Donald Trump and Kamala Harris delivered their closing arguments, holding duelling rallies across the battleground states well into the night, on the last day of campaigning before the US election.
Harris was in Pennsylvania, the biggest swing state and crucial to the Democratic campaign. She held the final rally of her campaign at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, made famous in the movie Rocky. Introduced by Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga, Harris emphasised her message of hope. “We finish, as we started, with optimism, with energy, with joy,” she said. “We need to get to work.”
Trump struck a darker tone in the same state, with threats to put tariffs on all imports from Mexico unless it stopped migrants from entering the US – though he interrupted himself at one point to celebrate his endorsement from podcaster Joe Rogan. The Republican candidate also held hours-long events in North Carolina and Michigan.
Leading forecaster Nate Silver has released his final forecast, and said that Harris won in 40,012 out of 80,000, or 50.15% of, simulations run using his model. Polls released on Monday found Harris had a marginal lead in Michigan but was tied with Trump in Pennsylvania and other key swing states. Trump has held on to a lead in betting markets but one that is eroding.
Here’s what else happened on the last day of the 2024 election campaign:
Donald Trump election news and updates
Trump held his final rally of the campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan – the same place where he closed his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. “With your vote tomorrow, we can fix every single problem our country faces and lead America – indeed, the world – to new heights of glory,” he told the crowd.
The former president started the last day of campaigning in North Carolina, launching personal attacks on a number of high-profile Democratic women,then travelled to Reading, Pennsylvania, where he painted migrants as dangerous criminals. “November 5, 2024 will be Liberation Day in America,” he said. “And on day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history.”
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Trump praised the Green party presidential candidate, Jill Stein, as “one of my favourite politicians” and relished the prospect of a return to the White House: “Only one day – does that sound nice – one day from now. We’ve been waiting four years for this.”
JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, was once again condemned for misogyny after repeatedly calling Kamala Harris “trash” at campaign rallies. The Republican vice-presidential nominee compared Harris to trash at a New Hampshire rally on Sunday, then did it again on Monday in Flint, Michigan, and Atlanta, Georgia.
Kamala Harris election news and updates
The vice-president started the day in Scranton, Joe Biden’s childhood home town, where she told supportersto “get this done”. Biden did not appear with Harris in Scranton, continuing her campaign’s effort to put a gap between the candidate and her former running mate.
Harris reached out to the Puerto Rican and Latino population of Pennsylvania, visiting a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading with congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and governor Josh Shapiro and appearing at an Allentown rally with rapper Fat Joe, who ripped Trump for his treatment of Puerto Ricans and Latino voters: “[If] you’re not decided, where’s your pride as a Latino?”
Harris went doorknocking in Reading and held a rally in Pittsburgh, supported by pop star Katy Perry. The vice-president sought to strike a positive tone, saying it was time to move past the “fear and division” of the past decade and, drawing a contrast with Donald Trump without mentioning his name. “It is time for a new generation of leadership,” she said.
Harris headed home to Number One Observatory Circle in Washington in the wee hours of Tuesday morning after her final Philadelphia rally. She will spend Tuesday calling into local radio stations in the seven battleground states to reach the remaining voters, her communications director told reporters.
Harris’s running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, campaigned across his home state before visiting Wisconsin, where he struck a hopeful tone: “Look at the movement, and look at the energy that Kamala Harris has built in 107 days – imagine what she can do for the next eight years.”Walz ended Monday in Michigan, appearing with Jon Bon Jovi, and told supporters women will send a message to Trump tomorrow “whether he likes it or not”.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail
A Pennsylvania judge rejected legal challenges to Elon Musk’s $1m giveaway, allowing the billionaire’s voter sweepstakes to continue through Tuesday’s presidential election.
Republicans also had a win in their legal battle over vote eligibility, after Georgia’s highest court ruled absentee ballots must be returned by election day. As legal challenges play out across the country, the Harris campaign told reporters it was prepared to combat any efforts by Trump to discredit the outcome.
The Harris campaign expects “near complete results” on election night from Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan, along with partial results from Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Arizona, according to campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon.
Officials have begun preparing for a feared escalation of political violence on election day and beyond. More than two dozen states are willing to send national guard troops to Washington, national guard officials said, while election officials in one Nevada county said polling places have installed “panic buttons” in the wake of surging threats. A group of Democratic secretaries of state have asked social media companies how they will moderate inflammatory content as violent threats and disinformation spread.
In Michigan, Trump then goes on to talk insultingly about President Joe Biden, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and representative Adam Schiff, the lead investigator in Trump’s first impeachment.
“Joe Biden in one of his crazy moments said that we were all garbage,” Trump remarked adding “They stole the election from a president,” in apparent reference to Biden’s dropping out of the campaign to be replaced by Harris.
The crowd cheers as Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Photograph: Carlos Osorio/AP
He then says of Pelosi “she’s a crooked person … evil, sick, crazy b… oh no! It starts with a ‘b’ but I won’t say it! I wanna say it.”
He said of “Adam Shifty Schiff”: “He’s got the biggest head, he’s an unattractive guy both inside and out.”
Key events
After touting Joe Rogan’s endorsement of him, Trump has invited his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, the co-chair of the National Republican Committee, to take the mic.
She says “we send a loud and clear message” to “the mainstream media” and “the swamp” among other people “that it is we who get to choose the president”.
She says it has been “a very special night for our family”, adding “it has been my honour to be a part of this family, to be out speaking on behalf of a man whom I love … who is going to save this country and is going to save the world.”
It’s approaching 2am in Michigan.
Trump has now called his family up to the stage, including his sons Eric and Donald Jr, Tiffany Trump and her husband Michael Boulos and Eric’s wife Lara, who is the co-chair of the National Republican Committee.
His daughter Ivanka Trump, who was a White House advisor to him during his first term, and his wife Melania, are notable by their absence.
Trump has given shoutouts to a list of people supporting him, including Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the ambassador to Germany during his time in office, Rick Grenell.
He goes into a story about former chancellor Angela Merkel, saying that when Grenell “was taken out it was the happiest day of her life”.
At one point he adds as an aside, “We can’t let them forget that we stopped that big Chinese plant in Mexico!” and “Let’s put it this way if they build it theyre going to lose their ass”. It wasn’t clear who or what plant he was referring to – see our earlier post.
The crowds are reportedly beginning to thin out at Trump’s rally in Michigan. He’s been talking for over an hour now.
As the clock ticked past 1am in Grand Rapids, the crowd at this final Trump rally began to thin. Trump has brought much more energy here than he did in Pittsburgh but it’s getting laaaate.
It’s 1.30am in Michigan and Trump has now moved back to talking about cutting energy prices and the cost of groceries again.
He tells a familiar story about an old woman going into a shop to buy three apples but only being able to afford two and having to put one back in the fridge (“refrigeration”). It’s not clear where or when this happened.
“That shouldn’t be happening in our country,” he says.
After some more insults hurled at Kamala Harris and California governor Gavin Newsom, Trump begins making further inflammatory remarks about immigration, accusing Harris of wanting open borders and of allowing an “invasion” of immigrants including those from “mental institutions”.
“The day I take office the migrant invasion ends,” he says, later adding that we “live in an occupied country”.
He also repeats his call for the death penalty for any illegal immigrant who kills and American citizen and his plan to ban sanctuary cities.
Trump talks briefly about groceries (“People say ‘groceries,’ right? I haven’t used tha … it’s such a sort of an old term.”)
Then he talks for a while about the attempt to assassinate him in Pennsylvania in July. He calls his survival a “miracle” and at one point mentions that “illegal immigration saved me” although I didn’t catch how.
He then moves into an anecdote about visiting Abraham Lincoln’s bedroom with Melania Trump. He says that the assassinated president suffered from “melancholia” and adds that: “He was very tall, he was six foot six, that’s the equivalent of a Barron Trump today … the bed was very long.”
After a few asides about Melania’s book, he returns to the theme of the attempt on his life.
Trump has returned to the theme of plants and Mexico, telling a convoluted story about a businessman friend and China’s intention to build a plant in Mexico which was going “to destroy Michigan”.
He says that his threats to “put a 100% tariff on every single car coming out of that plant” had led to a decision not to build the purported plant.
“I saved Detroit and Michigan a lot and I did that without even being president,” he claims.
It’s not clear what plant he’s referring to. Newsweek has previously reported after similar remarks he made at the end of last month that his campaign could not confirm what plant it was but that it appeared to be one planned by auto manufacturer BYD and that there was no evidence the claim was true.
Trump and Harris get three votes each as election kicks off in New Hampshire
Jonathan Yerushalmy
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have tied with three votes each in the tiny New Hampshire town which traditionally kicks off voting on election day.
Since the 1960’s, voters in Dixville Notch, located close to the border with Canada, have gathered just after midnight to cast their ballots. Votes are then counted and results announced – hours before other states even open their polls.
According to CNN, four Republicans and two undeclared voters participated took part in the vote just after midnight on Tuesday.
Town Moderator Tom Tillotson, left, accepts the first ballot from Les Otten during the midnight vote on Election Day in Dixville Notch, N.H. Photograph: Charles Krupa/AP
Trump then launches into some familiar insults of Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton of whom he says, “She called me and conceded [presumably eight years ago] and then spent seven years saying how she was a good sport.”
He calls Harris a “low IQ person” and then begins on a long story about Elon Musk and his rockets.
Trump insults opponents at final Michigan rally
In Michigan, Trump then goes on to talk insultingly about President Joe Biden, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and representative Adam Schiff, the lead investigator in Trump’s first impeachment.
“Joe Biden in one of his crazy moments said that we were all garbage,” Trump remarked adding “They stole the election from a president,” in apparent reference to Biden’s dropping out of the campaign to be replaced by Harris.
The crowd cheers as Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Photograph: Carlos Osorio/AP
He then says of Pelosi “she’s a crooked person … evil, sick, crazy b… oh no! It starts with a ‘b’ but I won’t say it! I wanna say it.”
He said of “Adam Shifty Schiff”: “He’s got the biggest head, he’s an unattractive guy both inside and out.”
In Michigan, Trump claims to have done 930 rallies during his campaign, which I can’t confirm. Then he continues:
If you make one slip up and you know I wrote a beautiful speech I haven’t even gotten to it yet … rarely do they ever catch me making a mistake!
Those ellipses are covering for a series of meandering comments which included remarks on his use of teleprompters and the state of the country.
Trump starts his rally in Michigan apparently talking about his first election run, saying “we were given a three per cent chance” in Michigan and then begins a series of rambling remarks about Detroit, (“I’ve heard a lot about Detroit”) and adds “We killed the plant in Mexico”. It’s not clear what he was referring to.
He then moved on to immigration, saying the US was suffering the “invasion of some of the biggest criminals in the world… we’re going to end that immediately.”
“We don’t have to live this way,” he adds.
Then he moves on to Kamala Harris, mocking her and claiming, “Nobody knew who the hell she was.” He then made some more inflammatory comments about transgender people .
Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters
Trump has finally arrived at his final rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, almost two and a half hours behind schedule.
Rachel Leingang
A few dozen conservative voters gathered at a Phoenix park to launch a canvass with Turning Point Action the night before the election, pulling up an app to get names and locations of voters they could talk to and convince to head to the polls.
