The Guardian

Vance says Harris can ‘go to hell’ in critical remarks on Biden administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal – live

By Dani Anguiano (now); Chris Stein and Anna Betts (earlier),

9 hours ago

https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0wODNK_0vCk4J3200 — JD Vance speaks at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

10.56pm BST

During his remarks in Erie, JD Vance again argued that the altercation at Arlington national cemetery was “the media creating a story” and instead used a question from a reporter about the incident to condemn Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

NPR reported on Tuesday that two Trump campaign staffers had been involved in an altercation with a cemetery official for filming and taking pictures in a section that is reserved for recent US military casualties. The Trump campaign was given permission to have a photographer in attendance while Trump was visiting the cemetery, Vance said.

“You know what I think our veterans care a lot more about, that Kamala Harris’s VP nominee lied about his military experience,” he said. Republicans have repeatedly attacked Walz’s military service in recent weeks

Vance also argued that 13 Americans died in Afghanistan because Harris “refused to do her job”.

“Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won’t even do an investigation into what happened and she wants to give Donald Trump because he showed up, she can go to hell!”

Updated at 10.59pm BST

10.12pm BST

Vance says Harris can 'go to hell' in critical remarks on Afghanistan withdrawal

JD Vance said at a rally that Kamala Harris can “go to hell” as he heavily criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

The Republican vice-presidential candidate was speaking at a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania. Republicans have long sought to use the Afghanistan pullout to attack Joe Biden and are now using the same line of criticism against Harris in hopes of defeating the Democrat in November.

Updated at 10.14pm BST

9.53pm BST

Sarah Palin won a new trial in her libel lawsuit against the New York Times.

A jury in 2022 rejected the former Alaska governor’s claims of defamation. Palin had argued that the newspaper damaged her reputation by linking her campaign rhetoric to the 2011 Arizona shooting that wounded US representative Gabby Giffords and left six others dead.

On Wednesday, a federal appeals court ruled that she should receive a new trial, and found that the judge in the original proceedings made several errors, including wrongly excluding evidence.

A spokesperson for the Times called Wednesday’s decision “disappointing” while Palin’s lawyer said it was “a significant step forward”.

8.59pm BST

Congressman says relatives approved Trump campaign taking photos at Arlington cemetery

Mike Waltz , a Republican congressman, shared a statement from the families of US soldiers killed and injured during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, who said they approved of Donald Trump ’s campaign staff taking photos and videos during his visit to Arlington national cemetery on Monday:

However, according to NPR , an Arlington official got into an altercation with Trump’s campaign staff because the former president’s entourage had been visiting a section of the grounds where only cemetery employees can take photos.

It’s unclear whether Trump having the permission of some of the families of those buried there is relevant to the cemetery’s policies.

Updated at 9.03pm BST

8.43pm BST

Speaking of Donald Trump, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that the former president is gearing up to continue his legal challenge against special counsel Jack Smith, who yesterday unveiled a new indictment against him for trying to overturn the 2020 election:

Donald Trump is expected to continue to battle against criminal charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election by challenging further parts of the revised indictment that removed allegations the US supreme court found were subject to immunity.

The superseding indictment filed on Tuesday by special counsel prosecutors mainly removed allegations about Trump’s efforts to use the justice department to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power and reframed the narrative to say Trump was being charged in his capacity as a candidate.

The document retains the same four criminal conspiracy statutes against Trump that were originally filed last summer. But portions of the new indictment have been rewritten to emphasize that Trump was not acting in his official capacity during his efforts to try to overturn the election.

Trump’s lawyers see the changes as minimal and will seek to pare back the charges further, according to people familiar with the matter, because they consider large parts of what remains in the updated indictment to be presumptively immune conduct that the judge needs to resolve.

In that sense, there are no immediate consequences of the special counsel Jack Smith getting a superseding indictment in the case. Trump still plans to initiate new litigation, which will be appealed to the US court of appeals for the DC circuit, and any trial would not happen before the November election.

Updated at 9.02pm BST

8.24pm BST

Vance says Trump campaign 'was allowed' to have photographer at Arlington national cemetery

JD Vance said the Trump campaign was given permission to have a photographer present during his visit this week to a section of Arlington national cemetery where photography is not allowed.

