Europe watches Harris-Trump debate for clues on direction US may take

Diplomats most struck by Republican’s refusal to say whether he wanted Ukraine to defeat Vladimir Putin

The TV debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was as keenly watched by European diplomats and politicians as by US voters, eager to see who may be next in the White House and – crucially – the direction that a vital ally may next take.

One diplomat said they empathised when Harris adopted a series of poses that ranged from pity, bemusement and genuine curiosity about what craziness would emerge from Trump’s mouth next as she listened to his conspiracy-laden theories. However, the diplomat said they still did not underestimate Trump and the hold he had over one part of a divided America, adding: “Never write him off.”

Continue reading...

Harris-Trump debate watched by 15m more than Biden clash – as it happened

This blog is now closed. You can read the latest at the links below:

Russia has accused both presidential candidates of using Vladimir Putin’s name as part of a domestic political fights, saying: “we really, really don’t like it”.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the US was hostile and negative towards Russia, Reuters reports, and the Kremlin hoped that candidates would drop such references to Putin.

Continue reading...

Harris warns of ‘what’s at stake’ for US as vice-president appears to win debate with Trump – as it happened

Candidates clashed on January 6, abortion, immigration, Gaza and Ukraine.

This live blog is closed. Follow the latest here

Donald Trump arrived in Philadelphia earlier today for his debate with Kamala Harris.

Photographers captured him and his entourage deplaning:

Continue reading...

Harris delivered a ‘masterclass’ debate. Will it change the race?

With the presidential race on a knife’s edge, Trump’s support remains relatively stable

The debate began on her terms. The vice-president of the United States walked across the stage at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, stretched out her hand and introduced herself“: “Kamala Harris.”

It was, incredibly, the first time Harris had ever met Donald Trump, whose election to the White House in 2016 coincided with her election to the Senate. Since then, they have circled each other, Harris carving out a reputation in the Senate for grilling Trump administration officials. Four years later, she helped defeat Trump as Joe Biden’s running mate.

Continue reading...

Wednesday briefing: Trump takes the bait on night that could transform the presidential race

In today’s newsletter: His advisors wanted him to tie Harris to the Biden administration – but instead he lost his temper. Here are the key moments

Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition

Good morning. If you had a sinking feeling on 28 June when you woke up to the news that Joe Biden had turned in an utterly incoherent debate performance, you will probably have a bit more appetite for your boiled egg this time. A few hours ago, the only scheduled debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris came to an end – and even Fox News said Harris won.

Democrats’ moods can only have been improved by the news, a few minutes after it ended, that Taylor Swift had endorsed Harris, and signed her post “childless cat lady”. And CNN’s snap poll suggested that voters thought Harris won by a margin of 63% to 37% – nearly as big a margin as Trump achieved over Biden last time around. Key to Harris’ success was baiting her opponent into rants on marginal topics, instead of talking about the issues that voters are interested in.

Winter fuel allowance | MPs have voted to remove the winter fuel allowance from all but the poorest pensioners in England and Wales. Just one Labour MP, Jon Trickett, voted for the opposition motion but 52 abstained – at the higher end of predictions.

Conservatives | Mel Stride has been knocked out of the race to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative party leader after the second round of voting by MPs. On Tuesday, the former work and pensions secretary became the second casualty in the weeks-long leadership contest, which is due to culminate in early November.

Israel-Gaza war | Israeli airstrikes on al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone” in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 19 people and injured a further 60, according to witnesses and medical officials in the blockaded Palestinian territory.

Port Talbot steelworks | The British steel industry is braced for 2,500 job cuts at the Port Talbot steelworks, with thousands more jobs at risk in the UK, as the government prepares a taxpayer-backed deal for the south Wales plant. Owners Tata Steel are expected to get a rescue deal worth £500m.

UK news | An inquest into a man who killed himself a week after appearing on The Jeremy Kyle Show has found “insufficient evidence” to rule that participating in the programme caused his death.

Continue reading...

Harris targets Trump for falsehoods on abortion and immigration in fiery debate

Presidential candidates meet for first time in contentious face-off as moderators fact-check Trump’s statements

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump sparred on Tuesday in a contentious presidential debate that repeatedly went off the rails, as Trump pursued bizarre and often falsehood-ridden tangents about crowd sizes, immigration policy and abortion access.

