CNN
Special counsel Jack Smith provides fullest picture yet of his 2020 election case against Trump in new filing
By Katelyn Polantz, Tierney Sneed, John Fritze, Hannah Rabinowitz, Devan Cole, Holmes Lybrand and Marshall Cohen, CNN
15 minute read
Updated 11:14 PM EDT, Wed October 2, 2024
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02:35CNN —
Federal prosecutors laid out their most extensive case to date against former President Donald Trump for his effort to overturn the 2020 election in a sweeping legal brief that was unsealed Wednesday by a federal judge who is weighing the explosive criminal charges against him.
The 165-page document, which lands weeks before an election in which Trump is taking another shot at the White House, offers new detail about special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the former president’s efforts to lean on state officials and paint a narrative of widespread fraud that prosecutors say Trump knew was untrue.
It includes new details of Trump’s frayed relationship with former Vice President Mike Pence; FBI evidence of Trump’s phone usage on January 6, 2021, when rioters overtook the US Capitol; and conversations with family members and others where the then-president was fighting his loss to Joe Biden.
Broadly, and in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling this summer that granted Trump sweeping immunity for official actions, Smith’s motion claims the former president took the steps he did as a political candidate – not as a president – and that, therefore, he is not entitled to protection from prosecution the justices identified in July.
“When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office,” Smith wrote in the brief, which US District Judge Tanya Chutkan released in partially redacted form.
”At its core, the defendant’s scheme was a private one,” prosecutors wrote. “He extensively used private actors and his campaign infrastructure to attempt to overturn the election results and operated in a private capacity as a candidate for office.”
The filing weaves together what prominent witnesses told a federal grand jury and the FBI about Trump, along with other never-before-disclosed evidence investigators gathered about the former president’s actions leading up to and on January 6.
Releasing the motion, which was previously filed under seal, is the latest major development in Smith’s longstanding effort to prosecute Trump for actions he took to overturn the 2020 election, even as the former president is seeking a second term in a tight race with Vice President Kamala Harris. The case, which has already reached the Supreme Court once, has repeatedly been delayed as Trump has attempted to push off the prosecution until after next month’s election.
The document is broken into four sections. The first section lays out the case prosecutors said they would attempt to prove at trial, including a summary of evidence; the second section gives Chutkan a roadmap for how to assess which actions are official – and therefore potentially covered by immunity – and which are not; the third section walks through how the principles should apply in Trump’s case; the fourth is a brief conclusion that asks Chutkan to rule that the actions described are not protected by immunity and that Trump “is subject to trial on the superseding indictment.”
More evidence could come out in coming days. A hefty appendix accompanying Wednesday’s filing remains under seal, and the judge has asked both sides to weigh in on how much of it should be made public. Among the documents in the appendix are grand jury transcripts and notes from FBI interviews conducted during the yearslong investigation.
Trump’s team had fought the release of the document and the former president on Wednesday called it a “hit job” and claimed without evidence it was released in response to the vice presidential debate Tuesday night.
“Democrats are Weaponizing the Justice Department against me because they know I am WINNING, and they are desperate to prop up their failing Candidate, Kamala Harris. The DOJ pushed out this latest ‘hit job’ today because JD Vance humiliated Tim Walz last night in the Debate,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The former president on Wednesday asked Chutkan for extra time and additional pages to file his response to Smith’s sweeping brief, where he will argue that the whole case should be thrown out under the Supreme Court’s ruling that he at least some immunity in the prosecution.
Trump argued that the deadline for his response should be extended five weeks, until November 21, given earlier extensions given to Smith, and he said that he should get the same four-fold increase on the usual page limit that Smith secured for his brief. Trump also said that he should be allowed to file an extra brief in the back-and-forth over the immunity issues in the case, which would give him the final word in the written arguments submitted to Chutkan on the matter.
“President Trump must have an equal opportunity to submit and address facts bearing on immunity, and to rebut the Special Counsel’s misleading submissions,” the new request said. “Accordingly, the Court should grant President Trump leave to file a 180-page Response.”
Here’s what to know from Smith’s court filing:
FBI knows how Trump used his phone on January 6
FBI experts have mapped out what Trump was doing on his phone while the US Capitol riot unfolded.
An FBI Computer Analysis Response Team forensic examiner can testify about “the news and social media applications” on Trump’s phone, Smith wrote in the filing, “and can describe the activity occurring on the phone throughout the afternoon of January 6.”
Those logs show that Trump “was using his phone, and in particular, was using the Twitter application, consistently throughout the day after he returned from the Ellipse speech.”
Smith said that three unidentified witnesses are also prepared to testify that on the afternoon of January 6, the television in the White House dining room where Trump spent much of the day was “on and tuned into news programs that were covering in real time the ongoing events in the Capitol.”
That testimony would allow prosecutors to show a future jury what Trump saw unfolding on TV while he made comments and posted online that afternoon.
Prosecutors frame Trump conversations with Pence as between ‘running mates’
Even as they face a high bar for introducing evidence from Pence, Smith’s team sought to do so by framing a series of interactions between the two as conversations between “running mates,” where Pence tried to convince Trump he needed to accept his electoral defeat.
