Election 2024 Latest: With 1 week to go, Harris speaks in Washington as Trump stumps in Pennsylvania
Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her campaign’s “closing argument” Tuesday from the same spot in Washington where former President Donald Trump helped incite a mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
One week out from Election Day, Harris’ address from the grassy Ellipse near the White House is designed to encourage Americans to visualize their alternate futures if she or Trump takes over the Oval Office in less than three months.
Trump opened his remarks to reporters at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday morning by saying Harris is running on a “campaign of destruction” and “of absolute hate,” accusing her team of “perhaps even trying to destroy our country.” He headed to Pennsylvania later in the day for a Building America’s Future event in Drexel and a rally Tuesday night in Allentown.
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Here’s the latest:
Trump says the comedian who described Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage” probably shouldn’t have been at his Madison Square Garden rally.
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Asked by Fox News host Sean Hannity whether he wished Tony Hinchcliffe hadn’t been there, Trump said he did.
“Yeah, I mean I don’t know if it’s a big deal or not, but I don’t want anybody making nasty jokes or stupid jokes,” he said. “Probably he shouldn’t have been there, yeah.”
Trump, in the interview, also said repeatedly that “Puerto Ricans love me,” and that he has great relationships with Hispanics and people from Puerto Rico.
He says, “Every time I go outside, I see somebody from Puerto Rico, they give me a hug and a kiss.”
He added: “I have unbelievable good relationship with Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican people. Who this comedian was, I have no idea.”
Trump, in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, said he knows nothing about the comedian who made a series of racist and vulgar jokes at his Madison Square Garden rally Sunday night, but says, “I can’t imagine it’s a big deal.”
“I have no idea who he is,” Trump said of Tony Hinchcliffe, whose remarks that night have drawn condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike. “Somebody said there was a comedian that joked about Puerto Rico or something. And I have no idea who he is — never saw him, never heard of him. And don’t want to hear of him. But I have no idea.”
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.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio took the stage with Trump in Allentown to condemn some garbled remarks by President Joe Biden that appeared to call some of Trump’s supporters “garbage.”
Biden joined a Tuesday video call with the civic group Voto Latino and denounced comments that equated Puerto Rico to “an island of garbage” at a Sunday Trump rally at Madison Square Garden.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” the president said. “His- his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American.”
Rubio told the crowd that Biden was talking about “everyday Americans who love their country.”
“I hope their campaign is about to apologize for what Joe Biden just said. We are not garbage. We are patriots who love America,” Rubio said.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement that Biden was referring to the rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as “garbage,” not Trump supporters.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a high-profile Democrat backing Vice President Kamala Harris, says he would not call supporters of Republican nominee Donald Trump “garbage” as President Joe Biden did.
Speaking Tuesday on CNN, Shapiro was shown video of the comment Biden made earlier. He was asked for a response.
“I would never insult the good people of Pennsylvania or any Americans even if they chose to support a candidate that I didn’t support,” Shapiro replied.
He said he would leave it to Biden if the president wanted to clarify his words.
Michelle Obama took the stump Tuesday in Georgia, saying she was fighting not against Donald Trump but apathy.
The former first lady’s “When We All Vote” organization hosted a rally for more than 2,000 people at an arena in College Park, near Atlanta’s airport, in a slickly produced event that was was dominated by earnest pleas from a star-studded roster to vote.
Obama told attendees that “if you go out and get a crew together, you can decide who sits in the Oval Office.”
“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. But speakers drew freely on the civil rights history of the South, appealing to a Black voters’ sense of duty.
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 the shadow of the White House, seven days before the final votes of the 2024 election are cast, Kamala Harris vowed to put country over party and warned that Donald Trump is obsessed with revenge and his own personal interests.
Less than 48 hours earlier inside Madison Square Garden, Trump called his Democratic opponent “a trainwreck who has destroyed everything in her path.” His allies on stage labeled Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and said Harris, who would be the first woman to be president, had begun her career as a prostitute.
Two nights and 200 miles (320 kilometers) apart, the dueling closing arguments outlined in stark terms the choice U.S. voters face on Nov. 5 when they will weigh two very different visions of leadership and America’s future.
▶ Read more about Harris’ and Trump’s closing arguments
Trump’s campaign is responding to Harris’ speech, calling it 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,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt in a statement.
She notes Harris has been in office for nearly four years.
Benjamin Eiz, a Washington resident, says Harris’ speech was “powerful.”
The Venezuelan immigrant who got his citizenship two years ago will be able to vote in his first election next week. He said the portion of her speech about immigration was what resonated with him the most.
“She talked about how immigrants made America great.”
Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters Tuesday to “start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told” by rejecting former President Donald Trump.
Harris used the finale to her closing argument speech in Washington, D.C. to say voters are “not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators.”
“The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised,” Harris said. “In seven days, we have the power, each of you has the power, to turn the page, and start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told,” she added.
