Trump to rally at NYC’s Madison Square Garden; Harris heads to Philadelphia: Election live updates

Donald Trump is getting ready to take the stage at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night along with a number of well-known people within the MAGA movement.

Some of the speakers include vice presidential nominee and Ohio Senator JD Vance, Speaker Mike Johnson, former New York Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump Jr, billionaire Elon Musk, and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Doors opened at 12pm ET and the program is expected to start at 5pm ET.

Trump’s Manhattan rally comes as Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced a swing state blitz in the last few days before Election Day. They will crisscross the country to visit all seven battleground states, with Harris heading to Philadelphia on Sunday before both of them move on to Wisconsin and Michigan on Monday.

A fired-up Michelle Obama ripped into Trump on Saturday as “a convicted felon” facing “obvious mental decline” and a “predator found liable for sexual abuse” while campaigning for Harris in Michigan.

The former First Lady stumped in Kalamazoo with a speech in which she told crowds she had a “genuine” fear for “our country.”

Key Points

• People begin to line up outside of Madison Square Garden ahead of Trump rally

• Here’s the speaker list for Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally

• Gracie Abrams and other music stars to join Harris-Walz in final swing state blitz before Election Day

• A growing number of Americans are concerned with Trump’s age, but still not as many who worried about Biden

Magic the Gathering fans explain why JD Vance’s favorite deck reflects badly on him

16:30 , Io Dodds

JD Vance’s favorite Magic: The Gathering card as a 13-year-old boy in Middleton, Ohio might tell us more about Vance the 40-year-old possible vice president of the United States than he realizes.

A clawed metal hand, beckoning for sacrifices. A necromantic monstrosity hunched in the darkness, white teeth showing through its skull. A terrible pact, and an ominous warning: “He craves only one commodity.”

This is the infamous trading card known as “Yawgmoth’s Bargain”, part of the popular collectible card game. Released in 1999, it has long since been banned from most forms of competitive Magic due to its ability to not just ensure a win, but also entirely take over a game to the point where nothing is fun anymore

Vance, Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, revealed this August that he’d been something of a hobbyist sorcerer in his teenage years.

Magic the Gathering fans explain why JD Vance’s favorite deck reflects badly on him

Bernie Sanders says Trump can be described as a ‘fascist’

16:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Can Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump? Latest poll updates

15:30 , Alicja Hagopian

In just 11 days, Vice President Kamala Harris will go head-to-head with Donald Trump, as Americans cast their votes in the 2024 election.

The final New York Times/Siena College poll before the election has Trump and Harris in a deadlock, with each at 48 percent of the vote.

This could be the closest election in several decades. The race only became tighter in the past month, with what appears to be two unmovable camps of support.

Neither candidate is clearly leading in the battleground states, meaning that the Electoral College hangs in the balance.

Can Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump? Latest poll updates from the 2024 election

Lindsey Graham says Trump is ‘on track’ to win

15:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Cheney: ‘Our Constitution is at stake this election’

14:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Harris regains small lead among likely voters in new national poll

14:30 , Gustaf Kilander

Kamala Harris has regained a narrow lead in a national ABC News/Ipsos poll among likely voters but with the race remaining close enough for it to be unclear who’s likely to come out victorious in the Electoral College.

Among registered voters, Harris leads 49 to 47 percent. With likely voters, Harris leads 51 to 47 percent, according to the poll.

Vance attempts to defend Trump’s ‘enemy within’ comments

14:15 , Gustaf Kilander

JD Vance appeared on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, facing tough questioning from Jake Tapper about Donald Trump’s comments about “the enemy within” and his suggestion that he may use the US military to go after his opponents.

Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney, who has endorsed Kamala Harris, slammed Vance’s response, saying: “What we just watched is what it looks like when someone has gotta go through unbelievable contortions to try to find a way to defend the person that JD Vance himself called America’s Hitler.”

Sea of red MAGA hats outside Madison Square Garden ahead of Trump rally

14:01 , Alex Woodward

It’s hard to estimate the crowd size roughly two hours before the doors open at Madison Square Garden, but a wide line is packed from the entrance on Seventh Avenue and filling half of the street so far on 33rd Street, across from the Penn Station entrance.