The Philadelphia debate marked arguably the most significant opportunity for both Harris and Trump since Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race in July, and the event began cordially enough. Harris crossed over to Trump’s podium to shake his hand and introduce herself, an acknowledgement that the two presidential nominees had never met face to face before Tuesday night.

Fact-checking the presidential debate

Harris slams Trump for falsehoods in fiery debate

Taylor Swift endorses Harris in post signed ‘childless cat lady’

‘Maga mad libs’: How the debate played out on social media

Presidential poll tracker

Rally sizes, abortion and eating cats: the Trump and Harris debate – podcast

Continue reading...

2024 US presidential polls tracker: Trump v Harris latest national averages

Find out who’s up and who’s down in the latest US presidential election opinion polls

On 21 July, Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Kamala Harris. This historic move changed the landscape of the election and how many felt about the race. As the election enters its final weeks, Guardian US is averaging national and state polls to see how the two candidates are faring. We will update our averages once a week, or more if there is major news.

Continue reading...

Melania Trump boosts conspiracy theory online about rally shooting

In a video promoting her memoir, she declares ‘we need to uncover the truth’ about assassination attempt on Trump

Former first lady Melania Trump has raised questions around the law enforcement response to the attempted assassination of her husband, in a video she published on Tuesday to promote her new book.

In the 34-second video posted to her X account, Melania begins by describing the attempted assassination on her husband as a “horrible, distressing experience”. And now, she says in the video, which is overlayed with dramatic instrumental music, “the silence around it feels heavy”.

Continue reading...

DoJ warns states over voter purges – as it happened

Pew report says 49% of voters would choose Harris, with the same number planning to vote for Trump; justice officials remind states about voting laws

The statement of support for Kamala Harris by a group of retired top military officials comes a day before the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, will host a congressional gold medal ceremony honoring the 13 service members killed in the chaotic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.

Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have tried to blame Harris for the Afghanistan pullout, including in a report by House GOP lawmakers today.

Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government. At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security.

Without involving the Afghan government, he and his administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that freed 5,000 Taliban fighters and allowed them to return to the battlefield.

This chaotic approach severely hindered the Biden-Harris administration’s ability to execute the most orderly withdrawal possible and put our service members and our allies at risk.

Continue reading...

Advisers worry whether ‘happy Trump’ or ‘angry Trump’ will show up to debate

Sources say campaign is concerned that Trump may engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in 2020

Donald Trump’s campaign is most concerned going into the debate against Kamala Harris with the former president’s mood, afraid that the mercurial Trump could engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in the 2020 presidential election, according to people familiar with the situation.

The campaign’s internal refrain is whether they get “happy Trump” or “angry Trump”, the people said, as they count down the days to perhaps the final presidential debate this cycle.

Continue reading...

Liz Cheney calls Trump a ‘catastrophe’ and urges Republicans to vote for Harris

‘We have to do everything possible to ensure that he’s not re-elected,’ ex-congresswoman says

The former congresswoman Liz Cheney called Donald Trump an “unrecoverable catastrophe” on Sunday and urged fellow Republicans to vote for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in November’s election.

“We see it on a daily basis – somebody who was willing to use violence in order to attempt to seize power, to stay in power, someone who represents unrecoverable catastrophe, frankly, in my view, and we have to do everything possible to ensure that he’s not re-elected,” Cheney said in an interview on ABC News This Week, a show on the network that is hosting Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Harris.

Continue reading...

Democrats unite to center reproductive rights as Republicans flail on abortion

Harris campaign seeks to press advantage on powerful motivator, especially in states with abortion on the ballot

As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump prepare to meet on the debate stage in Philadelphia, the battle over abortion rights has vaulted to the center of the 2024 presidential election campaign, the first since the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe v Wade.

At the party’s convention last month, Democrats spotlighted the harrowing stories of women placed in medical peril as a result of post-Roe abortion bans in their states. Last week, the Harris campaign launched a 50-stop “reproductive freedom” bus tour across several battleground states, kicking off in Trump’s “back yard”, miles from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in south Florida.