They include a November 7, 2020, conversation where Pence allegedly told Trump that he should focus on how he revived the Republican Party, as well as Pence’s recollection of a Trump meeting with campaign staff, during which Trump was told the prospects of his election challenges looked bleak.
At a November 12 lunch, Pence told Trump that he didn’t have to concede but he could “recognize process is over,” prosecutors said, and during a November 23 phone call, Trump allegedly told Pence that one of his private attorneys were skeptical about the election challenges.
As part of those private conversations, prosecutors say, Pence “tried to encourage” Trump “as a friend” after news networks called the election for Biden. In other interactions, Pence encouraged Trump to consider running for reelection in 2024. Those interactions, prosecutors argued, were not at all related to Trump’s official duties as president.
“The content of the conversations at issue – the defendant and Pence’s joint electoral fate and how to accept the election results – have no bearing on any function of the Executive Branch,” they wrote in the filing.
Trump personally tweeted Pence ‘didn’t have the courage’ to overturn election
Trump personally posted the tweet that Pence “didn’t have the courage” to overturn the election results, prosecutors say.
The revelation comes as part of Smith’s argument as to why the tweet, posted after the riot began, should be considered a private act and therefore not protected under presidential immunity.
The post targeting Pence was “a matter of intense personal concern to the defendant as a candidate for office,” Smith wrote. At the time he posted the tweet, prosecutors say Trump knew his request for Pence to block the Electoral College votes was illegal; knew that his supporters gathered in Washington, DC, believed his lies during his speech at the Ellipse that the election had been stolen; and knew that those supporters had now breached the Capitol building.
“It was at that point — alone, watching news in real time, and with knowledge that rioters had breached the Capitol building — that the defendant issued the 2:24 p.m. Tweet attacking Pence for refusing the defendant’s entreaties to join the conspiracy and help overturn the results of the election,” Smith wrote.
The tweet communicated “to his angry supporters that Pence had let him — and them — down,” Smith wrote, adding that it was “not a message sent to address a matter of public concern and ease unrest; it was the message of an angry candidate upon the realization that he would lose power.”
One minute after the tweet was posted, Smith wrote, the Secret Service was forced to evacuate Pence to a secure location in the Capitol.
Trump told family: ‘It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election’
Prosecutors allege they have a witness who will testify that Trump told family members, “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”
The witness, Smith’s team said in the filing, will testify that he was aboard Marine One when then-President Trump made the statement to his wife, Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Prosecutors did not name the official in the filing, but they said he was the director of Oval Office operations. “He witnessed an unprompted comment that the defendant made to his family members in which the defendant suggested that he would fight to remain in power regardless of whether he had won the election,” prosecutors wrote.
At the time, Ivanka Trump and Kushner were White House employees, serving as advisers to the president, and Melania Trump was first lady.
However, prosecutors claim that the conversation aboard Marine One was “plainly private” and had nothing to do with the Trump family’s official government responsibilities.
“The defendant made the comment to his family members, who campaigned on his behalf and served as private advisors (in addition to any official role they may have played),” prosecutors wrote.
Trump told advisers he would declare victory
Prosecutors say that Trump was told by advisers that the 2020 vote likely would not be finalized on Election Day and that he could misleadingly look ahead in the ballot count on election night only to fall behind once all of the ballots were counted. Nonetheless, Trump told his advisers that he would claim victory before the ballots were fully counted, prosecutors say.
One private political adviser, three days before Election Day 2020, described Trump’s plan as: “He’s going to declare victory. That doesn’t mean he’s the winner, he’s just going to say he’s the winner,” according to the filing.
That adviser, not identified by name by prosecutors, also described the Democratic lean of the mail ballot vote as “a natural disadvantage” and said, “Trump’s going to take advantage of it. That’s our strategy.”
Trump sought to ‘perpetuate himself in power’
Smith’s office stressed the private and political nature of Trump’s actions around the 2020 election.
“The executive branch,” prosecutors wrote, “has no authority or function to choose the next president.”
That argument appeared designed for federal appeals courts, including the Supreme Court, that have placed a heavy emphasis in recent years on the historical understanding of the separation of powers.
In other words, Smith is arguing that Trump’s effort to overturn the election was necessarily private because the Constitution gives a president no official authority for choosing his successor.
“The defendant’s charged conduct directly contravenes these foundational principles,” the motion reads. “He sought to encroach on powers specifically assigned by the Constitution to other branches, to advance his own self-interest and perpetuate himself in power, contrary to the will of the people.”
White House staffer ‘P9’ details planning meetings
Prosecutors focus in particular in the filing on what Trump learned from a White House staffer referred to in the filings as “P9,” as they try to show that Trump was well aware he had lost the election as he pressed on with the reversal schemes.
The person, identified only as “P9,” appears to have personally had discussions over the phone about the fake electors strategy with Trump, and had repeated text conversations with other people in the campaign about how the strategy was “crazy” or “illegal,” according to the filing.
