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      Harris marks birthday with church visit after Trump’s crude rhetoric at rally

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      Democratic governors from three states in the so-called blue wall that is key to their party’s aspirations for an electoral college victory delivered closing pitches for Kamala Harris on Sunday as their presidential nominee celebrated her 60th birthday with a visit to church.Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Tony Evers of Wisconsin and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer barnstormed the Sunday morning political shows to talk up the vice-president’s policy agenda – and highlight differences with Republican candidate Donald Trump, 16 days before an election that polls suggest is still on a knife edge.Acolytes of Trump, meanwhile, attempted to defend the former president’s extraordinary and vulgar rhetoric during a Saturday night rally in Pennsylvania, when he called Harris a “shit vice-president” and exalted the size of the late golfer Arnold Palmer’s penis.“I don’t want to go back to Donald Trump when he was in charge of the country,” Shapiro told NBC’s Meet the Press.“Remember the record? I know there’s still some people that have maybe a little brain fog, they don’t remember what it was like under Donald Trump. You had more chaos, you had less jobs, and you had a whole lot less freedom.“I don’t think we want to go back to a time of chaos. I want a stable, strong leader, and that’s Kamala Harris.”It also emerged Sunday that Harris has no plans to campaign with Joe Biden before election day on 5 November, a development appearing to confirm recent reports of friction between the two after the 81-year-old president was pressured out of running for re-election over age-related questions.“The most important role he can play is doing his job as president,” an anonymous White House official told NBC News, which said the decision was mutual following discussions between the campaign and Biden administration officials.Shapiro joined Evers and Whitmer, his fellow passengers on a weekend blue wall bus tour, for a joint interview on ABC’s This Week, in which the three spoke of polls showing the presidential race virtually deadlocked in all three states.“Both candidates believe that Pennsylvania is critical – I just think we’ve got a better candidate, a better message, and what we’re experiencing is a whole lot more energy,” Shapiro said.In Michigan, according to Whitmer, voters were comparing both candidates’ records ahead of the 5 November election.“While this is going to be close, I’d much rather be playing our hand in theirs,” she said. “We got a better candidate. We’ve got receipts on the issues that matter to the American people, on the economy, individual rights, affordable housing, and we got a better ground game.”Evers, a two-term governor, pushed back on Trump’s claims that a Harris administration would tank the US economy, using Democratic policies in Wisconsin as an example.“We have the best economy we’ve ever had, the largest budget we’ve ever had, and we’re in good shape, and people are making more money than they ever made. So we’re in a good place, and it had nothing to do with Donald Trump,” he said.The swing state governors were speaking as Harris rallied Black voters in another swing state, Georgia, on Sunday with “souls to the polls” visits to two community churches.“What kind of country do we want to live in – a country of chaos, fear and hate, or a country of freedom, compassion and justice?” she told the congregation of the New Birth Missionary Baptist church in Atlanta.“The great thing about living in a democracy is that we, the people, have the power to answer that question. So let us answer not just through our words, but through our actions and with our votes.”Harris has been attempting to shore up support from the Black community, particularly Black men. Polls have warned of a lack of enthusiasm for her campaign, though newer polling from the Howard Initiative on Public Opinion found Harris had built a lead among Black voters in swing states.Singer Stevie Wonder was scheduled to join her later at a rally at the Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro. That gathering was set to occur ahead of Harris’s interview with civil rights leader Al Sharpton to be broadcast later Sunday on MSNBC.“We just have to keep doing the work,” Georgia US senator Raphael Warnock – a Black Democrat – said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. “And the good news is – that’s exactly what Kamala Harris [is] … doing.”Trump remained in Pennsylvania for an afternoon rally in Lancaster and a photo-op at a McDonald’s restaurant, the day after his bizarre appearance in Latrobe, Palmer’s home town, in which he riffed at length – in an unrefined address – about how well endowed the golfer was with respect to his genitalia.Republicans appearing on the Sunday talk shows attempted to detract from Trump’s comments and other recent behavior, including suggesting in an interview this week he would use the US military against political enemies.View image in fullscreenThe South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham lost his composure when questioned about it on NBC’s Meet the Press – and tried to pivot to two recent assassination attempts on Trump, both conducted by pro-Republican persons.“When you talk about rhetoric, you gotta remember they tried to blow his head off,” Graham said. “He’s been shot at and hit in the ear, and we’re lucky they didn’t blow his head off. And another guy tried to kill him … so I’m not overly impressed about the rhetoric game here.”Graham also condemned Republican colleagues, including former members of Congress Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, as well as numerous ex-Trump administration officials who have denounced him and expressed support for Harris.The retired general Mark Milley, the former chair of the joint chiefs of staff, called Trump “fascist to the core”, according to veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s new book War.“To every Republican voting for her, what the hell are you doing?” Graham said. “You’re supporting the most radical nominee in the history of American politics. When you support her, you’re supporting four more years of garbage policy.”US House speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, was more restrained – but equally as determined to avoid questions about Trump’s commentary in an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, suggesting that it was host Jake Tapper who was obsessed with talking about Palmer’s penis.“The media can pick it apart, but people are going to vote what’s best for their family and they see that in Trump,” he said.Early in-person voting is under way in numerous states, with voters in Georgia setting a first-day turnout record Tuesday, even as polls have the candidates in a virtual dead heat.Shapiro said winning over the remaining undecided voters would determine the winner.“There are people that, frankly, don’t follow this on a daily basis, people that don’t follow the polls. They go to work, they got kids at home, they do their job with their kids and get up the next day,” he said.“The polls look at a small number. I know it’s a science, but at the end of the day I run into people all the time who just haven’t given it a thought, so we’re going to help them.” More

