US election live: Harris says Trump’s violent rhetoric about Liz Cheney ‘must be disqualifying’ | US elections 2024

“It’s great to be in the house of labor,” Kamala Harris says as she arrives to speak at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall in Janesville, Wisconsin.

“You are building America and America’s future,” she tells the union workers, saying she hopes to eventually visit every IBEW local hall in the US.

Watch Kamala Harris speak live now in Janesville, Wisconsin:

Kamala Harris is just now arriving at a campaign event in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Here’s a look at where things stand:

• Kamala Harris spoke of Donald Trump’s violent rhetoric about Liz Cheney in which he suggested Cheney be shot with “guns trained on her face”. Harris said: “He has increased his violent rhetoric, Donald Trump has, about political opponents and in great detail suggested rifles should be trained on former representative Liz Cheney. This must be disqualifying.”

• Arizona’s attorney general has launched an investigation into whether Donald Trump violated state law through his violent rhetoric against Liz Cheney. In a statement to 12News on Friday, attorney general Kris Mayes said: “I have already asked my criminal division chief to start looking at that statement, analyzing it for whether it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona’s laws.”

• The justice department announced on Friday it is deploying election monitors in 86 jurisdictions in 27 states for the general election on 5 November. “The Justice Department enforces federal voting rights laws that protect the rights of all eligible citizens to access the ballot,” an official statement said. “The department regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities all across the country.”

• The NAACP is condemning participants of a Halloween costume in Mt Pleasant, Pennsylvania, that showed a person acting as “Kamala Harris” chained up and walking behind a vehicle that appeared to have someone dressed up as Donald Trump. In a statement reported by CBS, Daylon A Davis, the president of the NAACP Pittsburgh branch, said: “This appalling portrayal goes beyond the realm of Halloween satire or free expression; it is a harmful symbol that evokes a painful history of violence, oppression, and racism that Black and Brown communities have long endured here in America.”

• Donald Trump has sued CBS News for $10bn, alleging an interview with Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes was doctored to cast her in a positive light and amounted to “election interference”. The lawsuit seeking damages was filed in a US district court in Amarillo, northern Texas, which is presided over by a judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, who has a track record of friendly rulings to rightwing legal filings.

• Several House representatives have penned a letter to Joe Biden, requiring a “detailed account of US involvement with Israeli forces in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen and Syria”, as stated by the Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib. The letter, signed by Tlaib, along with Ilhan Omar, André Carson, Cori Bush and Summer L Lee asks Biden, “Is the United States providing military services of any nature to ‘command, coordinate, participate in the movement of, or accompany’ Israeli forces which themselves are imminently engaged in hostilities in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, the West Bank, Syria or elsewhere?”

• Greta Thunberg, the 21-year old Swedish climate activist who has frequently criticized the US’s fossil fuels policies, has released her latest statement on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. In a post on X, Thunberg, who has also been a vocal critic of the US’s military support towards Israel amid its deadly war in Gaza, said: “It is probably impossible to overestimate the consequences this specific election will have for the world and for the future of humanity.”

Arizona’s attorney general has launched an investigation into whether Donald Trump violated state law through his violent rhetoric against Liz Cheney who he said should be shot with “guns trained on her face”.

In a statement to 12News on Friday, attorney general Kris Mayes said:

“I have already asked my criminal division chief to start looking at that statement, analyzing it for whether it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona’s laws.”

In an interview with the former Fox host Tucker Carlson on Thursday evening in Arizona, Trump spoke of Cheney, a former Republican House representative of Wyoming and vocal critic of Trump.

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face,” Trump said.

In response, Cheney took to X and wrote: “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. #Womenwillnotbesilenced #VoteKamala.”

Kamala Harris appeared to avoid directly answering questions on what her response is to demonstrators protesting Israel’s wars in the Middle East, what she would do to “satisfy” the anti-war protestors and whether she is concerned about how she will perform in the polls across college towns and in Michigan in particular – home to the largest Arab American community in the US.