When Trump told the staffer he would not pay the private lawyer spearheading his legal challenges unless the challenges were successful, the staffer told Trump that the private attorney would never be paid. That prompted a laugh and a “we’ll see” from Trump, the filings said. (The private attorney is identified by prosecutors as co-conspirator 1, who CNN has previously identified as Rudy Giuliani. Ted Goodman, a spokesman for Giuliani, told CNN Wednesday night that the brief was “blatant election interference by Jack Smith, a person with a long track record of weaponizing the law for political gain.”)
In a follow up conversation, the White House official told Trump that Giuliani would not be able to prove his false claims in a court and Trump told the staffer, “The details don’t matter.”
The brief lays out several other interactions between the White House staffer and Trump in which Trump was told that the election fraud claims wouldn’t hold up in court.
Prosecutors say they would call election officials in battleground states at Trump trial
In the filing released Wednesday, prosecutors identify witnesses they hope to call at a trial to testify against Trump – including election officials in battleground states and his White House deputy chief of staff.
The prosecutors say they also want to show a jury at trial Trump’s campaign speech on January 4, 2021, in Georgia, and his campaign speech on the Ellipse on January 6, 2021, just before the riot at the US Capitol.
And, they’d like to show the jury tweets that they say can prove Trump was driving the public campaign of fraud in the election, as he knew there was none that was widespread enough to overturn his loss. They argue those tweets weren’t part of Trump’s official work as president.
At trial, prosecutors say they would like to call the only other adviser to Trump who had access to his Twitter account to testify that Trump was sending tweets on January 6 that would put pressure on Pence to stop the counting of the electoral votes at the Capitol. The person is described as White House deputy chief of staff.
“The Government will elicit from Person 45 at trial that he was the only person other than the defendant with the ability to post to the defendant’s Twitter account, that he sent tweets only at the defendant’s express direction, and that person 45 did not send certain specific Tweets” – specifically a tweet Trump sent that said Pence didn’t have the courage to block the certification of the vote.
That type of testimony would allow prosecutors to assert in court they have evidence of a moment like this:
“At 2:24 p.m., Trump was alone in his dining room,” prosecutors write in the filing, “when he issued a Tweet attacking Pence and fueling the ongoing riot: ‘Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!’”
Secret Service was warned about Pence’s safety, prosecutors say
According to prosecutors, the Secret Service was warned about Trump threatening to criticize Pence if he failed to overthrow the election results.
On January 5, 2021, Trump once again met with Pence to allegedly try to pressure him not to certify the Electoral College votes. In that meeting, the special counsel wrote that Trump threatened to criticize him publicly.
Smith says that Pence told someone identified only as “P8” about that comment, and that P8 was so concerned by the prospect that he alerted Pence’s Secret Service detail.
Trump tried again to pressure Pence on the morning of January 6, shortly before driving to deliver his speech at the Ellipse, prosecutors say.
Pence, however, again refused and Trump “was incensed,” the filing says.
It was then that Trump “set into motion the last plan in furtherance of his conspiracies: if Pence would not do as he asked, (Trump) needed to find another way to prevent the certification of Biden as president,” the filing says.
“So on January 6, (Trump) sent to the Capitol a crowd of angry supporters, whom the defendant had called to the city and inundate with false claims of outcome-determinative election fraud, to induce Pence not to certify the legitimate electoral votes and to obstruct the certification,” the filing says.
According to prosecutors, Trump also showed his “desperate conduct as a candidate rather than a President” when rioters stormed the Capitol, forcing Pence to be moved to a secure location.
An unnamed White House aide, according to the filing, ran to Trump when he received a phone call that Pence had been taken to a secure location “in hopes that (Trump) would take action to ensure Pence’s safety.”
Trump, according to prosecutors, looked at the aide and simply replied, “So what?”
Prosecutors lean on Hatch Act to bolster Trump charges
Smith is again using the Hatch Act – which limits the political activities of federal employees – to bolster the 2020 election subversion charges against Trump.
Prosecutors said in the filing that the Hatch Act allows White House staffers to “wear two hats,” separating out their official conduct to serve the public from their political conduct to help a candidate.
Therefore, even if some of Trump’s alleged wrongdoing occurred on White House grounds and in front of White House staff, he doesn’t have immunity because that fell under the “political” umbrella, Smith’s team wrote.
“When the defendant’s White House staff participated in political activity on his behalf as a candidate, they were not exercising their official authority or carrying out official responsibilities,” prosecutors wrote. “And when the President, acting as a candidate, engaged in Campaign-related activities with these officials or in their presence, he too was not engaging in official presidential conduct.”
‘Make them riot’ and ‘create chaos’
Prosecutors describe an effort by Trump operatives to “create chaos” in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election when the voting looked to be going for Biden.
In Philadelphia, prosecutors allege campaign operatives sought to create confrontations at polling places and then “falsely claim that his election observers were being denied proper access” as a predicate to claim fraud.
