Donald Trump says January 6 riot was a ‘day of love’ – US politics live

Donald Trump describes 6 January Capitol riots as ‘day of love’ during Miami town hall

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday described 6 January 2021, when thousands of his supporters attacked the Capitol in Washington DC in a bid to stop formal certification of Trump’s election defeat, as a “day of love”.

During a town hall with a Latino audience, hosted by Spanish-language television network Univision yesterday, Trump was told by a participant that he wanted to give the former US president a chance to “win back his vote” given his concerns over the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot, reports Reuters.

Thousands of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol in Washington DC that day causing millions of dollars in damage. Four people died on the day of the attack, and one Capitol police officer who fought against the rioters died the next day.

Republican presidential nominee, former US president Donald Trump stands with moderator Enrique Acevedo (L) as he attends a Univision Noticias town hall event in Florida on Wednesday. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

At the town hall in Miami, Trump gave a lengthy response in which he described 6 January 2021 as a “day of love” and said former administration officials who had turned against him were angry about having been fired.

“I hope someday maybe we’ll get your vote,” Trump said as he wrapped up. “Sounds like maybe I won’t, but that’s OK too.”

Trump also stood by debunked claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets, telling Latino voters during a town hall he was “just saying what was reported.”

Trump in recent weeks has amplified a false claim that has gone viral that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing residents’ pets or taking wildlife from parks for food.

There have been no credible reports of Haitians eating pets, and officials in Ohio – including Republicans – have repeatedly said the story is untrue.

More on this story in a moment, but first, here are the latest updates:

Surrounded by more than 100 former Republican officeholders and officials, Kamala Harris urged GOP voters on Wednesday to put “country first” and abandon Donald Trump. Trump is “unstable” and “unhinged” and would eviscerate democratic norms if given a second White House term, she said. “America must heed this warning”.
In her interview on Fox News, Harris was asked about the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle illegal immigration at the southern border, and laid the blame on Republicans for failing to pass a border bill. Harris said Trump told Republicans to reject the bill because “he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
In the Fox interview, Harris singled out Iran when asked which foreign country she considers to be America’s greatest adversary. Baier questioned whether the Biden-Harris administration was “acting like Iran is the number one threat”.
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance answered “no” when asked if Trump lost the 2020 election, at a Pennsylvania rally. “What message do you think it sends to independent voters when you do not directly answer the question ‘Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?’” the reporter asked, eliciting boos from the crowd. Vance said, “No. I think there were serious problems in 2020”.
Trump doubled down on his controversial comments about “the enemy from within” made over the weekend. Before an all-female audience in Cumming, Georgia, Trump mocked Kamala Harris and her allies as “sick”, “evil” and “a party of soundbites”. He said, “They’re very dangerous. They’re Marxists and communists and fascists,” Trump told the Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner. “They’re the threat to democracy.”
In Trump’s Univision town hall he was asked to name three virtues possessed by Harris, which he did, before again attacking her. He said that “she seems to have an ability to survive”, that “she seems to have some pretty longtime friendships” and that “she seems to have a nice way about her”. “I mean, I like the way some of her statements, some of her – the way she behaves, in a certain way. But in another way, I think it’s very bad for our country,” he said.
A Georgia judge has declared that seven new election rules recently passed by the state election board are “illegal, unconstitutional and void”. Fulton county superior court judge Thomas Cox issued the order on Wednesday after holding a hearing on challenges to the rules. The rules that Cox invalidated included three that had garnered a lot of attention – one that required that the number of ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls and two that had to do with the certification of election results.
Jimmy Carter, the centenarian former Democratic president, has voted in the 2024 presidential election, his representatives confirmed on Wednesday. A statement from the Carter Center did not reveal who he voted for, but it is assumed the 100-year-old, who is in hospice care, cast his ballot for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Alabama cannot remove thousands of people from its voter rolls on the eve of the presidential election, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. The US district judge Anna Manasco, an appointee of Donald Trump, issued a preliminary injunction halting an effort by Alabama’s top election official to try to remove more than 3,200 people from the voter rolls who it suspected of being non-citizens until at least after the presidential election.
The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin has called on the Department of Justice to investigate text messages they say targeted and tried to discourage young people from voting in the November election. The League of Women Voters says it initially learned of the alleged text campaign on 10 October, when the group received numerous complaints from voters who had received the text. Two people in their 20s who work with the League of Women Voters also received the message, which reads: “WARNING: Violating WI Statutes 12.13 & 6.18 may result in fines up to $10,000 or 3.5 years in prison. Don’t vote in a state where you’re not eligible.”

Key events

US Republican candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday said that companies will drop plans to build factories overseas when faced with the threat of high tariffs on shipping goods to the US, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“The higher the tariff, the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States,” the former president Trump told an audience at the Economic Club of Chicago.

