Category Archives: US elections 2024

All eyes on America’s ‘blue wall’ as Harris scrambles to woo key voters

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Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin hold the election key – can the Democrats see off the challenge from Trump?

Away from the deafening roar of the party faithful that nightly fills the Democratic national convention in Chicago an urgent question is being asked behind the scenes: how can the party convert the energy that has exploded around Kamala Harris’s belated candidacy into actual votes on election day?

All eyes are on the “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where the identity of the 47th US president is likely to be settled. The outsized significance of the three states in the race is evident in the scramble of the presidential candidates to woo them.

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Tim Walz will speak at Democratic convention in opportunity to address wider audience

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The ‘joyful warrior’ will seek to build on the momentum of his and Kamala Harris’s campaign

Tim Walz will seek to build on the intense enthusiasm surrounding his and Kamala Harris’s campaign on Wednesday, as the newly anointed vice-presidential nominee headlines the third night of the Democratic national convention in Chicago.

The speech will give Walz an opportunity to introduce himself to a much wider audience of voters, as most Americans were unfamiliar with the Minnesota governor before Harris selected him as her running mate earlier this month. An ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted last month, shortly after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed Harris, showed that only 13% of Americans knew enough about Walz to register an opinion of him.

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Barack Obama calls on Americans to elect Kamala Harris – as it happened

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Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, has turned up at the Democratic national convention, for reasons unknown.

Cohen fell out with Trump years ago, and was a witness for the prosecution in the former president’s hush-money trial in New York, which ended with him being found guilty of 34 felonies related to falsifying business documents.

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Republicans line up to speak at Democratic convention: ‘Trump has no morals’

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Stephanie Grisham, ex-press secretary who excoriated Trump on Tuesday, to be followed by lawmakers and voters

Stephanie Grisham, Donald Trump’s former press secretary, excoriated the Republican presidential nominee at the Democratic national convention on Tuesday, saying: “He has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth.”

Grisham, a Republican operative who also served as a spokesperson to Melania Trump, offered firsthand accounts of the former president’s behavior behind closed doors.

When are Michelle and Barack Obama speaking?

The lineup of notable Democratic speakers tonight

Obama to bring message of hope to convention speech

Here are the rising stars and politicians to watch this week

What to know about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz

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Trump attacks Kamala Harris and ‘Marxist left’ in speech to police

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Ex-president falsely claims US is in grip of violent crime wave, and vows to shield officers from legal accountability

Donald Trump has pledged to shield police officers from legal accountability if he is re-elected as president after falsely claiming the US is in the grip of a wave of violent crime that he blamed on the Black Lives Matter movement and migrants crossing the Mexican border.

Speaking to police officers in Michigan on Tuesday, the former president sought to pin responsibility for the imagined crisis on his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, who he characterised as among “Marxist district attorneys” with a record of being anti-police and pro-criminal during her term as the DA in San Francisco in the 2000s.

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Obama to bring message of hope 20 years after famous convention speech

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Ex-president headlining in Chicago on Tuesday brings memories of 2004 appeal for unity that inspired Democrats

From “skinny kid with a funny name” to elder statesman: Barack Obama, the former US president, will be the headline speaker at the Democratic national convention in Chicago on Tuesday – 20 years after he first burst on to the national political scene.

Obama, a state legislator from Illinois, was days from his 43rd birthday and months from being elected to the Senate when he was given a slot at the party’s 2004 convention in Boston. “Rising star to woo voters with upbeat keynote speech,” was the Guardian headline on 27 July 2004.

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Obama to deliver ‘forceful affirmation’ for Kamala Harris – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed. Please join us for all the latest developments from day two of the DNC in Chicago in our dedicated live blog:

Joe Biden described selecting Kamala Harris as his vice-president as “the best decision I made my whole career”, and he drew a sharp contrast between her and Donald Trump. Mocking Trump over his recent conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden said:

Violent crime has dropped to the lowest level of more than 50 years, and crime will keep coming down when we put a prosecutor in the Oval Office instead of a convicted felon.

