Election 2024 live updates as Trump-Harris polls show ties in battleground states

Former President Donald Trump is set to visit Dearborn, Michigan — the nation’s largest Arab-majority city — on Friday, according to a local business owner who first insisted the former president call for peace in Lebanon before hosting him.

Metro Detroit is home to the nation’s largest concentration of Arab Americans, with a large chunk of them living in Dearborn. The city — which President Biden won by a 3-to-1 margin — has been roiled by political turmoil, with many upset with the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

While Vice President Kamala Harris has been working through surrogates to ease community tensions, Trump’s visit will mark the first by either candidate, according to a local leader, Osama Siblani. Earlier this year, Harris met with the city’s Democratic mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, though their discussion took place outside Dearborn.

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In dueling comments, spokespeople for the Trump and Harris campaigns responded to the former president’s remarks about former Rep. Liz Cheney, and the backlash the comments have sparked.

In an interview with MSNBC on Friday, Ian Sams, a spokesperson for Harris’ campaign, said the former president treats those who oppose him as enemies and accused Trump of being “all-consumed by his grievances.”

“He’s spent the last month talking about the ‘enemy from within’ the United States. And now, he’s going after Liz Cheney with this dangerous, violent rhetoric,” Sams said. “I mean, think about the contrast between these two candidates. You have Donald Trump who is talking about sending a prominent Republican to the firing squad, and you have Vice President Harris talking about sending one to her Cabinet. This is the difference in this race.”

But Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for the Trump campaign, accused the media of distorting the former president’s criticism of Cheney in an effort to aid Harris’ presidential run days before the election.

“President Trump is 100% correct that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves,” Leavitt said in a statement. “This is the continuation of the latest fake media outrage days before the election in a blatant attempt to interfere on behalf of Kamala Harris.”

Julia Ramsey is used to a deluge of election-related mail. Campaign mailings have clogged her Pennsylvania mailbox day after day for months, but one she received this week stood out from the rest.

It made Ramsey feel like she was being “vote shamed.”

The mailing was among millions sent this week by a pair of tax exempt organizations, letters purporting to be “Voting Report Cards.” They show whether each recipient voted in recent elections, as well as a table of what appears to be redacted neighbors’ names, addresses and voting histories.

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For the first time ever, cryptocurrency could play a role in choosing the next president. As digital currencies have become more mainstream, crypto investors are emerging as a key new voting bloc.

Anywhere from 7% to 21% of Americans own crypto — that equates to 18 million on the low end, and roughly 50 million on the high end. According to research from crypto exchange Gemini, 73% say a political candidate’s stance toward the industry will influence their vote.

The potential for crypto voters to move the needle is particularly noteworthy in swing states. Organizations like Stand with Crypto, a pro-crypto Political Action Committee are signing up “crypto advocates” in critical battleground states. In fact, Arizona and Georgia each have three times as many of these advocates than the number of votes President Biden won by in 2020.

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“Kamala’s going to do a hell of a job, in my view,” the president said in a video posted to social media encouraging people to vote. “We’re beginning to move things. We’re not a nation of hate, we love each other. We’re a nation that wants to pull together.”

U.S. payrolls slumped sharply in October, weighed down by people not working as a result of two hurricanes and a major labor dispute.

The U.S. added just 12,000 jobs in October, well below economists’ estimate of 100,000, marking the slowest month for hiring since December 2020. Payroll gains for September were revised down to 223,000, from 254,000. 

Unemployment in October held steady at 4.1%. The lackluster report reflects a dent in hiring attributed to Hurricanes Milton and Helene, and the Boeing machinists strike, which temporarily prevented some people from working in Florida and North Carolina.

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In the final days of the presidential campaign, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro will hit the airwaves in support of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Both she and former President Donald Trump have emphasized the importance of the Keystone State to their chances of winning the election. Shapiro, who was among the finalists to be on the ticket with Harris, has been a vocal supporter of her campaign.