Prosecutors also raised the fracas at the Detroit Counting Center, pointing to evidence that a campaign staffer, upon learning a heavy incoming batch of votes leaned Biden, asked for “options to file litigation” even if (it) was “itbis[sic}.”
The same campaign operative said “make them riot” when told that protests at the counting center were heading in the direction of the so-called Brooks Brothers Riot that disrupted the 2000 Florida count between Al Gore and George W. Bush.
Bill Barr decided to speak out against Trump’s election lies after seeing him on Fox News
Then-Attorney General Bill Barr decided in 2020 to publicly rebut Trump’s false claims that the election was rigged after watching Trump spread these lies on Fox News, prosecutors say.
“On November 29, [Barr] saw the defendant appear on the Maria Bartiromo Show and claim, among other false things, that the Justice Department was ‘missing in action’ and had ignored evidence of fraud,” prosecutors wrote.
They continued, “[Barr] decided it was time to speak publicly in contravention of the defendant’s false claims, set up a lunch with a reporter for the Associated Press, and made his statement.”
This was the December 1, 2020, statement in which Barr infamously said the Justice Department had looked into potential election irregularities but didn’t find any widespread fraud that could’ve tipped the results. This was a major move by Barr, a lifelong Republican who at the time was a staunch Trump ally.
Barr’s name is redacted in the filing, and he is referred to as “P52.” But P52 is described as the “attorney general,” and Barr was the attorney general at that time.
Barr resigned just before Christmas 2020.
CNN’s Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
By Alayna Treene and Kate Sullivan, CNN
2 minute read
Published 9:43 PM EST, Mon November 4, 2024
Joe Rogan is seen at the ceremonial weigh-in for the UFC 292 mixed martial arts event, Friday, Aug. 18, 2023, in Boston. Gregory Payan/AP/FileCNN —
Popular podcast host Joe Rogan officially endorsed Donald Trump on the eve of the election, a move Trump’s team swiftly touted as a major win in the final hours of their campaign.
Rogan on Monday released his latest podcast featuring a two-and-a-half-hour interview with billionaire X owner and top Trump surrogate Elon Musk. Rogan then posted on X: “The great and powerful @elonmusk. If it wasn’t for him we’d be f**ked. He makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way.”
“For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump. Enjoy the podcast,” he added.
The endorsement comes just weeks after Rogan interviewed Trump on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” an interview that was months in the making for the Trump campaign and viewed widely by the former president’s advisers as the crowning achievement of their media strategy to target young men and low-propensity voters by having Trump appear on podcasts catering to the demographic.
Trump, who was onstage in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for his penultimate rally when Rogan made the endorsement, swiftly touted the development.
“It just came over the wires that Joe Rogan just endorsed me, is that great. Thank you, Joe. That’s so nice. And he doesn’t do that, he doesn’t do that stuff,” Trump said.
Trump said, “And he tends to be a little bit more liberal than some of the people in this room.”
Last week, Rogan posted on X that he had declined an offer from Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign to do an interview.
“Also, for the record the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast. They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour. I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin,” Rogan said. “My sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. I really hope we can make it happen.”
The Harris campaign declined to comment on Rogan’s post.
By Eric Bradner and Kate Sullivan, CNN
4 minute read
Updated 2:10 AM EST, Tue November 5, 2024
Former President Donald Trump gestures during a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Monday, November 4. Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty ImagesCNN —
Donald Trump described the United States as an “occupied country,” pointing to both undocumented and legal migrants as he pledged Monday to “rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered.”
The former president’s comments, at his election eve rally in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania, underscore the dark and dystopian image he is portraying as he and Vice President Kamala Harris make their final arguments to voters ahead of Tuesday’s election.
Trump made little distinction between undocumented immigrants he said had overrun an apartment complex in Colorado and thousands of Haitian migrants who entered the United States legally and live in Springfield, Ohio.
“These are military invasions without the uniforms. That’s all it is,” Trump said, as he vowed to launch a massive deportation effort.
Trump was closing his third presidential campaign Monday with the same anti-immigration rhetoric that he used to launch his first White House bid. He described a nation in decline, overrun by migrant crime, much as he did in his first inaugural address, when he vowed to stop the “American carnage.”
The former president said he would target migrant gangs, ban sanctuary cities and seek the death penalty for any migrant that kills a US citizen. He invited conservative commentator Megyn Kelly on stage. Kelly listed several people killed by undocumented immigrants. Her appearance was particularly notable after Trump ripped Kelly for the way she asked him tough questions while moderating a Republican presidential primary debate in 2015, starting off months of sparring over social media and in subsequent interviews.
Trump also said he would rejuvenate US manufacturing by imposing steep tariffs on automotive products manufactured in Mexico, steel made in China and more – a proposal that economists have said would increase inflation, because the businesses charged those tariffs for importing foreign-made goods would pass the additional costs on to American consumers.
“Four years of Kamala have delivered nothing but economic hell for the American workers,” Trump said.
And Trump railed against the length of time it takes for votes to be counted and the usage of electronic voting machines, calling for single-day voting that would all be done on paper. It was a long discussion that is contrary to previous messaging from Trump and his campaign, which has encouraged people to vote early.