When he talks about America being a failing nation, he says, we’re losing. He’s the loser. He’s dead wrong.

Guess who cast the tie-breaking vote? Vice-president, soon-to-be-president, Kamala Harris.

With a grateful heart, I stand before you now on this August night to report that democracy has prevailed. Democracy has delivered, and now democracy must be preserved.

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Barack and Michelle Obama to speak on second day of Democratic national convention

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Theme set for Tuesday of Kamala Harris’s ‘bold vision’ will contrast with Trump’s dystopian vision of the US

The Democratic National Convention enters its second day in Chicago on Tuesday with Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign seeking to lay out what it calls a “bold vision for America” as it seeks to move forward from Joe Biden’s emotional valedictory speech.

Carrying the flame on the second night of primetime speeches will be the Obamas, with Michelle Obama addressing the convention shortly before her husband Barack takes the stage. The couple’s endorsement of Harris in July was seminal in securing the Democratic presidential nomination for the current US vice-president, helping to bypass a potentially ugly internal fight.

What is the DNC?

Joe Biden speaks at DNC night one following surprise appearance by Kamala Harris

Pro-Palestinian protesters march before DNC

Here are the rising stars and politicians to watch this week

What to know about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz

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Biden at the Democratic convention was unrecognisable from his disastrous debate

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Biden’s voice was strong and clear, and the crowd was far warmer to him as an outgoing president

Joe Biden took the stage and held his daughter, Ashley, in a long embrace, whispered some tender words and wiped tears from his eyes. She smiled and kissed the hand of her ageing dad. The pair seemed to be at the quiet centre of a storm.

Around them more than 20,000 stood, applauded, roared and chanted, “We love Joe.” They held tall narrow signs that said, “We ♥️ Joe”. The US president walked to the lectern, smiling, pointing, looked pensive, smiled again and dabbed his nose with a handkerchief.

What is the DNC?

Joe Biden speaks at DNC night one following surprise appearance by Kamala Harris

Pro-Palestinian protesters march before DNC

Here are the rising stars and politicians to watch this week

What to know about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz

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Biden says he gave ‘heart and soul to our nation’ as he passes torch – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. You can read our full report on Biden’s speech here.

Democrats aren’t shying away from discussing the Covid-19 pandemic, with Minnesota’s lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan taking the stage to talk about the tragedy the virus brought upon her family, and how Donald Trump was to blame.

“My brother Ron was the second person to die of Covid in the state of Tennessee. We couldn’t see him. We couldn’t have a memorial. And millions of American families went through the same thing. Our communities were suffering, our economy was struggling, and Donald Trump was playing games. Our country was brought to the brink by his failure to respond, but the Biden-Harris administration stepped in with quick and decisive action,” Flanagan said.

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Biden urges voters to elect Harris in order to ‘preserve democracy’ in hopeful speech

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US president delivers reflective and optimistic address on first night of the Democratic national convention

Just one month after making the historic choice to withdraw from the presidential race, Joe Biden took the stage at the Democratic national convention on Monday to deliver a reflective and optimistic address, urging the nation to elect Kamala Harris to protect American democracy.

Looking back on his one and only presidential term, Biden reminded Americans that he took office just two weeks after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, when the country was still in the early grips of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Democratic convention live: Demonstrators begin filling Chicago’s Union Park; national guard ‘on standby’, says Illinois governor

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JB Pritzker says 250 national guard members on standby; tens of thousands expected to protest in Chicago to demand US ends aid to Israel

The Harris-Walz campaign has launched a WhatsApp channel targeting Latino voters in what it described as a “first-of-its-kind in a presidential election”.

The channel aims to reach voters with “tailored, culturally competent content” to “create an organic avenue to reach Latino families from the abuelos to tías and tíos and primos”, it said in a statement on Monday.

While Donald Trump vilifies our community at every turn and uses us as a political punching bag, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know the power of our community and are fighting everyday on the issues that matter to Latino voters.

