Donald Trump predicts ‘explosion’ between Joe Biden, Kamala Harris
Donald Trump claims all is not well between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, as he announced he will be a grandfather again and Barack Obama gets set to hit the campaign trail.
Former US President Donald Trump has told supporters in Joe Biden’s birth city of Scranton that the current US commander in chief will break with Vice President Kamala Harris before next month’s election.
“He looks better now than I’ve ever seen him looking,” Mr Trump said, referring to Mr Biden’s appearance since dropping his re-election bid July 21.
However, the 45th president also suggested that Mr Biden was “angry” since he was forced to quit the race by a Democratic “coup”.
“He’s angry, he’s angry at her,” Mr Trump said. “There’s going to be an explosion before the election with them. Those two are going to be, there’s going to be an explosion. Did you see? He held a news conference right in the middle of her, her one big event that she’s had in about two weeks.
“He got up and held a news conference. He walked into the room. Nobody ever does that,” Mr Trump said, referring to Mr Biden making his first appearance in the White House briefing room as president while Ms Harris held a rally in Michigan.
“Can you believe our country is being run by these people?”
But there was good news for Ms Harris as it emerged she is leading Mr Trump by four points among likely voters, according to an Economist/YouGov poll released on Thursday local time. Ms Harris leads with 49 per cent to Mr Trump’s 45 per cent, while four per cent of voters are unsure, one per cent support Jill Stein and one per cent support other candidates.
Ms Harris also leads Trump by three percentage points among registered voters; 47 per cent of the demographic said they would cast their ballot for Ms Harris, compared to 44 per cent who plan to vote for Mr Trump in November.
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OBAMA TELLS BLACK MEN TO DROP ‘EXCUSES’
Former President Barack Obama has pleaded with voters to choose Vice President Kamala Harris in November, while specifically aiming his message to Black men.
His message while at Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania was for Black male voters who he said might not be yet on board with Ms Harris.
He called out the lack of enthusiasm for Ms Harris compared with the support he received when he was running for the presidency in 2008.
“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses. “I’ve got a problem with that,” Obama said.
“Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.
“Women in our lives have been getting our backs this entire time.
“When we get in trouble and the system isn’t working for us, they’re the ones out there marching and protesting.”
The stern words from the former president were meant to address worrying signs for Ms Harris, including that her support among Black voters is still lower than what Mr Biden received when he won the state in 2020, according to a poll last month from The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES DAUGHTER’S PREGNANCY
Mr Trump revealed his daughter Tiffany, 30, is pregnant during a speech to the Detroit Economic Club.
The former US president let slip of the news during a remark about Tiffany’s father-in-law, businessman Massad Boulos, being present in the audience.
“He happens to be the father of Tiffany’s husband, Michael, who’s a very exceptional young guy,” Mr Trump said.
“And she’s an exceptional young woman. And she’s going to have a baby. So that’s nice.”
Tiffany’s pregnancy was not public knowledge.
Mr Trump already is a grandfather to 10 children.
OBAMA HITS CAMPAIGN TRAIL
It comes as Former US president Barack Obama will bring his star power to Kamala Harris’s election campaign on Thursday local time in a bid to get out the vote in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania.
America’s first Black president is hitting the campaign trail in the steel city of Pittsburgh a day after Harris’s Republican rival Donald Trump charged through the must-win state.
The still hugely influential Democrat will be urging people to vote early in person or by mail as Harris looks to lock in as many votes as she can in a nailbiting race.
Mr Trump rallied on Wednesday in US President Joe Biden’s childhood hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania and will next head to the auto industry capital of Detroit in Michigan, another battleground.
Wooing blue-collar voters in the former coal mining town of Scranton, Mr Trump vowed to “drill, baby, drill” for oil and assailed Ms Harris on the economy.
Ms Harris will head to yet another swing state, Nevada, to reach out to Latino voters but the White House said she would be kept informed throughout the day about Hurricane Milton.
Mr Obama’s trip to Pennsylvania is the first stop in what will be a month of campaigning for Ms Harris in the seven swing states where the 2024 election is likely to be decided.
