Key events
Maya Yang
Roger Stone, longtime ally of Donald Trump, has called for “armed guards” at polling spots in a leaked video.
The Guardian’s Alice Herman reports:
The longtime Donald Trump ally and friend Roger Stone said Republicans should send “armed guards” to the polls in November to ensure a Trump victory, according to video footage by an undercover journalist.
The video, first published by Rolling Stone, shows an embittered Stone, still angry about the 2020 election and ready to fight in 2024. Stone described the former US president’s legal strategy of constant litigation to purge voter rolls in swing states.
“We gotta fight it out on a state-by-state basis,” said Stone. “We’re already in court in Wisconsin, we’re already in court in Florida.”
When the journalist, posing as a member of a rightwing voter turnout organization, pressed Stone for details on efforts to make sure Trump wins in 2024, Stone told him that the campaign has to “be ready”.
For the full story, click here:
Maya Yang
Gwen Walz, the first lady of Minnesota and wife of governor Tim Walz, is set to hit the campaign trail in Pennsylvania to highlight the New Way Forward tour.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Harris-Walz campaign said:
“Next week, first lady of Minnesota Gwen Walz will travel to Pennsylvania to kick off a statewide New Way Forward tour highlighting vice-president Harris and Governor Walz’s vision for a New Way Forward that protects reproductive freedom and ensures every person has the opportunity to not just get by, but to get ahead.
In stark contrast, Donald Trump’s extreme Project 2025 agenda would raise costs by nearly $4,000 for Pennsylvania families, ban abortion nationwide and cut Social Security and Medicare. With voting under way across the state, Mrs. Walz will also encourage Pennsylvanians to vote early or return their mail ballot, today.
Mrs. Walz will begin her visit on Monday with campaign stops in Philadelphia’s collar counties. On Tuesday, she will begin a bus tour in Harrisburg and Altoona before concluding in Pittsburgh.”
Maya Yang
In response to a question on whether he will approve Donald Trump’s request to use military aircraft in the final stages of the presidential campaign, Joe Biden gave a tongue-in-cheek answer to reporters.
“As long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s,” Biden said before following up with, “No, I’m being facetious.”
Biden says administration will give Trump ‘all that he needs’ to campaign safely
Asked at the White House about a report that Donald Trump’s campaign has requested the use of military aircraft to keep him safe while campaigning, Joe Biden said that he has told his administration to give his predecessor “all that he needs”.
“I’ve told the department to give him every single thing he needs,” Biden said, adding that, when it comes to security, Trump should be treated “as [if] he were a sitting president. Give all that he needs, if it fits within that category, that’s fine. But if it doesn’t, he shouldn’t.”
Not matter who it is asking, JD Vance just will not admit publicly that Donald Trump lost in 2020.
Most notably, the Ohio senator and running mate to Trump would not do so at his debate with Tim Walz, instead giving what the Minnesota Democrat called “a damning non-answer”.
The latest to try and fail is New York Times interviewer Lulu Garcia-Navarro. You can see the result below:
The day so far
Donald Trump will later this afternoon press his anti-immigrant message in Aurora, Colorado, a Denver suburb that he and his allies claim, over the objections of local officials, has become more dangerous because of migrants. This morning, Tim Walz campaigned for working-class voters in battleground state Michigan and decried Trump for “manufacturing bullshit” about Detroit, which the former president had insulted to its face just the day before. Hillary Clinton was on SiriusXM warning Kamala Harris to watch out for an October surprise, while the Washington Post reports that Trump campaign has asked for military vehicles and aircraft to protect the former president from an assassination plot by Iran.
Here’s what else has happened today:
-
Joe Biden will on Sunday visit areas of Florida damaged by Hurricane Milton, the White House announced.
-
Harris slammed Trump for “playing political games” by spreading misinformation about the responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
-
The misinformation over the two storms has become so bad that meteorologists are facing threats.
Biden to visit Hurricane-ravaged areas of Florida
Joe Biden will travel to Florida on Sunday to visit areas damaged by Hurricane Milton, the White House announced.
