US election 2024 as it happened: Kamala Harris to give closing argument at site of January 6 riots; Trump to hold rally in Pennsylvania

Thanks for joining us for another day of live coverage of the US presidential campaign. We can now say we’re in the final week.

Kamala Harris gave what she called a “closing address” in Washington DC where she framed next week’s election as a referendum on Donald Trump and a chance for Americans to put the past few years of disunity behind them.

Kamala Harris gives her speech on the Ellipse of the White HouseCredit: Bloomberg

Donald Trump campaigned in Pennsylvania where he tried to demonstrate that comments made by a comedian at a rally in New York earlier this week had not damaged his standing with Puerto Ricans.

J-Lo, who was born in Puerto Rico, is due to hit the campaign trail for Kamala Harris in the next couple of days. No doubt she will have thoughts.

In tomorrow’s blog we will cover Donald Trump’s swing through two key states, North Carolina and Wisconsin, and Kamala Harris’ visit to the also important Pennsylvania. We look forward to your company again. Until then, enjoy your afternoon and evening.

Washington: One week before she hopes to make history as the first woman to occupy the Oval Office, Vice President Kamala Harris framed the US election as a referendum on Donald Trump and a chance to turn the page on years of chaos, anger and mistrust.

In a “closing argument” delivered at the same place where Trump delivered his own fiery address before the deadly attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Harris offered voters a sharp contrast to her Republican rival and vision for how she would govern as president.

He’s a divider; she’s a uniter. He wants to jail his opponents; she wants to offer a seat at the table. He has an enemies list; she has a to-do list.

To read Farrah’s analysis, click here.

Another thing you might be wondering about is how the US voting system works. It can take a bit of time to wrap your mind around the electoral college. Fortunately, numbers wizard Shane Wright (who you might know as the senior economics correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age) can explain it.

Miami: Ivanka Trump has been surfing. She’s posed in front of the Eiffel Tower and attended a Formula 1 party in Miami in a race-car red dress. She took a dip with her children in a hot tub, hung out with Kim Kardashian in Malibu and smiled alongside her husband, Jared Kushner, at the Acropolis.

Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka.Credit: AP

The one place former president Donald Trump’s oldest daughter hasn’t been, however, is on the campaign trail. And although she has been upfront about her absence, politically speaking, it remains somewhat mysterious.

During Trump’s last two bids for office, Ivanka appeared at rallies, in television ads and on national convention stages, often with the implicit role of appealing to female voters.

To read more, click here.

If you’re already thinking ahead to election day itself (for all intents and purposes Wednesday for those of us in Australia) then you might like to do some background reading.

You’ve probably heard commentators and reporters talking a lot about swing states such as Michigan and Georgia. If you’d like to know more, US correspondent Farrah Tomazin has been visiting the states that will decide the election.

You can see her series of articles here.

Michelle Obama has again appeared during the campaign – this time at a carefully nonpartisan event designed to encourage people to vote.

The former first lady’s “When We All Vote” organisation hosted a rally for more than 2000 people at an arena in College Park, near Atlanta’s airport in Georgia.

Obama told attendees that “if you go out and get a crew together, you can decide who sits in the Oval Office”.

Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks at a rally in College Park, Georgia.Credit: AP

“You know how close this election is going to be,” Obama said. “Four years ago, the presidential election in Georgia was decided by less than 12,000 votes.”

The event was scrupulously nonpartisan, never mentioning the names Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, or even the words Democrat or Republican.

Obama spoke particularly against people who might find it not worth voting.

“If they respond by saying that they can’t trust the government or that all politicians are the same, ask them where they’re hearing that nonsense from,” she said. “Because the folks whispering that stuff into their ears, I guarantee you, do not have their best interests at heart.”

In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Donald Trump downplayed the controversy over comments made about Puerto Rico at Madison Square Garden earlier this week, saying he couldn’t “imagine it’s a big deal” and that he didn’t know who approved the comedian’s jokes.

On Tuesday evening US time, Trump travelled to Allentown, home to a large Puerto Rican community, where he earned the endorsement of Puerto Rico shadow senator Zoraida Buxó, an elected position in the US territory that makes her an unofficial advocate for the island.

Republican presidential nominee former president Donald Trump.Credit: AP

“We need this man to be our commander-in-chief. He will make us feel safe, and he will protect us,” Buxó said.

In the interview with Hannity, Trump acknowledged that “somebody said some bad things” that night but tried to downplay concerns about insulting a critical voting bloc.

“They put a comedian in, which everybody does – you throw comedians in, you don’t vet them and go crazy. It’s nobody’s fault,” he said. “But somebody said some bad things. Now, what they’ve done is taken somebody that has nothing to do with the party, has nothing to do with us, said something, and they try and make a big deal.”

He again insisted that he had “done more for Puerto Rico than any president I think that’s ever been president.”

President Joe Biden took a swipe at Donald Trump’s supporters on Tuesday (US time) as he reacted to the Republican presidential nominee’s weekend rally in New York, which was overshadowed by crude and racist rhetoric.

In a call organised by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino, Biden responded to a comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at the Madison Square Garden event.

Joe Biden on the campaign trail in Baltimore earlier this week.Credit: AP

Biden’s initial comments were garbled, Associated Press reports.

“Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. Well, let me tell you something, I don’t, I don’t know the Puerto Rican that I know, the Puerto Rico where I’m fr – in my home state of Delaware. They’re good, decent honorable people,” he said.

The president then added: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden “referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as ‘garbage’.”

Republicans quickly highlighted Biden’s remark.

“Moments ago Joe Biden stated that our supporters, our patriots, are garbage,” Florida senator Marco Rubio said in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “He’s talking about everyday Americans who love their country.”

The Trump campaign has responded to Kamala Harris’ speech, saying it was “backward-looking”.

“Kamala Harris is lying, name-calling, and clinging to the past to avoid admitting the truth – the migrant crime crisis, sky-high inflation, and raging world wars are the result of her terrible policies,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Leavitt noted Harris had been in office for nearly four years.

The Harris camp has told The New York Times that 75,000 people attended her address. CNN put the figure at 52,000.

Vice President Kamala Harris was greeted by a sea of people at her speech in Washington.Credit: AP