“I do believe it is too big to rig. I think it’s too big to rig. They’ll try. And they are trying, you know, but it’s too big to rig. This is a big movement. This is, you know, we did great in 2016, we did much better in 2020 but a lot of bad things happened,” Trump said. “This is that big, powerful, vicious party, though. No, it’s a vicious machine. I mean, they can take all these bad ideas and win elections. It’s like, there’s only a way you can do that. One way, there’s only one way.”
He added, “We have to win the old fashioned way and then fix it. But we have to fix it. We can’t allow this to happen. And remember, the states are essentially an agent, if I can use that term, but they’re an agent of the federal government. The states are doing the collecting, so to speak, and they have to take their orders from the federal government. And how can they do this when they say it’s going to take days long.”
The former president’s closing message of the 2024 race was a familiar one, as he delivered a lengthy speech in Pittsburgh – his third of four rallies scheduled for Monday after visits to North Carolina and eastern Pennsylvania with one more stop in Michigan. In a nod to the city’s sporting history, Trump discussed Pittsburgh Pirates’ star Roberto Clemente for an extended period near the end of his speech and brought the late Puerto Rican star’s son on stage for a few words.
Harris also ended her campaign with a blitz across Pennsylvania. The two candidates’ time spent in the Keystone State underscores the importance of its 19 electoral college votes — without which both candidates’ paths to the 270 necessary to win the presidency would be much more daunting.
Both campaigns have largely focused on seven battlegrounds: the “blue wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which Trump won in 2016 but President Joe Biden reclaimed in 2020, and four Sun Belt states: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.
CNN
Trump argues he’s really running against “an evil Democrat system,” not Harris, during his final rally
From CNN’s Kate Sullivan
Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan on November 5. Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump argued during the final rally of his campaign that his real opponent this election was not Vice President Kamala Harris but instead “an evil Democrat system.”
“We will defeat the corrupt system in Washington. Because I’m not running against Kamala, I’m running against an evil Democrat system. These are evil people,” Trump said during his rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that started well after midnight.
“The silent majority is back and tomorrow you need to get out and vote,” Trump said.
“This has been an incredible journey. And it’s very sad in a way, because, you know, we’ve done all these, and this is the last one, but here’s the good news, all we were doing is putting ourselves in a position to win, which we can do tomorrow very easily if we show up,” he added.
It’s decision day in America. Here’s what to watch for
From CNN’s Eric Bradner and Gregory Krieg
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. AP
It’s decision day for voters in America’s battle for the White House and control of Congress — even if the results could take days or weeks to sort through.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are hoping to win over seven swing states: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the three Great Lakes states that make up the “blue wall” that Trump cracked in 2016 but President Joe Biden carried in 2020, and Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, the four Sun Belt battlegrounds.
While the election of either candidate would be historic, there’s much more being decided Tuesday, including five states — Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota — voting on whether to turn back abortion bans with constitutional amendments.
Republicans hope to take advantage of a favorable Senate map, with Democrats defending seats in the red-leaning states of Montana, Ohio and West Virginia. The party’s hopes of holding onto its narrow House majority winds from the coast of Maine through New York’s Hudson Valley, the rolling hills of Virginia’s Piedmont, a “blue dot” in Nebraska and into California’s Orange County, where the political ebbs and flows of the Trump era have been on vivid display.
The initial results in the hours after polls close might not be determinative. States decide their own election procedures, and the order in which states count early, mail-in and Election Day votes varies across the map — as does how quickly certain cities, counties and regions report their results.
Read more about what to expect from the day.
Trump finishes final campaign rally after speaking for nearly 2 hours
From CNN’s Jessie Yeung
Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Tuesday. Paul Sancya/AP
Former President Donald Trump has ended his final campaign rally after speaking for nearly two hours in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He repeated many of his campaign promises, such as vowing to impose hefty tariffs and to crack down on illegal immigration.
At one point he also brought several of his children and their spouses to the stage, who delivered brief remarks, including Tiffany, Eric and Donald Jr.
His marathon address ends a long campaign trail — with Trump saying he had attended more than 900 rallies this year.
Walz says he’s disappointed but not surprised the race is so closely contested
From CNN’s Aaron Pellish
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz participates in an interview with Stephen Colbert. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/CBS
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he’s disappointed the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is so closely contested.
In an interview on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” taped in Bucks County, Pennsylvania last Thursday, Walz laid out the contrast between the two candidates to show that the difference is “stark.”
He said of the election being so closely contested: “It disappoints me, I think, because I think that the choice is so stark, but it’s not surprising.”
“The country’s really divided. There’s been a group of people out there who figured that out, and I think they’ve done a wonderful job of making people think it doesn’t matter, everybody’s the same,” Walz said.
Walz then laid out how he saw the differences between Harris and Trump, particularly noting insults directed toward Puerto Rico made by a speaker at a Trump rally in October.