Turning Point, the conservative youth organization, has run its “chase the vote” program in Arizona and Wisconsin to reach low propensity voters. Monday’s “super chase” canvass involved a data-driven approach to a part of town that the group says has right-leaning voters who haven’t yet turned in ballots.
“We actually modeled this program around a lot of what the Democrats have built in years prior,” said Andrew Kolvet, the group’s spokesman.
People from 47 states have come to Arizona and Wisconsin to volunteer with the group to turn out voters, Kolvet said. At the Phoenix park, teams of at least two – often wearing red Maga hats and toting clipboards – set off to knock some doors.
“The job is not to convince a swing voter necessarily, or to convince a Democrat to vote Republican,” Kolvet said. “These are people that we know are probably our people that just haven’t got their vote in.”
Registered Republicans have so far turned in more ballots than their Democratic counterparts in Arizona, a reversal of the last two cycles when Republicans trailed in early voting (though Republicans before 2020 often had a lead in early votes).
“We’re feeling as good as we could feel,” Kolvet said. “I’m not predicting victory. I’m just saying we have done the hard work and set the state up to have a really good day tomorrow. Anything could happen.”
Harris ends campaign ‘with energy, with joy’ at final rally in Philadelphia
Lauren Gambino
Dispatch from Philadelphia: Kamala Harris has run a remarkable 107-day presidential campaign, the shortest in modern political history.
It began on a Sunday morning with a call from the president saying he was stepping down. On election eve, hours before polls opened, she finished the final speech of a campaign she cast as a fight for American democracy.
But Harris has also sought to inject hope and optimism into her campaign.
“Tonight, then, we finish, as we started with optimism with energy, with joy,” she said.
“Generations before us led the fight for freedom, and now the baton is in our hands,” she said.
“We need to get to work and get out the vote,” she concluded.
US vice-president Kamala Harris (R) and US second gentleman Doug Emhoff. Photograph: Matthew Hatcher/AFP/Getty Images
Georgia poll worker arrested over bomb threat, prosecutors say
A Georgia poll worker was arrested on Monday on US charges that he sent a letter threatening to bomb election workers that he wrote to appear as if it came from a voter in the presidential election battleground state. Reuters reports:
Federal prosecutors said Nicholas Wimbish, 25, had been serving as a poll worker at the Jones County Elections Office in Gray, Georgia, on Oct. 16 when he got into a verbal altercation with a voter.
The next day, Wimbish mailed a letter to the county’s elections superintendent that was drafted to appear as if it came from that same voter, prosecutors said. The letter complained that Wimbish was a “closeted liberal election fraudster” who had been distracting voters in line to cast ballots, according to charging papers.
Authorities said the letter, signed by a “Jones county voter,” said Wimbish and others “should look over their shoulder” and warned that people would “learn a violent lesson about stealing our elections!”
Prosecutors said the letter ended with a handwritten note: “PS boom toy in early vote place, cigar burning, be safe.”
Wimbish was charged with mailing a bomb threat, conveying false information about a bomb threat, mailing a threatening letter, and making false statements to the FBI, prosecutors said. A lawyer for Wimbish could not be immediately identified.
Georgia is one of seven closely contested states expected to decide the outcome of Tuesday’s presidential election match up between Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Concerns about potential political violence have prompted officials to take a variety of measures to bolster security during and after Election Day.
With less than 48 hours to go in the US election and more than 77.6m votes already cast, new polling shows Kamala Harris leading among early voters in the country’s battleground states.
The Democratic candidate has an 8% lead among those who have already voted, while her opponent, Donald Trump, is ahead among those who say they are very likely to vote but have not yet done so. The poll, from the New York Times and Siena College, also found Harris was slightly ahead in three swing states, with Trump up in one and the other three too close to call.
With only hours of campaigning left, Harris was speaking in Michigan, while her Republican opponent used a rally in Pennsylvania to complain about gaps in the bulletproof shields surrounding him and suggested he would have no concerns about reporters being shot at if there were another assassination attempt against him.
“To get me, somebody would have to shoot through the fake news and I don’t mind that so much,” he said, adding the press were “seriously corrupt people”. Trump’s communications director claimed in a statement the comments were supposedly an effort to look out for the welfare of the news media.
Here’s what else happened on Sunday:
Donald Trump election news and updates
The Trump campaign claimed the NYT polling and Saturday’s Selzer poll of Iowa for the Des Moines Register were designed to suppress Trump voter turnout by presenting a biased, bleak picture of Trump’s re-election prospects. “No President has done more for FARMERS, and the Great State of Iowa, than Donald J. Trump,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.
In Pennsylvania, Trump told supporters that he should have stayed in the White House, despite his losing the 2020 election. “We had the safest border in the history of our country the day that I left,” Trump said.
At a rally in Macon, Georgia, Trump kept up anti-migrant rhetoric and again suggested he would give a role on health policy to Robert F Kennedy Jr. Trump said he told Kennedy: “You work on women’s health, you work on health, you work on what we eat. You work on pesticides. You work on everything.”
After RFK Jrproposed removing fluoride from drinking water on the first day of a new Trump administration, the former president appeared to approve the idea. “Well, I haven’t talked to him about it yet, but it sounds OK to me,” Trump told NBC News. “You know, it’s possible.”
Trump also spoke in Kinston, North Carolina, where he criticised Mitch McConnell, theRepublican Senate minority leader. “Hopefully we get rid of Mitch McConnell pretty soon,” Trump said. Republican voters in Kinston told the Guardian they are ready to fight a “stolen election”.
Kamala Harris election news and updates
In her final rally in Michigan, Harris pledged to do everything in her power to “end the war in Gaza”, as she attempted to appeal to the state’s large Arab American and Muslim American population. Michigan is home to about 240,000 registered Muslim voters, a majority of whom voted for Biden in 2020. But Arab Americans and Muslim Americans in the state have expressed dissatisfaction over the administrations stance on Israel’s war on Gaza.
Harris dodged a question on whether she voted for a controversial tough-on-crime measure that would make it easier for prosecutors to imprison repeat shoplifters and drug users to jail or prison, after submitting her ballot in California. Proposition 36 would roll back provisions of Proposition 47, which downgraded low-level thefts and drug possession to misdemeanours.
At Michigan’s Greater Emmanuel Institutional church of God in Christ in Detroit, Harristold the congregation that God’s plan was to “heal us and bring us together as nation” but that they “must act” to realise that plan.
How US politics got so insulting (Hint: it didn’t start with Trump) – video
Elsewhere on the campaign trail
A US government communications regulator has claimed that Harris’s appearance on Saturday Night Live violates “equal time” rules that govern political programming. Brendan Carr, a commissioner with the federal communications commission (FCC), said “the purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct – a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election.”
Iowa can continue challenging the validity of hundreds of ballots from potential noncitizens, a federal judge has ruled. The state has targeted illegal voting but critics said the effort threatened the voting rights of people who have only recently become US citizens.
Stocks finished lower in Monday’s session as safe-haven U.S. Treasury yields declined. The Dow slumped more than 250 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell about 0.3% each.
The latest poll from NBC News suggests the race is “neck and neck” between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Close attention also remains on which party dominates Congress, given that a sweep by Republicans or Democrats could contribute to drastic spending changes or a big revamp of tax policy. Follow CNBC’s 2024 election live blog here.
The results could have a significant effect on where stocks end the year, but investors may want to brace for some near-term choppiness. CNBC data going back to 1980 suggests the major averages gain between Election Day and the end of the year, but typically fall in the session and week after. Uncertainty over the results could lead to even more shakiness in the market.
“The setup is still skewed to the positive and the bull cases is still intact, unless we get a new policy from a new political regime that looks like it’s going to be more austere,” Trivariate Research founder Adam Parker said Monday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”
Beyond the election, investors await the Federal Reserve’s November rate decision due Thursday and fresh commentary from Chair Jerome Powell on the central bank’s policy moves going forward. Traders are pricing in 98% odds of a quarter-point cut following September’s half-point reduction, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
Earnings season continues Tuesday with results from Super Micro Computer and Yum Brands.
Trump’s media company is a sell ‘even if he wins,’ analyst says
A Trump victory on Election Day won’t change the fundamental challenges his social media company faces, analyst Jay Woods said.
“We are trading this like Gamestop on steroids right now,” Woods, chief capital strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, said of Trump Media on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.”
“And you know, kudos to those that are trading it making money. But over the long term, the metrics don’t make any sense,” he said.
Woods said that Truth Social, the company’s main product, is shedding monthly active users and advertising revenue.
Trump Media has said in regulatory filings that it does not track key performance metrics, such as daily and monthly active users. Third-party data firms have clocked a decline in traffic on Truth Social. A Trump Media spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Woods also noted that the investment vehicle of Trump Media co-founders Andrew Litinsky and Wes Moss — who were former contestants on Trump’s TV show “The Apprentice” — sold nearly their entire DJT stake shortly after they were allowed to do so.
Trump, who owns nearly 57% of the company, has vowed not to sell his stake.
Woods said that if Trump loses the election, “you may see even a little rally, people flocking to the site. But overall, how is this going to survive from a fundamental point of view?”
“I think it is still a sell” even if he wins, Woods said.
The analyst wondered whether a future President Trump would have to divest from the company, and questioned why he still uses X, the Elon Musk-owned microblogging site where Trump has a larger following.
“I think Elon Musk will help him solve this problem,” Woods said.
He added: “I don’t think it’s a good buy, even if he wins.”
— Kevin Breuninger
Ballot measures in 10 states could expand abortion rights
A woman walks by campaign signs at an early voting site at the West Oaks Branch Library in Ocoee, Florida, United States on October 27, 2024.
Paul Hennesy | Anadolu | Getty Images
During this election, ballot measures in 10 states could increase abortion access.
In Arizona, Florida, Missouri and South Dakota, the amendments would reverse existing abortion laws and allow the procedures until fetal viability, or what is generally considered around 24 weeks of pregnancy, with some exceptions after that point.
Most of the measures need the approval of more than 50% of voters to pass.
“Abortion is one of the defining issues of this election and a key motivating factor with voters across the political spectrum, in battleground states — up and down the ballot,” Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer at the American Civil Liberties Union, told CNBC.
— Annie Nova
Michigan final results are expected by midday Wednesday, state secretary says
Voters wait in line to cast their votes during early voting in the U.S. presidential election at a polling station in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. November 3, 2024.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters
The first wave of unofficial results from Michigan polls will be posted by 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, and the final results are expected by midday on Wednesday, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a press conference Monday in Detroit.
Nearly 3.2 million people cast their vote already in Michigan with early in-person and absentee voting, according to Benson. More than 1.2 million of those votes were cast during the early voting period, which started on Oct. 26 and ended Sunday.
The results coming out of Michigan, a key swing state in this year’s election, could be deeply influential in each candidates’ bid for the presidency.
— Ece Yildirim
Recreational marijuana could become legal in Florida if ballot measure passes
A proposed constitutional amendment for recreational marijuana is under review by the Florida Supreme Court.
Brad Horrigan | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
After this election, Florida may join the growing number of states where recreational marijuana is legal. Amendment 3, which is on Floridians’ ballots, would legalize the personal use of marijuana for adults 21 and older throughout the Sunshine State.