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      US investigates leaked documents alleging Israel plans to attack Iran

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      The US government is investigating an unauthorised release of classified documents that assess Israel’s plans to attack Iran.The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, confirmed the investigation in remarks to CNN’s State of the Union programme on Sunday, saying the leak was very concerning.“There’s some serious allegations being made there,” the Republican from Louisiana said. “The investigation’s under way, and I’ll get a briefing on that in a couple of hours.”A US official told the Associated Press the documents in question appeared to be legitimate, but the Guardian was not immediately able to verify their authenticity.The documents are attributed to the US Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency. They are written in a style similar to documents previously leaked from the Pentagon, using classifications familiar to the national security community.The first document has the title “Israel: air force continues preparations for strike on Iran and conducts a second large-force employment exercise” and the second “Israel: defense forces continue key munitions preparations and covert UAV activity almost certainly for a strike on Iran”. Both are dated 16 October and were first leaked a day later.In general terms, they note that Israel was still positioning military assets as of the middle of last week to conduct a military strike in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack on 1 October.Based on monitoring from satellite imagery and other geospatial intelligence, they focus on Israeli preparations relating to air-launched ballistic missiles, refuelling aircraft and covert long-range drone surveillance in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.That could imply that Israel was planning a long-range missile response to Iran’s attack, described at one point as similar to the long-range strikes it conducted against the Houthis in Yemen on 29 September.It appears to reflect an effort by the US and its closest partners to independently monitor Israel’s plans to attack Iran, though they do not predict its scale or scope. No potential targets in Iran were mentioned in the documents.The two documents appear to represent a snapshot in time, and are likely to represent the outcome of continuous monitoring. At one point, it is said there is no evidence that Israel is planning to use a nuclear weapon.They refer to preparations to use long-range Rocks missiles, made by the Israeli company Rafael, which are designed to destroy targets above and below ground. Another ballistic system called Golden Horizon is also referred to, but no system of that name is publicly known.Israeli media speculated that could refer to Blue Sparrow missiles, which have a range of about 1,200 miles (2,000km) and are thought to have been used in Israel’s limited strike against Iran in April in response to an previous attack by Tehran. Israel keeps elements of its long-range missile programme secret to avoid its enemies becoming fully aware of its capability.Many elements in the two documents are described as shareable within the Five Eyes intelligence network made up of the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Others are marked as only shareable between the US and the UK.The documents, which are marked top secret, were posted to the Telegram messaging app and first reported by CNN and Axios.US officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly. The investigation was also examining how the documents were obtained – including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the US intelligence community or obtained by another method, like a hack – and whether any other intelligence information was compromised, one of the officials said.As part of that investigation, officials were working to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted, the official added.The US has urged Israel to take advantage of its elimination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and press for a ceasefire in Gaza, and has likewise urgently cautioned Israel not to further expand military operations in the north in Lebanon and risk a wider regional war. However, Israel’s leadership has repeatedly stressed it will not let Iran’s missile attack go unanswered.In a statement, the Pentagon said it was aware of the reports of the documents but did not have further comment.Johnson on Sunday said he spoke with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu – referring to him as “my friend” – and explained how he had made it a point “to encourage him”. He also said there would be “a classified level briefing, and then others, but we’re following it closely”.The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the leak of the two documents. Israeli security officials were expected to meet on Sunday evening.The documents first appeared online Friday via a channel on Telegram, claiming they had been leaked by someone in the US intelligence community, then later the US Department of Defense. The information appeared entirely gathered through the use of satellite image analysis.One of the two documents resembled the style of other material from the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency leaked by Jack Teixeira, an air national guardsman who pleaded guilty in March to leaking highly classified military documents about Russia’s war on Ukraine and other national security secrets.Analytical intelligence documents have a wide distribution within the US national security apparatus, but the Pentagon has been engaged in an effort to clamp down on leaks by restricting them after Teixeira leaked dozens of slides on Discord, a social media site popular with gamers, in April 2023.The Telegram channel involved in the leak identifies itself as being based in Tehran, Iran’s capital. It previously published memes featuring Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and material in support of Tehran’s self-described “axis of resistance”, which includes Middle East militant groups armed by the Islamic Republic.The Associated Press contributed to this report More

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      North Carolina grapples with holding election in hurricane disaster zone