Harris attacked Trump’s competency on the international stage Tuesday, using her closing argument speech to question the former President’s ability to stand up to world leaders.
“World leaders think Trump is an easy mark,” Harris said, arguing that leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are “rooting for” Trump in this election.
Harris pledged to “restore” the abortion rights that were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I will fight to restore what Donald Trump and his hand-selected Supreme Court justices took away from the women of America,” Harris said.
The Supreme Court, with three Trump appointees, overturned federal protections of abortion in 2022. Abortion has since become one of the most motivating issues for the Democratic base in the 2024 election.
Harris said later in the speech that she would “proudly” sign a bill protecting abortion rights if Congress were to send her one as president.
Trump claimed during his rally in Allentown that the Harris campaign had bused people to Washington “because they couldn’t get anybody to show up there tonight.”
The Harris campaign touted that more than 75,000 people had gathered on the National Mall for Harris’ remarks tonight at the same venue where Trump spoke ahead of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Harris, speaking in front of the White House, both distanced herself from President Joe Biden and embraced her one-time running mate.
Harris said she has been honored to serve with Biden but she said she “will bring my own experiences and ideas to the Oval Office.”
“My presidency will be different because the challenges we face will be different,” Harris said.
Biden was in the White House behind Harris while she delivered her speech. Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee when Biden opted not to run for reelection in July.
President Joe Biden is reacting to a comic calling Puerto Rico garbage at a Trump rally last weekend by saying, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
He made the comment while joining a national call organized by the advocacy group “Voto Latino.” It immediately reminded some of then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton dismissing Trump supporters during a fundraiser in 2016 by saying that “half” fit into a “basket of deplorables.”
Biden also urged those listening on the call to “vote to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.”
“He’s a true danger to not just Latinos but to all people,” Biden said of Trump. “Particularly those who are in a minority in this country.”
Biden also praised Harris, who has been careful to criticize Trump but not his supporters, as she actively courts Republicans she hopes might cross over and vote for her.
Harris acknowledged one of the clearest critiques of her campaign on Tuesday, telling the audience that she understands “many of you are still getting to know who I am.”
Harris did not become the presumptive Democratic nominee for president until the summer, weeks after President Joe Biden decided not to run for reelection. That decision compressed the campaign timeline, denying Harris the months — and sometimes years — candidates usually have to introduce themselves to voters.
“I recognize this has not been a typical campaign,” Harris said, adding that she is “not afraid of tough fights against bad actors and powerful interests.”
“I will work every day to build consensus and reach compromise to get things done,” she said.
Harris deliberately tried to win over Republicans and former Trump supporters, telling the audience in Washington that “our democracy doesn’t require us to agree on everything.”
“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other,” she said. “That is who he is. But America, I am hear to tonight to say, that is not who we are.”
She added: “The fact that someone disagrees with us does not make us the enemy within.”
Tim Ramos, a former Allentown mayoral candidate, began his remarks by saying: “I’m a Puerto Rican man and I want to start by expressing my love for the island and people of Puerto Rico. ... We are a beautiful people from a beautiful island.”
He said Puerto Rican voters are “tired of empty promises, we’re tired of being told how to think, who to vote for,” and are dissatisfied with Biden-Harris economic and border policies. Puerto Rican voters need a leader who understands them, he said, and “Donald Trump is that leader.”
Puerto Rico’s shadow U.S. Sen. Zoraida Buxo also hit the Biden administration’s record on the economy and immigration, and she urged Puerto Rican and Hispanic voters broadly to “stay focused on what is truly important when you go to cast your vote. We need change.”
She added: “It’s easy to get distracted or misled by propaganda, emotional manipulation, and distortion of the truth and facts.”
The territory’s shadow representatives advocate for Puerto Rico but do not vote or hold seats in Washington.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, meanwhile, delivered some of his remarks in Spanish.
Harris opened her speech in Washington by setting the stakes of next week’s general election.
“One week from today, you will have the chance to make a decision that directly impacts your life, the life of your family and the future of this country we love,” Harris said. “And it will probably be the most important vote you ever cast.”
The backdrop to Harris’ closing argument speech on Tuesday will be the office she hopes to hold: The White House.
The event is thick with symbolism. Held on The Ellipse, the park just south of the White House, the event will represent Harris’ clearest attempt to show why she deserves to be the person sitting in the Oval Office next year. The site of the speech also harkens back to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol: It is where Trump gave a speech filled with lies about the election immediately beforehand.
Harris specifically mentioned in interviews before her remarks on Tuesday that the backdrop was picked to help voters envision having her in the Oval Office instead of Trump.
People attending the event have been standing in line for hours and are now waiting for Harris to take the stage. The back of the stage is lined with American flags, and large signs that read “Freedom” in block letters flank the set-up.
Pennsylvania farmer Bob Lang, a two-time voter for Trump, explained on Tuesday how the former president lost his vote and why people who once backed the Republican should vote for Harris in 2024.