Meanwhile, in Nebraska, Initiative Measures 437 and 438 will give voters a chance to weigh in or whether or not to legalize and regulate the use and sale of marijuana for medical purposes.
Initiated Measure 29 in South Dakota and Initiated Measure 5 in North Dakota would both legalize the use of recreational cannabis in the states, where medical marijuana is already allowed.
Ballot Question 4 in Massachusetts, where medical and recreational cannabis is also already legal, would go even further by legalizing certain natural psychedelics.
— Annie Nova
Elon Musk uses story of euthanized squirrel Peanut to stoke fears about regulation
Peanut was seized by officers from the state Department of Environmental Conservation at Mark Longo’s home in rural Pine City, New York, on Oct. 30.
Courtesy Mark Longo via AP
Trump fans and surrogates including Republican megadonor and X owner Elon Musk are using the story of a recently euthanized rescue squirrel, Peanut, to rally support for Trump in the final stretch of the election.
Musk is painting the squirrel’s death as an instance of overzealous regulation. He recently posted on X, “So here’s the thing … Don’t make me tap the sign. If they will raid a house for a squirrel, they’re sure as s—- going to come after you.”
Peanut, also known as P’Nut or PNUT, was rescued by animal welfare advocate Mark Longo seven years ago, and turned into an icon on Instagram and OnlyFans. Longo also opened a sanctuary in his pet’s name in upstate New York.
Peanut and a raccoon named Fred were both seized during a raid of P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary on Wednesday by the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation, following anonymous complaints.
The department later euthanized Peanut and Fred to test for rabies after the squirrel reportedly bit a person involved in the investigation. Longo has said he did not see Peanut bite any officer, the Associated Press reported, but also said he knew it was against New York state law to own any wild animal without a license.
JD Vance said that Trump was “fired up” over the animal’s death, and he called Peanut the “Elon Musk of squirrels.”
Trump has not mentioned the squirrel at his many rallies this past week.
— Lora Kolodny
RNC sues Milwaukee over alleged poll watcher limits; city fires back
A man votes on the second day of early voting in Wisconsin at the American Serb Hall Banquet in Milwaukee, Oct. 23, 2024.
Vincent Alban | Reuters
The Republican National Committee has sued the Milwaukee Elections Commission, alleging that the number of observers allowed at voting locations in Wisconsin’s biggest city was “arbitrarily” limited.
The number of observers was limited to two people in at least two polling locations, the RNC said in the lawsuit filed in circuit court in Milwaukee County.
While state law allows the number of observers at polling sites to be “reasonably” limited, the RNC argued that there “was no legal basis” to allow so few poll watchers at the sites in question.
“When access is arbitrarily restricted to two persons, it opens the door to fraudulent claims of party affiliation so as to ‘freeze out’ one or the other major party,” the lawsuit said.
The Milwaukee Election Commission said in a statement to NBC News that it “refutes the claims made by the RNC,” adding that the city “favors the greatest possible transparency during elections,” including “accommodating all observers at election locations.”
The commission also said that it had been in communication with the RNC and met with the committee Sunday night.
But, the commission said of the RNC, “it seems that filing a lawsuit was their goal all along.”
The commission added that the GOP was never denied an observer during the in-person absentee voting period and will not be denied one on Election Day either.
“Our city attorneys will respond to any lawsuits that are filed,” the commission said.
— Kevin Breuninger
U.S. election infrastructure is secure, federal officials say
Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, speaks to The Associated Press in Washington, Oct. 2, 2024.
Ben Curtis | AP
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has seen no evidence of activity that has the potential to materially impact the outcome of the presidential election, Director Jen Easterly told reporters Monday during a briefing.
Easterly said the agency has observed some small-scale incidents during the early voting period, such as severe wet weather and criminal destruction of ballot boxes. She said that disruptions happen in every election and she expects others will follow in the coming days.
“As we head into tomorrow, I can say with great confidence that our election infrastructure has never been more secure and that the election community has never been better prepared to deliver safe, secure, free and fair elections,” Easterly said.
Easterly encouraged Americans to seek out state and local election officials for the most accurate information about their local proceedings.
— Ashley Capoot
Trump Media suddenly surges 16%
Trump Media shares rapidly shot up as much as 16% in intraday trading.
It’s unclear what prompted the sudden surge. DJT stock was down as much as 8% premarket, and in the first hours of the trading day shares had hovered around even.
Many analysts see the stock as a proxy for pro-Trump retail investors to back the Republican nominee or bet on the presidential election. The company’s performance on the Nasdaq has therefore been viewed as an informal gauge of enthusiasm among Trump supporters.
Trump owns nearly 57% of Trump Media.
Trump Media (DJT) Stock Price
Crypto donors have already directed $78 million to a PAC for the 2026 election
Crypto companies have already started donating tens of millions of dollars to a political action committee that is already fundraising for the 2026 election cycle. The pro-crypto and bipartisan super PAC Fairshake said Monday that the committee and its affiliates have raised $78 million for the next midterm elections.
That includes more than $30 million raised, plus $48 million in new commitments from centralized crypto exchange Coinbase and Silicon Valley venture fund Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, and other companies.
Overall, a16z has given $70 million to Fairshake, as the VC looks to support the PAC’s larger mission of building a Congress composed of pro-crypto legislators.
Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, announced it would give an additional $25 million to Fairshake, bringing its total donations to Fairshake and its affiliated PACs up to more than $75 million. The crypto company is currently battling the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over claims that it engaged in unregistered sales of securities.
— MacKenzie Sigalos
The gender gap is the most glaring split in the electorate
Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 30, 2024.
