Donald Trump describes 6 January Capitol riots as ‘day of love’ during Miami town hall
The Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, on Wednesday described 6 January 2021, when thousands of his supporters attacked the Capitol in Washington DC in a bid to stop formal certification of Trump’s election defeat, as a “day of love”.
During a town hall with a Latino audience, hosted by Spanish-language television network Univision yesterday, Trump was told by a participant that he wanted to give the former US president a chance to “win back his vote” given his concerns over the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot, reports Reuters.
Thousands of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol in Washington DC that day causing millions of dollars in damage. Four people died on the day of the attack, and one Capitol police officer who fought against the rioters died the next day.
At the town hall in Miami, Trump gave a lengthy response in which he described 6 January 2021 as a “day of love” and said former administration officials who had turned against him were angry about having been fired.
“I hope someday maybe we’ll get your vote,” Trump said as he wrapped up. “Sounds like maybe I won’t, but that’s OK too.”
Trump also stood by debunked claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets, telling Latino voters during a town hall he was “just saying what was reported”.
Trump in recent weeks has amplified a false claim that has gone viral that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing residents’ pets or taking wildlife from parks for food.
There have been no credible reports of Haitians eating pets, and officials in Ohio – including Republicans – have repeatedly said the story is untrue.
More on this story in a moment, but first, here are the latest updates:
Surrounded by more than 100 former Republican officeholders and officials, Kamala Harris urged GOP voters on Wednesday to put “country first” and abandon Trump. Trump is “unstable” and “unhinged” and would eviscerate democratic norms if given a second White House term, she said. “America must heed this warning”.
In her interview on Fox News, Harris was asked about the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle illegal immigration at the southern border, and laid the blame on Republicans for failing to pass a border bill. Harris said Trump told Republicans to reject the bill because “he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
In the Fox interview, Harris singled out Iran when asked which foreign country she considers to be America’s greatest adversary. The interviewer, Bret Baier, questioned whether the Biden-Harris administration was “acting like Iran is the number one threat”.
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance answered “no” when asked if Trump lost the 2020 election, at a Pennsylvania rally. “What message do you think it sends to independent voters when you do not directly answer the question ‘Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?’” the reporter asked, eliciting boos from the crowd. Vance said, “No. I think there were serious problems in 2020”.
Trump doubled down on his controversial comments about “the enemy from within” made over the weekend. Before an all-female audience in Cumming, Georgia, Trump mocked Harris and her allies as “sick”, “evil” and “a party of soundbites”. He told the Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner: “They’re very dangerous. They’re Marxists and communists and fascists. They’re the threat to democracy.”
In Trump’s Univision town hall he was asked to name three virtues possessed by Harris, which he did, before again attacking her. He said that “she seems to have an ability to survive,” that “she seems to have some pretty longtime friendships” and that “she seems to have a nice way about her.” “I mean, I like the way some of her statements, some of her – the way she behaves, in a certain way. But in another way, I think it’s very bad for our country,” he said.
A Georgia judge has declared that seven new election rules recently passed by the state election board are “illegal, unconstitutional and void”. The Fulton county superior court judge, Thomas Cox, issued the order on Wednesday after holding a hearing on challenges to the rules. The rules that Cox invalidated included three that had garnered a lot of attention: one that required that the number of ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls and two that had to do with the certification of election results.
Jimmy Carter, the centenarian former Democratic president, has voted in the 2024 presidential election, his representatives confirmed on Wednesday. A statement from the Carter Center did not reveal who he voted for, but it is assumed the 100-year-old, who is in hospice care, cast his ballot for the Democratic candidate Harris.
Alabama cannot remove thousands of people from its voter rolls on the eve of the presidential election, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. The US district judge Anna Manasco, an appointee of Trump, issued a preliminary injunction halting an effort by Alabama’s top election official to try to remove more than 3,200 people from the voter rolls who it suspected of being non-citizens until at least after the presidential election.
