US election 2024 as it happened: Trump, Harris set to visit North Carolina in final days of campaign

Thanks for joining us today, we will be back early tomorrow morning. For now, here’s what made headlines:

• Donald Trump’s team is considering withholding federal police grants from local law enforcement agencies that decline to take part in migrant deportations, NBC reported.
• Speaking at a Pennsylvania rally, Vice President Kamala Harris pledged she was not afraid of tough fights.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson says there will be “massive” changes to healthcare in America if Donald Trump returns to the White House, pledging to slash Obamacare.
• Polls suggest Kamala Harris maintains a narrow advantage over Trump in two of the three “blue wall” states of Michigan and Wisconsin.
• Trump dedicated a garbage truck to Harris and President Joe Biden as he took questions from reporters on Wednesday. He later opened his rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, telling supporters they were not garbage.
• Harris called on Gaza protesters at her Wisconsin rally to stop interrupting her, telling them, “right now I am speaking.”

Trump climbed aboard a garbage truck in Wisconsin.Credit: AP

Donald Trump praised former NFL star Brett Favre on Wednesday at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where the former Packers quarterback was campaigning for the Republican presidential nominee in the final week before Election Day.

“Thank you, Brett. What a great honour. What a great champion,” Trump said shortly after taking the stage at the Resch Centre. Describing Favre’s fingers as “like sausages,” he said, “No wonder he could throw the ball”.

Trump wore a hi-vis tabard on stage. Credit: AP

“I’m a little upset because I think he got bigger applause than me, and I’m not happy,” the former president went on, joking about the ovation Favre received in a county that Trump narrowly won in 2020.

Trump appeared onstage in an orange safety vest after riding in a garbage truck to draw attention to an offensive comment by President Joe Biden. But he reignited a different controversy by revisiting his promise to “protect the women of our country”.

After complaining about his own staffers saying “sir, please don’t say that” and telling him it was “inappropriate”, Trump insisted, “I’m gonna do it whether the women like it or not”.

A Florida man was arrested after allegedly brandishing a machete at an elderly woman during an altercation at an early voting site in Neptune Beach, the town’s police chief said.

Caleb James Williams, 18, allegedly raised the machete over his head during an altercation with two women at the polling location, including one who was 71 years old, Neptune Beach police chief Michael Key jnr said during a press conference on Tuesday.

The incident allegedly occurred less than a week before election day.

Williams is in custody and has been charged with improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon and aggravated assault on a person aged 65 years or older, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office records show.

He was allegedly with a group of six minors who were there to “protest and oppose the opposing political side”, Key said.

“The group was there for no other reason but ill intentions – to cause a disturbance,” Key said, denouncing the incident as an attack on voting rights.

Reuters

A daughter of former Republican president George W. Bush and granddaughter of former Republican president George H.W. Bush has campaigned for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

People Magazine reported that Barbara Pierce Bush campaigned for Harris over the weekend in Pennsylvania.

“It was inspiring to join friends and meet voters with the Harris-Walz campaign in Pennsylvania this weekend,” Bush said.

“I’m hopeful they’ll move our country forward and protect women’s rights.”

George W. Bush was president from 2001 to 2009, while his father, George H.W. Bush, served as president Ronald Reagan’s vice president before winning the 1988 election.

X’s crowdsourced fact-checking program, called community notes, is not addressing the flood of US election misinformation on Elon Musk’s social media platform, according to a report published Wednesday by a group that tracks online speech.

The non-profit Centre for Countering Digital Hate analysed the community notes feature and found that accurate notes correcting false and misleading claims about the US elections were not displayed on 209 out of a sample of 283 posts deemed misleading – or 74 per cent.

Elon Musk is the owner of X.Credit: AP

Misleading posts that did not display community notes even when they were available included false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that voting systems are unreliable, CCDH said.

In the cases where community notes were displayed, the original misleading posts received 13 times more views than their accompanying notes, the group added.

Community notes let X users write fact-checks on posts after they are accepted as contributors to the program. Other users rate the checks based on their accuracy, sources, ease of understanding, and neutral language.

The program was launched in 2021 by the previous leadership of the site – then known as Twitter – and was called Birdwatch. Musk renamed it community notes after he took over the site in 2022.

AP

The man suspected of setting fire to ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington state is allegedly an experienced metalworker and may be planning additional attacks, authorities said on Wednesday.

Investigators believe the suspect who set off incendiary devices at ballot boxes in Portland, Oregon, and nearby Vancouver, Washington, had a “wealth of experience” in metal fabrication and welding, said Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mike Benner.

Benner said the way the devices were constructed and attached to the metal drop boxes showed that expertise.

