Closing summary
This blog is closed – thanks for following along. Here is a summary of today’s key developments:
Kamala Harris’s interview on Call Her Daddy with Alex Cooper aired on Sunday. The host, whose podcast targets a diverse set of audiences, and the vice-president discussed issues revolving around abortion, reproductive healthcare, housing and student debt relief.
Donald Trump delivered his roughly two-hour speech at a rally in Juneau, Wisconsin. The former president was standing behind barriers of bulletproof glass, which is now a standard US Secret Service practice at outdoor rallies.
Arizona senator Mark Kelly criticized Elon Musk during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union for supporting Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania this weekend.
President Joe Biden ordered 500 more troops to assist with Hurricane Helene relief efforts. The troops will move into western North Carolina and assist with the response and recovery efforts after the deadly and devastating Hurricane Helene.
Tim Walz said during his appearance on Fox News this morning that Donald Trump’s agenda would destroy the US economy, while he supported Kamala Harris’s plan to lower costs and stimulate job growth.
Updated
Kamala Harris finished her interview with Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper by pledging to fight for student debt relief and listing key issues she hopes to address if she’s elected president.
“I care about making sure that people are entitled to and receive the freedoms that they are due,” Harris said. “I care about lifting people up and making sure that you are protected from harm. I care about tapping into the ambitions and the aspirations of people knowing that we are capable of so much.”
Updated
Alex Cooper and Kamala Harris discussed JD Vance’s age-old sexist “childless cat ladies” trope, but Harris was asked what she would do as president to help generations who feel that the economy hinders them from having children.
“Housing is too expensive and we need to increase the housing supply,” Harris said. “Part of my plan is to work with home builders in the private sector to create tax incentives to build by the end of my first term, 3,000,000 more housing units.”
“Part of my plan is to give 100 million more people who basically are middle class working people, tax cuts, including for young parents, a $6,000 tax cut for the first year of their child’s life, which helps them buy a crib or a car seat or clothing and just get through that first year,’” she added.
Updated
During an episode of the podcast Call Her Daddy, Kamala Harris condemned Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders after Sanders said that the presidential candidate “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble” because she doesn’t have children.
“I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who, one, are not aspiring to be humble,” Harris said during the podcast.
The vice-president discussed her relationship with her stepchildren, Cole and Ella Emhoff, who are the biological children from her husband’s, Doug Emhoff, first marriage.
“We have our family by blood and then we have our family by love. And I have both,” Harris said.
Updated
Kamala Harris was asked by Alex Cooper if she could think about any law that “gives the government the power to make a decision about a man’s body”.
Harris laughed and said: “We are a work in progress.”
“Part of the strength of our country and our evolution as a country has been through the fight for the expansion of rights. Not the restriction of rights,” she added.
Updated
Alex Cooper asked Kamala Harris to clarify a claim former president Donald Trump made during last month’s presidential debate, where he falsely claimed that Democrats support abortions “after birth” and “executing” babies.
“That is not happening anywhere in the United States,” Harris said. “It is not happening and it’s a lie.”
She also labeled as “insulting” his claim that women in their ninth month of pregnancy are electing to have an abortion.
Kamala Harris and Alex Cooper continued to discuss abortion rights and reproductive healthcare during a Call Her Daddy episode aired on Sunday.
“You don’t have to abandon your faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government shouldn’t be telling her what to do,” Harris said in the podcast.
Harris added: “What’s so outrageous about it is a bunch of these guys up in these state capitals are writing these decisions because they somehow have decided that they’re in a better position to tell you what’s in your best interest than you are to know what’s in your own best interest.”
Harris condemns Trump for claiming to be 'protector' of women
Kamala Harris condemned former president Donald Trump for calling himself the “protector” of women at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“This is the same guy who said that women should be punished for having abortions,” Harris said on Alex Cooper’s podcast Call Her Daddy.
Harris went on to talk about the state of abortion access currently in the country.
“The majority of women who receive abortion care are mothers,” Harris said. “Every state in the South except for Virginia has an abortion ban.”
Updated
Kamala Harris responded to questions from Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper, elaborating on why she decided to become a prosecutor, the guidelines for reporting sexual assault, and the need to talk about the issue more.
There are a number of young women for whom Call Her Daddy is their go-to source for entertainment. The fact that Kamala Harris is talking directly to them, through an interview with their trusted messenger, Alex Cooper, matters. pic.twitter.com/PU3HPtxD1w
— Rachel Janfaza (@racheljanfaza) October 6, 2024
In her interview with Kamala Harris, Alex Cooper asked the vice-president about the lessons she learned from her mother regarding mental health, the ways she has taken accountability during her vice-presidency, and what she thinks her mother would say if she became the next president of the United States.