The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin has called on the Department of Justice to investigate text messages they say targeted and tried to discourage young people from voting in the November election. The League of Women Voters says it initially learned of the alleged text campaign on 10 October, when the group received numerous complaints from voters who had received the text. Two people in their 20s who work with the League of Women Voters also received the message, which reads: “WARNING: Violating WI Statutes 12.13 & 6.18 may result in fines up to $10,000 or 3.5 years in prison. Don’t vote in a state where you’re not eligible.”
Share
Updated at 09.16 EDT
Key events
Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
In response to a video of Donald Trump answering a question from an audience member during a Univision town hall in which he said the January 6 riot was a “day of love,” Kamala Harris wrote on X:
“Donald Trump incited an attack on our nation’s democracy because he didn’t like the outcome of the election.
If January 6 was a bridge too far, there is a place for you in our campaign.”
Donald Trump incited an attack on our nation’s democracy because he didn’t like the outcome of the election.
If January 6 was a bridge too far, there is a place for you in our campaign. https://t.co/YWmubEBHkg
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 17, 2024
Trump has repeatedly said that he did not lose the 2020 election – a baseless claim which his running mate JD Vance doubled down on this week, saying, “Did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use.”
Share
Kamala Harris will travel to Atlanta, Georgia, this weekend for a campaign rally.
According to her campaign, Harris will use the rally to encourage Georgians to vote early.
The US vice-president has visited the crucial battleground state at least 8 times this year. Her upcoming visit to Atlanta will follow a rally that Donald Trump held in the city on Wednesday.
Share
Updated at 10.57 EDT
Walz to campaign in North Carolina with the rapper Common
Tim Walz will campaign in Durham and Winston-Salem in North Carolina today to mark the first day of early voting.
The Emmy-winning rapper and voting rights activist Common will join Walz in Winston-Salem where the two will speak to North Carolinians about the importance of voting, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
Share
Updated at 10.30 EDT
When Lauren Miller found out she was pregnant with twins in the summer of 2022, she was shocked and excited. But an early scan revealed that one of the twins was not developing at the same pace as the other. He had severe abnormalities, and a rare chromosomal disorder called trisomy 18.
Lauren lives in Dallas, Texas, where abortion is illegal unless the pregnancy places the woman at risk of death or “substantial impairment of a major bodily function”. Carter Sherman, the Guardian US reproductive health and justice reporter, explains why this exception does not necessarily reassure women wanting treatment:
Share
Updated at 09.59 EDT
Harris to campaign in three Wisconsin cities today
Kamala Harris is set to travel through Wisconsin today, Politico reports.
Her stops include Milwaukee, La Crosse and Green Bay, as well as a college business class. The US vice-president will also hold two rallies before heading to Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Share
Updated at 10.21 EDT
Here are some key takeaways from Kamala Harris’s Fox News interview, the Guardian’s Helen Sullivan reports:
1. Immigration
Harris was asked about the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle a surge in illegal immigration at the southern border, and laid the blame on Republicans for failing to pass a border bill.
Harris was asked to defend the administration’s early decision to reverse some of her Republican rival Donald Trump’s restrictive policies, and to respond to a mother who testified in Congress about the loss of her child at the hands of an illegal immigrant.
2. The Biden-Harris record
Harris was questioned over her recent comment that there was “not a thing” she would change about the actions of the Biden administration, responding: “let me be very clear, my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” but she did not elaborate.
Harris was asked when she first noticed that Biden’s “mental faculties appeared diminished”, but the vice-president responded by saying that the president had the judgment and experience to do what needs to be done on behalf of the American people.
For the full story, click here:
Share
Updated at 09.30 EDT
The US president, Joe Biden, said Tuesday that Kamala Harris would “cut her own path” if elected, as the Democratic nominee tries to convince voters she would bring change to the White House.
Agence France-Presse reports:
Harris came under fire from her Republican rival, Donald Trump, last week after saying there was “not a thing comes to mind” when asked what she would have done differently from Biden.
“Every president has to cut their own path. That’s what I did. I was loyal to Barack Obama but I cut my own path as president,” Biden told a Democratic party dinner in Philadelphia.
“That’s what Kamala’s going to do. She’s been loyal so far but she’ll cut her own path.”
Biden added: “Kamala’s perspective on our problems will be fresh and new. Donald Trump’s perspective is old and failed and quite frankly thoroughly totally dishonest.”
