Trump insults opponents at final Michigan rally
In Michigan, Trump then goes on to talk insultingly about President Joe Biden, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and representative Adam Schiff, the lead investigator in Trump’s first impeachment.
“Joe Biden in one of his crazy moments said that we were all garbage,” Trump remarked adding “They stole the election from a president,” in apparent reference to Biden’s dropping out of the campaign to be replaced by Harris.
He then says of Pelosi “she’s a crooked person … evil, sick, crazy b… oh no! It starts with a ‘b’ but I won’t say it! I wanna say it.”
He said of “Adam Shifty Schiff”: “He’s got the biggest head, he’s an unattractive guy both inside and out.”
Key events
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump tied with three votes each in the tiny New Hampshire town that traditionally kicks off voting on election day.
Since the 1960s, voters in Dixville Notch, close to the Canadian border, have gathered just after midnight to cast their ballots.
Votes are then counted and results announced – hours before other states open their polls.
According to CNN, four registered Republicans and two undeclared voters took part in the vote just after midnight on Tuesday.
The Guardian’s video team has made an explainer on the feisty history of US political mudslinging. In it, they argue that the insults didn’t start with Trump:
The video is part of It’s Complicated, a new YouTube channel dedicated to all forms of explanatory journalism, helping bring clarity, context and understanding in a complicated world.
Streeting also spoke about Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK who was at a Trump rally last night.
Farage last night tweeted a clip from the rally where Trump was speaking about their relationship – which perhaps didn’t start as a resounding endorsement of the Reform leader, but ended up there.
“We have a man from Europe, I don’t know if he’s here, I saw him backstage.
“What he is doing is sort of what we did a few years ago. He’s doing a great job, he’s a fantastic … he’s always been my friend for some reason. He liked me, I liked him and he’s shaking it up pretty good over there. He was the big winner of the last election.”
Streeting said of the Reform leader: “To be fair to Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform Party who is currently State-side, he is a firm supporter of Donald Trump.
“He was reflecting overnight that whatever some of the noise we’ve heard about, you know that legal action or indeed things that that we said about president Trump in the past, that we’ll be able to work effectively together as partners and and as allies.”
The UK government has been working to ensure the “deep ties” that bind the UK and the US will be “as strong as they have ever been”, whatever the outcome of the US election, the UK’s health secretary Wes Streeting said, PA reports.
Wes Streeting told LBC Radio: “The prime minister, the foreign secretary and others have been working hard to make sure that whatever the outcome of the US presidential election, the deep ties that bind our two nations are as strong as they have ever been.
“I think that is particularly important in a world in which we see war on the continent of Europe, in Ukraine, war in the Middle East, wider geopolitical risks and threats where the US and the UK have common history, but also common cause in terms of the future we want to build, in the future of democracy.
“The American people will decide who their president is and we will work with whoever they choose.”
He added: “I think it’s fair to say that we may not be ideological bedfellows with President Trump, but if he’s returned as president of the United States, there will be a really good working relationship.
“And I think we saw that with the warmth of the exchange between president Trump and the prime minister after they met recently.”
US judges have denied requests from the Republican-led states of Missouri and Texas to block the federal government from sending lawyers to their states on election day to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws, Reuters reports.
Both states are among the 27 that the US Justice Department (DOJ) said it would send staff out to monitorvoting locations, as it has done regularly during national elections.
Federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered the DOJ early on Tuesday to confirm that “no observers” would be present in polling locations in Texas but denied issuing the restraining order the state had requested.
“The Court cannot issue a temporary restraining order without further clarification on the distinction between ‘monitoring’ and ‘observing’ on the eve of a consequential election,” Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, said in the ruling.
Texas attorney general Ken Paxton had earlier said that sending monitors “infringes on States’ constitutional authority to run free and fair elections.” The lawsuit argued that “under Texas law, the list of persons who may be present in voting locations or central counting stations does not include federal authorities.”
District judge Sarah Pitlyk in Missouri also denied that state’s request for a temporary restraining order, saying late last night: “the harms that the State of Missouri anticipates are speculative.”
Missouri’s lawsuit had accused the DOJ of making an 11th-hour plan that intended to “displace state election authorities” by sending poll monitors to locations throughout St. Louis.
The DOJ said two election monitors were in Missouri to monitor one polling station in St. Louis.
While some of the locations the DOJ will monitor on election day include key counties in the seven battleground states expected to help decide the election, it is also sending personnel to other locations such as counties in Massachusetts, Alaska, South Dakota, and New Jersey. Neither Missouri nor Texas are considered among the seven battleground states.