Continue reading...

Ro Khanna says he’s not a fan of fellow Democrats calling Republicans ‘weird’

California congressman says focus of Harris campaign should be on unity and reaching out to skeptical voters

Congressman and Kamala Harris campaign surrogate Ro Khanna said he doesn’t support the trend among his fellow Democrats of calling Republicans “weird” on the election trail.

“I’m not, in candor, a fan of calling each other ‘weird’ or names, I don’t think that advanced American democracy,” the California US House representative said during a live event with the Guardian at the Texas Tribune festival Saturday in Austin. “I think we have to – in this country, and as a party – not just win, but deserve victory. And to deserve victory means to offer a vision that is going to bring this country together with a common purpose.”

Continue reading...

Former vice-president Dick Cheney confirms he will vote for Kamala Harris

Lifelong Republican makes announcement day after daughter Liz also endorses Democratic candidate

The former vice-president Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, will vote for the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, in November’s presidential election, he said in a statement on Friday.

“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said of the former president and Republican nominee. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.

Continue reading...

Backlash for JD Vance after calling school shooting a ‘fact of life’

Republican vice-presidential candidate was criticized for tone-deafness after comments at campaign rally in Arizona

America’s ideological split over gun control has spilled over into the presidential campaign after JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, voiced regret that school shootings had “become a fact of life” in the US.

Vance’s comments – in the wake of the latest deadly shooting, at Apalachee high school in Georgia – ignited a political row after Democrats depicted them as evidence of a lack of empathy while Republicans claimed the remarks had been taken out of context.

Continue reading...

Harris campaign raised $361m in August, triple the amount of Trump campaign

The Trump team raised $130m in same month, with $285m cash in hand compared with Harris’s $404m

Kamala Harris raised triple the amount of her opponent in this election, Donald Trump, last month, in what her campaign claimed was the best grassroots fundraising month in presidential history.

With less than 60 days until the 2024 presidential election, the campaign team for Harris, the Democratic party’s nominee for president, following the departure of US president Joe Biden from his re-election race in July, announced on Friday that it raised $361m in the month of August.

Continue reading...

Trump tells Jewish donors they would be ‘abandoned’ if Harris is elected

In Las Vegas summit speech, Republican candidate paints potential Harris presidency in cataclysmic terms for Israel

Donald Trump told Jewish donors on Thursday that they would be “abandoned” if Kamala Harris becomes president.

In his speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, the Republican presidential candidate also said he would ban refugee resettlement from “terror-infested” areas such as Gaza and arrest “pro-Hamas thugs” who engage in vandalism, an apparent reference to the college student protesters.

Continue reading...

Kamala Harris will win election, predicts leading historian Allan Lichtman

Polling ‘Nostradamus’, said to have correctly forecast since 1984 all races except Gore’s loss, says Trump on track to lose

Allan Lichtman, the historian dubbed the “Nostradamus” of US presidential elections, has predicted that Kamala Harris will win the White House in November’s poll.

Having previously warned the Democrats of the dangers of removing Joe Biden from the ticket, Lichtman nevertheless forecast that the vice-president, who became the party’s nominee after the president withdrew in July, would be elected in a video for the New York Times.

Continue reading...

Harris and Trump accept debate rules, including allowing mics to be muted

Campaigns had clashed over whether candidates should be audible while opponent is speaking

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have accepted the rules for the presidential debate in Philadelphia, due to air on ABC next week, the network said on Wednesday – including muted mics when the other candidate is speaking.

ABC News said in a release that Harris, the Democratic nominee, and Trump, her Republican rival, “have qualified for the debate under the established criteria, and both have accepted the following debate rules”.

Continue reading...

Trump appears in town hall hosted by Sean Hannity – as it happened

This blog is now closed. Here is our full story on US conservative influencers saying they are ‘victims’ of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Half of gen-Z voters said they will vote for Kamala Harris in November, according to a new NBC News poll published today.

The poll shows one-third of gen-Z voters said they plan to vote for Donald Trump, and 1 in 10 said they do not plan to vote in the presidential election.

Continue reading...