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      In a normal life Jon Council would be holding his last campaign fundraiser of the 2024 cycle, exhorting local small business owners in Watauga county to back his bid to become a county commissioner over a plate of spaghetti and garlic bread.But in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, which left western North Carolina reeling from massive floods that swept away buildings, downed power lines, and left thousands of people stranded in their homes, life is anything but normal in this part of the Appalachians. Instead of wooing donors, the candidate is seeking winter feed for sheep.“We’re talking hay bales, so we really need a truck,” he pleads down the phone.With just over two weeks to go to election day, Council is wrestling with a problem that is common to anyone running for office in this rugged mountainous stretch of western North Carolina, from local candidates like him all the way up to Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. How do you hold an election in a disaster zone?Can you meaningfully talk to people about their electoral choices at a time when they are fighting for daily survival? How do you reach them, let alone engage them, when the internet is down, there is scant cellphone coverage, the roads are broken, power is still out, and mail boxes swept away?“The voting landscape has totally changed,” Council said. “Polling places have been destroyed, people have been unable to leave their homes, absentee ballots and IDs are lost – given all that, talking to folk about why they should vote for me just feels wrong.”Council, who is unaffiliated with any political party, was gearing up his campaign for the final stretch when Helene struck on 26 September. The flooding and landslides killed at least 115 people in North Carolina, with almost 100 still missing.View image in fullscreenBefore Helene, Council and his team of volunteers were canvassing the 10,000 voters in his heavily rural – and largely Trump-supporting – district. They planned to step up advocacy for more affordable housing and, presciently, increased environmental protections to clean up local rivers and prevent flooding.“We were just ramping up the push to November when the storm happened,” he said.After Helene, campaigning was put on hold. The team immediately segued to disaster relief, helping rescue families trapped in their homes and hiking into remote areas to deliver food, water and critical medical supplies.And now, as winter sets in with early snows already falling, he is scouring for sources of fresh hay to donate to farmers in danger of losing their animals after bale supplies of vital winter feed were destroyed in the floods.“Since the storm, I really haven’t campaigned at all,” Council said. The result is visible in his office, which is now stacked with generators, canned vegetables and cat food where hand-made election placards and fliers were once stored.But the election will still happen on 5 November, so that agonising question – how to communicate with voters in the midst of a disaster – is becoming more pressing.“It’s a very difficult balance,” he said. “I’ve built a trust with people, including many Trump supporters who have told me I’ve got their support, and I don’t want to call that into question by being disingenuous.”So he remains painstakingly careful to avoid any impression that his relief work is tied to people’s votes, while at the same time gradually segueing back to campaigning. In the daytime he continues disaster efforts, then after dark he and his campaign manager turn to the election until midnight.View image in fullscreenThey are cranking their social media election posts back up, working out ways to encourage people to vote early or through absentee ballots, and debating whether to send out a mailer. They still feel odd about that.“It doesn’t feel appropriate to the way we’ve wanted to run this campaign, sending election mail to people when they still don’t have a driveway,” he said.The election board for Avery county, one of 25 North Carolina counties badly hit by Helene, sits inside the courthouse in Newland. Visitors to the building have to pass through a metal detector guarded by a uniformed officer who greets you with the refrain: “Are you for Trump? You better be, cause if he loses you’re gonna be speaking Chinese.”In her office, the director of the board of elections, Sheila Ollis, is doing all she can to mitigate the fallout of the hurricane. Of the 19 designated polling stations in the county, 14 were seriously damaged.Ollis is hoping that the 13,000 or so registered voters will not be discouraged from casting their ballots. She is proud of the county’s record of high voter turnout – in 2020, despite the pandemic, it was an impressive 76% – and wants to keep it that way.New emergency voting arrangements have been put in place by the state board of elections covering the 13 most devastated counties. The new rules balance access to the polls with the safety of poll workers and voters.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionEarly voting days, which began on Thursdaywith all but four of the 80 sites open in the hurricane stricken area, have been boosted. In Avery county a second early polling station has been added in the heart of the worst impacted area.But voting hours have been shortened, ending at 4.30pm to avoid people driving in the dark.The state’s normally strict voter ID restrictions have been eased to allow those who have lost their identification documents in the storm to still cast a ballot, and they can do so in a precinct other than their own should they have been forced to move. Voters are also now allowed to come into the election board office to request or file an absentee ballot.View image in fullscreen“One man brought in an absentee ballot yesterday and it looked like it had been floating in the river,” Ollis said. “So we spoiled it and issued him another.”Election and disaster relief workers have had to deal with the swirl of misinformation, much of it targeted against the federal government and inspired by Trump and Elon Musk. Ollis has had to deal with a spate of calls from registered voters who have received printed notices telling them that they were not eligible to vote in Avery county – she has no idea where the fake declarations came from.“Any little seeds of doubt get folks worried they may not be registered,” she said.For the most part, she tries to block the noise out. Despite the extraordinary collision of arguably the most consequential presidential election in modern times and the worst natural disaster the area has ever seen, Ollis is determined to remain calm and do her job.“You just can’t think about it. The same rules apply for any election, whether town mayor or US president. We just eat the elephant one bite at a time, following the protocol.”With election day fast approaching, Jon Council can feel the energy around his county commissioner race building. “It’s warming back up,” he said.He imagines that within a week he will return to direct canvassing, though he will take each day as it comes. “The landscape shifts daily, so our focus has to shift daily.”Whatever happens on 5 November, he’s feeling philosophical about it. He’s hoping that the work he has done helping his community will speak for itself, without the need for political embellishment.“Honestly, I think it’s a stronger form of canvassing for someone to say, ‘Oh, that’s the guy that brought that generator, and we didn’t even realize he was running for county commissioner.’”But if they still don’t vote for him, that’s OK too.“If I were to lose this election because I’m doing disaster relief, helping people get the things they need, I would wear that like a badge,” he said. More

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      Bob Woodward’s new book War is a sober but alarming must-read