The street is fully pedestrian today, with NYPD barricades on either side, under midtown landmarks like Sbarro and Target.

There’s a sea of red MAGA hats and a few flags waving above the crowd.

We’re supposed to be inside at noon.

Harris and Walz to campaign across battleground states this week

14:00 , Darlene Superville, Chris Megerian

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will crisscross the country to visit all seven battleground states in the coming days, part of a final blitz before the end of the presidential campaign.

The Democratic presidential nominee will spend Sunday in Philadelphia, attending church services in the morning and visiting a barbershop. Harris also plans to stop at a Puerto Rican restaurant and a youth basketball facility.

Election Day is Nov. 5.

On Monday, Walz, who is Minnesota’s governor and Harris’ running mate, will campaign in Manitowoc and Waukesha in Wisconsin before heading to Ann Arbor, Michigan for a joint rally with Harris. The singer Maggie Rogers is scheduled to perform.

Harris and Walz to campaign across battleground states this week

People begin to line up outside of Madison Square Garden ahead of Trump rally

13:46 , Ariana Baio and Gustaf Kilander

The Independent’s Ariana Baio and Alex Woodward are outside Madison Square Garden ahead of Trump’s rally later on Sunday.

Vendors outside the arena have switched their regular wares for MAGA products.

Two people were seen impersonating Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – a dictator that Trump has often complimented.

Revealed: Farage-inspired plot to persuade Trump to veto Starmer’s Chagos Islands deal

13:30 , David Maddox, Andrew Feinberg

A Nigel Farage-inspired bid to persuade Donald Trump to veto Keir Starmer’s controversial Chagos Islands deal can be revealed today.

The Independent has seen legal advice on Starmer’s controversial deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius sent to Mr Trump that was requested after the Reform UK leader raised the issue directly with the former president’s team.

The advice was drawn up by legal experts who worked alongside Mr Farage in the Brexit campaign.

Mr Farage says he was not directly involved in the legal advice but his links with Trump are believed to have played a vital part in the initiative.

The aim of Farage and his allies is to persuade Trump to block the deal if he becomes president.

Revealed: Farage-inspired plot to persuade Trump to veto Starmer deal

A growing number of Americans are concerned with Trump’s age, but still not as many who worried about Biden

13:00 , Alex Lang

An increasing number of Americans say Donald Trump is too old to be president — but not as many as when President Joe Biden faced similar concerns about his age over the summer.

A new poll from YouGov found that 44 percent said Trump, at age 78, is too old to lead the executive branch. That figure is up from 35 percent who said the same in a similar February survey.

Along the same lines, the number of people who said he’s not too old dropped from 53 percent in February to 46 percent in October.

Those figures are compared to President Biden, 81, who dropped out of the 2024 presidential campaign and endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. In a similar poll in February, 63 percent of respondents said Biden was too old to be president. That figure jumped to 70 percent in July.

A growing number of Americans are concerned with Trump’s age

Gracie Abrams and other music stars to join Harris-Walz in final swing state blitz before Election Day

12:30 , Andrew Feinberg

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are closing out October with a burst of travel that will see both candidates make appearances in all seven battleground states ahead of the November 5 presidential election.

The vice president’s travel streak includes a major speech in Washington, DC, one week before Election Day, at the same site where Donald Trump rallied the mob that broke into the Capitol on January 6.

Harris and her running-mate are set to barnstorm through the contested states for a series of rallies focused on getting out the vote and “harnessing the energy of these events to mobilize voters to go to the polls,” according to the Harris-Walz campaign.

Harris-Walz to rally with Gracie Abrams and other stars in final swing state blitz

Here’s the speaker list for Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally

12:00 , Mike Bedigan

The Trump campaign has sent out the speaker list for the former president’s Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden.

Doors are at noon, with the former president due to speak at around 5pm ET.

• Sen. JD Vance

• Speaker Mike Johnson

• Rep. Elise Stefanik

• Rep. Byron Donalds

• Tulsi Gabbard

• Rudy Giuliani

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

• Lara Trump

• Eric Trump

• Donald Trump Jr.