AP reports on a tiny Indian village where Kamala Harris has ancestral roots that is praying for her victory.
There’s little to distinguish the village of Thulasendrapuram from any other rural community in Tamil Nadu, except its connection to a woman who could become America’s first leader with South Asian roots.
As millions of Americans vote, Harris has people rooting for her from thousands of miles away in a village surrounded by rice paddies and coconut trees, where her mother’s family has ancestral ties. They talk about her at the local tea shop. Banners and billboards bearing her face are seen throughout the community.
“Our deity is a very powerful God. If we pray well to him, he will make her victorious,” said M. Natarajan, the temple priest that led the prayers in front of the image of Hindu deity Ayyanar, a form of Lord Shiva.
Harris’ maternal grandfather was born in the village, about 350 kilometers (215 miles) from the southern coastal city of Chennai, more than 100 years ago. As an adult, he moved to Chennai, where he worked as a high-ranking government official until his retirement.
Harris has never visited Thulasendrapuram and she has no living relatives in the village, but people here still venerate the family that made it big in the US.
“Our village ancestors’ granddaughter is running as a US presidential candidate. Her victory will be happy news for every one of us,” Natarajan said.
Harris hasn’t visited India much — particularly not since becoming vice president — but she has often spoken emotionally about her ties to her late mother’s country of birth. On Tuesday, she released a campaign video highlighting her mother, who arrived in the US at age 19 and became a cancer researcher.
Titled “Mother,” the video ends with a narrator saying: “This daughter of Shyamala, this daughter of the American story, is ready to lead us forward.”
Village residents also prayed for Harris’ victory in 2020, and set off firecrackers when she became the US vice president.
Last night The Guardian reported that betting markets had narrowed on the eve of the election.
The Trump campaign and its supporters had been pointing to Trump’s lead over Harris at leading bookmakers as a more accurate forecast than tight polls that were too close to call in the run up to the election.
But the odds have narrowed somewhat, as the below data visualisation shows:
The current odds on the Betfair betting exchange still favour Trump – giving him about a 60% chance of winning the election to Harris’ 40%.
Adam Gabbatt The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt provides some analysis on Trump’s final rally ahead of the election …
Trump said this was his “last rally”, and if that’s true, it was a somewhat ignominious end. More than half the crowd left during a meandering, nearly-two hour long, speech that saw Trump attack Kamala Harris, criticise the thickness of Adam Schiff’s neck, and muse that god may have saved him from an assassin’s bullet so that he could become president.
“Kamala, she is a very low IQ person and we don’t need a very low IQ individual. We’ve had that for four years and our country is going down the drain,” Trump said early in his rally, one of a series of typically vicious critiques on his opponent.
Trump arrived almost two hours late for the rally, and by the time he started speaking about how divine intervention saved him from an assassination attempt, people had already begun to leave.
“Many people say that god saved me in order to save America,” Trump told the crowd. “It’s a beautiful expression and I think it might be true.”
Away from the reverie on god, this “last rally” offered up much of the grievance and doom that has characterised Trump’s politics.
“Some of the greatest criminals in the world are pouring into our country,” Trump said, mirroring his very first campaign rally, at Trump Tower on June 16 2015.
As well as blasting Harris, he called Nancy Pelosi a “crazy horrible human being”, adding: “She’s a sick crazy… oh no… it starts with a b but I won’t say it.”
Trump continued: “These are bad people. Adam shifty Schiff. I call him pencil neck.” He said of the California Democrat: “He’s an unattractive guy in and out.”
At 2.10am, with the audience bleary eyed, Trump finally left the stage after declaring, without specifics, that he would fix all America’s ills. The now familiar sound of Village People’s YMCA played the former president out, and now only time will tell whether he wins re-election.
Adam Gabbatt Donald Trump continued to attack Kamala Harris and gave dark warnings about a dystopian future under the vice-president in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Speaking in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump also mused that god may have saved him from an assassin’s bullet so that he could become president, as he claimed that he has a “95% chance or something” of winning the election.
Trump has said he will not run for president again, and if this is to be Trump’s last rally, it was a somewhat ignominious end. More than half the crowd left during a meandering, nearly-two hour long, speech that saw Trump attack Nancy Pelosi, criticise the thickness of Adam Schiff’s neck, and demonise immigrants.
“Kamala, she is a very low IQ person and we don’t need a very low IQ individual. We’ve had that for four years and our country is going down the drain,” Trump said early in his rally, one of a series of typically vicious critiques on his opponent.
