US election live updates: Trump campaign ‘completely freaked out’
Donald Trump’s campaign team has launched a bombshell financial move against Kamala Harris. Follow our live coverage.
The Democratic Party continues to coalesce around Vice President Kamala Harris as its new candidate for the election in November, after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday.
Ms Harris spoke at her first campaign rally since Mr Biden’s withdrawal on Tuesday, US time, in Milwaukee, where the Republicans held their national convention last week.
It is too soon to know how the handover to Ms Harris will affect the state of the race. A major poll, conducted after Mr Biden dropped out, shows her surging in front of Mr Trump, though other early polling is mixed.
At no point this year did Mr Biden ever lead his opponent in the polling average.
The President is scheduled to address Americans from the White House on Wednesday night, US time (Thursday in Australia), in his first on-camera comments since announcing his withdrawal. Mr Biden emerged in public overnight as he returned to Washington D.C., declaring himself Covid negative.
Follow our live coverage below.
Trump’s bombshell $139m move
Donald Trump’s campaign team is trying to block campaign funds raised for Joe Biden from being transferred to Kamala Harris.
Trump campaign general counsel David Warrington filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday AEST.
In it, he claimed: “Harris is seeking to perpetrate a $US91.5 million ($A139m) heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash”.
In the complaint, reported by CNN, Mr Warrington continues: “It’s a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended.”
The complaint is against Mr Biden, Ms Harris, the Biden campaign (now the Harris campaign) and campaign treasurer Keana Spencer.
Charles Kretchmer Lutvak, a spokesman for Ms Harris, responded in a statement to CNN: “Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energized (sic) to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, but baseless legal claims – like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections – will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters, and win this election.”
‘He will lose’: Trump campaign ‘completely freaked out’
Sarah Longwell is publisher of The Bulwark, which is a publication largely staffed by former Republicans opposed to Donald Trump.
More interestingly, though, she has been running focus groups with swing voters for years. That gives her some insight into how Kamala Harris’s candidacy might change the race.
“Look there is no doubt about it, Donald Trump’s campaign wanted to run against Joe Biden,” Ms Longwell told CNN today.
“They have made this campaign about age and mental acuity. Which was always a little bit of a gamble for Donald Trump, considering that after Joe Biden, Donald Trump is the oldest nominee for president in the United States’ history. So now that Biden is gone, Trump is the oldest nominee for president ever.
“He is now going to have to live in the frame that he created. He’s going to have to run against a much younger nominee, who’s going to have a vice president who’s also young. And they’re going to be able to run on generational change, and on change in general.
“I cannot tell you how many focus groups I have sat through. I do at least one a week, if not more. People were so down on this choice. The reason that the term ‘double haters’ became the term for persuadable voters this time is there were so many people who just did not want this rematch. Now they’ve got something fresh.
“The fact is, I’ve listened to voters talk about Kamala for a long time, and she doesn’t have a particularly positive impression from swing voters. However, the main thing they say about her is they say, ‘I don’t know what she does. I don’t ever see her.’ Well she has the chance to reset that narrative now.
“You can just see the new energy. And that has got Donald Trump’s campaign completely freaked out, because they built this thing to run against Joe Biden, and now they’re not.”
Ms Longwell suggested that Mr Trump’s campaign may have “peaked too early”, and that Ms Harris’s candidacy would bring out “the absolute worst in Donald Trump and his supporters”.
“They call Kamala Harris a DEI president. They’ll try to do that, they’ll run that play. But that doesn’t reflect particularly well on them,” she said.
“Kamala Harris has the ability to go on offence and prosecute the case against Donald Trump. She has the ability to make this about him. Which is the problem. Trump’s campaign knew they were going to be able to make this about Joe Biden. And for a long time, they had. And now Kamala Harris can make this election a referendum on Donald Trump.
“And if it is a referendum on Donald Trump, he will lose.”
Harris faces impeachment calls
In an early warning shot to the Democrats’ new presidental hopeful, a Republican Congressman is filing articles of impeachment against Vice President Kamala Harris over her handling of the border and knowledge, if any, of US President Joe Biden’s alleged cognitive decline.
Tennessee politician Andy Ogles is accusing Ms Harris of breaching public trust and of wilfully refusing to uphold US immigration law in two impeachment articles, Fox News Digital reports.