In this image made from a video provided by KGW8, authorities investigate the scene as smoke pours out of a ballot box on Monday.Credit: AP

Authorities described the perpetrator as a white man, aged 30 to 40, who is balding or has very short hair.

Police previously said surveillance video showed the man driving a black or dark-coloured 2001 to 2004 Volvo S60. The vehicle did not have a front licence plate, but it did have a rear plate with unknown letters or numbers.

The incendiary devices were marked with the message “Free Gaza,” according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss an ongoing investigation.

A third device placed at a different drop box in Vancouver earlier this month also carried the words “Free Palestine” in addition to “Free Gaza,” the official said.

AP

Vice President Kamala Harris has called on Gaza protesters at her Wisconsin rally to stop interrupting her, telling them “right now I am speaking”.

During her rally, Harris began by telling supporters early voting had opened.

“We need you to vote early Wisconsin because we have six days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime,” she said.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak at a campaign event in Madison.Credit: AP

“We have work to do, but we like hard work. Hard work is good work, hard work is joyful work and make no mistake we will win.”

In the middle of Harris’ speech, protesters could be heard chanting about the war in Gaza.

“We all want the war in Gaza to end and to get the hostages out and I will do everything in my power to make it heard … but right now I am speaking,” she said as supporters cheered.

Harris continued to attack Trump as a candidate, saying: “It is time that we start locking arms together as a people who rise and come together and it is time for a new generation of leadership in America.”

Kamala Harris has Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Donald Trump has Kid Rock, Waka Flocka Flame and Hulk Hogan.

As the 2024 campaign whirls into its final week, the Democrats are noticeably leaning on their star power advantage, calling on a diverse range of celebrities to endorse Harris, invigorate audiences, and, they hope, spur people to the ballot box.

Democrats have long enjoyed a celebrity advantage and used it to close out presidential campaigns when attention and energy are critical. That upper hand has grown during Trump’s rise, a period that saw scores of celebrities, even apolitical stars, break their silence and speak out against the Republican leader.

Taylor Swift urged her followers to register to vote.Credit: Instagram

The advantage often means raucous, fiery events in the closing days of a race, but history – namely Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign – highlights how the energy at those events can sometimes paper over broader issues with a candidate.

Weeks before the election, Harris got an assist from music legend Stevie Wonder in Jonesboro, Georgia, who rallied churchgoers with a rendition of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song.

Days later, in Atlanta, Harris and former president Barack Obama headlined a rally that featured a performance by Springsteen and speeches from famed filmmaker Spike Lee and actor Samuel L. Jackson. The campaign followed that up a day later with a rally in Texas featuring a performance by Willie Nelson and a speech from Beyoncé.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has also benefited from the celebrity push. Singer-songwriter James Taylor performed at events with the governor in North Carolina earlier in the month. And Walz, along with Harris, spoke at an event in Michigan on Monday that included a five-song set from singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers.

AP

Donald Trump has opened his rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, telling supporters they are not garbage.

“I have to begin by saying 250 million Americans are not garbage,” Trump said to cheering supporters.

Trump continued by telling the crowd he was uniting America and that voting for him would “make America great again”.

Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin.Credit: AP

“We’re uniting Christians and Jews, Catholics and evangelicals, Muslims and Mormons and everyone who simply wants to do one thing – make America great again,” Trump chants.

“Our campaign has been endorsed by the 400,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police and every single police group all around our country.

“It’s been endorsed by the Border Patrol. We have the greatest people at Border Patrol. Those agents are incredible. They have given me the strongest endorsement you have ever seen.”

US senator for Vermont Bernie Sanders has urged Americans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris despite him disagreeing with her stance on the war in Gaza.

In a video shared on social media, Sanders said he understood there were millions of Americans who disagreed with Biden and Harris on the war in Gaza and he was one of them.

While Israel had a right to defend itself against the horrific Hamas terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages, it did not have the right to wage an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people.

That is why I am doing everything I can to block US military aid and offensive weapons sales to Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government in Israel. I know that many voters share those feelings. And some of you are saying, ‘how can I vote for Kamala Harris if she is supporting this terrible war?’ That is a very fair question.

Let me give you my best answer. And that is that even on this issue, Donald Trump and his right wing friends are worse. In the Senate and in Congress, the Republicans have worked overtime to block humanitarian aid to the starving children in Gaza.

The president and vice president both support getting as much humanitarian aid into Gaza as soon as possible.

Trump has said that Netanyahu is ‘doing a good job’ and that Biden is holding him back. He has suggested that the Gaza Strip would make excellent beachfront property for development. It is no wonder Netanyahu prefers to have Donald Trump in office.

US senator Bernie Sanders.Credit: Bloomberg