Key events
Closing summary
This blog is closed – thanks for following along. Here is a summary of today’s key developments:
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Donald Trump rallied supporters in Butler, Pennsylvania, three months after a shooter attempted to assassinate him there on 13 July. He was joined by vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, son and daughter-in-law Eric and Lara Trump, and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who all railed against immigrants and the Democratic party.
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Kamala Harris visited North Carolina, to survey the damage caused by Hurricane Helene and receive a briefing from Fema officials. The vice-president’s visit to North Carolina, as Trump rallied supporters in Pennsylvania, came amid concerns that her campaign has not held as many public events as her opponent.
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Harris campaign proxies toured swing states. Bernie Sanders campaigned in Michigan, while actors like Kerry Washington prepared to visit Arizona.
Trump has concluded his remarks in Butler, telling rally-goers: “Election day will be the most important day in the history of our country,” before walking out while dancing to the Village People’s YMCA. The former president spoke for an hour and a half.
Vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is scheduled to appear on “Fox News Sunday” with host Shannon Bream tomorrow.
Walz’s appearance on the traditionally conservative channel comes as the Harris-Walz campaign gains support among establishment Republicans, like former vice president Dick Cheney. Walz in particular has drawn attention for his ability to communicate effectively with conservative audiences.
As Trump slowly begins concluding his remarks in Butler, he has asked the crowd to “send our prayers and support to all the families affected by Hurricane Helene”.
“This has been the worst hurricane response by a president and vice-president since Katrina, and this is simply not acceptable,” he said.
He went on to denounce Kamala Harris, calling her “further left then crazy Bernie Sanders” and “the original creator of ‘defund the police’”, before returning to his usual talking points about immigration, dissolving the education department, energy independence, inflation and transgender athletes.
Hugo Lowell
Elon Musk tells people watching the Trump rally to register to vote, as the Musk-backed America Pac has spent nearly $14m since August to essentially run the wider ground game for the Trump campaign in the battleground states.
Musk has political ambitions and recently floated the idea of running a government-efficiency commission, while Trump has said he “absolutely” would consider putting Musk in his cabinet in a second administration.
Musk speaks at Trump rally
Elon Musk has joined Trump on stage in Butler, wearing what he calls a “dark Maga” hat.
Musk is returning to the same core topic that Trump and his proxies have emphasized: inflammatory and unverified concerns that non-citizens will vote in the 2024 election and cast their ballots against Trump. He is encouraging the crowd to register to vote, and make sure their friends and family do the same.
“Fight, fight, fight. Vote, vote, vote,” he concludes.
Musk has become a major contributor to the Trump campaign in recent months, and the two have bonded over many of their shared beliefs.
Trump has resumed speaking, returning to the inflammatory rhetoric on immigration that has marked his campaign since he first ran for office in 2015.
“Crime rates all over the world are down, they’re taking their gang members and their criminals, they’re taking their people in jail, and they’re releasing them into our country,” he said, continuing with xenophobic comments about “the China virus” and Venezuela.
Despite Trump’s claims, violent crime in the United States has fallen.
Trump has paused his speech as first responders aid a rally-goer who appears to have fallen ill. Attendees began gathering at the rally eight hours ago. Although the temperature in Butler is only in the high 60s, attendees have collapsed at other political rallies due to heatstroke this election season.
Trump is now returning to the core topics he’s hammered on at previous rallies and debates: immigration, gender-affirming healthcare, fracking and his political opponents.
First denouncing immigrants and transgender Americans, returning to his claim that Kamala Harris would pay for “transgender operations on illegal aliens”, Trump goes on to reiterate his promise not to ban fracking, a contentious issue in Pennsylvania, where fracking contributes greatly to the state’s economy.
He then claims to be leading by a wide margin in the polls, although the presidential election remains closely tied, with Kamala Harris slightly ahead in national polling.
Trump is now speaking about his mission to “make America great again”.
“We have to have a fabulous military to protect us from evil, everything has to be the best. We have to have the best schools. We have to have a strong borders. We don’t want bad people coming in and hurting us,” he said.
“You deserve a nation that builds things again, makes things better, that aims for the stars once more, and that once again commands respect, and we want to get respect like we had it four years ago.
