Trump claims ‘no conflict’ during Arlington national cemetery visit despite US army statements – live | US elections 2024

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• Kamala Harris will travel to Pittsburgh on Thursday and will remain there while she prepares for next Tuesday’s presidential debate with Donald Trump, according to reports. The Harris campaign is still negotiating with ABC News about rules for the 10 September debate, a Harris campaign official said.

• Kamala Harris is expected to announce new proposals meant to boost small businesses and entrepreneurs ahead of a campaign speech on Wednesday in New Hampshire, according to a report.

• The Harris campaign launched the “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour aimed at advocating for women’s reproductive rights starting today in Palm Beach, Florida. The second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, the Minnesota first lady, Gwen Walz, the Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and the Harris-Walz campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez are among those who will be on the tour.

• The Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee announced it will transfer $25m to support down-ballot candidates.

• Donald Trump claimed that “there was no conflict” during his visit to Arlington national cemetery last week, calling it “a made-up story” by his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. The US army accused two campaign workers representing Trump of pushing aside an official who told them it was forbidden to take pictures at the graves of military members who had recently died.

• Jimmy McCain, the son of the late Republican senator John McCain, condemned Trump’s visit to the Arlington national cemetery last week as a “violation”. “These men and women that are lying in the ground there have no choice” of whether to be a backdrop for a political campaign, he told CNN.

• Fred Trump III, the nephew of Donald Trump, said the Republican presidential nominee “just doesn’t give a shit” about members of the US military. “He just doesn’t. Donald believes in Donald,” he told MSNBC.

• The offices of Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican National Committee were briefly evacuated last week after staff thought they discovered listening devices under a desk, according to a local police report.

• A federal judge ordered Donald Trump and his campaign to stop using the song Hold On, I’m Coming co-written by the late R&B artist and songwriter Isaac Hayes, after Hayes’s estate sought an emergency injunction to stop the Trump campaign from using the song at campaign events.

• The Manhattan district attorney’s office urged the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal case to rule on his motion to vacate his conviction, and not wait until a federal judge considers a separate motion filed by Trump last week to move the case into federal court.

• Pat Toomey, the former Republican senator for Pennsylvania, said he will not be voting for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in the November election. Toomey said he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 but that he could not bring himself to support the Republican presidential candidate, citing Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

• A rightwing thinktank report proposing sweeping restrictions to abortions and fertility treatments was endorsed by JD Vance years before he became a fervent backer of Donald Trump and – eventually – his vice-presidential running mate known for his derisive views on childless women.

• Robert F Kennedy Jr was asked if he would be vice-president under Donald Trump hours after the former president survived an assassination attempt in July, it has been revealed. Kennedy reportedly rejected the suggestion from Calley Means, an entrepreneur who sometimes advised him on chronic diseases and was acting as an intermediary, according to the New York Times.

• Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, warned his opposite number, the Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell, that history will judge him “poorly” because he paved the way to rightwing policies out of touch with the American people.

Seven Republican states sue over Biden administration’s new student debt relief plan

Republican-led states are again attempting to halt the Biden administration’s plans to implement a student debt forgiveness program.

Seven states have filed a lawsuit challenging a new debt relief plan and said efforts were under way at the US Department of Education to start canceling loans as soon as this week, Reuters reported. That news came after the supreme court last week rejected the Biden administration’s bid to revive a different student debt relief plan.

“We successfully halted their first two illegal student loan cancellation schemes; I have no doubt we will secure yet another win to block the third one,” Andrew Bailey, the Missouri attorney general, said in a statement.

Kamala Harris will travel to Pittsburgh on Thursday to prepare for next Tuesday’s presidential debate with Donald Trump, according to reports.

Harris will remain in Pittsburgh until the debate takes place on 10 September, CNN reported, citing sources familiar with the planning.

In Pittsburgh, Harris will participate in intensive debate prep, informally known as “debate camp” led by Karen Dunn, a Washington-based lawyer who helped prepare Harris for her 2020 vice-presidential debate, and Rohini Kosoglu, a longtime Harris policy aide, the Washington Post reported.

Harris is expected to meet voters in Pittsburgh and stay on the campaign trail in the key battleground state while also preparing for the debate, according to CNN.

In recent weeks, Harris has held at least one debate prep session at Howard University, her alma mater, in Washington, according to the Post.

The Harris campaign is still negotiating with ABC News about rules for the 10 September debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, NBC News reported, citing a Harris campaign official.

No agreement has been reached on the final rules, the official said.

The offices of Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican National Committee were briefly evacuated last week after staff thought they discovered listening devices under a desk, according to a local police report.

About 50 employees were evacuated on Thursday afternoon after people heard beeping under a staff member’s desk at the Trump campaign offices in West Palm Beach, Florida, according to the local police department.

Three devices were found by police and security, who subsequently swept the floors of the building, the Washington Post reported. Employees returned to the building later that afternoon. The devices were identified as “a cricket noisemaker prank” that can be bought on Amazon, it said.

A security official who worked in the building told the police he believed “the devices were part of a prank. The suites were canvassed for any additional devices and evidence yielding negative results”, the New York Times reported.

