Michelle Obama excoriated Donald Trump in strikingly personal terms on Saturday, asking rally-goers in Michigan why Kamala Harris was being held to a higher standard than her opponent, citing his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and his efforts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election.
“I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn,” Obama said at an event for Kamala Harris in Kalamazoo.
It marks a significant change in tack for Obama, who inspired Democrats with the slogan “when they go low, we go high” when Hillary Clinton was running against Trump.
Saturday was the first day that early in-person voting became available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% of registered voters.
Here’s what else happened on Saturday:
Donald Trump election news
Donald Trump said he deserved the support of Muslim voters because he would end conflicts and bring peace to the Middle East. “That’s all they want,” Trump said at a rally outside Detroit, adding he had just met a group of local imams. Trump fully backs Israel but has not said how he would end the conflict in the region. Trump appears to be gaining support from some Muslim Americans upset with President Joe Biden’s and Harris’ support of Israel, and despite Trump banning immigration from some Muslim-majority countries in his first term as president. Imam Belal Alzuhairi of the Islamic Center of Detroit joined Trump on stage, saying, “We ask Muslims to stand with President Trump because he promises peace.”
Trump’s lengthy discussion with Joe Rogan revealed a surprising amount about his disposition before descending into the usual Trump rambles, writes Sam Wolfson. Aside from his assertion that his biggest mistake he made during his presidency was hiring “disloyal people”, Trump responded honestly about the challenges of becoming president without having any political experience, saying it was more surreal than later being shot in the tip of one of his ears. He said that he “had made his money largely on luxury” and that he was amazed by how beautiful it was inside the White House. But then it was back to the regular targets: he demonised migrants, spoke warmly about Vladimir Putin and falsely claimed the 2020 election had been stolen from him. Rogan tried to push him on nuclear power and the environment, but Trump only wanted to discuss how ugly he finds windfarms.
Kamala Harris election news
Michelle Obama made her first appearance on the campaign trail since her blockbuster speech at the Democratic national convention in August. She urged voters to back Harris not because she’s a woman but “because Kamala Harris is a grown-up – and Lord knows we need a grown-up in the White House”. When Harris spoke at the Michigan rally, she promised to be a president who listened to the American people, unlike her opponent, whom she accused of “looking in the mirror all the time”. “Just imagine the Oval Office in three months,” she said. “It is either Donald Trump in there stewing over his enemies’ list – or me working for you, checking off my to-do list.”
Harris visited a local doctor’s office in nearby Portage, where she spoke to healthcare providers and medical students about the impact of abortion restrictions. Harris has made protecting what remains of abortion access a major theme of her closing argument to voters, using it to draw a sharp contrast with Trump, who has claimed credit for his role in overturning Roe v Wade but insisted he would allow a nationwide ban as president.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail
Less than a fortnight before polling day, Harris and Trump are locked in a nail-bitingly close US presidential election race, our 10-day polling tracking average shows. According to poll averages, Harris leads by a single point in Michigan and by less than 1% in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada. Trump has a two-point lead in North Carolina and a one-point lead in Arizona.
High-profile Trump backer Elon Musk briefly worked illegally in the US after abandoning a graduate studies program in California, according to a Washington Post report that contrasted the episode with his anti-immigration views. The South African multibillionaire has previously maintained that his transition from student to entrepreneur was a “legal grey area”.
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