Trump and Harris in final stages of preparation for crucial presidential debate: Live

Josh Shapiro, who was almost Kamala Harris’s running mate, brings us this debunking of the latest nonsense being circulated about postal voting in his state by Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson and other conservative fearmongers.

The latest Washington Post/Ipsos poll of Black Americans’ voting intentions reveals that more people are willing to turn out and vote for Kamala Harris, with 47 per cent now committed to making their mark, up from 32 per cent in April when Joe Biden was still on the Democratic ticket.

On the other side of the coin, support for Donald Trump remains stagnant, down to 12 per cent from 14 per cent in the spring.

Hype woman Karoline Leavitt was talking tough on Fox and Friends this morning but you have to wonder: does Trump really not need to prepare or is he just refusing to interrupt his customary Monday golf game?

Behind the scenes, however, Trump staffers are said to be worried that “angry Trump” (the Incredible Hulk with a hairpiece?) will turn up to the debate and self-sabotage in front of millions of viewers.

The former Illinois representative, who, like Liz Cheney, was effectively drummed out of the Republican Party over his opposition to Trump in the wake of the Capitol riot, has told The Los Angeles Times that he would happily serve in a future Kamala Harris administration.

“I love defense. I love foreign policy. And I think that’s where she’s frankly shown she’s a little more hawkish than Democrats have been, so that would be a good area to bring a standard Republican in,” Kinzinger said at the Toronto International Film Festival, where he is a promoting a new documentary about his break with the GOP entitled The Last Republican.

“I want her to win. I want her to succeed. The most important issue that this country is facing, which doesn’t get enough attention to me, is Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against a Russian invasion. She’s the best counter for that, and I would love to help her in any way achieve that goal.”

Gabbard, the former soldier, Hawaii representative and 2020 Democratic presidential contender, who has since gone full-MAGA and is said to be helping Donald Trump with his debate preparations, has been attacking Kamala Harris for accepting Dick Cheney’s endorsement.

Speaking at an event in Colorado Springs with Tucker Carlson on Friday evening, Gabbard told her audience: “I have a very simple message for my Democrat friends, my independent friends, those who may not be sure about who they’re voting for in this election, Dick Cheney has just made the choice very clear, a vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for Dick Cheney, the architect of everything that has gone wrong in the Middle East for the last few decades.

“Her [Harris’s] response to the Dick Cheney announcement today was that she was honored to have his endorsement, and we got military veterans in the house?

“Got a lot of you who probably served in the Middle East like I did, and so it sickened me, Tucker, to read those words today from Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, and Kamala Harris because we have people who we care very much about who were killed in those wars because of Dick Cheney.”

The Democratic presidential contender called into the nationally-syndicated drivetime morning show earlier today, hoping to reach its considerable audience with her plans to encourage entrepreneurship and help working families.

You can hear her interview in full below.

He helped Hillary Clinton prepare for her infamous clashes with Donald Trump in 2016 and now he’s helping Kamala Harris do the same.

Here’s Richard Hall on Philippe Reines, the “malevolent George Costanza” impersonating Trump in Harris’s debate preparations.

“It can’t be just Biden 2.0 – it’s got to be Harris 1.0,” one Democratic strategist tells Andrew Feinberg as he digs into the debate preparation being done by the Kamala campaign and how it contrasts with her predecessor’s.

Yeesh. This is almost as bad as RFK Jr’s latest tortured upload.

Here’s more on Don Jr’s girlfriend having to request her own applause from Gustaf Kilander.

A jury trial opens in Austin, Texas, today seeking to hold a number of Trump supporters to account for allegedly ambushing a Biden-Harris campaign bus on a state highway during the 2020 presidential election.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim they were terrorised and intimidated when their bus was swarmed by a “Trump Train” convoy of at least 40 vehicles flying “Make America Great Again” banners for more than 90 minutes in what the suit describes as a “madcap game of highway ‘chicken’”.

The plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages under both Texas law and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a federal statute intended to shut down political violence and voter intimidation.