Seeking to break election deadlock, Harris accuses Trump of wanting ‘unchecked power’
Kamala Harrisâs surprise speech from her Washington DC residence represented the vice-presidentâs latest attempt to achieve a decisive advantage over Donald Trump with less than two weeks to go until election day.
Speaking before she set off for the Philadelphia suburbs to take part in a CNN town hall with undecided voters, Harris seized on Trumpâs recent comments, as well as those of his former chief of staff John Kelly, to persuade voters that he would be more dangerous than ever in a second term.
She noted that over the past week, Trump has described his political adversaries as âthe enemy from withinâ and publicly mulled sending the military after them. Referencing reporting that came out today from the Atlantic, Harris said: âIt is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans.â
âDonald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions. Those who once tried to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses would no longer be there and no longer be there to rein him in,â Harris continued.
âSo, the bottom line is this: we know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power. The question in 13 days will be, what do the American people want?â the vice-president said. She left without responding to a question from a reporter who appeared to ask about Joe Biden yesterday saying Trump should be locked up.
Itâs not the first time that Harris and other Democrats have warned the voting public that Trump is a threat, and is certain not to be the last, but if it will work is another question. While Harrisâs entry into the race in July was greeted with an outpouring of Democratic enthusiasm and a bump in her polls compared to Biden, more recent surveys show her neck-in-neck, and in some places trailing, Trump, both in swing states and nationally.
Theories abound as to what she could do to turn voters away from Trumpâs appeal, which has centered on vows to lower prices that rose during Bidenâs presidency and throw migrants out of the country. In an interview earlier today on CNN, noted Republican pollster Frank Luntz said that the very sort of message Harris pushed this afternoon was not working.
âWhatâs interesting is that [when] Harris focused on why she should be elected president, thatâs when the numbers grew,â Luntz said.
âAnd then the moment that she turned anti-Trump and focused onto him and said, donât vote for me, vote against him, thatâs when everything froze.â
Key events
Joan E Greve
Bob Casey campaignâs new attack ad against Republican Dave McCormick comes as the Pennsylvania Senate race has grown increasingly competitive in its final days, further complicating Democratsâ path to maintaining their majority in the upper chamber.
While Casey had previously been favored to win re-election, the Cook Political Report recently moved his race from âlean Democratâ to âtoss upâ. According to the Hill/Decision Desk HQâs polling average, Caseyâs lead now stands at 3 points compared with 10 points in mid-August.
Speaking to the Guardian last month, Casey acknowledged the race would be a tough fight, but he predicted Pennsylvania voters would ultimately send him back to Washington for another six years.
âI think people know they have a stake in this election,â Casey said, adding, âI think itâll be close â but I think weâre going to win.â
Joan E Greve
Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, has released a new campaign ad attacking his opponent, Republican Dave McCormick, over allegations that McCormick fostered a toxic work environment as CEO of the hedge fund Bridgewater.
The ad highlights claims, outlined in the book The Fund by Rob Copeland, that McCormick attempted to silence and retaliate against female employees who came forward with allegations of sexual harassment.
âReports made it clear that under Dave McCormick the worldâs largest hedge fund is a dangerous place for women to work,â the narrator of the Casey ad says. âThey were groped, sexually harassed or worse. But instead of protecting his female employees, McCormick protected his profits.â
The ad specifically cites claims that McCormick told one employee who had been harassed that she would âbe in litigation for the rest of her lifeâ if she spoke out. The Fund also recounts numerous complaints of gender pay discrimination among female employees of Bridgewater.
The Casey ad concludes: âThatâs ugly. Thatâs Dave McCormick.â
Former national security adviser John Bolton has come to former White House chief of staff John Kellyâs defense after the latter said that Donald Trump âprefers the dictator approach to governmentâ.
In an interview with CNN, Bolton, a former Trump ally turned critic, said:
The campaign has attacked Johnâs credibility. In any comparison of what John Kelly might say versus what Donald Trump might say about a particular event or what these munchkins on the Trump campaign are saying about John Kelly, you can take what John says to the bank. I didnât hear many, probably most of these statements myself, but if John says that Donald Trump said them, I believe it implicitly.