• Elon Musk

• Dan Scavino

• Stephen Miller

• Dana White

• Tucker Carlson

• Brooke Rollins

• Steve Witkoff

• Howard Lutnick

• Grant Cardone

• Sergio Gor

• Michael Harris Jr.

• Tiffany Justice

• Lee Greenwood

• Christopher Macchio

• Mary Millben

• Sid Rosenberg

• Kill Tony

• Scott Lobaido

• David Rem

A historic gender gap is emerging ahead of the election and will likely decide if Trump or Harris wins

11:40 , Chris Stevenson

With just over a week left before Election Day, a historic gender gap is emerging that may decide whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins the White House.

Recent national polling has noted that women decisively backed the vice president 53 percent to 36 over her Republican rival.

Read more here:

Historic gender gap will likely decide if Trump or Harris wins

Beyonce makes Kamala Harris endorsement Instagram official: ‘Time to sing a new song’

11:16 , Chris Stevenson

Michelle Obama: ‘We’ve got to do something’

10:47 , Chris Stevenson

Michelle Obama took to the stage yesterday at a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in her first appearance on the campaign trail alongside Kamala Harris.

“If we want to help this country finally turn the page on the politics of hatred and division we can’t just sit around and complain – no, we’ve got to do something,” the former first lady told the crowd.

Eric Adams urges people to ‘dial down temperature’ ahead of Trump’s MSG rally

10:00 , Mike Bedigan

Beleagured New York Mayor Eric Adams urged people to “dial down the temperature” ahead of Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Gardens on Sunday evening, and dismissed suggestions that the former president was a “fascist” and should not be allowed to hold an event at the venue.

“I had those terms hurled at me by some political leaders in the city, using terms like Hitler and fascists,” he told reporters on Saturday.

“I think, as I’ve [said] over and over again… I think we could all dial down the temperature, and I’ve heard people say that the former president should not be able to have a rally in Madison Square Garden. I strongly disagree.

“This is America, this is New York, and I think it’s important that we allow individuals to exercise their right to get their message clear, to New Yorkers, and our job as a city and as a police department is to make sure they can do that in a peaceful way. I think that we must be extremely cautious.

“The heat we turn up today, pre-election, is going to have to be the heat we’re going to have to govern in, and I think we need to show a level of respectable communication, and so when people called me fascist and other terminologies, I didn’t like it, and I don’t think it’s fitting to anyone to state that the former president is equal to being Hitler.”

Adams also emphaisized the effect of such remarks on New York’s large Jewish population in the conext of rising antisemtism across the US.

The mayor is currently facing a slew of federal criminal charges relating to corruption while in office.

Doors at Trump’s rally at MSG are scheduled to open at noon eastern time, with the former president set to speak at around 5pm.

ICYMI: Michelle Obama slams ‘predator’ Trump as she delivers bleak warning for reproductive health at Harris rally

09:00 , Mike Bedigan

Michelle Obama slammed Donald Trump as a “felon, slumlord” and a “predator” in a fiery speech in Michigan, where she delivered a stark warning for the future of reproductive rights in the US should the former president return to the White House.

In some of her most potent remarks on the campaign trail thus far, the former First Lady painted a sobering picture of the state of abortion rights and pregnancy care in the years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and revoked a constitutional right to abortion access.

Read more here:

Michelle Obama slams ‘predator’ Trump as she rallies with Kamala Harris

Watch: Michelle Obama begs ‘don’t hand fate to Trump’ over women’s rights

08:00 , Mike Bedigan

Trump promises to make McDonald’s ice cream machines ‘great again’

07:00 , Mike Bedigan

Donald Trump’s famous campaign slogan collided with his love of fast food as the former president promised to make McDonald’s ice cream machines “work great again.”

The former president took to his Truth Social platform on Saturday night with a post that played off a popular meme that the franchise’s desert-making equipment is frequently out of commission.

