US election live: Trump and Harris expected in Pennsylvania with little over three weeks until vote

Good morning and welcome to the US elections blog with a little over three weeks to go until Americans head to the polls.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were speaking last night and are back on the campaign trail today with both expected to hold events later in the swing state of Pennsylvania. Here’s a round-up of what happened overnight in the US.

A man with a shotgun, loaded handgun, ammunition and several fake passports in his vehicle was arrested at a security checkpoint outside Donald Trump’s rally Saturday night in the Southern California desert, police said. He was released the same day on $5,000 bail. The suspect, a 49-year-old resident of Las Vegas, was driving an unregistered black SUV with a “homemade” license plate that was stopped by deputies assigned to the rally in Coachella, east of Los Angeles, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said at a news conference.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump spent Sunday trying to shore up political support among what they perceived to be must-have voting blocs. Polls show them locked in a tight 5 November presidential race.
Trump pledged on Sunday to hire an extra 10,000 border patrol agents if he is reelected as president. The Republican presidential candidate said he would meet the goal by asking the US Congress to fund a 10% pay rise for border patrol agents and a $10,000 retention and signing bonus, at a rally in the border state of Arizona, an election battleground.
Harris held a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, where she attacked her rival for spreading misinformation related to hurricanes Helene and Milton. “From him, we are just hearing from that same, old tired playbook,” she said. “He has no plan for how he would address the needs of the American people. He is only focused on himself.”
Both Harris and Trump will be in Pennsylvania later today. Harris is speaking in the city of Erie and Trump is on the stump in Oaks, a small community about 20 miles from Philadelphia.
Speaker Mike Johnson said that passing additional hurricane aid for states impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton “can wait” until Congress is back in session after the election.
Three major polls were released Sunday, showing Kamala Harris either ahead of Donald Trump or running a head-to-head race.

Key events

Like Trump, Kamala Harris will be in Pennsylvania this evening. The vice president will attend an evening campaign rally in Erie, where she is to appear with Democratic Sen. John Fetterman.

Kamala Harris unveiled new policy proposals aimed at black men on Monday that include forgivable small business loans and access to a new legal recreational marijuana industry, Reuters reports.

The Harris campaign and Democrats – including former president Barack Obama – have expressed deep concern about whether black males will turn out on 5 November in numbers seen in past elections and whether they will support Harris or her Republican rival.

The new policies, directly pitched at the black male electorate, include one million loans that are fully forgivable of up to $20,000 to entrepreneurs in underserved communities, and a promise to legalise recreational marijuana and help ensure black entrepreneurs have access to the new industry.

Other proposals include boosting access to the cryptocurrency industry for black Americans and launching a national health equity initiative focused on black men that addresses diseases like sickle cell, which disproportionately impacts the community.

Reuters provides more detail on the man who was arrested at a security checkpoint near a Trump rally on Saturday.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said he believed his department halted an assassination attempt, though he acknowledged that was “speculation.”

The man faces gun charges after he was found in possession of loaded firearms, multiple passports and a fake license plate. The suspect was released on bail on Saturday, jail records showed. A federal official said on Sunday that a federal investigation was underway.

“What we do know is he showed up with multiple passports with different names, an unregistered vehicle with a fake license plate and loaded firearms,” the sheriff said at a news conference yesterday. “I truly do believe that we prevented another assassination attempt.”

The 49-year-old man, identified as Las Vegas resident Vem Miller, was stopped in a black SUV by sheriff’s deputies around 5pm local time on Saturday and taken into custody without incident, according to the sheriff’s office. Trump had not yet taken the stage.

Jail records show Miller was released on $5,000 bail on Saturday after being charged with possession of a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine.

“The incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release.

The US Attorney’s Los Angeles office, in a statement on its web site on Sunday, also said Trump was not in danger, citing the US Secret Service.