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      The Middle East and Ukraine are ablaze, the US mired in turmoil. An octogenarian president recedes from view. The threat of a second Trump term hangs like the sword of Damocles. Fifty years ago, with Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward captured Watergate and the downfall of Richard Nixon. Now, the US sits at an inflection point once again. Woodward’s fourth book at least in part about Donald Trump is a sober but alarming must-read.War depicts an administration under Joe Biden that is often behind the curve, at times captive to its own wishful thinking. The withdrawal from Afghanistan haunts. Trump mesmerizes. Yet as Woodward tells it, Biden and his team did clearly see the menace Russia posed. Unlike George W Bush, Biden did not need to gaze into Vladimir Putin’s blighted soul. Unlike Trump, he did not feel compelled to fluff his ego like a besotted fanboy.True to form, Woodward gets his sources to talk. “All interviews were conducted under the journalist ground rule of ‘deep background’,” he notes. Unless the source agreed to be named. “It’s still a mystery to me how he deals with Putin and what he says to Putin,” Dan Coats, director of national intelligence under Trump, says of his former boss. “Is it blackmail?” There’s something there, Coats is sure.In the fall of 2021, the Biden administration concluded that Russia would soon invade Ukraine. They had the intelligence to prove it. They mounted a full-court press. On the front pages of the Washington Post, they laid out what was coming. They warned and later armed the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, despite his initial skepticism, and they rallied the west.“You have no reason to invade Ukraine,” Boris Johnson, then British prime minister, told Putin in October 2021, according to Woodward. Woodward also says Johnson called Putin a “small, puckish lowlife”, for whatever that is worth. The Biden administration looked further afield. “We are highly confident Russia is going to do this,” Kamala Harris told Emmanuel Macron, in November 2021. “France is prepared to impose costs,” the French president answered. “I’m on board for that.” As war broke out, Germany announced that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with Russia would not proceed.Woodward also quotes Biden sharply criticizing Barack Obama for a half-hearted response to earlier Russian aggression. “They fucked up in 2014,” Woodward quotes the president telling a friend, of the year of the annexation of Crimea. “That’s why we are here … Barack never took Putin seriously … We gave Putin a license to continue! Well, I’m revoking his fucking license!”Predictably, Trump and his minions hold a different view of Putin. “This is genius,” the once and possibly future president said, after Putin declared regions of Ukraine independent, on top of invading them. “Here’s a guy who’s very savvy,” Trump said. “I know him very well. Very, very well.”Woodward also reminds readers that after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, Trump heaped praise on another terror group, calling Hezbollah “very smart” and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, a “jerk”. At a recent speech in Detroit, Trump delivered a shout-out to Massad Boulos, father-in-law of Tiffany Trump, the former president’s daughter from his second marriage. Boulos, a Lebanese Christian, is reportedly aligned with Hezbollah. Having run unsuccessfully for a seat in Lebanon’s parliament, he plays a role in Trump’s Arab-American outreach.Back to Woodward’s text. Over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Maga fell into line. “This is going to be old-school original gangster,” said Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign chairman and White House strategist, now close to finishing a four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress. The former Fox News host Tucker Carlson minimized the invasion as a “mere border dispute”.On the Middle East, Woodward writes of a cacophony of wrath, relations between Washington and Jerusalem strained, even as the US supplies ammunition, aid and backup at the UN. Early on, Woodward writes, Biden branded Benjamin Netanyahu as a “bad fucking guy” – a story initially denied by the White House.Woodward portrays Biden and advisers as more myopic when it comes to domestic events, misjudging their mandate and the mood of the country. Woodward also says Biden kept close tabs on the government prosecution of his son, Hunter, on charges concerning taxes and guns. “I love what you are doing. Keep doing it,” Biden reportedly told Abbe Lowell, Hunter’s lawyer. Since then, Hunter has been convicted. Woodward also shows Biden lamenting picking Merrick Garland, the man overseeing such prosecutions, as attorney general.Trump, though, is in Woodward’s eyes “the wrong man for the presidency … unfit to lead the country”, far worse than Nixon, “the most reckless and impulsive president in American history”.And all the while, on the campaign trail, Trump rages on. “I am your warrior. I am your justice,” he tells supporters. “For those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” Mark Milley, chair of the joint chiefs of staff under Trump and Biden, now retired, tells Woodward he fears being court-martialed if Trump returns to power.“He is a walking, talking advertisement of what he’s going to try to do,” Milley warns. “He’s saying it and it’s not just him, it’s the people around him.” Woodward quotes Bannon: “We’re gonna hold him accountable.”The culture wars burn. All eyes are on the southern border. Abortion rights may not be the Democrats’ silver bullet. Harris falters. Obama is back on the campaign trail, to bolster a sagging ticket. Less than a month before election day, a second Trump term looms large. In the battleground states that will decide the election, he may carve out a victory.

      War is published in the US by Simon & Schuster More

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      Incarcerated Californians can’t vote. A prison held an election anyway

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      An estimated 4 million US citizens are barred from voting because they have a felony conviction. That includes most Americans serving prison sentences.But last week at San Quentin, the 172-year-old prison in the San Francisco Bay Area, residents had a rare opportunity to weigh in on a US election where so much is on the line.As incarcerated residents jogged on the yard and played pickleball, dozens stopped by the prison’s education department and slid paper ballots into a locked metal box with an American flag and the word “vote” painted on it.The voters were participating in a mock election, organized by Juan Moreno Haines, a journalist incarcerated at San Quentin, and Mount Tamalpais College (MTC), a liberal arts institution based at the prison.“It’s important for me to have a voice, especially if it’s being heard on the outside,” said Michael Scott, 45, who is due to be released next year after having been incarcerated for more than two decades, before casting his vote.California, like most US states, prohibits incarcerated people with felonies from voting, affecting more than 90,000 people in state prisons. The US is a global leader in its incarceration rate and an outlier in its sweeping disenfranchisement; a recent report identified more than 70 countries with no or very few restrictions on voting based on criminal records. Roughly 1.7% of the US voting-age population can’t vote, with Black Americans disproportionately excluded and restrictions potentially affecting election results.For San Quentin’s election, MTC, which recently became the first US accredited college exclusively operating behind bars, directed incarcerated students in its American government class to design ballots, choosing which races and initiatives to poll.MTC sent all 3,247 residents a ballot. After a week of voting, 341 ballots had been returned, representing 10.5% of the population. Fifteen volunteers from MTC and the League of Women Voters tallied the results: Kamala Harris won 57.2% of votes, and Donald Trump won 28.2%. Claudia De la Cruz of the Peace and Freedom party, a socialist ticket, won 3.5% of votes; the Green party’s Jill Stein won 2.6%; Robert F Kennedy Jr won 2.1%; and Chase Oliver, a libertarian, won 0.3%.View image in fullscreenIn the California senate race, Adam Schiff, the Democratic candidate, defeated Republican Steve Garvey with 33.7% of votes, though nearly half of respondents left this question blank. Nearly 60% favored Prop 5, which would boost affordable housing funding; 78% favored Prop 32, which would increase the minimum wage; and 57.2% rejected Prop 36, which would increase penalties for certain drug and theft crimes.Prop 6 would change the state constitution to abolish forced prison labor, making it a high-stakes measure for incarcerated people. Just more than 77% of respondents backed it.The state of California, like most others in the US, allows for incarcerated people to be forced to work against their will. California profits from this form of involuntary servitude, with residents providing vital services for negligible wages. Most people in prison currently make less than $0.75 (£0.58) an hour for their jobs.Prop 6 is meant to allow incarcerated people to choose their jobs and prohibit prisons from punishing those who refuse an assignment. Dante Jones, 41, said he wished he could vote for Prop 6 on 5 November: “We’ve got legalized plantations … They say they want us to be citizens, they want to rehabilitate us, but then they don’t do anything that allows that to happen. Technically, by the constitution, we’re slaves and they can whip our backs.”Jones said he hopes if Prop 6 passes, incarcerated people can earn better wages to afford commissary, including food.Jones’ assessment of the presidential race was grim: “I think we’re losing either way.” He reluctantly supported Harris despite her prosecutorial record and reputation for harshly punishing Black defendants: “She ain’t for her people. Do you know how many Black and brown people she put in prison? … She’s gonna be like a Bill Clinton, a conservative Democrat who is tough on crime.” Despite those misgivings, he couldn’t stomach supporting Trump: “Since he’s been in politics, he’s been courting racist white people who think that people who aren’t white are taking their country.”Jaime Joseph Jaramillo, 53, said he supported Trump, appreciating his promise of mass deportations to “get rid of the drug cartels” and favoring him on foreign policy: “I want him to bomb Iran and drill, drill, drill.” He expressed sympathy for Palestinians, but said: “I want him to take out Hamas.”Nate Venegas, 47, said he, too, favored Trump because “our system needs somebody who’s not a politician”. He thinks Trump could be more swayed on prison reform, citing the former president’s decision to pardon a woman’s drug offense after lobbying by Kim Kardashian while he was in office. But he also called Trump a “clown” and said he disliked his vigorous support of capital punishment: “I don’t believe there should be a death penalty. I don’t believe a man should kill another man.”Scott voted for Harris “because she gives me something to look forward to. Trump hasn’t given me anything that he plans to do, except lock down the borders. We have problems with homelessness, jobs and climate change.”Gabriel Moctezuma, 32, said he considered Harris “the lesser of two evils” and supported her on reproductive rights and immigration: “I think there would be a lot of progressive changes. There have been a lot of human rights taken away from people and she’ll bring some of those policies back.” But he worries about divisions in the country: “No matter who wins, this country is going to be split and I’m really hoping that there’s not the same amount of violence as January 6.”View image in fullscreenView image in fullscreenOn their ballots, some offered handwritten notes about why they voted:“We have not always had the right to vote. So I would like to cast my vote for each of my [African American] ancestors that was denied access.”“I only ever voted once in my life and I want to do so again.”“Democracy is at stake.”“I want to feel like I am a part of history.”“[I’ve] been in prison for 29 years and never had an opportunity to vote.”Vermont, Maine and Washington DC are the only places in the US where all incarcerated people can vote.Amy Jamgochian, the chief academic officer at MTC, said the disenfranchisement of incarcerated people was a reminder that the US is “very confused as a society about what incarceration is for”.“Is it for depriving people of humanity and rights? Will that help them? Are we trying to help them? Or are we just trying to warehouse them? If [the goal] is rehabilitation, then I don’t think we want to dehumanize them. We want to actually deeply respect their humanity, including giving them the right to vote.”Venegas, who has been incarcerated for 25 years and is part of a civic engagement group at San Quentin, said he did feel society’s views on the purpose of the criminal justice system are shifting. He noted how, 20 years ago, the system was primarily focused on punishment, with little interest in getting people ready to come home.Last year, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, renamed San Quentin a “rehabilitation center”, pledging to turn the prison into a complex resembling a college campus focused on programming and re-entry.It’s just another reason why efforts like the mock election matter, Venegas argued. “People are starting to listen to us and care about having us as neighbors when we get out,” he said. “So our voices really matter … and I’d give anything to be able to vote and have a say.”

      Juan Moreno Haines is an incarcerated journalist at San Quentin and editor-in-chief of Solitary Watch. Sam Levin is a staff reporter at Guardian US More

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      Biden’s economic legacy could decide the presidential race in Scranton

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      From the north, motorists pull into Scranton via the Joseph R Biden Jr Expressway. Cutting through the scenic Pocono Mountains, now at the start of autumn color season, they are greeted with a towering, electric billboard, blaring an encapsulating – if divisive – message to this working-class town: “Democrats for Trump,” it reads. “Economy,” it continues, with a green checked box next to the word.The sign in Biden’s hometown is the perfect fall 2024 welcome mat in this crucial swing state filled with voters whose economic anxiety or satisfaction will decide next month’s election.The US has staged a remarkable recovery since the pandemic and Biden has successfully pursued an economic agenda, Bidenomics, that should benefit Scranton and the state – $13bn has been earmarked from his infrastructure bill for repairing highways and bridges alone. But poll after poll shows deep-seated worries about the economy – worries that could sink Democrats’ chances of keeping the White House come November.Like many mid-sized upper midwest cities that have faced post-industrial decline, Scranton, a longtime Democratic stronghold, has grown more conservative in recent elections. With the city’s native son leaving office, and pocketbook issues top of mind, some believe Trump could finally take Scranton – a more-than-symbolic win.But with Kamala Harris, Biden’s successor, and Donald Trump tied in the polls, guessing who will take Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the White House is a fool’s errand. And this politically split town shows why the race is so close. On the street, one person’s economic reality may be entirely different to the next.The complicated political mix of fears about the local economy, faith and mistrust in both Harris and Trump and shifting political allegiance was evident at the Marketplace at Steamtown, a downtown mall filled with local mom-and-pop shops.Pete, 78, a swing voter who declined to provide his last name, said inflation had been a problem over the last four years, but added prices were coming down, the stock market was high, and said he didn’t blame Biden for the economic challenges.“Every president is stuck with what happened before, and the pandemic happened, so Biden was in a hole to begin with,” Pete said. But the veteran added the main issue driving him to Harris was Trump disrespecting veterans: “He called us suckers and losers.”The argument for Trump’s economics is ironclad, said Lori Higgins with a scoff: “Look at the last four years – everyone is paying more for everything. What more do you need to know to make a decision?” Now 52, she voted for Democrats until Trump convinced her to switch sides in 2016.Even on the most basic details, there is disagreement: Pete said he had just paid $2.99 for gas, citing it as evidence that inflation was coming under control. Two Trump supporters said they paid as much as $3.50 for gas, evidence, they said, that inflation is still squeezing Scranton.Trump and Harris have made close to 50 visits to Pennsylvania so far this election cycle and poured nearly $1bn into ads – a record spend that reflects how crucial its 19 electoral votes, the biggest prize of any battleground, make the keystone state. Trump made his second visit to Scranton in as many months last week. “Go get everyone you know and vote immediately,” he urged rallygoers.But persuading any part of the deeply divided electorate to swap their vote looks difficult.View image in fullscreenHarris may yet hold Scranton, said Berwood Yost, a Pennsylvania pollster, but that is “surprising” given the level of economic discontent in the city and the county. “The dissatisfaction with Biden is really high and views on personal finances are very negative, so Trump should be clearly ahead,” Yost said. And yet polling averages show Harris ahead by a point in Pennsylvania, (firmly within the margin of error) which “speaks in part to some voters’ concerns about Trump and his personal character”.Since 2000, Democrats have won the county with as much as 63% support, but Hillary Clinton narrowly won with less than 50% of the 2016 vote. Biden’s home-field advantage may have buoyed Dems in 2020 – he was born and raised in Scranton until the age of 10, when his family moved to Delaware, and he has name-checked the city throughout his long career and is still nicknamed “Pennsylvania’s third senator”. Biden beat Trump in the county by 53.7% to 45.3%.Still, Scranton has become “ground zero for demonstrating the appeal of Trump and the Maga movement, and places that traditionally voted Democrat and ended up changing their stripes in a significant way”, Yost said.