Kamala Harris at Michigan rally assails Trump for being too ‘exhausted’ for interviews – US politics live

According to a new House oversight committee report that accuses Donald Trump of fleecing tax payers and exploiting the presidency, former president Trump charged secret service agents who were staying at his hotel while protecting him far more than the hotel charged private patrons.

The report says Trump “turned the U.S. Secret Service into an ATM for his personal enrichment” by charging the agency, in at least one case, more than 5 times the rate approved by the government. “Amazingly, that same night, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., rented out more than 200 rooms to private parties at just $125 or $170 each.”

The report goes onto say that at least five people who received pardons from Trump as well as four federal judges who Trump nominated and were later given lifetime appointments also stayed at the hotel.

“Our report also details startling instances in which state and federal officials, as well as individuals actively seeking federal jobs and presidential pardons, used the D.C. hotel as a channel to put money into the Commander-in-Chief’s pocket,” Rep. Jamie Raskin said in a statement.

Hey all, Johana Bhuiyan taking over from my colleague, Chris.

I’ll be tuning into Donald Trump’s speech in Michigan which starts at 5pm ET but in the meantime I’m going through a new report from the House committee on oversight and accountability.

Citing hotel guest logs, the report claims Trump used his DC hotel to take “ethically questionable payments” from the US Secret Service, federal and state officials, federal job seekers as well as people seeking a federal pardon during his presidency.

“These payments demonstrate how Donald Trump violated the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause as he used the Secret Service as his personal ATM and repeatedly took payments that raise the specter of pay-to-play corruption from individuals who sought and, in many cases obtained, favors from the Commander-in-Chief,” the press release read.

Harris announces events with Barack, Michelle Obama as early voting begins in key states

Donald Trump has meanwhile arrived in Michigan, ahead of his 5pm campaign event in Detroit.

His campaign is sharing photos and video of him taking questions from reporters upon his arrival, saying it’s not the sort of thing Kamala Harris would do:

Reporters traveling with the vice-president to Grand Rapids said she spoke to them before going onstage.

A key message of Kamala Harris to voters in Michigan today was encouraging them to cast ballots when early voting begins next Saturday.

“Election Day is in 18 short days, okay? And here in Michigan, early voting starts on Saturday, October 26, which is one week from tomorrow,” the vice-president said as she concluded her speech.

“Now is the time to make your plan to vote. Make a plan.”

Unions have long played an outsized role in Michigan, particularly when it comes to its automotive industry.

Kamala Harris has focused much of her speech on how she would be more friendly to organized labor than Donald Trump.

“Make no mistake, Donald Trump is no friend of labor,” the vice-president said. She continued:

He encouraged automakers to move their plants out of Michigan so he could pay they could pay their workers less. Understand what that was about, so they could pay their workers less. And when the [United Auto Workers (UAW)] went on strike to demand the higher wages they deserved, Donald Trump went to a non-union shop and attacked the UAW, and he said, he said, striking and collective bargaining don’t make ‘a damn bit of sense’.

“Strong unions mean higher wages, better healthcare and greater dignity for union members and for everyone, whether or not you are part of a union: get that straight,” she said.

Harris whacks Trump over reports he canceled interviews due to ‘exhaustion’

Kamala Harris is on stage now, with familiar walk-out song Freedom by Beyoncé playing.

The vice-president was introduced by carpenters union official Brian Hein, who decried Donald Trump as someone “who has never done a hard day’s work in his life”.

Harris to campaign in hotly contested Michigan

White House employee said Trump watched January 6 attack while drinking Diet Coke

A federal judge blocked an effort by authorities in Florida to keep off the air a television advertisement in support of the state’s abortion access ballot initiative, the Guardian’s Carter Sherman reports:

Florida’s health department can’t block a TV advertisement in support of a ballot measure that would protect abortion rights, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, after the department sent letters to local TV stations commanding them to stop airing the ad or risk criminal consequences.

“The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false’,” US district judge Mark E Walker wrote in his ruling. “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”

Florida is one of 10 states set to vote on abortion-related ballot measures in November. If enacted, Florida’s measure would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution and roll back the state’s six-week ban on the procedure, which took effect in May.

Earlier this month, Florida’s health department sent cease-and-desist letters to TV stations running an ad by Floridians Protecting Freedom, the campaign behind the measure. In the ad, a woman named Caroline speaks about being diagnosed with cancer while pregnant.

“The doctors knew if I did not end my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life and my daughter would lose her mom,” Caroline says in the ad. “Florida has now banned abortion even in cases like mine.”

Vice-president Kamala Harris will be hosting a campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, where she will be joined by singer Usher, her campaign said.

This comes as the Democratic National Committee announced today that it is launching a Taylor Swift-themed “I Will Vote” campaign to increase engagement among young voters in battleground states.

The campaign will kick off in Miami, the DNC said, with billboards around the city, a mobile billboard on a boat near Taylor Swift’s concert venue in Miami where the singer is playing this weekend, and exclusive Snapchat filters.

Rosemary Boeglin, DNC Communications Director, said in a statement that Democrats “are reaching out to young voters where they are, from concert venues to social media platforms, to make sure they have the resources they need to cast their ballot.”

Former president Donald Trump will be visiting Asheville, North Carolina on Monday to see the devastation of Hurricane Helene first-hand and deliver remarks, his campaign announced on Friday.

Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida three weeks ago, before moving across parts of the south-east, quickly becoming the deadliest hurricane to hit the US mainland since Katrina in 2005.

Parts of western North Carolina, including Asheville, were among the hardest-hit areas.

On Thursday, the first day of early in-person voting for the 2024 election in the battleground state of North Carolina, more than 350,000 voters North Carolinians cast their ballots, setting a new state record, officials announced.

Election officials in the state said on Friday that a record 353,166 voters turned out statewide on Thursday, surpassing the previous record for the first day of early voting of 348,559 voters set in 2020.

“Yesterday’s turnout is a clear sign that voters are energized about this election, that they trust the elections process, and that a hurricane will not stop North Carolinians from exercising their right to vote,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the State Board of Elections.

This comes as earlier this week, Georgia voters shattered Georgia’s early voting record, casting 328,000 ballots on the first day of early voting, which is more than double the previous record of 136,000, set in 2020.

You can read more about that here.

Fox News has reportedly denied that any of its employees or freelancers assisted in writing the jokes that former president Donald Trump told at last night’s Al Smith dinner.

This comes as the former president appeared on Fox News this morning and said that some of his jokes were written by “a couple people from Fox”.

The day so far

Interestingly included among the documents are copies of the envelopes used to mail electoral vote tallies from states Donald Trump targeted to overturn the election result.

CBS News took a screenshot: