Harris calls Trump ‘the architect of this crisis’ for overturning Roe v WadeKamala Harris then recounted her meeting with Amber Nicole Thurman’s mother, who asked her not to forget who her daughter was:
Through the pain and the grief, her mother courageously told her story. I promised her, as she has asked, that we will make sure Amber is not just remembered as a statistic, that she will not just be remembered as a statistic, so that people will know she was a mother and a daughter and a sister, and that she was loved and that she should be alive today.
She drew applause by saying that, as president, she would stand with women elsewhere who were suffering the consequences of abortion bans:
It’s happening every day in our country, an untold number of people suffering, women, who are also being made to feel as though they did something wrong. The judgment factor here is outrageous, being made as though to feel as though they are criminals, as though they are alone. So to those women, to those families, I say on behalf of what I believe we all say: we see you, and you are not alone, and we are all here standing with you.
Harris added that by appointing the justices who overturned Roe v Wade, Trump created a public health crisis:
This is a healthcare crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of this crisis.
ShareUpdated at 21.48 CESTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureInterim summaryIf you’re just joining us now, here’s what’s happened in US politics today so far:

Georgia’s election board has voted to require that ballots be counted by hand, a move that could complicate and slow down determining whether the swing state has voted for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in the November election.

The Secret Service report looking into the 13 July assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump revealed that agents did not have the necessary discussions in advance regarding how the warehouse should be guarded, and about the positioning of a local team on the roof of the warehouse building.

Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe Jr said that recent events such as the attempted assassination in July and apparent attempted assassination of the former president on Sunday in Florida highlighted the need for a paradigm shift in the how the Secret Service protects public officials and said that the “threat level is evolving”.

The House unanimously approved allowing a bipartisan taskforce investigating the July assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump in Pennsylvania to also scrutinize the apparent second attempt on his life on Sunday in Florida.

Kamala Harris took the stage in Atlanta, where she decried the state’s abortion ban, which was recently tied to the death of a woman in 2022.

Harris condemned Donald Trump in her speech, recounting how he appointed three of the justices who would go on to vote for Roe v Wade’s downfall.

North Carolina’s Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, was still in the race for governor on Friday morning after the deadline passed overnight for him to withdraw or be removed from the ballot. He is facing increasing pressure to step down after CNN reported he attacked Martin Luther King Jr, backed the reinstatement of slavery and referred to himself as a “black Nazi” in comments on a pornographic website.

Donald Trump is due to visit North Carolina tomorrow. When asked about the CNN report by the Associated Press, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt did not mention Robinson by name or answer questions as to whether he would appear with Trump at tomorrow’s campaign rally in Wilmington, or had been invited to do so.

