Harris warns against price gouging of hurricane evacuees; Tim Walz criticizes electoral college – US politics live | US elections 2024

Joanna Walters

Last week the nation’s top emergency official, Deanne Criswell of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), warned that a slew of falsehoods spread by Donald Trump, his supporters and others after Hurricane Helene, including claims of funds diverted from storm survivors to help migrants in the US and that Democrats somehow directed the hurricane itself, was hampering the response to one of the deadliest hurricanes ever to hit the US.

Criswell warned about similar damaging nonsense today when she briefed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and Harris, the vice president and Democratic nominee for president, asked her if disinformation was getting in officials’ way as they prepare for Milton to hit Florida.

Harris had already criticized on Monday “the disinformation being pushed by Donald Trump” about Helene. She just asked Criswell if she was concerned about misinformation and disinformation relating to evacuations from the path of Milton.

“There has been a lot of misinformation out there, Madame Vice President, that’s for sure, but I have not heard anything specific to the evacuations,” Criswell began.

She added that people were listening to their local officials and evacuating. “That’s good, thank you,” Harris said.

Biden slams disinformation, conspiracies as ‘off the wall’

Joanna Walters

The US president and US vice-president, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, have just wrapped up the public portion of a lengthy briefing session with Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary and emergency chief dealing with incoming Hurricane Milton.

We are following all the storm developments in our hurricane live blog, including warnings from the president that this looks like it could be “the storm of the century”, but there has been a political side to all this, too.

Biden and Harris both sounded off about disinformation coming from Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president in this election, and his acolytes.

Biden said: “All this misinformation going out about how we’re devoting all this money to migrants, even one congresswoman suggesting I control the weather and implying I’m sending it to red states. This stuff is off the wall. It’s like out of a comic book.”

Georgia Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene last week posted on social media that “Yes they can control the weather” and although she didn’t specify who “they” are it was widely taken to mean Democrats and Biden has clearly taken it personally.

With Hurricane Milton presenting a mortal threat to Florida’s west coast, Kamala Harris has issued a warning to businesses that defraud or price gouge people fleeing the storm, saying she will hold them accountable. The Trump campaign is meanwhile continuing to pressure Harris and Joe Biden over the response to Hurricane Helene, which devastated south-eastern states like North Carolina days ago. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, JD Vance accused the Biden administration of “incompetence” in responding to the storm, prompting a rebuke from homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Here’s what else has happened today so far:

• Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, decried the electoral college at a fundraiser yesterday, saying it would be better if the popular vote decided the presidency. The Harris campaign later said his remarks do not represent their position.

• Harris was on the line when Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu today, in the leaders’ first call since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon.

• The economy remains the issue most important to voters, and Donald Trump has the edge, a Gallup survey found. A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll found Harris remained the favorite nationally, although her lead has declined a bit.

Joe Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu this morning, the White House said, marking the first time the leaders have spoken since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon. Kamala Harris was also on the call.

Biden spoke to Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, on Monday to mark the one-year anniversary of the 7 October attack, but has not spoken to Netanyahu since 21 August. That was before the pager explosions that killed dozens and wounded thousands, and before Israel targeted and killed Hezbollah’s leader in Lebanon then launched a ground incursion.

The White House has not released a readout of their call. We have a live blog covering the crisis in the Middle East, including the call between the leaders:

In an interview earlier today with CNN, Alejandro Mayorkas was asked to respond to JD Vance’s criticism of his response to Hurricane Helene.

The homeland security secretary was specifically asked for his thoughts on the Ohio senator’s comment that Mayorkas was in Los Angeles for an award ceremony as the storm tore through the south-east. Here’s Mayorkas’s reply:

We don’t listen to or pay attention to such unproductive and, quite frankly, counterproductive words. We’re focused on mission. The state and local leaders in the impacted states have praised the federal response. We work in partnership with our state and local officials. We have delivered more than $280m in assistance directly to individuals impacted by Helene. And by the way, in Los Angeles, I was recognizing outstanding work of the personnel of the Department of Homeland Security. And surely others should support and recognize that tremendous work as well.

The Trump campaign has spent days criticizing the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, and vice-presidential nominee JD Vance kept up the attack yesterday, publishing a column in the Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial pages accusing the president and Kamala Harris of bungling the response to the storm.

“During times of crisis and war, presidential leadership is critical to cut through competing bureaucratic fiefs and protect Americans from death and devastation. The Biden-Harris response to Hurricane Helene, the deadliest storm since Katrina, has the people of the south-east and especially Appalachia paying an extraordinary price for the administration’s incompetence,” wrote Vance. He currently represents Ohio in the Senate, but before getting into politics made a name for himself with the Appalachian-focused memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which got mixed reviews in the region.