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When is Biden’s Democratic convention speech? How to watch and what to know

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The president will speak at the Democratic national convention in Chicago on Monday night

The Democratic national convention is under way, with a primetime address scheduled tonight from Joe Biden.

The president’s speech in Chicago opens a convention that, until 21 July, was meant to serve as his coronation as the Democratic nominee in a re-election bid. Having dropped out, Biden will now use his convention speech as a chance to highlight the accomplishments of his administration, and support the Harris-Walz ticket.

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Federal Reserve ‘poised to begin cutting rates as early as September’

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Bank officials signal readiness to start interest rate-cutting cycle to ease pressure on households and businesses

Kamala Harris’s hopes of victory in the looming US presidential election have been given a boost by mounting expectations that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates from as early as September.

As Democrats gather for the party’s national convention in Chicago starting on Monday, economists on Wall Street said the world’s most powerful central bank was poised to begin a cycle of interest rate cuts before the end of the year.

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Lindsey Graham warns Trump ‘the provocateur’ in danger of losing election

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Republican senator urges Trump to focus on policy issues instead of making personal attacks against Harris

The Republican senator and Donald Trump loyalist Lindsey Graham has warned that Trump is in danger of losing the US presidential election if he continues to talk about Kamala Harris’s race and make other personal attacks instead of focusing on policy issues.

Graham’s comments came on Meet The Press when asked whether he agreed with Nikki Haley’s recent admonition that Trump and Republicans should “quit whining” and stop “talking about what race Kamala Harris is”.

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Trump campaign reset goes awry in Pennsylvania as he attacks Harris

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Ex-president quickly broke away from prepared speech to accuse vice-president of being a communist and a fascist

Donald Trump tried to reset his campaign at a rally in battleground Pennsylvania on Saturday as polls show Kamala Harris pulling ahead in key swing states.

But the former president quickly broke away from the prepared speech about economic issues to launch personal attacks on Harris including accusations that her agenda is both communist and fascist, and that she has “the laugh of a crazy person”.

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Trump taps Tulsi Gabbard for help preparing for debate with Kamala Harris

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Former Democratic Hawaii representative, who fell out of favor with party, to be rehearsal stand-in for vice-president

Donald Trump has tapped Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic Hawaii representative, to help prepare him for next month’s presidential debate with Kamala Harris.

The selection of Gabbard as rehearsal stand-in for the vice president, first reported by the New York Times, suggests that despite denials, the former president may be planning to prepare for the 10 September clash with greater-than-usual diligence.

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Both presidential campaigns descend on critical swing state of Pennsylvania

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Trump to hold rally in north-east while Harris tours through west of what election forecaster calls ‘tipping point’ state

The US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will hold dueling campaign events this weekend in the critical political battleground state of Pennsylvania.

The former president was due to hold a Saturday rally in Wilkes-Barre in the north-east of the state, while the vice-president is on a bus tour of western Pennsylvania starting in Pittsburgh on Sunday, before the Democratic national convention kicks off on Monday in Chicago.

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Rising stars have the chance to shine at Democratic convention

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Speeches can boost state politician to national prominence, despite awkward challenge with Harris nomination

In 2004, Barack Obama was a relatively unknown state legislator trying to become Illinois’ next senator – until his speech at the Democratic convention. When Democrats gathered in Boston to nominate John Kerry, many Americans heard Obama speak for the first time. And they were mesmerized.

“I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible,” Obama said that evening.

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FBI raids US home of Russian-born analyst who advised Trump in 2016

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Dimitri Simes, whose name appeared prominently in Mueller report, ‘puzzled and concerned’ by raid in Virginia

FBI agents have raided and searched the Virginia home of Dimitri Simes, an author and policy analyst, who advised Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign and who currently hosts a current affairs program on Russia’s state-run Channel One.

The raid began on 13 August, the FBI told the local Rappahannock News, which first reported the story.

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