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
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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.
JD Vance claims his mother obtained health insurance under Trump. She used Obamacare
Harris’s Fox interview starts off with fireworks as she gets into heated exchange over border security
Trump defends lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets claiming he was just ‘saying what was reported’
Trump has repeatedly demonized early voting. Republicans in Georgia are doing it anyway
Harris campaign calls plagiarism claims a partisan attack. Expert says it was 'sloppy writing'
Trump to attend Al Smith dinner as Harris campaigns in Wisconsin
Donald Trump is set to attend the Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, commonly known as the Al Smith Dinner, tonight in New York. The annual white-tie dinner is to raise funds for Catholic charities supporting children of various needs in the Archdiocese of New York.
It has become something of a tradition for politicians and presidential candidates to attend the dinner and give humorous speeches roasting themselves and their opponents.
Kamala Harris is skipping the dinner in favor of campaigning in the key battleground state of Wisconsin. This makes her the first presidential nominee to miss the dinner in decades.
In 2020, the dinner was held virtually and the traditional roast was called off given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In 2016, both Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton gave speeches — with Trump at one point being booed and heckled for making allegations of corruption against Clinton and saying she “hates Catholics”.
Clinton, for her part, quipped: “And whoever wins this election, the outcome will be historic. We’ll either have the first female president or the first president who started a Twitter war with Cher.”
Mark Cuban to campaign with Harris in crucial swing states
Billionaire businessman and Shark Tank judge Mark Cuban will campaign for Kamala Harris in Wisconsin, Arizona, and Michigan this week.
Cuban will appear with Harris in Wisconsin later today, at a town hall in Arizona on Saturday, and at a campaign event with second gentleman Doug Emhoff in Michigan on Sunday.
The Harris-Walz campaign said Cuban “has underscored how Vice President Harris’ new way forward agenda is pro-business and would spur economic growth that helps build up the middle class”.
Cuban, a vocal critic of Donald Trump told MSNBC on Wednesday “there's really no good reason to vote for Donald Trump as the business candidate” as business leaders want economic and political stability.
Jimmy Kimmel roasts Trump for claiming he’s the ‘father of IVF’ at all-female town hall
Jimmy Kimmel has roasted Donald Trump for declaring himself to be the “father of IVF” during an all-female town hall on Fox News.
During the Cumming, Georgia, town hall, with moderator Harris Faulkner, which aired on Wednesday, Trump labeled Alabama Senator Katie Britt “a fantastically attractive person,” before telling the crowd: “I’m the father of IVF.”
The GOP presidential candidate’s campaign later said he was joking.
On Wednesday night’s show, the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host poked fun at Trump’s bold claim.
James Liddell has the story.
Jimmy Kimmel roasts Trump for claiming he’s the ‘father of IVF’
Jimmy Kimmel Live! host also took a swipe at Fox News host Bret Baier over his testy primetime interview with Kamala Harris
‘Creepy’ moment Trump calls female senator ‘fantastically attractive’
Donald Trump has been branded “creepy” for calling a female senator “young” and “fantastically attractive” in a bizarre moment while trying to court women voters at a Fox News town hall.
Rhian Lubin reports
‘Creepy’ moment Trump calls female senator ‘fantastically attractive’ at town hall
After referring to himself as ‘the father of IVF,’ the former president commented on Senator Katie Britt’s physical appearance
Watch: Univision audience’s baffled reaction to Trump’s contradictory statement on January 6 deaths
Audience’s baffled reaction to Trump’s contradictory statement on January 6 deaths
Univision audience members were baffled at Donald Trump’s statement about people who died during the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The former president took a question from a former Republican who is no longer registered, who asked Mr Trump how he would win back his vote. Speaking about January 6, Mr Trump appeared to contradict himself and said: “Ashli Babbitt was killed, nobody was killed.” As he spoke, a group of women behind him appeared confused, with one audience member moving her head up and widening her eyes at this statement.
What were the key findings of the report on Secret Service?
Here’s a look at the key findings of the independent panel investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on July 13:
Poor communications, no plan for key buildings
The panel echoed previous reports that have zeroed in on the failure to secure the building near the rally that had a clear line of site to where Trump was speaking and the multiple communications problems that hindered the ability of the Secret Service and local and state law enforcement to talk to each other.
“The failure to secure a complex of buildings, portions of which were within approximately 130 yards of the protectee and containing numerous positions carrying high-angle line of sight risk, represents a critical security failure,” the report said.
The panel faulted the planning between Secret Service and the local law enforcement, and said the Secret Service failed to ask about what was being done to secure the building: “Relying on a general understanding that ‘the locals have that area covered’ is simply not good enough and, in fact, at Butler this attitude contributed to the security failure.”
The panel also cited the fact that there were two separated command posts at the Butler rally: one with various local law enforcement and another with the Secret Service: “This created, at the highest level, a structural divide in the flow of communications.”
There were other communications problems.
The Secret Service had to switch radio channels because radio traffic of agents protecting first lady Jill Biden at an event in Pittsburgh was popping up on the channels of agents covering the Butler rally.
The panel also noted that all the law enforcement personnel on the ground were using a “chaotic mixture” of radio, cell phone, text, and e-mail throughout the day to communicate.
Also the panel said it was unclear who had ultimate command that day.
Panel looking into Trump assassination attempt says Secret Service needs ‘fundamental reform’
An independent panel investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally says the Secret Service needs fundamental reform” and that “another Butler can and will happen again” without major changes in how candidates are protected.
The review faulted the Secret Service for poor communications that day and failing to secure the building where the gunman took his shots. It also found more systemic issues at the agency such as a failure to understand the unique risks facing Trump and a culture of doing “more with less.”
The 52-page report issued Thursday took the Secret Service to task for specific problems leading up to the July 13 rally in Butler as a well as deeper one within the agency’s culture. It recommended bringing in new, outside leadership and refocusing on its protective mission.
“The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” the authors wrote Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of the Homeland Security Department, the Secret Service’s parent agency, in a letter accompanying their report. “Without that reform, the Independent Review Panel believes another Butler can and will happen again.”
One rallygoer was killed and two others wounded when Thomas Michael Crooks climbed onto the roof of a nearby building and opened fire as Trump spoke. The former president was wounded in the ear before being rushed off the stage by Secret Service agents. That shooting, along with another incident in Florida when Trump was golfing — a gunman there never got a line of sight on the president or fired a shot — has led to a crisis in confidence in the agency.
The report by a panel of four former law enforcement officials from national and state governments follows investigations by members of Congress, the agency’s own investigators and by Homeland Security’s oversight body.
Trump-appointed judge blocks Alabama’s mass voter purge
A federal judge in Alabama moved yesterday to block 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 eligibility.
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 non-citizen identification numbers,” and are therefore ineligible to cast a ballot.
But the lawsuits uncovered that voting-eligible citizens also ended up on that list, joining thousands of people across the country who were targeted for removal from voter databases in an effort that critics fear is a concerted mass disenfranchisement campaign to suppress turnout this fall.
Alex Woodward has more.
Trump-appointed judge blocks Alabama’s mass voter purge
Legal battles over threats to voter eligibility are playing out across the US as Trump baselessly alleges noncitizens are illegally voting
Three billionaires have given $220m to help get Trump elected
This isn’t a great look for a democracy is it?
Kelly Rissman reports.
Three billionaires have given $220 million combined to help get Trump elected
The Tesla CEO and outspoken Trump supporter Elon Musk has given $75 million alone to a committee supporting the former president since July
Watch: Our expert panel make their US election predictions
Harris vs. Trump: Expert panel make US election predictions
Where will the election be won or lost? Who are the key voters Kamala Harris and Donald Trump want to woo? And how might the Israel-Palestine conflict influence American voters? These and more questions from our audience were answered in The Independent’s virtual event on the US election. Hosted by executive editor Holly Baxter, the panel features Washington experts Eric Garcia and Andrew Feinberg, alongside The Independent’s chief international correspondent Bel Trew, who shared their predictions for November 5. If you enjoy our virtual events, please consider supporting The Independent with a donation or by subscribing to Independent Premium.
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