The former article on public trust accused Ms Harris of having “knowingly misled the people of the United States and the Congress of the United States, principally to obfuscate the physical and cognitive wellbeing of the President of the United States, Joe Biden.”
“Kamala Devi Harris has demonstrated extraordinary incompetence in the execution of her duties and responsibilities, a stark refusal to uphold the existing immigration law, and a palpable indifference to people of the United States suffering as a result of the ongoing southern border crisis in the United States,” the impeachment articles state.
“During her tenure as the designated border czar, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency ‘encountered’ nearly 302,000 illegal aliens at the southwest border in December 2023, the highest monthly total ever recorded and representing 4 consecutive months of over 240,000 illegal alien ‘encounters.’”
Trump advised against holding outdoor events
After the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump, the Secret Service has reportedly advised his campaign to avoid outdoor rallies, as they’re more vulnerable to security threats.
The Washington Post reports that, since the shooting on July 13, the agency’s officials “have communicated concerns about large outdoor events”.
“The Trump campaign appears to have heeded the agency’s concerns and is scouting indoor venues for future gatherings,” the newspaper says.
There are currently no plans for any large outdoor events in the future.
This is a fairly significant shake-up for the Trump campaign, which has often set up events so that Mr Trump can depart his private plane, walk straight to a podium, and address his fans in a fairly open setting.
Musk walks back pledge to donate millions per month
There’s a little confusion over what, exactly, Elon Musk has committed to do to influence the election, with the billionaire owner of Twitter now denying he pledged to give tens of millions of dollars a month to help elect Donald Trump.
Last week, The Wall Streeet Journal reported that Mr Musk planned to commit about $US45 million a month to a political action committee working to get Mr Trump elected. Speaking to conservative intellectual Jordan Peterson, in an interview released yesterday, Mr Musk denied that was the case.
“What’s been reported in the media is simply not true,” he said.
“I’m not donating $45 million a month to Trump. What I have done is I have created a PAC, or Super PAC, whatever you want to call it. I simply call it the America PAC.”
OK. So he’s not giving the money to Mr Trump directly. Which makes sense, because there are strict limits on how much you can donate that way. Giving the cash to a PAC instead gets rid of those limits.
“I don’t prescribe to a cult of personality,” Mr Musk elaborated.
He said the newly created PAC would support his values, such as an opposition to government intervention. But it remains unclear how much he will donate to it or how active it will be in promoting Mr Trump’s candidacy.
The former president addressed Mr Musk’s alleged stance towards him during a campaign stop in one of the key swing states a few days ago.
“We have to make life good for our smart people. You know, we have some smart people. We have to make life good for our smart people,” he said at a rally in Michigan.
“And he’s as smart as you get. But Elon endorsed me the other day. And I read, I didn’t even know this, he didn’t even tell me about it, but he gives me $45 million a month. A month.”
‘Despicable’: PLO President writes to Trump
Donald Trump has revealed a letter written to him by the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in the wake of the attempt on his life.
Mr Trump shared the letter, which he appears to have autographed, on his social media platform, Truth Social.
In it, Mr Abbas refers to Mr Trump as “your excellency” and expresses his “grave concern”, having watched footage of the attempted assassination.
“Acts of violence must not take place in a world of law and order. Respect for the other with tolerance and valuing human rights is what must prevail,” he writes.
“Despicable acts of attempted or successful assassinations are acts of weakness.”
Mr Trump has written on the letter with a marker, saying: “Mahmoud, so nice, thank you. Everything will be good. Best wishes.”
The former president is set to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday, after Mr Netanyahu addresses the US Congress.
‘For heaven’s sake’: Attack on Harris slammed
Some Republicans have responded to Kamala Harris’s rise as the new presumptive nominee by calling her a “DEI” candidate. The acronym stands for “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”. The implication here is that Ms Harris has attained her role because of her race and gender, rather than her resume.
Before entering politics, Ms Harris was a prosecutor. She then served as district-attorney of San Francisco and attorney-general of California. She entered the US Senate in 2017 and has been Vice President since 2021.
Mr Trump, of course, served as president from 2017-2021. Before that he was a real estate developer and host of the reality TV show The Apprentice.
His pick for vice president, J.D. Vance, is a former investment banker who wrote the bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy. He became a US Senator, representing the state Ohio, in January of 2023.
Lisa Murkowski, a Republican Senator from Alaska, has little time for the DEI argument.
“Of course it’s not appropriate, for heaven’s sake,” she said, according to The Huffington Post.