“We deserve better; it is time to turn the page,” Lang said at Harris’ closing argument event in Washington in the Ellipse Park just south of the White House.
“There is more at stake in this election than in any other election in my lifetime,” he added.
Lang, who spoke at a recent Harris event in Pennsylvania, spoke with his wife, Kristina Lang, who said both she and her husband were “proudly” voting for Harris. She voted for Trump in 2016 but not in 2020.
“Never in a million years did I think that I would be up on stage like this, supporting a Democrat for president,” she said. “But enough is enough.”
Vice President Kamala Harris will spend election night at her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss her campaign’s plans.
If elected, Harris would be the first graduate of a historically Black university to occupy the Oval Office.
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Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller contributed.
Nikki Haley said Tuesday night during an appearance on Fox News Channel that she last spoke to the GOP nominee “back in June.”
Host Bret Baier asked the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador about Associated Press reporting from Monday that the Trump campaign had not reached out to Haley to stump for him. She was the last remaining Republican challenging Trump for this year‘s nomination when she shuttered her campaign following the Super Tuesday contests.
Haley had been a last-minute addition to the RNC speaking schedule and was not invited to speak until after the assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally in July.
She said Tuesday that she still supports Trump but also had criticism for some of the “overly masculine” tenor of his campaign that she earned could alienate women voters.
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This item has been updated to correct the name of a Fox News Channel host, who is Bret Baier, not Brett Baier.
Across Constitution Avenue from the Ellipse, crowds continued waiting patiently and discussing alternatives for viewing or listening to Harris if they could not get into the venue.
Kathleen Nicholas, 36, a government relations worker in Washington, said she loved the difference in the crowd and atmosphere compared with those of Jan. 6, 2021.
“Having something that is a direct contrast to that day is what we needed.”
Nila Jeya Pirya, a 21 year-old student from Texas wearing a keffiyeh, was holding a sign protesting the Israel-Hamas war in front of people waiting in line to get into the Harris rally in Washington.
Pirya, a former Democrat, plans to vote third party due to the ongoing situation in the Gaza Strip.
“We will always be outnumbered, but we can’t be complacent and need to have an arms embargo.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday that the most illuminating moment from his debate against Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance went against the advice his team had given him going into the debate.
Walz, near the end of his meeting with Vance, turned to the Ohio senator and asked him, point blank, if former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election, a lie many Republicans continue to repeat. When Vance would not answer, the Democratic vice presidential nominee said, “That is a damning non-answer.”
Speaking on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, a popular sports and culture podcast, Walz said, “My team was very clear to me: They said don’t ask a direct question because you don’t know the answer, it puts you in a bad spot in a debate. And of course, me, I disregarded.”
Walz later added: “I was kinda speaking to 340 million people, I think he might have been speaking to 1, so that is a little more challenging.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, speaking to reporters ahead of the Allentown rally, acknowledged that it “probably, in hindsight, wasn’t a good idea to have an insult comedian speak at a rally.”
But Rubio said the Trump campaign has already distanced itself from Hinchcliffe — and that ultimately it’s not going to matter to Hispanic voters.
“What does that have to do with the cost of living? What does it have to do with the fact that runaway illegal immigration is bringing criminals into our country that are terrorizing Hispanic neighborhoods?” he said. “I get the activists are going to make their noise, but that’s what’s really going to matter here. That’s what we’re going to focus on. Not an insult comedian.”
Outside the arena where Trump will speak in Allentown, Ivet Figueroa, 61, carried a pink sign with a small trash can attached. “Trash Trump” was written on the can, while the sign said: “Nov. 5 is trash day. Let’s put you where you belong!!”
Figueroa, who was born in New York but whose parents came from Puerto Rico, said she was appalled by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments.
“It was devastating. I’m a Puerto Rican. How do you say that my country is trash?” said Figueroa, a clerk.
“It’s not trash,” she said. “It’s a beautiful country. And the person who said it was vetted by him. So that’s what he allowed, so he has to take responsibility for what he said. Now it’s too late for saying sorry. I don’t want an apology, I want justice, and justice is on Nov. 5.”
Figueroa said the joke is “definitely” going to lose Trump votes in Allentown’s Puerto Rican community. She said she knows people who plan to switch their votes to Harris.
“They’re disgusted by it, and they’re going to let him know that Puerto Rico is not a trash country,” she said.
Harris declined to outright call Trump a fascist in an interview with WISN 12 News on Tuesday, instead calling her Republican opponent “dangerous and unfit” for the presidency.
“I have said what I have to say, which is he is dangerous and unfit and increasingly unstable and unhinged,” Harris said after reporter Matt Smith asked her multiple times if she planned to call Trump a fascist in her closing argument speech on Tuesday night. “And the American people deserve better.”
Harris did call Trump a fascist during a recent town hall on CNN. She was asked during the event if she thought he met the moniker and she said, “Yes, I do.”
A Puerto Rican woman participating in a Philadelphia-area roundtable with Trump made a slight reference to the comment made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at the Madison Square Garden rally Sunday calling the island a “floating island of garbage.”
