Kamala Harris and allies top Trump and Republicans with $1bn in donations – US politics live

With Hurricane Milton presenting a mortal threat to Florida’s west coast, Kamala Harris warned businesses against defrauding or price gouging people fleeing the storm, while, at the White House, Joe Biden slammed the recent flood of hurricane-related disinformation as “off the wall”. The Trump campaign was busy assailing Harris and Biden over their response to Hurricane Helene, which devastated south-eastern states like North Carolina days ago. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, JD Vance accused the Biden administration of “incompetence” in responding to the storm, prompting a rebuke from homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Here’s what else happened today:

• Harris and groups supporting her campaign have brought in $1b since she declared her candidacy in July, a huge fundraising total.

• Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, decried the electoral college at a fundraiser yesterday, saying it would be better if the popular vote decided the presidency. The Harris campaign later said his remarks do not represent their position.

• The vice-president was on the line when Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu today, in the leaders’ first call since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon.

• The economy remains the issue most important to voters, and Donald Trump has the edge, a Gallup survey found. A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll found Harris remained the favorite nationally, although her lead has declined a bit.

• Jim McCain, the son of late Republican senator and presidential candidate John McCain, endorsed Harris during a campaign alongside Walz in Arizona.

Joan E Greve

Speaking to supporters in Scranton, Donald Trump leveled baseless accusations of election fraud against Democrats, warning that they would “cheat like hell” next month.

Trump has, of course, continued to insist that the results of the 2020 presidential election were tainted by widespread fraud, even though he has failed to produce evidence substantiating those claims.

Complaining about a recent New York Times poll showing Kamala Harris pulling ahead in Pennsylvania, Trump attacked journalists as “the enemy of the people”.

Trump holds rally in Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania

Joan E Greve

Donald Trump has taken the stage at his campaign rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a battleground state he is looking to recapture after narrowly losing it to Joe Biden in 2020.

Trump arrived to Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless the USA” as his supporters waved signs reading “47” and “Make America Great Again”. He claimed he was far ahead of Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania, despite polls suggesting the two candidates are running neck and neck in the state.

“It’s great to be back in the beautiful commonwealth,” Trump told the crowd. “Just 27 days from now, we are going to win Pennsylvania. We are going to defeat Lyin’ Kamala.”

The son of late Republican senator and president candidate John McCain announced his endorsement of Kamala Harris at a campaign event in swing state Arizona.

Standing onstage with Tim Walz and Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego in the city of Chandler, Jim McCain said he had recently left the GOP to become a Democrat, and would be voting for Harris in November.

“This is the time for our courage and for standing up for what is right, even when it’s hard. But the courage we have shown already, the sacrifices that we made, now, that courage needs to be shown in the polls coming up,” McCain said.

“This is the time. I stand for you before you today, not as a Republican or Democrat, but as an Arizonan. I love this state more than I love anything, and as someone who has served with all of you and continues to believe in the greatness of this country and this state, we must elect vice-president Harris and governor Tim Walz.”

McCain, who died in 2018, was the GOP’s nominee for president in the 2008 election, which he lost to Barack Obama. He continued to represent Arizona in the Senate until his death, and one of his final notable acts was casting a vote that prevented an effort by Donald Trump to repeal the Affordable Care Act without any replacement being ready.

Kamala Harris and groups supporting her have brought in $1bn in donations since she launched her presidential campaign in July, Reuters reports.

The mammoth haul, confirmed to Reuters by a source familiar with the vice-president’s fundraising, went to her campaign, the Democratic national committee and Pacs supporting her run. The money will be spent on staff and operations in battleground states, as well as advertising.

Harris and the Democrats lead Trump and the GOP in cash on hand as of the end of September, with $404m in the bank compared to the ex-president’s $295m.

Joan E Greve

Democratic congressional candidate Eugene Vindman first made a name for himself when he and his brother, former National Security Council official Alexander Vindman, became whistleblowers over Donald Trump’s alleged pressure campaign against Ukraine, which resulted in the former president’s first impeachment.

Although Vindman is well known among Democrats, his status as a first-time candidate in one of Virginia’s battleground districts has complicated his path to victory. Joe Biden won the district by seven points in 2020, but Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin carried it by the same margin when he won the office in 2021.