Bolton added:
Certainly this recitation of what heâs done should be compelling to people not to vote for Trump. Trump ⦠after leaving office, said it publicly, he would suspend the constitution or terminate it because of the unfairness, the effort to steal the 2020 election. That statement alone, if he said nothing else, if he never mentioned the words âAdolf Hitlerâ, that alone is disqualifying, in my point of view.â
Earlier today, the Atlantic reported that Trump allegedly said that he wanted the kind of generals that Adolf Hitler had.
âYou can take what John says to the bank,â Amb. John Bolton says regarding the denials and new interviews from Gen. John Kelly. âIf John says that Donald Trump said them, then I believe them implicitly.â pic.twitter.com/zLRAxMr5wq
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 23, 2024
Donald Trump has furiously accused the UKâs Labour party of interfering in the US election, calling it âfar leftâ, after party activists travelled to campaign for his opponent.
The Guardianâs Jonathan Freedland and Michael Safi report:
Walz on his early vote: ‘An opportunity to turn the page on the chaos of Donald Trump’
Tim Walz headed to the voting booth on Wednesday in St Paul, Minnesota, to cast his early ballot along with his wife, Gwen, and son, Gus.
After he voted, Walz said:
Beautiful Minnesota day, super exciting. Cast my vote for Kamala Harris, [Democratic senator] Amy Klobuchar, [Democratic representative] Betty McCollum and to have my son with me, Gus, to vote for the first time, exciting. An opportunity to turn the page on the chaos of Donald Trump and a new way forward â¦
Look, Donald Trump made it very clear that this election is about Donald Trump taking full control of the military to use against his political enemies, taking full control of the Department of Justice to prosecute those who disagree with him, taking full control of the media on what is told and what is told to the American public â¦
The opportunity here, and the absolute requirement of Americans, is to understand that this rhetoric has not been used in this country, certainly not by a partyâs presidential nominee, and the opportunity here is to elect Kamala Harris.
Seeking to break election deadlock, Harris accuses Trump of wanting ‘unchecked power’
Kamala Harrisâs surprise speech from her Washington DC residence represented the vice-presidentâs latest attempt to achieve a decisive advantage over Donald Trump with less than two weeks to go until election day.
Speaking before she set off for the Philadelphia suburbs to take part in a CNN town hall with undecided voters, Harris seized on Trumpâs recent comments, as well as those of his former chief of staff John Kelly, to persuade voters that he would be more dangerous than ever in a second term.
She noted that over the past week, Trump has described his political adversaries as âthe enemy from withinâ and publicly mulled sending the military after them. Referencing reporting that came out today from the Atlantic, Harris said: âIt is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans.â
âDonald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions. Those who once tried to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses would no longer be there and no longer be there to rein him in,â Harris continued.
âSo, the bottom line is this: we know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power. The question in 13 days will be, what do the American people want?â the vice-president said. She left without responding to a question from a reporter who appeared to ask about Joe Biden yesterday saying Trump should be locked up.
Itâs not the first time that Harris and other Democrats have warned the voting public that Trump is a threat, and is certain not to be the last, but if it will work is another question. While Harrisâs entry into the race in July was greeted with an outpouring of Democratic enthusiasm and a bump in her polls compared to Biden, more recent surveys show her neck-in-neck, and in some places trailing, Trump, both in swing states and nationally.
Theories abound as to what she could do to turn voters away from Trumpâs appeal, which has centered on vows to lower prices that rose during Bidenâs presidency and throw migrants out of the country. In an interview earlier today on CNN, noted Republican pollster Frank Luntz said that the very sort of message Harris pushed this afternoon was not working.
âWhatâs interesting is that [when] Harris focused on why she should be elected president, thatâs when the numbers grew,â Luntz said.
âAnd then the moment that she turned anti-Trump and focused onto him and said, donât vote for me, vote against him, thatâs when everything froze.â
Harris says Trump ‘wants a military who will be loyal to him, personally’
Speaking for her residence in Washington DC, Kamala Harris accused Donald Trump of seeking to subvert the independence of the military, citing comments made by his former chief of staff and retired marine corps general John Kelly.
âYesterday, we learned that Donald Trumpâs former chief of staff, John Kelly, a retired four-star general, confirmed that while Donald Trump was president, he said he wanted generals like Adolf Hitler had,â Harris said.
