Special counsel filings reveal allegations of Trump’s ‘increasingly desperate efforts’ to overturn 2020 election: Live

JD Vance has his mic cut as VP candidates spar over immigration

Judge Tanya Chutkan has unsealed Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 165-page redacted motion on presidential immunity concerning the 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump.

The document is expected to include the fullest account and evidence of what happened in the lead-up to the 2020 election and the attempt to subvert the result as if it were an opening statement to a jury. Smith argues that Trump’s actions were not covered by presidential immunity.

With just a month to go before the election, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump remain deadlocked in the key battleground states according to new polling by The Cook Political Report.

The vice president leads Trump in Michigan by three percentage points, and she also leads by one or two points in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and they are tied in North Carolina.

Trump leads in Georgia by two percentage points but is also losing his polling lead on key issues — inflation and immigration.

Vice presidential rivals JD Vance and Tim Walz met for their first and probably final debate last night, with the Republican appearing more confident, polished, and prepared than his Democratic counterpart, who nevertheless landed some important blows.

Key Points

• BREAKING: Trump ‘pursued multiple criminal means to overturn election’ new special counsel filing claims
• New polling shows Harris leading or tied with Trump in six battleground states
• Watch the VP debate highlights, as chosen by the candidates
• Where will Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and Donald Trump be on Wednesday?
• New poll shows Trump slipping on economy and inflation versus Harris

[2 October 2024 06:00 · Josh Marcus]

Walz tries to dodge but admits ‘discrepancy’ in his comments on time in Hong Kong

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz gave a rambling answer Tuesday night during the vice presidential debate against JD Vance when asked about reports that he falsely claimed to have been in Hong Kong during the June 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China.

“All I said on this was is, I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just, that’s what I’ve said,” Walz responded to the CBS moderators. “So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests... and from that I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance.”

Josh Marcus reports:

[2 October 2024 05:45 · Ariana Baio]

Rachel Maddow: ‘JD Vance was very polished and very slick'

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said Vance was “polished” and “slick” but believes that Walz “won”.

“One of these candidates is much slicker than the other is a much more practiced, kind of professional debate-style speaker and the other candidate won,” Maddow said.

She acknowledged that Walz had an unflattering while responding to criticisms about the Tiananmen Square protests but that he succeeded on “every issue on substance” like healthcare, the economy, immigration, abortion and more.

“JD Vance was very polished and very slick and Tim Walz beat him on the substantive points.”

[2 October 2024 05:30 · Eric Garcia]

The scene at the Democratic debate watch party

At the Democrat debate watch party in Arlington, it was initially, quiet and folks were a bit stressed. Then once Walz started to hit his stride, they felt better.

[2 October 2024 05:14 · Ariana Baio]

Van Jones says JD Vance ‘lied’ the entire debate

CNN host and legal analyst Van Jones said JD Vance “lied the entire night”.

Jones said Vance repeated falsehoods about American energy production, Trump’s past healthcare policy, the peaceful transfer of power in 2021 and supporting a national abortion ban.

“I think Americans need to be very, very careful this is a very, very deceitful guy,” Jones said on CNN.

[2 October 2024 05:10 · John Bowden]

The scene from the DC Young Republicans watch party

Guests were losing interest in the wonky debate by the second half and a fight nearly broke out after one man told another guest that his views were “repulsive” and stormed out threatening to kick his ass.

[2 October 2024 05:00 · Ariana Baio]

Vance forced to confront his previous criticism of Trump on debate stage – and blames the media

Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance has blamed the media for his savage past criticisms of the former president.

Speaking in a televised debate against his Democratic opposite number Tim Walz, the Ohio senator claimed that he was misled by “dishonest fabrications” when he compared Trump to Hitler and said he had “thoroughly failed to deliver his economic populism”.

“I’ve always been extremely open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump,” Vance said on Tuesday night. “I was wrong first of all because I believed some of the media stories that turned out to be dishonest fabrications of his record.

Io Dodds reports:

[2 October 2024 04:53 · Mike Bedigan]

Who won the vice presidential debate?

Despite a civilized and at times even convivial vice presidential debate, Democratic nominee Tim Walz at times appeared nervous and unprepared, while his rival JD Vance worked to downplay his image of an uncompassionate weirdo.

Ultimately, the Ohio Senator’s confidence, command of party lines and smooth delivery made a largely positive impression on Tuesday night, in contrast to that caused by several campaign controversies in recent weeks.

Mike Bedigan reports:

[2 October 2024 04:48 · Eric Garcia]

A review on Walz’s performance

By his own admission, Vance says he likes to talk a lot. When I watched his debate performances from when he ran for Congress and Governor, Walz can rattle off tons of facts.

The downside to that is that sometimes he isn’t quick on his feet. This was how he at times struggled to respond to questions about his response to violent demonstrations after George Floyd’s killing. In the same way, he slipped when he did not directly address the timeline when of when he went to Hong Kong.

It also meant he tried to pack in his rehearsed lines about abortion rather than responding to accusations about Minnesota’s abortion law.

[2 October 2024 04:30 · Ariana Baio]

Who is Usha Vance? JD’s wife is evolving alongside him on the political stage

When JD Vance began law school at Yale, the Rust Belt native encountered total culture shock — but also met his wife, the whipsmart daughter of Indian immigrants who helped him navigate the Ivy League, healthy relationships and his run for Vice President alongside Donald Trump. Sheila Flynn chronicles their romance

[2 October 2024 04:21 · Eric Garcia]

Both JD Vances—the Hillbilly and the running mate—came out in full force tonight

Vance did what he needed to do.

For the longest time, one of his biggest downsides is that he has come off as too abrasive or mean-spirited. Here, we saw the Vance that made Hillbilly Elegy a bestseller.

He talked about the woman who raised him—his mamaw—and the fact they were Democrats. He mentioned his three children where in the past he has said he told his kid to “shut up” about talking about Pokémon. Vance mostly succeeded when talking about himself. But he fell short when he tried to skate past his previous comments about Springfield, Ohio or when he talked about how he changed his mind.

Toward the end, we started to see the hard right warrior Vance we have seen since he ran for Senate. He talked about big tech censorship and said it was a bigger issue than the 2020 election. That might be enough to hurt him