Election 2024 live: Trump speaks in Detroit as Obama hits campaign trail for Harris

On the stage in Pittsburgh, former president Barack Obama made an indirect comment about the misinformation about Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

“It’s times like this that having honest, competent leadership in government really matters,” Obama said.

He praised FEMA workers for helping victims of the storms.

Donald Trump was asked about his family and parenting style at an event in Detroit, Michigan on Thursday.

At first, his response was on-topic. But his answer quickly devolved into an eight-minute rant about drugs that ended in him explaining why some people convicted of fentanyl-related crimes should face the death penalty.

Trump was speaking at the Detroit Economic Club on Thursday afternoon when his outburst began. Businessman John Rakolta Jr., who interviewed the former president in front of club members, complimented his parenting style before asking how he made his children “so responsible.”

“Well, I’m fortunate in that, you know, they’re smart children,” Trump responded.

Before Rakolta could say anything else, Trump then began to discuss fentanyl, claiming he “had that problem almost solved with President Xi [Jinping]” while serving as president.

“Almost all of it comes through Mexico, and the maximum penalty is the death penalty, and he was going to impose that,” Trump said.

With just a few weeks to go until Election Day, former president Barack Obama is hitting the campaign trail on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris tonight, hoping to rally support for her in the key battleground state, Pennsylvania.

The rally, which is taking place at the University of Pittsburgh, is expected to begin around 7:30 p.m. ET.

It is the first of several stops Obama is expected to make for Harris in swing states.

They are playing the same playlist at this JD Vance town hall on a loop.

I have heard the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” twice and am now on my second go-around with “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses.

Where will the 2024 election be decided?

A new batch of polls came out this week, with a little less than one month to go in the presidential election. Kamala Harris’s “honeymoon” surge is now officially over.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.

Republicans have filed a flurry of lawsuits in battleground states to target ballots cast by American voters living abroad — including military service members.

A MAGA Republican ally of former president Donald Trump who has persistently spread lies and misinformation about Hurricane Helene relief is now praising President Joe Biden while bashing House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Representative Anna Paulina Luna, who represents Florida’s 13th district that got hit by Hurricane Helene, said she spoke with Biden.

“He is personally overseeing that FEMA does not create problems with the debris removal and is supportive of the 15 Billion in FEMA funds ONLY FOR Hurricane victims,” she said on X/Twitter.

Luna had previously criticized Biden and spread lies and misinformation.

“I HAVE PEOPLE THAT HAVE DIED IN MY COUNTY AND FEMA GAVE FUNDING TO ILLEGALS,” she said last week. This came despite the fact that she had left Florida to campaign with Trump in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

But now, Luna praised Biden and also blasted House Speaker Mike Johnson since Congress is out of session.

“If Congress goes into a special session we can get it passed immediately,” she posted. “This needs to happen. @SpeakerJohnson call us back.”

Luna has been one of the hellraisers in Congress who initially blocked Kevin McCarthy from becoming speaker early last year before she flipped her vote.

But she is feeling the heat in her home district as Whitney Fox, a Democrat, is running a competitive race.

Fellow Republican rep Nancy Mace of South Carolina responded to Luna’s post on X: “Thank you Biden for doing the right thing here. We need to put politics aside and help the American people here.”

Right-wing critics on social media posted side-by-side clips of the preview of her interview — in which Harris delivered a lengthy response to 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker on whether the US lacks influence over Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — next to the same segment in the final broadcast that aired October 7.

Alex Woodward took a look at the numbers.

Eric Garcia reports from Greensboro, North Carolina:

Many have wondered whether CNN’s bombshell report showing that North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson allegedly regularly commented on a pornography site called Nude Africa, where he called himself a “black NAZI” and expressed his preference for pornography with transgender women despite his rampant transphobia, would affect the presidential election.

Donald Trump has regularly praised Robinson, though he stiff-armed him at a rally in Wilmington. It comes as North Carolina is a must-win state for both Kamala Harris and Trump’s campaigns. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, is in Greensboro tonight for a town hall.

But ultimately, it’s unclear whether it will have an effect. What is clear is that Democrats in the state running for lower offices are seeking to tie their opponents to Robinson.

Rachel Hunt, the Democratic nominee for Robinson’s current job of lieutenant governor, released an ad asking “Who’s worse than Mark Robinson?” Before answering “his choice for lieutenant governor Hal Weatherman,” highlighting how he had mocked rape victims by saying “girls can be teases.”

The ad ends with Hunt, the daughter of former four-term governor Jim Hunt, opening a janitor’s closet.

“And since I’m moving into Robinson’s office, I’ll start with a gallon of this,” holding a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.