Harris, who is facing criticism from numerous Arab Americans over her continued support towards Israel, said:

“I’m very proud to have a significant amount of support from the Arab American community, both because of my position about what we need to do in Gaza and in the region to end the war and bring the hostages home, and my commitment to a two-state solution.”

Harris appeared to then redirect her response to living costs, saying:

“But also because within that community, there are many issues that challenge folks that they want to hear about, including what we’re going to do to make housing affordable, what we’re going to do to bring down the cost of groceries, what we’re going to do to invest in small businesses. I have a plan for all of those things, and that is something that resonates within that community and with all Americans.”

Kamala Harris spoke of Donald Trump’s violent rhetoric about Liz Cheney in which he suggested Cheney be shot with “guns trained on her face”.

Harris said:

“He has increased his violent rhetoric, Donald Trump has, about political opponents and in great detail suggested rifles should be trained on former representative Liz Cheney. This must be disqualifying.”

Hailing Cheney as a “courageous” and “incredible American”, Harris added:

“I will tell you, I know Liz Cheney well enough to know that she is tough, she is incredibly courageous, and has shown herself to be a true patriot at a very difficult time in our country …

We see this kind of rhetoric that is violent in nature, where we see this kind of spirit coming from Donald Trump that is so laden with the desire for revenge and retribution … I think that Liz Cheney is courageous and that we will always make sure that we are all fighting against and speaking out against any form of political violence.”

Kamala Harris went on to reiterate her pledge to have a Republican member in her cabinet, saying:

“One of the reasons I am going to have a Republican in my cabinet is because I want different views. I enjoy and benefit from the diverse views from different perspectives that allow me then to make the best decisions I can make. That’s a big difference between me and Donald Trump, and that’s a big difference between someone who truly is a leader, and someone who’s in it for themselves, and wants unchecked power.”

Kamala Harris was just speaking to the press on the tarmac ahead of a campaign stop in Wisconsin.

Speaking of Donald Trump, Harris said:

“He talks in a way that suggests that there should be retribution and severe consequences just because people disagree with him. My point is very clear. I believe in our democracy, democracies are complicated in a wonderful way, because we like debate. We accept and receive differences of opinion, and we work them out.”

The justice department announced on Friday it is deploying election monitors in 86 jurisdictions in 27 states for the general election on 5 November.

“The Justice Department enforces federal voting rights laws that protect the rights of all eligible citizens to access the ballot,” an official statement said. “The department regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities all across the country.”

Two of the 86 jurisdictions include Maricopa county in Arizona and Fulton county in Georgia, where Trump loyalists questioned the results of the 2020 election and pushed for vote recounts.

Another hotly contested race is taking place in Texas right now.

Ted Cruz, the state’s Republican senator, is facing off against his Democratic opponent, Colin Allred, in historically red Texas. A new University of Texas – Tyler poll found Cruz has 47% support from likely voters while Allred has 45%, which is within the margin of error.

The two candidates have been neck and neck in this election, and if Allred pulls ahead, he will help democrats maintain their narrow Senate majority and make history as the state’s first Black US senator.

Cruz has been challenged in a tight race before. In 2018, he narrowly won over the Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke.

Kamala Harris stood before a cheering crowd of hundreds of her supporters in Philadelphia and promised that she would deliver in Pennsylvania, a battleground state considered a must-win in the electoral college.

“Nine days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and we know this is going to be a tight race until the very end,” the vice-president told supporters in Philadelphia last weekend. “And make no mistake: we will win.”

And yet, just a day earlier at a rally in State College, Donald Trump declared: “We’re going to pull this off. It’ll be the greatest victory in the history of our country for all of us – not for me, for all of us.”

The dueling comments reflect a neck-and-neck race in Pennsylvania that is hurtling toward the finish line with no clear frontrunner. The victor of Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes, the most of any battleground state, will probably win the electoral college and determine the trajectory of the country for the next four years.