Read more here:

Trump promises to make McDonald’s ice cream machines ‘great again’

Threats of armed occupations and lone-wolf terrorism: what might happen if Trump loses

06:00 , Mike Bedigan

“So, we’re going to see what some of our witnesses saw on January 6th,” announces Rep Bennie Thompson, the US congressman tasked with chairing the House select committee hearing into the riots that followed the election of President Joe Biden almost four years ago.

Thompson’s voice is measured, calm – the direct opposite of what’s about to transpire in the video footage he’s just introduced. The first images show a huge crowd of people, some waving union, confederate and Trump flags, moving towards the Capitol building in Washington, DC. Then they begin breaking down barricades. There are shouts of “take the building” and “f*** you, police”. An officer calls for help on a phone line: “We are still taking metal, sharpened objects, missiles … bottles and rocks and hand-thrown chemical grade fireworks.”

Should the US brace for violent protests if Trump loses?

Watch: Trump claims Beyoncé ‘can’t fill arena but I can three times over’

05:00 , Mike Bedigan

Kamala Harris ramps up attacks on Trump as Election Day looms — after entering race with smiles and enthusiasm

04:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Kamala Harris is taking an increasingly dark turn in the final days of the election campaign after starting her journey as the Democratic nominee focusing on joy and enthusiasm.

Focusing on the threat former President Donald Trump would pose to democracy if elected, Harris took part in a CNN town hall on Wednesday night, where she told the audience that Trump is “going to sit there unstable, unhinged, plotting his revenge, plotting his retribution, creating an enemies list.”

Harris confirmed that she sees Trump as a “fascist” after his former Chief of Staff John Kelly made similar comments to The New York Times. The vice president also slammed the former president after Kelly said Trump suggested that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler did some good things.

Kamala Harris turns up negative attacks in days before election

Trump claims Harris rally-goers only came for Beyonce, and that singer didn’t know who VP was

03:30 , Mike Bedigan

At his own rally in Pennsylvania Donald Trump said that attendees of Kamala Harris’ rally in Houston on Friday had only gone to see Beyonce, and that the music superstar did not know who the vice president was.

“[Harris] had Beyonce because she can’t draw a crowd. See this crowd, this crowd is packed. I could sell it out three times.” he said. “And we don’t have Beyonce who couldn’t fill the arena last night.

“But the people went there because they thought they’re going to hear Beyonce sing, right? Beyonce got out and said, ‘Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to endorse her. What’s her name? What’s her name? What is her name again? Oh, I’m going to endorse her.’

“So what happened is the crowd came because they thought she was going to sing. Then she turned around, she left, and Kamala started speaking, and it was a disaster.”

Earlier at another rally held in Michigan, Trump claimed that people had “booed” Beyonce as she left the stage.

Video shows crowd emptying out as Trump speaks in Pennsylvania

03:00 , Mike Bedigan

Beyonce makes Kamala Harris endorsement Instagram official: ‘Time to sing a new song’

02:45 , Mike Bedigan

Michelle Obama blasts people holding Harris ‘to a higher standard than Trump’

02:30 , Mike Bedigan

Michelle Obama turned her anger towards Donald Trump, and those who held Kamala Harris to “a higher standard” than her opponent.

“Can someone tell me why we’re holding Kamala to a higher standard than her opponent?” she said.

“We expect her to be intelligent, articulate, have a clear set of policies, never show too much anger … But for Trump? We expect nothing at all. No understanding of policy, no ability to put together a coherent arguments.”

Trump has “no honor, no decency, no morals,” she added. ”People write off his “childish indecency as “Trump just being Trump.”“Rather than question his horrible behavior, some folks think he’s just funny.”

She added: “I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence, while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn.

“I hope that you’ll forgive me if I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to his erratic behavior, his obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon, a known slum lord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse.”

In pictures: Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania

02:00 , Mike Bedigan

New poll shows Harris and Trump tied as number of undecided voters shrinks

01:45 , Mike Bedigan

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are tied at 49 percent nationally as the number of undecided voters shrinks with just nine days left to Election Day, a new poll shows.

One percent are set to back a third-party or independent candidate with just one percent left undecided, according to Emerson College polling.