Later on, Cooper referenced some of the harsh descriptions former president Donald Trump has used against Harris during the race, including questioning her mental health. She asked Harris how this affected her.
Harris said:
I think it’s really important not to let other people define you, and usually those people who will attempt to do it don’t know you.
Updated
Donald Trump finished his remarks in Juneau, Wisconsin, which ran for about two hours.
During her interview with Kamala Harris, Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper quickly touched on a soft spot for the Harris campaign, which is the vice-president’s lack of interviews with the media. She asked Harris why she decided to come on the podcast.
“I think you and your listeners have really got this thing, right, which is one of the best ways to communicate with people is to be real, you know, and to talk about the things that people really care about,” Harris said.
“What I love about what you do is that your voice in your show is really about your listeners,” she added. “And I think especially now, this is a moment in the country and in life where people really want to know they’re seen and heard and that they’re part of a community, that they’re not out there alone.”
Updated
The host of the comedy and advice podcast Call Her Daddy, Alex Cooper, said at the start of her episode with Kamala Harris that she invited former president Donald Trump to come on the show.
“If he also wants to have a meaningful, in-depth conversation about women’s rights in this country, then he is welcome on Call Her Daddy anytime,” Cooper said.
Harris's Call Her Daddy interview drops
Kamala Harris’s interview on Call Her Daddy with Alex Cooper just dropped.
The host, who targets a diverse set of audiences, begins the episode by explaining to her listeners why she decided to interview the vice-president.
“As you guys know, I do not usually discuss politics or have politicians on the show,” Cooper said. “At the end of the day, I couldn’t see a world in which one of the main conversations in this election is women, and I’m not a part of it.”
Updated
Trump brought Dodge county sheriff Dale Schmidt to the stage, along with a group of other Wisconsin sheriffs.
“I am proud to announce that all of these sheriffs are among a very small amount of sheriffs and law enforcement across our country that support you,” Schmidt said.
“In Dodge county, in this 2024 election, there are zero drop boxes for the election,” the sheriff said proudly.
Updated
Eric Hovde, Republican Senate candidate in Wisconsin took the stage during Trump’s rally.
Hovde attacked his rival Tammy Baldwin and said: “All of you go work hard, go grab every friend, colleague, neighbor, and let’s restore this great country and get President Trump and me to Washington.”
Trump also invited Republican senator Ron Johnson to the stage. He congratulated Trump for his alliance with the ex-independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr.
“We are actually going through a huge problem with chronic health and children’s health, but you are right about the enemy within. They are dividing us. They are destroying this nation. And by aligning with Bobby Kennedy, you are setting the example,” Johnson said.
Kennedy has been campaigning for Trump since he ended his own independent presidential bid to support the Republican nominee.
Updated
Donald Trump baselessly linked inflation and the country’s economic woes to the influx of migrants in the US.
He falsely claimed leaders in other countries are emptying their jails and sending inmates to the US.
He later presented a chart that shows the rate of migrant entries in the US, suggesting a decline during his presidency.
“I kiss it every night,” Trump said about his chart. “I take it to bed with me every single night.”
Updated
Donald Trump called Wisconsin governor Tony Evers a “lousy governor”.
“I hate to say it with your Democrat governor, you have some of the highest electricity prices, and highest energy costs is just about at the top in Wisconsin,” Trump said.
He then said he plans to double the electricity production for the development of artificial intelligence.
“We need tremendous electric here so that other people that are into this whole world of this, it’s a new world, but it’s going to be a very big world, a very fascinating world,” he said about the field of AI.
Updated
Trump attacks Harris's tax policy and calls her a 'tax queen'
Donald Trump attacked Kamala Harris’s tax policy, calling her a “tax queen” and misleading attendees with a claim that Harris plans to raise taxes on US families.
“I’ve never seen somebody that openly campaigns on the fact that they’re going to raise taxes,” Trump said.
He then showed a campaign ad, composed of a compilation of clips of Harris saying wants to raise taxes.
In reality, Harris has said she plans to cut corporate tax rates.
Updated
Donald Trump said rifle owners and the Christian community don’t vote “as much as they should”.
“Evangelicals don’t vote that much, and if they did vote, we could never lose an election,” he said.