“In this case, you’ve got the Constitution versus not the Constitution. You’ve got reproductive rights versus I don’t care if you like it or not. I’ll tell you what to do, from Donald Trump in closing with insulting people. I know we’re sitting in Pennsylvania, there’s — there’s 500,000 Puerto Ricans here, and Puerto Ricans, as all Americans, are very proud of where they come from,” he said.
In the past, Walz has expressed some disbelief at the competitiveness of the presidential election. He has regularly mused at private fundraisers and campaign stops that “I’ll go to my grave not understanding” how the election is so close.
Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake says “silent majority” will back her and Trump
From CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi
Kari Lake speaks at a campaign rally, Monday, November 4, in Prescott, Arizona. Julio Cortez/AP
Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake has held her final campaign rally, telling supporters that on Tuesday they have “a chance to change the trajectory of this country and save this Republic.”
Campaigning on the steps of the Yavapai County Courthouse in Prescott, Arizona on Monday — where US Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona launched his presidential campaign — Lake, a former TV newscaster up against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego in a key Senate race, argued that the “Make America Great Again” movement “is not dead,” and claimed that a “silent majority” will back her and former President Donald Trump tomorrow.
Lake and Gallego, a Marine veteran who represents Arizona’s 3rd congressional district, are vying for the pivotal Senate seat held by independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
Lake, who did not concede her 2022 election loss and promoted Trump’s false theories about the 2020 election, said she believes in “fair and honest elections” and argued “I really believe that our Founding Fathers never envisioned we’d have elections that are run so horribly.”
“That’s why they never put in term limits because they figured we’d be able to vote the people that we didn’t respect out of office. And unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do that. And we’re going to change that after January. But the only way to change that is to show up in such a massive movement that we have their heads spinning,” she said, pointing to the media.
She also thanked GOP congressional candidate Abe Hamadeh and said: “When they did to us what they did to us in 2022, and everyone else ran and hid, guess who stood with me and said, damn it, we’re going to fight — Abe Hamadeh.”
She argued the election is not “Republican-Democrat anymore” but “Americanism versus communism.”
Trump teases using sexist language to refer to Nancy Pelosi
From CNN’s Jessie Yeung
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Tuesday, November 5. Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump slammed US Rep. Nancy Pelosi during his final rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, verging on using a profanity to describe the former House Speaker.
“She’s a crooked person, she’s a bad person. Evil, she’s an evil, sick, crazy bi— It starts with a ‘B’ but I won’t say it. I wanna say it,” Trump said to cheers from the crowd.
“I don’t use much (foul language), you know, every once in a while, and it’s never a real bad word, it’s never bad … But it is a little better when you use foul language. These are bad people,” he said.
Trump constantly rails against Pelosi and recently called the California Democrat “an enemy from within.”
Throughout the end of his campaign trail, Trump’s message has gotten increasingly dark and often offensive. At an event in North Carolina last week, Trump chuckled approvingly at an audience member’s suggestion that Vice President Kamala Harris worked as a sex worker.
Harris will spend Election Day doing radio interviews
From CNN’s Brian Rokus
Vice President Kamala Harris will spend Election Day in Washington, DC and participate in radio interviews, according to her office.
Trump has held his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids in 3 presidential races
From CNN’s Jessie Yeung
Former President Donald Trump has taken the stage in Grand Rapids, Michigan — giving the city a special shout-out for being the location of his final rallies in past presidential campaigns.
“I want to say a very special hello to Grand Rapids, it’s been a special place, remember 2016?” he said to a cheering crowd that chanted his name.
Trump previously also finished his campaign trail in the city in 2016 and 2020.
NOW: Trump is speaking at his final rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan
From CNN staff
Former President Donald Trump walks on stage for his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Monday, November 4. Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump is speaking at his final rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he ended both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. His remarks were originally slated for 10:30 p.m. ET.
Grand Rapids is a Western Michigan city in Kent County, which swung from Trump in 2016 to Joe Biden in 2020.
Harris and Trump tie in Dixville Notch midnight vote to kick off Election Day
From CNN’s Gary Tuchman
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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have tied with three votes each in the tiny New Hampshire township of Dixville Notch, kicking off Election Day in one of the first places in the country to report its presidential preference.
Four Republicans and two undeclared voters participated.
The unincorporated township, located along the US-Canada border in New Hampshire’s northern tip, opened and closed its poll just after midnight ET in a tradition that dates back to 1960.
Read more about how Dixville Notch voted.
Harris calls on Pennsylvania voters to turn out, saying “the race ain’t over yet”
From CNN’s Jessie Yeung
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Monday, November 4. Hannah McKay/Reutes
Speaking at her final campaign rally in Philadelphia before Election Day on Monday night, Vice President Kamala Harris said her team was “optimistic and excited” — but urged voters to make their voices heard, saying Pennsylvania could “decide the outcome” of the election.
“The race ain’t over yet, and we must finish strong. This could be one of the closest races in history. Every single vote matters,” she said.
“With only a few hours left, we still have work to do, and as you’ve heard me say before, we like hard work,” she added.
At points, the crowd broke into cheers of “We will win” and “We’re not going back.”
