Summary
We’re pausing today’s live blog. Thank you all for following along. Here are some of the biggest moments of the day.
Dick Cheney, the former republican vice-president, said that he will be voting for Kamala Harris in the upcoming election. In a statement, Cheney said: “In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”
A 15-year-old student has been shot and injured at Joppatowne high school in Maryland, about 24 miles north of Baltimore. The shooting appears to have stemmed from a fight on campus, and a 16-year old student has been arrested, ABC News reports.
Before Donald Trump’s trip to North Carolina today, the Fraternal Order of Police issued a statement of endorsement of him.
The judge in the New York criminal case in which Donald Trump was convicted earlier this year of election-related fraud over hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and a cover-up has delayed the sentencing of the former president until after the election.
Donald Trump launched an angry tirade against E Jean Carroll, the Biden administration, Kamala Harris, news networks including ABC and CNN, and Iran and China in a long and aggressive press conference filled top to bottom with outlandish claims and personal attacks.
More than 90 business leaders, including the heads of Yelp and Chobani, endorsed Kamala Harris’s presidential bid, in a new letter. It was also signed by current and former top executives including the former CEOs of PepsiCo, Ford Motor, Yahoo! and 21st Century Fox, and said: “Harris has a strong record of advancing actions to spur business investment in the United States and ensure American businesses can compete and win.”
Updated
Dick Cheney confirms he will vote for Kamala Harris
Dick Cheney has confirmed that he will be voting for the Democratic ticket in the US presidential election. The statement from the Republican former vice-president came hours after his daughter Liz Cheney, the former Republican representative for Wyoming, told a crowd that her father would be supporting Harris.
Dick Cheney: “In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be… pic.twitter.com/5xF2iqsq1O
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) September 6, 2024
His pronouncement comes days after Liz told a North Carolina crowd that she would also be voting for Harris.
Updated
The Georgia bureau of investigations (GBI) has announced that threats directed at other Georgia schools in the wake of Wednesday’s mass shooting have been deemed non-credible.
The public safety community is responding to an increase in school threat reporting following the shooting at Apalachee High School. Most of these threats have been deemed non-credible. Please do not share or forward these threats.
— GA Bureau of Investigation (@GBI_GA) September 6, 2024
🔗: https://t.co/buJG0WAxeC pic.twitter.com/pDFsZtbHDn
In a press release on its website, the GBI says that an increase in threats and subsequent tips from concerned people are common after these types of shootings, and that those who make these threats will be “investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”.
Updated
The White House has condemned Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, over his interview with Darryl Cooper, a Holocaust revisionist and podcast host who, during an interview released on Monday, argued that the Holocaust was the result of Germany not knowing what to do with prisoners of war.
The interview drew the ire of Jewish leaders, and in a statement to the New York Times, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said:
Giving a microphone to a Holocaust denier who spreads Nazi propaganda is a disgusting and sadistic insult to all Americans, to the memory of the over six million Jews who were genocidally murdered by Adolf Hitler, to the service of the millions of Americans who fought to defeat Nazism and to every subsequent victim of antisemitism.
In a now-deleted tweet, Elon Musk described the interview between Carlson and Cooper as: “Very interesting. Worth watching.”
Updated
A 15-year-old student has been shot and injured at Joppatowne high school in Maryland, about 24 miles north of Baltimore. The shooting appears to have stemmed from a fight on campus, and a 16-year old student has been arrested, ABC News reports.
UPDATE: Please be advised this is an isolated incident, not an active shooter. Avoid the area. The reunification center for parents to pick up their students is Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church.
— Harford Sheriff (@Harford_Sheriff) September 6, 2024
The injured student was airlifted to a local trauma unit and is in serious condition, authorities say. Deputies responded within two minutes and at least 100 other officers showed up to the scene.
“It showed our response – as if it was one – is ready. I pray we never have to test that system,” Jeff Gahler, sheriff of Harford county, said during a press conference.
The shooting on Friday comes days after two students and two adults were killed and nine others were injured during a mass shooting at Apalachee high school in Georgia.
Updated
Here is video of the moment Liz Cheney revealed that her father, Dick Cheney, will be voting for Kamala Harris:
.@Liz_Cheney: "Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris." #TribFest24 pic.twitter.com/YtI5BaV3Pz
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 6, 2024
Think about the moment that we’re in and you think about how serious this moment is … My dad believes … there’s never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is and that’s the moment that we’re facing and so I think recognizing that, Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” Cheney said.