This year, Vindman’s success may depend on whether the seventh district backs Kamala Harris or Trump in the presidential race.

“If [Harris] wins this district by several points, that should be enough to pull him across the finish line,” the Cook Political Report’s Erin Covey writes. “But strategists from both parties agree that this is shaping up to be a tight race.”

Joan E Greve

Democrat Eugene Vindman is facing a tougher-than-expected fight against Republican Derrick Anderson in Virginia’s seventh congressional district, as the Cook Political Report has moved the race from “lean Democrat” to “toss-up”.

Democrats are looking to hold the seat, which was left open after congresswoman Abigail Spanberger chose to launch a gubernatorial campaign rather than seek reelection.

“Polls from both parties show Republican Army Special Forces combat veteran Derrick Anderson and Democratic retired Army lieutenant colonel Eugene Vindman neck and neck, despite Vindman outspending Anderson significantly,” Cook’s Erin Covey writes.

“[T]hough Vindman has spent nearly $6 million on TV ads to Anderson’s half million, including softer spots featuring his family and pledging to ease I-95 traffic, he hasn’t been able to establish a clear lead.”

Joanna Walters

Last week the nation’s top emergency official, Deanne Criswell of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), warned that a slew of falsehoods spread by Donald Trump, his supporters and others after Hurricane Helene, including claims of funds diverted from storm survivors to help migrants in the US and that Democrats somehow directed the hurricane itself, was hampering the response to one of the deadliest hurricanes ever to hit the US.

Criswell warned about similar damaging nonsense today when she briefed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and Harris, the vice-president and Democratic nominee for president, asked her if disinformation was getting in officials’ way as they prepare for Milton to hit Florida.

Harris had already criticized on Monday “the disinformation being pushed by Donald Trump” about Helene. She just asked Criswell if she was concerned about misinformation and disinformation relating to evacuations from the path of Milton.

“There has been a lot of misinformation out there, Madame Vice-President, that’s for sure, but I have not heard anything specific to the evacuations,” Criswell began.

She added that people were listening to their local officials and evacuating. “That’s good, thank you,” Harris said.

Biden slams disinformation, conspiracies as ‘off the wall’

Joanna Walters

The US president and US vice-president, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, have just wrapped up the public portion of a lengthy briefing session with Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary and emergency chief dealing with incoming Hurricane Milton.

We are following all the storm developments in our hurricane live blog, including warnings from the president that this looks like it could be “the storm of the century”, but there has been a political side to all this, too.

Biden and Harris both sounded off about disinformation coming from Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president in this election, and his acolytes.

Biden said: “All this misinformation going out about how we’re devoting all this money to migrants, even one congresswoman suggesting I control the weather and implying I’m sending it to red states. This stuff is off the wall. It’s like out of a comic book.”

Georgia Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene last week posted on social media that “Yes they can control the weather” and although she didn’t specify who “they” are it was widely taken to mean Democrats and Biden has clearly taken it personally.

With Hurricane Milton presenting a mortal threat to Florida’s west coast, Kamala Harris has issued a warning to businesses that defraud or price gouge people fleeing the storm, saying she will hold them accountable. The Trump campaign is meanwhile continuing to pressure Harris and Joe Biden over the response to Hurricane Helene, which devastated south-eastern states like North Carolina days ago. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, JD Vance accused the Biden administration of “incompetence” in responding to the storm, prompting a rebuke from homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Here’s what else has happened today so far:

• Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, decried the electoral college at a fundraiser yesterday, saying it would be better if the popular vote decided the presidency. The Harris campaign later said his remarks do not represent their position.

• Harris was on the line when Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu today, in the leaders’ first call since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon.

• The economy remains the issue most important to voters, and Donald Trump has the edge, a Gallup survey found. A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll found Harris remained the favorite nationally, although her lead has declined a bit.

Joe Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu this morning, the White House said, marking the first time the leaders have spoken since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon. Kamala Harris was also on the call.

Biden spoke to Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, on Monday to mark the one-year anniversary of the 7 October attack, but has not spoken to Netanyahu since 21 August. That was before the pager explosions that killed dozens and wounded thousands, and before Israel targeted and killed Hezbollah’s leader in Lebanon then launched a ground incursion.

The White House has not released a readout of their call. We have a live blog covering the crisis in the Middle East, including the call between the leaders: