Election 2024 live updates: Trump to appear on Joe Rogan podcast; Obama slams ‘whining’ ex-president on campaign trail

Kamala Harris is in Washington, DC, recording TV interviews and narrowly leads Donald Trump in national polling with two weeks until Election Day.

Donald Trump criticizes Harris for ‘taking a day off’ before election

Kamala Harris will appear on NBC Nightly News this evening in an interview recorded in Washington, DC, this afternoon. The vice president also taped an interview with Telemundo.

Donald Trump called her “lazy as hell” for what he perceived as her absence from the campaign trail during a surreal roundtable in pursuit of the Latino vote at his golf club in Miami.

The rambling, lie-filled session concluded with a group prayer during which people laid their hands on the former president before the traditional playout music, “YMCA”.

It is reported that on Friday, the former president will sit down for an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan. The Harris team is said to be in talks for her to appear on the show.

On the campaign trail, former president Barack Obama joined her vice presidential nominee Tim Walz in Wisconsin at a raucous get-out-the-vote rally in which the former president slammed Trump for his “whining”. The Minnesota governor also mocked Trump’s “running mate” Elon Musk for jumping around on stage “like a dipsh*t”.

Later this evening Obama will appear with rapper Eminem in Detroit, Michigan, and on Thursday, he will join rock legend Bruce Springsteen and Vice President Harris in Atlanta.

Key Points

• Trump attacks Harris for alleged ‘day off’ campaigning
• Donald Trump loses edge over Kamala Harris on economy two weeks out from Election Day, new poll finds
• Harris accuses Trump of hiding from her and tells voters: ‘We cannot despair’
• Trump claims to know nothing about scandal-hit gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson despite endorsing him
• Tim Walz defends Harris campaigning with Cheney as he makes Daily Show debut
• Campaign schedule: Who’s doing what where on Tuesday

[22 October 2024 13:10 · Joe Sommerlad]

Almost one in five Republicans say Trump must call election invalid if he loses

Nineteen percent of GOP voters believe the former president should do “whatever it takes” to return to power, even if that means calling the results invalid if he loses, according to a new national poll by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute.

Worrying, in a word.

Here’s Gustaf Kilander’s report.

[22 October 2024 12:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

In the final stretch, Harris and Trump are taking two different strategies

As Kamala and Tim Walz methodically campaign in the swing states stressing the importance of the issues and politely articulating policy positions that might actually help people, Trump is out joking about Arnold Palmer’s three-wood and salting fries for yucks while JD Vance goes largely unnoticed.

Here’s Eric Garcia on two sharply contrasting strategies for the final weeks.

[22 October 2024 12:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Harris holds 2:1 lead over Trump in early voting – as poll goers cite abortion as key issue

Here’s Graig Graziosi with some better news for democracy fans: the vice president has a near two-to-one lead over Trump among voters who have already cast their ballots, according to the latest USA Today/Suffolk University poll.

[22 October 2024 12:10 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump cashes in on McDonald’s stunt with new ‘MAGADonald’s’ merch

“True Trump patriots” can now purchase a white T-shirt emblazoned with an image of the Republican nominee waving from the drive-thru window in his apron.

Although pitched as a “McGift” in a fundraising email to supporters, the shirt is not free, with his campaign’s website suggesting a donation of $100 would be appropriate.

I think it was Stephen Colbert who characterized the relentless MAGA cash grab as “the grifting of the rubes” and perhaps there is no finer example.

James Liddell reports.

[22 October 2024 11:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

‘Why is that funny?’ Lara Trump snaps when Charlamagne tha God laughs at her claim Donald isn’t racist

The Republican nominee’s daughter-in-law snapped at the Detroit radio host when he laughed at her for claiming she had “never seen” her Trump “say a racist thing.”

Appearing on The Breakfast Club on Monday, the co-chair of the RNC was asked about Trump being sued for defamation by the Central Park Five when the disagreement erupted.

Rhian Lubin reports.

[22 October 2024 11:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

McDonald’s workers roast Trump over ‘insulting cosplay’ stunt at restaurant that failed health inspection

Staff from the Golden Arches have given their verdict on Trump’s performance behind the fry cooker on Sunday.

Here’s Kelly Rissman on where they marked him down.

[22 October 2024 11:10 · Joe Sommerlad]

Seth Meyers unpacks Trump’s latest ‘insane’ rally obsession: Arnold Palmer’s manhood

Over on NBC, another late-night host pronounced himself baffled by the Republican presidential nominee’s crude anecdote in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night about the legendary golfer.

James Liddell reports.

[22 October 2024 10:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

Tim Walz defends Harris campaigning with Cheney as he makes Daily Show debut

The Minnesota Governor assured Jon Stewart that Democrats would not adopt former GOP vice president Dick Cheney or his daughter Liz Cheney’s foreign policy postitions despite accepting their endorsement.

Here’s Eric Garcia on Walz’s latest late-night appearance on Comedy Central.

[22 October 2024 10:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump suggests criticism of judges is a crime

Here’s another interesting line from Trump during his Concord address yesterday.

I wonder what Judge Juan Merchan thinks about this, given that the former president spent the entire spring smearing him and his family as he attempted to preside fairly over his Manhattan hush money trial, repeatedly insisting without evidence that Merchan was corrupt and the instrument of a “weaponized” justice system.

His dear friend and supposed “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk should also surely be incensed by the hypocrisy.

[22 October 2024 10:10 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump claims to know nothing about scandal-hit gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson despite endorsing him

The Republican yesterday shamelessly claimed that he was “not familiar with the state of the race” in North Carolina that Robinson is currently losing to Josh Stein after being caught in the “Black Nazi” porn website scandal.

Meanwhile here’s Gustaf Kilander on that master of sensitivity showing off his McDonald’s fry cook pin while surveying hurricane damage during the same visit.