Eloisa Lopez | Reuters
Ahead of election day, Americans are sharply divided along racial and gender lines. But the gender gap is becoming the most glaring split, with 57% of women backing Harris and 41% supporting Trump. Among men, 58% are favoring Trump and 20% are backing Harris — a 34-point gender divide, according to the final national NBC News poll.
Harris is also maintaining a large lead among Black voters nationwide, including in the key battleground states.
A separate Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll released Saturday showed Harris leading Trump in Iowa, which has stayed decidedly to the right in recent elections.
Among likely voters, 56% of women preferred Harris, up from 53% from the same poll in September. Among men, 52% back Trump, down from September’s 59%. Among independent voters, Harris is favored 46% to 39%.
Politically independent female voters now support Harris by a wide margin, along with women over 65. Such strong support among these contingents contribute to the positive news for Harris in the most recent polls.
— Jessica Dickler
Trump celebrates the weak October jobs report: ‘I said, ‘Thank you” to God
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at J.S. Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., November 4, 2024.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Trump said he thanked God for the significant miss in the October jobs report Friday, because it could help him make his case against Harris on the campaign trail.
“We had the worst jobs report in modern history,” Trump said at his rally in North Carolina. “I looked up. I said, ‘Thank you.’”
The U.S. added a mere 12,000 jobs in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, well below the Dow Jones estimate of 100,000 and a significant drop from September. It was the weakest pace of growth since late 2020.
Almost immediately, Trump pounced on the downbeat report to help boost his economic pitch to voters.
“I’ve been saying it’s going to happen because of what they’re doing,” Trump said of the Biden administration. “Because they know nothing about economics or business or honestly, they’re stupid people.”
But economists largely view the sharp decline as an anomaly, attributable to temporary shocks including the back-to-back hurricanes in early October and the Boeing strike.
Chief Moody’s economist Mark Zandi called the October report “a head fake.”
“Abstracting from these one-offs,” such as the hurricanes and Boeing strike, Zandi wrote in a Friday post on X, “Employment increased by close to 150k, about the same as the gains in recent months.”
“It is fair to say the job market remains rock-solid,” he added.
— Rebecca Picciotto
Here are the states that have gained or lost Electoral College votes since 2020
A 4th grader works on an election themed art project at Heather Hills Elementary School in Bowie, Md., on Tuesday, October 22, 2024.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
A total of 13 states have gained or lost Electoral College votes since the 2020 presidential election, including some battleground states.
The electoral votes are allocated based on the state’s total congressional delegation, which is determined by its population, according to the U.S. Census.
Texas gained two electoral votes. Gaining one vote each were Oregon, Montana, Colorado, North Carolina and Florida.
The U.S. Census Bureau conducts a Census every 10 years. The electoral votes for this year’s election are based on the 2020 Census. The numbers weren’t official in time to be used for that year’s presidential election.
Seven states lost a vote: New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, Illinois and California.
Despite the one-vote loss, California remains the state with the largest share of electoral votes, at 54.
— Ece Yildirim
Harris outspent Trump on ads by over $300 million
A painted mural supporting Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and an electric billboard supporting Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump are seen in Atlanta, Georgia, Oct. 21, 2024.
Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images
The total ad spending for Harris’ four-month presidential run was $1.26 billion, far exceeding the $933 million in total ad support for Trump, the ad-tracking firm AdImpact reported.
Harris outpaced Trump in ad support despite having essentially launched her presidential campaign less than four months earlier.
President Joe Biden, who dropped out as the likely Democratic nominee in July, received $321 million in total ad support in the 2024 cycle, per AdImpact.
— Kevin Breuninger
Nikki Haley, absent from Trump’s campaign trail, still urges her bloc to vote for him
Former Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley speaks on Day 2 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., July 16, 2024.
“I don’t agree with Mr. Trump 100% of the time,” Haley wrote on the last day of the 2024 campaign in The Wall Street Journal. “But I do agree with him most of the time, and I disagree with Ms. Harris nearly all the time. That makes this an easy call.”
In the editorial, Haley said the Biden administration has made “the world far more dangerous” and caused prices to spike for U.S. households. Recently, inflation has cooled from its pandemic peaks, and other data points to a healthy economy.
Haley, a Republican and former governor of South Carolina, dropped her bid for president in March. While she was still in the race, she said in an interview with Craig Melvin, co-host of NBC’s “TODAY,” that Trump was “not the same person he was in 2016” and that he’d become “unhinged” and “more diminished.”
Although Haley said she endorsed Trump at the Republican National Convention in July, she’s been largely absent from his campaign trail.
Some Trump allies think the former president should have campaigned with Haley, who maintains broad support among moderate Republicans, but Trump never warmed to the idea.
— Annie Nova
Trump threatens to impose new 25% tariff on Mexican imports if he wins
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at J.S. Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., November 4, 2024.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Trump says if he is elected president, he would impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican imports unless the country enacts stricter border regulations.
If Mexican leaders “don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I’m going to immediately impose a 25% tariff on everything they send in to the United States of America,” the Republican presidential nominee said at his first rally of the day in Raleigh, North Carolina.
He added that it was the first time he had announced the proposal, though for months, a central plank of his economic platform has been a hardline approach to tariff policy. Trump has floated a 20% tariff rate on all imports from all countries with an especially high 60% rate on China.
Economists and Wall Street analysts view Trump’s hyper-protectionist trade policy as a potential threat to America’s inflation recovery, just as consumer prices have begun to cool from their pandemic-era spikes. In turn, the Harris campaign has branded the tariff plans as the “Trump sales tax.”