Donald Trump will speak in Oaks, Pennsylvania later today. News of the event, posted on Trump’s website, gives a flavour of what the candidate might speak about:

Pennsylvania voters are no stranger to the disastrous policies of the Harris-Biden administration. Pennsylvanians are paying nearly $1,000 extra per month for the same basket of goods due to Kamala’s inflation crisis. At the same time hardworking Pennsylvanians are bringing home real wages worth less and racking up more credit card debt. Gas and diesel prices hit historic highs thanks to the Harris-Biden administration’s crackdown on American energy and Pennsylvania fracking.

More broadly, Pennsylvania has been on the receiving end of America’s lopsided trade deals that have allowed foreign adversaries to hollow out our industry. Countless factories have shuttered, and countless more quality American jobs have been lost thanks the nonsensical dogma of ‘free trade.’

A Trump-Vance administration will pick up where the first Trump administration left off to fuel an American revival of strong job growth, low inflation, and prosperity for everyday Pennsylvanians. President Trump will unleash Pennsylvania energy and get back to re-writing America’s faulty trade agreements to support the Pennsylvania industrial prowess that built America.

US officials said they were monitoring China’s military drills around Taiwan.

China launched its latest war games around the democratically-governed island in response to a speech made by Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te last week. Lai said China and Taiwan are not “subordinate to each other” and China has “no right to represent Taiwan”.

“We call on the PRC to act with restraint and to avoid any further actions that may undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region, which is essential to regional peace and prosperity and a matter of international concern,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, using the initials for the People’s Republic of China, China’s official name.

A column of military vehicles patrol outside Songshan Airport in Taipei as China launches military drills around the island of Taiwan. Photograph: Daniel Ceng/AFP/Getty Images

Trump pledges an extra 10,000 border agents if elected

Donald Trump pledged on Sunday to hire an extra 10,000 border patrol agents if he is reelected as president as he steps up his hardline rhetoric on immigration, Reuters reports.

The Republican presidential candidate said he would meet the goal by asking Congress to fund a 10% pay rise for border patrol agents and a $10,000 retention and signing bonus, at a rally in the border state of Arizona, an election battleground. There are currently about 20,000 border patrol officers, so the pledge would see a sizeable increase in the force.

Flanked on stage by leaders of the Border Patrol union, who have endorsed Trump, the former president said: “This will ensure that we can hire and keep the Border Patrol agents that we need.”

Trump has noticeably hardened his anti-immigration rhetoric in the final weeks of the campaign. Last month he called immigrants in the US illegally who commit violent crimes “monsters,” “stone-cold killers” and “vile animals.” On Friday he called for the death penalty for “any migrant” who kills a US citizen.

Critics say Trump’s rhetoric reinforces racist tropes – studies generally find there is no evidence immigrants commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans.

Good morning and welcome to the US elections blog with a little over three weeks to go until Americans head to the polls.

A man with a shotgun, loaded handgun, ammunition and several fake passports in his vehicle was arrested at a security checkpoint outside Donald Trump’s rally Saturday night in the Southern California desert, police said. He was released the same day on $5,000 bail. The suspect, a 49-year-old resident of Las Vegas, was driving an unregistered black SUV with a “homemade” license plate that was stopped by deputies assigned to the rally in Coachella, east of Los Angeles, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said at a news conference.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump spent Sunday trying to shore up political support among what they perceived to be must-have voting blocs. Polls show them locked in a tight 5 November presidential race.
Trump pledged on Sunday to hire an extra 10,000 border patrol agents if he is reelected as president. The Republican presidential candidate said he would meet the goal by asking the US Congress to fund a 10% pay rise for border patrol agents and a $10,000 retention and signing bonus, at a rally in the border state of Arizona, an election battleground.
Harris held a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, where she attacked her rival for spreading misinformation related to hurricanes Helene and Milton. “From him, we are just hearing from that same, old tired playbook,” she said. “He has no plan for how he would address the needs of the American people. He is only focused on himself.”
Both Harris and Trump will be in Pennsylvania later today. Harris is speaking in the city of Erie and Trump is on the stump in Oaks, a small community about 20 miles from Philadelphia.
Speaker Mike Johnson said that passing additional hurricane aid for states impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton “can wait” until Congress is back in session after the election.
Three major polls were released Sunday, showing Kamala Harris either ahead of Donald Trump or running a head-to-head race.