“You make it so high, so horrible, so obnoxious” companies will “come right away,” he added.

The economy has emerged as one of the main issues ahead of the 5 November US election, where Trump is in a dead heat with vice-president Kamala Harris, according to polls.

The former president has vowed a 10% to 20% across-the-board tariff on imports and a 60% rate on Chinese goods – and more recently threatened a 200% levy on vehicles made in Mexico.

AFP reports that during the hour-long interview, Trump pushed back at arguments that tariffs would hike costs for consumers and punish businesses faced with higher-priced imports. “To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff,” Trump said.

Biden approves $4.5 bn in student debt relief as vote nears

US president Joe Biden announced on Thursday further student debt relief for public servants – amounting to about $4.5bn – with just over two weeks to go until the presidential election, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The action affects about 60,000 borrowers across the country, said the White House, touting Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris’s efforts to improve loan forgiveness since taking office.

AFP reports that the announcement comes as US households feel the weight of higher costs of living since the Covid-19 pandemic, with voters citing the economy as a crucial concern in polls.

Biden said in a statement that with the latest move, more than one million people have had their debt cancelled under Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

The promise of the programme – supporting teachers, nurses and others – involved student debt forgiveness after 10 years of public service and 10 years of payments.

“But for too long, the government failed to live up to its commitments, and only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness,” Biden said. “I will never stop working to make higher education affordable,” he added.

Biden has embarked on efforts to cancel student debt for millions of Americans, after a student loan payment freeze instituted by Donald Trump during the coronavirus pandemic.

Americans hold $1.6tn in student loans, and some end up repaying them over decades as they start jobs and families.

US president Joe Biden will spend Friday in Berlin with German chancellor Olaf Scholz, reports the Associated Press (AP).

There is also a planned meeting with other leaders in the ‘European quad’ a group that in addition to Biden and Scholz includes French president Emmanuel Macron and UK prime minister Keir Starmer.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described Biden as having a “close relationship” with Scholz, who early this year helped broker a multi-country prisoner swap that brought back to the US the journalist Evan Gershkovich and former marine Paul Whelan. The German leader told Biden before the deal in words to the effect, “For you, I will do this”, reports Reuters.

“We have worked together closely to strengthen our economies for both our people and provide critical support for Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against Russian aggression,” Jean-Pierre said at Wednesday’s White House briefing. “The president really wanted to make sure to go to Germany to thank chancellor Scholz directly.”

The US and Germany have been the largest two sources of aid to Ukraine as it fights to repel a Russian invasion. And with less than three weeks before the US presidential election, Biden also feels obliged to ready allies for the possible return to the White House of Republican Donald Trump, who has antagonised US friends while displaying an appreciation for Russian president Vladimir Putin, reports the AP.

The administration said Biden has no plans while in Europe to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the two spoke on Wednesday about additional military aid, with the White House announcing $425m in assistance, bringing the total support to more than $64bn over two and a half years.

In addition to Ukraine, Biden and Scholz plan to discuss EU relations, democratic values, trade and technology issues, global supply chains, tensions in the Middle East and security issues in the Indo-Pacific region, reports the AP. While in Germany, Biden will also meet with its president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Earlier this month, Biden delayed a trip planned to Germany and Angola in order to oversee relief efforts ahead of Hurricane Milton making landfall in Florida. He now plans to go to Angola in December.

At Wednesday’s Miami town hall, Donald Trump sidestepped a question on immigration, reports Reuters.

One town hall participant, a Mexican-born California farm worker who spoke of picking strawberries and broccoli for years, asked who would do hard farm labour if Trump goes through with his plans to deport millions of people who are in the US illegally, and how that would impact food prices.

According to Reuters, Trump did not answer directly and instead claimed African Americans and Hispanic Americans were losing their jobs because of illegal immigration. He also repeated baseless claims that Latin American countries were emptying out mental institutions and jails to send people to the US.

Trump has previously used dehumanising terminology to describe immigrants in the US illegally, calling them “animals” when talking about alleged criminal acts, and saying they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a phrase that has drawn criticism as xenophobic and echoing Nazi rhetoric.

In the final weeks before the 5 November election, Republican candidate Donald Trump is increasingly resorting to darker and more violent language about illegal immigration, an issue that opinion polls show resonates with many voters, especially Republicans, reports Reuters.

He is competing against Democratic candidate Kamala Harris for key votes from the growing Latino population. Latino voters have typically backed Democrats, but the Trump campaign is hoping to win over more, especially men, on the back of economic discontent.

Harris led Trump by eight percentage points – 47% to 39% – among Hispanic voters in Reuters/Ipsos polling conducted between 11 September and 7 October.

Harris held her own Latino town hall last week in Nevada, a battleground state with a significant Hispanic population.