The White House race remains neck-and-neck between Ms Harris and Mr Trump both nationally and in the battleground states, including Pennsylvania.
Ms Harris’s campaign is counting on Mr Obama, who was president from 2009 to January 2017, to mobilise Black and young voters as she seeks the edge on November 5.
The Obamas endorsed Ms Harris after Mr Biden dramatically dropped out of the White House race in July.
TRUMP REJECTS HARRIS RE-MATCH
Donald Trump has flatly refused a new offer to debate Kamala Harris again, declaring in an all-caps social media rant that there is “nothing to debate” ahead of November’s election.
After the pair’s first head-to-head contest last month in which Ms Harris was widely considered the victor, the Vice President immediately dared the former president to another debate, but he shot down the idea.
Ms Harris has since agreed to a debate on CNN on October 23, which is expected to turn into a solo town hall appearance after Mr Trump rejected the invitation.
Fox News then moved to offer to host another contest in the days before the November 5 election, with the network saying it “would present an opportunity for each candidate to make their closing arguments”.
Mr Trump responded within hours on his social media platform with the fiery all-caps post.
“I won the last two debates, one with crooked Joe, the other with lyin’ Kamala,” he said.
“I am also leading in the polls, with the lead getting bigger by the day.”
“The first thing a prize-fighter does when he loses a fight is that say that he ‘demands a rematch’. It is very late in the process, voting has already begun – there will be no rematch!”
Ms Harris has been on a media blitz this week, with the polls continuing to show a neck-and-neck race in the key battleground states.
But she came under fire after an appearance on morning talk show The View in which she was unable to nominate anything she would change about Joe Biden’s presidency.
“Kamala stated clearly, yesterday, that she would not do anything different than Joe Biden, so there is nothing to debate,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Biden, meanwhile, counter-programmed her appearances with one press conference where he said Ms Harris was involved in all his decisions, and another where he praised Ron DeSantis amid Ms Harris’ public stoush with the Florida Governor.
Her vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, meanwhile, also made forays into hostile media with combative interviews on 60 Minutes and Fox News after his debate loss against Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance.
Mr Vance now has seen a popularity rating in the positive for the first time in months after entering the race as one of the most unpopular vice presidential candidates in history.
KAMALA’S MEDIA BLITZ ROILED BY ALLEGATIONS
Kamala Harris’ media blitz to jump-start her floundering campaign was overshadowed by new allegations against her husband Doug Emhoff of “inappropriate” behaviour.
The Second Gentleman, who has denied claims he struck an ex-girlfriend and caused the miscarriage of a nanny he had an affair with, is now facing allegations of creating a “misogynistic” work environment.
Lawyers who worked at the firm, Venable, claim Mr Emhoff – while married to Ms Harris – hired an unqualified model as a trophy secretary because she was “young, attractive and friendly with powerful men in the office”.
He also reportedly yelled, held men-only cocktail hours, took only pretty young staff to glamorous events, and revoked perks from women who didn’t flirt with him.
The bombshell allegations, made in The Daily Mail, came as Ms Harris backed up her 60 Minutes interview with appearances on The View, Howard Stern, and The Colbert Show as part of her campaign’s efforts to combat falling polls in key battleground states.
They’re the latest in a series of negative stories targeting Mr Emhoff, who has been celebrated as a “wife guy” and spokesman against toxic masculinity.
While Mr Emhoff, through a spokesman, denied previous allegations he struck an ex-girlfriend, he has admitted to having an affair with a nanny.
He has not commented on the most recent claims made by former colleagues from Venable Los Angeles, which Mr Emhoff headed up between 2006 to 2017.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, one former staffer said Mr Emhoff “bragged” about yelling “get the f*** out of my office” to a female partner.
“What’s worse was he bragged about it to the management at Venable and they were aghast. He’s an a**hole. He told them how he ‘put her in her place’. A misogynist, that’s who does that,” the ex-colleague said.
A woman who worked under Mr Emhoff said that he favoured “young, pretty girls” in a way that wasn’t “appropriate for the position he was in”.
