Key events
Donald Trump struggled to pronounce “Prairie du Chien,” the town where he’s delivering his remarks.
“You could have given me a little easier name than that, but I think we got it right,” Trump said.
He continued to make anti-immigrant and racist comments half an hour into his speech.
Donald Trump wrongfully claimed that immigrants in the US are violent criminals, referring to them as “stone-cold killers”.
“There’s no greater act of disloyalty than to extinguish the sovereignty of your own nation right through your border, no matter what lies she tells,” Trump said.
“Kamala Harris can never be forgiven for her erasing our border, and she must never be allowed to become president of the United States and Wisconsin,” he added.
Donald Trump said Kamala Harris’s border policies should disqualify her from ever becoming president and urged voters in Wisconsin not to support her.
“Kamala is mentally impaired,” Trump said. “Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way.”
Donald Trump claims that more than 40,000 people were outside, unable to get into the building because the room was at capacity.
He then turned to criticize Kamala Harris for her role in border policies, claiming that her actions have led to widespread chaos, suffering, and a lack of national security.
“I watched this show that she put on, four years of the most incompetent border anywhere in the world, in history,” Trump said.
Trump takes stage in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin
Donald Trump has taken the stage, starting his speech more than an hour after his scheduled slot in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin.
The latest analysis by the Guardian’s Robert Tait shows that Kamala Harris’s national poll lead is increasing. Even by small margins, these increases may turn out to be significant.
Poll-watchers are saying that Harris might not need as big a popular vote lead as Democrats have needed in the past. The reason, roughly summarized, is that while Harris is sustaining narrow leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Donald Trump is polling better than four years ago in states he still has little chance of winning.
An improvement in a non-competitive state is an improvement that will not help him win.
Read the full analysis here:
Donald Trump is about half an hour late for his scheduled remarks in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin.
The stage is holding several banners displaying the faces of immigrants who face criminal charges in the state. Another banner read: “End migrant crime.”
The speech comes a day after Kamala Harris delivered a speech on immigration and border policy in Arizona.
Jason Wilson
A Florida university will host an extremist writer after the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, vowed to transform the school from a university known for liberal values into a conservative institution.
New College of Florida (NCF) will host the extremist writer Steve Sailer, who has been described as a “white supremacist” and a “proponent of scientific racism”, at a college-branded public event next month.
DeSantis installed a new board of trustees including the rightwing culture warrior Christopher Rufo. That board in turn appointed DeSantis’s “close ally” Richard Corcoran as the new college president, in which role he makes a $699,000 salary.
DeSantis’s lieutenants’ actions at New College – like abolishing disciplines, removing bathroom signage and denying professors tenure – have seen the departure of more than a third of the faculty, and given rise to myriad legal actions.
Read more about the university’s move here:
Donald Trump is expected to deliver a speech in Wisconsin in a few minutes.
We’ll be covering his comments at the Prairie du Chien Area Arts Center, where he’s expected to speak on immigration and policies in the southern border.
Kamala Harris’s campaign is planning to troll her rival Donald Trump during the Georgia-Alabama football game, after he refused to debate her.
The Washington Post reported that the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign has hired a plane to fly a banner declaring “Trump’s Punting on 2nd Debate” over the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, stadium.
The campaign is also planning to air a national ad during the college game where she calls on Trump to meet her on the debate stage.
More context on his rejection here:
JD Vance discussed his faith several times during his remarks, positioning it as a core element of his personal and political beliefs.
He later expressed his support for the freedom of churches and religious institutions, as well as the importance of the first amendment and the need to defend the independence of churches from government interference.
“I want to facilitate Christian charity because our local churches know best,” Vance said. “We ought to be empowering them, and I think unfortunately our current federal government is trying to destroy them, and it’s a disgrace. We’re going to stop it.”
Vance wrapped up his speech, and he’s expected to spend the next few days preparing for his debate against the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Tim Walz.
JD Vance also touched on the economy during his remarks in Pennsylvania, saying that the current economic policies are failing to address rising costs, which prevent families from affording basic needs.
“Economic policies allow people to put food on the table,” Vance said. “If not, what the hell are we doing in American leadership?”
Vance later linked the economy to energy policies and fracking, an important issue in the current US presidential election, especially in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
“The more that we’re able to distribute Pennsylvania natural gas, the more people that are going to have good jobs, the more wages are going to go up, and the more that we’re going to be able to build a good middle-class economy for all Americans,” Vance said.
During Pennsylvania’s town hall, JD Vance took questions from the public, first from a mother homeschooling her children.
Vance said he thinks that certain teachings in American schools are not just liberal ideas but “craziness”, especially around topics like gender and race.
“I’m extremely concerned about socialism being pushed so strongly in our education system,” Vance said. “It’s being essentially forced in our higher education system, and then filtering down to our young ones, even in elementary ages.”
JD Vance said that telehealth, expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic, was a positive development in providing access to addiction treatment.
He stressed the need to continue and re-authorize telehealth services into 2025.
“We got to renew that and reauthorize it to give people access to the treatment that they need, and that’s something that Donald Trump and I are going to fight for every single day,” Vance said.
He later shifted to criticizing the current administration’s border policies for the “fentanyl in our community”.
JD Vance speaks at town hall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania
JD Vance, the senator and Republican vice-presidential nominee, is making an appearance at a town hall in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.
He spoke about the epidemic of opioid addiction, arguing people recovering from addiction need more support and should not be punished harshly for one relapse.
“We have to rebuild a country where we’re safe enough to actually give people the second chances that they need,” Vance said.
