Election 2024 live: Trump completes swing state sweep with Arizona; Republicans inch closer to House majority

Result brings Trump’s final electoral vote total to 312, compared to Kamala Harris’s 226

Donald Trump praises ‘ice maiden’ Susie Wiles after historic election win

Donald Trump has officially clinched Arizona, the final state to be called in the 2024 election, handing the Republican a clean sweep of all seven swing states.

The result brings Trump’s final electoral vote total to 312, compared to Kamala Harris’s 226.

Trump earlier announced that two of his former cabinet members – former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – would not be invited to serve in his administration this time around.

Trump announced the decision on Truth Social on Saturday evening, days after announcing that Susie Wiles, his campaign manager, would serve as chief of staff.

With results still coming in from the election, control of the House is still up for grabs, but Republicans already reclaimed control of the Senate.

Three Senate Republicans are vying to replace Mitch McConnell as the chamber’s leader: John Cornyn, John Thune, and Rick Scott. The election will be held November 13.

Earlier Saturday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced President Joe Biden and Trump would meet at the White House this week, setting in motion transition plans between the administrations of the two longstanding political enemies.

Key Points

• Trump wins Arizona, the final state to be called in the 2024 election
• President-elect reveals two former members of his administration will not be returning
• Republicans expected to retain House control as counting continues
• Trump and Biden to meet at White House this week
• Trump says his mass deportation plan has ‘no price tag’
• Tucker Carlson accuses Senate Republicans of staging ‘coup’ ahead of internal leadership vote

[9 November 2024 17:20 · Rachel Sharp]

Bill Maher has brutal message for Democrats after Harris’s election loss: ‘Losers look in the mirror’

Comedian Bill Maher had some harsh words for Democrats shocked that Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

“My message to the losers: losers look in the mirror,” Maher said during Friday’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher.

Maher’s typically laughing audience went completely silent as he said the quiet part out loud and advised Democrats to reflect on themselves.

“For months, Democrats have been saying ‘How is this even close?’ And they’re right. It wasn’t,” Maher said.

Read the full story:

[9 November 2024 17:00 · Rachel Sharp]

Usha Vance: Who is the new Second Lady?

[9 November 2024 16:40 · Rachel Sharp]

‘Ice maiden’ Susie Wiles’s demands for accepting top Trump White House role revealed

Susie Wiles, the newly appointed chief of staff to the second Trump White House, reportedly made a series of demands before she would accept the high-profile role in the president-elect’s upcoming administration.

Wiles, 66, described by Trump himself as the “ice maiden” and considered to be one of the most significant influences on his third campaign, was appointed to the top job on Thursday.

The chief of staff is, historically, the first appointee named by the president-elect and is charged with overseeing all policy and day-to-day White House affairs.

But, according to a source close to both Wiles and Trump told CNN, the former campaign manager had sought assurances from the president-elect prior to taking the role.

Mike Bedigan has the story:

[9 November 2024 16:28 · Rachel Sharp]

Trump and Biden to meet at White House this week

Donald Trump and President Joe Biden are set to meet in person this week at the White House.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced on Saturday that, at Biden’s invitation, the president and president-elect will meet in the Oval Office at 11am on Wednesday.

This comes as Biden has vowed a peaceful transition between the two administrations.

[9 November 2024 16:20 · Rachel Sharp]

Walz sends message to Trump supporters in first speech since election loss

Tim Walz offered an olive branch to Donald Trump supporters in his first comments since the Republican’s 2024 presidential election victory.

Speaking in his home state, the governor addressed the “1.5 million of our fellow Minnesotans [who] voted for the other side in this election.”

Kamala Harris’s running mate declared that he would “swallow his pride” and “look a little harder to find common ground with our neighbors who didn’t vote like we did.

“Maybe when we get a little break from this campaign that we’re in, we’ll be able to look at each other and see not enemies but neighbors.”

[9 November 2024 16:00 · Rachel Sharp]

CNN commentator brands Elon Musk the ‘First Lady’ after Melania doesn’t appear in Trump family photo

CNN commentator Ana Navarro suggested that Elon Musk was taking over the title of “First Lady” from Melania Trump after he appeared in a recent Trump family photo instead of her.

Speaking on a panel on Friday, Navarro referenced a picture of the Trump family following the president-elect’s sweeping victory in the 2024 race against Harris. Most family members were present, but Melania was conspicuously absent.

Musk, however, was standing at the front right of the picture.

Read the full story:

[9 November 2024 15:40 · Rachel Sharp]

Trump won big on election night. Is his victory bad news for Biden’s legacy?

As he became the Democratic frontrunner in 2019 and favored to defeat Donald Trump in 2020, a report claimed that Joe Biden was only going to serve one term if elected.

His campaign swiftly dismissed it.

Today, some are wondering if it would have been better if he had adhered to that report.

During the 2024 campaign season, Biden announced plans to run for reelection. That came despite concerns about his age and whether he could serve another four years. Then, Biden fumbled through his debate against Trump and Democratic panic ensued.

The 81-year-old exited the race and endorsed his VP Kamala Harris to succeed him at the top of the ticket. The rest — namely Trump’s election win — is history.

Kelly Rissman reports:

[9 November 2024 15:20 · Rachel Sharp]

Trump bizarrely suggests he wants to 'help' Democrats with campaign debts 'during this difficult period'

In a Truth Social post on Saturday morning, the president-elect had uncharacteristically kind words for his political rivals:

I am very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2020 Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn’t have lots of $’s left over. Now they are being squeezed by vendors and others. Whatever we can do to help them during this difficult period, I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do. We have a lot of money left over in that our biggest asset in the campaign was “Earned Media,” and that doesn’t cost very much. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

[9 November 2024 15:00 · Eric Garcia]

‘If that dude’s mama gets deported, that’s on him’: Democrats’ reaction to Trump-voting Latinos is a problem

On Thursday evening, I went on the Roland Martin Unfiltered show to talk about why Latinos overwhelmingly shifted to the right and voted for Donald Trump. Martin, whom I’ve long respected as an analyst on politics back since I was a teenager, had the same response a lot of other people did.

“What the hell happened? Explain it to us,” he asked me.

I noted how Trump’s appeal is largely driven by polarization via education, given that people with college degrees and advanced degrees largely broke for Kamala Harris whereas those without a bachelor’s degree voted for Trump. Latinos are one of the groups least likely to have a college degree.