US election 2024: Trump and Harris head to swing states as race heats up

We are pausing our live coverage for today, although keep an eye on our Euronews election hub for more stories on the US presidential election.

Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow!

Speaking to crowds in Charlotte, North Carolina, Harris reiterated points made at earlier rallies.

She notably promised to bring down the cost of living, champion affordable housing and healthcare, and cut taxes for small businesses.

Harris also brought up Project 2025, framing it as a Trump manifesto.

Project 2025 is a document outlining plans for the next presidential administration, published by American conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation in 2023.

Trump and his campaign have worked to distance themselves from Project 2025, despite Democratic efforts to associate Trump with the initiative.

Democratic nominee for vice president Tim Walz is campaigning this afternoon in Flagstaff, Arizona, with the help of interior secretary Deb Haaland. 

Addressing crowds, Walz criticised Trump’s economic record, arguing that it favoured billionaires and hurt normal Americans.

“Donald Trump isn’t thinking about how to make your lives better. In fact, you can be certain that Donald Trump isn’t thinking about you at all,” he said. 

On the other hand, Walz called his running mate Harris “a president for all Americans”.

Arizona turned blue in 2020 for the first time since the 1990s.

Immigration is a key debate topic in the state, along with abortion.

Donald Trump has reiterated that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would play a role in his administration if he were to be elected.

The Washington Post claimed earlier in the week that Kennedy had met with Trump’s team to discuss aims for a fresh Republican term.

Kennedy is preparing to take on a role linked to health and food safety within a potential Trump administration.

The former independent candidate is well-known for his scepticism of vaccines and his endorsement of conspiracy theories.

The FBI has released a statement to tackle election misinformation.

The agency outlined two videos circulating on social media that are not authentic.

One claims that the FBI had “apprehended three linked groups committing ballot fraud” and the other concerns Doug Emhoff - husband of Kamala Harris.

Women’s Marches are planned across the US on Saturday as the presidential hopefuls hold rallies in battleground states.

Both Trump and Harris are seeking to win their support, claiming they can best protect women's interests.

Women in the US are more likely to show up to cast their ballots than men and in 2020, about 10 million more women voted than men, according to the Center for American Women in Politics.

"No matter where you're voting, we are in a choice between freedom and fascism," Women's March executive director Rachel O'Leary Carmona told ABC News on Saturday.

The Women’s March organisation is supporting Kamala Harris, largely influenced by policies around reproductive rights.

"The border patrol guys are fantastic. They just endorsed me… To them, there’s nobody that ever did the border job like I did," said Trump in Gastonia, North Carolina, on Saturday.

He was referring to the endorsement he received from leaders of the Border Patrol union.

With current President Biden in office, he argued: "The border is horrible. It’s death, it's destruction, it's the ruination of our country."

Last month, Trump pledged to hire an extra 10,000 border patrol agents if he is re-elected as president.

Speaking at a rally in Gastonia, Trump also sought to appeal to the concerns of black voters. Their support will be essential if he wants to win the battleground state of North Carolina.

"100% of all net job gains in the past year have gone… to migrants… You know where they came from? From African-American jobs. Migrants coming in illegally have taken African-American jobs."

This claims echoes a comment from Trump earlier in the year, proven to be false.

"Virtually 100% of the new jobs under Biden have also gone to illegal aliens,” he said in June.

Speaking in Atlanta, Georgia, Harris told supporters that one of her top priorities is making sure "that hard-working Americans can actually afford a place to live”.

She also outlined her plans for the Affordable Care Act, stating: “It’s not right that the current situation is that you have spend down your savings to qualify for Medicaid or quit your job to be able to take care of a family member.”

 Presidential hopeful Trump walked on to the stage in Gastonia to chants of “USA! USA!”.

“I’ve come today with a message of hope for all Americans,” he said. “I will end inflation, I will stop the invasion of massive numbers of criminals that have come into our country. And I will bring back the American dream.”

Referring to the economy, he claimed that Harris “broke it”, and that he will “fix it”.

He promised to cut taxes for workers and small businesses, and also pledged to increase oil drilling and fracking in the US to lower energy prices.

Some experts have nonetheless expressed concerns that Trump’s proposed tariffs may cause an inflationary spike as they will make imported goods more expensive.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he will introduce either a 10% or 20% universal levy on all foreign-made goods.

He has also proposed a targeted 60% import tariff on Chinese goods, along with a 100% tariff on all imported cars - no matter their country of origin.

