US election 2024 as it happened: Trump campaign in damage control over racist rally jokes, Biden votes ahead of November 5

Thanks for joining us this afternoon, that’s all for today. We’ll be back early tomorrow morning. For now, see what made headlines:

• Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign has been in damage control after a speaker at his New York rally called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage”, prompting a furious backlash from celebrities, Democrats and some Republicans.
• Vice President Kamala Harris gave her view on the rally Trump held at Madison Square Garden, saying it highlighted that Trump was “focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country”.
• US President Joe Biden cast his vote at an early polling centre in his home state of Delaware – asked outside the polling place if he thought Democrats would win, he said, “I think we will.”
• Authorities, including the FBI, are investigating after early morning fires were lit in absentee ballot drop boxes in Portland, Oregon, and neighbouring Vancouver, Washington. Hundreds of ballots were destroyed in the fire attacks. Officials will now aim to contact some of the affected voters, but authorities say there is no way to identify all the ballots.
• The district attorney of Philadelphia says he has filed a lawsuit to stop tech billionaire Elon Musk’s $US1 million giveaways aimed at boosting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
• More than 200,000 people have cancelled their digital subscription to The Washington Post after its owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, blocked an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Bezos later defended his decision in an op-ed for his masthead.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are hitting the battleground states with one week to go before the election.Credit: AP

Conservative commentator Ryan Girdusky has been banned as a panelist for CNN after telling fellow guest Mehdi Hasan that he hopes “your beeper doesn’t go off”.

Hasan, a British-American Muslim progressive broadcaster, was arguing with Girdusky over commentary during Donald Trump’s New York rally on Sunday.

In the middle of the argument, Hasan said he was supporting Palestinians so was used to being called an antisemite.

“I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” Girdusky replied, in a reference to Hezbollah terrorists being killed in pager attacks.

In response, Hasan asked Abby Phillip, the host of the CNN program: “Did your guest just say I should be killed on live TV?”

Phillip told Girdusky he was being “completely out of pocket”.

“I apologise,” Girdusky said.

However, after the ad break, Girdusky was taken off the program for his comment. Phillip, in a post to X, said CNN has zero room for racism or bigotry.

“We will not allow guests to be demeaned or for the line of civility to be crossed. Ryan Girdusky will not be welcomed back at our network,” a CNN statement said.

The archbishop of San Juan de Puerto Rico has called on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to apologise personally after a comedian’s comments at his rally.

On Sunday, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump’s New York rally called the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico – a US territory – “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean”. He also said Latinos “love making babies … there’s no pulling out, they don’t do that, they come inside – just like they did to our country”.

Trump’s campaign apologised for the remarks but the presidential candidate himself has not.

Tony Hinchcliffe made offensive jokes about Puerto Rico and Latinos at the Trump rally in New York.Credit: AP

In an open letter posted to Facebook, archbishop of San Juan de Puerto Rico said he was “dismayed and appalled” by Hinchcliffe’s comments.

“Puerto Rico is not a floating island of garbage. Puerto Rico is a beautiful country inhabited by a beautiful and noble people,” he wrote in his letter to Trump.

“I enjoy a good joke. However, humour has its limits. It should not insult or denigrate the dignity and sacredness of people. Hinchliffe’s remarks do not only provoke sinister laughter but hatred. These kinds of remarks do not have a place in society founded upon ‘liberty and justice for all’.

“I call upon you, Mr Trump, to disavow these comments as reflecting in any way your personal or political viewpoints. It is not sufficient for your campaign to apologise. It is important that you, personally, apologise for these comments.”

Nikki Haley received more Republican primary votes than anyone who challenged Donald Trump for this year’s presidential nomination. She has said she’s voting for him, and she released her delegates so they could support him at the Republican National Convention.

But unlike some of Trump’s other Republican primary rivals, such as Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, she hasn’t been on the campaign trail supporting her party’s nominee. According to a person with knowledge of the situation, Haley has given Trump’s campaign a list of dates on which she would be available to help him, but no appearances have been scheduled.

Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina.Credit: Bloomberg

Trump’s campaign did not respond to a message asking why Haley, his former UN ambassador and a former South Carolina governor, had not campaigned with the nominee or how such conversations had gone. The person who confirmed that appearance dates had been offered spoke condition of anonymity to discuss logistics.

There was no love lost between Trump and Haley during the Republican primary, during which Haley repeatedly questioned the fitness for office of both Trump and President Joe Biden and called for cognitive tests for older politicians. Haley repeatedly warned that nominating Trump would land Democrat Kamala Harris in the White House, implying that Biden – then still in the race – would be unable to serve another term.

“We are going to have a female president of the United States, and either it will be me or it will be Kamala Harris,” Haley said as part of nearly every stump speech or media appearance, saying that “chaos” follows Trump.

Trump’s irritation only grew after Haley stayed in the race, becoming his last remaining primary rival.

AP

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of The Washington Post, has defended the decision to block endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris, writing an op-ed for his own masthead that his views are principled and challenges that his views have prevailed in favour of others.

The Post’s publisher and chief executive, William Lewis, said the newspaper was “returning to our roots” by declining to endorse either candidate, prompting journalists to revolt and condemn the decision.

The paper also reported that staff had drafted an editorial supporting Harris and the decision not to publish was made by Bezos.

In an op-ed, Bezos addressed the decision:

When it comes to the appearance of conflict, I am not an ideal owner of The Post. Every day, somewhere, some Amazon executive or Blue Origin executive or someone from the other philanthropies and companies I own or invest in is meeting with government officials.

You can see my wealth and business interests as a bulwark against intimidation, or you can see them as a web of conflicting interests. Only my own principles can tip the balance from one to the other.

I assure you that my views here are, in fact, principled, and I believe my track record as owner of The Post since 2013 backs this up. You are of course free to make your own determination, but I challenge you to find one instance in those 11 years where I have prevailed upon anyone at The Post in favor of my own interests. It hasn’t happened.

While I do not and will not push my personal interest, I will also not allow this paper to stay on autopilot and fade into irrelevance – overtaken by unresearched podcasts and social media barbs – not without a fight. It’s too important.

To win this fight, we will have to exercise new muscles. Some changes will be a return to the past, and some will be new inventions. Criticism will be part and parcel of anything new, of course. This is the way of the world. None of this will be easy, but it will be worth it.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, made the decision not to endorse a candidate.Credit: AP

Kamala Harris, speaking in Michigan, has urged people to follow the advice of vice presidential nominee Tim Walz and vote early.

“You can vote early now through Sunday, November 3. And we need you to vote early, Michigan, because we have just eight days to go,” she said. “Eight days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime. And as everybody here knows, this is going to be a tight race until the very end.”

Early voting data shows more Democrats than Republicans are voting in advance.

However, there are more registered Republicans voting early in the battleground states of Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina than there are Democrats.

The data, from the University of Florida Election Lab, is taken from states that record party registration. While the early voting data is limited in terms of predicting the outcome, it’s helpful for the parties as they intensify get-out-the-vote efforts in the lead-up to the November 5 election.

The surge in Republicans casting their ballots in swing states could be a sign of a boost for Donald Trump.

But it’s not yet clear if it will translate to more votes for Trump and other Republican candidates, said Charles Stewart III, an elections expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It might simply mean that people who used to vote on election day are showing up earlier than usual, he said.

With Bloomberg, Chris Zappone

Over in Philadelphia, rock legend Bruce Springsteen has joined former president Barack Obama in the final push to elect a Democratic president.

“I’m Bruce Springsteen and I’m here today to support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” he said to cheers. “And to oppose Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.”

Here’s why: I want a president who reveres the constitution. Who does not threaten, but wants to protect and guide our great democracy. Who believes in the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power. Who will fight for women’s rights, a woman’s right to choose. And who wants to create a middle class economy that will serve all our citizens.

There’s only one candidate in this election who holds those principles dear. That’s Kamala Harris. She is running to be the 47th president of the United States. Donald Trump is running to be an American tyrant. 

Now, I understand folks having different opinions about things. But this election is about a group of folks who want to fundamentally undermine our American way of life. Donald Trump does not understand this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American.”

The Boss urged the crowd to join him in voting for Harris and Walz before playing his 1999 song Land of Hope and Dreams.

Rallies across the United States today have become a race for the support of women.

Tim Walz has told the Democrat crowd in Michigan that, as president, Kamala Harris would put Roe v Wade back into law as he warned that the Republicans could also come after people’s access to fertility treatment.

“Let’s be very clear. The most basic freedom, when we talk about freedom, Kamala Harris and I mean the freedom for every woman to make decisions about her body, without government interference,” Walz said a few moments ago.

“I mean fertility treatments, too … If you’ve never gone through the hell of infertility, I guarantee you know somebody who has. It took Gwen and I years to have the daughter that we had... [We were] only able to have that family because we had access to fertility treatments.

“And I will be damned if anyone in this country should be denied the family that they want ... This is for the men: all of you have those women in your life that you love … Their lives are at stake in this election, be very clear about that.”

But Donald Trump, speaking at the same time at a rally in Georgia, has told crowds that he would be the protector of women.

“I am going to protect them from having people come into our country and do damage to a woman, or the family of a woman, or anybody. And I think it’s fine to say: I will protect the women of this country and the men of this country, and I’m going to protect everyone.”

Gender has featured heavily in this election campaign. Our reporters Farrah Tomazin and Michael Koziol, on the ground in the US, have written that Trump’s events have been exuding a bygone stereotype of masculinity.

Meanwhile, Harris’ campaign has focused on appeals to women – and men – over reproductive rights, including on-stage appearances in the past few days by Beyoncé and Michelle Obama.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz tells a crowd in Michigan that there will be “plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead” as he rallies them to make every phone call and door knock count in a tight race.

“Eight days to go. This election has already started. People are voting across the country,” he said. “We got to admit it, this game is tied ... [But] boy, do we have the right team. So all gas, no breaks for the next eight days. Plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead ... We’re moving this thing over the next eight days, an inch at a time, a yard at a time. One door at a time, one phone call at a time.”

He said pushing for one or two more votes in Michigan could make Harris president, as he spruiked the Democrats’ promises on freedom, gun ownership and women’s rights.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz speaks during the campaign rally in Michigan.Credit: AP

“We got a pretty young crowd, and that’s a good thing, but there’s some grey hairs in here. You can remember when the Republican Party actually used to talk about freedom and meaning. Turns out that this group means that the government is free to invade your office, your library, your bedroom,” he said.

“When Kamala and I talk about freedom – freedom for the people, not politicians, to make your own decisions about your own life. Freedom for seniors to retire with dignity by strengthening social security and Medicare. And I say this as a dad and a teacher and a governor: free to send your kids to school without them being shot dead in the halls.”

But he emphasised that both he and Harris were both gun owners. “I’ll take no crap on this. I know guns: I’m a veteran, I’m a hunter. Kamala and I are both gun owners. We know that you can uphold the second amendment, but also uphold our first responsibility: protecting our children,” he said.

“Interesting fact here: both members of the Democratic ticket are gun owners. The Republican nominee can’t pass a background check.”

Staying with Donald Trump’s rally in the battleground state of Georgia, the crowd has begun chanting “lock her up, lock her up!” in reference to his presidential rival Kamala Harris.

Trump tells them to “be nice” before he reminds the crowd that they used to say the same thing about Hillary Clinton.

“I could have locked her up, but I didn’t want to lock her up,” he said of Clinton, who he previously threatened to throw in jail.

Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Atlanta on Monday (US time).Credit: AP

“She’s the wife of the president of the United States previously, and she was secretary of state. I said that would be so terrible for the country, and then they tried to do it to me.”

Trump’s rally is in Atlanta, Georgia, which sits in the Fulton County – the same jurisdiction where local District Attorney Fani Willis indicted Trump and 18 of his allies for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election in that state.

(The case was delayed, however, when Willis was found to have had romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired for the case.)

Part of Trump’s alleged election meddling involved making a now-infamous phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump demanded that Raffensperger “find” 11,780 votes so he could overturn Biden’s victory.

“They went after their political opponent, and they made me more popular. Can you believe it?” Trump said on Monday (US time). “I’ve been investigated more than the late, great Alphonse Capone.”