Updated
Trump claims media favors Harris and they 'hate our country'
Donald Trump claimed that the media favors Kamala Harris in their coverage and they “hate our country”. He continued to make anti-immigrant and transphobic comments.
“I can’t understand. Why do they want open borders? Why do they want sex change operations for people that are too young to even think about it? Why do they want men playing in women’s sports?” Trump said.
“We actually are now the party of common sense,” he said. “I think that’s what I like calling us now, party of common sense.”
Updated
The former president called Elon Musk a “good guy” a day after the SpaceX founder made an appearance at Trump’s rally on Saturday.
He also attacked his rival Kamala Harris, calling her “grossly incompetent”.
“Kamala is not wonderful,” Trump said. “With four more years of Kamala Harris, your long nightmare is just beginning.”
Updated
Donald Trump said the response to Hurricane Helene in the south-eastern US was “probably worse than Katrina”, referring to the devastating storm in 2005.
“That’s hard to beat, right? Worse than Katrina. They didn’t do too good a job, either,” he said.
Updated
Trump calls Biden administration 'the most corrupt people'
Donald Trump called the Biden administration “the most corrupt people” during his rally in Wisconsin.
“From the very beginning of this journey, I’ve been on a mission to rescue our nation from a failed and corrupt political establishment and corrupt people,” he said.
“This country is in big trouble. We’re a failing nation. We are a failing nation. We’re a nation in decline. We’re a nation in distress, and we’re going to get it fixed very quickly,” Trump said.
Updated
“Just 30 days from now, we’re going to win the state of Wisconsin, we’re going to defeat Kamala Harris,” Trump said.
He called his rally on Saturday an “unbelievable evening”, when he returned to Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of his assassination attempt.
“We had 100,000 people, and there was love, and I had a fantastic… opera singer, and he went up and he sang ‘Ave Maria’,” he said.
Updated
Trump starts speech on-time in Juneau, Wisconsin
Donald Trump started his speech on time in Juneau, Wisconsin.
The former president is standing behind barriers of bulletproof glass, which is now a standard US Secret Service practice at outdoor rallies.
We’ll be following his remarks.
Updated
Arkansas senator Tom Cotton dodged questions regarding the results of the 2020 elections during an interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press, where he struggled to admit that Donald Trump lost the race.
“Joe Biden was elected president in 2020. It was an unfair election in many ways,” Cotton said on Sunday. “You had states that were changing their election practices or election laws, sometimes in violation of their constitution.”
“Joe Biden was elected president. Everything has gone to hell in a handbasket as a result,” he added.
Updated
Kamala Harris has embarked on a week-long media blitz, hurtling from TV studios and late-night shows to podcast interviews as she seeks to gain an edge over Donald Trump in the US election’s key battleground states that remain nail-bitingly close.
The vice-president’s decision to face a raft of largely friendly media outlets came as the campaigns entered the final 30 days. More than 1.4 million Americans have already cast their ballots in early voting across 30 states.
The Democratic nominee’s whirlwind media tour has been carefully crafted for maximum reach and minimum risk. Harris has talked to the CBS News show 60 Minutes, along with the popular podcast Call Her Daddy.
On Tuesday she hits the media capital, New York, for appearances on ABC News’s daytime behemoth The View and the Howard Stern Show, followed by a recording with late-night host Stephen Colbert.
The first of a flurry of comments from Harris was put out by 60 Minutes on Sunday before a full broadcast on Monday. Harris will appear alone, after Trump declined to be interviewed by the election special which has been a staple of US election coverage for more than half a century.
In a short clip released by 60 Minutes, Harris was asked whether the Biden-Harris administration had any sway over the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu, the hardline prime minister of Israel who appears not to listen to Washington. Asked whether the US had a “real close ally” in Netanyahu, she replied: “With all due respect, the better question is: do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And the answer to that question is yes.”
Since Harris’s meteoric propulsion as Democratic presidential nominee after Joe Biden stepped aside, her relative avoidance of press or TV interviews has become a point of contention on the campaign trail. Republican leaders and pundits on Fox News routinely accuse her of being media-shy.
Here’s more on Harris’s media blitz:
Biden orders 500 more troops to assist with Hurricane Helene relief efforts
President Joe Biden said on Sunday he ordered another 500 active-duty troops to move into western North Carolina and assist with the response and recovery efforts after the deadly and devastating Hurricane Helene.
“With a total of 1,500 troops now supplementing a robust on-the-ground effort - including more than 6,100 National Guardsmen and more than 7,000 Federal personnel - my administration is sparing no resource to support families as they begin their road to rebuilding,” Biden said in a statement.