President Biden has been speaking in Scranton in the battleground state of  Pennsylvania, a state that turned blue for him in the 2020 election.

Calling upon voters’ economic concerns, he talked up the economic legacy left by his presidential term - with Harris by his side.

“We’ve already protected the pensions of over 1.2 million workers and retirees,” Biden said. “That includes over 65,000 workers and retirees across Pennsylvania alone.”

He also highlighted his pro-union credentials.

“A lot of politicians have trouble saying the word union, but I’m not one of them,” said the president.

“By the way, neither does Kamala,” he said.

Donald Trump on Saturday, speaking in Gastonia, North Carolina, accused Kamala Harris of likening him to Adolf Hitler - a claim she has never explicitly made.

Kamala Harris has, however, referred to her presidential rival as “a fascist”.

This comment was made after Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff said the former president praised Adolf Hitler while in office.

Earlier this week, Trump told supporters in Georgia that he was “the opposite of a Nazi”.

Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, has compared Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally to a Nazi rally in support of Hitler held at the venue in 1939.

Trump responded to Harris calling him a fascist by saying, “She’s a fascist, OK? She’s a fascist”.

The only two candidates in the presidential race who can realistically claim victory are Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

That said, it doesn’t mean they’re the only ones running for president.

Contenders include: the US’ Green party nominee Jill Stein, liberal Cornel West for the People’s Party, and Chase Oliver for the Libertarian Party. Robert F Kennedy Jr, a previous contender, suspended his campaign in August to endorse Trump.

On Friday, a coalition of European Greens urged Jill Stein to drop out of the race and endorse Kamala Harris. They fear that her campaign could open the door to a Trump victory.

Those encouraging Stein to step down include Green parties from several countries such as Germany, Ireland, Belgium and Spain.

“We are clear that Kamala Harris is the only candidate who can block Donald Trump and his anti-democratic, authoritarian policies from the White House,” they wrote.

The North Carolina Board of Elections put out a statement on Saturday, reminding naturalised citizens that they are eligible to vote.

A naturalised citizen is someone who has legally become a citizen of that country, although they were not born there.

“It does not matter if you were born a US citizen or were naturalized or acquired citizenship,” said the statement.

 “And it does not matter if you are a citizen, but your family members are not. Citizenship is citizenship, and it pertains to you.”

Film director Spike Lee has told voters to "do the right thing", speaking at a Harris rally in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Democratic presidential candidate is expected to take to the stage in a little more than an hour.

Performances are also lined up from artists like rapper 2 Chainz.

A reminder that the winner of the presidential election is not necessarily the candidate with the most votes across the country.

For example, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 but she didn't make it to the White House.

The victor is the candidate who secures the most votes from the electoral college.There are 538 electoral college votes, and the presidential candidate needs a majority to win.

Each state gets a certain number of electors, partly based on its population size. 

Most have a winner-takes-all rule, meaning the candidate who gets the most votes in that area gets all the electoral votes for that state. 

There is a set of electors for each presidential candidate. Whichever candidate wins the popular vote in that state sends their slate of electors to vote. The other slate doesn’t get to cast their votes.

There have been calls to scrap the electoral system, although there are fears that this could disadvantage smaller states.

Markets crave certainty - and Tuesday's vote is far from a done deal.

Stocks have been declining in recent weeks as investors become jumpy about the election and its possible consequences.

Major global benchmarks, such as the S&P 500, Euro Stoxx 600, and ASX 200, have been in retreat, each declining between 2% and 3% in the past two weeks.

US government bonds, meanwhile, saw sharp sell-offs in October - although this was partly down to labour market data.

A Trump win could intensify bond sell-offs as his policies are spend-heavy. This could add inflationary pressure, forcing the Federal Reserve to curb its rate-cut pace.

Higher rates make existing bonds less valuable as new bonds will offer higher returns for investors.

To read more on this subject, head to Euronews Business.

Donald Trump's first rally will be in Gastonia, North Carolina, where he'll speak at midday (17h CET).

He’ll be at a campaign event in Salem, Virginia, in the late afternoon (21h CET), and then head to a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, in the evening (00:30 CET).

Kamala Harris will be at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, where she is expected to speak in the early afternoon (18h40 CET). She will then attend a concert and a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the evening (00:00 CET).

Again looking at Trump’s interview on the Fox & Friends show, the Republican candidate responded to accusations that he avoids “strong, intelligent women” (a jibe made by Mark Cuban on Friday).

“I’ve surrounded myself with women,” Trump claimed. “I’ve given women chances too.”

The former President also criticised a recent campaign ad for the Democrats, which reminds women that their ballot is secret.

Harris is hoping to win over typically Republican-leaning women, who might be encouraged by their partners to vote for Trump - according to experts.

“Can you imagine a wife not telling a husband who she’s voting for? Did you ever hear anything like that? Even if you have a … bad relationship, you’re going to tell your husband. That’s a ridiculous ad. So stupid,” Trump said.

The pro-Harris ad, starring Julia Roberts, will be a “cringe” moment for the actor in the future - said Trump.

“I’m so disappointed in Julia Roberts,” he added.

Trump called in to conservative news show Fox & Friends on Saturday and responded to comments he made this week about former Republican Liz Cheney.

"She's a radical war hawk. Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her," Trump said on Friday.

"Okay, let’s see how she feels about it. You know when the guns are trained on her face - you know, they're all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building," Trump continued. 

Reacting to criticism that he was calling for Cheney's execution, Trump told Fox & Friends that this narrative is "fake news" and "biased".

"All I’m saying is she was a nutty war hawk. She wants to go to war with anyone who moves and lose a lot of people, lose a lot of soldiers, put the nation in trouble ... she was a nut job just like her father."

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said on Friday that her office is investigating whether former President Donald Trump's remarks about Cheney broke the law.

Vice President Harris said on Friday that Donald Trump's comments should be considered disqualifying for his presidential campaign.

Elon Musk’s pro-Trump political action committee, America PAC, is facing a lawsuit in southern California, according to Wired.

Two women say they were cheated out of wages and expenses while they were hired to canvas for a Republican congresswoman, Michelle Steel.

The women say they were promised an hourly wage. Once they started working, they discovered that they were being paid per the number of houses they visited - according to the lawsuit.

The suit goes on to claim that they were not reimbursed for work-related expenses.

Kamala Harris has hit out against Donald Trump’s stance on abortion, one of the key issues shaping the election debate.

"He's 'proud' of overturning Roe v. Wade," she wrote on X, "And if given the chance, he will ban abortion nationwide".

In 2022, the US Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe V Wade, which gives women the constitutional right to an abortion. Three of the conservative judges who voted to scrap the legislation were appointed by Trump.

The Republican candidate initially called state-level abortion bans "a beautiful thing to watch".

He has since softened his stance, saying that he would not implement a national abortion ban as President.

64% of American women support the right to an abortion - according to Pew Research Center - compared to 61% of American men.

Good afternoon! Euronews is back with its live coverage ahead of the US presidential election next Tuesday.

The candidates are heading to North Carolina today, one of the seven swing states that will be crucial in deciding who wins the keys to the White House.

The state traditionally favours the Republican party, although Democrats almost turned it blue back in 2020. This was largely due to the support of black voters, who they hope to win over this time around.

Currently, there is no clear leader in North Carolina according to polls released this week. Harris is ahead 48%-47% among likely voters in a CNN/SSRS poll. Trump has a 49%-47% advantage over Harris among likely voters in a Fox News poll - with 4% marked to choose another candidate.

A Cooperative Election Study poll, conducted by YouGov, also shows Trump ahead among likely voters.

We are pausing our blog coverage for this afternoon, but will be back on Saturday to bring you the latest from the US presidential race.

What happened last night?

• Donald Trump pushed false election fraud claims in New Mexico and Arizona, claiming he would have won the election in 2020, if "God" was the "vote counter."

• Kamala Harris said she would raise the minimum wage and that Trump does not "respect the freedom of women." She was joined on stage by Puerto Rican star Jennifer Lopez who made an explicit appeal to Latino voters.

• Over 65 million people have already voted according to the University of Florida's election lab, smashing through previous records. We've broken this data down for you below.

What's going on today?

More rallies with Harris and Trump both hitting Wisconsin. Trump will hold another rally in Michigan and rapper Cardi B will join Harris on stage.

Thanks for reading and see you soon.

A YouGov survey has found that western Europeans favour Harris over Trump.

The survey found in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the UK, voters all favoured Harris.

In Demark her support is at its highest, with 81%, and in Italy at its lowest with 46%.

Donald Trump will touch down in Dearborn, Michigan on Friday -- a city that holds more Arab Americans than any other in the country.

The city was won by Biden in 2020, but many have since voiced concern with the Biden administration's handling of the war in Gaza.

