Donald Trump has lashed out at former president Barack Obama after he mocked his successor’s dancing at a rally earlier. Watch below as Mr Obama campaigns for Kamala Harris in Michigan. Listen to a Sky News podcast as you scroll.
Wednesday 23 October 2024 03:02, UK
That’s all for our live coverage of the US election for the night, but we’ll be back with more updates and analysis later.
If you’re just checking in, here is a recap of the key developments today.
Early voting opened in the key battleground state of Wisconsin, which Donald Trump lost by just under 21,000 votes in 2020.
The Harris campaign is concerned there are cracks in the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which have paved the path to the White House for the last two Democratic presidents (more here).
Donald Trump
The former president started the day by meeting Latino voters in Doral, Florida, discussing a wide range of topics – from immigration and energy, to his rival being “lazy as hell” (more here).
A joint event with Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has endorsed him for president, was cancelled for reasons that were not shared publicly.
But he did speak later in the day at a rally in North Carolina at which he said Kamala Harris has “no right” to run for president (more here).
He also hit out at Barack Obama, describing his predecessor as “a real jerk” (more here – and watch that moment below).
The Trump campaign also filed a formal complaint with the US watchdog against the UK Labour Party alleging election interference and illegal foreign campaign contributions to aid the Harris campaign (more here).
Kamala Harris
The vice president was not on the campaign trail today (presumably preparing for a CNN town hall event tomorrow), but she did give an interview to our US partner network NBC News.
Speaking to NBC’s senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson from the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s official residence, Ms Harris said Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election, and said she has a team in place in case ready to respond in case he tries it again (more here).
Ms Harris also said America is ready for a female president of colour (more from NBC here).
It has also been confirmed that rock legend Bruce Springsteen will appear at two Harris-Walz campaign rallies in the coming days (more here).
Barack Obama
The former president was a very visible presence on the campaign trail today, appearing at two vast rallies.
At the first in Wisconsin alongside VP candidate Tim Walz, he said he has already voted by post, and appealed to Americans to vote as soon as possible as the election is going to be “tight across the country” (more here).
He took a lot of jabs at Donald Trump, including for “hocking [selling] merchandise” like bibles made in China while running for president (more here).
He also mocked his successor’s dancing at a town hall, saying it looked “like a hostage video” (more here).
Mr Obama was then introduced at a rally in Michigan by Grammy award-winning artist Eminem, and rapped a verse of his hit song ‘Lose Yourself’ (more here – and watch that moment below).
Joe Biden
The sitting president made a rare appearance on the campaign trail today, highlighting Republican endorsements for Kamala Harris (more here).
And he said Democrats should “lock him up” in reference to Trump, but then caught himself and added: “Politically lock him up” (more here).
Tim Walz
The Democratic candidate for vice president spoke at two rallies in Wisconsin – one alongside Barack Obama.
He got his jabs in at Donald Trump, quipping that McDonald’s clown Ronald McDonald wears less make-up than the former president (more here).
US intelligence agencies said Russian actors are responsible for circulating and amplifying a fake video alleging sexual misconduct by Mr Walz (more here).
JD Vance
Donald Trump’s running mate was out on the road meeting voters in Arizona.
He spoke at events in both Peoria and Tucson.
Pressure is mounting on state and federal prosecutors to investigate tech billionaire Elon Musk’s $1m lottery-style giveaway to registered voters in seven battleground states.
A spokesperson said today that the Justice Department had received a letter from 11 former government officials, including several Republican ex-prosecutors, urging it to investigate whether Mr Musk’s daily prizes violate a federal law prohibiting paying people to register to vote.
The Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment further and would not say whether the department had opened an investigation.
Read more from our US partner network NBC News here:
President Joe Biden, speaking at a campaign event in New Hampshire today, said Donald Trump’s policies are so “bizarre” and dangerous that if he’d warned about them five years ago, “you’d lock me up.”
“We’ve got to lock him up,” Biden said to applause from the small crowd before he appeared to catch himself and added, “politically lock him up”.
“Lock him out,” he continued. “That’s what we have to do.”
At her rallies, Kamala Harris has typically shut down the “lock him up” chants directed at Mr Trump, saying the courts would handle that.
Chants of “lock her up” aimed at 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton became popular with Trump supporters during that election, with Trump sometimes just watching the crowd chant and other times agreeing “they should lock her up”.