Updated
Dick Cheney to vote for Kamala Harris, says daughter Liz
Dick Cheney will vote for Kamala Harris in November, the former vice-president’s daughter Liz Cheney said on Friday.
In an interview on Friday at the Texas Tribune Festival, Liz Cheney said: “Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” NBC reports.
Earlier this week, Liz Cheney addressed an audience at Duke University, where she said: “Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
During her interview on Friday, Liz Cheney also said that she will support the senatorial bid of Colin Allred, Texas’s Democratic representative.
Speaking of Allred, who is challenging Ted Cruz, the Republican incumbent, Cheney called him a “tremendous, serious candidate”, adding: “We need people who are going to serve in good faith … We need people who are honorable public servants, and in this race, that is Colin Allred, so I’ll be working on his behalf.”
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Tim Walz has responded to JD Vance’s comment following Georgia’s deadly school shooting in which he said school shootings are “just a fact of life”.
Walz, who has previously voiced support for an assault weapons ban, said in response to Vance’s comment:
This is pathetic. We can’t quit on our kids – they deserve better.
This is pathetic. We can’t quit on our kids — they deserve better. https://t.co/ozYdvpDJ4u
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) September 6, 2024
Republicans have repeatedly criticised and rejected calls for gun safety reforms including increased background checks and red flag policies, and have instead pointed to mental health issues as a chief reason for mass shootings across the country.
Updated
Nation's largest police organization endorses Trump
Before Donald Trump’s trip to North Carolina today, the Fraternal Order of Police issued the following statement of endorsement of him:
In every election cycle, the FOP pays close attention to which presidential campaign highlights the issues most vital to the men and women of the FOP, including the challenges faced by the rank-and-file law enforcement officers, the real issues in public safety, and the problems in our criminal justice system …
The National FOP endorsed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. He led our nation through some very tough times. He provided our nation with strong, effective leadership during his first term, and now that he is seeking election to a second term, we intend to help him win it.
Updated
In his decision, Judge Juan Merchan wrote that the “court is a fair, impartial and apolitical institution”.
He went on to add that delaying Trump’s sentencing should “dispel any suggestion” that he tried “to give an advantage to, or to create a disadvantage for, any political party and for any candidate for any office”.
MERCHAN: "The Court is a fair, impartial, and apolitical institution."
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) September 6, 2024
Postponing Trump's sentencing should "dispel any suggestion" that he tried "to give an advantage to, or to create a disadvantage for, any political party and for any candidate for any office," he writes.… pic.twitter.com/M5iOUv3Ayw
Updated
Interim summary
Hello, US politics blog readers. It’s a very busy news day even though the election campaign trail itself is rather quiet.
Kamala Harris is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, behind closed doors preparing for her historic debate next Tuesday with her opponent for the White House in November, Donald Trump. But she has been given good news in the form of her latest fundraising and polling results.
Trump, meanwhile, has been dealing with legal troubles in New York. First, he appeared in civil court at a hearing in which he is appealing a civil judgment against him that he sexually abused the writer E Jean Carroll, before holding a press conference uptown and then getting a vital judicial decision in his New York criminal case.
Here’s where things stand:
The judge in the New York criminal case in which Donald Trump was convicted earlier this year of election-related fraud over hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and a cover-up has delayed sentencing of the former president until after the election.
Donald Trump launched an angry tirade against E Jean Carroll, the Biden administration, Kamala Harris, news networks including ABC and CNN, and Iran and China in a long and aggressive press conference filled top to bottom with outlandish claims and personal attacks.
More than 90 business leaders, including the heads of Yelp and Chobani, endorsed Kamala Harris’s presidential bid, in a new letter. It was also signed by current and former top executives including the former CEOs of PepsiCo, Ford Motor, Yahoo! and 21st Century Fox, and said: “Harris has a strong record of advancing actions to spur business investment in the United States and ensure American businesses can compete and win.”
Trump’s lawyers argued at an appeal hearing in civil court in New York that the trial spurred by a lawsuit brought forth by the writer E Jean Carroll, where a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, consisted of improper evidence.
Kamala Harris’s election campaign brought in $361m in contributions the last month, nearly tripling the $130m raised by Trump’s campaign during the same period. The campaign of Harris and Tim Walz, her running mate and the governor of Minnesota, called it the biggest grassroots fundraiser in presidential campaign history.
Joe Biden is due to arrive in Ann Arbor, Michigan, soon, where he will speak about his administration’s economic agenda.
JD Vance sparked a political row after calling school shootings an unwelcome “fact of life” and saying schools need stronger security, while Democrats, led by Biden and Harris, want stronger gun control, especially a ban on assault-style rifles, including the semi-automatic gun that was used in the school shooting in Georgia earlier this week.
Updated
Donald Trump and his legal team had asked Justice Juan Merchan to push back the former president’s criminal sentencing date until after the presidential vote on 5 November.
Merchan moments ago announced the sentencing would be pushed back from 18 September to 26 November (a Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving).
Here’s a fuller quote from Merchan’s response to both sides’ legal teams, picked out from the official decision by Reuters:
This matter is one that stands alone in a unique place in this Nation’s history. Unfortunately, we are now at a place in time that is fraught with complexities rendering the requirements of a sentencing hearing, should one be necessary, difficult to execute,.
Trump’s lawyers earlier this month had argued there would not be enough time before the original sentencing date for the defense to potentially appeal Merchan’s forthcoming ruling on Trump’s request to overturn the conviction due to the supreme court’s landmark decision on presidential immunity. Merchan had been scheduled to rule on that motion on 16 September.
He wrote today that he now plans to rule on that motion on 12 November.
The supreme court’s 6-3 ruling, which related to a separate criminal case Trump faces – the federal election meddling case – found that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for their official acts, and that evidence of presidents’ official actions cannot be used to help prove criminal cases involving unofficial actions.
Updated
Donald Trump has once again succeeded in pushing back the calendar on his legal troubles as, even though the case came to court and he was convicted, he will not now be sentenced in the New York hush-money criminal case until after the election.
The judge in the case in Manhattan, Juan Merchan, has said today that the situation is now “fraught with complexities” such that he cannot deliver sentencing on Trump’s felony conviction on 18 September as had been scheduled.
He said the case “stands alone in a unique place” in US history: the first time a former US president has been convicted of a crime.
The sentencing also follows a decision by the US supreme court in July that US presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts related to their office. It is therefore a matter of legal argument whether Trump’s actions, bringing a conviction for election campaign-related fraud, are covered by that ruling.
Merchan said the ruling created “one of the most difficult decisions a judge can face”.
Updated
Trump criminal sentencing put off until after election
The judge in the New York criminal case in which Donald Trump was convicted earlier this year of election-related fraud over hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and a cover-up has delayed sentencing of the former president until after the election.
Judge Juan Merchan in Manhattan has put the sentencing date back from 18 September until 26 November.
The presidential election is on 5 November, and the former president is running for another term in the White House as the Republican nominee for president, against Kamala Harris, the vice-president and Democratic party nominee.
Trump was found guilty by a jury in Manhattan in May of a hush-money plot to influence the 2016 election, on 34 felony counts.
Updated
The Manhattan federal appeals court on Friday questioned the merit of Donald Trump’s appeal of the E Jean Carroll case judgment.
Victoria Bekiempis reports for the Guardian:
Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn a Manhattan civil jury’s $5m sexual abuse and defamation judgment were met with scepticism by a federal appeals court on Friday, with judges questioning whether his complaints about trial evidence held any merit.
The Trump attorney D John Sauer’s opening salvo, which claimed “this case is a textbook example of improbable allegations being propped up by highly inflammatory, inadmissible, propensity evidence”, was met with a swift rebuff.
“Your arguments are evidentiary issues and as you know, we give great deference to district courts on [evidence],” said Denny Chin, one of three judges from the US court of appeals for the second circuit hearing Trump’s argument. “Why should we order a new trial?”
For the full story, click here:
Updated
Trump uses press conference to air familiar grievances about E Jean Carroll and US election
In more than 45 minutes, Donald Trump launched an angry tirade against E Jean Carroll, the Biden administration, Kamala Harris, news networks including ABC and CNN, and Iran and China.
