Frantic campaigning by Trump amid Iowa poll shock
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the 2024 US presidential election as we move into the final hours before polls open on Tuesday.
It’s set to be a busy day for Donald Trump with appearances in three swing states and it comes amid a surprise setback in Iowa with a poll showing him trailing Kamala Harris in what was previously expected to be a safe state for the Republicans.
The Republican nominee will kick off this morning with a rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, followed by an afternoon event in Kinston, North Carolina, and rounding the day off in Macon, Georgia.
Harris, meanwhile, will head to Michigan later today where the Democratic hopeful is due to speak at a campaign rally at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
Last night, she broke from the campaign trail to embrace her reputation as a “joyful warrior” with a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live. Harris portrayed herself, appearing in a mirror opposite the actor Maya Rudolph, who first played her on the show in 2019 and has reprised the role this season.
If you missed it, you can read David Smith’s fun report here:
In other developments:
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A Georgia judge rejected a Republican lawsuit trying to block counties from opening election offices on Saturday and Sunday to let voters hand in their mail ballots in person. The lawsuit only targeted Fulton county, a Democratic stronghold. Trump falsely blamed Fulton county workers for his loss of the 2020 election in Georgia.
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Americans took to the streets in cities across the country for a day of women’s marches. Marches were planned in all 50 states for the eighth annual gathering, which began the day after Trump was inaugurated in 2017.
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Vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr could assume some control over US health and food safety in a second Trump administration, according to reports on Saturday. Kennedy said in a social media post that he would remove fluoride from all public water.
Key events
Former president Donald Trump told a crowd in Lititz, Pennsylvania, that he wouldn’t mind if a shooter were to “shoot through” the press.
“To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news, and I don’t mind that so much,” Trump said.
He also called the press “seriously corrupt people”.
So far, during a rally in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump has questioned the validity of voting machines, claimed Democrats stole the elections for Joe Biden, and repeated unverifiable claims about the origin of Covid-19.
Regarding voting machines, the former president claimed that they can be hacked. “The machines are going to really hit me hard, because, you know, they never heard anybody hit them like this,” he said.
It’s worth mentioning states routinely test and certify their voting machines. Officials also conduct checks to make sure ballots are properly counted before election results are finalized.
Trump also claimed that the current economy is showing “depression-type numbers” before linking the economy with immigration through anti-immigrant comments.
North Dakota governor Doug Burgum downplayed the offensive joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe about Puerto Rico at a Trump rally last week.
During an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Burgum said the joke doesn’t represent Trump supporters’ views. During a rally in New York City, Hinchcliffe called the U.S. territory “a floating island of garbage.”
“The crowd was groaning,” Burgum said. “I mean, there was not approval from a very supportive Trump audience.” He also called Hinchcliffe a “comic that no one’s ever heard of”.
The North Dakota governor also criticized President Biden’s response to the joke, accusing Biden of unfairly labeling Trump supporters.
The White House later clarified Biden’s intent was to condemn the rally’s rhetoric, not the supporters.
Former president Donald Trump accused recent polls of being “corrupt” and “fake”, alluding to recent polling from The New York Times.
“We got all this crap going on with the press and with the fake stuff and fake polls,” Trump said. “The polls are just as corrupt as some of the writers back there.”
These comments come minutes after the Trump campaign released a memo accusing The New York Times of releasing a “voter suppression” poll designed to dampen their voters’s enthusiasm.
Former president Donald Trump began delivering his remarks in Lancaster County more than an hour behind schedule. He took the stage with an ominous walkout song before Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The U.S.A.” started playing.
Lancaster County rarely ever switches parties, usually voting for the Republican nominee in presidential elections.
Pennsylvania has consistently voted for the Democratic nominee since 1992, with the exception of former President Donald Trump in 2016.
Trump campaign claims polls designed to suppress voter turnout
The Trump campaign claimed that recent polling by The New York Times and Des Moines Register is designed to suppress Trump voter turnout by presenting a bleak picture of Trump’s reelection prospects.
“Some in the media are choosing to amplify a mad dash to dampen and diminish voter enthusiasm,” reads the memo from Trump campaign pollsters, Tony Fabrizio and Tim Saler. “It has not worked. Our voters are like President Trump: they fight.”
The memo claims that the Times’s polls have biased samples and overrepresent Democratic voters compared to actual voter registration and turnout trends.
Democratic senator Jon Fetterman from Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump is currently holding a rally, took a stab at the former president after his campaign launched ads doubling down on attacks on trans people.
‘“It’s just a warped version of, it doesn’t make you tough,” he said during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union”. “It doesn’t make you a man to pick on trans or gay kids. It just makes you an a-hole.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on Trump’s ads attacking trans kids in PA, “It’s just a warp warped version of it doesn’t make you tough. It doesn’t make you man to pick on trans or gay kids. It just makes you an asshole.” pic.twitter.com/15SgevSyHK
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) November 3, 2024
Democratic senator Raphael Warnock from Georgia was confident Black voters would turn up at the polls in support of Kamala Harris.
In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press”, Warnock said:
“I was in Michigan a couple weeks ago, in a Black fraternity house, my own fraternity. I’ve spent time in barber shops. I’ve been encountering folks, obviously in my church, and other churches. And there is momentum for Kamala Harris, and the more voters hear about her, including Black men, the more they they like her.”
His impression from these encounters is that former president Donald Trump will feel the hit from the lack of support from Black voters.
“Let me tell you something. Black men are not going to show up in droves and waves voting for Donald Trump,” the senator said. “They’re not, and it’s because they know who he is.”
Warnock pointed to Trump’s actions in the late 1980s against a group of Black and Latino men, known as the “Central Park Five”, who were accused of murdering a jogger. The five men have always denied the crime and were later exonerated.
Former president Donald Trump is expected to deliver his remarks soon in Lititz, Pennsylvania.
Trump will appear on stage at the Lancaster Airport on Sunday, with his speech scheduled for 10 a.m. ET. The Republican nominee will also hold events in Reading and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday.
We’ll be following the former president’s comments, so stick around.
Harris to visit Detroit and Pontiac
As well as her evening event in East Lansing, Kamala Harris is due to make two further stops in Michigan today, the Detroit Free Press reports.
A senior Harris campaign official, who declined to be identified, told the outlet that the Democratic nominee will attend church in Detroit on Sunday and visit the city’s Livernois area. Strong turnout in Detroit is generally crucial to Democratic success in Michigan.
Harris will then make a stop in Pontiac, another city with a significant Black population and historic ties to the auto industry, the official said.
Who would win in a fight between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hulk Hogan?
While the Terminator star and former Republican governor of California endorsed Kamala Harris just days ago, the ex-Obama supporting wrestler told the Republican national convention that: “We never had it better than the Trump years.”
So although, as far as I know, the two musclebound stars have never come to blows, if they were to meet soon there could be some heated disagreement over the presidential race!
You can see the full list of celeb endorsements here