Trump picks Susie Wiles as chief of staff in first major appointment; Putin commends Trump victory – US election live | US elections 2024

Key events

The NAACP on Thursday condemned racist text messages referencing slavery that were sent anonymously to Black Americans this week as a contentious election was coming to an end in the United States.

The messages urged recipients in multiple states, including Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, to report to a plantation to pick cotton, the NAACP said in a statement.

The FBI said on Thursday it was in touch with the US justice department and other federal authorities about the “offensive and racist messages”.

“These actions are not normal. And we refuse to let them be normalized,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson said in a statement from the organization, which advocates for racial justice and rights for Black Americans.

High school and college students were among the recipients, the Associated Press reported.

Johnson said the messages were a reflection of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory on Tuesday.

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Updated at 21.46 EST

The Arizona supreme court has declined to hear Republican Kari Lake’s latest appeal over her defeat in the 2022 governor’s race, marking yet another loss in her attempt to overturn the race’s outcome, the Associated Press reports.

The court made its refusal to take up the former TV anchor’s appeal public on Thursday without explaining its decision.

Lake, now locked in a US Senate race against Democrat Ruben Gallego, had lost the governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs by over 17,000 votes.

The courts had previously rejected Lake’s claims that problems with ballot printers at some Maricopa county polling places on election day in 2022 were the result of intentional misconduct and that Maricopa county didn’t verify signatures on mail ballots as required by law.

A judge also turned down Lake’s request to examine the ballot envelopes of 1.3 million early voters. In all, Lake had three trials related to the 2022 election.

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Updated at 21.42 EST

San Francisco’s first Black female mayor, London Breed, conceded the race for mayor to Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie on Thursday, pledging a smooth transition as he takes over the job.

Breed, who was raised by her grandmother in public housing, could not overcome deep voter discontent and was trailing Lurie, a philanthropist and anti-poverty nonprofit founder.

“At the end of the day, this job is bigger than any one person and what matters is that we keep moving this city forward,” Breed said, adding that she had called Lurie to congratulate him.

“I know we are both committed to improving this city we love.”

The Associated Press has not yet declared a winner because tens of thousand of ballots have not yet been counted and added to the ranked choice voting calculations.

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Updated at 21.29 EST

In a profile, Politico describes Trump’s new chief of staff, Susie Wiles, as a “force more sensed than seen”, crediting her as the reason the former president’s latest campaign has been “more professional than its fractious, seat-of-the-pants antecedents”.

My colleague Maanvi Singh writes:

Wiles is a veteran of Florida politics who led Trump’s 2016 campaign in the state. She also worked with Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott, Florida’s current and former governors. The Trump campaign had fired her after a falling out with DeSantis, but brought her back for the 2020 campaign in the state.

A self-described moderate, Wiles has also been credited – by Trump’s allies and opponents – as the person who has given him the discipline and focus to succeed politically. She has been known to keep good relationships with reporters, and holds a wealth of knowledge about all aspects of running a campaign.

Some have also described her as an enabler of Trump’s dictatorial ambitions. “Susie Wiles is way too smart of a human being and way too sophisticated a political operator to not understand,” Fernand Amandi, a Miami-based Democratic pollster and MSNBC analyst, told Politico.

Wiles has little experience in Washington, however, aside from working in the Ronald Regan administration as a scheduler at the labor department and on Capitol Hill for the late congressman Jack Kemp.

During Trump’s first term, the president had a series of chiefs of staff: Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus, General John Kelly, former South Carolina representative Mick Mulvaney and former North Carolina representative Mark Meadows.

The former president often disagreed with or tired of his appointees. In the weeks before the election, Kelly, the retired marine general, notably said that Trump fits “into the general definition of fascist”.

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Updated at 21.02 EST

Democrat Julia Brownley re-elected to House

Democratic Julia Brownley has won re-election to a US House seat representing California, the Associated Press reports.

Brownley, who previously served in the state assembly for six years, was first elected to the House in 2012. Before her political career, she worked in marketing and sales. Brownley’s district comprises a small part of Los Angeles County and most of Ventura County, including the cities of Oxnard, Santa Paula, Thousand Oaks and Moorpark.

She defeated Republican Michael Koslow. The Associated Press declared Brownley the winner at 8.31pm ET.

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Updated at 21.42 EST

Who is Susie Wiles?

Here is our full profile of Susie Wiles, who was named Donald Trump’s new White House chief of staff, by Maanvi Singh:

Wiles will be the first woman in history to serve in the role as gatekeeper to the president, a position that typically wields great influence.

The chief of staff position is usually the first appointee that a president-elect names, and may oversee the transition from one administration. Once Trump is sworn in as president, Wiles will also be in charge of all White House policy, serving as a confidante and adviser and managing day-to-day affairs.

Wiles, 67, is a veteran of Florida politics who ran Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns in the state and served as his “de facto chief of staff” over the last three years to lead his successful re-election bid and helped him work with lawyers on his various criminal and civil cases.

“Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns,” Trump said in a statement. “Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected.”

Trump also mentioned her in his victory speech in Palm Beach, Florida. “Susie likes to stay sort of in the back, let me tell you. The Ice Maiden. We call her the Ice Maiden,” he said.

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Updated at 21.03 EST

The Biden administration has confirmed that the US will continue the surge of aid to Ukraine before Donald Trump becomes president in January. “That’s not going to change. We’re going to surge and get that out there to Ukraine. We understand how important it is to make sure they have what they need,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, White House spokesperson.