Share
Updated at 09.31 EDT
Ed Pilkington
Senior Democrats in US cities are preparing to defend their communities in the event of Donald Trump’s return to the White House after the former president has repeated threats that he would use presidential powers to seize control of major urban centers.
Trump has proposed deploying the military inside major cities largely run by Democrats to deal with protesters or to crush criminal gangs. He has threatened to dispatch large numbers of federal immigration agents to carry out mass deportations of undocumented people in so-called “sanctuary” cities.
He also aims to obliterate the progressive criminal justice policies of left-leaning prosecutors.
“In cities where there has been a complete breakdown of law and order … I will not hesitate to send in federal assets including the national guard until safety is restored,” Trump says in the campaign platform for his bid to become the 47th US president, Agenda47.
Trump provoked uproar earlier this week when he called for US armed forces to be deployed against his political rivals – “the enemy within” – on election day next month. But his plans to use national guard troops and military personnel as a means to attack those he sees as his opponents go much wider than that, spanning entire cities with Democratic leadership.
Mayors and prosecutors in several US cities are collaborating over strategies to minimize the fallout. Levar Stoney, the Democratic mayor of Richmond, Virginia, a city of over 220,000, said he was aware how difficult it would be to resist Trump given the enormous powers at a president’s disposal.
“It’s very difficult to autocrat-proof your city,” he said. “But you have to have backstops, and mayors are working in coalition to ensure they can be a backstop against these divisive policies.”
You can read more of Ed Pilkington’s news feature here:
Share
Updated at 08.25 EDT
The US Republican candidate, Donald Trump, on Tuesday said that companies will drop plans to build factories overseas when faced with the threat of high tariffs on shipping goods to the US, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The higher the tariff, the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States,” the former president told an audience at the Economic Club of Chicago.
“You make it so high, so horrible, so obnoxious” companies will “come right away,” he added.
The economy has emerged as one of the main issues ahead of the 5 November US election, where Trump is in a dead heat with Kamala Harris, according to polls.
The former president has vowed a 10% to 20% across-the-board tariff on imports and a 60% rate on Chinese goods – and more recently threatened a 200% levy on vehicles made in Mexico.
AFP reports that during the hour-long interview, Trump pushed back at arguments that tariffs would hike costs for consumers and punish businesses faced with higher-priced imports. “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff,” Trump said.
Share
Updated at 09.29 EDT
Biden approves $4.5 bn in student debt relief as vote nears
The US president, Joe Biden, announced on Thursday further student debt relief for public servants – amounting to about $4.5bn – with just over two weeks to go until the presidential election, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The action affects about 60,000 borrowers across the country, said the White House, touting Biden and Kamala Harris’s efforts to improve loan forgiveness since taking office.
AFP reports that the announcement comes as US households feel the weight of higher costs of living since the Covid-19 pandemic, with voters citing the economy as a crucial concern in polls.
Biden said in a statement that with the latest move, more than one million people have had their debt cancelled under Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
The promise of the programme – supporting teachers, nurses and others – involved student debt forgiveness after 10 years of public service and 10 years of payments.
“But for too long, the government failed to live up to its commitments, and only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness,” Biden said. “I will never stop working to make higher education affordable,” he added.
Biden has embarked on efforts to cancel student debt for millions of Americans, after a student loan payment freeze instituted by Donald Trump during the coronavirus pandemic.
Americans hold $1.6tn in student loans, and some end up repaying them over decades as they start jobs and families.
Share
Updated at 09.28 EDT
The US president, Joe Biden, will spend Friday in Berlin with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, reports the Associated Press (AP).
There is also a planned meeting with other leaders in the “European quad”, a group that in addition to Biden and Scholz includes the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer.
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, described Biden as having a “close relationship” with Scholz, who early this year helped broker a multi-country prisoner swap that brought back to the US the journalist Evan Gershkovich and former marine Paul Whelan. The German leader told Biden before the deal in words to the effect: “For you, I will do this,” reports Reuters.
“We have worked together closely to strengthen our economies for both our people and provide critical support for Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against Russian aggression,” Jean-Pierre said at Wednesday’s White House briefing. “The president really wanted to make sure to go to Germany to thank chancellor Scholz directly.”
The US and Germany have been the largest two sources of aid to Ukraine as it fights to repel a Russian invasion. And with less than three weeks before the US presidential election, Biden also feels obliged to ready allies for the possible return to the White House of the Republican Trump, who has antagonized US friends while displaying an appreciation for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, reports the AP.
The administration said Biden has no plans while in Europe to meet with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the two spoke on Wednesday about additional military aid, with the White House announcing $425m in assistance, bringing the total support to more than $64bn over two and a half years.
In addition to Ukraine, Biden and Scholz plan to discuss EU relations, democratic values, trade and technology issues, global supply chains, tensions in the Middle East and security issues in the Indo-Pacific region, reports the AP. While in Germany, Biden will also meet with its president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Earlier this month, Biden delayed a trip planned to Germany and Angola in order to oversee relief efforts ahead of Hurricane Milton making landfall in Florida. He now plans to go to Angola in December.
Share
Updated at 09.26 EDT
At Wednesday’s Miami town hall, Donald Trump sidestepped a question on immigration, reports Reuters.
One town hall participant, a Mexican-born California farm worker who spoke of picking strawberries and broccoli for years, asked who would do hard farm labor if Trump goes through with his plans to deport millions of people who are in the US illegally, and how that would impact food prices.
According to Reuters, Trump did not answer directly and instead claimed African Americans and Hispanic Americans were losing their jobs because of illegal immigration. He also repeated baseless claims that Latin American countries were emptying out mental institutions and jails to send people to the US.
Trump has previously used dehumanizing terminology to describe immigrants in the US illegally, calling them “animals” when talking about alleged criminal acts, and saying they are “poisoning the blood of our country”, a phrase that has drawn criticism as xenophobic and echoing Nazi rhetoric.
Share
Updated at 09.20 EDT
In the final weeks before the 5 November election, the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, is increasingly resorting to darker and more violent language about illegal immigration, an issue that opinion polls show resonates with many voters, especially Republicans, reports Reuters.
He is competing against the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, for key votes from the growing Latino population. Latino voters have typically backed Democrats, but the Trump campaign is hoping to win over more, especially men, on the back of economic discontent.
Harris led Trump by eight percentage points – 47% to 39% – among Hispanic voters in Reuters/Ipsos polling conducted between 11 September and 7 October.
Harris held her own Latino town hall last week in Nevada, a battleground state with a significant Hispanic population.
Share
Updated at 09.19 EDT
‘Just saying what was reported’ – Trump stands by debunked Ohio immigrants eating pets claims
The Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, on Wednesday stood by debunked claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets, telling Latino voters during a town hall he was “just saying what was reported”, according to Reuters.
Trump in recent weeks has amplified a false claim that has gone viral that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing residents’ pets or taking wildlife from parks for food.
There have been no credible reports of Haitians eating pets, and officials in Ohio – including Republicans – have repeatedly said the story is untrue.
At a town hall hosted by the Spanish-language television network Univision, an undecided Mexican-born Latino Republican voter from Arizona, a battleground state, asked Trump in Spanish whether he truly believed that immigrants were eating pets.
“I was just saying what was reported … And eating other things too that they’re not supposed to be. All I do is report,” Trump replied during the event held in Miami. “I was there, I’m going to be there and we’re going to take a look.”
According to Reuters, Trump added that “newspapers” had also reported on the claim, without naming any or providing any details.
Trump, who has not yet traveled to Springfield, has previously said he would conduct mass deportations of Haitian immigrants from the Ohio city, even though the majority of them are in the US legally.
The city has faced bomb threats since Trump began repeating the false accusations about Haitians.
Share
Updated at 09.18 EDT
Donald Trump describes 6 January Capitol riots as ‘day of love’ during Miami town hall
The Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, on Wednesday described 6 January 2021, when thousands of his supporters attacked the Capitol in Washington DC in a bid to stop formal certification of Trump’s election defeat, as a “day of love”.