“There is verifiable evidence that the campaign was allowed to have a photographer there … they were invited to have a photographer there,” Vance said during a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.

NPR has reported that two Trump campaign staffers got in an altercation with a Arlington official for filming and taking pictures in a section of the cemetery reserved for recent US military casualties, and where only staff members are allowed to use cameras.

Addressing reports of a scuffle, Vance said: “The altercation at Arlington cemetery is the media creating a story where I really don’t think that there is one,” and, “Apparently somebody at Arlington cemetery, some staff member, had a little disagreement with somebody, and they have turned the media has turned this into a national news story.”

Updated at 8.51pm BST

8.11pm BST

During an appearance in Erie, Pennsylvania, this afternoon, JD Vance trotted out a new attack line against Kamala Harris, accusing her of running a “copycat campaign”.

The Ohio senator, who Donald Trump selected as his running mate last month, said, without offering evidence, that the Democratic nominee had adopted the same policies as his campaign.

“If you look at her campaign the past week and a half, she pretends that she agrees with Donald J Trump on every issue. She is running a copycat campaign,” Vance said.

There are wide differences between the two campaigns – something Vance well knows, considering that he spent much of his speech attacking Harris for her support of efforts to encourage electric vehicle usage.

The “copycat campaign” line may be a reference to one of the few areas where the two candidates align, which is on taxing tips. Trump has said he’d like to remove taxes on gratuities, and Harris recently said she would support that as well. The policy is generally seen as a way to woo votes in Nevada, a swing states with a large number of workers dependent on tips:

Updated at 8.12pm BST

7.48pm BST

Supreme court maintains hold on latest Biden student debt relief plan

The US supreme court has declined a request from the Biden administration to allow a plan that would lower or pause federal student debt payments for borrowers to take effect, the Associated Press reports .

Joe Biden proposed the plan, known as Save, after a previous attempt to cancel billions of dollars in federal student loans was blocked by the supreme court’s conservative majority . Republican-led states sued over the Save plan, and have won rulings against it at the appeals level.

Today’s decision from the nation’s highest court will allow those rulings to stand while litigation plays out.

Here’s more, from the AP:

The justices rejected an administration request to put most of it back into effect. It was blocked by 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In an unsigned order, the court said it expects the appeals court to issue a fuller decision on the plan “with appropriate dispatch.”
The Education Department is seeking to provide a faster path to loan cancellation, and reduce monthly income-based repayments from 10% to 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income. The plan also wouldn’t require borrowers to make payments if they earn less than 225% of the federal poverty line — $32,800 a year for a single person.
Last year, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority rejected an earlier plan that would have wiped away more than $400 billion in student loan debt.
Cost estimates of the new SAVE plan vary. The Republican-led states challenging the plan peg the cost at $475 billion over 10 years. The administration cites a Congressional Budget Office estimate of $276 billion.
Two separate legal challenges to the SAVE plan have been making their way through federal courts. In June, judges in Kansas and Missouri issued separate rulings that blocked much of the administration’s plan. Debt that already had been forgiven under the plan was unaffected.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that allowed the department to proceed with a provision allowing for lower monthly payments. Republican-led states had asked the high court to undo that ruling.
But after the 8th Circuit blocked the entire plan, the states had no need for the Supreme Court to intervene, the justices noted in a separate order issued Wednesday.

Updated at 7.51pm BST

7.26pm BST

Failed Trump assassin viewed rally as 'target of opportunity'

The gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, viewed the event as a “target of opportunity”, the FBI revealed today, according to the Associated Press .

The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh office, Kevin Rojek, told reporters that Thomas Crooks , who opened fire on Trump, searched on the internet for: “Where will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show?” “Butler Farm Show podium” and “Butler Farm Show photos” ahead of the former president’s rally in July.

However, Rojek said that Crooks’s motive remains a mystery: “We have a clear idea of mindset, but we are not ready to make any conclusive statements regarding motive at this time.”

Updated at 7.31pm BST

7.13pm BST

FBI say Trump gunman spent months researching events and seeking a target before settling on Trump's Pennsylvania rally

The gunman who tried to assassinate former president Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania in July searched more than 60 times for information about Trump and Joe Biden , before registering for the Trump rally, according to a new Reuters report that cites FBI officials.