Donald Trump bemoaned a lack of support from Jewish voters just hours after allegations emerged that a Republican ally had referred to himself as a “black Nazi” on a pornography website.
ShareUpdated at 22.15 CESTBefore Harris wrapped up her speech, she said she believed Donald Trump would sign a national abortion ban, if elected.Trump has equivocated on whether or not he would do so, saying at the debate last week that he did not think any such legislation would get through Congress.Harris said:
The stakes are so high, because if he is elected again, I am certain he will sign a national abortion ban, which would outlaw abortion in every single state, and he would create a national anti-abortion coordinator. Look at Project 2025 – enforce states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions. It’s right there.
ShareHarris calls Trump ‘the architect of this crisis’ for overturning Roe v WadeKamala Harris then recounted her meeting with Amber Nicole Thurman’s mother, who asked her not to forget who her daughter was:
Through the pain and the grief, her mother courageously told her story. I promised her, as she has asked, that we will make sure Amber is not just remembered as a statistic, that she will not just be remembered as a statistic, so that people will know she was a mother and a daughter and a sister, and that she was loved and that she should be alive today.
She drew applause by saying that, as president, she would stand with women elsewhere who were suffering the consequences of abortion bans:
It’s happening every day in our country, an untold number of people suffering, women, who are also being made to feel as though they did something wrong. The judgment factor here is outrageous, being made as though to feel as though they are criminals, as though they are alone. So to those women, to those families, I say on behalf of what I believe we all say: we see you, and you are not alone, and we are all here standing with you.
Harris added that by appointing the justices who overturned Roe v Wade, Trump created a public health crisis:
This is a healthcare crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of this crisis.
ShareUpdated at 21.48 CESTHarris then began discussing the case of Amber Nicole Thurman, who ProPublica reported earlier this week died after being denied care due to the state’s abortion ban.“We will speak her name, Amber Nicole Thurman,” Harris said, as the crowd repeated her name back.The vice-president then made the case that Trump was responsible for her death:
When she discovered that she was pregnant, she decided she wanted to have an abortion. But because of the Trump abortion ban here in Georgia, she was forced to travel out of state to receive the healthcare that she needed, but when she returned to Georgia, she needed additional care, so she went to a hospital. But you see, under the Trump abortion ban, her doctors could have faced up to a decade in prison for providing Amber the care she needed. Understand what a law like this means: doctors have to wait until the patient is at death’s door before they take action.
ShareUpdated at 21.49 CESTHarris condemns ‘hypocrites’ who ban abortion while ignoring maternal healthKamala Harris said lawmakers who have moved to ban abortion in their states while ignoring the needs of mothers are “hypocrites”:
One in three women in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban. This includes Georgia and every state in the south except Virginia. Think about that, when you also combine that with what we know has been longstanding neglect around an issue like maternal mortality. Think about that, when you compound that with what has been longstanding neglect of women in communities with a lack of the adequate resources they need for healthcare, prenatal, during their pregnancy, postpartum. Think about that, and these hypocrites want to start talking about this is in the best interest of women and children?
As the crowd cheered, Harris said: “Well, where you been? Where you been when it comes to taking care of the women and children of America, where you been? How dare they?”ShareUpdated at 21.36 CESTHarris immediately hit out at Donald Trump, recounting how he appointed three of the justices who would go on to vote for Roe v Wade’s downfall, which paved the way for states like Georgia to enact bans on abortion.“We all know how we got here. When Donald Trump was president, he hand-selected three members of the United States supreme court, the court of Thurgood and RBG, with the intention that they would overturn the protections of Roe v Wade,” Harris said.She continued:
And as he intended, they did, and now more than 20 states have Trump abortion bans, extremists that have passed laws that criminalize healthcare providers, doctors and nurses, and punish women. In two of those states, they provide for prison for life – prison for life – for healthcare providers for simply providing reproductive care, the care they so earnestly and rightly believe must be delivered – all Trump abortion bans. And think about this: many of these bans make no exception, even for rape and incest.
ShareUpdated at 21.37 CESTHarris speaks in Georgia amid furor over abortion-related deathKamala Harris just took the stage in Atlanta, where she is expected to decry the state’s abortion ban, which was recently tied to the death of a woman in 2022, and Donald Trump’s support for the overturning of Roe v Wade.We may also hear from the vice-president about the election board’s rule change today that could slow down the vote-counting process in the battleground state.Here’s more about the death of Amber Nicole Thurman, which Harris blamed on Trump:SharePresidential election voting begins in three statesResidents of Virginia, South Dakota and Minnesota have hit the polls for early voting today, as the 2024 election gets underway.While the bulk of voters will cast ballots on 5 November, the three states are the first to open their polls, and more will follow throughout October, the Associated Press reports.Voters cast ballots today in Fairfax, Virginia. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPAIn the weeks to come, millions more Americans will cast absentee ballots by mail. Here’s more on that:ShareGeorge ChidiKevin Moncla, a prominent election denier, is holding court on the marble steps just outside the Georgia state board of elections hearing room at the state capitol.Moncla described how state election officials had given him the cold shoulder after the 2020 election. Moncla and fellow activist Joe Rossi filed a complaint alleging that Fulton county had covered up mass election fraud with multiple duplicate ballots, missing ballot images and missing documents.Applause from their supporters occasionally bleeds into the hearing room. Their backers from Georgians for Truth are wearing white T-shirts printed with the words “Paper Please.”Here’s more on Moncla:ShareUpdated at 20.50 CESTHouse votes to investigate second Trump assassination attemptThe House just unanimously approved allowing a bipartisan taskforce investigating the July assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump in Pennsylvania to also scrutinize the apparent second attempt on his life on Sunday in Florida.“There’s no leader in American history who has been attacked as aggressively as Donald Trump, and yet remained so strong and resilient,” the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, said in a statement after the vote.“Today, the House is rising to meet this historic moment by voting to formally expand the purview of the taskforce to include the second assassination attempt on his life. The American people deserve answers and accountability for the many security failures that have led to these events – and this Congress will deliver.”Earlier, the House unanimously approved the bipartisan Enhanced Presidential Security Act, which would establish universal standards for Secret Service protectees such as the president, former presidents and candidates for the White House, and require a comprehensive review of the agency’s current protection strategy.ShareUpdated at 20.33 CESTSecret Service acting director Ronald Rowe Jr said on Friday that recents events such as the attempted assassination in July and apparent attempted assassination of the former president on Sunday in Florida, highlighted the need for a paradigm shift in the how the Secret Service protects public officials and said that the “threat level is evolving.”Share