Closing summary
This blog is closing soon, thanks for joining us. Here’s a recap of today’s main developments:
Donald Trump announced he would not participate in a second debate with Kamala Harris, saying she has turned down previous opportunities to meet and alleging she lost their Tuesday night face-off. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found Harris the overall winner of the Tuesday evening face-off, and slightly improving her lead nationally.
Republicans blamed the influence of Laura Loomer, a rightwing conspiracy theorist, for Trump’s botched debate performance on Tuesday. The Semafor website quoted an unnamed source close to Trump’s campaign as saying they were “100%” concerned about Loomer’s sway over the Republican nominee.
The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, said a bomb threat that forced the evacuation of the city hall and other buildings on Thursday, had used “hateful language” towards Haitians and other immigrants. Springfield was thrust into the spotlight this week after Donald Trump and other Republicans including JD Vance promoted the false rumour that immigrants in the city are eating people’s pets.
Donald Trump had two counts tossed from his criminal case in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, after the presiding judge decided on Thursday they fell under the supremacy clause in the US constitution that bars state prosecutors from charging federal crimes.
Donald Trump has failed in his latest attempt to lift the limited gag order imposed on him by Juan Merchan, the judge who presided over the trial in which the former president was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments. New York’s appeals court declined Trump’s request today “upon the ground that no substantial constitutional question is directly involved”.
A North Dakota judge struck down its near-total ban on abortions, saying the state constitution protects some access to the procedure, and the law as written is vague, the Associated Press reports. District judge Bruce Romanick’s decision comes in a lawsuit filed by North Dakota’s sole abortion clinic, which has moved to neighboring Minnesota since the ban was signed by Governor Doug Burgum in 2022.
The joint session of Congress scheduled for 6 January 2025 to count and certify electoral votes will be considered a “national special security event” by the homeland security department, all because of what happened last time.
Alberto Gonzales, a Republican who served as attorney general under George W Bush, announced he will vote for Harris. “As the United States approaches a critical election, I can’t sit quietly as Donald Trump – perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation – eyes a return to the White House,” he wrote in a column for Politico.
Updated
The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, has said a bomb threat that led to the evacuation of City Hall and numerous buildings on Thursday “used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community.”
“Springfield is a community that needs help,” mayor Rob Rue told the Washington Post. The mayor added that national leaders should provide that help and not “hurt a community like, unfortunately, we have seen over the last couple of days.”
Springfield was thrust into the spotlight this week after Donald Trump and other Republicans including vice presidential candidate JD Vance promoted the false rumour that immigrants in the city are eating people’s pets.