“I want you to know that Puerto Rico stands behind you,” said Maribel Valdez.
Trump did not say anything about the comedian’s remarks but bragged about his record with Puerto Rico.
Trump’s efforts to help the island territory recover after devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017 have been persistently criticized. His administration released $13 billion in assistance years later, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
Candace Clark, a Maryland resident born and raised in Washington D.C. has been waiting in line since 3 p.m.
She said she’s attending the rally because she supports Kamala Harris and “all that vitriol with Trump needs to end.” Clark and her husband have already voted early in Maryland.
Melanie Johnson, 64, associate of director of membership for the National Healthcare Association, said the Kamala Harris’ rally in Washington is the chance to experience history and together “save democracy. We’re saving our legacy and our freedom.”
Johnson, a resident of Montgomery County, Maryland, said the election is critical.
She said that Trump “tells you everyday, every time he opens his mouth, who he is. It’s hard to understand how anybody from a marginalized community can support him.”
The Supreme Court is rejecting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to get off the ballot in two swing states: Michigan and Wisconsin.
Kennedy has removed his name from ballots in the other battleground states since dropping his independent presidential bid and endorsing Trump. Third parties could be pivotal in the tight race.
He’s also been trying to do the opposite and get on the ballot in states where his candidacy isn’t expected to make a difference. The Supreme Court rejected his bid to get his name on the New York ballot last month.
Some of the most prominent Puerto Rican male musical artists came out in support of Vice President Kamala Harris days after a comedian disparaged their home territory as “an island of garbage.”
Reggaeton stars Daddy Yankee and Don Omar have endorsed Harris. Latin megastar Bad Bunny came out in support of the vice president shortly after the Sunday Trump rally.
Singer Farruko published a video condemning the remarks comparing the island territory to trash. Other Puerto Rican stars like Jennifer Lopez have announced they will campaign with Harris as the election nears.
Trump had previously touted endorsements from Puerto Rican musical artists Anuel AA and Nicky Jam in a play for Latino voters. Neither artist has commented on the recent controversy, and Nicky Jam quietly deleted a pro-Trump post after facing backlash from fellow Latin artists.
Hector Avila, 57, a Trump supporter in Allentown whose parents came from Puerto Rico, said the joke comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made at a Sunday Trump that was disparaging to the island “was wrong,” but would not affect his support.
“I didn’t agree with the comment, but I don’t listen to it,” said Avila, who wore a baseball cap with the Puerto Rican flag as he waved a U.S. flag. “Because Trump’s not like that. He’s there for everybody, for Americans.”
He said his family remains supportive of the former president, too.
Vice President Kamala Harris will be joined by Jennifer Lopez on Thursday at a rally in Nevada, the Democrat’s campaign announced on Tuesday.
The event is part of the “When We Vote We Win” concert series, which has taken Harris across the country alongside top musical artists as the campaign urges its supporters to vote early.
Maná, a Mexican pop rock band originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, will perform at the event, while Lopez will speak.
Harris has leaned heavily on celebrities and performers in the final days of her campaigning, headlining events with Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce and Maggie Rogers, among other top names. The event on Thursday comes days before early voting in Nevada ends on Nov. 1.
Ruth Chiari, 78, and Phil Wurtz, 70, took a train from Charlottesville, Virginia, to attend Kamala Harris’ speech in Washington as the line ran from south of Constitution Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue then turned and ran in front of the Treasury Department.
The couple, who have been married 38 years, said they were excited to be attending the rally.
“We’re witnessing 21st Century history,” Wurtz said. Chiari said she came “to support democracy.”
She looked at the line and said, “I think everybody understands what’s on the ballot. We’re either going to have an autocrat or freedom.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, delivering a speech Tuesday at The Ellipse in Washington, D.C., will promise to “put country above party and above self,” according to excerpts of the remarks provided by the Democrat’s campaign.
Harris will call Donald Trump “unstable,” “obsessed with revenge” and “consumed by grievance,” according to the provided remarks, using a speech her campaign has touted as a closing argument against the former president.
“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That’s who he is,” Harris plans to say. “But America, I am here tonight to say: that’s not who we are.”
She will add: “America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind. More chaos. More division. And policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else. I offer a different path. And I ask for your vote.”
Harris will then pledge “to seek common ground and common sense solutions,” and “to listen to experts.”
Robert Johnson, 60, said he was excited to go to Kamala Harris’ Washington rally and was telling others they needed to vote. A retiree from the district, he said the election was as much about who the former president is and who Vice President Kamala Harris is not.
“She’s not a convicted felon. She never staged a coup. She never gave away national secrets,” he said. “She has been a city prosecutor, a state attorney general, a US senator and the vice president.”
Johnson said men who have issues with female leaders need to look at her qualifications against Trump.
“She is definitely more qualified,” he added.
Johnson, who is Black, said another Trump presidency would negatively impact minorities and the poor.
