading a Team Trump bus tour in Atlanta, Georgia.

Here’s more on J Lo joining the Harris train in response to Tony Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico slur from Rhian Lubin.

J Lo to speak at Harris rally after racist Puerto Rico joke at Trump’s MSG event

The singer has publicly thrown her support behind Kamala Harris following Tony Hinchcliffe’s racist joke calling Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage’

Joe Sommerlad31 October 2024 10:30
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Harris shuts down pro-Palestinian protester

The Democrat was also in Wisconsin yesterday and was interrupted during her address in Madison by an activist demanding an end to US support for Israel’s military intervention in Gaza.

Unruffled, the Vice President broke off to silence the heckler, which she did politely but firmly, winning a rapturous reception from the crowd.

Joe Sommerlad31 October 2024 10:10
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Kamala Harris leads Trump in Wisconsin and Michigan in latest polling

The latest swing state polling puts Harris narrowly ahead in Wisconsin and Michigan – but the two are tied in Pennsylvania.

The so-called blue wall states are Harris’s most viable, but not only, path to an Electoral College victory after Tuesday’s election.

Here’s more from Gustaf Kilander.

Harris has edge over Trump in Wisconsin and Michigan – but tied in Pennsylvania

Trump won all three in 2016, but President Joe Biden managed to win them all back four years later

Joe Sommerlad31 October 2024 09:50
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Trump vows to ‘protect’ women ‘whether the women like it or not’

When the Republican presidential nominee finally took the stage in Green Bay, he was still glorying in his garbage man stunt and wearing the vest, which made him look even more like a haunted pumpkin than usual.

But then it was all business as usual, bragging about Madison Square Garden, berating the Wisconsinites who had bothered to show up to support him, raving about BLT sandwiches and lying about immigration and American history before doing his weird double jerk dance to The Village People and heading for the exit.

There was no question what the line of the night was, however…

Trump vows to ‘protect’ women ‘whether the women like it or not’

While there were cheers at Trump’s rally, reaction online was less enthusiastic

Joe Sommerlad31 October 2024 09:30

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