Putin calls Trump ‘courageous’ and hints at Ukraine talks; mass deportation plan has ‘no price tag’, Trump says – US election live

Even though the Associated Press has called the Pennsylvania Senate race for Republican Dave McCormick, the campaign of Bob Casey is not yet conceding.

A spokesperson for Casey insisted that thousands of ballots remained uncounted as of Thursday, when McCormick led the race by 0.5 points.

“As the Pennsylvania secretary of state said this afternoon, there are tens of thousands of ballots across the Commonwealth still to count, which includes provisional ballots, military and overseas ballots and mail ballots,” Maddy McDaniel, Casey spokesperson, said in a new statement.

“This race is within half a point and cannot be called while the votes of thousands of Pennsylvanians are still being counted. We will make sure every Pennsylvanian’s voice is heard.”

Here’s a look at how the popular vote margins shifted from 2020 to 2024 in Republicans’ favor, helping Trump flip key states and secure victory.

Republican Dave McCormick ousts Democrat in Pennsylvania Senate

Joan E Greve

The Republican Dave McCormick won the Senate race in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Thursday, denying the Democratic incumbent, Bob Casey, a fourth term and expanding his party’s majority in the upper chamber.

When the Associated Press called the race at 4.09pm ET on Thursday, two days after polls closed in Pennsylvania, McCormick led by 0.4 points. The narrow margin raised the possibility of a recount, although his victory is expected to stand given his lead of roughly 30,000 votes.

With McCormick’s victory, Republicans have now secured at least 53 seats in the Senate, erasing Democrats’ previous majority in the chamber. Two Senate races in Nevada and Arizona remained too close to call as of Thursday afternoon.

At least 200 people gathered outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago on Wednesday night to protest Donald Trump’s re-election and call for an end to the war in Gaza. Here’s a video and some photos:

Biden to focus on government funding, hurricane relief in final weeks as president

Lauren Gambino

With the clock ticking toward the end of his presidency, Joe Biden will focus on keeping the government funded and open, pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), rush assistance to communities battered by hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well as confirm judicial nominees.

“That’s going to be certainly our focus in the next 74 days,” the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters.

She repeatedly declined to engage in questions about whether Biden felt partly responsible for Kamala Harris’s loss, whether he had any regrets about his decision to seek re-election or whether he believed he might have beat Donald Trump had he remained in the race.

Stating what she said was “just a fact”, Jean-Pierre pushed back on the accusation that it was arrogant for the 81-year-old president to run for a second term: “This is the president who has been the only person [who] has been able to beat Donald Trump.”

She repeated that Biden believes his decision to “pass the torch” to his vice-president was the right one. “She was the right person for the job,” Jean-Pierre said.

She also cited the global post-pandemic headwinds that have doomed incumbent parties around the world.

“It had a political toll on many incumbents. That’s part of what you saw,” she said.

Speaking to NBC News, Donald Trump made clear that the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants that he campaigned on will be a top priority of his administration.

“We obviously have to make the border strong and powerful and, and we have to – at the same time, we want people to come into our country,” Trump said, adding that, “I’m not somebody that says, ‘No, you can’t come in.’ We want people to come in.”

NBC asked about how he would pay for the plan, which immigration experts believe would be beyond the current capacities of the federal government agencies who deal with immigration. Trump replied:

It’s not a question of a price tag. It’s not – really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.

Dominic Rushe

Jerome Powell is loathe to comment on political issues, and kept that up today, when asked for his reaction to Donald Trump’s criticism of his tenure leading the Federal Reserve, and the impact it may have on its independence.

“I’m not going to get into any of the political things here today, but thank you,” the central bank chief said.

Federal Reserve chair says he will not resign if asked by Trump

Dominic Rushe

The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, says he will not resign if Donald Trump requests it.

Trump appointed Powell, a Republican, to his first term leading the central bank, and Joe Biden renominated him in 2021. But during his first administration, Trump called the central bank’s rate-setting committee “boneheads” for not cutting rates aggressively enough, and has said he should have a role in controlling rates – threatening the independence of the central bank.

In his press conference held after the committee announced a quarter-point cut in interest rates, Powell was asked if he would resign at Trump’s request. Some advisors to the president-elect have proposed replacing Powell before his term is up.

“No,” the central bank chief replied.

He again said “no,” when asked if he believed he had no legal requirement to leave the post when asked.

Dominic Rushe

At a press conference, the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, was asked how the central bank would react to potentially inflationary policies from the second Trump administration.

Trump has said he will impose tariffs on imported goods, which many economists argue will increase prices.

“In the near term the election will have no effects on our policy decisions,” said Powell. “Many, many things affect the economy … We don’t guess, we don’t speculate and we don’t assume.”

The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates further, saying progress has been made against the wave of inflation that struck the United States during Joe Biden’s presidency, which was likely a major factor in voters choosing Donald Trump as the next president.

In a statement, the central bank’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee pointed to the need to support the labor market in cutting its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to the 4.5% to 4.75% range. Government data released in recent months has shown a slowdown in hiring and uptick in unemployment, even as economic growth has remained strong.

The Fed raised interest rates to their highest levels in decades as consumer prices climbed at rates not seen since the 1980s over the past three years. But inflation has eased recently, and the Fed began lowering rates with a half-point cut in September.

Biden’s approval ratings dropped as inflation rose, with voters citing the unaffordability of groceries, gas and housing as one of their top issues. Those concerns paved the way for the re-election of Trump, who has campaigned on cutting taxes and expanding oil and gas production.

Vladimir Putin also praised Donald Trump for surviving an assassination attempt during his rally in Pennsylvania in July, Reuters reports.

“His behavior at the time of the attempt on his life made an impression on me,” Putin said. “He turned out to be a courageous man. And it’s not just about the raised hand and the call to fight for his and their common ideals … He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a man.”

After being pulled to the ground by Secret Service agents when a gunman opened fire as he was speaking at an outdoor rally, Trump stood up and, pumping his fist in the air, yelled, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” It became a rallying cry at his rallies in his successful campaign to return to the presidency.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, congratulated Donald Trump on winning the US presidential election, and said he was willing to talk to him, Reuters reports.

“I would like to congratulate him on his election as president,” Putin said in Sochi, a resort on the Black Sea.

Trump has promised to quickly end the war in Ukraine, which began when Russia invaded in February 2022, but has not said how. During his first term, Trump was known for a relationship with Putin that many viewed as uncomfortably close for a leader of one of the US’s top global rivals, and last month, investigative journalist Bob Woodward revealed that Trump sent Russia Covid-19 testing machines during a period in 2020 when they were scarce: