Americans head to the polls today after months of fierce campaigning to vote in a historic presidential election that is too close to call. Will Kamala Harris or Donald Trump win the race to the White House?
Tuesday 5 November 2024 20:37, UK
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Does the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement ride or die with Donald Trump?
That’s the question we here at Sky News posed to former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.
In an interview hosted by Saxo, Mr Scaramucci discussed the prospect of another Republican – like JD Vance – picking up where Mr Trump left off should he lose this election.
“I don’t think that Vance can pick up the torch,” he said.
“He is an articulate guy, but I think he’s too close to Donald Trump at this point, and I think he gets absorbed in the heat blast, meaning if Trump implodes, he gets eviscerated.
If Mr Trump wins, Mr Vance will be “destroyed” in the same way that Mike Pence was in the wake of the 2020 election, he added.
“Vance is too close to Donald Trump – he’s finished. He’ll never be able to come out of it.”
What happens to the party if Mr Vance can’t “pick up the torch”, then?
“The Mitt Romney, John McCain [era] of the party’s over,” Mr Scaramucci said.
“You now have this fusion party of MAGA and hard right cultural issues with normal public Republican party principles.”
So who picks it up?
“If you poll these people, they like Tucker Carlson the most, they see him as the leader of the party.
“I don’t think Vance can be the leader of the party and I don’t think the Republican party under Trump can, in other words, be the MAGA movement and Trumpism cannot hold.
“That’s a personality cult. So I don’t know what comes in its wake, but it won’t be that.”
The vice president, Kamala Harris, is making a surprise appearance the Democrat party’s Washington DC headquarters, and she is meeting supporters and staff (watch live in stream above).
The Democrat candidate for vice president spoke a short while ago before boarding his plane following a campaign stop in Pennsylvania.
Tim Walz said, in his view, Donald Trump “probably will” contest the outcome of the election if he loses, but added: “We have the freest, most secure elections.
“It’s going to take some time to get results. We’re going up, down, up down – but at the end of the day, as we always do, we will get the results that we know are accurate, and at that point in time, the winner will be announced and the loser will shake hands and [inaudible] with the winner.”
The Minnesota governor went on to say that America is “a divided country”, but said that the public can feel the “fatigue of Donald Trump”.
“I just can’t describe the difference in the vibe that’s out there with folks and how hungry they are for something different,” he says.
Reflecting on the last 90 days of campaigning, Mr Walz said: “My faith in this country has been so restored.”
He appealed to Americans to “exercise that freedom” to vote and “choose what you know is right”.
It’s been a whirlwind of a presidential election campaign, consisting of an assassination attempt (and another alleged one), changing candidates and some bizarre claims on the campaign trail.
While Americans head to their polling stations, here’s a recap of some of the biggest moments…
The call for all Americans to vote has reached outer space – with astronauts managing to cast their ballots.
NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station shared a picture of them floating and showing off socks that leave no doubt around where they’re from.
“It doesn’t matter if you are sitting, standing or floating – what matters is you vote,” is the message from Nick Hague, one of the four posing in the picture.
Astronauts have voted in US elections since 1997, according to NASA, and can simply fill out an application for an absentee ballot just like any other American away from home.
After an astronaut fills out an electronic ballot – which is accessible only by the astronaut and the country clerk who eventually receives it – from space, the document goes to the agency’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
From there, it goes to Mission Control Center and then finally to the county clerk responsible for casting the ballot.
Election workers faced harassment, violent threats and chaotic protests after the 2020 US election, with Donald Trump refusing to accept his defeat.
With Mr Trump running again, and the election expected to be one of the closest ever, the authorities in the US are stepping up security measures in case there’s trouble.
It comes as Philadelphia’s district attorney Larry Krasner told troublemakers to stay away, warning: “We’re not playing. F around and find out.” See our 12.07pm post for more on that.
Colorado secretary of state Jena Griswold, a Democrat, told our US partner network NBC News: “We have layers of security – we have military and law enforcement joining our team to protect our cyber support systems.”
She added: “People are voting on paper so that, of course, can’t be hacked, but what they’re doing is protecting our support systems.”
Tammy Patrick, chief programme officer at the National Association of Election Officials, told Sky News 40% of workers have already experienced threats or abuse.
Some county officials in Colorado have upgraded their locks and cameras, while others have installed bulletproof glass and purchased bulletproof vests, Ms Griswold added.
A new state law to fend off insider threats also requires that election equipment be under 24/7 surveillance and protected by keycard access.
Ms Griswold and her staff routinely face threats. One person who made threats against her was arrested while she was in the hospital giving birth.
“We are definitely on top of it, and take all of our security very seriously,” she said.
Colorado is not the only state where security is being increased.
Maricopa County, Arizona
Mr Trump has fueled conspiracy theories in this area of the battleground state with his voter fraud claims.
As a result, its tabulation centre will have snipers on the roof, metal detectors, security staff at every entrance, drones overhead, security cameras and floodlights.
There are also two layers of security fencing, and some workers will be bused in from off-site parking to accommodate the newly implemented measures.
Cobb County, Georgia
In another battleground state, there will also be beefed-up security.
The sheriff in Cobb County will have officers at every early voting site and patrolling local precincts.
Police radios have been given to election workers, after panic button technology proved too difficult to implement.
Gwinnett County, Georgia
The sheriff in this part of Georgia will be overseeing security for all of its polling sites, even in unincorporated areas typically monitored by local police. The local schools are closed on election day, so school police officers will be deployed at polling sites there.
The local election office will have police officers, who have been trained specifically on how to best work around an election, monitoring early voting and absentee ballot counting once it begins, Zach Manifold, the county’s director of elections, told NBC.
Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
Police plan to shut down the street outside the building where the election results are tabulated to control access to the building, said Aaron Dobson, inspector for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office.
You can read the NBC piece in full here…
Up to 4,000 people voting overseas in the US election are having their ballots challenged in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
They include Selma Aldi, 47, from Camden in north London who received a letter on Sunday explaining that her ballot in the US presidential election is at risk of being rejected.
“It was a shock,” she said. “It was terrifying to be targeted, to potentially lose a right that I hold as very important. It’s even a feeling that someone is questioning my identity.”
The trainee GP, who grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania left America in 2000 but has voted via absentee ballot in every US presidential election since.
Read the full story here…
Voting is well under way across the US, with campaigners on both sides of the political spectrum making late efforts to rally support.
We won’t start to get an idea of results until later tonight, but until then here is a snapshot of how it’s going so far:
Residents of 50 American states are descending on polling stations, but few are as interesting as Texas.
The state, worth 40 electoral votes, is an important battleground for any candidate to target – even with its history of voting Republican.
In fact, it hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1976 – when the state chose Jimmy Carter over Gerald Ford.
On top of the history, Donald Trump currently holds a comfortable lead over Kamala Harris in the Lone Star State.
All of this points to Ms Harris perhaps focusing her attention elsewhere, but that’s not put her off visiting the state – and in style.
She’s not under any illusion that she could win Texas, but the state allows her to bring key talking to the forefront.
She brought Houston-born pop megastar Beyonce out in her recent rally in the state’s capital – with speeches focusing on one of the major issues that has defined local and national politics in Texas and the US in recent years: abortion.
Ms Harris told reporters ahead of that rally that she came to Houston to “highlight that sadly, the elected leaders of Texas… have made [it] ground zero in this fundamental fight for the freedom of women to make decisions about their own body”.
It’s notable that the crowd at this rally was the largest Ms Harris has been able to draw since taking over as candidate, with 30,000 Texans in attendance.
A look at the states that could make the difference…
She’s also spent money appealing to voters there.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has spent approximately $13m on television advertising in the Senate race so far and announced that it was sending another $5m, according to Politico.
Spending falls into the wider strategy, however, of Democrats looking to highlight personal stories to show the impact of abortion being almost entirely banned in 16 states.
Ahead of the Houston trip, the Harris campaign released an ad featuring a Texas woman who was denied an emergency abortion when her water broke at 16 weeks in 2022 and who then almost died of sepsis.
Some seven million women of reproductive age live in Texas, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, while an analysis by JAMA Paediatrics found that Texas had a larger increase in infant mortality than the rest of the US after enforcing the abortion ban.
Beyonce: ‘Your freedom is your human right’
Ms Harris’s presence in the state has an additional aim.
She looked to push Democrat Senate candidate Colin Allred, who is locked in a tie with two-term incumbent GOP Senator Ted Cruz, up in the polls.
“When Texans vote for Colin Allred for United States Senate, we will be in a position where we actually will be closer to being able to put back in place the protection of the Roe v Wade,” she said.
It’s one of the closest Senate races nationally for some time, so every candidate with a chance of winning their individual races has been well-funded and robustly backed by Democrat heavyweights.
Republicans clearly feel nervous about the very real possibility of Mr Cruz losing his Senate position, with Mr Trump consistently backing him at rallies and online.
Last month the former president wrote: “While I have endorsed Ted on numerous occasions verbally, because of the importance of the race and Ted’s importance to the future of our country, I thought the endorsement should be memorialised in writing.”
The need for that post, with that wording, somewhat speaks to the feeling in the GOP camp that Mr Cruz could be about to fumble what has been a safe seat for them.
On the flip side, Mr Allred has performed well in debates against Mr Cruz, consistently held his ground in the polls and has grown a considerable social media presence – all of which has impressed Democrat donors and strategists.
By targeting Texas, Ms Harris has given herself a platform to talk about abortion, a crucial issue in this election, and support a candidate with a good chance of allowing the Democrats to keep a foothold in the Senate.
Time and money well spent?
Our correspondents stateside have been answering your questions on the election.
Here’s our first question…
What happens to all the court cases if Trump wins – is he off scot-free?
Tennessee
Before we answer this one, you can read about all of the court cases facing former president Donald Trump right here…
In response to Tennessee’s question, US correspondent James Matthews says…
Maybe.
It would help with the two federal cases against him but the two state cases are more complicated.
Consider the federal cases first – election subversion and the misuse of classified documents.
On subversion, a revised indictment has been filed and we await a trial date. Trump says he’s not guilty.
In the documents case, that has been dismissed by a judge and prosecutors are appealing against that decision.
Being president would give Donald Trump a power to appoint officials of his choice at the Department of Justice. It’s probably fair to say their brief would include dropping the two federal cases.
Can he pardon himself?
There’s the possibility he could pardon himself in these cases.
That falls within the power of the president – although a self-pardon has never been tested legally.
The two state cases involve his conviction at the New York hush-money trial and election interference in Georgia.
He is appealing his New York conviction and the Georgia case has been suspended indefinitely, pending an investigation into the prosecuting District Attorney Fani Willis.
The issue of a pardon doesn’t apply in state cases – however, the conviction and prosecution are weakened by a recent Supreme Court ruling that a president couldn’t be prosecuted for officials acts in office.
Nor can evidence of official acts be used in evidence to support the prosecution of a crime committed out of office.
In both the New York appeal and Georgia case, expect Trump’s lawyers to point to evidence used to convict him – phone calls and behaviour whilst in the role of president – and claim it relates to official acts and, under the Supreme Court ruling, should be ruled inadmissible.
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