Reuters also reported that Kevin Rojek , the FBI’s top official in western Pennsylvania, said that the 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Crooks , mounted a “sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some events, meaning he looked at any number of events or targets”.

Crooks then became “hyper focused” on the Trump rally after it was announced, Rojek said.

According to USA Today , Rojek said that Crooks researched the Trump and Biden campaigns between April and July 2024.

Updated at 7.31pm BST

6.57pm BST

A new poll released today by ActiVote shows the vice-president, Kamala Harris, and the former president Donald Trump “essentially tied” in the battleground state of Michigan, with Harris leading Trump by just 0.2%.

The new Michigan presidential poll was conducted between 28 July and 28 August and was among 400 likely voters. The poll has an “average expected error of 4.9%”, the company said.

According to the data, Harris leads among such as urban voters, women, low income voters, young voters in Michigan, where Trump leads among rural and suburban voters, men, and those 50 to 64 years old, ActiVote wrote .

Updated at 7.05pm BST

6.29pm BST

A new survey released by Gallup suggests that a majority of Americans continue to approve of labor unions.

According to the survey , 70% of respondents said that they approve of labor unions, up from 67% last year. This year’s approval rating is the second highest recorded by Gallup since 1965, per the data, with the 2022 being the highest with 71% approval rating of labor unions.

The recent survey, which was conducted in August of this year, also states that 23% of respondents said that they disapproved of labor unions and 7% had no opinion.

The new data comes as Tim Walz , the Democratic vice-presidential candidate and governor of Minnesota, spoke to unionized firefighters this morning at the International Association of Fire Fighters convention in Boston.

Updated at 6.33pm BST

6.03pm BST

The day so far

Controversy brews over a report that campaign staffers for Donald Trump were involved in a physical altercation with an official from Arlington national cemetery, which he visited earlier this week. Trump’s former defense secretary Mark Esper told CNN he was waiting to hear the outcome of an investigation into the scuffle, while saying the cemetery should never be used for “partisan political purposes”. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris ’s communications director indicated that her campaign and Trump’s were still not on the same page about the rules for their 10 September debate, with the sticking point being whether the candidates’ microphones would be live when it was not their turn to talk. Trump seems to want them switched off, while Harris’s people want them on.

Here’s what else has happened today so far:

Tim Walz , the Minnesota governor who is Harris’s running mate, invited unionized firefighters to tune into the debate, saying: “ It’s going to be good .”
Clips of JD Vance attacking people who do not have children keep emerging .
Trump continued to rail against the gag order imposed on him in his hush money case, saying it is preventing him from talking about the “most important and corrupt aspects” of his prosecution.

Updated at 6.05pm BST

5.44pm BST

Donald Trump’s legal troubles are clearly on his mind today, if his recent Truth Social posts are any indication.

The special counsel Jack Smith yesterday unveiled a new indictment of the former president for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. While it does not dramatically alter the facts of the case, and appears mostly a response to the supreme court’s immunity decision handed down last month, the Guardian’s Victoria Bekiempis reports in our Trump on Trial newsletter that it may be a sign the former president’s luck in the courts has run out:

Updated at 6.01pm BST

5.24pm BST

Donald Trump is meanwhile busy on Truth Social , posting about various things on his mind, including the gag order he remains under in his New York hush -money case.

The order prevents him from making statements about prosecutors, court staff and their families, at least until his 18 September sentencing date. That’s a fairly small group of people, but Trump is nonetheless very upset about it, as he wrote :

When asked about the lawless Manhattan D.A. Hoax, I am not allowed to talk about the most important and corrupt aspects of it, because of the completely unConstitutional Gag Order. I am the first Candidate in American History who is not allowed to freely speak about a major Witch Hunt being perpetrated against him. I must be immediately released from the Gag Order, so I can continue to expose the Weaponization of our Justice System by the Radical Democrats. The GOOD NEWS is that the American People see through these Witch Hunts, and will bring us a dominant Victory on November 5th. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Updated at 5.25pm BST

5.03pm BST

Harris campaign spokesman says question of live microphones in debate with Trump still undecided

Donald Trump yesterday said he had agreed on the rules for his 10 September debate with Kamala Harris , but a spokesman for the vice-president indicates they still are not on the same page over whether the microphones will be on or off when it is not a candidate’s turn to speak.