Harris has largely said she would continue Biden's policies in the Middle East and has found some difficulty winning back these voters. She was heckled with shouts of "ceasefire now" at a rally this week.

Abdullah H. Hammoud, Dearborn's mayor, said he would not be supporting any candidate, despite being a Democrat.

"I have not found any candidate who has been willing to depart from the current course President Biden has taken us down on the genocide in Gaza, and the broader conflict that has now touched Lebanon" Hammoud said.

It's unclear exactly what Trump hopes to achieve by visiting Dearborn, with most Arab Americans still deeply negative toward him, remembering how he called for a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslims entering the country during his tenure.

This week, Trump posted on X he wanted to "end the suffering in Lebanon." He has been evasive about what his concrete policy plans toward the conflict would be if he made it to office, although in the past has favoured Israel.

Former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney said that Trump was a "petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant."

Trump used particularly violent rhetoric when talking about Cheney during an event hosted by former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson in Arizona.

"Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her... Let's see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face" Trump said.

It's almost 8am eastern time and both candidates will hold more rallies today as election day draws increasingly near.

Harris will speak at a union hall in Wisconsin before holding a rally and a concert later in the same state.

Rapper Cardi B is set to join Harris on stage, joining a list of celebrities that have spoken at campaign rallies this week.

Trump will hold a rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Billionaire entrepreneur and former New York City mayor has endorsed Kamala Harris.

“I do not agree with Vice President Kamala Harris on every issue, but earlier this week, I voted for her without hesitation,” he wrote in an op-ed in Bloomberg, the news outlet he owns.

Bloomberg previously ran as a Democratic candidate in the presidential primary in 2020.

White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to take a swipe at supporters of Donald Trump, according to two US government officials and an internal email obtained by Associated Press.

Biden, according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers, told a Latino group on a Tuesday evening video call, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

The transcript released by the White House press office, however, rendered the quote with an apostrophe, reading “supporter’s” rather than “supporters” -- referring to one supporter rather than all Republicans.

The change was made after the press office "conferred with the president."

Trump has capitalised on Biden's comments, showing up at a rally in Wisconsin on Thursday in a high visibility vest and driving a garbage truck, emphatically telling supporters, "You are not garbage."

Donald Trump has long argued he was the real winner of the 2020 election, a theory that has been widely disputed.

Yesterday, he made several comments doubting the validity of electoral processes in the US, claiming that if God was a vote counter he would have won in the state of New Mexico in 2020.

At an event with former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson, Trump cast doubt on voting in swing state Pennsylvania saying, "We found alot of bad votes," including a number of votes that "happened to be written by the same pen, same hand."

Officials have said that instances of voter fraud in the US are rare and isolated incidents.

Watch the clip for yourself below:

Officials in Georgia said that over half of the state's active voters have already voted. About 3.6 million people have voted in person or turned in absentee ballots.

In 2020, just under five million people in this key battleground state participated in the election.

Kamala Harris retweeted a video of Trump saying he would put Robert F. Kennedy Jr in charge of health, and women's health with the words, "No" and a heart emoji.

Kennedy is a former independent presidential candidate. He has long drawn criticism for his anti-vaccination comments and medical experts have voiced concern he would have an influential role in a potential Trump government.

Trump's campaign have said that Kennedy would not have a role working on health in the Trump administration, but instead would be given federal data on vaccines to promote his beliefs.

Trump spent his stops in Arizona and Nevada laying into, well, almost everyone. Here are a few of his comments:

• The former president used violent rhetoric when referring to former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, one of his mot outspoken Republican critics. He called her a "radical war hawk" and said, "let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her."
• On California Representative Adam Schiff, the lead prosecutor of his first impeachment trial, Trump said he had "the smallest neck I’ve ever seen.”
• Trump called his political opponents proponents of communism and fascism, at one point saying they were "sick puppies."
• Both candidates have hurled criticism throughout the other during the election campaign, but in Nevada Trump honed in on Harris' intelligence, calling her a "stupid person."
• He also insulted the intelligence of current president Joe Biden and former national security adviser John Bolten.

Harris, for her part, said Trump was "obsessed with revenge" and "consumed with grievance" when she took the stage at a rally in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Popular podcaster Joe Rogan hosted vice presidential candidate JD Vance on his podcast, a few weeks after hosting Trump himself.

Rogan's podcast is the most listened to on Spotify, with young men making up the majority of listeners.