He also said he was being briefed on tropical storm Milton as it strengthened across the Gulf of Mexico. Milton, which strengthened into a category one hurricane on Sunday, is expected to make landfall on Florida on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Updated
Adam Schiff says Trump 'will contest' election results if he loses
California representative Adam Schiff said during an interview with NBC News’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Donald Trump “will contest” the election results if he loses.
“If it is close, if Donald Trump loses again, as I expect that he will, he will contest it,” Schiff said.
“He has more reason to contest it than he did before, not because of any flaw in the election, but because Donald Trump believes, and perhaps with reason, that if he doesn’t succeed at the ballot box, he may be going to jail. So he’s going to challenge the results.”
Updated
Republican Senate candidate and former Maryland mayor Larry Hogan said during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union that if he’s elected, he will not support cabinet or supreme court nominees who do not garner bipartisan support in the Senate.
“I would make that pledge. If we can’t get any bipartisan buy-in, then I’m not going to vote for that person,” he said.
“In Washington, we can’t even seem to get one vote,” Hogan added. “It’s like Democrats will only vote for Democrats and Republicans will only vote for Republicans. If there’s one place that we should not be playing politics, it’s on appointments to the supreme court.”
Updated
The Charlotte Observer’s editorial board published an op-ed titled: Shame on Donald Trump for worsening NC’s Helene tragedy with political lies.
On Monday, Trump accused the federal government and Democratic governor Roy Cooper of “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas. MAGA!” Trump also said that the Biden administration has “left Americans to drown” in North Carolina and other states.
“This is not a situation to capitalize on for political gain,” reads the op-ed. “But former President Donald Trump has politicized the situation at every turn, spreading falsehoods and conspiracies that fracture the community instead of bringing it together.”
Here’s more context on some of the false claims made by Trump:
Updated
Ahead of a rally by the Republic presidential nominee, Donald Trump, in Juneau, Wisconsin, a line began forming near the event venue at the Dodge county airport.
Quite the line has formed ahead of former President Donald Trump’s rally in Dodge County. It’ll be hours yet before he speaks. pic.twitter.com/aAQGiI8Bpb
— Alison Dirr (@AlisonDirr) October 6, 2024
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that attendees were greeted by a “larger-than-life Trump inflatable with which some were taking photos”.
The former president’s speech is scheduled for 2pm CT, buthe usually starts his speeches at least half an hour after the slated time.
Updated
Arizona senator Mark Kelly criticizes Musk for supporting Trump
During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Arizona senator Mark Kelly criticized Elon Musk for supporting Donald Trump.
On Saturday, Musk joined Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and made the baseless claim that if Trump’s supporters fail to turn out, “this will be the last election”.
Kelly said that Musk was “hypocritically standing next to the guy that tried to overturn the last – the 2020 election on January 6, saying that this is somehow going to be the last election and they’re going to take away your vote.”
“It just doesn’t pass the logic test,” he said.
“It’s not lost on me, and it shouldn’t be lost on the American people that Donald Trump, when he was president, gave a giant tax cut to billionaires,” Kelly said during the interview. “Elon Musk is the richest person in the world. He’s got a tremendous amount of interest in Donald Trump being elected president.”
.@SenMarkKelly calls Elon Musk "hypocritical" for supporting Donald Trump and tells @DanaBashCNN, “He's got a tremendous amount of interest in Donald Trump being elected president because… billionaires like Elon Musk will get their giant tax cut again.” pic.twitter.com/pBuxaKMyDs
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) October 6, 2024
Updated
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has spent years saying the unsayable to entertain, goad and grab attention. But his pronouncements over the past few weeks have plumbed new depths of absurdity and incoherence.
Trump, 78, increasingly slurs or stumbles over his words, raising fears over cognitive decline. He is slipping in polls against Kamala Harris and knows that defeat could lead to criminal trials and even prison. After a decade of dominating American politics, critics say, Trump could be in the throes of a final meltdown.
His verbal output now is “absolute batshittery”, according to Tara Setmayer, a former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill. “These are not the musings of a well-adjusted adult. He demonstrates daily how unfit he is to have the most powerful position in the world.”
Trump was mostly given a pass by the mainstream media, Setmayer added, because of the intense focus on Joe Biden’s age and mental acuity when he was still running. “Now the focus is solely on him because he is the oldest candidate in this race. His kookery is even more highlighted now than before because he is alone on an island with his deterioration.”