‘Way more optimistic’Once a powerhouse city in the nation’s coal capital, Scranton’s economy is now driven by small business, retail, healthcare, education and the service sector, said Satyajit Ghosh, a University of Scranton economist. Though there is no shortage of empty storefronts downtown, it is noticeably livelier than many similar Rust belt urban cores.University of Scranton’s surveys of downtown businesses found owners in April had concerns about the current economic climate but were decidedly more optimistic about the next six months: “Way more optimistic than they were a year ago,” Ghosh said.View image in fullscreenYost’s most recent polling put Harris up three points statewide and found the economy to be the top issue for 34% of residents. Other recent polling found 60% of Pennsylvanians said their economic situation was worse compared with 40% who say it was better or no different.James Simrell is part of the latter group. As he closed up his boxing gym in Steamtown, the lifelong Democrat was upbeat about Scranton’s economy. His gym is just one of his three businesses, and all stay busy – he also designs jewelry and runs a small farm that produces butternut squash and pumpkins. He sells pumpkins to Blackwatch Cafe, and squash to Abe’s Delicatessen, which uses it in their soup. “Everyone is doing well,” Simrell said.In contrast, the Trump economy was “falling apart” as the former president left office amid a poorly managed pandemic, Simrell said. He has other reasons for not voting for Trump. His two adopted children are Black and Trump is “a little bit prejudiced – it drives my wife crazy”.Echoing longtime Democratic voters’ sentiment, he added: “My mom and dad were Democrats and I follow what they believe, and Kamala’s the best person to be president – she’s not crazy.”But lingering inflation is still a drag for Eric Flesher, who runs a collectibles and vintage store, Rock-N-Models. He likened the economy to a “tightening sphincter”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHe declined to talk about politics, but said everything remained expensive: “I’m in a business that sells stuff that nobody needs unless they have disposable income, so it gets much more difficult” when there is inflation, Flesher said.Flesher added that he disagreed with the “mindset here that I should vote for someone because that’s how my mom and dad voted – then you’re just voting for a party and not a person”, he added.‘She’s not the kind you can trust’The economic indicators in Scranton track those of the wider US. Inflation, which peaked at an annual rate of 9.1% in mid-2022, has eased to 2.4%. Prices are similarly down in Scranton, the economist Ghosh said. Unemployment in the region was 4.8% in August, above the 4.1% national average but down from 9.2% when Biden took office in January 2021.“In this area, which I’ve covered for many years, I really haven’t ever seen this strong of a performance in terms of employment,” said Ghosh. Still, there’s an after-effect of inflation that consumers feel, Ghosh added, and some high prices, like those for rent or food, are still hurting.Outside a Walmart in Dickson City, a retail hub just north of Scranton, husband and wife John and Carol Gardner still feel the pinch. The Mount Cobb residents used to pay $150-$200 a month on groceries, and now they pay twice that. Carol is out of a job on disability, while John assembles buffet trays for $12 an hour to make ends meet, even though he said he should be retired.View image in fullscreen“Trump at least made sure we could go shopping, and Biden is making sure we can’t,” Carol said. “I hope the lady doesn’t get in because we’re going to go straight downhill – she’s not the kind you can trust.”The view is different at Bethel AME, a 153-year old Black church on downtown’s west side. Pastor Mark Alexander sees an improving economy, and blames inflation on Trump.“Inflation was more so because of Covid, and how the former president handled that situation, because when you have supply chain interruptions and poor leadership guiding the nation, it exacerbates things,” he said.The Federal Reserve, not the president, decides rates, Alexander noted, and he pointed to low unemployment, the Chips Act – which is pouring billions into domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors – and Biden’s infrastructure bill as evidence of the president’s economic success.Moreover, at Bethel AME, there is “excitement for someone who looks like us and has experienced some of things we have gone through and comes from a middle-class upbringing”, Alexander added. “As opposed to a billionaire who has no clue what it is like day to day for middle-class people,” he said. That’s especially true with younger people because Harris “speaks their language”, Alexander added.For others, neither candidate is appealing. Mike Gilson owns a flooring business, a maintenance company, and manages artists and chefs. He said the economy was strong locally because its economic backbone was made up of longtime small businesses, and it fared better during the last session than most other areas because of that composition.View image in fullscreenBut the city’s relatively strong economic standing is not persuading Gilson to vote for Harris. He said the president was a “ceremonial position” and big corporations run the nation. “If the president actually wielded the power that people think they do then voting would make a lot more sense to me,” Gilson said.History will decide which of Scranton’s many voices will decide this election. Right now it is unclear whether the legacy of the city’s most famous son will be enough to carry Harris over the line or finally hand Scranton and the state to Trump.With the race essentially a toss-up at this point, the key for either party is going to be turnout, Yost said. But in that battle, Trump may have an advantage – people who are less likely to vote have in recent elections voted for Trump.“Democrats have to counter that by getting their voters to the polls,” Yost said. “Think about the election as a mosaic – there are many pieces and some are bigger than others, but they’re all going to matter.” More

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      Elon Musk promises to award $1m every day to voters as he steps up campaigning for Trump