In an exclusive interview with Sky News, the Lebanese-born father-in-law of Donald Trump’s younger daughter has defended his support for a man often accused of xenophobia, and has predicted the tide is turning for the former president with a group of unlikely voters.
“There’s a huge wave. There’s a huge shift towards the Republican Party and towards President Trump,” Massad Boulos told Sky’s Anna Botting on The World.
Dr Boulos, who immigrated to Texas as a child, has emerged as a key emissary for Donald Trump in a concerted effort to reach Arab-American voters, particularly in the swing state of Michigan where most of the diaspora in America live.
Boulos’s son, Michael, married Donald Trump’s daughter Tiffany two years ago. Since then, Boulos has risen to become the latest extended family member to enter the inner orbit of Team Trump.
Speaking to Sky News, he defended Mr Trump’s position on immigration, explained why he believed a Trump presidency would be good for the entire Middle East, and he said Arab-American voters were drawn by Trump because of an erosion of their traditional values – “the major issues with the woke ideology,” he said.
Watch the full interview here:
Barack Obama has told a rally in Michigan that Kamala Harris has “spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice”.
He described her as “somebody who was raised in the middle class”.
And in a direct jab at Donald Trump, the former president said: “She worked at McDonald’s when she was in college to pay her expenses.
“She did not pretend to work at McDonald’s when it was closed.”
Mr Trump made a campaign stop at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, meeting workers and serving food.
But for security reasons, the branch was not open as usual, reports say.
Barack Obama has raised Donald Trump’s recent behaviour as an issue of concern as the race for the White House enters the last two weeks.
Speaking at a rally in Michigan, the former president quoted a number of things his successor has recently said to illustrate his argument that Mr Trump is “acting a little funny”.
He pointed to Mr Trump’s half-hour-long dancing session at a recent rally, calling himself “the father of IVF”, and saying the January 6th Capitol riots were “a day of love”.
Mr Obama said: “If your grandpa was acting like this, you’d be worried.”
“We do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails. America is ready to turn the page.”
In an unusual turn of events, Barack Obama has just rapped on stage at a campaign rally in Detroit.
The former president was introduced by Grammy award-winning artist Eminem, and he said as he took to the stage: “I have done a lot of rallies, so I don’t usually get nervous.
“But I was feeling some kind of way following Eminem.”
He then recited the lyrics of the rapper’s hit song ‘Lose Yourself’, but in the first person applying it to himself: “My palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.
“Vomit on my sweater already, mom’s spaghetti.
“I’m nervous, but on the surface, I look calm and ready to drop bombs, but I keep on forgetting.”
The crowd, as you might expect, went absolutely wild.
Mr Obama said that he thought Eminem was going to be performing and was going to “jump out”, adding: “Love me some Eminem!”
Grammy award-winning artist Eminem is the latest entertainment star to endorse Kamala Harris’s bid for the presidency, and he has just taken to the stage at a rally in Detroit.
After walking to his hit song ‘Lose Yourself’, Eminem appeals to the adoring crowd to “get out and vote please”.
He goes on: “I also think that people shouldn’t be afraid to express their opinions, and I don’t think anyone wants an America where people are worried about retribution or what people will do if you make your opinion known.
“I think Vice President Harris supports a future for this country where these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld,” he says.
And with that, he introduces former president Barack Obama, to rapturous cheers from the crowd.
Barack Obama is speaking at his second rally of the day – and in his second state of the day as well.
The former president has flown from Wisconsin to Michigan to try to convince voters in Detroit to back Kamala Harris.
But this time he is speaking with a rare person who can rival his star power – Grammy award-winning artist Eminem.
Watch live in the stream at the top of the page, at the link below – and follow updates right here.
Donald Trump is not pleased that his predecessor as president, Barack Obama, is out on the campaign trail supporting his opponent.
Mr Trump tells a rally in North Carolina: “I think he’s a real jerk because I’ve watched him campaign over the last couple of … over the last couple of days, I’ve watched him campaign.”
He goes on to describe Mr Obama as “a divider”, and says “he was terrible”.
“He’s trying to campaign because [Harris is] incapable of campaigning, so they sent him in to try. He’s not going to do it,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Obama took a number of shots at his successor at a rally earlier today, saying he spends too much time “complaining”, mocked him for selling bibles and other products, and described a Trump dancing clip as a “hostage video”.
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