— Rebecca Picciotto
Voters could raise minimum wage in Alaska, Missouri and California
Early and absentee voting begins for 2024 US presidential elections in Alaska, United States on October 21, 2024.
Hasan Akbas | Anadolu | Getty Images
The minimum wage in three states could get a bump on Tuesday.
If history is any guide, ballot measures to raise the minimum wage in Alaska, Missouri and California will likely win support from a majority of voters and lead to bigger paychecks for workers, said Sebastian Martinez Hickey, a state economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute.
“Since 2014, 12 states have passed minimum wage increases through ballot measures,” Martinez Hickey told CNBC.
Alaska
Voters in Alaska will decide if they want to hike the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2027, with adjustments pegged to inflation after that. Ballot Measure No. 1 would raise the minimum wage to $13 in 2025, and to $14 in 2026.
Alaska’s current lowest possible hourly pay is $11.73, so the increase would be significant for those at the bottom of the earning scale.
Missouri
Proposition A in Missouri, if approved, would gradually increase the minimum wage, with a bump to $13.75 an hour on Jan. 1, 2025, up from the current lowest wage of $12.30. By 2026, the minimum wage would reach $15. Afterward, increases would be based on inflation.
California
In California, Proposition 32 would increase the minimum wage to $18 from $16. The timeline of that boost would vary by employer size, giving businesses with 25 or fewer workers until 2026 to have to pay that amount.
If the measure is successful, larger employers would need to raise the wage to $18 in 2025, and to $17 for the rest of 2024.
— Annie Nova
Barry Diller: Harris should ask Elon Musk to join her administration if she’s elected
IAC Chairman Barry Diller said that if Harris wins the presidency he hopes she will bring conservative billionaire Elon Musk to her administration to cut costs.
“Call him and say ‘You know what, Mr. Musk, you are truly a great cutting executive,’” Diller said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this morning, before praising Musk’s work at X and calling him “a deserved megalomaniac.”
“‘Come in, help our government. You’ve got absolute authority, cut everywhere,” Diller mused.
Diller also said that he would like to see Harris appoint a Republican with foreign policy experience as secretary of defense.
— Ece Yildirim
Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger warns of foreign election disinformation: ‘Lot of bad people out there’
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a press conference on Georgia’s Presidential Primary Election Day, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., March 12, 2024.
Alyssa Pointer | Reuters
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urged voters to be on the lookout for false or misleading election claims, warning some are coming from foreign sources who want Americans “fighting amongst ourselves.”
Raffensperger, the state’s top elections official, pointed to a recent social media video that showed someone claiming they would vote for Harris multiple times in Georgia.
“It was all made up, and it actually came from Russia,” he said during an election update this morning.
“So I think we as Americans, we just need to sit back sometime and make sure that you’re really hearing the truth,” Raffensperger said. “Because there’s a lot of bad people out there that want to just kind of get us fighting amongst ourselves.”
“We know who they are. We know Russia, China, Iran. There’s a list of them. It’s a basket full. And they’re just not really our friends. And if they can create us fighting amongst each other, then they feel like they’ve won,” he said.
— Kevin Breuninger
John Paulson: Internal Trump campaign polls show him leading in swing states
John Paulson told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this morning that he has seen some internal Trump campaign polling showing that Trump is leading or tied in all the swing states.
The polling was done “outside the campaign” over the weekend, after a surprising poll on Saturday showed Harris leading Trump in Iowa.
“I agree that the race is very tight, but I’m optimistic that [Trump] will win,” Paulson said.
— Ece Yildirim
RFK Jr. calls for nominees to positions in a potential Trump administration
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes an announcement on the future of his campaign in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. August 23, 2024.
Thomas Machowicz | Reuters
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is asking people to nominate candidates for positions across a potential Trump administration, according to a post on his Make America Healthy Again website.
The call for nominees is a surprising move from Kennedy, who appears to be at odds with the co-chair of the Trump transition team, Howard Lutnick, over what his potential role might be.
Lutnick recently said Kennedy is not in line for a Cabinet position. “He’s not getting a job for HHS,” Lutnick told CNN’s “The Source,” referring to the Health and Human Services Department. On Sunday, Kennedy told Fox News that Lutnick was wrong, and if Kennedy wanted to be HHS secretary, Trump “would fight like hell to make that happen.”
Still, for Kennedy to be seeking nominees to a potential administration through his own website, and not a Trump campaign site, ahead of the election, is highly unusual. A Trump campaign spokesman did not immediately reply to a request for comment from CNBC about the nomination site.
The Make America Healthy Again site says it is looking for nominees across 12 categories, including health, economy and government efficiency. At the bottom of the page, there is a form to fill out in order to nominate someone. Once a person is nominated, their profile posts to a public website, unless the nominee specifies otherwise.
Kennedy would likely have a role in health in a Trump administration. He previously ran for president this election cycle before dropping out and endorsing Trump.
— Jake Piazza
Trump Media stock vacillates in heavy trading at market open
A smartphone displays the logo of Donald Trump’s Truth Social app on March 25, 2024.
Anna Barclay | Getty Images
Shares of Trump Media fluttered up and down in heavy trading on the day before the election.
DJT shares were initially up more than 4% after the market opened at 9:30 a.m. ET. But the stock turned negative shortly after, and was down more than 2% by 9:50 a.m.
Earlier Monday morning, Trump Media stock was down as much as 8% in the premarket.
Many of the company’s retail investors are supporters of the former president, who are buying the stock as a way to back Trump or bet on his odds of winning the election.
Trump owns nearly 57% of the company, which operates the Truth Social platform. Trump Media executives have said that the company would benefit if Trump beats Harris in the election.
— Kevin Breuninger
‘I’ve been shocked’: Harris’ edge in Iowa stuns legacy pollster
Pollster Ann Selzer on MSNBC.
