Elon Musk’s $75m puts him among largest Republican donors – US politics live | US elections 2024

Key events

Billy was eventually reunited with his father, but said the damage from their forced separation lingers:

I went and ran to my dad, I hugged him, and I told him I did not want this to happen ever again. And he promised me that he would not ever leave me again. And after that, we still fear. I go to therapists, but I still have the fear of Trump being reelected, and that same thing happening to me or other kids ever again.

Kamala Harris helped us be together again, and she helped us be a family again. And I don’t want this to happen to any more kids.

The Harris campaign organized the event ahead of a town hall Trump will participate this evening on Univision News, as part of his effort to woo Latino voters.

Share

Victims of Trump-era family separation policy speak at Harris campaign event

Survivors of Donald Trump’s family separation policy are telling their stories at an event convened by Kamala Harris’s campaign to condemn the former president’s hardline immigration policies.

A young man who identified himself as Billy told a press conference in Doral, Florida, that he was detained after arriving in the United States and told he would see his father again soon.

“After that day, I never saw him again for 40 days,” Billy said, describing how he was instead flown to New York and put with a foster family.

“They told me that I wasn’t going to get to see my dad again and that I wasn’t going to be able to see my family again. As a nine-year-old, you can probably imagine how that felt, great sadness in front of me and very traumatic, something that I still hold to this day. The emptiness that I felt when I when they told me that I wasn’t going to be able to see my family again, was something out of this world, and something that no kids should go through.”

Share

Joe Biden is headed to Arizona next week – but the White House says it’s for an official event (ie not a campaign event).

It’s not clear yet what brings the president to the battleground state that he won by just over 10,000 votes in 2020, becoming the first Democratic nominee to win Arizona since Bill Clinton.

Recent polling shows Kamala Harris trailing Donald Trump in the state, even as the Democratic candidate for Senate, Ruben Gallego, leads his Republican opponent, Trump ally Kari Lake.

Harris doesn’t need to win Arizona, since she has other paths to 270. But it is perhaps a worrying sign about her standing among Hispanic voters, who make up about a third of the state’s electorate. However, Democrats cannot hold on to the Senate without keeping the seat.

Share

Michelle Obama to headline Georgia rally aimed at young voters

Michelle Obama will later this month hold a rally in Atlanta aimed at encouraging young voters to get to the polls, her nonpartisan organization When We All Vote announced.

The 29 October event will feature Atlanta-area college and high school students and is aimed at encouraging first-time voters to cast ballots in Georgia, which Joe Biden won in 2020 by a narrow 12,000 votes.

“The election doesn’t start on Election Day — it ends on Election Day. Thanks to our Georgia partners and volunteers who continue to make sure their communities are ready to vote, Georgia voters are fired up and ready to use their voices,” said When We All Vote’s executive director Beth Lynk in a statement.

Obama launched When We All Vote in 2018 with the aim of getting new voters out to the polls. The Atlanta rally will be her first public event since her speech to the Democratic national convention, where she artfully decried Donald Trump:

Share

Harris set for evening interview on Fox News

It’s a big day for Fox News, where Kamala Harris will at 6pm sit for an interview with anchor Bret Baier, hours after Donald Trump’s pre-recorded town hall airs.

It will be something of a journey into hostile territory for the vice-president, since Fox’s coverage and viewership tends to skew conservative. We don’t know yet what they’ll talk about, but Baier yesterday said the interview would air without commercial breaks.

Harris will appear on Fox News as she continues a string of media interviews intended to boost her candidacy with less than three weeks to go until the presidential vote. Here’s more on that:

Share

Fox News to broadcast town hall with Trump, Georgia women

At 11am today, Fox News will broadcast a pre-recorded town hall with Donald Trump and a group of women in swing state Georgia.

Expect a friendly encounter – Fox News is a conservative network, and a brief clip of the event broadcast yesterday shows Trump taking questions on immigration, an issue that is a mainstay of his speeches. Nonetheless, the event does serve a purpose for the former president: polls have shown that his standing is weak among some groups of women, and the event appears to be geared towards turning that around, specifically in a state that could decide the election.