Gustaf Kilander has the full story:

New poll shows Harris and Trump tied as number of undecided voters shrinks

Watch: Michelle Obama expresses concern over indifference to Trump’s incompetence

01:30 , Mike Bedigan

Vance calls a woman who told a poll worker to ‘suck my ****’ a ‘patriot’

01:15 , Mike Bedigan

Harris shares a beer with Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer after rally with Michelle Obama

01:00 , Mike Bedigan

Trump says ‘Abortion has dropped way down as an issue’

01:45 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump took to Truth Social on Saturday to claim that “Abortion has dropped way down as an issue.”

He added: “States are already giving it to the PEOPLE to Vote, which is what everyone wanted. Like Ronald Reagan, I believe in the EXCEPTIONS for Rape, Incest, and the Life of the Mother.”

The former president went on to say, “Many States are already done, others are moving to a vote now. A 52 year contentious issue will finally be coming to a close. The focus now is on the broken Border, Inflation and the Economy!”

This comes after Kamala Harris held a rally in Houston, Texas on Friday focused on reproductive rights alongside Beyonce.

Michelle Obama slams ‘predator’ Trump as she delivers bleak warning for reproductive health at Harris rally

01:20 , Mike Bedigan

Michelle Obama slammed Donald Trump as a “felon, slumlord” and a “predator” in a fiery speech in Michigan, where she delivered a stark warning for the future of reproductive rights in the US should the former president return to the White House.

In some of her most potent remarks on the campaign trail thus far, the former First Lady painted a sobering picture of the state of abortion rights and pregnancy care in the years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade and revoked a constitutional right to abortion access.

Read more here:

Michelle Obama slams ‘predator’ Trump as she rallies with Kamala Harris

Trump claims Beyoncé was booed off stage at Harris rally

01:00 , Lucy Leeson

Donald Trump claimed Beyoncé was booed off stage at the Kamala Harris rally in Texas.

The former US president addressed the superstar’s support for his rival during his rally in Michigan on Saturday (26 October).

Trump said: “Last night my opponent had one of these and they got Beyoncé. You know, Beyoncé.

“So Beyoncé went up and spoke for a couple of minutes and then left. The place went crazy and booed the hell out of everybody. They thought she was going to perform.

The singer joined Harris onstage at a campaign rally in Houston, Texas on Friday (25 October), where she was joined by her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.

Eric Adams urges people to ‘dial down temperature’ ahead of Trump’s MSG rally

Sunday 27 October 2024 00:50 , Mike Bedigan

Beleagured New York Mayor Eric Adams urged people to “dial down the temperature” ahead of Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Gardens on Sunday, and dismissed suggestions that the former president was a “fascist” and should not be allowed to hold an event at the venue.

“I had those terms hurled at me by some political leaders in the city, using terms like Hitler and fascists,” he told reporters on Saturday.

“I think, as I’ve [said] over and over again… I think we could all dial down the temperature, and I’ve heard people say that the former president should not be able to have a rally in Madison Square Garden. I strongly disagree.

“This is America, this is New York, and I think it’s important that we allow individuals to exercise their right to get their message clear, to New Yorkers, and our job as a city and as a police department is to make sure they can do that in a peaceful way. I think that we must be extremely cautious.

“The heat we turn up today, pre-election, is going to have to be the heat we’re going to have to govern in, and I think we need to show a level of respectable communication, and so when people called me fascist and other terminologies, I didn’t like it, and I don’t think it’s fitting to anyone to state that the former president is equal to being Hitler.”

Adams also emphaisized the effect of such remarks on New York’s large Jewish population in the conext of rising antisemtism across the US.

The mayor is currently facing a slew of federal criminal charges relating to corruption while in office.