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      Elon Musk said his Trump-supporting political action committee – America Pac – will give $1m every day until election day to someone who signs his petition that effectively encourages Republicans in the key battleground states to register to vote.The commitment, which started on Saturday as Musk handed a lottery-style check to the first winner of his contest at a town hall event, could mean Musk is on the hook for $17m if he remains the sole donor to his own Pac.The America Pac petition is for any registered voter in Pennsylvania to pledge their support for the first and second amendments. The petition effectively encourages Trump voters to register to vote so they can be in the $1m draw. Attendees of Saturday’s town hall event had to sign the petition, which allows America Pac to garner contact details for more potential voters that it can work to get to the polls for Trump.The petition does not require signers to be a Republican; any Democrat registered to vote in Pennsylvania could sign it too.Musk’s event in Harrisburg on Saturday was the third in as many days in Pennsylvania, where Musk is painting November’s election in stark terms and encouraging supporters to vote early and get others to do the same.Musk has so far donated $75m to America Pac, which is doing the bulk of Donald Trump’s ground game operation in the battleground states, according to FEC disclosures filed this week.But the ground game operation appears to have issues. Earlier on Saturday, the Guardian reported that roughly 25% of the door-knocks done by America Pac in Arizona and Nevada were flagged internally as potentially fraudulent – when canvassers falsely claim to have visited a home.The Trump campaign earlier this year outsourced the bulk of its ground game to America Pac, which is betting that spending millions to turn out Trump supporters, especially those who don’t typically vote, would boost returns.But leaked America Pac data obtained by the Guardian shows that roughly 24% of the door-knocks in Arizona and 25% of the door-knocks in Nevada this week were flagged under “unusual survey logs” by the Campaign Sidekick canvassing app.America Pac declined to comment. A person familiar with the Pac’s field operation denied there was actual door fraud to that extent in Arizona and Nevada and said they were doing their own auditing.But the extent of the flagged doors in America Pac’s operation underscores the risk of outsourcing a ground-game program, where paid canvassers are typically not as invested in their candidate’s victory compared with volunteers or campaign staff. More

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      US presidential election updates: Stars turn out for Harris while Trump tells story about Arnold Palmer’s ‘anatomy’

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      On the first day of early voting in Detroit, Michigan, rapper Lizzo campaigned for Kamala Harris, saying she rejected the argument that America was not ready for a female president, adding, “It’s about damn time”. In Atlanta, Georgia, Harris was joined by singer Usher, with the Democratic candidate describing Donald Trump’s speeches as “nonsense”.With Harris and Trump essentially tied in the most competitive states, both campaigns are focused on early by mail or in person voting, with just 17 days until the 5 November election.In the battleground of Pennsylvania, Trump escalated his personal attacks on Harris, calling her a “shit vice-president”. The Republican candidate had billed the event as the start of his final argument to voters but quickly went off script with a long story about Arnold Palmer that included remarks about the genitalia of the late golfing legend.Here’s what else happened on Saturday:Kamala Harris election news and updates

      In both Detroit and Atlanta, Harris urged her supporters to put in an all-out effort to win. “On election day, we don’t want to have any regrets about what we could have done these next 17 days,” she said. Harris hammered Trump for a second straight day for cancelling events and for avoiding another presidential debate because of what she called “exhaustion”. Her campaign called Trump’s Pennsylvania rally “junk”, saying he had focused on the issue “most important to voters in this election: a deceased golfer’s ‘anatomy’.”

      In Atlanta, Harris said Trump was “cruel” for how he talked about the grieving family of a Georgia mother who died after complications from an abortion pill. Harris blamed Amber Thurman’s death on Georgia’s abortion restrictions and referenced a clip of Trump at a Fox News town hall. When asked about the Thurman family joining a separate media call, Trump reportedly said “we’ll get better ratings, I promise.” “Donald Trump still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and the suffering he has caused,” Harris said.

      Harris repeated her call for a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza and said it was important to seize the opportunity provided by the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Harris dodged a question on whether Arab American and Muslim anger over US support for Israel could cost her the election in the battleground state of Michigan, but said she would continue speaking out about the tragic loss of innocent lives. “I speak publicly all the time about the fact that there are so many tragic stories coming from Gaza,” Harris said.
      Donald Trump election news and updates

      In Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Trump said Harris is further to the left than Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, adding “You have to tell Kamala Harris that you’ve had enough, that you just can’t take it any more.” Trump underscored the importance of the eastern state’s electoral college delegates to the overall election: “If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole damn thing.”

      Donald Trump’s campaign may be failing to reach thousands of voters they hope to turn out in Arizona and Nevada, with roughly a quarter of door-knocks done by America Pac flagged by its canvassing app as potentially fraudulent, according to leaked data and people familiar with the matter. The Trump campaign earlier this year outsourced the bulk of its ground game to America Pac, the political action committee founded by Elon Musk, betting that spending millions to turn out Trump supporters, especially those who don’t typically vote, would boost returns.
      Elsewhere on the campaign trail

      Early voting also began on Saturday in Nevada, where Barack Obama campaigned for Harris in Las Vegas. The former president poked fun at Trump, telling the audience “we don’t need to see what an older, loonier Donald trump with no guard rails looks like.”

      Billionaire Mark Cuban – who has emerged as an energetic campaign surrogate for Harris – has told the Guardian that Trump’s planned tariffs could put “small retailers and manufacturers out of business.” “Small businesses don’t have the pricing elasticity of larger companies. They can’t pass on the incremental and administrative costs associated with tariffs.”

      Elsewhere another billionaire – Elon Musk – campaigned for Trump in Pennsylvania. Speaking in Harrisburg, he announced he would start randomly distribute cash awards – $1m each day until the election – to a registered voter in the state who signed his organisation’s petition. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has taken an increasingly visible role in Trump’s campaign and has donated almost $75m to his political organisation America PAC.
      Read more about the 2024 US election:

      Presidential poll tracker

      Harris and Trump policies

      What to know about early voting More