“We are going to win the greatest election in the history of our country. Maybe the greatest election of all time.”
Trump addresses family of Corey Comperatore
Trump is addressing the family of Corey Comperatore, a first responder who was killed at the 13 July rally in Butler.
“There’s one more hero could not make it back here tonight because he is no longer with us, right? You know that is, Corey, our beautiful Corey,” he said. “Corey Comperatore was a incredible husband and father, a devout Christian, a veteran and a proud former fire chief. Very respected in the town.
“When the sound of gunshots pierced the air on that July evening, Corey leapt into the fire one more time and in his last seconds on this earth, he threw himself on the top of his wife and daughters. He didn’t want them hurt.”
Trump then acknowledged the time, 6.11pm ET, exactly the same as the shooting in Butler in July, and asked the crowd to observe a moment of silence before opera singer Christopher Macchio performed Ave Maria.
Trump is thanking the US Secret Service for saving his life on 13 July and again from another assassination attempt two weeks ago.
“They were on top of me so fast, they were on top of me, and there was not even a moment of doubt in their minds,” he said. “In that moment, those agents displayed a devotion to duty that cannot be described, and they did it yet again less than three weeks ago, when they really did a fantastic job.”
The Secret Service is currently under investigation for security failures on 13 July.
Trump has begun addressing rally-goers in Butler. Beginning with: “And, as I was saying”, Trump briefly continued with the point he had been making on 13 July about border crossings before a gunman opened fire on him.
The former president continued: “Exactly 12 weeks ago, this evening, on this very ground, a cold-blooded assassin aimed to silence me and to silence the greatest movement, Maga, in the history of our country.”
Trump takes the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania
Trump has taken the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, following a movie-like voiceover and Lee Greenwood’s song God Bless the USA.
As rally-goers in Butler, Pennsylvania, wait for Trump to take the stage, Kamala Harris is in Charlotte, North Carolina, visiting a donation center after Hurricane Helene devastated the state.
Amid widespread misinformation, the White House and Fema are attempting to quell the spread of rumors about the availability of disaster relief.
Since Hurricane Helene made landfall, there have been false claims and misinformation regarding the federal assistance available to survivors, from former President Trump, Congressional Republicans, and others.
These claims are not true. 🧵
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 5, 2024
Scott Presler, a conservative activist, has joined Eric and Lara Trump on stage at the Trump rally in Butler, encouraging attendees to register to vote. Presler is specifically addressing Pennsylvania’s union workers, Amish community, hunters, sorority sisters and fraternity brothers, asking them to vote for Trump.
Lara Trump, chair of the Republican National Committee, joined her husband, Eric Trump, on stage at the Trump rally in Butler.
“This is no longer a fight between Republican versus Democrat, left versus right. It is good versus evil,” she said. “And if you had any question whether God exists, and he performs miracles, we got our answer here on July 13, right here in Butler, Pennsylvania.”
Echoing Vance’s language referring to Trump as a messianic figure, Lara Trump continued: “He spared Donald Trump’s life because he was not finished with Donald Trump. And he did it not once, but twice. And I’ve said it time and time again, but now you feel it more than ever: Donald Trump was made for such a time as this.”
Lara Trump went on to speak about her work “making sure that we have free, fair and transparent elections, that only legal citizens are voting in our elections here in the United States of America”. She added: “If you’re an illegal citizen voting in our election, we’ll track you down and prosecute you to the full extent of the law and you’re leaving this country,” before encouraging the crowd gathered in Butler to register to vote.
Although Trump and Republicans have claimed that massive numbers of non-citizens are voting in US elections, there is no proof that non-citizens are voting, or even registering to vote, in any meaningful numbers.
Eric Trump and his wife, the RNC co-chair Lara Trump, are speaking at the Trump rally in Butler.
“This is a big family. They tried to take away someone we all love,” Eric Trump said. “They’ve tried to get my father every single second since he went down that golden escalator. Lara and I have witnessed it every single day. They tried to smear us. They tried to bankrupt us. They came after us.
“And then guys, they tried to kill him. They tried to kill him, and it’s because the Democratic party, they can’t do anything right.”
