US election 2024 live updates: Trump talks economy in Pennsylvania as Walz rallied solo in Nebraska

Donald Trump spent most of his rally on Saturday attacking Vice President Kamala Harris and repeated familiar unsubstantiated claims to supporters.

The former president claimed Harris would drive the US into “World War III” and cause the economy to crash like the Great Depression – two familiar remarks without any evidence to suggest that would come true.

Trump criticized Harris, calling her a “crazy person” and “lunatic” because of her laugh, saying President Joe Biden “hates” her, and complained that she has not been interviewed for several weeks.

At one point in the campaign, Trump asked rallygoers to turn to the TV screens where his campaign showed a negative video about Harris.

Donald Trump claimed President Joe Biden “hates” Vice President Kamala Harris during his campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

“Joe Biden hates her,” Trump said of Harris. “Joe Biden hates her. This was an overthrow of a president. They went out, and I spent a hundred million dollars fighting Joe Biden. They told him he couldn’t win, they said his debate performance wasn’t the best ever, they said mine was the best ever.”

Trump’s rally speech was filled with familiar rhetoric that he has repeated through his press conferences, rallies and speeches.

There is no evidence Biden hates Harris.

Hundreds of people gathered at the Astro Theater near Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday to voice support for vice presidential nominee Governor Tim Walz.

After an introduction by his wife and a former high school student, Walz took to the lectern where he promoted Vice President Kamala Harris’s policies and criticized Donald Trump’s.

Walz highlighted his experience as a high school teacher and football coach, his wife’s experience as a teacher, and his family legacy as educators.

“I truly believe each and every one of us can make a difference,” Walz said.

The crowd of energized rallygoers chanted “We won’t go back”, “Coach” and “Thank you, Tim”

The Democratic National Committee has strategically placed anti-Donald Trump billboards in the area surrounding Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where the former president is holding a rally today.

“Donald Trump has always been a bad bet – and working families know better than to gamble on Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” DNC spokesperson Andy Toevs said in a statement.

“Ahead of his trip to the Keystone State, Pennsylvanians know the choice in this election is clear: in November, voters will choose between a prosecutor with a proven track record and a weirdo with 34 felony convictions and a dangerous, extreme platform that would rip away our basic freedoms.”

The billboards, which are placed in Scranton, Dunmore, Shavertown, Luzerne and Mountain Top, depict a photo of Trump with the words “Don’t Gamble on Trump.”

Words describing Trump, like “convicted felon”, “sore loser” and “he cheats” are posted around the former president’s face.

Vice President Kamala Harris struck a decidedly populist tone when she unveiled her economic policy in Raleigh, North Carolina on Friday.

The vice president made housing the core part of her policy rollout, pledging to build three million new homes. As part of that, she has proposed a tax incentive to build starter homes. This comes as nearly 1 in 10 homes are now worth more than $1 million, which is a record high.

The policy rollout comes just as Harris will head to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. Much of the focus has been on whether she will face a revolt from younger voters because of her and President Joe Biden’s support for Israel amid its war with Hamas that has led to thousands of deaths in Gaza. Indeed, Harris has confronted protesters at some of her early rallies, to varying levels of success.

But polling has shown that young voters tend to prioritize the economy, particularly the cost of living and housing, while not nearly as many consider the war in Gaza to be of similar salience. Indeed, when The Independent interviewed Black voters in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention before Biden stepped aside, they cited inflation and “high as hell” rent as primary reasons for dissatisfaction with Democrats.

George Santos, the former Republican congressman ousted amid a series of scandals, is reportedly set to plead guilty to charges in his federal criminal case to avoid a trial, lawyers involved in the case and those familiar with the matter said.

The disgraced lawmaker is expected to enter a guilty plea to the judge overseeing his case, District Judge Joanna Seybert, on Monday at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York, sources told Talking Points Memo, CNN, The New York Times and other outlets.

Santos is facing 23 felony charges including wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, aggravated identity theft, making false statements to the Federal Election Commission and more.

Thus far, the congressmen pleaded not guilty to all charges calling the indictment, and superseding indictment, a “witch hunt” and has previously publicly denied talks of a plea deal. A federal trial was set to begin in September

On Friday, both sides asked Judge Seybert for a hearing on Monday but did not explain why.

The Independent has asked Santos’ lawyer for comment on the reports.

The Trump campaign released a memo seeking to undermine the results of a New York Times / Sienna College poll that showed Harris taking a lead in two Sun Belt states and narrowing the gap in other key swing states.

“The latest Sun Belt swing state polls of Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada conducted by the New York Times and Siena College are, once again, a perfect example of how wildly inaccurate recalled 2020 vote between President Trump and Joe Biden is being used to create a phony lead for Kamala Harris,” the campaign said in a press release. 

“Even with the understatement of President Trump’s 2020 support in these key states and an unrepresentative weighting scheme relative to their Electoral Vote weights between the states surveyed, President Trump is consistently overperforming among black voters and voters aged 18-29, and has better fidelity among registered Republicans and 2020 supporters than Kamala Harris does among registered Democrats and 2020 Biden voters,” the statement continued.

However, the campaign did acknowledge that the poll got the numbers correct in Georgia both in 2020 and currently where Trump is leading by 7 points.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders praised Vice President Kamala Harris’s economic proposals saying they are a “strong, progressive agenda.”

While speaking with Chris Hayes for MSNBC, Sanders highlighted Harris’s plan to lower prescription drug prices, expand affordable housing, end medical debt and reduce inflation by targeting price gouging.

“I have always believed good policy is good politics,” Sanders said.

“Given the fact that she has been a candidate for only three weeks, I think she’s doing really, really well in a whole lot of ways,” Sanders said.