Trump to speak in Colorado amid false gang claims and anti-immigrant rhetoric: Live

Where will the 2024 election be decided?

Donald Trump is on the rise. A new Quinnipiac poll of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan this week showed him leading in the latter two; RealClearPolitics’s polling average now has him ahead for the first time in months in the state of Michigan, a state which spurned Hillary Clinton in 2016 but flipped back to Democratic control in 2020.

But what’s really clear — what Quinnipiac’s poll and every other survey of the race indicates this week — is how close the race is in every state. No candidate has a lead higher than the low single digits in more than a half dozen states, all of which will play a significant role in the Electoral College.

It was a vibe that lasted for all of about thirty seconds.

Within moments of the debate hosted by NBC’s Chuck Todd kicking off on Maryland Public Television (MPT), the two candidates had dropped the cordiality and were trading accusations of dishonesty. That’s a sign of not just the passionate state of politics in 2024, but the stakes on the line in Maryland, where Hogan’s candidacy puts a formerly safe Democratic seat in the US Senate in real contention for the first time in many years.

Mark Milley, the US Army general who Donald Trump appointed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now says the current Republican presidential nominee is a “fascist to the core” and says no person has ever posed more of a danger to the United States than the man who served as the 45th President of the United States.

Milley, a decorated military officer who became a target for right-wing scorn after it became known that he expressed concerns over Trump’s mental stability in the wake of his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, is described by journalist Bob Woodward in his new book, War, as incredibly alarmed at the prospect of a second Trump term in the White House. The Independent obtained a copy ahead of the book’s October 15 release date.

In the wake of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a riotous mob of the then-president’s supporters, Woodward writes that Milley insisted on securing a meeting with the then-newly-minted attorney general, Merrick Garland, to urge him to investigate domestic violent extremism and far-right militia movements.

And as the former president struggles to mend his own self-inflicted wounds, Harris has taken on an energetic campaign schedule. The vice president has held multiple rallies and smaller events, while also hitting the interview circuit to reach wider audiences. Trump, meanwhile, has remained on the trail as well, with multiple events on his weekly calendar.

As the former president plays to the crowds of supporters at his rallies, however, he clearly has his mind on the larger audiences Harris is reaching with appearances on 60 Minutes, The View and even the Spotify podcast Call Her Daddy.

On Wednesday, at a rally in Pennsylvania, he highlighted some of his opponent’s media tour onstage, playing a clip of Harris’s interview with The View. Sunny Hostin, who asked Harris what she would have done differently than Joe Biden over the last four years had she been president, was a target of ridicule.

The notorious self-styled GOP “dirty trickster” was secretly recorded responding to a question about how Democrats can be stopped from “stealing” the election while mingling with attendees at his Jacksonville, Florida, event: ‘A Night with Roger Stone.’

“We have to fight it out on a state-by-state basis, but you have to be ready,” Stone can be heard replying in the undercover recording first given to Rolling Stone by documentarian Lauren Windsor.

Donald Trump is expected to go on an anti-immigrant rant as he visits Aurora, Colorado on Friday for a rally.

The Republican has claimed the Denver suburb has become overrun by immigrants and turned it into a “war zone,” suggestions that have been rejected by local officials.

“Aurora, Colorado has become a ‘war zone’ due to the influx of violent Venezuelan prison gang members from Tren de Aragua,” the Trump campaign said in a statement as the rally was announced.

During the debate on September 10, Trump said that members of the Tren de Aragua had taken control of a number of apartment buildings in the suburb, claims that have been denied by city leaders.

“They are taking over the towns. They’re taking over buildings. They’re going in violently,” Trump said at the time. “These are the people that she and Biden let into our country.”

The rally is set to begin at 3pm ET at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center.

Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter who wrote Trump’s The Art of the Deal, has said the new biopic about the former president gets the most important thing about him right.

Gustaf Kilander has more.

Cities across the US have tried to chase down money they say Donald Trump’s campaign owes them for providing law enforcement and other public safety measures at his hours-long rallies.

Trump’s campaign has been routinely accused of dodging invoices from local governments for the costs of increased police presence and other expenses that come with hosting large-scale events where crowds begin lining up hours ahead of his remarks, which typically go on for 82 minutes, on average.

In just five cities, that total is at least $750,000, with many of those bills dating back to rallies held while he was running for president in 2016, according to a new review from NBC News.

Here’s Alex Woodward’s report.

Mayor Mike Duggan came out swinging after the Republican presidential candidate had the audacity to criticize the Motor City during his appearance before the Detroit Economic Club, a tactic that was never likely to win him many Michigan votes.

Gustaf Kilander has this report.

The far-right conspiracy theory-driven website earlier this week settled a defamation claim from Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the Peach State election workers who received a massive compensation payout from Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.

It now appears to have scrubbed any mention of the duo from its pages.