Closing summary
This blog is closing now – thanks for following along. You can read our US elections coverage here. Here are the major developments from today:
Michelle Obama joined Kamala Harris for a rally focused on reproductive freedom in Kalamazoo, Michigan (or as Obama called it, “Kamala-zoo”). The former first lady and the vice-president emphasized the stakes for abortion and reproductive healthcare if Donald Trump is re-elected. Earlier in the day, Harris spoke with reproductive healthcare providers at a clinic in Portage, Michigan.
On the first day of early voting in Michigan, Donald Trump also held a rally in Michigan. At an event in Novi, the ex-president was joined on stage by several imams and other leaders of the state’s large Muslim and Arab American community, who denounced Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza.
Later in the evening, Trump spoke at a second event in State College, Pennsylvania, where he again promised to ban sanctuary cities and launch a massive deportation program all while unleashing more personal attacks against Harris.
Elon Musk, who has become a vocal critic of “open borders”, worked illegally in the United States early in his career, the Washington Post reports. After arriving in the United States for a graduate program at Stanford, Musk never attended classes and did not have work authorization when he started building the company that became Zip2.
Joe Biden campaigned for Harris across Pennsylvania today, speaking with the Laborers’ International Union of North America in Pittsburgh.
Nika Soon-Shiong, whose family owns the Los Angeles Times, says the paper’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate was made by her family due to Kamala Harris’s position on the war in Gaza. Her father, Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the paper, said his daughter was speaking in her personal capacity.
Senator Bob Casey addressed members of the Carpenters Union in Philadelphia and attacked his Republican opponent, Dave McCormick, over allegations that he fostered a toxic work environment as CEO of the hedge fund Bridgewater, describing the claims as “disqualifying”.
Harris is expected to campaign across Philadelphia tomorrow while Trump gears up for a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Updated
Trump ends his rally begging supporters to deliver a 'landslide'
Donald Trump concluded his roughly hour-long rally in State College, Pennsylvania, with a request for all of his supporters to go to the polls on 5 November.
“With your vote this November, we’re going to fire Kamala, and we are going to save America,” Trump said.
Again raising the specter of Democratic election meddling despite no evidence of such fraud in the 2020 presidential race, Trump implored his supporters to deliver a “landslide”.
“We must defeat Kamala Harris and stop a radical left agenda with a landslide that is too big to rig,” Trump said. “We will never ever back down, and we will never surrender.”
Trump then walked off the stage with the sound of YMCA by the Village People playing in the background.
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