Now, he’s a key voice in her final push to win the state in an ad on digital platforms and on television.

“Do you want more chaos or, like me, are you ready for some common sense?” Shapiro says in the ad, echoing a Harris campaign theme targeting Trump for his behavior while in office.

by Aaron Navarro and Graham Kates

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said a video purporting to show Haitians claiming that they illegally voted for Kamala Harris is fake and likely the work of a Russian troll farm.

In the video posted to social media on Thursday, a man claims that he and others featured in the footage are from Haiti, arrived in the United States six months ago, obtained U.S. citizenship within that time, and are voting for Kamala Harris in multiple Georgia counties.

Raffensperger said his office was working with state and federal partners to identify the origin of the video and urged X owner Elon Musk and the “leadership of other social media platforms” to remove the video.

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by Erielle Delzer and Rhona Tarrant

With Election Day four days away, just over 66 million people have already cast their ballots early, either in-person or by mail, according to data from the University of Florida’s Election Lab.

More people have voted at polling places in person, with more than 35 million ballots cast, compared to 30.8 million ballots returned. Data from the 25 states that report party registration show 12.5 million registered Democrats and 11.8 million registered Republicans have voted early.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney responded to Trump’s comments about guns being “trained on her face,” saying his remark demonstrates the actions of a dictator.

“This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant,” she said in a post to social media with hashtags stating “women will not be silenced” and “vote Kamala.”

Trump attacked Cheney during an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona. He also called her “a very dumb individual.”

Trump went after one of his biggest critics, former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, using violent imagery in an interview with Tucker Carlson. 

“And I don’t blame [former Vice President Dick Cheney] for sticking with his daughter, but his daughter is a very dumb individual, very dumb,” Trump said. “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. Okay? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know when the guns are trained on her face. You know they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, oh, gee, well let’s send — let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy. But she’s a stupid person.”

Cheney and her father, the former vice president, have endorsed Harris, and Cheney has campaigned in battleground states with Harris, portraying Trump as a threat to democracy and national security in an effort to win over Republicans and moderates.

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During a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Republican presidential nominee continued to insult Harris, his Democratic opponent, and her intellect.

“There are some people who thrive under pressure, and there are some people who crack under pressure,” Trump said. “She’s a cracker.”

The former president also claimed Harris is “exhausted” and said she is a “total stiff,” though he offered no reasons for these slights against her.

“Kamala has the economic understanding of a child,” Trump said. “Did you ever hear her speak?”

The former president’s continued insults come as he and his supporters have criticized President Biden for appearing to call Trump’s supporters “garbage” during a call with Latino activists Tuesday. Mr. Biden was responding to remarks made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, in which he called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

The White House said Mr. Biden was referring to Hinchcliffe’s offensive joke, not those who support the former president, and Mr. Biden also said in a post on X, “Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say.”

Justice Samuel Alito on Thursday rejected a request from progressive activist Cornel West to direct Pennsylvania election officials to post notices informing voters at polling locations statewide on Election Day that West is a presidential candidate and his name can be written in on ballots.

West, a third-party candidate for the presidency, sought emergency relief from the nation’s highest court Wednesday, less than a week before Election Day and as more than 1.5 million voters in Pennsylvania have already cast their ballots by mail

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, will be conveying his closing message to Americans in an interview set to air on Monday night, the eve of the election, on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Walz recorded the interview Thursday morning in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, underscoring the Harris campaign’s focus on the hotly contested battleground state, with its 19 electoral votes. In 2020, Joe Biden won Pennsylvania, while Donald Trump won the state in 2016. 

The Harris campaign has tried to broaden the programs and platforms on which Harris and Walz are interviewed to reach a wider, younger audience. Harris, too, has been interviewed by Colbert, and she has also appeared on ABC’s “The View,” “The Howard Stern Show,” and the podcasts “Call Her Daddy” and “Breakfast Club.” Walz has made late-show appearances on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”