“If there was an event, like the Justice Ball, he would favour certain people. Usually it was young, pretty girls. And he would prefer for them to ride with him. He would get a limo,” she said.
Another ex-staffer said it was well known that Mr Emhoff was “very flirty” and that “if you weren’t flirty back or didn’t respond positively then you were on his s**t list”.
“There were deadlines that, if you were one of his favourite people, wouldn’t apply. But if you weren’t, they would,” she said.
Another former colleague added that Mr Emhoff excluded women from men-only drinking nights in the office.
“He had, for many years cocktail parties where only men were invited. In the office, on Friday evening,” she said. “When my colleague brought that to the attention of Venable [around 2010], that stopped.”
A former legal secretary sued Venable alleging sexual discrimination in 2019, two years after Mr Emhoff had left the firm.
Mr Emhoff was not a defendant in the suit, but was referenced in the legal complaint as being known for having a glamorous, 20-something secretary who was “unqualified” for the role, according to the legal complaint.
The name of Mr Emhoff’s legal secretary, “Katya”, became a euphemism in the office for “trophy secretary”, according to the court filing by ex-Venable legal secretary Marjan Rabbi.
Katya Calderone worked at Venable from 2014 to 2017 after obtaining a paralegal certificate from UCLA and working in several other legal roles, according to her LinkedIn page.
She also worked as a part-time model for fashion brands like Manco, according to The Daily Mail’s report.
HARRIS REVEALS CHOICE OF GUN
Kamala Harris has revealed she owns a Glock pistol that she has fired at shooting ranges.
In her latest effort to appeal to conservative voters ahead of November’s election, the Vice President spoke about her gun during a prime-time appearance on 60 Minutes, a pre-election tradition that Donald Trump abandoned by backing out of the interview.
Last month, the Democratic candidate controversially told talk show legend Oprah Winfrey: “If someone breaks in my house, they’re getting shot.”
Asked about that comment, she said she had owned a Glock “for quite some time”.
When questioned over whether she had used it, the Democratic nominee laughed and added: “Of course I have. Yes, at a shooting range – of course I have.”
“My background is in law enforcement, so there you go,” Ms Harris added, referring to her background as a prosecutor in California.
The handgun is designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b. H and entered the Austrian military and police service by 1982 after becoming the top performer in reliability and safety tests. In the US, police almost exclusively carry Glock handguns and they can be easily converted into fully automatic weapons using a small device.
Her running mate Tim Walz also appeared on 60 Minutes and admitted that Ms Harris had told him to “be a little more careful on how you say things”, amid widespread criticism for exaggerating his military record and misstating details about his travels to China.
“I will own up to being a knucklehead at times,” the Minnesota Governor said.
But he argued that voters “know the difference between someone expressing emotion, telling a story, getting a date wrong, rather than a pathological liar like Donald Trump”.
Ms Harris was also grilled over the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza and resist an incursion in Lebanon.
Asked if he was a close ally, she sidestepped and said that “the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people”.
“And the answer to that question is yes,” Ms Harris said.
She also hedged on whether she would welcome Ukraine as a member of NATO, despite President Joe Biden and America’s treaty partners affirming Ukraine was on an “irreversible path” to joining the alliance.
Ms Harris’s interview is part of a long-awaited media blitz this week, which also includes appearances on comedian Stephen Colbert’s late-night TV program, radio shock Howard Stern’s show, morning TV program The View, and popular podcast Call Her Daddy.
Mr Trump had agreed to participate in the 60 Minutes episode, with his spokesman Steven Cheung telling the program in a text message: “The president said yes.”
When the former president backed out, Mr Cheung claimed “nothing was ever scheduled or locked in” and that “they also insisted on doing live fact checking, which is unprecedented”.
Ms Harris told viewers to watch one of Mr Trump’s rallies instead, saying they would “hear conversations that are about himself and all of his personal grievances”.
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Originally published as Donald Trump predicts ‘explosion’ between Joe Biden, Kamala Harris