Category Archives: US Politics

‘I am your retribution’: Trump’s radical plan to remake the presidency – podcast

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Guardian US’s chief reporter, Ed Pilkington, explores Donald Trump’s plans for a second term as president if he wins next month’s election, and how they would give him unprecedented power

By the time Donald Trump left the White House in January 2021, he was frustrated by the limits of his office.

As Guardian US’s chief reporter, Ed Pilkington, explains to Michael Safi, Trump felt he had been held back as president not by the standard checks and balances of a democracy, but by a shadowy “deep state”.

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The high life: Kamala Harris cracks open a beer with Stephen Colbert

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Democratic nominee shares a Miller High Life in late-night TV chat, and discusses Trump, Gaza and Vladimir Putin

When they go low, she goes high. Miller High Life to be precise.

Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, took her election campaign to late night television on Tuesday by cracking open a can of the lager with host Stephen Colbert. The moment set her apart from Joe Biden and Donald Trump – both, famously, teetotallers.

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Hurricane Milton intensifies to category 5 again as Biden warns storm could be worst in over 100 years – as it happened

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National Hurricane Center announces sustained winds of up to 165mph, as US president says his team is doing everything ‘to save lives’. This blog is now closed.

Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book “War” also reveals that Donald Trump kept in touch with Vladimir Putin after his presidency ended, CNN reports.

Citing an aide to the former president, Woodward writes that there have been “maybe as many as seven” calls between the two since Trump left the White House.

But Putin — who infamously isolated himself over fears of Covid — told Trump on a phone call to keep the delivery of the Abbott machines quiet, Woodward reports.

“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin said to Trump, according to Woodward.

“That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy. He’s a bad fucking guy!” Biden said earlier this year, as Israel’s invasion of Gaza ground on.

“That fucking Putin … Putin is evil. We are dealing with the epitome of evil.” Those were the president’s thoughts, sometime after Russia invaded Ukraine.

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US unions step up efforts to make case that Trump is no friend of workers

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Unions have mobilized thousands of members to convince them that Harris is a far better ally than Trump

Even though the vast majority of US labor unions have endorsed Kamala Harris, many union members support Donald Trump, and with the race so close, unions have stepped up efforts to convince those workers that Trump is no friend of unions or workers.

In Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – states that Harris badly needs to win – union households are an important voting bloc, and unions have mobilized thousands of members to engage in worksite conversations, door-knocking and phone-banking to make the case that Harris is far better for workers than Trump.

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Donald Trump claims to have been to Gaza despite no evidence of visit

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Former president says territory where 41,000 people have been killed ‘could be better than Monaco’ if developed

Donald Trump’s truthfulness as well as his knowledge of Middle East geography has come under fresh scrutiny after the former president claimed to have been to Gaza – although there is no evidence of him ever visiting the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Trump raised eyebrows after the Republican nominee in November’s presidential election told Hugh Hewitt, a rightwing radio host, that he had been in the tiny coastal strip where more than 41,000 people have been killed and the majority of buildings badly damaged or destroyed in blistering Israeli military attacks responding to last year’s 7 October attack by Hamas. The Hamas attack killed 1,200 about Israelis and took about 250 hostage.

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Trump marks 7 October anniversary and criticizes ‘weak’ Biden and Harris

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Republican nominee says attack – ‘one of the darkest days in all history’ – would not have happened if he were president

Donald Trump marked the first anniversary of the 7 October Hamas terrorist attacks, which he called “one of the darkest days in all of history”, with a commemoration for victims and hostages at his golf resort in Miami on Monday night, but swiftly turned the event into an attack on Kamala Harris.

He also repeated a previous claim that the attack on Israel would never have happened if he was still in the White House.

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Fema chief warns ‘dangerous’ Trump falsehoods hampering Helene response

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Misinformation spread by Trump, his supporters and others about the hurricane has shrouded recovery efforts

A slew of falsehoods about Hurricane Helene, including claims of funds diverted from storm survivors to migrants and even that Democrats somehow directed the hurricane itself, have hampered the response to one of the deadliest hurricanes to ever hit the US, the nation’s top emergency official has warned.

Misinformation spread by Donald Trump, his supporters and others about the hurricane has shrouded the recovery effort for communities shattered by Helene, which tore through five states causing at least 230 deaths and tens of billions of dollars of damage. Many places, such as in western North Carolina, are still without a water supply, electricity, navigable roads or vital supplies.

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Kamala Harris pays tribute to victims of 7 October attacks on first anniversary

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Vice-president commits to ‘always’ support Israel’s defense as Biden condemns ‘vicious surge in antisemitism’ in US

US politicians on both sides of the aisle issued statements marking the anniversary of the 7 October attacks, with Kamala Harris paying tribute to the victims and calling, in their honor, to “never lose sight of the dream of peace, dignity, and security for all”.

Outside the vice-presidential residence, Harris, accompanied by her husband, spoke of the nearly 1,200 people, including 46 Americans, killed in Israel one year ago.

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Still reeling from Helene, Florida braces for Hurricane Milton as it gains strength

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State official urges people to prepare for ‘largest evacuation that we have seen most likely since 2017 Hurricane Irma’

Florida has expanded its state of emergency as it braces for a major storm expect to pummel the state’s western peninsula by midweek, after Tropical Storm Milton gathered strength and was declared a category 1 hurricane on Sunday.

The impending landfall of Milton comes days after Hurricane Helene caused devastation and destruction through large swaths of Florida and other parts of the south-east of the US including North Carolina. The death toll stands at 230 people, and is expected to rise.