MSNBC
The new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll that showed Harris leading in Iowa within a margin of error came as a major surprise — even to the pollster that conducted it.
“This was a shock poll,” J. Ann Selzer, the president of the Des Moines-based polling company that conducted the survey, said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“I’ve been shocked since Tuesday morning last week, so I’ve had the time for this to sink in, because no one, including me, would have thought that Iowa could go for Kamala Harris,” she said.
The poll, which was released Saturday, showed Harris ahead of Trump by 47% to 44%. Though that lead was within the survey’s margin of error of 3.4 percentage points, it was a marked seven-point shift from September. Harris’ edge was partly fueled by a 28-point lead over Trump with independent women voters.
“If you’re a Democrat, you’re really looking at this and hoping that it means something for states like Michigan and Wisconsin that appear to be deadlocked battleground states,” Brianne Pfannenstiel, the Des Moines Register’s chief politics reporter, said on CNN.
— Rebecca Picciotto and Dan Mangan
Trump campaign prepares for what’s next — win or lose
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Atrium Health Amphitheater in Macon, Georgia, U.S., November 3, 2024.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Top Trump campaign officials acknowledged the possibility that their nominee may not win as they briefed staff about how operations will wrap up after the election.
An internal email, signed by senior advisors Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita and obtained by NBC News, tells campaign staff that their last payroll day is Nov. 30, “regardless of the outcome of the election.”
The message reflects standard procedure for any operation that will soon close its doors, but it is noteworthy when anyone in Trump’s orbit nods to the possibility that he could lose.
If Trump does win, many of the employees will be reassigned to either the Trump-Vance transition team or the president-elect’s inaugural committee, the email says.
Those working at the campaign headquarters in West Palm Beach are advised to clear their work areas of personal belongings by Nov. 10. The space will be converted to handle the transition and inaugural teams, “God-willing,” Wiles and LaCivita write.
“As the campaign comes to a close in a few days, please be proud of the work you have done and the contribution you have made to President Trump and Senator Vance [and their] work on behalf of freedom, security, the financial health of our nation, and to peace around the world,” they write.
“Most of all, be proud that you worked to Make America Great Again.”
— Kevin Breuninger and Jonathan Allen, NBC News
Elon Musk voter lottery hearing underway in Philadelphia court
SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk awards Judey Kamora with $1,000,000 during an America PAC town hall on October 26, 2024 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Samuel Corum | Getty Images News | Getty Images
A Philadelphia judge could rule at a hearing underway Monday morning that Elon Musk’s $1 million daily voter lottery should be blocked from continuing — but with just a day before Election Day that might not matter much.
Philadelphia’s district attorney last week sued the Tesla billionaire CEO and his political action committee in the county Common Court of Pleas, accusing them of running an illegal lottery by awarding cash prizes — 16 so far — to registered voters in swing states who signed a petition backing the Constitution.
Musk then got the case briefly transferred to federal court, but District Attorney Larry Krasner nearly as quickly got it returned to the county court.
Musk has said his America PAC would run the giveaway until Election Day, so if Krasner gets the injunction he is seeking from a judge at the hearing, it could save the Trump backer a million dollars or two.
— Dan Mangan
Trump Media shares sink in premarket trading, worsening DJT stock slide
Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Shares of Trump’s social media company dropped as much as 8% in premarket trading, exacerbating the Truth Social operator’s stock slide just before the election.
Trump Media, which trades as DJT on the Nasdaq, aw its market cap fall more than 40% between Tuesday afternoon and Friday.
The sudden drop erased much of the company’s gains from a massive rally in October, when its share price more than tripled.
Despite its multibillion-dollar valuation, the company has posted net losses of more than $340 million on revenues of less than $2 million this fiscal year.
The frenetic trading around the stock often seems to bear little correlation to its business fundamentals. Rather, analysts see the company as a magnet for pro-Trump retail investors to support the former president and bet on his odds of beating Harris in the election.
Trump Media (DJT) Stock Price
Harris to barnstorm Pennsylvania on the final day of campaigning
Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris attends a campaign rally, in Erie, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 14, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Harris will spend her final day on the campaign trail holding rallies across Pennsylvania, a must-win battleground state that both Republican and Democratic strategists see as the key to winning the Oval Office.
Harris will start the day in Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, before holding a rally in Allentown, then going on to a local stop in Reading. On Monday night, Harris will hold rallies in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The latter two will feature musical guests, including Lady Gaga in Pittsburgh and Katy Perry in Philadelphia, according to the campaign.
Pennsylvania went for Trump in the 2016 presidential election, but flipped to Joe Biden in 2020. Polls show Harris and Trump neck and neck in the state.
— Jake Piazza
Roughly 76 million Americans have already voted early
Residents of Mecklenburg County wait in line to cast their ballots near campaign signs on the last day of early voting in the state, in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. November 2, 2024.
Jonathan Drake | Reuters
Roughly 76 million Americans have already voted early, both through mail-in and early in-person voting, according to NBC News.
Among the states that record voters’ party alignment, 41% of early voters are registered Democrats and 39% are registered Republicans. Early voting rules differ across states.
— Jake Piazza
Trump to hit three battleground states on election eve
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump smiles while the audience cheers during his rally in Kinston, North Carolina, U.S., November 3, 2024.
Jonathan Drake | Reuters
Trump will split his time across three battleground states on the final day before the election.
Rallies are planned in Raleigh, North Carolina; Reading, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, according to the Trump campaign.
Grand Rapids occupies a unique position in Trump campaign history: Michigan’s second-largest city has been Trump’s final stop on election eve in both of his previous presidential campaigns.
