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The Guardian
Trump to address immigration in Wisconsin, while Walz visits Michigan football game – live
By Coral Murphy Marcos,
5 hours ago
Donald Trump at a town hall event in Warren, Michigan, on Friday. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
8.58pm BST
Donald Trump wrongfully claimed that immigrants in the US are violent criminals, referring to them as “stone-cold killers.”
“There’s no greater act of disloyalty than to extinguish the sovereignty of your own nation right through your border, no matter what lies she tells,” Trump said.
“Kamala Harris can never be forgiven for her erasing our border, and she must never be allowed to become President of the United States and Wisconsin,” he added.
8.53pm BST
Donald Trump said Kamala Harris ’s border policies should disqualify her from ever becoming president and urged voters in Wisconsin not to support her.
“Kamala is mentally impaired,” Trump said. “Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way.”
Updated at 8.57pm BST
8.50pm BST
Donald Trump claims that more than 40,000 people were outside, unable to get into the building because the room was at capacity.
He then turned to criticize Kamala Harris for her role in border policies, claiming that her actions have led to widespread chaos, suffering, and a lack of national security.
“I watched this show that she put on, four years of the most incompetent border anywhere in the world, in history,” Trump said.
8.42pm BST
Donald Trump has taken the stage, starting his speech more than an hour after his scheduled slot in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin.
8.20pm BST
The latest analysis by the Guardian’s Robert Tait shows that Kamala Harris ’s national poll lead is increasing. Even by small margins, these increases may turn out to be significant.
Poll-watchers are saying that Harris might not need as big a popular vote lead as Democrats have needed in the past. The reason, roughly summarized, is that while Harris is sustaining narrow leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Donald Trump is polling better than four years ago in states he still has little chance of winning.
An improvement in a non-competitive state is an improvement that will not help him win.
Donald Trump is about half an hour late for his scheduled remarks in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin.
The stage is holding several banners displaying the faces of immigrants who face criminal charges in the state. Another banner read: “End migrant crime.”
The speech comes a day after Kamala Harris delivered a speech on immigration and border policy in Arizona.
Updated at 8.20pm BST
7.47pm BST
A Florida university will host an extremist writer after the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis , vowed to transform the school from a university known for liberal values into a conservative institution.
DeSantis installed a new board of trustees including the rightwing culture warrior Christopher Rufo . That board in turn appointed DeSantis’s “ close ally ” Richard Corcoran as the new college president, in which role he makes a $699,000 salary.
DeSantis’s lieutenants’ actions at New College – like abolishing disciplines, removing bathroom signage and denying professors tenure – have seen the departure of more than a third of the faculty, and given rise to myriad legal actions.
Donald Trump is expected to deliver a speech in Wisconsin in a few minutes.
We’ll be covering his comments at the Prairie du Chien Area Arts Center, where he’s expected to speak on immigration and policies in the southern border.
Updated at 7.38pm BST
7.12pm BST
Kamala Harris ’s campaign is planning to troll her rival Donald Trump during the Georgia-Alabama football game, after he refused to debate her.
The Washington Post reported that the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign has hired a plane to fly a banner declaring “Trump’s Punting on 2nd Debate” over the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, stadium.
The campaign is also planning to air a national ad during the college game where she calls on Trump to meet her on the debate stage.
JD Vance discussed his faith several times during his remarks, positioning it as a core element of his personal and political beliefs.
He later expressed his support for the freedom of churches and religious institutions, as well as the importance of the first amendment and the need to defend the independence of churches from government interference.
“I want to facilitate Christian charity because our local churches know best,” Vance said. “We ought to be empowering them, and I think unfortunately our current federal government is trying to destroy them, and it’s a disgrace. We’re going to stop it.”
Vance wrapped up his speech, and he’s expected to spend the next few days preparing for his debate against the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Tim Walz.
Updated at 6.57pm BST
6.41pm BST
JD Vance also touched on the economy during his remarks in Pennsylvania, saying that the current economic policies are failing to address rising costs, which prevent families from affording basic needs.
“Economic policies allow people to put food on the table,” Vance said. “If not, what the hell are we doing in American leadership?”
Vance later linked the economy to energy policies and fracking, an important issue in the current US presidential election, especially in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
“The more that we’re able to distribute Pennsylvania natural gas, the more people that are going to have good jobs, the more wages are going to go up, and the more that we’re going to be able to build a good middle-class economy for all Americans,” Vance said.
Updated at 6.44pm BST
6.31pm BST
During Pennsylvania’s town hall, JD Vance took questions from the public, first from a mother homeschooling her children.
Vance said he thinks that certain teachings in American schools are not just liberal ideas but “craziness”, especially around topics like gender and race.
“I’m extremely concerned about socialism being pushed so strongly in our education system,” Vance said. “It’s being essentially forced in our higher education system, and then filtering down to our young ones, even in elementary ages.”
Updated at 6.43pm BST
6.26pm BST
JD Vance said that telehealth, expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic, was a positive development in providing access to addiction treatment.
He stressed the need to continue and re-authorize telehealth services into 2025.
“We got to renew that and reauthorize it to give people access to the treatment that they need, and that’s something that Donald Trump and I are going to fight for every single day,” Vance said.
He later shifted to criticizing the current administration’s border policies for the “fentanyl in our community”.
Updated at 6.43pm BST
6.20pm BST
JD Vance speaks at town hall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania
JD Vance , the senator and Republican vice-presidential nominee, is making an appearance at a town hall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.
He spoke about the epidemic of opioid addiction, arguing people recovering from addiction need more support and should not be punished harshly for one relapse.
“We have to rebuild a country where we’re safe enough to actually give people the second chances that they need,” Vance said.