“What, are they just going to say if you’re not a white male, it’s a DEI candidate?
“I’m sorry. No.”
Hillary Clinton writes in support of Harris
Former secretary of state, senator and first lady Hillary Clinton, the candidate Mr Trump defeated in 2016, has voiced her support for Ms Harris in a “guest essay” for The New York Times.
“She is talented, experienced and ready to be president. And I know she can defeat Donald Trump,” Ms Clinton writes.
“Ms Harris will face unique additional challenges as the first black and south Asian woman to be at the top of a major party’s ticket. That’s real, but we shouldn’t be afraid. It is a trap to believe that progress is impossible.
“I’ve been called a witch, a ‘nasty woman’ and much worse. I was even burned in effigy. As a candidate, I sometimes shied away from talking about making history. I wasn’t sure voters were ready for that.
“And I wasn’t running to break a barrier; I was running because I thought I was the most qualified to do the job.”
‘$91 million heist’: Controversy over campaign funds
Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a complaint with America’s Federal Election Commission, accusing the Democrats of violating the law by swapping out Joe Biden for Kamala Harris.
Ms Harris has inherited $US91 million from what was formerly the “Biden for President” campaign, which has now been rebranded to “Harris for President”.
“This is little more than a thinly veiled $91m excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another,” the Trump campaign says.
“That is, from Joe Biden’s old campaign to Kamala Harris’s new campaign. This effort makes a mockery of our campaign finance laws.
“Federal candidates are prohibited from keeping contributions for elections in which they do not participate. Biden for President 2024 has shown no intention to properly refund or re-designate the general election funds it has already received.
“Kamala Harris is seeking to perpetrate a $91 million dollar heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash.
“(It’s) a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.”
The idea here is to stop Ms Harris from using the campaign funds she’s inherited from Mr Biden, though campaign finance experts say the gambit is unlikely to succeed, or even to be adjudicated before the election.
‘Lock him up’ chant at Harris’s first rally
As you would expect, Ms Harris got a heroic reception at her first rally since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Milwaukee, she said the campaign would be “about two different visions”.
“One where we are focused on the future. The other, focused on the past,” she said.
Ms Harris placed emphasis on her record, before entering politics, as a prosecutor, where she “took on perpetrators of all kinds”.
“Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said of the prosecutions during her law career.
“So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
The crowd responded with a chant of “lock him up”, a reference to Mr Trump’s “lock her up” chant about Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Major poll shows Harris leading
Significant new polls have been published canvassing voters’ views of the match-up between Ms Harris and Mr Trump.
The results are mixed, but certainly represent an improvement for the Democrats, as compared to Mr Biden’s long-running (and quite dismal) figures. Mr Trump was cruising. Now he has a genuine fight on his hands.
A survey from Reuters/Ipsos, which is highly regarded, tested both a two-way race between Ms Harris and Mr Trump, and one including independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In the simpler two-way contest, Ms Harris led Mr Trump with 44 per cent to his 42 per cent. Adding Mr Kennedy to the mix, she registered 42 per cent support, with Mr Trump on 38 per cent and Mr Kennedy on 8 per cent.
What’s clear is that the race, at a national level, is close - we’ll be looking out for polling from key swing states in the coming days, which will clarify the situation.
Three other polls have come out today, two showing a narrow lead for Mr Trump and another showing a tie.
A Morning Consult survey has Mr Trump at 47 and Ms Harris at 45. Yahoo News has them at 46 per cent apiece. And NPR/PBS/Marist puts Mr Trump at 46 and Ms Harris at 45.
Yesterday we also got a result from Quinnipiac, which had Mr Trump leading 49-47, officially within the university’s “too close to call” range.
A couple of caveats with that one. First, the survey took place across the weekend, so some respondents’ opinions were recorded before Mr Biden dropped out. Second, the crosstabs show some odd results: Mr Trump leads Ms Harris comfortably in the 18-34 age group, while she leads him comfortably among voters aged 65-plus. Both of those figures are big anomalies; you would typically expect Democrats to perform better among young voters and Republicans to dominate among retirees.
“The dramatic reset at the top of the Democratic ticket does little to move the race as Vice President Harris enters the fray with numbers similar to President Biden,” Quinnipiac analyst Tim Malloy said.
When Quinnipiac included other candidates, Mr Kennedy chief among them, Mr Trump led Ms Harris with 45 per cent of the vote compared to her 41 per cent.