The Philadelphia Eagles said it is aware of “counterfeit ads being circulated” that claim the American football team has endorsed Kamala Harris for president.

Posters appeared on the streets of Philadelphia showing Harris wearing an Eagles helmet and holding an American football, with “KAMALA” in large bold letters and the tagline “Official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles”.

NBC Philadelphia reported spotting at least six of the counterfeit ads around the city before they were taken down on Monday. It is unclear who was responsible for them, it said.

JD Vance endorsed anti-IVF report that contradicts Trump’s new stance

Robert Tait

A rightwing thinktank report proposing sweeping restrictions to abortions and fertility treatments was endorsed by JD Vance years before he became a fervent backer of Donald Trump and – eventually – his vice-presidential running mate known for his derisive views on childless women.

In 2017, months into Trump’s presidency, Vance wrote the foreword to the Index of Culture and Opportunity, a collection of essays by conservative authors for the Heritage Foundation that included ideas for encouraging women to have children earlier and promoting a resurgence of “traditional” family structure. The essays lauded the increase in state laws restricting abortion rights and included arguments that the practice should become “unthinkable” in the US, a hardline posture the Democrats now say is the agenda of Trump and Vance, who they accuse of harbouring the intent to impose a national ban following a 2022 supreme court ruling overturning Roe v Wade and annulling the federal right to terminate a pregnancy.

The report also includes an essay lamenting the spread of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and other fertility treatments, with the author attributing them as reasons for women delaying having children and prioritising higher education rather than starting families.

IVF has emerged as an issue in November’s presidential race after Trump said last week that he favoured it being covered by government funding or private health insurance companies – a stance seeming at odds with many Republicans, including Vance, who was one of 47 GOP senators to vote against a bill in June intended to expand access to the treatment.

Chris McGreal

Donald Trump has a knack for rallying a remarkable range of political opinion around a common goal: preventing his return to the White House.

That now includes prominent names from his own Republican party and top aides who worked under him as president. From former White House officials and national security staff to a once-worshipful press secretary, a host of one-time Trump fans are now lining up to join Democrats in declaring him unfit for another term in office.

White House lawyers who served Republican presidents going back to Ronald Reagan and retired senior military officers have also denounced Trump as a danger to democracy.

Adding to Trump’s humiliation, even members of his own cabinet – who once pledged their fealty with a subservience that would not displease Vladimir Putin – are declining to endorse him for re-election in November.

Read the full story: Republicans are lining up to oppose Trump. Will it make a difference?

A federal judge ordered Donald Trump and his campaign to stop using the song Hold On, I’m Coming by the late R&B artist and songwriter Issac Hayes.

The decision came after Hayes’s estate sought an emergency injunction to stop the Trump campaign from using the song at campaign events, alleging the campaign does not have approval.

Judge Thomas Thrash Jr ruled Trump and his campaign not to use the song “without proper license”, but he did not grant the estate’s request to order the campaign to take down recordings of past events in which it had used the song.

Trump regularly used the song as his exit music for much of the past year, including at the Republican National Convention in July, according to the New York Times.

• Donald Trump claimed that “there was no conflict” during his visit to Arlington national cemetery last week, calling it “a made up story” by his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. The US army accused two campaign workers representing Trump of pushing aside an official who told them it was forbidden to take pictures at the graves of military members who had recently died.

• Jimmy McCain, the son of the late Republican senator John McCain, condemned Trump’s visit to the Arlington national cemetery last week as a “violation”. “These men and women that are laying in the ground there have no choice” of whether to be a backdrop for a political campaign, he told CNN.

• Fred Trump III, the nephew of Donald Trump, said the Republican presidential nominee “just doesn’t give a shit” about members of the US military. “He just doesn’t. Donald believes in Donald,” he told MSNBC.

• Donald Trump said he had “every right” to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election in a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday. The Harris campaign said Trump’s comments “makes it clear that he believes he is above the law”.

• The Harris campaign launched the “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour aimed at advocating for women’s reproductive rights starting today in Palm Beach, Florida. The second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff, the Minnesota first lady, Gwen Walz, the Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and the Harris-Walz campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez are among those who will be on the tour.

• The Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee will transfer $25m to support down-ballot candidates.

• Kamala Harris is expected to announce new proposals meant to boost small businesses and entrepreneurs ahead of a campaign speech on Wednesday in New Hampshire, according to a report.

• The Manhattan district attorney’s office urged the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal case to rule on his motion to vacate his conviction, and not wait until a federal judge considers a separate motion filed by Trump last week to move the case into federal court.

• Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, warned his opposite number, the Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell, that history will judge him “poorly” because he paved the way to rightwing policies out of touch with the American people.

• Pat Toomey, the former Republican senator for Pennsylvania, said he will not be voting for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in the November election. Toomey said he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 but that he could not bring himself to support the Republican presidential candidate, citing Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

• Robert F Kennedy Jr was asked if he would be vice-president under Donald Trump hours after the former president survived an assassination attempt in July, it has been revealed. Kennedy reportedly rejected the suggestion from Calley Means, an entrepreneur who sometimes advised him on chronic diseases and was acting as an intermediary, according to the New York Times.