Kamala Harris seeks to gain election edge over Donald Trump with media blitzKamala Harris has begun what has been described as a week-long media blitz with an appearance on Sunday night on the podcast Call Her Daddy.During the interview with Alex Cooper, Harris addressed topics including abortion, reproductive healthcare, housing and student debt relief.Harris said Trump’s repeated claim that Democrats support abortion “after birth” is a “lie”, and that it was insulting to claim that women in their ninth month of pregnancy are electing to have an abortion.She also rebuked Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who had suggested Harris “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble” because she doesn’t have children.“I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who are not aspiring to be humble,” Harris said, adding: “We have our family by blood and then we have our family by love. And I have both.”Harris said economic conditions hinder people having a family, and suggested her aim to build 3m new homes by the end of her first term would assist with that.Harris said: “I think that most Americans want leaders who understand that the measure of their strength is not based on who you beat down. The real measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.”Cooper has made a point of also asking Trump on to the show if he wants to appear.ShareUpdated at 14.26 CESTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureKamala Harris’s running mate Tim Walz is also doing his own media blitz.Her campaign says Walz will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight, and also do an interview with a major US podcast, though they did not say which one. An interview the Minnesota governor gave to 60 Minutes will also air this evening.He will campaign in Reno, Nevada and Arizona, on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, where will do interviews with local media and Hispanic outlets.ShareHarris plans interviews with Howard Stern, Stephen Colbert, The ViewKamala Harris’s media blitz will take her to New York City tomorrow, where the vice-president will appear on three high-profile programs with an eye towards boosting her candidacy ahead of the 5 November election.Harris plans to talk with Howard Stern, a one-time shock jock who has remade himself as an in-depth interviewer, her campaign said. Also on her itinerary is an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, whose host has long delighted in pointing out the absurdities of US politics, particularly on the right.Harris will finally appear on The View, much as Joe Biden did two weeks ago, and put her policies before the talkshow’s daytime viewership.ShareKamala Harris may be doing more media interviews in the final weeks before the 5 November election, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she is saying all that much.CBS this morning released a portion of her interview on their high-profile broadcast news staple, 60 Minutes. It shows Harris telling correspondent Bill Whitaker that she supports higher taxes on the wealthy (as does Joe Biden and most Democrats in Congress), but sidestepping a question on how she’ll get such a plan through Congress. From CBS:
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Well, one of the things is I’m gonna make sure that the richest among us who can afford it pay their fair share in taxes. It is not right that teachers and nurses and firefighters are paying a higher tax rate than billionaires and the biggest corporations.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: And I plan on making that fair.
BILL WHITAKER: But we’re dealing with the real world here.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: But the real world includes–
BILL WHITAKER: How are you gonna get this through Congress?
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: You know, when you talk quietly with a lot of folks in Congress, they know exactly what I’m talking about ‘cause their constituents know exactly what I’m talking about. Their constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses.
Whitaker is getting at a real issue of concern for Democrats. While they may be able to claw back the majority in the House of Representatives from the GOP in November, their ability to maintain control of the Senate hinges on the re-election of two senators from red states, a tough task that they may not be able to pull off. Should they fail but Harris take the White House, she would be the first president since 1989 to be inaugurated without her party in control of Congress, and in this era of heightened partisanship, that may prove fatal for her prospects of passing any significant legislation in the first two years of her term.Perhaps Harris will elaborate on what she would do in this situation when the full 60 Minutes interview airs tonight at 8pm.ShareHouse speaker Mike Johnson raised eyebrows yesterday when in an interview on ABC News he described being asked what the result of the last presidential election was as a “gotcha game”.ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Johnson if he could say “unequivocally that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Trump lost”.Johnson would only reply “this is the game that is always played by mainstream media with mainstream Republicans. It’s a gotcha game. We’re not going to talk about what happened in 2020. I’m not going to engage in it. We’re not talking about that. I’m not going to play the game.”ShareUpdated at 14.48 CESTBiden, Harris and Trump to mark 7 October anniversaryJoe Biden and Kamala Harris are among the global leaders commemorating the anniversary of the 7 October attack in Israel today, as is Donald Trump.At 11.45am ET, the president will hold a ceremony at the White House, where he’ll conduct a yahrzeit candle lighting alongside an unnamed rabbi. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will at 4pm plant a tree on the grounds of the vice-president’s residence in honor of the lives lost in the attack. Harris will also give a speech.Trump will mark the occasion with two events: a visit to the grave of Menachem Mendel Schneerson in New York City, then a speech at his golf club in Doral, Florida later on, Politico reports.We have a live blog covering the latest on the global commemorations of the attack, as well as the spiraling crisis in the Middle East. You can find it here:ShareUpdated at 14.23 CESTNate Cohn at the New York Times has also had a look at the latest polling figures, and has come to the conclusion that polling averages show “Kamala Harris and Donald Trump essentially tied across the seven battleground states considered likeliest to decide the presidency, with neither ahead by enough to count as even a modest favorite”.ShareUpdated at 13.57 CESTJoe Biden has a light schedule for today. At 11.45am, along with the first lady, he is expected to participate in a candle lighting event at the White House to mark the one-year anniversary of the 7 October attack in Israel. After his regular briefing he is then expected to be briefed on his administration’s response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton.ShareUpdated at 13.50 CESTSidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, has written a lengthy piece for the Guardian today arguing that Donald Trump’s Hitlerian logic is no mistake but a deliberate ploy.ShareA report by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s report, released on Monday, suggests that both candidates in the election are making promises that will increase US debt, but that it is Donald Trump’s proposals that are more expensive.Tami Luhby reports for CNN:
The national debt would soar by trillions of dollars more regardless of who wins the election, further compounding the country’s fiscal problems. Kamala Harris’ plan would boost the debt by $3.5tn over the next decade, while Trump’s platform would cause it to spike by $7.5tn. The watchdog group’s analysis is the latest in a series of reviews of the candidates’ plans, which generally find that Trump’s proposals would have a bigger impact on the national debt than those of Harris.
ShareUpdated at 14.26 CESTKamala Harris has been warned that her bid to win the key battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania risks being undermined by her failure to connect with unionized blue-collar workers in the same way that Joe Biden historically has done.Jonathan Kott, a Democratic strategist and former Senate aide told the Hill website that the current president is a tough act for Harris to follow in that regard.“Joe Biden is the most pro-union president ever,” he said. “He was the only president to be on a union picket line, he’s so over-the-top pro-union.”Another Democratic strategist, Ray Zaccaro, told the website: “Biden has had a special relationship with labor throughout his entire career. I don’t think there’s anything particularly lacking in Harris’s position on labor, but there probably are some stylistic and relationship differences for her to overcome.”Zaccaro warned: “There is a movement within the labor world that is more aligned with Maga, protectionism, nationalist identity,” adding that some union voters increasingly support “some of the messaging that the Trump campaign is putting out”.ShareUpdated at 14.26 CESTFlorida governor Ron DeSantis has told residents of the state they have a couple of days to prepare before Hurricane Milton hits. He said: “I don’t think there’s any scenario where we don’t have major impacts at this point.”“You have time to prepare – all day Monday, probably all day Tuesday to be sure your hurricane preparedness plan is in place,” DeSantis said. “If you’re on that west coast of Florida, barrier islands, just assume you’ll be asked to leave.”AP reports DeSantis expanded his state of emergency declaration Sunday to 51 counties and said Floridians should prepare for more power outages and disruption, making sure they have a week’s worth of food and water and are ready to hit the road.ShareUpdated at 14.26 CESTSpeaking at his rally in Juneau, Wisconsin, last night, former president Donald Trump said he was looking for a “mandate” victory in November’s election. The current polling is tight, suggesting that the outcome is unlikely to deliver that for either candidate.CNN’s senior data reporter Harry Enten most recent round-up on the state of polling in the key swing states that will decide the election suggests that Kamala Harris has the edge in the Great Lake battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, while Trump is looking stronger in the southern sunbelt states.However, Enten notes that all of the leads of one or two points in these states are “well within the margin of error and too close to call”.As it stands he suggests Harris would end up with “276 electoral votes, slightly more than the 270 she needs to win”, but he said if the polls have underestimated Trump’s support – as they did in 2020 – then he could romp home. Likewise, if the polls are underestimating Democratic party support – as they did in 2022 – then she could even reach as many as 319 electoral votes. In a nutshell, all bets are off.ShareUpdated at 14.26 CESTKamala Harris seeks to gain election edge over Donald Trump with media blitzKamala Harris has begun what has been described as a week-long media blitz with an appearance on Sunday night on the podcast Call Her Daddy.During the interview with Alex Cooper, Harris addressed topics including abortion, reproductive healthcare, housing and student debt relief.Harris said Trump’s repeated claim that Democrats support abortion “after birth” is a “lie”, and that it was insulting to claim that women in their ninth month of pregnancy are electing to have an abortion.She also rebuked Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who had suggested Harris “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble” because she doesn’t have children.“I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who are not aspiring to be humble,” Harris said, adding: “We have our family by blood and then we have our family by love. And I have both.”Harris said economic conditions hinder people having a family, and suggested her aim to build 3m new homes by the end of her first term would assist with that.Harris said: “I think that most Americans want leaders who understand that the measure of their strength is not based on who you beat down. The real measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.”Cooper has made a point of also asking Trump on to the show if he wants to appear.ShareUpdated at 14.26 CESTWelcome and opening summary …Welcome to our rolling coverage of the 2024 US presidential election campaign. Today both vice-president Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump will attend ceremonies to mark the one year anniversary of the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas. Harris is expected to speak at an event at the White House, while Trump will be appearing at a Florida golf course. Joe Biden will also mark the occasion with an event at the White House.Here are the headlines …

Polling continues to show that November’s election is too close to call.

Kamala Harris appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast on Sunday, discussing abortion, reproductive healthcare, housing and student debt relief.

Tim Walz said during an appearance on Fox News that Donald Trump’s agenda would destroy the US economy.

Donald Trump held a rally in Juneau, Wisconsin.

JD Vance has suggested a second Trump administration would defund Planned Parenthood.

The supreme court begins sitting again this week with the regulation of ghost guns and transgender rights on their agenda.

Florida is gearing up for what could be the biggest evacuations since 2017 as Hurricane Milton strengthens.
It is Martin Belam with you here to start with. You can get in touch with me at [email protected] at 13.10 CEST