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Harris talks abortion rights on Call Her Daddy podcast while bashing Trump’s ‘protector’ of women claim – as it happened

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During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Arizona senator Mark Kelly criticized Elon Musk for supporting Donald Trump.

On Saturday, Musk joined Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and made the baseless claim that if Trump’s supporters fail to turn out, “this will be the last election”.

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White House blasts false claims about Hurricane Helene and relief aid

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Statement comes as president urges Congress to pass disaster-relief package as costs soar amid devastation

The White House moved Saturday to quash claims that government officials control the weather, including a far-fetched rumor circulating on social media that Hurricane Helene was an engineered storm to allow corporations to mine regional lithium deposits.

“We have seen a large increase in false information circulating online related to the federal response to Hurricane Helene,” a statement said, pointing to a “number of scam artists, bad-faith actors, and others who want to sow chaos because they think it helps their political interests are promoting disinformation about the recovery effort.”

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Trump to attend rally at site of July assassination attempt in Pennsylvania

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Former president will appear with ‘quadruple’ the security, and also honor firefighter killed during shooting

Donald Trump plans to return on Saturday to the site where a gunman tried to assassinate him in July, as the former president sets aside what are now near-constant worries for his physical safety in order to fulfill a promise – “really an obligation”, he said recently – to the people of Butler, Pennsylvania.

“I’ll probably start off by saying, ‘As I was saying ... ’,” the Republican presidential nominee has joked, in a bit of black humor about a speech cut short when a bullet struck Trump’s ear and he was whisked off stage – fist aloft – with blood dripping across his face.

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Harris and Trump neck-and-neck in polls with early voting under way

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More than 1.4 million have already voted in the presidential election, as battleground state polls show no clear frontrunner

More than 1.4 million people have now voted in the presidential election, as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump continue to crisscross the country in the final stretch of a neck-and-neck campaign.

Their vice-presidential picks, JD Vance and Tim Walz, also faced off this week in the only vice-presidential debate of this cycle. But initial polls suggested voters saw the debate as a draw, without clear impact on the race.

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Biden issues terse words to Netanyahu over peace deal and election influence

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President says he does not know whether Israeli PM is delaying peace deal in order to influence US election

Joe Biden had terse words at the White House on Friday for Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he didn’t know whether the Israeli prime minister was holding up a peace deal in the Middle East – where Israel is at war with Hamas in Gaza and on a military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon – in order to influence the outcome of the 2024 US presidential election.

“No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None. None, none. And I think Bibi should remember that,” Biden said, using Netanyahu’s nickname. He added: “And whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know – but I’m not counting on that.”

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Trump holds town hall event in North Carolina as Harris campaigns in Michigan – as it happened

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Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a hard-right congresswoman of Georgia, is once again facing criticism for peddling a baseless – and just plan bizarre – claim about the weather.

“Yes they can control the weather,” Greene said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

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Elon Musk says he will attend Trump rally at Pennsylvania shooting site

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Republican presidential nominee returns to scene of first assassination attempt in July as tech CEO reiterates support

Elon Musk plans to attend Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday at the site in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the former president narrowly avoided assassination in July.

“I will be there to support!” the tech billionaire replied to a post by Trump on Musk’s social media platform, X, saying he was returning to the Butler Farm show grounds.

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Liz Cheney campaigns with Harris and urges voters to reject Trump’s ‘cruelty’

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Republican and former Wyoming representative appeals to undecided voters in Ripon, Wisconsin, on Thursday

Liz Cheney, one of Donald Trump’s most prominent conservative critics, appealed to the millions of undecided Americans who could decide the outcome of the 2024 election, asking them to “reject the depraved cruelty” of the former president.

A former representative from Wyoming, Cheney cast the stakes in November as nothing less than the future of American democracy as she appeared alongside Kamala Harris in Ripon, Wisconsin, on Thursday, the symbolic birthplace of the modern Republican party.

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Bruce Springsteen endorses Kamala Harris for president while criticising ‘dangerous’ Trump

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The Born to Run singer praises Harris and Tim Walz’s commitment to ‘the vision of America I’ve been consistently writing about for 55 years’

Bruce Springsteen has officially thrown his support behind Kamala Harris, endorsing her for president and simultaneously opposing Donald Trump, calling him “the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime”.

The Born to Run singer made the announcement in a video posted to his Instagram on Thursday evening (US time) in which he described the upcoming election as “one of the most consequential elections in our nation’s history”.

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‘People are giving, sharing’: Augusta comes together as Kamala Harris surveys damage

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As the vice-president visited the Georgia city shattered by Helene, the sense of community spirit was palpable

As Kamala Harris descended Wednesday into Augusta, she met a city contemplating how much of their lives have been unmade by Hurricane Helene.

“I am here to personally take a look at the devastation,” Harris said after receiving a briefing by emergency response leaders in Georgia. “It’s particularly devastating in terms of loss of life that this community has experienced, the loss of normalcy, and the loss of critical resources.”

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Melania Trump’s abortion views baffle both sides: ‘Hard to follow the logic’

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In her memoir, former first lady has voiced support for the procedure, the right to which was overturned by a court of her husband’s justices

The revelation on Wednesday evening that Melania Trump’s forthcoming memoir includes a full-throated defense of abortion rights, an issue her husband Donald Trump has repeatedly flip-flopped on during his presidential campaign, left people on both sides of the issue less than impressed.

“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body,” Melania Trump wrote in her memoir. “I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”

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