Trump yesterday said he had agreed to the same rules that governed his June debate with Joe Biden . In that case, microphones were muted when it was not time for him or the president to talk.

In an interview with CNN today, the Harris campaign’s communications director Michael Tyler implied that Trump had agreed that microphones would be on throughout – something the former president has not explicitly said.

“We’re going to have a 90-minute debate. Both candidates have said that they are comfortable with live, unmuted microphones for the duration of the debate that allows for the free flow and exchange of ideas between the two candidates. I understand that Donald Trump’s team of handlers is now attempting to overrule him. But as insofar as the candidates themselves, we’re in total alignment that this should be a 90-minute debate with live microphones. And so that’s what we look forward to,” Tyler said.

Asked if Harris would attend the debate, hosted by ABC News, if microphones are not always on, Tyler replied:

We fully intend to debate. We’re going to be there. The question is, will Donald Trump commit to the terms that he’s publicly agreed to? Or will he let his team overrule him? So I guess we’ll see if when he shows up on September 10, which decision he has made.

Updated at 5.08pm BST

4.38pm BST

Former Trump defense secretary says Arlington cemetery should never be used for 'partisan political purposes' after report of Trump altercation

Mark Esper , a former defense secretary under Donald Trump , told CNN that he hoped the reported altercation between the former president’s staff and an official at Arlington national cemetery was investigated, while saying that the grounds should never be used for “partisan political purposes”:

Esper served under Trump from 2019 until shortly after the 2020 election, when Trump fired him . The former defense chief has since decried Trump as a “ threat to democracy ”.

Updated at 4.45pm BST

4.16pm BST

In newly resurfaced remarks from 2021, JD Vance, the Republican vice-presiden tial candidate, attacked teachers and Democratic leaders who do not have children.

In the clip, Vance, who was speaking at a forum held by the Center for Christian Virtue can be heard saying:

So many of the leaders of the left, and I hate to be so personal about this, but they’re people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children, that really disorients me and disturbs me.
Randi Weingarten , who’s the head of the most powerful teachers’ union in the country, she doesn’t have a single child. If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.

In a post on X , Weingarten responded to Vance’s resurfaced comments, calling them “gross” and “sad and insulting to millions of modern families, and school teachers including Catholic nuns, none of whom should be targeted for their family decisions”.

This comes just weeks after Vance came under fire after a clip of him in 2021 calling leading Democrats “ a bunch of childless cat ladies ” resurfaced.

Updated at 4.18pm BST

3.59pm BST

Walz also referenced his past as a football coach to argue that, despite the former president’s protestations, Trump plans to implement Project 2025 if elected.

“One of the goals of their Project 2025 is to screw the middle class, making it harder for workers to collectively bargain, allowing employers to drastically cut overtime or eliminate it, slash taxes for the ultra wealthy by imposing a national sales tax on the rest of us,” Walz said.

“Look, I’ve said this, I’m an old-time football coach. If you draw up a playbook, you plan on using it. Project 2025 is a plan to reshape what America looks like – moving away from the middle class and putting it right back on the oligarchs and the wealthy at the top.”

Updated at 4.02pm BST

3.44pm BST

Walz says Harris's debate with Trump is 'going to be good'

Tim Walz encouraged unionized firefighters to watch Kamala Harris ’s 10 September debate with Donald Trump , saying: “It’s going to be good.”

“Kamala Harris, she’s ready to hold him accountable on the debate stage,” Walz said of Trump. He continued:

Tell me you’re not looking forward to that. Look, I know you’re busy. You’re going to be watching Monday Night Football or something, but it’s going to be good. It’s going to be good because again, as I said, this is going to impact you. The things that are said on that debate stage are going to impact your retirement. They’re going to impact your kids, education, they’re going to impact infrastructure. These are things that matter to us.

Updated at 3.47pm BST

3.31pm BST

Walz addresses firefighter union convention in Boston

Tim Walz is now onstage at the International Association of Fire Fighters convention in Boston, where he’s talking about the Harris campaign’s policies towards labor unions.

We’ll let you know what the Minnesota governor has to say.

