Elon Musk to attend Pennsylvania rally with Donald Trump months after assassination attempt – live | US elections 2024

Hollywood stars are descending on Phoenix, Arizona, this weekend to campaign for Kamala Harris, the Arizona Republic reports.

Actors Kerry Washington, Jessica Alba, Glenn Close and Michael Ealy will be campaigning on Sunday, just days after Jennifer Garner visited the state on behalf of the campaign.

The Harris-Walz campaign reports that Washington’s trip is specifically aimed at mobilizing Black voters. Washington, who is best known for her role in the ABC drama series Scandal, will attend a Black Voters for Harris-Walz Block Party alongside former US attorney general Eric Holder, former ambassador to the UN Susan Rice and Senate-hopeful Ruben Gallego.

Both the Harris and Trump campaigns are ramping up events in Arizona, which remains a hotly contested swing state. Next week, the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, will also be campaigning in the state, while Donald Trump Jr prepares for his own visit.

Pre-programming at the Trump rally in Butler has begun with a prayer and the national anthem before the former president’s appearance at 5pm ET today.

Trump will be joined this afternoon by a host of guests including his son Eric Trump, Elon Musk, JD Vance, several attendees of the July rally where a gunman attempted to assassinate Trump, local police and Republican party officials, and congressional representatives from Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas and Missouri.

Since George Floyd’s death in 2020, Republican-led states have expanded riot laws to suppress protesters, the Guardian’s Chris Stein reports, and Trump has a track record of calling for militarized responses to demonstrations.

In an article published today, Stein investigates the stakes of the 2024 election:

Since Floyd’s death in May 2020, Republican-led states have enacted laws expanding the definition of rioting to encompass protesters who stayed peaceful when others did not, protecting drivers who run over demonstrators that block roads and enhancing penalties against protesters who target oil and gas infrastructure and deface monuments. The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL), which tracks the legislation, has found that hundreds of proposals have been made by state and federal lawmakers nationwide, and more than two dozen signed into law.

The push comes as the GOP’s standard bearer, Donald Trump, campaigns for the presidency on a platform that includes suppressing protests. He has vowed to deploy the national guard “where there has been a complete breakdown of law and order”, while simultaneously promising pardons for people convicted over the January 6 insurrection. As president, Trump reportedly encouraged the military to shoot protesters, and, this year, allies such as the speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, have said the national guard should be used against college students demonstrating over Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

If he returned to the White House, Trump could direct a militarized response to protests and pressure congressional Republicans to pass legislation that would impose nationwide penalties like those already in effect in Tennessee.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are on their way to the rally in Butler.

The former president boarded his flight to Butler from West Palm Beach, Florida, about half an hour ago.

Meanwhile, the tech billionaire has shared on X that he is en route to Pennsylvania.

As the Trump and Harris campaigns host events across the country today – now one month before the 5 November election – the Guardian US is averaging national and state polls to see how the two candidates are faring. We will update our averages once a week, or more if there is major news.

As the Guardian’s Sam Levine writes today:

With her highest national polling average since July, Harris is now leading in five of seven key swing states. Nationally, the Guardian’s tracker shows Harris with 49.3% of the vote, compared with 46% for Trump. The election is a month away, and already an estimated 1.4 million Americans have voted as of midday on Friday.

The race is still extremely close. The simplest path to collecting the 270 electoral votes needed to win is still the blue wall of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. While Harris leads Trump in all three according to the Guardian’s analysis (Pennsylvania by 1.2 points, Michigan by 0.1 points and Wisconsin by 2.2 points), those advantages are quite slim.

JD Vance attending fundraiser in Massachusetts before joining Trump in Pennsylvania

Bernie Sanders is campaigning in Michigan for Kamala Harris this weekend. The Vermont independent senator is scheduled for four stops in the state today and tomorrow, including a rally in Warren this morning, where he spoke alongside the United Auto Workers president, Shawn Fain.

The events will focus on “strengthening the working class” and “rally[ing] against corporate greed”, Sanders says.

Harris herself visited Michigan yesterday, where she spoke at a rally in Detroit. During that speech, Harris made specific references to the state’s unions, including the UAW and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and denounced Trump as a union buster.

Harris and Trump have been closely tied in Michigan, but Trump appears to have narrowly pulled ahead in the swing state, according to a recent statewide poll. Democratic representative Elissa Slotkin raised concerns about Harris’s polling at a recent campaign event, the Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

The Secret Service has beefed up security measures in Butler before Trump’s rally this evening.

Agents will be operating a counter-drone system and securing the building where shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks fired upon Trump in July, CNN reports. Trump will also be speaking from behind ballistic glass.

“You’re going to see a lot more enhancements,” one federal official told CNN.

The Secret Service is also more closely coordinating with local law enforcement, including the Pennsylvania state police.

Elon Musk to attend Trump rally in Butler today

Fema reports more than $110m distributed after Hurricane Helene

With election day exactly one month away, Democrats are raising concerns about Kamala Harris’s relatively light campaign schedule, particularly as Trump draws crowds to rallies like today’s, Politico reports.

According to Politico, Harris has spent more than a third of the days since the Democratic national convention receiving briefings or conducting internal meetings. Of the remaining days, she’s spent just more than half holding rallies and other public-facing campaign events. The vice-president has spent about half of her days in Washington DC since the convention, rather than campaigning in swing states.

That news comes as the Washington Post reports that the Harris campaign is spending nearly three times as much as Trump, as the candidates remain closely tied.

As the Trump and Harris campaigns ramp up into high gear for a final month of campaigning before election day – including at high-profile rallies such as today’s in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Secret Service is at “a breaking point”, NBC News reports.

A dozen current and former Secret Service agents told NBC News that insufficient staffing and an increased workload have contributed to errors, such as those in Butler when a gunman opened fire at Trump on 13 July.

“There is a huge security risk because you already have agents that are burnt out, exhausted now having even less time to make a solid security plan and get all assets in order,” a current agent told NBC.

“I love my agency but they are setting themselves up for another incident,” said one former agent.

Both current and former officials told NBC they are concerned the agency will witness a mass exodus of personnel over the next 18 months.

For more context on recent Secret Service failures, see Robert Tait and Ed Helmore’s reporting in the Guardian:

Trump to speak in Butler, Pennsylvania, months after assassination attempt

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are touring the country this weekend, while their proxies do the same. Perhaps most notable: Trump is scheduled today to return to Butler, Pennsylvania – where a shooter attempted to assassinate him less than three months ago. He’ll be joined by the family of Corey Comperatore, a rally-goer who was shot and killed at a July rally.

Meanwhile, the vice-president is traveling to North Carolina today, where Hurricane Helene has devastated much of the state, killing at least 200 people. Harris will receive a briefing on recovery efforts, and provide updates on federal actions to support the emergency response.

Here’s what else is happening:

• The Trump campaign has announced a weekend-long tour of Georgia, which will make three stops in the state today, ending in Atlanta.

• Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, will travel to Camp David, where they will remain over the weekend.