Kamala Harris sings with Stevie Wonder in Georgia and invokes the Good Samaritan, while Donald Trump serves fries in Pennsylvania and Elon Musk continues cash giveaway
Don’t miss important US election news. Get our free app and sign up for election alertsLuca IttimaniSun 20 Oct 2024 23.42 EDTLast modified on Mon 21 Oct 2024 00.29 EDTShareDonald Trump visited a McDonald’s franchise in Pennsylvania on Sunday, working the drive-thru and manning the fryer while he answered questions from reporters. The former president took a moment to boast about his time in office and sarcastically congratulated Kamala Harris on her 60th birthday. “Maybe I’ll get her some fries,” Trump said.
The visit was meant to be a jab at opponent Harris, who worked at the fast food chain while at college. Trump has frequently called that experience into question, without providing any evidence.
Harris celebrated her birthday at two churches in Georgia, continuing her campaign’s “souls to the polls” push to reach Black voters through religious communities.
The Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Tim Walz, visited churches in Michigan and Minnesota while Donald Trump and backer Elon Musk held separate town halls in Pennsylvania. Both campaigns are focused on rallying support from voters in the battleground states, 16 days before an election that polls suggest is still on a knife-edge.
Here’s what else happened on Sunday:
Kamala Harris election news Kamala Harris celebrated her 60th birthday visiting two community churches in Georgia. The first congregation sang Happy Birthday as Harris took the stage, while Stevie Wonder joined Harris and sang Bob Marley’s Redemption Song at the second visit.
Harris spoke about how religious experiences in her youth in Oakland, California, influenced her politics, addressing the congregation of the New Birth Missionary Baptist church in Atlanta. Drawing on the parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke, the vice-president argued for policies that embrace compassion. “What kind of country do we want to live in – a country of chaos, fear and hate, or a country of freedom, compassion and justice? … When we come across our brothers and sisters in need, let us, as the Good Samaritan did, see, in the face of a stranger, a neighbour.”
Walz, attending a church service in Saginaw, Michigan, slammed Trump for selling branded Bibles. “We understand in our faith, the Bible is to be read and followed and absorbed. It’s not to be branded and sold for $59,” Walz said, telling the crowd he felt “pretty uncomfortable with this idea”.
Harris is not planning to campaign with Joe Biden ahead of the election. The decision was mutual, anonymous Harris campaign and White House officials told NBC News. The president will instead help Harris by leveraging his longtime political relationships. “The most important role he can play is doing his job as president,” a White House official said.
Harris sat down with the Rev Al Sharpton in a one-on-one interview in Atlanta on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation, where she discussed the latest polling suggesting a slide in her support from Black men. “This narrative about what kind of support we are receiving from Black men that is just not panning out in reality,” she said. “I must earn the vote of everyone regardless of their race or gender.”
Donald Trump election news Trump doubled down on his dangerous rhetoric labelling Democrats as “enemies from within” during an interview with Howard Kurtz on Fox News, broadcast on Sunday. The former president said that “radical left lunatics … the enemy from within … should be very easily handled, if necessary, by the national guard, or if really necessary, by the military”, before specifically denouncing representatives Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff. Similar comments made by Trump in the past weeks have sparked concern and raised fears of an authoritarian crackdown if he were to become president again.
Trump repeated his statement that the January 6 attack on the Capitol was a “day of love” during the same interview with Fox News. Asked whether he was comfortable calling January 6 a “day of love”, Trump responded: “They came down to protest a rigged election … you have the right to protest in this country.” Earlier he had said “there was a beauty to it and a love to it”, repeating comments he made at a recent town hall in Miami.
Trump held a town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, his second rally in the battleground state this weekend. The former ESPN anchor Sage Steele moderated as Trump took questions from the audience. Asked whether he would protect social security and Medicare benefits, Trump listed his priorities as “no tax on social security for our seniors, that’s a big deal … no tax on tips [and] no tax on overtime”.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of X, hosted a town hall in Pittsburgh in support of Trump. In a short speech, Musk repeated false and fear-mongering claims, telling those attending that “the constitution is literally under attack”. Musk also discussed his aims to expedite government procedures and his promised role as “secretary of cost cutting” in a second Trump administration. “I’d like to say it’s a hard job, but it’s not,” he said.
Musk also issued his second check for a million dollars to a signatory to his petition that encourages Republicans in key states to register to vote. The tech mogul, who is worth an estimated $247bn, on Saturday pledged to give $1m each day to someone who signs a petition backing the first and second amendments.
Read more about the 2024 US election:
Presidential poll tracker
Harris and Trump policies
What to know about early voting