The pair discussed transgender rights, with Vance pushing anti-trans rhetoric, Biden's "garbage" comments, climate change — with Vance waffling about whether human-caused climate change exists — and what Vance was doing when Trump was almost assassinated (he was mini-golfing).

Both Harris and Trump have turned to podcasts during the election campaign, putting more emphasis on them as a way to reach voters than traditional forms of media.

Trump said Harris had a "very low IQ" as he pushed the idea that there was cheating in the election when speaking at an event with former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson.

The former president dodged several specific questions about his policies but said, "We do have an enemy from within. We have some very bad people, and those people are also very dangerous. They would like to take down our country. They’d like to have our country be a nice communist country or fascist in any way they can, and we have to be careful of that."

He also pushed the idea that there was a high level of election fraud, a concept which has been debunked.

“I think we’re leading by a lot, and … we can keep that cheating down, because there are a bunch of cheats. If we can keep that cheating down, we’re going to have a tremendous victory."

Elsewhere, he said that tech billionaire Elon Musk and Robert F.Kennedy Jr could be influential figures in a potential Trump administration.

Harris said all women should have the, "fundamental freedom to make decisions about her own body" at a speech in the swing state of Nevada last night.

She said of Trump's comment on Thursday, "The man simply does not respect freedom of women or the intelligence of women to make decisions about their own lives."

On Thursday, Trump said during a meandering speech on immigration he would protect the women of America, "whether they liked it or not."

The comment has drawn fierce backlash, with Democrats saying it is indicative of Trump's approach to women's rights and abortion policy.

Kamala Harris held a rally in Nevada last night, where she brought Hollywood star Jennifer Lopez on stage to address Latino voters directly.

"We are Americans," said Lopez of her Puerto Rican heritage before emphatically endorsing Harris.

Lopez said Trump "reminded us who he is" at Madison Square Garden, saying he offended Puerto Ricans, Latinos and "anyone of decent character."

Both Harris and Trump have been courting the Latino vote. According to early voting data from states where voter registration is required, 2.4% of early votes cast are from individuals with Hispanic ethnicity.

In Nevada, Hispanic voters make up about a quarter of this key swing state's population.

Over 65 million have cast early votes this year, smashing previous records according to data from the University of Florida's election lab.

In 2020, around 158 million people voted in total.

Data about these early votes comes from states which require voter registration, as not all states do.

Of the early votes in states that have voter registration, 38.5% are for Democrats and 36.2% are for Republicans.

The votes lean toward the older generation, with the most early votes (38.7%) belonging to the age brackets of 41-65 and over 65.

Women are outpacing men, with 54.1% of votes coming from women and 43.8% from men.

Donald Trump touched down in New Mexico last night where he falsely claimed he won the state, and the election, in 2020.

“They all said, don’t come. I said, why? ‘You can’t win New Mexico.’ I said, look, your votes are rigged," Trump said, referring to the fact New Mexico is considered a safe Democrat state.

 “We almost won it twice and let me tell you, I believe we won it twice if you want to know the truth. And if you can watch your vote counter, if we could bring God down from heaven, he could be the vote counter, we’d win California, we’d win a lot of states,” the former president added.

In 2020, Trump lost New Mexico to Joe Biden by a 10.79% margin of victory. Theories of election fraud have been widely disproven.

Elsewhere during his rally, Trump spoke directly to Latino voters. Considered a key demographic, both Harris and Trump have been trying to win them over.

“I’m here for one simple reason: I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community. You know, on the East Coast, they like being called Hispanics, you know this? On the West Coast, they like being called Latinos,” Trump said, before asking the crowd if they preferred to be called "Latino" or "Hispanic."

Trump has faced backlash from the Puerto Rican community in the US and abroad for a joke made by a comedian at his rally last week, who called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage."

Several prominent Puerto Ricans have publicly expressed support for Kamala Harris following the incident.

Good morning and welcome to our live blog where we will bring you key updates on what happened last night on the other side of the Atlantic.

• Donald Trump pushed false election fraud claims at a rally in New Mexico, claiming he would have won the state and the election in 2020, if "God" was the "vote counter."

• Kamala Harris said she would raise the minimum wage and that Trump does not "respect the freedom of women." She was joined on stage by Puerto Rican star Jennifer Lopez who made an explicit appeal to Latino voters.

• Over 65 million people have already voted according to the University of Florida's election lab, smashing through previous records. We've broken this data down for you below.