Vance continued:

Shortly after Helene made landfall in the U.S. on Sept. 26, Joe Biden was at his house in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Vice President Kamala Harris was flying between ritzy California fundraisers, hobnobbing with celebrities. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was in Los Angeles, presiding over an awards ceremony. Before the storm, Ms. Harris had blown off her disaster-response briefings, which were a staple of the Trump administration’s disaster-response planning. The lack of prioritization had real-world ramifications.

Yesterday, Donald Trump’s campaign called on North Carolina to change its laws to make it easier for residents displaced by Hurricane Helene to cast their ballots.

North Carolina is one of seven swing states expected to decide the election, but its western half was badly damaged by the hurricane’s flooding days ago.

“These 10 improvements in voting access in North Carolina will ensure the people who have already suffered from the storm don’t lose their right to participate in this important election. Swift action from the North Carolina general assembly and the governor will ensure the people of their state have their voices heard on November 5th,” Trump-Vance campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement.

Among the voting changes they want North Carolina lawmakers to approve are:

Ensure Election Day Voting Locations provide the ability for any voter in the impacted county to vote from that location, instead of just their local precinct.

Expanding bipartisan election official teams (known as MAT or Multipartisan Assistance Teams) to have the ability to assist displaced voters in requesting and delivering absentee ballots to the county boards.

Allow voters who have been displaced to another North Carolina county to have the ability to deliver their absentee ballot in the new county or to the State Board.

It’s a bit of a shift in strategy for the Republican campaign, whose allies have in recent years tried to make it more difficult for people to cast ballots, citing unproven claims of voter fraud. In 2021 the Guardian’s Sam Levine took a look at some of their efforts:

Authorities in Florida are warning that Hurricane Milton could double in size and launch a deadly storm surge by the time it reaches the state’s coast, perhaps as soon as this evening.

From the Guardian’s Edward Helmore, who is covering the preparations for the storm’s arrival:

In an 8am update, the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, said it was not clear exactly where the eye of the storm would come ashore but the impact would be “broader than that … absolutely every place on the west coast of Florida could get major storm surge.”

“If you are in a single story home that is hit by a 15ft storm surge, which means that water comes in immediately, there’s nowhere to go,” said the mayor of Tampa, Jane Castor.

“So if you’re in it, basically that’s the coffin that you’re in.”

Authorities have issued mandatory evacuation orders across 11 Florida counties with a combined population of about 5.9 million people and said anyone choosing to stay behind must fend for themselves.

Before Helene hit, residents staying behind were encouraged to write their name and social security numbers on their bodies for easier postmortem identification.

We have a live blog covering the latest on the storm, and you can read it here:

Kamala Harris has warned businesses against defrauding or raising prices on people affected by recent storms like Hurricane Milton, which is expected to soon make landfall on Florida’s west coast, and Hurricane Helene, which devastated a swath of the southeast days ago.

“Let us all be clear: Americans impacted by a crisis should never be ripped off,” Harris’s statement begins. It continues:

I have seen firsthand the devastating impact of price gouging during an emergency. As attorney general of California during devastating wildfires that displaced thousands of residents, I took on those attempting to take advantage of the situation by raising hotel prices. As senator, I worked to stop price gouging during the pandemic.

Those evacuating before Hurricane Milton or recovering from Hurricane Helene should not be subject to illegal price gouging or fraud – at the pump, airport, or hotel counter. Any company or individual that tries to exploit Americans in an emergency should know that the administration is monitoring for allegations of fraud and price gouging and will hold those taking advantage of the situation accountable.

Joe Biden made cracking down on price gouging and junk fees a priority of his administration in response to the inflation that battered US consumers during his presidency, with mixed results. Here’s more on that:

Donald Trump plans to hold a rally at New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden about a week before election day, the New York Post reports.

Trump is a New York native and has held rallies in and around the heavily Democratic city during this campaign, including one earlier this year in the Bronx that was seen as attempting to promote his candidacy to voters of color:

A new survey by Gallup today confirms that the economy remains the most important topic to voters in this election, though they will also be looking at candidates’ stances on the supreme court, fighting terrorism and preserving America’s democracy.

The finding on the economy is not exactly new – previous surveys by Gallup and others have found voters ranking it as the issue they are most concerned about. And, as other polls have likewise found, Gallup reports that Donald Trump is more trusted than Kamala Harris on that issue, and others:

Voters view Donald Trump as better able than Kamala Harris to handle the economy, 54% versus 45%. Trump also has an edge on perceptions of his handling of immigration (+9 percentage points) and foreign affairs (+5), while Harris is seen as better on climate change (+26), abortion (+16) and healthcare (+10). The candidates are evenly matched on voters’ impressions of who would better address gun policy.

Here’s more on what Gallup’s survey found:

The current 52% of voters rating the economy as an “extremely important” influence on their vote for president is the highest since October 2008 during the Great Recession, when 55% of voters said the same. In polls conducted closest to the election in other presidential election years since 1996, between 38% and 44% of voters rated candidates’ positions on the economy as extremely important to their vote. Half of these readings are from September or October polling; the exceptions are 2000 (August), 2012 (February) and 2016 (May).

Besides the economy, no other issue receives an “extremely important” rating from most voters; however, majorities consider most issues as “extremely” or “very important.” Just two issues – climate change (50%) and transgender rights (38%) – are viewed by less than a majority of voters as extremely or very important to their presidential vote choice.

Between 41% and 49% of voters say four issues are extremely important to their vote – democracy in the U.S., terrorism and national security, the types of Supreme Court justices the candidates would pick if they became president, and immigration. Ten issues are rated as extremely important by 31% to 38% of voters, including education, healthcare, gun policy, abortion, taxes, crime, the distribution of income and wealth in the U.S., the federal budget deficit, foreign affairs, and the situation in the Middle East between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Fewer voters, 23% to 27%, consider five issues as extremely important to their vote choice — energy policy, relations with Russia, race relations, relations with China and trade with other nations. Twenty-one percent of voters say climate change and 18% say transgender rights are of the utmost importance to their vote.

In the latest sign of just how close this presidential race appears to be, a new Reuters/Ipsos national poll shows Kamala Harris’s lead over Donald Trump has shrunk.

The vice-president had a six percentage point lead over Trump in a late September poll by the same firms, but the gap is now three points, with Harris at 46% support to Trump’s 43%.

National polls can be useful in gauging the overall mood of the country, but the election is expected to be decided in seven battleground states clustered in the Sun Belt and along the Great Lakes. Here’s more on their poll, from Reuters:

The four-day poll completed on Monday showed Trump, who had trailed Harris by six points in a Sept 20-23 Reuters/Ipsos poll, was the preferred candidate for a range of economic issues and that some voters might be swayed by his claims that immigrants in the country illegally are prone to crime, assertions that have been largely discredited by academics and think tanks.

The poll had a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.

Respondents rated the economy as the top issue facing the country, and some 44% said Trump had the better approach on addressing the “cost of living,” compared to 38% who picked Harris.

Among a range of economic issues the next president should address, some 70% of respondents said the cost of living would be the most important, with only tiny shares picking the job market, taxes or “leaving me better off financially”. Trump had more support than Harris in each of those areas as well, although voters by a margin of 42% to 35% thought Harris was the better candidate to address the gap between wealthy and average Americans.

Trump appeared buoyed by widespread concerns over immigration, currently at its highest level in America in over a century. Some 53% of voters in the poll said they agreed with a statement that “immigrants who are in the country illegally are a danger to public safety,” compared to 41% who disagreed. Voters had been more closely divided on the question in a May Reuters/Ipsos poll, when 45% agreed and 46% disagreed.

While Tim Walz has made clear he is no fan of the electoral college, switching the country’s system for electing presidents to a national popular vote is not a position Kamala Harris’s campaign is taking, Politico reports.

“Governor Walz believes that every vote matters in the electoral college and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket. He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts,” a Harris-Walz campaign spokesman said in response to Walz’s comments yesterday calling for the adoption of a national popular vote.

As governor of Minnesota, Walz last year signed into law legislation that made the state part of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, whose members pledge to give their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Eighteen states have signed the compact so far, though it it only goes into effect once states whose electoral votes total 270 sign it.

Good morning, US politics blog readers. The Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz made a curious comment yesterday, criticizing the electoral college and calling for a national popular vote. “The electoral college needs to go,” Walz said at a fundraiser in Sacramento. “We need a national popular vote that is something. But that’s not the world we live in.” The United State’s system of electing presidents based on the electoral votes of individual states rather than overall popular support has confounded Democrats in recent decades, with Republicans Donald Trump in 2016 and George W Bush in 2000 winning the White House despite losing the popular vote. Deciding the presidency by a national popular vote would require a significant political push that you can bet the GOP would resist and won’t happen anytime soon, but Walz’s comment is notable for another reason: the election is so close, whoever wins the electoral college on 5 November may not win the popular vote.

Neither Trump nor Kamala Harris appear to have yet gained a decisive edge in the swing states that will decide the vote. Our poll tracker shows you just how close the two candidates are, with as little as a tenth of a percent separating them in some swing states. Walz, Trump and his running mate JD Vance all have campaign events today – perhaps these will be the ones that put their ticket over the top.

Here’s what’s going on today:

• Arizona is getting a lot of attention today, specifically the southern city of Tucson. Vance campaigns in the city at 3pm ET, while Walz will at 2pm campaign with Democratic Senate candidate Reuben Gallego, and Jim McCain, son of the state’s late Republican senator John McCain. Walz also has a rally in the area planned for 6.30pm.

• Trump campaigns in Scranton, Pennsylvania at 3pm. The city is Joe Biden’s childhood home, and also located in the swing state believed to be the most crucial in deciding this election.

• Hurricane Milton continues to churn towards Florida’s west coast, amid warnings it could do terrible and widespread damage, including to communities that were struck by the recent Hurricane Helene. Follow our live blog for more.