WASHINGTON — Walking over to the rally in downtown Washington, D.C., Rev. Dr. Daryl Ferman was with a few friends, wearing a Harris 2024 teeshirt.
He said is attending because he wanted to feel the energy of the event.
“I don’t trust Trump and his friends and I don’t trust the polling that says the race is neck and neck,” the 69-year-old district resident said. “I’m excited about the historical aspect of the race, that a woman and a woman of color could be president.”
He thinks more than 30,000 will show up for the rally.
President Joe Biden says he’s not attending Harris’ closing argument speech near the White House because the event is “for her.”
Biden said he’ll be watching as Harris speaks Tuesday night at the Ellipse, the same site where Trump made a speech that helped incite the mob that subsequently attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The president’s comments came as he was campaigning with Democratic Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott at Bmore Licks, an ice cream shop in Baltimore.
Biden also told reporters that he was “concerned” about North Korean troops being sent to Russia to likely join the war in Ukraine.
Asked if Ukraine should respond militarily, Biden said, “If they cross into Ukraine, yes.”
As he grapples with the fallout from his Madison Square Garden rally, Donald Trump will be joined in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Tuesday night by Puerto Rico’s shadow U.S. Senator Zoraida Buxo.
That’s according to a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.
Buxo had previously said on the social platform X that offensive comments made by a comedian comparing the island to “garbage” did not represent Trump or his campaign, and also called Trump the leader Puerto Rico needs.
The territory’s shadow representatives advocate for Puerto Rico but do not vote or hold seats in Washington.
—Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
Latin superstar Bad Bunny reposted his 2021 video that showcased the natural beauty of Puerto Rico’s beaches, forests and culture alongside images of famous artists, athletes and other Puerto Rican icons.
The reposted video was simply captioned “garbage,” an apparent reference to racist and crude comments made by Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian, at a Sunday Trump rally that disparaged the island.
Bad Bunny is a global pop icon and is widely listened to by younger and Hispanic Americans. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris alongside other Puerto Rican superstars Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin shortly after the comedian’s remarks.
Hinchcliffe’s comments outraged many residents of the island and sent shockwaves through the island’s diaspora on the mainland. Those remarks and others delivered throughout the Madison Square Garden rally were widely condemned by opponents.
This presidential election, the first since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, will be a stress test of the new systems and guardrails that Congress put in place to ensure America’s long tradition of the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
As Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris race toward the finish, pro-democracy advocates and elected officials are preparing for a volatile period in the aftermath of Election Day, as legal challenges are filed, bad actors spread misinformation and voters wait for Congress to affirm the results.
“One of the unusual characteristics of this election is that so much of the potential danger and so many of the attacks on the election system are focused on the post-election period,” said Wendy Weiser, vice president for democracy at the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice.
▶ Read more about how Congress has shored up the process
The Ellipse, where Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver her closing message against former President Donald Trump, is a grassy park between the White House and the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.
The area, which is administered by the National Park Service, has long played host to a range of political events and national traditions. Most recently, it was where then-President Trump delivered a lie-filled speech on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly before hundreds stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress met to certify to 2020 election.
While the White House is often the backdrop for events on the Ellipse, expressly political events are allowed in the park, unlike at the White House.
The park was first developed in the 1850s and was part of landscape architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s plans for the nation’s capital. However, its development was cut short by a lack of funds and the Civil War, according to the National Park Service. During the conflict, soldiers were housed on the site, and the area had also been used as horse pens, a slaughterhouse and a trash dump, according to the Park Service.
Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver what her campaign is touting as her closing argument against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
But the event, a large gathering on the Ellipse park just south of the White House, will be far from her last rally.
Harris is slated to crisscross the country in the final days of the campaign, hitting all key battleground states as she makes her last pitch to voters.
Harris’ campaign has crafted the Tuesday event as both a physical and rhetorical counter to Trump.
She will urge voters to “turn the page” toward a new era and away from Trump, lambasting both the kind of rhetoric Trump has used and what it would mean to give him four more years as president. Physically, Harris will be standing in the same park where Trump delivered a lie-filled speech on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly before hundreds stormed the Capitol as Congress met to certify to 2020 election.
Harris’ campaign chair says early voting returns in key states suggest the vice president’s supporters are turning out in numbers she needs to win.
In an online video running nearly three and a half minutes, Jen O’Malley Dillon says a lot of Republican-leaning voters were voting early in strong numbers as well — but those tended to be folks who would have otherwise voted on Election Day.
By contrast, she said, the Harris campaign believes low-propensity voters are breaking for the vice president.
O’Malley Dillion said the campaign’s polling shows that late-breaking undecided voters “are more open to supporting” Harris if they find out “more information” about her in the campaign’s closing days.
“It’s OK to be worried,” before Election Day, she said, but added, “We are on track to win a very close election.”
Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon has released a video telling supporters, “Why you don’t have to feel anxious and you can feel good” about next week’s election.