âDonald Trump said that because he does not want a military that is loyal to the United States constitution. He wants a military that is loyal to him. He wants a military who will be loyal to him, personally, one that will obey his orders, even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the constitution of the United States.â
The day so far
Weâre going to be hearing from Kamala Harris today quite a bit earlier than expected, when she delivers remarks from her Washington DC residence at 1pm, in an appearance that was not previously scheduled. The vice-president then heads to the Philadelphia suburbs for a town hall with undecided voters at 9pm, while Donald Trump has two campaign events planned today in Georgia, including a town hall with lieutenant governor and 2020 election denier Burt Jones. Meanwhile, CNN reports that Trumpâs own co-campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, is among the many Republicans who criticized him after the January 6 Capitol attack but then made amends. In LaCivitaâs case, one wonders if it wasnât because doing so has been quite lucrative.
Hereâs what else has happened today so far:
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Retired army officers said they agreed with Trumpâs former chief of staff John Kelly that the former president met the definition of a fascist and would act as such if re-elected.
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Nate Silver and James Carville, two veteran US politics watchers, shared their thoughts on who might win the presidential election, with Silver assessing the emotions of his gut, and Carville advising Democrats not to worry.
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A campaign event that saw Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Lucas Kunce shoot an AR-15 went awry, after a reporter was hit by a bullet fragment.
Lauren Gambino
Retired US army Brig Gen Steve Anderson said it was important to not only express opposition to Trump, but to endorse Harris, who he said had the âtemperamentâ, âintelligenceâ and âexperienceâ to be the commander-in-chief.
By contrast, he noted that Trumpâs 34 felony convictions would disqualify him from serving in the military.
Anderson said he wished Kelly would go further than he has, and publicly endorse Harris.
âYou are now in the political fray, regardless of whether you want to or not,â he said of Kelly. âAnd so you owe it to the American people that tell us not just that you oppose somebody, but you also support Kamala Harris.â
âIâm frankly disappointed that John Kelly wonât come up and actually say that,â he added.
Harris adds last-minute speech to schedule before Pennsylvania town hall
Kamala Harris has just announced she will make a speech from her residence in Washington DC at 1pm.
The remarks were not previously scheduled, and the White House did not say what she would talk about. Harrisâs only public appearance today was to be her CNN town hall with undecided voters in Chester Township, Pennsylvania, at 9pm.
Retired army officers warn of the dangers of Trump returning to White House
Lauren Gambino
Two retired US army officers urged Americans to heed John Kellyâs extraordinary public warnings about Donald Trump, the president he formerly served as chief of staff.
âThe only reason Trump was stopped the last time was because people like Gen Kelly stood in the breach and acted as a check to Trumpâs worst impulses. A second time around, those guardrails wonât exist,â retired army reserve Col Kevin Carroll, a former Trump homeland security official and self-described conservative who is backing Harris, said on a press call organized by her campaign.
In a recent New York Times interview, Kelly said Trump met the definition of a fascist and expected that he would govern like a dictator if he returned to power and surrounded himself with loyalists. He also confirmed previous reports that Trump made admiring statements about Hitler.
âHeâs going to want all the leaders from the [secretary of defense] all the way down to general officers and senior leaders in the military to swear to some sort of loyalty test that theyâre loyalty is to him and not the constitution,â Steve Anderson, a retired US army brigadier general and a lifelong Republican, said on the call.
He added: âWeâre concerned that he wants to use the military to suppress his opposition in the country and man the US border, which are things that the military is not supposed to do.â
There is, however, one swing state where we have more than just polling to go on when it comes to the question of which presidential candidate might win.
Jon Ralston, a veteran reporter in Nevada and editor of the Nevada Independent, has been tabulating early voting data from the state, which can serve as a preview of how it might end up swinging on 5 November. So far, the GOP is performing a bit more strongly than Democrats, despite not having won Nevada in a presidential election in 20 years.
But that certainly could change, and Ralston updates his blog multiple times a day. You can read it here.
