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Live: Joe Biden to give White House address
Elon Musk has hosed down reports he planned to give millions to Donald Trump’s campaign, ahead of Joe Biden‘s likely final Oval Office speech and voter registration surges. Follow live updates.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has flat out denied that he planned to donate a staggering $US45 million ($A68 million) per month to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
Asked by a reporter on Wednesday local time if he had planned to donate to Trump’s campaign, Musk answered, “No, that’s just made up.”
The Tesla CEO denied reports that emerged last week that he had planned to donate the money to a Super Pac focused on getting Trump re-elected.
Earlier, Musk appeared on conservative media figure Jordan Peterson’s show, where he said the claim was “simply not true”. “I am not donating $45m a month to Trump,” he said.
“Now what I have done is that I have created a Pac or Super Pac or whatever you want to call it,” he said. It is called the America Pac.”
Super Pacs, short for Political Action Committees, are independent political organisations to which donors can give unlimited amounts of money, while donations to individuals or non-Super Pacs are capped.
After the Peterson interview, Musk replied on X to a clip from the interview saying, “Yeah”, and to another tweet referencing the reports saying, “Yeah, it’s ridiculous. I am making some donations to America PAC, but at a much lower level and the key values of the Pac are supporting a meritocracy & individual freedom. Republicans are mostly, but not entirely, on the side of merit & freedom”.
The denial comes days after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race, endorsing his Vice President Kamala Harris, who now has enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination in August.
Originally published as Live: Joe Biden to give White House address
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'#Bye Joe': Actor James Woods
Actor James Woods says 'he can't wait for a real president' after Joe Biden's Oval office speech.
Woods has been an outspoken Trump supporter.
Obama reacts to Biden speech
Barack Obama, who has yet to endorse Kamala Harris for the presidential race, has thanked Joe Biden following the US president's Oval Office address.
How Biden plans to use his final six months in office
In his Oval Office speech, Joe Biden vowed he would spend the next six months in office focusing on:
– ending the war in Gaza and helping Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion;
– calling out “hate extremism”, defending freedoms including the right to vote;
– cutting costs for families and battling inflation;
– calling for Supreme Court reform, saying it is “critical to our democracy
'Never wavered': Jill Biden's dig at Democrats
In a poignant sign of support for Joe Biden, most of his family sat watching him in the Oval Office as he spoke.
They included his wife Jill and daughter Ashley – who held hands near the end of his remarks – Mr Biden’s scandal-plagued son Hunter and a number of Mr Biden’s grandchildren.
Jill Biden later posted a letter on X thanking “those who never wavered” – an apparent backhanded dig at the Democrats who called on Biden to quit – and said it was “time to put that trust in Kamala.”
Trump watched Oval Office speech from private jet
Donald Trump, who later blasted Joe Biden's speech as "barely understandable", watched the Oval Office address from his plane, known as Trump Force One.
People at Trump rally hospitalised
First responders answered multiple heat-related emergency calls at Bojangles Coliseum ahead of Donald Trump’s North Carolina rally.
Two people were taken to hospital with heat-related conditions as the Trump faithful packed out the arena amid soaring temperatures.
Harris watches Biden's speech from Texas
Kamala Harris watched Joe Biden's historic Oval Office address from Houston, Texas, where she is meeting emergency service workers assisting with recovery efforts after Hurricane Beryl.
The Vice President will deliver a speech to the American Federation of Teachers convention in the city on Thursday, local time.
$69m a month: Musk rejects Trump funds claim
Elon Musk appeared on conservative media figure Jordan Peterson’s show, where he said the claim he was donating $US45m ($A69m) a month to Donald Trump's campaign was “simply not true”.
“I am not donating $45m a month to Trump,” he said.
“Now what I have done is that I have created a Pac or Super Pac or whatever you want to call it,” he said. It is called the America Pac.”
Super Pacs, short for Political Action Committees, are independent political organisations to which donors can give unlimited amounts of money, while donations to individuals or non-Super Pacs are capped.
Trump rally shooting victim released from hospital
Marine veteran David Dutch, who survived the Trump rally shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, has been released from hospital.
Mr Dutch, 57, was discharged from Allegheny General Hospital following an 11-day stay after he was shot at the July 13 outdoor rally, hospital officials said.
The Trump supporter was struck twice, once in the chest and once in the liver, when 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks began shooting from a nearby rooftop, The New York Post reports.
A second wounded man, James Copenhaver, is still undergoing treatment at the same hospital, according to medical staff.
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