“Women constitute the largest group of registered and active voters in the United States, so it is paramount that female voters understand where the presidential candidates stand on the issues that matter to them most,” Fox News presenter Harris Faulkner said in announcing the event.

Share

State governments across the US are taking steps to eliminate protections for minors as rates of child labor violations, injuries and chronic school absenteeism rise, according to a report released today.

The report by Governing For Impact, the Economic Policy Institute, and Child Labor Coalition proposes actions the Biden-Harris administration can take in response to a recent surge in child labor violations around the country and a trend of some states passing legislation that rollbacks state-level child labor protections.

Its authors also warn that moves to weaken child protections will likely escalate under a second Trump presidency.

Share

Obama to return to campaign for Harris as Michigan begins voting

Barack Obama will next week hit the campaign trail on behalf of Kamala Harris on Tuesday, when early voting begins in Michigan, the vice-president’s campaign announced.

The former president will rally voters in Detroit, Harris’s campaign said, without giving further details.

Obama made his first campaign appearance for Harris last week in Pennsylvania, where he encouraged Black men to cast ballots for the vice-president:

Share

Donald Trump’s pro-Israel stance has alienated the far right, which is ramping up antisemitic attacks, Ben Makuch writes.

One campaign issue where the Maga world and the extremists of Telegram and other fringe social media sites have diverged, is the former president’s support for Israel in its several military operations across the Middle East.

The ideologies of the far right and Donald Trump have for the most part been in agreement since he took the reins of the Republican ticket at the RNC convention in July.

While supporters waved ultranationalist “MASS DEPORTATION NOW!” signs, Trump gave a speech mixed with hate, in a nomination that was roundly approved across the rightwing political sphere.

That sense of unity, however, has begun to crack under the weight of antisemitic attacks aimed at Trump for commemorating the anniversary of the 7 October attacks …

Share

Updated at 07.58 EDT

US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Washington was looking into reports that North Korea was sending troops to fight for Russia against Ukraine.

Western countries have long accused North Korea of sending weapons to help Russia fight in Ukraine. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the North was also sending personnel, becoming effectively a participant in the war.

Asked about that issue, Campbell said there were signs of the North’s enhanced material support for Russia “which is being felt on the battlefield”, but that Washington was still evaluating the reports.

Three officials from the US, South Korea and Japan earlier announced a new 11-nation team to monitor the enforcement of sanctions against the North after Russia and China thwarted a UN mechanism.

Tension has been growing on the Korean Peninsula recently, as the North accused the South of launching drones into its territory. Pyongyang also blew up inter-Korean roads and rail lines.

Share

Products made by US computer chip company Intel sold in China should be subject to a security review, the Cybersecurity Association of China (CSAC) said, Reuters reports.

CSAC alleges the US chipmaker has “constantly harmed” the country’s national security and interests.

While CSAC is an industry group rather than a government body, it has close ties to the Chinese state and the raft of accusations against Intel, published in a long post on its official WeChat account, could trigger a security review from China’s cyberspace regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).

Last year, CAC barred domestic operators of key infrastructure from buying products made by US memory chipmaker Micron Technology after deeming the company’s products had failed its network security review. A similar security review on Intel products could negatively impact the company’s revenues, over a quarter of which came from China last year.

The allegations come at a time when China is dealing with a US-led effort to restrict its access to crucial chipmaking equipment and components, in what Washington calls a bid to halt the modernisation of China’s military.

Share

The Biden administration has warned Israel that it faces possible punishment, including the potential stopping of US weapons transfers, if it does not take immediate action to let more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

A letter written jointly by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, and Lloyd Austin, the defence secretary, exhorts Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to ease humanitarian suffering in the territory by lifting restrictions on the entry of assistance within 30 days or face unspecified policy “implications”.