Images appear to show Pennsylvania rally-goers leaving while Trump is still speaking

Sunday 27 October 2024 00:40 , Mike Bedigan

VIDEO: Joe Rogan challenges Trump on 2020 Election claims

Sunday 27 October 2024 00:30 , Mike Bedigan

Trump says RFK Jr can do ‘whatever’ he wants on health in future Trump administration

Sunday 27 October 2024 00:20 , Mike Bedigan

Watch: Trump claims Beyoncé ‘can’t feel arena but I can three times over’

Sunday 27 October 2024 00:10 , Mike Bedigan

Trump claims that if re-elected he will ensure all McDonald’s ice cream machines ‘work great again’

Sunday 27 October 2024 00:00 , Mike Bedigan

In pictures: Trump rallies in Pennsylvania

Saturday 26 October 2024 23:50 , Mike Bedigan

Trump claims Harris rally-goers only came for Beyonce, and that singer didn’t know who VP was

Saturday 26 October 2024 23:40 , Mike Bedigan

At his own rally in Pennsylvania Donald Trump said that attendees of Kamala Harris’ rally in Houston on Friday had only gone to see Beyonce, and that the music superstar did not know who the vice president was.

“[Harris] had Beyonce because she can’t draw a crowd. See this crowd, this crowd is packed. I could sell it out three times.” he said. “And we don’t have Beyonce who couldn’t fill the arena last night.

“But the people went there because they thought they’re going to hear Beyonce sing, right? Beyonce got out and said, ‘Hello, ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to endorse her. What’s her name? What’s her name? What is her name again? Oh, I’m going to endorse her.’

“So what happened is the crowd came because they thought she was going to sing. Then she turned around, she left, and Kamala started speaking, and it was a disaster.”

Earlier at another rally held in Michigan, Trump claimed that people had “booed” Beyonce as she left the stage.

Harris blasts Trump’s overturning of Roe v Wade

Saturday 26 October 2024 23:30 , Mike Bedigan

Watch: Michelle Obama expresses concern over indifference to Trump’s incompetence

Saturday 26 October 2024 23:20 , Mike Bedigan

In pictures: Michelle Obama rallies for Harris in Michigan

Saturday 26 October 2024 23:10 , Mike Bedigan

Harris pushes back on Trump’s false claims about support for ending Roe v Wade

Saturday 26 October 2024 23:06 , Alex Woodward

Trump has repeatedly falsely stated that Americans have broadly supported the Supreme Court ending Roe v Wade and wanted instead to have individual states determine legal boundaries for abortion access.

“Donald Trump still refuses to even acknowledge the pain and suffering he has caused,” the vice president said in her remarks in Michigan.

“He insists that ‘everybody wanted Roe V. Wade to be overturned.’ Everybody wanted this? Women are being denied care during miscarriages,” she said. “Some only being treated once they develop sepsis? They didn’t want this.”

Harris thanks influential former GOP congressman who endorsed her

Saturday 26 October 2024 23:01 , Alex Woodward

Kamala Harris thanked former Republican congressman Fred Upton, who represented Kalamazoo, after his endorsement this week.

He offered his endorsement “because, as he put it, ours is the team that will bring people together, strengthen our economy, and get things done for the American people.”

More on Upton’s endorsement from The Independent’s Ariana Baio:

Ex-GOP rep backs Harris saying Trump is unfit to serve as commander in chief again

Michelle Obama describes common but terrifying scenarios in pregnancies gone wrong

Saturday 26 October 2024 23:00 , Mike Bedigan

During her remarks in Michigan, Michelle Obama gave a run down of various common but terrifying scenarios in pregnancies gone wrong.

“I don’t want to be a downer, y’all, but in many cases, there is no warning, and things go bad very quickly, and when it happens, every second of hesitation or delay can lead to devastating outcomes,” she said.

Adressing the male members of the audience directly, she added: “So are you, as men, prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children you love and tell them that you supported this assault on our safety.”

People who withhold their vote as they put Harris to a purity test are making women “collateral damage to your rage,” she said. “We are more than baby-making vessels.”

The former First Lady’s speech comes after Harris held a rally focused on women’s reproductive rights in Houston, Texas, along with music superstar Beyonce.

Kamala Harris briefly interrupted by Gaza demonstrator

Saturday 26 October 2024 22:55 , Alex Woodward

During her remarks in Kalamazoo, Harris was briefly interrupted by chants from an antiwar demonstrator.

“On the topic of Gaza, we must end that war,” she said. “We must the end that war, and bring in the hostages home.”

