Trump and Melania set to attend Al Smith dinner together as former president rips Harris’s no-show: Live

Donald Trump set to speak at Al Smith charity dinner with wife Melania making rare appearance by his side as Kamala Harris skips event in favor of campaign trail

Bill Clinton makes jab at Trump’s age and rally dancing

Kamala Harris delivered a presidential-style address on the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar saying that now comes a moment “to finally end the war in Gaza”.

The vice president spoke during a campaign stop at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as she continues to focus on the swing states, skipping Thursday’s Al Smith dinner for Catholic charities, at which presidential candidates usually make humorous remarks. Donald Trump will attend the event in New York accompanied by his wife, Melania Trump, NBC reports.

Trump has again lashed out at CBS flagship news show 60 Minutes over standard edits it made to an interview with Harris. The former president baselessly claims the conduct was criminal and wants the network’s license revoked.

The Harris campaign mocked Trump’s refusal to debate the vice president again and his ducking of interviews and appearances. On Thursday the National Rifle Association announced it has canceled a “Defend the 2nd” event due to “campaign scheduling changes”.

Meanwhile, Trump has reacted in gloating fashion to rival Harris’s tense interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, in which the Democrat clashed with the host on illegal immigration, Joe Biden, and the threat posed by Trump himself.

Key Points

• Harris says Hamas leader had ‘American blood on his hands’ in statement on his death
• Trump to attend Al Smith dinner as Harris campaigns in Wisconsin
• Kamala Harris clashes with Fox News host over immigration, Biden and Trump in contentious interview
• Trump downplays deadly Capitol riot as ‘day of love’ as he fails to impress Latino voters
• Republican nominee tried to strike new hush money deal with Stormy Daniels ahead of election, report claims
• Campaign schedule: Who’s doing what where on Thursday

[17 October 2024 00:15 · Katie Hawkinson]

Harris’s Fox interview starts off with fireworks as she gets into heated exchange over border security

Kamala Harris sat down for her first formal interview with Fox News on Wednesday, at times sparring with anchor Bret Baier over the border and her opponent, Donald Trump.

Check out The Independent’s re-cap of Harris’s nearly 30-minute interview:

[17 October 2024 00:00 · Oliver O’Connell]

Trump has repeatedly demonized early voting. Republicans in Georgia are doing it anyway

Eric Garcia reports from Cummings, Georgia:

At former President Donald Trump’s Fox News town hall this week, a woman named Alicia stood up to ask question, noting she was from Fulton, Georgia.

“Where I cast my vote for you today,” she added. “I hope they count it.”

Trump has spent years spreading lies and misinformation about the 2020 presidential election being stolen. And as part of that, he has repeatedly argued against early voting, at one point insisting, “the Democrats used Covid inspired Mail In Ballots to CHEAT.”

Continue reading...

[16 October 2024 23:37 · Katie Hawkinson]

Harris distances herself from Biden in Fox interview

Vice President Kamala Harris distanced herself from President Joe Biden during her Fox News interview, telling anchor Bret Baier her presidency “will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency.”

”Like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh and new ideas, I represent a new generation of leadership,” Harris said.

[16 October 2024 23:21 · Katie Hawkinson]

Bret Baier asks Kamala Harris about gender-affirming care for prisoners, immigrants

Fox News’s Bret Baier asked Kamala Harris if she supports “using taxpayer dollars to help prison inmates or detained illegal aliens to transition to another gender.”

The question comes after a 2019 questionnaire filled out by Harris came to light.

Her responses, which she gave while serving in the Senate, indicated she supported taxes being used to fund gender-affirming care for federal prisoners and detained immigrants.

“I will follow the law, and it’s a law that Donald Trump actually followed, you’re probably familiar with it now,” Harris told Baier. “It’s a public report that under Donald Trump’s administration, these surgeries were available on a medical necessity basis to people in the federal prison system.”

[16 October 2024 22:58 · Katie Hawkinson]

Kamala Harris sits down with Fox News

Fox News is airing Bret Baier’s interview with Kamala Harris at 6 pm Eastern time. The conversation marks the first time Harris has appeared on the network.

Follow along for live updates.

[16 October 2024 22:50 · Oliver O'Connell]

JD Vance claims his mother obtained health insurance under Trump... but via Obamacare

In an attempt to boost Donald Trump’s record on healthcare, JD Vance touted that his family members obtained private insurance for the first time under the former president’s administration.

However he failed to mention a key fact - it was through the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare — the very same legislation that Trump tried to repeal.

Ariana Baio reports.

[16 October 2024 22:40 · Stuti Shukla Mistry]

Watch: Former Trump voters explain their support for Kamala Harris

[16 October 2024 22:30 · Oliver O'Connell]

Full story: Jimmy Carter casts his 2024 ballot by mail

Jimmy Carter cast his ballot in the 2024 election Wednesday.

The former president voted by mail, the Carter Center confirmed in a statement. It happened barely two weeks after Carter celebrated his 100th birthday on Oct. 1 at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he’s been living in hospice care.

His son Chip Carter said before the family gathering that his father had this election very much in mind.

“He’s plugged in,” Chip Carter told The Associated Press. “I asked him two months ago if he was trying to live to be 100, and he said, ‘No, I’m trying to live to vote for Kamala Harris.’”

The Carter Center’s brief statement said it had no more details to share.

Georgia’s registered voters have been turning out in record numbers since early voting began Monday. Nearly 460,000 had voted in-person or cast absentee ballots by Tuesday afternoon, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.

Carter’s vote should count even if he’s no longer alive by Election Day on Nov. 5.

Robert Sinners, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office, noted that Georgia election rules state that when an absentee ballot is received by local election officials “it shall be deemed to have been voted then and there.”

[16 October 2024 22:15 · Oliver O'Connell]

Full story: Trump-appointed judge blocks Alabama’s mass voter purge

A federal judge in Alabama has blocked the state from implementing a mass purge of voter registrations just weeks before Election Day, landing a major blow to Republican-led challenges to voter eligiblity.

A preliminary injunction — issued on Wednesday by Donald Trump-appointed Judge Anna Manasco — arrived days after the Department of Justice and civil rights groups filed lawsuits to stop the state from stripping voter registrations for more than 3,200 people.

Alabama’s Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen claimed that those voters were “issued noncitizen identification numbers,” and are therefore ineligible to cast a ballot.

But the lawsuits uncovered that voting-eligible citizens also ended up on that list...

Andrew Woodward explains how this fits in with wider attempts at voter suppression.

[16 October 2024 22:13 · Oliver O'Connell]

Fani Willis asks court to reinstate six charges against Trump in Fulton County case

Fulton Country District Attorney Fani Willis is asking a Georgia appeals court to reinstate six charges against Donald Trump and his co-defendants in the sprawling Georgia 2020 election interference case. This includes three charges against Trump himself.

Read the full filing here