‘Just saying what was reported’ – Trump stands by debunked Ohio immigrants eating pets claims

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday stood by debunked claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets, telling Latino voters during a town hall he was “just saying what was reported”, according to Reuters.

Trump in recent weeks has amplified a false claim that has gone viral that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing residents’ pets or taking wildlife from parks for food.

There have been no credible reports of Haitians eating pets, and officials in Ohio – including Republicans – have repeatedly said the story is untrue.

At a town hall hosted by Spanish-language television network Univision, an undecided Mexican-born Latino Republican voter from Arizona, a battleground state, asked Trump in Spanish whether he truly believed that immigrants were eating pets.

“I was just saying what was reported … And eating other things too that they’re not supposed to be. All I do is report,” Trump replied during the event held in Miami. “I was there, I’m going to be there and we’re going to take a look.”

According to Reuters, Trump added that “newspapers” had also reported on the claim, without naming any or providing any details.

Trump, who has not yet traveled to Springfield, has previously said he would conduct mass deportations of Haitian immigrants from the Ohio city, even though the majority of them are in the US legally.

The city has faced bomb threats since Trump began repeating the false accusations about Haitians.

Donald Trump describes 6 January Capitol riots as ‘day of love’ during Miami town hall

“I hope someday maybe we’ll get your vote,” Trump said as he wrapped up. “Sounds like maybe I won’t, but that’s OK too.”

Trump also stood by debunked claims that immigrants in Ohio were eating pets, telling Latino voters during a town hall he was “just saying what was reported.”

Trump in recent weeks has amplified a false claim that has gone viral that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing residents’ pets or taking wildlife from parks for food.

There have been no credible reports of Haitians eating pets, and officials in Ohio – including Republicans – have repeatedly said the story is untrue.

More on this story in a moment, but first, here are the latest updates:

Surrounded by more than 100 former Republican officeholders and officials, Kamala Harris urged GOP voters on Wednesday to put “country first” and abandon Donald Trump. Trump is “unstable” and “unhinged” and would eviscerate democratic norms if given a second White House term, she said. “America must heed this warning”.
In her interview on Fox News, Harris was asked about the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle illegal immigration at the southern border, and laid the blame on Republicans for failing to pass a border bill. Harris said Trump told Republicans to reject the bill because “he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
In the Fox interview, Harris singled out Iran when asked which foreign country she considers to be America’s greatest adversary. Baier questioned whether the Biden-Harris administration was “acting like Iran is the number one threat”.
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance answered “no” when asked if Trump lost the 2020 election, at a Pennsylvania rally. “What message do you think it sends to independent voters when you do not directly answer the question ‘Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?’” the reporter asked, eliciting boos from the crowd. Vance said, “No. I think there were serious problems in 2020”.
Trump doubled down on his controversial comments about “the enemy from within” made over the weekend. Before an all-female audience in Cumming, Georgia, Trump mocked Kamala Harris and her allies as “sick”, “evil” and “a party of soundbites”. He said, “They’re very dangerous. They’re Marxists and communists and fascists,” Trump told the Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner. “They’re the threat to democracy.”
In Trump’s Univision town hall he was asked to name three virtues possessed by Harris, which he did, before again attacking her. He said that “she seems to have an ability to survive”, that “she seems to have some pretty longtime friendships” and that “she seems to have a nice way about her”. “I mean, I like the way some of her statements, some of her – the way she behaves, in a certain way. But in another way, I think it’s very bad for our country,” he said.
A Georgia judge has declared that seven new election rules recently passed by the state election board are “illegal, unconstitutional and void”. Fulton county superior court judge Thomas Cox issued the order on Wednesday after holding a hearing on challenges to the rules. The rules that Cox invalidated included three that had garnered a lot of attention – one that required that the number of ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls and two that had to do with the certification of election results.
Jimmy Carter, the centenarian former Democratic president, has voted in the 2024 presidential election, his representatives confirmed on Wednesday. A statement from the Carter Center did not reveal who he voted for, but it is assumed the 100-year-old, who is in hospice care, cast his ballot for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Alabama cannot remove thousands of people from its voter rolls on the eve of the presidential election, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. The US district judge Anna Manasco, an appointee of Donald Trump, issued a preliminary injunction halting an effort by Alabama’s top election official to try to remove more than 3,200 people from the voter rolls who it suspected of being non-citizens until at least after the presidential election.
The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin has called on the Department of Justice to investigate text messages they say targeted and tried to discourage young people from voting in the November election. The League of Women Voters says it initially learned of the alleged text campaign on 10 October, when the group received numerous complaints from voters who had received the text. Two people in their 20s who work with the League of Women Voters also received the message, which reads: “WARNING: Violating WI Statutes 12.13 & 6.18 may result in fines up to $10,000 or 3.5 years in prison. Don’t vote in a state where you’re not eligible.”