Earlier she told reporters that she spoke with President Joe Biden today in the wake of Israel strikes in Iran.

“We maintain the importance of supporting Israel’s right to defend itself. And we are also very adamant that we must see de-escalation in the region going forward, and that will be our focus,” she told reporters. “This war must end. We must get the hostages out and work toward a two-state solution, and we do believe strongly that as it relates to Lebanon and the region, that part of the strength of our work is the diplomatic work we will do to reach that end.”

On the administration’s Arab allies, she told the pool: “What I can say is that it is a consensus among leaders in the region, and certainly it is the strong perspective of the United States that there must be the escalation, and not an escalation of activities in that region.”

Obama tells crowds Trump has ‘dreamed openly about his own version of a purge’

Saturday 26 October 2024 22:50 , Mike Bedigan

Obama told crowds: “If you are a mother who has lost sleep, worrying if your son could be the victim of a nightmare traffic stop gone bad, if you’ve ever been out there marching and weeping for justice, who do you think is going to have your back?

“Is it Donald Trump, who wants to get a full page ad to demonize innocent young black teenagers in New York City, who has had a dream, openly, about his own version of a purge.”

Obama has ‘genuine’ fear for ‘our country’

Saturday 26 October 2024 22:30 , Mike Bedigan

Obama says she has a “genuine” fear for “our country,” “our children” and “what is coming our way if we forget the stakes of this election.

“Y’all know I hate politics, but I hate to see folks taken advantage of even more,” she told rally-goers in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

“I wanted to do everything in my power to remind the country that I love that there’s too much to stand to lose if we get this one wrong.”

Michelle Obama takes stage in Michigan to rally for Harris

Saturday 26 October 2024 22:20 , Mike Bedigan

Michelle Obama was greeted with screams as she took to the stage in Kalamazoo, Michigan, referring to the city as “Kamala-zoo.”

“We need all of you. Because right now, as you know, this race is close. It’s too close for my liking. And I came out here to Michigan because I am someone who takes her own advice to heart.

“I know that if we want to help this country finally turn the page on the politics of hatred and division, we can’t just sit around and complain. No, we’ve got to do something if we want to usher in the next generation of American leadership.”

Trump was “too scared” to debate Harris a second time, Obama told supporters. Harris is not “ducking” interviews like Trump is, she said.“She’s showing us what a sane, stable leader looks like,” she said. “She’s not losing her train of thought or stumbling over her words … That’s because Kamala Harris a grown up, and lord knows, we need a grown up in the White House.”

We fought for Roe and we’re fighting again: Meet the veteran activists battling for the right to choose

Saturday 26 October 2024 22:00 , Bel Trew, Julia Saqui, Sheila Flynn

It’s impossible to miss the massive wire coat hanger in the New York offices of Merle Hoffman’s reproductive rights clinic.

It stands out defiantly, like the now 78-year-old who commissioned it decades ago to show “this is what will happen” without legalized abortion, she tells The Independent’s documentary The A-Word – women will resort to dangerous and often fatal methods in the desperation to end pregnancies.

The oversized hanger has become Hoffman’s trademark at rallies and abortion-access events for more than 35 years – though she’d been lobbying on behalf of reproductive rights for far longer.

We fought for Roe. We’re still fighting: Meet the veteran activists

Biden slams Elon Musk for anti-immigrant stance following report of Tesla boss’ illegal work history

Saturday 26 October 2024 21:49 , Mike Bedigan

Joe Biden took aim at Elon Musk while speaking in Pennsylvania on Saturday, following a new report that Elon Musk began is career in the US working illegally.

“The wealthiest man in the world is now [Trump’s] ally, right? Well, that wealthiest man in the world turned out to be an illegal worker, when he was here, I’m serious,” Biden said.

“He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn’t in school. He was violating the law. And he’s talking about all these illegals coming our way?”

The president’s comments come following an investigation in The Washington Post. The outlet reports that the South African-born tech billionaire worked illegally in the US as he launched his entrepreneurial career after ditching a graduate studies program in California.

The Post report follows an examination of court records and company documents obtained by the outlet.