During a town hall with a Latino audience, hosted by Spanish-language television network Univision yesterday, Trump was told by a participant that he wanted to give the former US president a chance to “win back his vote” given his concerns over the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot, reports Reuters.
Thousands of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol in Washington DC that day causing millions of dollars in damage. Four people died on the day of the attack, and one Capitol police officer who fought against the rioters died the next day.
At the town hall in Miami, Trump gave a lengthy response in which he described 6 January 2021 as a “day of love” and said former administration officials who had turned against him were angry about having been fired.
“I hope someday maybe we’ll get your vote,” Trump said as he wrapped up. “Sounds like maybe I won’t, but that’s OK too.”
Trump also stood by debunked claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets, telling Latino voters during a town hall he was “just saying what was reported”.
Trump in recent weeks has amplified a false claim that has gone viral that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing residents’ pets or taking wildlife from parks for food.
There have been no credible reports of Haitians eating pets, and officials in Ohio – including Republicans – have repeatedly said the story is untrue.
More on this story in a moment, but first, here are the latest updates:
Surrounded by more than 100 former Republican officeholders and officials, Kamala Harris urged GOP voters on Wednesday to put “country first” and abandon Trump. Trump is “unstable” and “unhinged” and would eviscerate democratic norms if given a second White House term, she said. “America must heed this warning”.
In her interview on Fox News, Harris was asked about the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle illegal immigration at the southern border, and laid the blame on Republicans for failing to pass a border bill. Harris said Trump told Republicans to reject the bill because “he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
In the Fox interview, Harris singled out Iran when asked which foreign country she considers to be America’s greatest adversary. The interviewer, Bret Baier, questioned whether the Biden-Harris administration was “acting like Iran is the number one threat”.
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance answered “no” when asked if Trump lost the 2020 election, at a Pennsylvania rally. “What message do you think it sends to independent voters when you do not directly answer the question ‘Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?’” the reporter asked, eliciting boos from the crowd. Vance said, “No. I think there were serious problems in 2020”.
Trump doubled down on his controversial comments about “the enemy from within” made over the weekend. Before an all-female audience in Cumming, Georgia, Trump mocked Harris and her allies as “sick”, “evil” and “a party of soundbites”. He told the Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner: “They’re very dangerous. They’re Marxists and communists and fascists. They’re the threat to democracy.”
In Trump’s Univision town hall he was asked to name three virtues possessed by Harris, which he did, before again attacking her. He said that “she seems to have an ability to survive,” that “she seems to have some pretty longtime friendships” and that “she seems to have a nice way about her.” “I mean, I like the way some of her statements, some of her – the way she behaves, in a certain way. But in another way, I think it’s very bad for our country,” he said.
A Georgia judge has declared that seven new election rules recently passed by the state election board are “illegal, unconstitutional and void”. The Fulton county superior court judge, Thomas Cox, issued the order on Wednesday after holding a hearing on challenges to the rules. The rules that Cox invalidated included three that had garnered a lot of attention: one that required that the number of ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls and two that had to do with the certification of election results.
Jimmy Carter, the centenarian former Democratic president, has voted in the 2024 presidential election, his representatives confirmed on Wednesday. A statement from the Carter Center did not reveal who he voted for, but it is assumed the 100-year-old, who is in hospice care, cast his ballot for the Democratic candidate Harris.
Alabama cannot remove thousands of people from its voter rolls on the eve of the presidential election, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. The US district judge Anna Manasco, an appointee of Trump, issued a preliminary injunction halting an effort by Alabama’s top election official to try to remove more than 3,200 people from the voter rolls who it suspected of being non-citizens until at least after the presidential election.
The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin has called on the Department of Justice to investigate text messages they say targeted and tried to discourage young people from voting in the November election. The League of Women Voters says it initially learned of the alleged text campaign on 10 October, when the group received numerous complaints from voters who had received the text. Two people in their 20s who work with the League of Women Voters also received the message, which reads: “WARNING: Violating WI Statutes 12.13 & 6.18 may result in fines up to $10,000 or 3.5 years in prison. Don’t vote in a state where you’re not eligible.”
Share
Updated at 09.16 EDT