The administration did not provide further details of his itinerary. Biden will visit the state as the Trump campaign attempts to sway voters with criticisms of his administration’s handling of Hurricane Milton, as well as the earlier Hurricane Helene.
We have a live blog covering the recovery from Hurricane Milton, and you can read it here:
Speaking of Iran, tensions remain high in Lebanon, while the wider Middle East braces for Israel’s retaliation against the salvo of missiles Tehran launched earlier this month.
We have a live blog covering all the latest news in the crisis, which you can watch here:
Fearing threat from Iran, Trump campaign requested military vehicles, aircraft for ex-president
Donald Trump’s campaign requested military vehicles and aircraft to transport and protect the former president, citing fears of an Iranian assassination plot, the Washington Post reports.
It is an unprecedented request to make, and it’s not clear what has been provided. The request came after suspects with no known connections to Iran tried twice in recent months to assassination the former president. While the Secret Service says it has stepped up its protection of Trump since then, the Post reports that his campaign does not feel their measures are sufficient, citing recent briefings that Iran is still seeking to assassinate him.
Here’s more:
Donald Trump’s campaign requested military aircraft for Trump to fly in during the final weeks of the campaign, expanded flight restrictions over his residences and rallies, ballistic glass pre-positioned in seven battleground states for the campaign’s use and an array of military vehicles to transport Trump, according to emails reviewed by The Washington Post and people familiar with the matter.
The requests are extraordinary and unprecedented — no nominee in recent history has been ferried around in military planes ahead of an election. But the requests came after Trump’s campaign advisers received briefings in which the government said Iran is still actively plotting to kill him, according to the emails reviewed by The Post and the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. Trump advisers have grown concerned about drones and missiles, according to the people.
In the emails over the past two weeks from campaign manager Susie Wiles to Ronald L. Rowe Jr., the head of the Secret Service, she expressed displeasure with the Secret Service and said the campaign recently had to cancel a public event at the last minute because of a “lack of personnel” from the Secret Service — instead only putting Trump in a small room with reporters. Wiles said Trump’s campaign is being hampered in its planning because of threats expects to hold far more events in the final weeks of the campaign.
She also wrote that the U.S. government has not been able to provide what the campaign views as an extensive enough plan to protect Trump. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), a Trump ally, also wrote a letter to the Secret Service asking for military aircraft or additional protection for Trump’s private plane, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by The Post.
Danielle Alvarez, a spokeswoman for Trump, declined to comment.
Secret Service officials did not answer specific questions about the discussions with the Trump campaign, but spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement that Trump is receiving “the highest levels of protection.” In a letter to the campaign, Rowe said the government is assessing what can be provided.
Hillary Clinton tells Harris: beware the October surprise
It’s a special time of year – the time when the October surprise comes.
The October surprise is a US election mainstay, and refers to the unexpected event or events that can happen in the final weeks before the election and upend the race, typically to one candidate’s advantage and the other’s disadvantage.
Hillary Clinton knows a thing or two about that. This time eight years ago, she was widely viewed as being in pole position to trounce Donald Trump. But on 28 October 2016, then-FBI director James Comey released a letter saying he was reopening an investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. There remains lots of debate over why Clinton went on to lose to Trump days later, but that letter is generally regarded as having a major impact on voters.
Fast forward eight years and no bombshell has yet emerged, 11 days into October. It should also be noted that there was no October surprise four years ago, when Joe Biden sent Trump packing. Nonetheless, Clinton was on SiriusXM today to warn Kamala Harris of the possibility a surprise could be coming. Here’s what she said:
I believe that despite how close it is, she will win and we can all then exhale and get about the business of trying to heal the divisions in our country … I believe strongly that she has to be prepared for any last-minute October surprises that come from the Trump campaign, from their Russian support system that has now been called out numerous times by our own government, that they once again are trying to help Trump get elected … She doesn’t have a Jim Comey, thankfully, waiting in the wings, you know, a knee-capper. But she does have the combined efforts of the Big Lie machine of Trump and the people who support him that she’s going to have to be prepared for. And of course now there’s the added factor of artificial intelligence, and how it can make you look like you’ve said things that you never said because it’s now so much more sophisticated.