Updated at 7.44pm BST
6.16pm BST
Tim Walz drops in at Michigan-Minnesota football game
Tim Walz paid a visit to Ann Arbor to watch a football game between the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota.
The Democratic vice-presidential nominee was greeted at the airport by University of Michigan students, who had arrived in a bus donning a banner that read “Put Me In, Coach!”
Later today, Walz will travel to northern Michigan to prepare for his face-off against JD Vance , the Republican vice-presidential pick, on Tuesday.
Walz tweeted this photo before heading to the game:
Updated at 7.45pm BST
6.00pm BST
James Carville , the centrist Democratic political strategist who guided Bill Clinton to the presidency, said Democrats should embrace “autocracy” ahead of the November election.
Carville said not everyone should have “a seat at the table” during an interview with POLITICO’s Playbook Deep Dive podcast on Friday.
“I would always tell people in campaigns: If you want a democracy after the election, you have to have an autocracy before the election,” Carville said.
“It’s been always, I think, a shortcoming of Democratic politics that everybody has a seat at the table, and everybody can be heard,” said the longtime strategist.
5.41pm BST
In an op-ed for MSNBC , Democratic New York representative Joe Morelle criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican party broadly for spreading misinformation about the legitimacy of US elections.
Morelle expressed concern that recent comments by Johnson – who suggested the 2024 election’s integrity may be questionable – are part of a broader strategy to undermine trust in the electoral system. Morelle wrote:
Speaker Johnson’s recent comments are simply his latest effort in a pattern of misinformation and disinformation, questioning the results of an election that has only just begun.
“The lies being spread by Trump, Speaker Johnson, House Republicans and extreme right-wing conspiracy theorists about noncitizen voting have been repeatedly debunked,” he said. “Yet they have persisted in a clear attempt to generate anxiety in the minds of voters, and to serve, come November, as the foundation for false claims of election fraud.”
Updated at 5.53pm BST
5.21pm BST
Joe Biden calls in to North America’s Building Trades Unions tradeswomen conference
Joe Biden ’s call at the NABTU conference lasted roughly 10 minutes.
Labor union members are a key voting bloc for Kamala Harris , the vice-president and Democratic presidential candidate.
The majority of union leaders over generations have endorsed Democratic candidates.
But in 2016, exit polls indicated that voters in union households supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over Trump by only eight percentage points, a stark drop from 18 percentage points in 2012 when Barack Obama was on the ballot.
Updated at 7.46pm BST
5.11pm BST
Joe Biden also told union members: “When unions do well, the study shows all Americans, all union and non-union, do better.”
“It’s a big reason why our economy is the strongest in the world,” he added.
Updated at 5.14pm BST
4.59pm BST
Joe Biden is delivering virtual remarks at the North America’s Building Trades Unions Tradeswomen Build Nations conference.
“My predecessor promised infrastructure week, every day for four years, and he didn’t build a damn thing, literally,” he said after he dialed in.
Updated at 5.01pm BST
4.41pm BST
The embattled North Carolina lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson , was burned on Friday night during an appearance at the Mayberry truck show in Mount Airy.
Robinson was treated at Northern regional hospital in Mount Airy for second-degree burns, according to his campaign.
Many Republicans have distanced themselves recently from Robinson after a bombshell report from CNN revealed the lieutenant governor allegedly posted strongly worded racial and sexual comments on an online message board.
A dozen staff members on his campaign or in the lieutenant governor’s office have quit in the fallout.
After Harris’s speech focused on immigration yesterday, the Democratic senator Chris Murphy said the Democrats’ goal of new pathways to citizenship will take a back seat.
“The priorities have to be getting the border under control,” Murphy told NBC News . “The numbers are very low right now, but you can’t guarantee that that will remain the case.”
“You also can’t be assured that the courts won’t ultimately strike down the executive orders that the administration has taken,” he added.
Updated at 4.29pm BST
4.02pm BST
The Harris campaign announced the launching of Athletes for Harris, an effort to organize athletes and coaches to campaign for Kamala Harris as the next president.
“Athletes are among the most trusted voices for key voting blocs, especially young men,” reads the campaign’s statement, “making them uniquely qualified campaigners for Vice-President Harris and Governor Walz.”
“Sporting events and games are also key moments that draw in large and politically diverse audiences, audiences that are increasing their reach with gen Z and younger men,”
Harris announced the effort as Tim Walz heads to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he’s expected to attend the University of Michigan Wolverines v University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football game and speak with students about the importance of voting.
3.59pm BST
Trump to deliver remarks focused on immigration in a western Wisconsin town just a day after Harris attacks her rival during a speech, while Walz visits Michigan football game
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump is slated to speak at an event in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin , a town of about 5,000 people, on Saturday. The former president is expected to focus on immigration and crime a day after Kamala Harris accused her rival of “playing political games” on immigration .
Meanwhile, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Tim Walz , is heading to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to attend a football game between the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota. Walz will meet with young voters before the game this afternoon. Walz’s appearance in Michigan comes days before he is scheduled to debate Donald Trump’s running mate, Republican senator JD Vance of Ohio .
Vance will deliver remarks at a rally in Newton, Pennsylvania, at 5.15pm ET, where he’s expected to home in on energy policies, fracking and the economy.
Here’s what else is going on:
North Carolina ’s lieutenant governor, Republican Mark Robinson, received burns on Friday night while attending a truck show as he was campaigning for governor, his campaign said.
Kamala Harris has stretched her lead over Donald Trump in the US presidential election race, the latest polling averages from the Guardian show, even while the two candidates appear to be running neck-and-neck in most battleground states.
Pennsylvania steelworkers are wooed by Harris and Trump, but they still remain skeptical of both candidates, Tom Perkins reports .
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