As Trump repeated his usual talking points including denying sexually assaulting Carroll while calling the case a “rigged deal”, a crowd of tourists and anti-Trump protestors gathered outside Trump Tower, with some waving signs that read “Guilty” and “Justice matters”.
Trump also invited his lawyers Alina Habba and Will Scharf to speak at the press conference. Both Habba and Scharf defended him while saying they were “disgusted” by the alleged attacks against him.
Updated
A handful of anti-Donald Trump protestors have gathered outside Trump Tower as Trump continues with his press conference:
Several anti-Trump protesters have now gathered outside Trump Tower, holding signs reading “guilty” and “justice matters”, among others.
— Anna Betts (@annabettss) September 6, 2024
One of them told me that they wish Trump would just respect the judgment made by the court in the E Jean Carroll case. pic.twitter.com/aoLSNhD1x5
Here is more from the Guardian’s Anna Betts outside Trump Tower:
The crowd outside trump tower is mainly tourists, members of the press and a few trump supporters. Many are hoping to get a glimpse of the former president. pic.twitter.com/0HOVPZZSwV
— Anna Betts (@annabettss) September 6, 2024
Updated
The Guardian’s Anna Betts is currently outside Trump Tower where the former president is delivering a rambling press conference following today’s opening arguments in his E Jean Carroll judgement appeal attempt:
I’m outside Trump Tower on fifth avenue in New York, where a small crowd has formed.
— Anna Betts (@annabettss) September 6, 2024
The former president is inside the building hosting a press conference. pic.twitter.com/qQuNtDLXxZ
Barricades are erected outside the Trump Tower on 5th Avenue in New York City.
A small crowd of people are gathered outside the barriers, hoping to catch a glimpse of the former president.
“This is not the kind of publicity you’d like,” Donald Trump said about the case.
He went on to say, “I should be suing [E Jean Carroll] for defamation” before repeating his attacks on Carroll while talking about how he has been famous for “a long time.”
“She has gone around for years saying this story and it’s a total lie… This whole thing started, along with just about every case I’ve been involved with, with the political campaign of Harris, who’s having a bad time,” he said.
“It’s all fabricated…in front of very friendly judges,” Trump continued.
Donald Trump has started his press conference at Trump Towers in New York City.
He opened up his remarks by attacking E Jean Caroll, calling the whole system “a disgrace” and the case “ridiculous.” He repeated his claims that he has “no idea” who Carroll is and went on to call the case “a rigged deal” and a “setup.”
Trump also called on authorities to look at “China, China, China” and “Iran, Iran, Iran” instead of focusing on his own legal issues.
More than 90 business executives endorse Harris in new letter of support
On Friday, more than 90 business leaders including the heads of Yelp and Chobani endorsed Kamala Harris’s presidential bid in a new letter.
The letter, which was also issued by current and former top executives including the former CEOs of PepsiCo, Ford Motor, Yahoo! and 21st Century Fox, said:
“Harris has a strong record of advancing actions to spur business investment in the United States and ensure American businesses can compete and win in the global market,” CNBC first reported.
The letter adds:
“As a partner to president Biden, vice president Harris has a strong record of advancing actions to spur business investment in the United States and ensure American businesses can compete and win in the global market. She will continue to advance fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a sound business environment, and she will strive to give every American the opportunity to pursue the American dream.”
Despite his mounting legal woes, Donald Trump is set to return to North Carolina later today to deliver remarks before the Fraternal Order of Police, the world’s largest organization of law enforcement officials which endorsed Trump in 2020.
Trump’s remarks are set to portray himself as tough on crime and a stark contrast to Kamala Harris, who he called the “ringleader” of a “Marxist attack on law enforcement,” the Associated Press reports.
In Michigan last month, Trump attacked Harris, saying that she will “deliver crime, chaos, destruction and death” while he vowed to “deliver law, order, safety and peace.”
Trump's lawyers argue improper evidence in E Jean Carroll trial amid verdict overturn attempt
Donald Trump’s lawyers are arguing that the civil trial surrounding a lawsuit brought forth by E Jean Caroll which found Trump liable for sexual abuse and slander consisted of improper evidence.
In his opening arguments, Trump’s lawyer John Sauer said, “This case is a textbook example of implausible allegations being propped up by highly inflammatory, inadmissible, propensity evidence.” Sauer also pointed to the 2005 Access Hollywood tape in which Trump bragged about touching women’s private body parts non-consensually.