Harris reiterated several campaign promises, such as lowering the cost of living, housing, childcare, elderly home care, and taxes for workers and small businesses. She also vowed to pass a bill to restore reproductive freedoms after the rolling back of Roe v. Wade.
She sought to contrast herself with Donald Trump by using several familiar refrains — such as promising a seat at the table to those who disagree with her, compared to the former president’s often vehement rhetoric against his political opponents.
“We started this campaign 107 days ago,” she said. “From the beginning, ours has not been a fight against something, it has been a fight for something. A fight for a future with freedom, with opportunity, and with dignity for all Americans.”
“Tonight, we finish as we started — with optimism, with energy, with joy, knowing that we the people have the power to shape our future, and that we can confront any challenge we face when we do it together.”
NOW: Harris speaking in Philadelphia in final rally before Election Day
From CNN staff
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Monday,November 4. Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris is speaking at a rally in Philadelphia, her final stop in front of voters before Election Day.
Harris has made the key battleground of Pennsylvania her priority on Monday with several stops across the state culminating in her final one in the state’s largest city.
She was joined by Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga, among other celebrities, musicians and elected officials at the famous “Rocky Steps” at the Philadelphia Museum of the Arts.
Oprah takes the stage at Harris rally with 10 first-time young voters
From CNN’s Jessie Yeung
US television producer Oprah Winfrey arrives on stage with 10 first-time Philadelphia voters during a rally for Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 4, 2024. Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
Oprah Winfrey took the stage at Kamala Harris’ final rally in Philadelphia on Monday night alongside 10 young people – all first time voters.
“The policies that Kamala Harris has proposed for women’s reproductive rights and education equality are what led me to cast my ballot for her,” one voter told Winfrey.
Another first-time voter said it was especially significant for him as an African American to “exercise my right to vote, which my ancestors fought so hard for.”
“We don’t get to sit this one out,” Oprah said.
“If we don’t show up tomorrow, it is entirely possible that we will not have the opportunity to ever cast a ballot again.”
“We are voting for healing over hate,” she said.
“What you can do for your country, what you can do for democracy here, and what you can do for the spirit of John Lewis and all the others who dared to walk across that bridge in Selma and fight for justice for us all … What you can do for every pregnant young woman who has died bc she was not eligible to receive the emergency medical care she desperately needed bc of an abortion ban, what you can do for everyone and everything you cherish — is vote.”
Lady Gaga performs “God Bless America” at Harris’ final rally in Philadelphia
From CNN’s Jessie Yeung
Lady Gaga waves before performing during a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Monday, November 4. ( Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
Musical superstar Lady Gaga appeared at Vice President Kamala Harris’ final rally in Philadelphia, performing a rendition of “God Bless America.”
“For more than half of this country’s life, women didn’t have a voice. Yet we raised children, we held our families together, we supported men as they made the decisions,” she said in brief remarks after her performance. “But tomorrow, women will be a part of making this decision.”
Oprah Winfrey is also expected to make an appearance tonight, before Harris delivers remarks.
Walz focuses on abortion during final campaign rally in Michigan
From CNN’s Aaron Pellish
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz focused heavily on access to abortion and reproductive health care, driving home a core message of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign in Detroit, Michigan on Monday.
In his remarks at Hart Plaza overlooking the Detroit River, Walz reiterated his attacks on former president Donald Trump, who claimed to be the “protector” of women and said he would look after women “whether they like it or not” at a campaign rally in Wisconsin last week.
He also made a direct pitch to male voters on abortion, asking them to consider the implications of abortion restrictions on the women in their lives.
“Let me speak to the guys in the crowd tonight. I want you to think about the women in your life that you love. Their lives are at stake in this election. Donald Trump appointed those Supreme Court justices who repealed Roe versus Wade, and he brags about it. He is glad that those women you’re thinking about and you love have fewer rights than their mothers and their grandmothers,” he said.
“We’re seeing women turned away from emergency rooms, miscarrying in parking lots, whether they like it or not. Survivors of rape being forced to carry those pregnancies to term, whether they like it or not. Fertility clinics turning couples away at the door, whether they like it or not,” he said.
“Now, tomorrow, women all across America of every age, both parties, are going to send a loud and clear message to Donald Trump, whether he likes it or not.”
Harris offers Americans a chance to turn the page on Trump — without mentioning him
From CNN’s Gregory Krieg
Vice President Kamala Harris appears during a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday, November 4. Quinn Glabicki/Reuters
Her message has been consistent, but Kamala Harris has in the closing days of the presidential race dropped two notable words from her stump speech: Donald Trump.
The former president’s name was again absent from the vice president’s speech on Monday night in Pittsburgh, where she again promised voters a clean break from the discord of the Trump era in American politics. It was a notable switch in rhetoric for the vice president, who had mentioned Trump’s name so often in previous versions of her stump speech that the Republican’s campaign had put together a video compilation of Harris saying “Donald Trump” that he often played at rallies.
“We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division. We are done with that,” Harris said. “We’re done. We’re exhausted with it.”
