Election 2024 live updates: Trump and Harris tied in latest national polls

Election 2024 live updates: Trump and Harris tied in latest national polls
Kamala Harris responds to question on whether or Donald Trump is a ‘fascist’

Kamala Harris said she believes that Donald Trump is a “fascist” in a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, again warning of the threat the Republican poses to the country’s future.

The former president is currently facing a fresh storm of criticism over a report alleging that he once said he needed “the kind of generals that Adolf Hitler had.”

John Kelly, his former chief of staff, meanwhile told The New York Times that Trump praised Hitler on multiple occasions.

Harris told compere Anderson Cooper that Kelly’s revelations were a “911 call to the American people”, having said earlier that Trump is “increasingly unhinged and unstable”.

Trump has nevertheless taken a narrow lead over Harris in a new Wall Street Journal poll with less than two weeks to go until Election Day, getting 47 percent of the vote in the newspaper’s latest survey, with Harris two points behind.

Another poll from Marist places the candidates neck-and-neck in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.

In a long-awaited boost to the Harris campaign, the vice president will be joined onstage in Houston on Friday by Beyoncé after campaigning with Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen tonight in Atlanta.

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Why Kelly’s Hitler claims about Trump are hardly an October surprise, according to Stephen Colbert

James Liddell has the story.

Oliver O’Connell24 October 2024 17:10

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Full story: Beyoncé to join Kamala Harris at Houston rally on Friday

The campaign appearance will mark the “Texas Hold Em” singer’s first public endorsement for the Democratic presidential nominee. While Beyoncé has yet to make a statement in support of Harris, the vice president has continued to use the track “Freedom” – from Beyoncé’s 2016 album Lemonade – as her 2024 campaign song.

Meredith Clark has the details.

Oliver O’Connell24 October 2024 16:55

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Top Democratic strategist reveals why he’s certain Harris will win 2024 race

His reasons are threefold, as Katie Hawkinson reports.

Oliver O’Connell24 October 2024 16:50

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Harris-Walz campaign reacts to Trump’s comments about firing Jack Smith

Harris-Walz 2024 Director of Rapid Response Ammar Moussa gave the following statement on Donald Trump promising to fire Jack Smith in this morning’s interview with Hugh Hewitt:

“Donald Trump thinks he’s above the law, and these latest comments are right in line with the warnings made by Trump’s former Chief of Staff that he wants to rule as a dictator with unchecked power. A second Trump term, where a more unstable and unhinged Trump has essentially no guardrails and is surrounded by loyalists who will enable his worst instincts, is guaranteed to be more dangerous. America can’t risk a second Trump term.”

Oliver O’Connell24 October 2024 16:45

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Watch: Tucker Carlson compares Trump to angry father spanking ‘bad little girl’

No, really…

Tucker Carlson compares Donald Trump to angry father spanking ‘bad little girl’

Tucker Carlson made a bizarre comparison between Donald Trump and an angry father returning home to discipline a “bad little girl” with a “vigorous spanking.” Speaking before the former president at a rally in Duluth, Georgia, the ex-Fox News host compared the United States to misbehaving children. “If you allow your 14-year-old to light a joint at the breakfast table, if you allow your hormone-addled 15-year-old daughter to slam the door of her bedroom and give you the finger, you’re gonna get more of it and those kids are going to wind up in rehab,” Carlson said. “There has to be a point at which Dad comes home.” The crowd later chanted “Daddy’s home” as the Republican nominee took to the stage at the Gas South Arena.

Oliver O’Connell24 October 2024 16:40

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Can we trust the polls on Harris vs Trump — and how do they work?

It is now less than two weeks until election day, and the polls are no closer to showing who will be the next president of the United States.

In the past few days, polls have ranged from a 4-point Harris lead, to Trump 3 points ahead overall.

With this much variation, can (and should) we really trust the polls?

Here’s Alicja Hagopian to explain:

Oliver O’Connell24 October 2024 16:30

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Here at The Independent, we rely on the Associated Press to call the results of races during US elections, so I’m just going to leave this here:

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — AP sources: Beyoncé, whose song ‘Freedom’ is Harris campaign anthem, is expected to be at Harris’ Houston rally Friday.

Oliver O’Connell24 October 2024 16:24

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Will Beyonce finally enter the fray?

Now, look… we’ve been burned before by rumors about Beyonce campaigning with Kamala Harris — remember the appearance at the DNC that never was?

However, multiple news organizations are now reporting that the global superstar will appear with the vice president tomorrow in her hometown of Houston, Texas, and will perform…

Harris is scheduled to speak in Houston tomorrow and give remarks focuses on reproductive rights.

Here’s a more pragmatic approach to the news that summed up the response from many on The Independent’s news desk:

Oliver O’Connell24 October 2024 16:13

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Former champion wrestler has message for Trump

Mick Foley, the retired professional wrestler — considered the greatest of his era in the WWE — has a message for America about Donald Trump as the election nears.

Appearing over the years in the ring as Mankind, Dude Love, and Cactus Jack, Foley slams Trump’s rhetoric about “the enemy within”, is frustrated so many cannot see how he is only out for himself, and explains the former president’s history of screwing over the working class by not paying contractors.

Returning to Trump’s threats to jail his opponents, Foley addresses the former president directly: “Are you going to put me in jail for criticising the Supreme Court?” He then lays into conservative justices one after another, before calling Trump a “douchebag”.

He closes out his video message with an emphatic: “Vote for Kamala Harris!”

Oliver O’Connell24 October 2024 15:58

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Trump tells Hugh Hewitt he would fire Jack Smith ‘within two seconds’

Donald Trump was interviewed on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show this morning. A transcript is not yet complete and the audio quality wasn’t great because the former president was on a plane, but here are some highlights:

  • Yes, he’d use military force to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons
  • Asked whether he’d pardon himself or fire Jack Smith on his first day in office: “Oh, it’s so easy. It’s so easy. He’s a crooked person. … We had a brave and brilliant judge in Florida … I would fire him within two seconds. … I don’t think they’ll impeach me if I fire Jack Smith … He’s a scoundrel … He’s so mean.”
  • Would he pardon Hunter Biden?: “I wouldn’t take it off the books. … Hunter’s a bad boy, there’s no question about it … But I happen to think it’s very bad for our country … I could’ve gotten Hilary Clinton very easily. … I could’ve had her put in jail.” [huh?]
  • His response to a question about “why do some people hate you so much” is almost a free association chain of thought worthy of James Austin Johnson’s impression of Trump on Saturday Night Live: Well, it’s a gift, or it’s something like being left a gift. But it’s one way or the other, because I have a tendency to win. It’s a nice thing, and that bothers people. Sometimes, I play a little bit rough, but they play rough. They are rough and vicious people. They are vicious people. They’re dirty people. They’ve weaponized government. They’ve weaponized everything. And it’s actually made me more popular. It’s hard to believe. That’s, they’re also going to be wrestling with for years, because every time they do something, it makes me more popular. And even I’m surprised about the others. But the people, the thing I’ve learned is the people are very smart. They get it. They get it better than the Democrats get it. And every single time they’ve pulled that weaponization, every single time, with Fani, you know, Fani is…with Fani, with everybody, every time they do this, it’s shocking. You know, my pollster will call me, “Sir, you’re up seven points.” The next time, “Sir, you went up six points.” And it’s rather amazing. But Trump Derangement Syndrome, I don’t know, it’s, I think I’m a nice person. But I’m a negotiator, but I win. And look, I’ve won for the Republican Party. I’ve taken the Republican Party and made into an entirely different party…The Republican Party is a very big, powerful party. Before, it stood, it was an elitist party with real stiffs running it.
Oliver O’Connell24 October 2024 15:45

Source: independent.co.uk