As the campaign has been arguing for months, O’Malley Dillon says Harris has “multiple pathways” to get to the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the White House.
She said seven states remain in play — the “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.
O’Malley Dillon said that, rather than conceding any of those, as sometimes happens late in races, Harris is still campaigning hard in all of them because “this truly is a margin of error race.”
The elections department in Florida’s largest county confirmed Tuesday that a sealed bin and a sealed bag had been found by a driver and the ballots inside had already been scanned and tabulated at an early voting site on Monday, according to reporting by the Miami Herald.
A county employee forgot to lock the back of a truck and the containers fell out when they drove off, according to county elections supervisor Christina White, who said election workers confirmed nothing was damaged or tampered with.
A video posted by the popular South Florida social media account Only in Dade shows a passing driver apparently stopping to pick up the containers labeled with county barcodes and drive them to a police station.
The employee driving the truck has since been fired.
The vice president’s team says her campaign is the first to advertise on the entertainment venue, which opened in 2023.
The exterior of the Sphere features a rotating series of messages encouraging people to vote for Harris and running mate Tim Walz by Election Day, Nov. 5. The messages include her slogan, “When we fight, we win,” and other phrases.
Nevada is among the handful of battleground states that the Democrat and Republican rival Donald Trump are trying hard to win.
Harris’ team says the Sphere advertising is a “critical piece” of their efforts in Nevada, which also include taking over the homepages of top newspapers and mobile billboards in Reno, Carson City and Las Vegas.
Harris is scheduled to campaign in Reno and Las Vegas on Thursday.
While he didn’t mention a comedian’s controversial remarks about Puerto Rico, Trump expounded at length about his Madison Square Garden rally, which he called a “lovefest,” a term he has also used to reference the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
At Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, Trump noted “there’s never been an event so beautiful” as the Sunday night rally in his hometown of New York City. Trump called it “terrible to say,” as some of his critics have pointed out, that the same arena was host to a gathering of Nazis in 1939.
More than 20,000 people attended a Feb. 20, 1939 rally at the Garden organized by the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi group that hung swastikas alongside a huge portrait of George Washington.
Several of the speakers on Sunday referenced that event, including former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, who said, “I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
“Nobody’s ever had love like that,” Trump said of the hourslong Sunday event that featured speakers including some of his children, wife Melania and high-level surrogates and supporters including TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “It was really love for our country.”
Trump has yet to address the controversy, also not mentioning it during his appearances in Georgia on Monday. On Tuesday, he did reference the event overall, calling it “an absolute lovefest” in his hometown.
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during the Sunday event at Madison Square Garden. His remark has drawn wide condemnation and highlighted the rising power of a key Latino group in the swing state of Pennsylvania. He also made demeaning jokes about Black people, other Latinos, Palestinians and Jews during his routine before Trump’s appearance.
The Harris campaign has released an ad that will run online in battleground states targeting Puerto Rican voters and highlighting the comedian’s remarks.
The comments landed Harris a show of support from Puerto Rican music star Bad Bunny and prompted reactions from Republicans in Florida and Puerto Rico.
The president of Puerto Rico’s Republican Party, Ángel Cintrón, rejected the comments of a comedian at a Trump rally in New York where he called the U.S. territory “a floating island of garbage.”
Cintrón said the “poor attempt at comedy” by Tony Hinchcliffe on Sunday was “disgraceful, ignorant and totally reprehensible.”
“There is no room for absurd and racist comments like that. They do not represent the conservative values of republicanism anywhere in our nation,” Cintrón said in a statement.
He noted that there are 3 million U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico and nearly 6 million in the U.S. mainland.
“Whether we are Republicans or Democrats, we are American and Puerto Rican citizens proud of our roots and incalculable contributions to American democracy for more than one hundred years,” Cintrón said.
A week away from the end of voting in the general election, Trump is reflecting on his presidential run, saying, “We’ve had a great campaign” and predicting that Harris will have to go home and “get herself a job someplace, who knows.”
Tammy Nobles talked about the death of her daughter, saying the perpetrator was an MS-13 gang member in the country illegally.
Michael Koppy, owner of Go Green Dry Cleaners, talked about how he has had to help other small businesses unable to keep up with inflation and rising costs.
Christy Shamblin, whose daughter-in-law Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee was killed during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, said Donald Trump “demonstrates peace through strength.”
Saying that the economy under Harris’ time in office has caused destruction, Trump said that any boon was “fake.”
He then cited “one of the most respected people on Wall Street” as saying that “the economy is only good” because “people think Trump is going to get elected.”
As he has many times along the campaign trail, Trump is decrying federal authorities for dropping plane-loads of migrants “all over the Midwest,” mentioning Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio.
Saying he was announcing the intent “for the first time,” Trump said that as president he would be “seizing the assets of the criminal gangs and drug cartels,” and using those assets “to create a compensation fund to provide restitution for the victims of migrant crime.”