“If you vote for lying Kamala you’ll have four more years of misery, failure and disaster our country may never recover from,” Trump added, to loud jeers.
Trump arrived almost two hours late for the rally, and by the time he started speaking about how divine intervention saved him from an assassination attempt, people had already begun to leave.
This “last rally” offered up much of the grievance and doom that has characterised Trump’s politics.
“Some of the greatest criminals in the world are pouring into our country,” Trump said, mirroring his very first campaign rally, at Trump Tower on June 16 2015.
That day the then-reality tv host descended on an escalator to announce what was seen as a long shot run for the presidency. He offered grave, racially charged warnings about immigration, characterised cities as crime-addled hellholes, made vague, hyperbolic promises about how only he could fix the country, and launched vicious attacks on political rivals.
Fast forward November 2024, and little has changed.
As well as blasting Harris, he called Nancy Pelosi a “crazy horrible human being”, adding: “She’s a sick crazy… oh no… it starts with a b but I won’t say it.”
At 2am, as the rally drew to a close, he returned to the dark motifs that have been such a hallmark of his political career. Trump’s first rally and his last rally may have been nine years apart. But at this final event, held hours before voting begins in what could be one of the most consequential elections in modern history, it was clear that little has changed.
Kamala Harris welcomed a slew of celebrities to her rallies in the closing moments of the election campaign, PA reports.
Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, Will.i.am, Lady Gaga, Jon Bon Jovi and Christina Aguilera were among the superstars lending their voices to support Harris.
Lady Gaga was one of the stars who performed at Harris’ multi-city rally on the evening before the election, where she sang God Bless America before warning the audience “the country is depending on you”.
Meanwhile, talk show host Winfrey said she travelled across the country to appear at the rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, wearing a t-shirt that read “Yes she can”.
“If we don’t show up tomorrow, it is entirely possible that we will not have the opportunity to ever cast a ballot again,” the TV star warned.
Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am performed his Harris endorsement song titled “Yes she can”, which includes the lyrics: “So register and vote for your life, do it for your daughters and your sons and your wife.”
It came moments after Gaga’s performance at the rally, where she told the crowd: “For more than half of this country’s life, women did not have a voice … But tomorrow, women will be a part of making this decision.”
“Today, I am holding in my heart all the tough, tenacious women who made me who I am. I cast my vote for someone who will be a president for all Americans.”
Crowd size has been a persistent talking point for Trump, right from the beginning of his political career more than eight years ago. But Democrats have recently been mocking him over his obsession, pointing out that people have been leaving his lengthy rallies early and that seats at some rallies have been empty. AP has this report:
Donald Trump has spent nearly a decade bragging about his crowds. Lately, he’s been making the same boasts to swaths of empty seats.
In his third presidential bid, Trump for the first time is facing an opponent who stages her own massive rallies, calling further attention to the fact that his crowds, however enthusiastic they are, sometimes have failed to fill large venues and often thinned out as he spoke.
In North Carolina this weekend, the former president and Republican nominee spoke at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, where the lower level of the 22,000-seat arena remained unfilled, with the upper level blocked off altogether.
“We’ve had the biggest rallies in history of any country. Every rally’s full,” he falsely claimed anyway. “You don’t have any seats that are empty.”
He began Monday, the eve of the election, in Raleigh, North Carolina, where a late-arriving crowd came close to filling the venue but left a smattering of empty seats. In Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump took the stage in Santander Arena, where there were sections of empty seats in the 7,200-seat arena. The campaign hung a large American flag near the back of the arena, blocking the view of several seating sections that remained unfilled.
He then went to PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, where the upper level seating was again blocked off.
The former president’s crowds still routinely number in the thousands and they roared regularly as he spoke. And his supporters this year remain engaged enough that his final event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was inside a packed arena even though it started after 12:15 am Tuesday, nearly two hours late. Some rallygoers told a reporter they arrived at 7 am the day before.
But the occasional scenes of empty seats offered a notable contrast to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ biggest events this fall — and to the volume and vibe of Trump’s crowds eight years ago when he sought and won the presidency for the first time …
The former reality television star and consummate showman clearly remains invested in the performative aspect of presidential politics and obviously concerned that Harris, unlike Democrats Hillary Clinton in 2016 or Joe Biden in 2020, can match and even exceed his signature campaign tactic. Harris, for example, recently filled the large coliseum in Greensboro.
‘We’re not ideological bedfellows with Trump,’ senior UK politician admits
‘People say God saved me in order to save America,’ Trump tells rally
