Trump visits battleground Pennsylvania as Harris campaign attacks rival as ‘unhinged and angry’ – as it happened | US elections 2024

Thanks for joining us today. This blog is closing soon. Here’s where things stand:

• Kamala Harris celebrated her 60th birthday rallying Black voters in Georgia today with “souls to the polls” visits to two community churches. At the second rally, Stevie Wonder joined Harris and sang Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”.

• Donald Trump visited a McDonald’s franchise in Pennsylvania, where he wore an apron and began handing out orders to customers waiting in the drive-thru lane. He was also manning the fryer while he answered questions from reporters.

• The former president also attended a town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he was joined by former ESPN anchor Sage Steele and answered questions from the audience.

• Elon Muskthe CEO of Tesla and owner of X, hosted a town hall in Pittsburgh in support of Trump. In a short speech, Musk repeated false and fear-mongering claims, telling attendees “the constitution is literally under attack”.

Donald Trump concluded his remarks at a town hall held in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.

His final question came from moderator Sage Steele, who asked him why he chose to do such a “dangerous job”.

“We’re going to make America greater than ever before, and we can’t do that sitting on a beach,” Trump said.

Donald Trump has spent most of his town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvaniaattacking immigrants coming into the US through the southern border, boasting about his harsh immigration policies during his presidency, and promising to increase fracking in the state.

“Drill, baby, drill. Frack, baby, frack,” he said, a usual campaign slogan.

He also invited Republican representatives Lloyd Smucker and Dan Meuser to the stage to make brief remarks.

During an interview on MSNBC’s PoliticsNatio, Kamala Harris spoke with Reverand Al Sharpton in a one-on-one interview in Atlanta.

Harris discussed the death of Yahya Sinwar and the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“We have got to get this war over with. We got to get the hostages out. We need the war to end,” Harris said. “The death of Sinwar I believe has removed an obstacle to that end. And so, we’ve got to work at it and we’ve got to work at it through diplomatic means and that’s what we intend to do.”

The Democratic presidential nominee also spoke about the latest polling on support from Black men.

“This narrative about what kind of support we are receiving from Black men that is just not panning out in reality,” she said. “I must earn the vote of everyone regardless of their race or gender.”

Donald Trump said he’s completed two cognitive tests as opponents have increasingly questioned the 78-year-old Republican presidential nominee’s mental and physical fitness.

“I aced the both of them,” Trump said during a town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “And the doctor in one case said, ‘I’ve never seen anybody ace them.’”

“I’d like to see cognitive tests for anybody running for president or vice-president”, Trump added. He later expressed age is but a number, using media mogul Rupert Murdoch as an example.

During the town hall in Pennsylvania, a woman with a tattoo of Donald Trump on her leg asked the former president about his plan to lower taxes for working Americans.

Trump accused migrants arriving from Central America of hampering the economy.

“We’re not going to let foreign countries come in and steal our businesses, our jobs and everything else,” he said, continuing to make anti-immigrant remarks during his answer.

“We want to have people come in, but they have to come in legally. We have to know they love our country,” he added.

Musk entered the stage at the Roxian Theater in Pittsburgh as the sound system blared “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys.

He carried a yellow “terrible towel” of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the city’s beloved NFL team, and jumped up and down as the crowd chanted his name.In a short speech, Musk told attendees, many wearing red Maga hats, that “the constitution is literally under attack” and urged a “clean sweep of those who believe in the constitution” in November.

He then issued his second check for a million dollars to a signatory to his petition backing the first and second amendment. Kristine Fishell, who had sat on the balcony level, received the giant novelty check and smiled for the cameras before being whisked away.

The event then pivoted to a lengthy town hall, where attendees asked a variety of conspiracy tinged questions and whether Musk would run for president in 2028.

He could not, he explained, due to the natural born citizen clause of the US constitution, and did not want the job either. “I hate politics,” Musk said, explaining his purported reason for injecting himself into the 2024 race. “But the stakes are so high.”

As the town hall began to wrap up, no attendee had asked whether Donald Trump’s promise to bring Musk, who is worth an estimated $247bn, into government as a “secretary of cost cutting” might be a conflict of interest. He told the crowd he was ready for the position, adding “I’d like to say it’s a hard job, but it’s not”.

