Harris rejects criticizing Americans based on who they vote for after Biden ‘garbage’ remarks
Kamala Harris said that she strongly disagrees with criticisms of people based on who they voted for.
Speaking on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday following Joe Biden’s “garbage” remarks, Harris said that Biden had “clarified his comments”, adding, “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they voted for.”
In response to whether she is worried that Biden’s comments could increase the country’s political divisiveness ahead of the elections, Harris said:
“I’ve been very clear with the American public – I respect the challenges that people face, I respect the fact that we all have so much more in common than what separates us.”
Key events
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” Kamala Harris said.
“He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at the table,” she added.
“We have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other. We know that is who he is, but North Carolina, that is not who we are,” Kamala Harris said.
“It is time for a new chapter where we stop with the pointing fingers at each other, and instead let us lock arms with one another, knowing we have so much more in common than what separates us,” she added.
Kamala Harris is now on stage in Raleigh, North Carolina, for a campaign rally.
Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates.
Donald Trump is claiming – without evidence – that Pennsylvania is cheating and has filed a lawsuit against Buck county.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that the state is “cheating, and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before.”
He did not specify how or what the state has been accused of cheating of.
In a separate statement, Trump’s campaign announced on Wednesday that it has filed a lawsuit against Buck county for “turning away voters.”
Again, without evidence, the campaign claimed that voters were being turned away early, saying:
“The Pennsylvania Department of State made clear if voters are in line at a county elections office by 5:00PM, the counties MUST give voters the opportunity to apply for their mail-in ballot. Pennsylvania voters were turned away as early as 2:30PM.”
The Guardian’s democracy reporter Rachel Leingang reports on the most pervasive myths and lies about US elections:
Harris rejects criticizing Americans based on who they vote for after Biden ‘garbage’ remarks
Kamala Harris said that she strongly disagrees with criticisms of people based on who they voted for.
Speaking on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday following Joe Biden’s “garbage” remarks, Harris said that Biden had “clarified his comments”, adding, “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they voted for.”
In response to whether she is worried that Biden’s comments could increase the country’s political divisiveness ahead of the elections, Harris said:
“I’ve been very clear with the American public – I respect the challenges that people face, I respect the fact that we all have so much more in common than what separates us.”
Erum Salam
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor and former California governor, has announced he is endorsing Kamala Harris.
He joins a running list of republicans crossing party lines to vote against Trump.
“I want to tune out. But I can’t. Because rejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets,” Schwarzenegger wrote on X. “To someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows America is the shining city on a hill, calling America a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious.
“And I will always be an American before I am a Republican. That’s why, this week, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”
He added that electing Trump as president would be “four more years of bullshit with no results that makes us angrier and angrier, more divided, and more hateful”.
I don’t really do endorsements. I’m not shy about sharing my views, but I hate politics and don’t trust most politicians.
I also understand that people want to hear from me because I am not just a celebrity, I am a former Republican Governor.
My time as Governor taught me to…
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) October 30, 2024
Sam Levine
The legal dispute centers on a 7 August executive order by the Republican Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin, ordering the state to run its voter registration rolls against DMV data on a daily basis to check for non-citizens.
The justice department and civil rights groups sued, saying that the state was violating a federal law that prohibits systematic removals of voters within 90 days of a federal election.
The US district judge Patricia Giles granted an injunction request last week to restore the voters.
Voting experts have long warned that comparing voting rolls to DMV data is not a reliable way to find non-citizens on the rolls because there may be paperwork errors and people can become naturalized after getting their driver’s license. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they had identified several people who were in fact citizens but had their registrations wrongly canceled.
Donald Trump and allies had distorted the removals, saying that the lower court decision meant that non-citizens were going to be placed back on the voter rolls. But the state had not provided conclusive evidence that many of those removed were non-citizens.
Sam Levine
The supreme court made the ruling to pause the lower court ruling on its emergency docket and did not give a rationale for its decision, which is customary for rulings on an expedited basis.
All three liberal justices on the court – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – said they would not have halted a lower court ruling earlier in October ordering the state to restore the voter registrations.