Trump has always thrown dead cats on tables, as the metaphor goes, offering his fans the thrill of transgression and watching with glee as liberals howl with outrage. His run for president in 2016 was characterised by racially divisive rhetoric and a constant stream of controversies that dominated news cycles and forced rival Hillary Clinton into reactive mode.
Here’s more on Trump’s recent pronouncements:
Speaker Mike Johnson sidestepped questions on the results of the 2020 race during an interview on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
“It’s a gotcha game. You want us to litigate things that happened four years ago when we’re talking about the future,” Johnson said.
“Joe Biden has been the president for almost four years. Everybody needs to get over this and move forward,” he added.
Governor Tim Walz is expected to arrive at Santa Barbara, California, on Sunday to kick off a West Coast fundraising blitz on behalf of the Harris Victory Fund.
The Democratic vice-presidential pick will make his way through California and Washington, delivering campaign remarks in cities along the coast.
Walz is scheduled to deliver remarks at receptions in San Diego, Montecito, Los Angeles, and Sacramento before heading up to Washington.
CBS’s 60 Minutes will air an interview with Kamala Harris on Monday. The network released a sneak peek into the interview, where Bill Whitaker asked Harris if the US lacks influence over Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The aid that we have given Israel allowed Israel to defend itself against 200 ballistic missiles that were just meant to attack the Israelis and the people of Israel,” Harris said.
“When we think about the threat that Hamas Hezbollah presents [and] Iran, I think that it is, without any question, our imperative to do what we can to allow Israel to defend itself against those kinds of attacks.”
Monday, on a 60 Minutes election special, Bill Whitaker asks Vice President Kamala Harris if the U.S. lacks influence over American ally Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. https://t.co/TG3WOCA23A pic.twitter.com/IH6MXMjuCP
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 6, 2024
Updated
During his appearance on Fox News this morning, Tim Walz said Donald Trump’s agenda would destroy the American economy, while he supported Kamala Harris’s plan to lower costs and stimulate job growth.
“Well, we saw a blockbuster jobs report this week,” Walz said. “We saw interest rates come down, and we’ve also seen that Vice-President Harris is laying out a middle-class agenda.”
He added: “I was in Ohio yesterday, in Cleveland, in Cincinnati, and talking about this. Folks in Ohio know that Donald Trump’s policies led to 180,000 manufacturing jobs leaving.”
Updated
Melania Trump: Donald 'knew my beliefs' on abortion since the day they met
Melania Trump was asked whether Donald Trump knew she would express strong support for abortion rights in her upcoming memoir, where she emphasized that women should have the autonomy to decide whether to have children based on their own convictions, without government interference or pressure.
“Yes, he knew my position and my beliefs since the day we met, and I believe in individual freedom,” she said.
“I want to decide what I wanted to do with my body. I think I don’t want government in my personal business,” she added.
Updated
Former first lady Melania Trump sat down with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo this morning, where she showed her unwavering support for her husband, Donald Trump.
“I don’t believe in polls. I never did,” she said. “I think in the end, people really see it, what’s going on in the country and how this leadership is performing.”
Updated
The Democratic vice-presidential pick, Tim Walz, sat down with Fox News Sunday’s Shannon Bream, where he discussed how the overturning of Roe v. Wade has affected women.
“The real issue here is women being forced into miscarriages, women being forced to go back home, get sepsis and potentially die,” Walz said.
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at an event in Juneau, Wisconsin, on Sunday, his fourth scheduled stop in eight days in the state. Republicans are trying to rack up support in Wisconsin, which has only flipped red once in the past 40 years, when Trump won the state in 2016.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz are slated to sit down with major TV personalities this week. Walz is slated to sit down with Fox News’s Shannon Bream on Sunday for his first solo interview. On Monday, he’ll join Jimmy Kimmel Live. On Tuesday, Harris will be in New York for appearances on The View, The Howard Stern Show, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Here’s what else is happening:
After the US supreme court granted Donald Trump significant immunity from prosecution for actions during his presidency, the court is set to embark on its next nine-month term on Monday with public confidence in the court still reeling following the ruling compounded by the ethically dubious conduct of some justices.
The White House moved Saturday to quash claims that government officials control the weather, including a far-fetched rumor circulating on social media that Hurricane Helene was an engineered storm to allow corporations to mine regional lithium deposits.
Republican fearmongering about crime in major cities like Atlanta is serving to stoke racial tensions and suppress the growing political power of Black Democrats, despite a decline in crime rates, writes The Guardian’s George Chidi.