Meanwhile, Carroll’s lawyers argued that Trump did not offer a single witness in the case while they put on eleven witnesses to the stand. “He had every opportunity to rebut all this evidence, he did not,” Carroll’s lawyers argued.
In 2023, a nine-person jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman changing room in 1996 and subsequently defaming her. Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages.
At the core of the appeal attempt is Trump’s lawyers argument that evidence which should have not been allowed in the trial was used and evidence that should have been used was not.
E Jean Carroll’s lawyer laid out her response, saying:
“E Jean Carroll brought this case because Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in 1996 in a dressing room in Bergdorf Goodman and then defamed her in 2022 by claiming that she was crazy and made the whole thing up…”
She went on to add, “This is all about the assault… On top of all that…Donald Trump…had every opportunity to take the stand and rebut all this evidence. He did not. He did not put on a single witness in the civil case. We put on 11.”
Updated
Donald Trump’s lawyer John Sauer opened up his argument by saying:
“This case is a textbook example of implausible allegations being propped up by highly inflammatory, inadmissible, propensity evidence.”
He went on to call the case a “quintessential ‘he said she said’ case” and accused E Jean Carroll of being “funded and encouraged by president Trump’s political enemies.”
The opening arguments have begun.
Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates.
Trump arrives in Manhattan court for opening arguments in E Jean Carroll judgement appeal
The motorcade of Donald Trump has arrived at the Manhattan federal appeals court as the former president prepares for opening arguments in his E Jean Carroll judgment appeal.
Here are some images coming through the newswires:
Here are some images coming through the newswires from outside the lower Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump is reportedly expected to appear for opening arguments in his appeal of the 2023 E Jean Carroll case judgment:
Donald Trump will potentially be making an appearance at the lower Manhattan courthouse today to try to overturn the 2023 judgment in his case involving writer Jean Carroll.
Victoria Bekiempis, who will be reporting for the Guardian at the courthouse, reports:
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, is reportedly poised to attend these proceedings before the US court of appeals for the second circuit this morning. But it is unclear whether he will show up to court – especially with the 2024 election in its final stretch.
A jury found in May 2023 that Trump attacked Carroll in a department store dressing room some 30 years ago. Their award was comprised of $2m for sexual abuse and $3m for defamation, as Trump repeatedly smeared Carroll’s reputation after she came forward against him just over five years ago.
Carroll disclosed the incident in a June 2019 New York magazine article, which was an excerpt of her then-forthcoming book, What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal; Trump responded by claiming she was lying and trying to damage him politically.
Carroll also won a $83.3m civil verdict against Trump in a second trial this January. The judge in both trials, Lewis Kaplan, determined that jurors’ findings in the first trial – that Trump sexually abused and defamed Carroll – would be accepted as fact in the second trial.
For further details, click here:
Trump's legal woes mount while Harris raises staggering $361m in August
Good morning,
It is a busy day for Donald Trump as his lawyers attempt to appeal against the 2023 judgment in the E Jean Carroll civil case which found the former president liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer. A nine-person jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. Trump is reportedly expected to attend Friday’s oral arguments in the lower Manhattan courthouse.
In other legal woes, judge Juan Merchan who presided over Trump’s hush money criminal trial is expected to rule today on whether he will postpone Trump’s sentencing until after the presidential elections. Trump, who was convicted on all 34 accounts of falsifying business records, was originally scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. However, Merchan delayed the date to September 18 after Trump’s lawyers asked the case to be re-evaluated due to the supreme court’s presidential immunity ruling earlier this summer.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris’s campaign brought in $361 million in contributions last month, nearly tripling the $130 million raised by Trump’s campaign during the same period, Politico reports, citing figures released by both campaigns this week. Harris’s massive fundraising over Trump comes as leading historian Allan Lichtman predicts Harris’s White House victory, come November. Lichtman is said to have correctly predicted every US presidential election since 1984, except for Al Gore’s loss to George W Bush in 2000.
Here are other developments in US politics:
Joe Biden is set to travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan today where he will speak about his administration’s economic agenda.
JD Vance is facing backlash after calling school shootings a “fact of life,” a line which Democrats are likely to seize upon in their criticisms of Republicans’ refusal to pass stricter gun laws.
Updated