The four-page missive, dated 13 October, was sent to Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, and Ron Dermer, the strategic affairs minister, and came to light after being posted on social media by Barak Ravid, an Israeli journalist who works for Axios, after apparently being leaked.

Share

Kamala Harris will aim to appeal to Republican voters as she plans to visit a battleground county in Pennsylvania joined by Republican supporters and to appear on conservative-leaning Fox News later today, Reuters reports.

In Bucks County, outside of Philadelphia, Harris is expected to emphasise Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his election loss four years ago.

Over 100 Republicans will join Harris in Bucks County, including Adam Kinzinger, a former Congressman and member of the committee that investigated the 6 January attack on the Capitol by supporters of the then-president.

Trump will participate in a town hall hosted by Univision. And Fox News will air a separate Trump town hall with an all-women audience.

Share

An Associated Press survey has found that more than 63,000 Georgia voters have had their eligibility to vote challenged since 1 July.

The news agency says that this represents a big surge from 2023 and the first half of 2024, when it found that about 18,000 voters were challenged.

Only about 1% of those challenged in recent months have been removed from the voting rolls or placed into challenged status, mostly in one county. Fewer than 800 voters since 1 July – mostly in the suburban Atlanta Republican stronghold of Forsyth County – have been removed from the rolls or placed in challenged status. Voters in challenged status can cast ballots if they prove their residence.

Most of the targeted voters appear to have moved away from their listed addresses, and activists argue letting them stay registered invites fraud. Challengers have been aided by tools which rely on change-of-address lists and other documents to help identify people who could be wrongly registered to vote.

The push to challenge voters in Georgia is part of a national effort coordinated by Donald Trump’s allies to remove people they view as suspect from the voting rolls. The effort to remove voters has drawn scrutiny from the US Justice Department, which has issued guidance that aims to limit challenges.

Share

Donald Trump has said that if he does not win the election, he may cry fraud and not accept the results – just as he did four years ago when he lost to Joe Biden. Reuters looks at what might happen if Trump rejects the election result again …

Republicans and Democrats expect that vote counting could drag on for several days after 5 November.

If it appears Trump is losing, the delay will give him an opportunity to attempt to undermine confidence in election officials, while also possibly encouraging his supporters to protest. He has already threatened to jail election workers and other public officials for “unscrupulous behaviour,” although he would need to win the election first.

As they did in 2020, Trump’s allies in key states – local election officials, state lawmakers and perhaps judges – could seek to delay certification, the confirmation of a state’s official tally, through claims of fraud.

Those efforts did not succeed last time, and election law experts say the laws in those states are clear that local officials lack the power to throw out ballots or derail the process. After the 2020 election, Congress passed a reform law that makes it more difficult for candidate to mount the kind of challenge Trump attempted last time round.

Any effort by Trump to suggest the election was rigged could potentially lead to civil unrest, as it did on 6 January, 2021.

Experts who monitor militant right-wing groups, such as Peter Montgomery of the People For the American Way, a liberal think tank, say they are less concerned about a violent response from these groups than they are about threats against election workers counting votes. There also could be violent demonstrations in the capitals of battleground states, Montgomery said.

Hundreds of people who were involved in the 6 January attack on the Capitol have been convicted and jailed for their actions, a powerful deterrent to others who may be considering taking similar actions.

Share

Two US officials who resigned last year in protest over president Joe Biden’s policy on the Gaza war have launched a lobbying organisation and a political action committee (PAC) to advocate for a revamp of Washington’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Reuters reports.

Josh Paul, a former State Department official and Tariq Habash, who used to work as a policy advisor at the Department of Education, said the American public is no longer in favour of unconditionally sending US weapons to Israel, but that elected officials have lagged behind.

Their PAC, called “A New Policy”, would support candidates whose position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict align with US policies on human rights and equality and would ensure US arms transfers to all countries in the Middle East, including Israel, comply with both US and international law.