Underscoring the 50-50 nature of the presidential race, Monmouth University has just released new national polling that once again confirms the race for president is tied:
In the words of the Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray:
Presidential election polling this fall can best be characterized as stable uncertainty. Major events like an assassination attempt and a high-profile debate barely caused the needle to stutter. Shifts of a single point can be consequential to the outcome but are beyond the ability of most polls to capture with any precision. The bottom line is this race is a toss-up and has been since August.
The second piece the New York Times published comes from James Carville, a veteran Democratic strategist who boldly declares that Kamala Harris is going to win the White House.
âToday I am pulling my stool up to the political poker table to throw my chips all in: America, it will all be OK. Ms Harris will be elected the next president of the United States. Of this, I am certain,â Carville says.
He then lists three reasons:
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Mr Trump is a repeat electoral loser. This time will be no different.
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Money matters, and Ms Harris has it in droves.
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Itâs just a feeling.
To go a little deeper into Carvilleâs rationale for the first bullet point, he argues that Trump has a lower ceiling in terms of voter support than Harris, and that the GOP has been on a losing streak for the past two years that is set to continue:
The biggest reason Mr Trump will lose is that the whole Republican Party has been on a losing streak since Mr Trump took it over. See 2018: the largest House landslide for Democrats in a midterm election since Watergate. See 2020: He was decisively bucked from the White House by Joe Biden. See 2022: an embarrassment of a midterm for Republicans off the heels of Dobbs. And the Democrats have been performing well in special elections since Trump appointees on the Supreme Court helped take away a basic right of American women. Guess what? Abortion is on the ballot again â for president.
There simply do not seem to be enough voters â even in the battleground states â who turn out at Mr Trumpâs behest anymore when heâs simply preaching to his base. He has not learned from his electoral losses nor done the necessary work to assemble a broad electoral coalition in 2024. Letâs not forget that seven weeks after Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican primary, she received 158,000 votes in Pennsylvania â and some disaffected Haley voters are currently looking to move to Ms Harris. Although Ms Haley has endorsed Mr Trump, losing even a fraction of those voters leaves Mr Trump running the final leg of this race with a fundamental fracture of the femur. To add a cherry to the pie, most voters think Mr Trump is too old to be president, but instead of easing their concerns, heâs spending the final days of the campaign jiving to the Village People and canceling interviews.
The New York Times today published two separate articles from noted American politics watchers who share what their instincts tell them about the presidential race.
Weâll tell you about both of them, beginning with the piece authored by polling wizard Nate Silver. He confides that âmy gut says Donald Trumpâ will win, before noting that âI donât think you should put any value whatsoever on anyoneâs gut â including mine. Instead, you should resign yourself to the fact that a 50-50 forecast really does mean 50-50.â
He then gets into some of the reasons why Trump may ultimately prevail:
If Mr Trump does beat his polling, there will have been at least one clear sign of it: Democrats no longer have a consistent edge in party identification â about as many people now identify as Republicans.
Thereâs also the fact that Ms Harris is running to become the first female president and the second Black one. The so-called Bradley effect â named after former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who underperformed his polls in the 1982 California governorâs race, for the supposed tendency of voters to say theyâre undecided rather than admit they wonât vote for a Black candidate â wasnât a problem for Barack Obama in 2008 or 2012. Still, the only other time a woman was her partyâs nominee, undecided voters tilted heavily against her. So perhaps Ms Harris should have some concerns about a âHillary effectâ.
And why Kamala Harris may end up as our next president:
A surprise in polling that underestimates Ms Harris isnât necessarily less likely than one for Mr Trump. On average, polls miss by three or four points. If Ms Harris does that, she will win by the largest margin in both the popular vote and the Electoral College since Mr Obama in 2008.
How might that happen? It could be because of something like what happened in Britain in 2017, related to the âshy Toriesâ theory. Expected to be a Tory sweep, the election instead resulted in Conservatives losing their majority. There was a lot of disagreement among pollsters, and some did nail the outcome. But others made the mistake of not trusting their data, making ad hoc adjustments after years of being worried about âshy Toriesâ.
Polls are increasingly like mini-models, with pollsters facing many decision points about how to translate nonrepresentative raw data into an accurate representation of the electorate. If pollsters are terrified of missing low on Mr Trump again, they may consciously or unconsciously make assumptions that favor him.