Read more on this here:

A top Georgia official says a video that appears to show Haitians voting illegally for Kamala Harris is fake.

Marina Dunbar reports for the Guardian:

A video circulating on social media purporting to show Haitians voting illegally for Kamala Harris is fake, according to the secretary of state in Georgia.

Brad Raffensperger said in a statement that the video had likely been created and spread by Russian government actors trying to interfere in the US election.

“This is obviously fake, and likely it is a production of Russian troll farms,” he wrote. “As Americans we can’t let our enemies use lies to divide us and undermine faith in our institutions – or each other.”

For the full story, click here:

The NAACP is condemning participants of a Halloween costume in Mt Pleasant, Pennsylvania, that showed a person acting as “Kamala Harris” chained up and walking behind a vehicle that appeared to have someone dressed up as Donald Trump.

In a statement reported by CBS, Daylon A Davis, the president of the NAACP Pittsburgh branch, said:

“This appalling portrayal goes beyond the realm of Halloween satire or free expression; it is a harmful symbol that evokes a painful history of violence, oppression, and racism that Black and Brown communities have long endured here in America.”

Mt Pleasant mayor, Diane Bailey, also condemned the Halloween costume which showed “Donald Trump” flanked by people dressed as Secret Service agents as “Harri” walked behind the vehicle with her hands bound.

“I was appalled, angered, upset,” she said on Thursday. “This does not belong in this parade or in this town,” Bailey said.

The displayed had been allowed by the local volunteer fire department. In a statement, the fire department later apologized for “allowing the offensive participants to take part”. The volunteer fire department added that it would review its processes for future Halloween parades.

Kamala Harris has taken another jab at Donald Trump over his promises to improve the lives of working class communities across the US, saying:

“Donald Trump pretends to understand workers and the battles they face every day.

Let’s not fall for the okey-doke: He was handed $400 million on a silver platter.”

Donald Trump has sued CBS News for $10bn, claiming its interview with Kamala Harris was edited.

Robert Tait reports for the Guardian:

Donald Trump has sued CBS News for $10bn, alleging an interview with Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes was doctored to cast her in a positive light and amounted to “election interference”.

The lawsuit seeking damages was filed in a US district court in Amarillo, northern Texas, which is presided over by a judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, who has a track record of friendly rulings to rightwing legal filings.

It came after Trump said that CBS should lose its license to broadcast news over the interview.

Several House representatives have penned a letter to Joe Biden, requiring a “detailed account of US involvement with Israeli forces in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen and Syria”, as stated by the Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib.

The letter, signed by Tlaib, along with Ilhan Omar, André Carson, Cori Bush and Summer L Lee asks Biden, among other questions:

• “Is the United States providing military services of any nature to ‘command, coordinate, participate in the movement of, or accompany’ Israeli forces which themselves are imminently engaged in hostilities in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, the West Bank, Syria or elsewhere?

• In the months of September and October, have US forces been deployed ‘into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities are clearly indicated by the circumstances’ in the region, how many times, and when will members of Congress receive reports pursuant to Section 4 of the War Powers Resolution? What is the legal basis for any such deployments?”

Trump remarks about Liz Cheney facing ‘nine barrels shooting at her’ spark outrage from gun safety campaigners

Joan E Greve

Donald Trump’s comments suggesting that Liz Cheney, a former Republican congresswoman and one of his most outspoken critics, should be shot at sparked outrage among gun safety advocates.

During an appearance with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in the battleground state of Arizona yesterday, Trump said: “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

John Feinblatt, president of the group Everytown for Gun Safety, pointed to Trump’s remarks as further evidence of why he cannot be trusted to lead the country.

“Time and time again, Donald Trump has used violent rhetoric and threats against his fellow Americans,” Feinblatt said in a statement. “Political violence does not represent the values of our country and has no place in our democracy, and this will be front of mind for voters at the ballot box.”

Cheney herself also responded to Trump’s comments, saying on X: “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.”