Updated at 3.35pm BST

3.14pm BST

Kamala Harris will rally supporters tomorrow in Savannah, Georgia, at the conclusion of her bus tour through the state.

Based on this list , it does not appear that Donald Trump has ever held a rally in the coastal city, but he nonetheless knows where his supporters (or at least three of them) can be found – at Waffle House:

2.59pm BST

Trump campaign staff had 'verbal and physical altercation' with Arlington cemetery officials over taking pictures - report

Two staffers for Donald Trump ’s campaign had a “verbal and physical altercation” with an official at Arlington national cemetery over filming and taking photos in a section reserved for recent US casualties of war, NPR reports .

The Trump campaign has denied the episode, which it blamed on an “unnamed individual” who was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode”. The national cemetery told NPR that it had filed a report over the incident.

Here’s more:

A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent US casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.
When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.
Trump participated in an event to mark the third anniversary of a deadly attack on US troops in Afghanistan as US forces withdrew from the country; 13 US service members were killed in the attack. The Trump campaign has blamed President Biden and Vice President Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, for the chaotic withdrawal.
In a statement to NPR, Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s spokesman, strongly rejected the notion of a physical altercation, adding: ‘We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.
‘The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,’ Cheung said in the statement.
The Trump campaign declined to make that footage immediately available.
In a statement to NPR, Arlington National Cemetery said it ‘can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.’

Updated at 3.16pm BST

2.42pm BST

Why are Kamala Harris and Tim Walz heading to Georgia’s rural south?

Democrats have suffered in rural areas in recent election cycles nationwide, instead drawing support from cities and their suburbs.

But Politico reports that the Democrats’ swing through the Georgia hinterlands is part of a strategy – which they plan to replicate in other swing states – of trying to limit their losses in rural areas, while also turning out support in urban areas.

“You have to really stave down margins and go places even when you don’t think you can win it outright,” Harris-Walz principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told Politico. “You know you’re going to lose that county, but just showing up there can sometimes be the difference between 5 to 10 percentage points, or sometimes just putting an office there.”

2.23pm BST

Harris and Walz set for first joint interview with CNN on Thursday

Kamala Harris has not done a single sit-down interview since embarking on her presidential campaign, but that will change on Thursday at 9pm ET when CNN airs a joint interview with Tim Walz .

The network says the candidates will talk about their swing through Georgia, and we can expect the vice-president to also be asked for her thoughts on Joe Biden ending his bid for a second term and clearing the way for her to become the Democratic nominee.

It’s just one interview, though, and is unlikely to quiet the attacks from Donald Trump , his running mate JD Vance and other Republicans who claim that Harris and Walz can’t handle scrutiny from the press. We’ll see if the pair schedule more encounters with the media in the weeks to come.

Updated at 2.33pm BST

2.03pm BST

Harris and Walz kick off bus tour of Georgia to build momentum in swing state

Good morning, US politics blog readers. There are seven swing states whose voters are expected to decide the November presidential election: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia. It’s that last state which will be getting special attention from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz over the next two days, as they look to preserve inroads made by Joe Biden four years ago, when he became the first Democrat to win its electoral votes since 1992. The pair is kicking off a bus tour of the state’s southern counties on Wednesday that will culminate on Thursday with Harris holding a rally in Savannah.

Their campaign says that Harris and Walz are aiming to build off their momentum from last week’s convention, when they accepted the party’s nomination amid enthusiasm from Democrats. They’re also aiming to win a state that may be the toughest to hold in November – polls generally show Donald Trump with the advantage among Georgia voters, though the gap has grown narrower since Harris entered the race. We’ll see what the vice-president and Minnesota governor encounter as they traverse the state today.

Here’s what else is happening:

Trump earlier this week visited Arlington national cemetery, and his campaign staff had an altercation with an official who tried to prevent them from taking pictures in area where only employees are allowed to do so, NPR reports . The Trump campaign has rejected their description of events.
The Cook Political Report , the closely watched forecaster, now views North Carolina as a “toss up” in the presidential election. The state hasn’t voted for a Democratic candidate since 2008.
The Senate GOP campaign arm is buying ads for incumbent Ted Cruz , in a sign that polls of his re-election race against Democrat Colin Allred in the Republican bastion may be too close for comfort.