Virginia attorney general welcomes supreme court ruling
Virginia’s Republican attorney general Jason Miyares has also lauded the supreme court’s decision to strip away voting rights from approximately 1,600 people, saying:
“I am pleased to announce that the US Supreme Court granted Virginia’s emergency stay to keep noncitizens off our voter rolls.”
🚨🚨BREAKING: I am pleased to announce that the US Supreme Court granted Virginia’s emergency stay to keep noncitizens off our voter rolls.
— Jason Miyares (@JasonMiyaresVA) October 30, 2024
Virginia Republican governor claims supreme court ruling is ‘victory for election fairness’
Virginia’s Republican governor Glenn Youngkin has hailed the supreme court’s ruling that allowed the state to proceed with its removal of approximately 1,600 voter registrations, calling it a “victory for common sense and election fairness”.
Youngkin, who ordered state officials to identify and cancel the voter registration of alleged non-citizens unless they could prove their citizenship in two weeks, said:
“Clean voter rolls are one important part of a comprehensive approach we are taking to ensure the fairness of our elections. Virginians also know that we have paper ballots, counting machines not connected to the internet, a strong chain of custody process, signature verification, monitored and secured drop boxes, and a ‘triple check’ vote counting process to tabulate results. Virginians can cast their ballots on Election Day knowing that Virginia’s elections are fair, secure, and free from politically-motivated interference.”
We are pleased by the Supreme Court’s order today. This is a victory for commonsense and election fairness. I am grateful for the work of Attorney General @JasonMiyaresVA on this critical fight to protect the fundamental rights of U.S. citizens. Clean voter rolls are one…
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 30, 2024
Supreme court rules Virginia can stop 1,600 people from voting
The supreme court has paused the ruling by a lower court that would have restored voting rights to approximately 1,600 voters in Virginia.
In its brief order, the supreme court wrote:
“The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is granted. The October 25, 2024 order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia … is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought. Should certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the sending down of the judgment of the Court.”
BREAKING: The U.S. Supreme Court has paused a lower court ruling that orders Virginia to restore some 1,600 registered voters that a state program purged too close to this fall’s election in violation of the National Voter Registration Act pic.twitter.com/7OzDN8eGg2
— Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) (@hansilowang) October 30, 2024
Last week, Virginia was asked to permit more than 1,600 people to the vote after a federal judge ruled that the state had illegally revoked those rights.
The Guardian’s voting rights reporter Sam Levine reported then that the plaintiffs who brought forth the lawsuit said that many people were being incorrectly identified as non-citizen by the Department of Motor Vehicles by checking the wrong box on a form.
In a new interview with CBS Mornings, Tim Walz said, “People are hungry to come back together … They’re hungry for us to find solutions.”
Walz, who spoke to Good Morning America earlier this morning, said: “One that’s talking about unifying us, one that’s talking about bringing folks to the table … The American tradition of disagreeing and debating but still doing it in a respectful manner.”
He went on to add that one of the most important campaign issues was restoring federal reproductive rights across the country, saying, “Restoration of Roe – that’s what we’re looking for.”
In response to Arab American voters in Michigan who have voiced their disapproval towards Kamala Harris over her support of Israel, Walz said, “There’s one ticket here that is going to find the pathway to stabilization in the Middle East, but also one that is going to respect their human rights here – push back against Islamophobia – make sure that they have the right to fully engage in our system here.”
A former Republican congressional candidate has been charged with stealing ballots in Indiana.
Reuters reports:
A Republican former congressional candidate was charged with stealing ballots during a test of a voting system in Madison county, Indiana, state police said on Tuesday.
During the test on 3 October, which involved four voting machines and 136 candidate ballots marked for testing, officials discovered that two ballots were missing, according to the Indiana state police.
Voter fraud is rare in the United States, and courts dismissed multiple lawsuits of alleged electoral fraud brought by former president Donald Trump and some of his Republican allies who accused Democrats of stealing the 2020 election. Trump faces the Democratic vice-president, Kamala Harris, in a 5 November presidential election.
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