Immigration reform — and blaming Democrats for issues caused by an influx of immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border — has long been Trump’s signature campaign issue, and a week out from Election Day, he is sticking to that.
Saying that “we talk about inflation and the economy,” Trump added, “To me, there’s nothing more important than the fabric of our country being destroyed,” calling the border “the single biggest issue.”
Trump is playing a video featuring comments from the mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old Texas girl who was found dead in a creek not far from her home.
Police charged two Venezuelan men who had entered the U.S. illegally with the girl’s murder.
Alexis Nungaray said that her daughter is “six feet in the ground based off of” Harris’ decisions and called for Trump’s reelection.
Trump accused Harris of not caring about the impact of her actions in what he called her “campaign of absolute hate,” saying that she intends to “keep this misery going, and she’s going to keep it going for as long as she can.”
Trump alleged that Harris “keeps talking about Hitler and Nazis because her record is horrible.”
Trump said that the “three great people” on stage with him would share their own stories about “how their lives have been shattered” by Harris’ policies.
The GOP nominee said his Democratic rival, now Harris, is running on a “campaign of destruction” and “of absolute hate,” accusing her team of “perhaps even trying to destroy our country.”
Trump again said Democrats “stole the presidency of the United States” by ousting Biden from their ticket this year.
As he spoke, Trump was flanked on stage by three people, none of whom he has identified thus far.
Supporters cheered his name and raised cellphones in the air as he walked into the room, exactly one week before Election Day.
Two days ahead of Halloween, the former president walked out just after the playing of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which has become a staple at many of his campaign rallies.
Trump began his remarks by saying that things are “going very well” but noted some “bad spots in Pennsylvania where some serious things have been caught or are in the process of being caught.”
Reading from paper on the podium in front of him, Trump began by criticizing Kamala Harris, saying she “has obliterated our borders” and has “caused so much destruction and death at home and abroad.”
Elon Musk’s super political action committee created an ad attacking Vice President Kamala Harris that includes multiple references to a vulgarity often used to demean women before calling her a “communist.”
The 35-second video from America PAC begins with a warning that it “contains multiple instances of the C-word.”
Calling Harris “a big ole C-word,” a narrator describes the Democratic nominee as a “tax-hiking, regulation-loving, gun-grabbing communist,” over images of her, as well as an illustration of a cat in a Soviet-style military uniform.
Musk endorsed Trump earlier this year and has appeared both at his rallies and at his own pro-Trump events throughout the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Both Musk and Trump have repeatedly referenced Harris as “Comrade Kamala,” implying that as president she would seek to implement socialist policies in the U.S.
The post is getting attention as Trump and his allies use increasingly inflammatory language in the final stretch of the campaign. Trump has repeatedly ridiculed Harris, at one point calling her “mentally impaired.” He has referred to CNN’s Anderson Cooper with a woman’s name, evoking the trope of gay men as effeminate. A Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday featured multiple crude and racist jokes, including one from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
A spokesperson for the PAC declined to comment on the video.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The archbishop of Puerto Rico, Roberto O. González Nieves, has joined a long list of Puerto Ricans decrying the comments a comedian made at a Donald Trump rally on Sunday that disparaged the island.
González said in a letter that he was “dismayed and appalled” after hearing Tony Hinchcliffe say, “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
González called on Trump to disavow the comments, saying it was insufficient that his campaign issued a brief apology.
“It is important that you, personally, apologize for these comments,” González wrote.
The archbishop said that while he enjoys a good joke, humor has its limits.
“It should not insult or denigrate the dignity and sacredness of people,” he wrote. “These kinds of remarks should not be a part of the political discourse of a civilized society.”
Dozens of supporters, many clad in pro-Trump gear, stood near their seats and craned their necks to see if the GOP nominee and former president were about to enter an ornate Mar-a-Lago room set up for his remarks.
Several American flags and a screen with the words, “TRUMP WILL FIX IT!” were set up along the platform from which Trump was expected to speak.
A supporter of Trump who attended his event at Mar-a-Lago and heads the Republican Latino Club of Palm Beach said in Spanish it was important to clarify that the former president was not the one who made the crude comments about Puerto Rico.
“He is a comedian. He tries to be funny and says a lot of nonsense. The man is dumb. He has no clue about Puerto Rico and doesn’t know our culture. He screwed up. We have to forgive and let it go,” said Lydia Maldonado, who is Puerto Rican. “Our economy needs a change. Enough of this.”
The district said in a statement that schools will be closed “out of an abundance of caution” since the rally is “expected to bring large crowds, heavy traffic and potential disruptions that may impact the safety and security of our students and staff.”
Trump is due to speak at the PPL Center in downtown Allentown at 7 p.m. ET.
In a post on the social platform X, Rogan says the Democrat’s campaign offered a date for Tuesday for an hourlong conversation, but that he would have had to meet her on the road. Rogan said he feels strongly that the conversation is best when done in his studio in Austin, Texas.
He headlined the post: “!! Austin TX podcast or let her walk. Thoughts?”