A few seconds earlier a member of the crowd had shouted “taxation is theft!”.

Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele is moderating the town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where Donald Trump is taking questions from the audience.

His first question was on whether he would protect social security and Medicare benefits.

“Number one, no tax on social security for our seniors, that’s a big deal,” Trump said. “No tax on tips,” he said, and “no tax on overtime.”

Former president Donald Trump has started delivering his remarks at an event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

His speech in the Lancaster County Convention Center follows a visit to a local McDonald’s, where he wore an apron and worked the french fries station.

We’ll be following his comments as he rallies in the battleground state.

The legendary singer Stevie Wonder rallied congregants at a church in Atlanta with a rendition of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song in support of Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Wonder performed during a church service and early vote event at Divine Faith Ministries International. He also sang “Happy Birthday” as Harris celebrates her 60th birthday today.

The Harris campaign responded to comments made by former president Donald Trump calling Democratic representatives “the enemy from within” during an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday.

“Even in his Fox News safe space, Donald Trump cannot help but show himself as the unhinged, angry, unstable man that he is – focused on his own petty grievances and tired playbook of division,” Ammar Moussa, a Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson, wrote in an email.

“This is precisely why his handlers are hiding him from major mainstream interviews and refusing to let him debate again. They don’t want the country to see this candidate in decline,” he added.

The legality of the America Pac $1m prize draw is unclear, and a justice department spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry.

But several legal experts said on Saturday the petition appeared to violate federal election laws that prohibits paying or offering to pay for someone to register to vote or actually vote under title 52 of the US code.

According to the justice department’s election crimes manual, for an offer of payment to violate federal election law, it must have been intended to induce or reward the prospective voter for engaging in one or more acts necessary to cast a ballot.

The election crimes manual distinguishes between making it easier for people to vote, such as offering free rides to a polling station, and inducing people to vote, which is unlawful.

UCLA law professor Rick Hasen said in his blog that the America Pac $1m prize draw appears to be an illegal scheme because it offered the payments to registered voters.

“Though maybe some of the other things Musk was doing were of murky legality, this one is clearly illegal,” he wrote.

At a town hall in Pennsylvania, billionaire Elon Musk has commented on his aims to expedite government agency procedures and his role under Trump’s presidency if he were to be elected.

“I will do my best to ensure that that actions are taken that maximize the benefit to the American people,” Musk said. “I don’t know at the end of the day how much influence I’ll have. But I’ll do my best to be as helpful as possible.”

“There are actually a huge number of of drugs that are stuck in approval at the FDA that can help people and they’re just stuck in bureaucratic molasses,” Musk said. “Simply expediting drug approval and the FDA, I think, will save millions of lives.”

The CEO of Tesla and owner of X, Elon Musk, is speaking at a town hall in Pittsburgh today in support of former President Donald Trump.

Musk is in McKees Rocks to promote voter registration and mail-in balloting ahead of the November election and a promise of cash for those who attend.

He’s currently taking questions from the audience.

Fromer president Donald Trump doubled down on his comments labeling Democrats as “the enemy from within,” this time specifically attacking Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff.

During an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News with Howard Kurtz, Trump said that “radical left lunatics… the enemy from within… should be very easily handled, if necessary, by the National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

“These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at ‘Shifty Schiff’ and some of the others, yeah, they are, to me, the enemy from within,” Trump said on Fox News’ “Mediabuzz.”

“I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within,” he added. “She was supposed to protect the Capitol.”

The former president sparked outrage last week after calling for the US armed forces to be turned against his political adversaries when voters go to the polls at next month’s presidential election.

Former president Donald Trumpwhile working at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, sarcastically congratulated Kamala Harris on her 60th birthday.

“Maybe I’ll get her some fries,” Trump said.

He also took a moment to boast about his time in office while he was working the fryer at the fast food chain.

“We had the best economy ever. We had the strongest borders ever, a military that knocked out ISIS in a few weeks,” he said.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson accused SpaceX founder Elon Musk of “spreading dangerous disinformation.” The comments come after Musk alleged that “Michigan has more registered voters than eligible citizens.”

“Here are the facts,” Benson wrote in a post on X. “There aren’t more voters than citizens in Michigan. There are 7.2 million active registered voters and 7.9 citizens of voting age in our state.”

“Don’t feed the trolls,” she added.