A Guardian editorial on US aid to Ukraine says: “The Biden administration is reportedly attempting to expedite as much as $9bn worth of military aid, agreed but not yet transferred. This is far from straightforward, not least because weaponry and ammunition are still being produced and because the next president could stop agreed shipments. But it is essential.”

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Updated at 21.07 EST

After years of negative headlines and post-pandemic economic struggle, San Francisco has picked a wealthy Democratic outsider with no government experience to serve as the city’s new mayor.

Daniel Lurie, 47, is one of the heirs to the Levi Strauss jeans company fortune, and previously spent 15 years as the executive of a San Francisco non-profit he founded. He defeated several Democratic challengers, including the current mayor, London Breed, in an election that was expected to break local campaign spending records.

Lurie poured more than $8m of his own money into his campaign, while his billionaire mother, Mimi Haas, backed him with another $1m. He will be the first San Francisco mayor since 1911 to win office without previously serving in government, making him the city’s “least experienced mayor in a long time”, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

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Updated at 21.07 EST

In 2021, Democrats sacrificed part of Titus’s district – the party’s traditional stronghold – in exchange for some gains in neighboring swing districts.

Titus, the longest-serving member of the Nevada delegation in Washington DC, has been re-elected every two years since winning her seat in 2013. Robertson, her opponent this year, has never held political office and echoed policies favored by Trump on border security, inflation and the economy.

Horsford, meanwhile, became the first Black person to represent Nevada in Congress when he was elected to the House in 2012. He lost in 2014 but has since won in four straight elections.

Susie Lee first won her seat in 2018, succeeding now Democratic senator Jacky Rosen.

AP hasn’t yet declared a winner in the race for Rosen’s seat in the upper chamber of Congress. It pits her against Republican Sam Brown, a retired army captain whose face is still scarred from injuries he suffered in Afghanistan.

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Updated at 21.06 EST

Johnson said in a statement he was proud of the race he ran, and that he was encouraged by Trump’s decisive victory, the AP reports.

John Lee, in a brief phone call with AP, also said he ran a good race and was now “looking forward to Trump bringing this nation back around.”

Robertson, meanwhile, told AP he had called Titus to congratulate her, saying he respected the will of Nevada voters and that he and Titus spoke about possibly working together “on a future issue”.

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Updated at 21.10 EST

Democrats retain three US House seats in Nevada

Three US House seats in Nevada will remain under Democratic control after a sweeping win Thursday for the incumbents, while the state’s tight Senate race was still too early to call.

The Associated Press has declared Democratic Representatives Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford winners in their respective races. The state’s lone Republican Congressman, Mark Amodei, cruised to victory Tuesday night in his reliably red district in northern Nevada.

Lee won over conservative policy analyst Drew Johnson in what is widely considered the state’s most competitive district, which covers a large swath of the culturally diverse Spring Valley neighborhood in Las Vegas and more rural areas of southern Nevada.

Horsford, a four-term congressman who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, defeated former North Las Vegas mayor John Lee in a district that stretches north from Las Vegas, toward rural Nye county in the west and along the Utah border in the eastern portion of the district.

For Titus, it was the second election in a row that she defeated Republican Mark Robertson, a retired army colonel, to keep her seat in the Las Vegas district she has represented for more than a decade.

All three incumbents, in separate statements, vowed to continue their work to lower costs in the state and to create more jobs. Their challengers conceded Thursday.

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Updated at 21.06 EST

David McVormick wins Pennsylvania Senate seat

David McCormick is thanking voters in a brief statement after the Associated Press called the race for him in his bid to oust three-term Democrat Bob Casey.

On social media, the former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund, said: “Thank you, Pennsylvania! Looking forward to representing every citizen of our great commonwealth.”

The victory pads Republicans’ majority in the Senate, which they wrested from Democratic control this week, and clocked in as the nation’s second-most expensive race.

Casey isn’t conceding. His campaign’s pointing to a statement from the state’s top election official saying that at least 100,000 ballots still remained to be counted, including provisional ballots and military and overseas ballots.

Casey’s campaign says it’ll “make sure every Pennsylvanian’s voice is heard”.

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Updated at 21.50 EST

Here is more on Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff:

Trump has named Susie Wiles, the manager of his victorious campaign, as his White House chief of staff, the first woman to hold the influential role.

Wiles is widely credited within and outside Trump’s inner circle for running what was, by far, his most disciplined and well-executed campaign, and was seen as the leading contender for the position. She largely avoided the spotlight, even refusing to take the mic to speak as Trump celebrated his victory early on Wednesday morning.

Wiles’s hire is Trump’s first major decision as president-elect and one that could be a defining test of his incoming administration, as he must quickly build the team that will help run the federal government. Wiles does not bring government experience to the role, but has a close relationship with the president-elect.

She was able to do what few others have been able to: help control Trump’s impulses – not by chiding him or lecturing, but by earning his respect and showing him that he was better off when he followed her advice than flouting it.

“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a statement. “It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”

Trump went through four chiefs of staff – including one who served in an acting capacity for a year – during his first administration, part of record-setting personnel churn in his administration.

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Updated at 21.06 EST

JD Vance has posted his thoughts on Trump’s chief of staff pick, Susie Wiles, calling her a “huge asset” and “a really good person”:

This is great news. Susie was a huge asset to President Trump on the campaign and will be a huge asset in the White House. She’s also just a really good person. Onward! pic.twitter.com/Yj1aLYK4So

— JD Vance (@JDVance) November 7, 2024

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