Asked for comment, a Harris campaign official said they were willing to sit down with Rogan when Harris was in Texas last week, but Rogan couldn’t accommodate.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the campaign’s internal deliberations, said Rogan was offered the option of joining Harris on the road but that Rogan has insisted that the conversation be taped in Austin.
Trump sat down with Rogan for three hours last Friday in Texas.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who spent years working as a prosecutor, has spent her campaign for president laying out the case to voters for why she should be elected, a top aide said Tuesday.
Cedric Richmond says over the past three months Harris has given her opening statement and laid out evidence and the facts for voters.
On Tuesday, she’ll deliver a speech meant to sum it all up.
“She’ll make her closing argument directly to the American people — or the jury — and that’s who’s going to decide the outcome of this election,” he said. “And that’s how it should be.”
Richmond says the speech will be about the “clear choice voters are facing this election between Trump and his obsession with himself versus her new generation of leadership that is focused on the American people.”
Vice President Kamala Harris chose the area near the White House and Washington Monument to speak on Tuesday because “it’s a reminder of the gravity of the job,” her campaign chairwoman says.
Campaign leader Jen O’Malley Dillon says the location, where Donald Trump helped incite a violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021, is a visual reminder of how much a president can do for good — or for ill.
It’s a “stark visualization of probably the most infamous example of Donald Trump and how he’s used his power for bad,” she said.
But Harris won’t spend a lot of time rehashing the violence of that day or recounting Trump’s continued efforts to lie about the election and sow doubt over voting. O’Malley Dillon says Harris will focus on talking about what her generation of leadership “really means,” and how much she will work to shape the country and impact people’s lives for the better.
Vice President Kamala Harris is doing five interviews Tuesday, including one with a Spanish-language radio in Pennsylvania aimed at Latino voters, in particular Puerto Ricans.
The interviews come after a comic at Donald Trump’s rally on Sunday made racist and vile jokes that singled out Puerto Ricans among other groups. Trump did not denounce the racist jokes. But he claimed he didn’t know the comic who gave a live performance at the venue before the Republican nominee took the stage.
Harris is also doing interviews in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. That’s before she gives a speech in Washington later Tuesday where she’ll lay out her closing arguments.
Donald Trump said he doesn’t know the comic who made racist and vile jokes at his big Madison Square Garden rally. But he’s not denouncing the comments either.
“I don’t know him, someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump told ABC News in an interview Tuesday ahead of his remarks at Mar-a-Lago, according to the network.
The comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, had told a series of raunchy and crude jokes, including calling Puerto Rico an “island of floating garbage.”
The comments have drawn outrage from Puerto Rican leaders with just a week to go before the election.
In the interview, Trump also insisted he hadn’t heard Hinchcliffe’s comments, according to ABC. But, “When asked what he made of them, he did not take the opportunity to denounce them, repeating that he didn’t hear the comments.”
The former president has arrived at his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida. He is set to meet with reporters at 10 a.m. ET. It is unclear whether the Republican will take questions.
The Democratic presidential nominee commented during an interview with Charlamagne tha God, DJ Envy, and Loren LoRosa for “The Breakfast Club” that aired Tuesday morning.
Both newspapers announced last week that they will not make endorsements in the presidential contest between Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
Harris sought to tie the decisions to billionaires in “Donald Trump’s club.”
Both publications are owned by wealthy executives, Jeff Bezos at the Post and Patrick Soon-Shiong at the Times.
DEARBORN, Mich. — Bowls of labneh and platters of za’atar bread covered the tables in a Lebanese restaurant near Detroit, yet no one seemed to have much of an appetite.
On one side were Kamala Harris ’ top emissaries to the Arab American community. On the other were local leaders who were explaining — once again — why many in the community couldn’t vote for the vice president because of the war in Gaza.
“I love this country, but I’ll tell you, we have never been so disappointed in this country as we are now,” said Nabih H. Ayad, chairman of the Arab American Civil Rights League. “We wanted to give the Democratic Party the opportunity to do something, and they haven’t.”
“The one line we can’t cross,” Ayad said, “is genocide.”
▶ Read more on what Arab Americans are saying about the election
WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. — Rachel Weinberg calls herself a religious Jew first, then a proud American. She said she has only one choice for president: Donald Trump.
“I don’t like everything he says,” the 72-year-old retired preschool teacher from Michigan said after volunteer canvassers for the Republican Jewish Coalition knocked on her door Sunday. “But I vote for Israel. It is our life. I support Israel. Trump supports Israel with his mouth and his actions.”
Weinberg’s home in West Bloomfield, in vote-rich Oakland County, was among more than 20 that the Republican Jewish Coalition was visiting that morning. She has voted for Trump in previous elections as well.
The door-to-door outreach to Jewish voters with a history of backing Republicans is part of a new effort the group is undertaking this year in five presidential battleground states in hopes of boosting Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election.
▶ Read more about Republicans’ outreach to Jewish voters