Washington’s support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza and more recently in Lebanon has emerged as a key reason for why Muslim and Arab voters, who resoundingly had backed Biden in 2020, may withhold their votes from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the upcoming election.

“American voters are clear: they do not want to be complicit in this humanitarian catastrophe and a majority want an end to the transfer of lethal weapons that are used to kill Palestinian civilians,” Habbash said.

Share

Judge halts new hand-count rule in Georgia

A Georgia judge has temporarily halted a new rule requiring poll workers to hand count ballots in the 5 November election, in a defeat for Donald Trump, whose Republican allies pushed for the change after he lost the battleground state in 2020, Reuters reports.

The hand-count rule was passed last month by a pro-Trump conservative majority of Georgia’s election board, who said they were attempting to make the Nov. 5 election more secure and transparent.

Democrats had said the change would sow chaos and delay results.

Georgia, where early voting began in record numbers yesterday, is one of seven states likely to determine the presidential contest next month. In 2020, Trump made false claims of widespread voting fraud in the state.

Judge Robert McBurney said in his decision that it was appropriate to pause the vote counting rule because it introduced fresh uncertainty into the process just weeks before election day.

“Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public,” according to a copy of the decision posted by Democracy Docket, a website founded by Democratic lawyer Marc Elias that tracks election cases.

Share

Elon Musk gave $75m to pro-Trump group

Elon Musk gave around $75 million to his pro-Donald Trump spending group in the span of three months, federal disclosures showed, underscoring how the billionaire has become crucial to the Republican candidate’s efforts to win the presidential election, Reuters reports.

America PAC, which is focused on turning out voters in closely contested states that could decide the election, spent around $72 million of that in the July-September period, according to disclosures filed to the Federal Election Commission.

That is more than any other pro-Trump super PAC focused on turning out voters. The Trump campaign is broadly reliant on outside groups for canvassing voters, meaning the super PAC founded by Musk – the world’s richest man – plays an outsized role in the razor-thin election between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

Share

Updated at 06.50 EDT

Opening summary

Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. We’re now less than three weeks away from the US election on 5 November.

Earlier it was revealed Elon Musk gave around $75m to his pro-Donald Trump spending group in the span of three months, federal disclosures show, underscoring how the billionaire has become one of the largest Republican donors. Here’s a rundown of what’s been happening and what to expect on the campaign trail today:

The first day of early voting in the battleground state of Georgia saw a record turnout, with 328,000 people casting a vote in person or by mail. This more than doubled the previous record of 136,000 set in 2020.

Trump will launch a bus tour of north Carolina later today. The tour will travel across the state for three days before ending at the Wayne County Republican Party HQ on Friday. Early in-person voting begins tomorrow in the battleground state.

Kamala Harris will return to the battleground state of Pennsylvania for another campaign event later today, after she visited Erie on Monday. She will then head to Wisconsin to visit Milwaukee, La Crosse and Green Bay on Thursday.

Trump refused to say if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the 5 November election, in an interview with Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait. He claimed there had been a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election, despite his supporters’ violent attack on the Capitol on 6 January.

He also doubled down on his promise to levy tariffs on all imports in a bid to boost American manufacturing. Economists say this policy would probably mean higher prices for consumers and anger US allies.

Yesterday Harris defended her record as a prosecutor, pledged to decriminalise marijuana and push for police reform. She was aiming to shore up support among black men in an interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God.

The Harris Victory Fund, the Democratic candidate’s ‘big-dollar fundraising committee’, raised $633m in the three months from 1 July to 30 September. This was over a third higher than the amount raised by Biden in the same period in 2020, the New York Times reported.

President Joe Biden said Harris would “cut her own path” once she wins the 2024 election, as he hit the campaign trail to help win over sceptical voters three weeks before Election Day. “Kamala will take the country in her own direction, and that’s one of the most important differences in this election,” he said. “Kamala’s perspective on our problems will be fresh and new. Donald Trump’s perspective old and failed and quite frankly, thoroughly totally dishonest.”

Share