That promise has been threaded through her campaign, usually implied but increasingly delivered in explicit terms.
“It can be easy to forget a simple truth,” Harris said in Washington. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
The way it is, she said in Pittsburgh, is not so good.
“So much about these last several years has been about trying to make people point their fingers at each other,” Harris said, “to have Americans point their fingers at each other, to try and make people feel alone or feel small.”
Elon Musk cancels virtual town hall event minutes after it started after technical problems
From CNN’s Clare Duffy
Elon Musk held a digital version of the town-hall-style rallies he has hosted on behalf of former President Donald Trump. But the event on X ended just a few minutes after it started on Monday night, when Musk encountered technical difficulties.
The event began streaming more than 20 minutes after its scheduled 8 p.m. ET start time. When the billionaire X owner joined, he promoted a podcast interview he did with Joe Rogan and offered to take questions. An operator then attempted to take questions from four listeners who apparently had been on hold, but the line went silent when he called on them.
The operator asked Musk if he believes “we will win” on Tuesday — presumably referring to Trump, whom Musk has supported to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
“Well, I think if people vote tomorrow, we’re definitely going to win,” he said.
Musk then called off the event, saying: “let’s cancel this, since we seem to be having some technical issues.” Musk promised to start a regular livestream spaces event on X. The X Spaces event Musk started immediately following the town hall, lasted one minute and appeared to have no audio.
Minutes later, Musk said he would not restart his Q&A and encouraged followers to listen to his Rogan interview instead, during which the podcaster endorsed Trump.
The Monday town hall is just the latest election-related event that Musk attempted to host on X that was plagued by technical difficulties.
An August interview between Musk and Trump that was streamed on X was delayed by more than 40 minutes because of glitches. Musk blamed the issue on a cyberattack, but some experts speculated it was simply caused by too many users trying to listen. A similar event last year to kick off Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign was also delayed by 25 minutes and marred by technical difficulties.
Why these 7 battleground states could determine who wins the election
From CNN’s Zachary B. Wolf
People cast their early ballots at a polling station in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on November 2. Carlos Osorio/Reuters
There are thought to be seven states that could conceivably be won by either candidate. As a result, the campaigns have focused their energy in these areas. They can be broken up into two general categories:
3 Midwestern battlegrounds, aka “the blue wall” – These are the manufacturing and union-heavy states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. They used to be more reliably Democratic but have shifted in recent years as their populations have changed and as former President Donald Trump has appealed to White voters without a college degree.
When Trump won the White House in 2016, he won all three. When President Joe Biden won in 2020, he won all three. If Vice President Kamala Harris wins all three this year, she will likely have the electoral votes to be president. But polls suggest close races in all three. Turnout will be key, which for Harris means appealing to suburban women and Black voters. All three states have urban centers.
The blue wall states usually vote the same way. The last time they did not all go to the same candidate was in 1988 – notably also a year when California was red and West Virginia was blue. In those eight elections since 1988, the only time the blue wall states went to a Republican was in 2016, when they were won by Trump.
4 Sun Belt battlegrounds – These states with growing populations include Arizona and Nevada in the West and North Carolina and Georgia in the East. Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina used to be more reliably Republican. Trump won North Carolina twice, but the margins were close in 2020. The last Democrat to win there was Barack Obama in 2008. Biden was the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992 and Arizona since Clinton in 1996.
Here are more key things to know about the US election works.
Ahead of election night, meet the 2024 Democratic and Republican candidates
From CNN’s Ethan Cohen, Molly English and Matt Holt
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Getty Images
Ahead of election night, read up on the 2024 candidates on the Democratic and Republican tickets vying to win the White House.
Vice President Kamala Harris is the Democratic candidate for president. The daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, Harris grew up in Oakland and spent much of her political career in California’s Bay Area.
She was first elected as the San Francisco district attorney in 2004, before later serving as the attorney general of California. After that, Harris was elected to the Senate before being picked to be President Joe Biden’s running mate in the 2020 election.
She announced her own candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president after Biden withdrew from the ticket and endorsed her on July 21. Harris is the first Black woman and first Asian American to lead the ticket of a major political party.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is Harris’ running mate. Before being elected to Congress to represent the state’s 1st Congressional District in 2007, Walz was a high school geography teacher and an assistant football coach. He also served in the Army National Guard. Walz has been serving as Minnesota governor since 2019.
Former President Donald Trump is the Republican candidate for president, aiming to become only the second commander in chief to win two nonconsecutive terms.
Trump, who was born in New York, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Before launching his successful 2016 presidential bid, Trump was a real estate developer, businessman and a reality television star as host of “The Apprentice.”
Ohio Sen. JD Vance is Trump’s running mate. Born in Middletown, Ohio, Vance wrote a memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, about his upbringing and white, working-class Americans. He also attended Yale Law School, worked as a venture capitalist and served in the US Marine Corps.
Vance was elected to the Senate in 2023, outlasting a stronger-than-expected challenge from Democrat Tim Ryan and keeping the seat under GOP control.
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