Significantly, Mr Trump’s net favourability rating of -3 was the best recorded for him since May of 2015. Around 30 per cent of people said they found him more favourable since the attempt on his life. More than half said it made no difference.
Meanwhile 62 per cent of voters said Mr Biden’s decision to drop out of the race was the “right thing to do”.
Old clip of Trump’s VP pick goes viral
A 2021 interview in which Mr Trump’s vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, criticised Ms Harris for being childless and therefore not having a “direct stake” in America’s future, is now being shared widely online.
Ms Harris in fact has two stepchildren with her husband, Doug Emhoff.
Mr Vance made the comments about Ms Harris during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
“We’re effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too,” Mr Vance says in the clip, before directly referring to Ms Harris.
“It’s just a basic fact, you look at Kamala Harris, (US Transportation Secretary) Pete Buttigieg, AOC (New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.
“How does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton shared the video on Twitter on Tuesday, blasting the Republican vice presidential nominee.
“What a normal, relatable guy who certainly doesn’t hate women having freedoms,” she wrote. You will have caught the sarcasm.
Responding to Mr Vance’s comment, a Harris campaign spokesperson told ABC News“every single American has a stake in this country’s future”.
“Ugly, personal attacks from J.D. Vance and Donald Trump are in line with their dangerous Project 2025 agenda to ban abortion, decimate our democracy, and gut Social Security.”
Ms Harris married Mr Emhoff, a lawyer, in 2014. She became a stepmother to his two children, Cole and Ella.
Biden to speak to nation
US President Joe Biden has said he will speak to Americans on Wednesday to detail how he will use his final six months in office.
He has spent six days at his Delaware home recovering from Covid. During this time he announced he would pull out of the election race.
On Tuesday, the President’s physician Kevin O’Connor said his symptoms had “resolved”.
“Over the course of his infection, he never manifested a fever, and his vital signs remained normal”.
He added that a RAT test had now come up negative.
Now Covid free, on Tuesday he boarded Air Force One and seemed more swift and steady than he was days ago. In Las Vegas, just after he was diagnosed, he haltingly and slowly headed up the steps to the presidential jet adding to concerns about his frailty.
In a social media post Mr Biden said his address would cover “what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people”.
The New York Times reported that in a call to staff at his old campaign headquarters he said: “I’m not going anywhere”. That seems to be a reference to calls for him to quit immediately.
Calls for Biden to resign presidency ‘ridiculous’
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, is one of those calling for Mr Biden to go.
He has said that if Mr Biden is to unfit to run for President then he shouldn’t remain as President.
But White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has dismissed the calls.
Interviewed on US daytime show The View she said such calls were “ridiculous”.
“The president decided to not run for re-election, that’s it. That’s all that he decided on.
“He wants to continue to do the work, three and a half years of unprecedented, historic work,” she said.
“I think that shows what he’s capable of doing. I think that shows how important his leadership is.”
Harris cementing nomination
There had been talk that the Democratic Party might hold a snap contest to see who should replace Mr Biden as the nominee.
But that appears to be heading out of the window as Ms Harris’ locks in more and more support and fundraising dollars.
She needs 1976 Democratic delegates to vote for her at the party’s national convention in Chicago next month to become the presidential nominee. So far, 2214 delegates have pledged to her, according to the Associated Press.
On Wednesday (US time), Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives Hakeem Jeffries, the two top Democrats in Congress, endorsed Ms Harris.
Their endorsement means Ms Harris has near total support from the top ranking Democrats. Ms Harris held her first rally as a presidential candidate on Tuesday, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a key swing state. .
An animated Ms Harris praised Mr Bide and took aim at Donald Trump.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.
“So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type.”
She added that “Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency”.
Trump blames Biden and Harris for assassination attempt
The Head of the Secret Service Kimberley Cheatle resigned on Wednesday after the organisation came under intense scrutiny following the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
But he has now turned his sights of Mr Biden and Ms Harris claiming they were to blame.
“The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy.
“It was my great honour to do so”.
With the pivot from Mr Biden to Ms Harris, the Republican Party is scrambling to also change its messaging.
One of the key themes from the Republican National Convention, held just last week, was that Mr Trump was a better person to lead the US than Mr Biden.
Now the party is looking to link what it is claiming as Mr Biden’s failures – such as immigration – to Ms Harris.
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