Trump repeats FEMA conspiracy during North Carolina visit; Harris joins Cheney to court suburban voters: Live
Polls tighten in key swing states as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump enter final two weeks of campaign
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Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are still virtually tied in the seven key battleground states according to the latest Washington Post/Schar School poll.
Harris has a narrow lead in the Blue Wall states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, as well as in Georgia. Trump is ahead in Arizona and North Carolina, while they are tied in Nevada.
Trump was in Swannanoa, North Carolina on Monday, which was devastated by floods from Hurricane Helene, and repeated the baseless conspiracy theory that Federal Emergency Management Agency money to deal with the disaster had instead been sent to “illegal migrants”. He reiterated the accusation later at a rally in Greenville.
The former president spent Sunday working the fry cooker at a branch of McDonald’s – the latest bizarre moment in a campaign that has increasingly become a tour of personal vendettas and aimless grudges, despite his aides’ best efforts to keep him on track.
Harris joined former Republican Rep Liz Cheney on Monday for a tour of suburban districts in three states that could swing the election to her by encouraging GOP voters, unhappy with Trump, to vote for the Democratic ticket instead.
Trump serves disturbing message through McDonald’s drive-thru window about whether he’ll accept election result
CNN host gets into awkward argument with top Republican about Trump’s bizarre Arnold Palmer comment
‘But don’t call them weird’: Trump raises eyebrows after crude 12-minute anecdote about Arnold Palmer’s manhood
Trump boosts a hard-right Christian worldview that paints the election as 'spiritual warfare'
IN FOCUS: Inside the Harris campaign effort to turn red voters blue
Andrew Feinberg writes:
For generations of American schoolchildren, a key rite of passage in civic education has been a visit to a centuries-old, two-story Georgian structure in downtown Philadelphia.
That building, formally known today as Independence Hall, has over the centuries played host to multiple American presidents, and remains the centerpiece of a national park celebrating America’s founding. It is where the constitution was born.
On Thursday, it was business as usual outside the iconic venue. Young students in identical hats emblazoned with their school and class year filed past on their way into the rooms where the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were debated and approved by the nation’s founding fathers. Senior citizens on an organized tour walked past the front entrance on their way to the next stop on their journey.
But across Chestnut Street, on a sidewalk abutting the green grass of Independence Mall, another, much smaller group was gathering for a group photograph.
Continue reading...
Inside the Harris campaign’s efforts to turn Republican voters blue
Andrew Feinberg speaks to the former Trump voters who are now planning to pull the lever for Harris — and the campaign politicos who came up with an unusual strategy
Inside Ron DeSantis’s war on abortion rights in Florida
Alex Woodward reports:
A federal judge offered a withering single-sentence summary to tell Ron DeSantis why his administration can’t threaten to criminally prosecute TV stations for airing abortion rights ads.
“To keep it simple for the State of Florida,” Judge Mark Walker wrote on October 17, “it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”
Police have knocked on doors. Government-funded ad campaigns and websites have called opponents liars, and state investigators have accused them of fraud. State officials sent cease and desist letters to local news networks threatening them with legal action, which the judge blasted as “indirect” government censorship. The state attorney who wrote the letters abruptly stepped down after sending them. “A man is nothing without his conscience,” he wrote in his resignation letter.
Judge Walker dealt a temporary blow to the Republican governor’s efforts. But advocates fear DeSantis is paving the way to throw out election results for a ballot measure that would protect reproductive rights. If approved by voters, that ballot measure would derail the governor’s anti-abortion agenda and overturn the state’s abortion bans.
Continue reading...
Door-knocking and restraining orders: Inside Ron DeSantis’s war on abortion rights
Abortion rights are on the ballot in Florida. Advocates fear DeSantis is laying the groundwork to nullify the results, Alex Woodward reports
McDonald’s workers roast Trump over ‘insulting cosplay’ stunt
Donald Trump’s obsession with questioning Kamala Harris’ work experience at McDonald’s peaked over the weekend when he worked the fry cooker at a Pennsylvania branch — without a hairnet or gloves.
McDonald’s workers have now given their verdict on the former president’s performance - and came away less than impressed.
Kelly Rissman has the story.
McDonald’s workers roast Trump over ‘insulting cosplay’ fry cook stunt
Trump sported neither gloves not a hair net as he worked at a branch of the fast food chain in Pennsylvania
Trump serving McDonald’s compared to ‘low-energy’ season of 'The Bear’
Donald Trump’s latest campaign publicity stunt, which saw him working a shift in a McDonald’s, has prompted a flurry of memes comparing him to the award-winning restaurant-based TV show The Bear.
With just weeks to go until the 5 November election, where he and Kamala Harris are almost level in the polls, Trump turned up in an apparent scheme to help him appeal to the American “everyman”.
Greg Evans reports.
Trump serving McDonald’s compared to The Bear: ‘Season 4 is low-energy’
Trump served fries at a closed McDonald’s in Pennsylvania
Watch: Trump bizarrely states he has ‘no cognitive problems and is not that close to 80’
Trump bizarrely states he has ‘no cognitive problems and is not that close to 80’
Donald Trump bizarrely stated he has “no cognitive problems” and is “not that close to 80”, minutes after getting a news anchor’s name wrong. Speaking during a town hall in swing state Pennsylvania on Sunday (20 October), the 78-year-old former US president said: “Let's have a little fun, Paige”, to former ESPN anchor Sage Steele who was set to moderate the discussion. Trump also renewed his call for the mental acuity tests after vouching for his cognitive ability, before telling the audience: “I am not 80, I am not that close to 80.” He then went on to praise the sharpness of 93-year-old Rupert Murdoch.
Alec Baldwin returned to SNL this weekend... but not as Trump
Saturday Night Live took a swing at Donald Trump’s dance-a-thon town hall and Kamala Harris’s Fox News interview in its latest episode.
Alec Baldwin starred as Fox News’s Bret Baier and Maya Rudolph reprised her role as Harris on Saturday’s episode as they mocked the contentious 27-minute interview.
Katie Hawkinson reports.
Alec Baldwin returns to SNL - but not as Donald Trump
Alec Baldwin starred as Fox News’s Bret Baier in this week’s Cold Open sketch
Pennsylvania rally not first time Trump has shared vulgar Arnold Palmer story
Donald Trump’s vulgar anecdote about the late golfer Arnold Palmer during his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday raised eyebrows – but it is reportedly not the first time the former president shared the innuendo.
The first time Trump went to campaign in Latrobe, Pennsylvania – Palmer’s hometown – in September 2020, he is said to have recounted a story of admiring the legendary golfer’s naked body to his team before traveling to the city.
Ariana Baio has the story.
Trump shared vulgar story about Arnold Palmer in the Oval Office: report
While on the campaign trail in 2020, Trump is said to have recounted a story about Palmer’s physique to his team
Lindsey Graham melts down on air over book passage that calls Trump a ‘fascist’
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham grew irate on Sunday during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press after he was reminded that a four-star general called former President Donald Trump “fascist to the core.”
Host Kristen Welker noted to Graham that retired General Mark Milley told Watergate journalist Bob Woodward that no one has ever posed more danger to the US than Trump.
“Why shouldn’t voters trust Donald Trump’s top general on this, Senator?” Welker asked.
Gustaf Kilander reports.
Lindsey Graham melts down on air after Trump is called a ‘fascist’
South Carolina senator claims Republicans backing Harris are ‘supporting the most radical nominee in the history of American politics’
Watch: Trump repeats FEMA conspiracy lie at campaign stop in North Carolina
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