Donald Trump is set to soon take the stage in North Carolina, which hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 2008 but where polls have indicated Kamala Harris may have a fighting chance this year.

Trump earlier in the day visited western parts of the state damaged by Hurricane Helene, and is now rallying in Greenville, on North Carolina’s eastern side. He was introduced by advisor Stephen Miller, who was the architect of the hardline immigration policies Trump allowed during his presidency.

“For eight long years, Donald Trump has been fighting for us in the arena. What he has endured, what he has been through on this journey,” Miller said. “They came after him, they came after his family, they came after his children, they came after his businesses, they came after his freedom, and they came after his life, and he’s still standing strong. He is still standing tall. And with your help, North Carolina, Donald J Trump is going to save the United States of America.”

The former president then invited Adam Smith, a former Green Beret who has helped relief efforts in the Asheville area since Hurricane Helene devastated the area just over three weeks ago, to speak.

At the podium, Smith thanked Trump for coming to the area.

“The biggest fear that western North Carolina is sitting on right now, at least in the communities we’ve talked to, is being forgotten,” Smith said.

“To have you here and have an opportunity to have this conversation at a national level, will keep western North Carolina on the map, and not leave the communities holding the bag on the back end of this, so we’re very grateful that you’ve shown up,” Smith said to the former president.

Trump continued his remarks by accusing the federal government of leaving North Carolinians “helpless and abandoned” after Hurricane Helene.

“In the wake of this horrible storm, many Americans in this region felt helpless and abandoned and left behind by their government, and yet, in North Carolina’s hour of desperation, the American people answered the call much more so than your federal government, unfortunately,” Trump said.

“Citizens poured into western North Carolina from all over the country, bringing food, water, fuel, medical aid, even helicopters.”

“Nothing is more inspiring than to see the American spirit triumph over adversity with the most selfless acts of generosity and love” he added.

Donald Trump held a press conference in western North Carolina, where he surveyed the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene and attacked the federal government’s recovery efforts.

“Driving up here you see the kind of destruction, actually incredible” he said. “The power of nature, nothing you can do about it but you got to get a little bit better crew in to do a better job than has been done by the White House, because it’s not good, not good.”

“I’m here today in western North Carolina to express a simple message to the incredible people of the state, I’m with you and the American people are with you all the way” Trump said. “We are going to continue to be with you, we will see what happens with the election and on January 20th I think you are going to have a new crew coming in to do it properly and help you in a proper manner.”

Trump also addressed those who had lost family members and loved ones to the storm. “To everyone who has lost a loved one … we ask God to give you comfort and peace,” he said.

“It’s been a terrible ordeal and this area was hit about as hard as anyone has ever seen….the communities were ravaged and destroyed, we are praying for you and we will not forget about you.”

Trump’s repeated criticisms of the federal response to Hurricane Helene comes as the director of Fema condemned the former president and his supporters for spreading misinformation about the hurricane and the response by the federal disaster agency, which, the director said, has hampered the government’s ability to get people the help they need.

Joanna Walters

Donald Trump has long drawn criticism before over his statements about the Central Park Five, a group of men who were exonerated after being wrongly convicted for a crime and who earlier today sued him.

After the jogger’s assault, he spoke out about the case and took out a full-page ad in several New York newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty, Reuters reports.

Trump in 2019 stood by his prior comments about the Central Park Five, and declined to apologize.

The Guardian adds that at the debate with Kamala Harris last month, Trump said of the men: “They pled guilty…They killed a person, ultimately.”

The five then-boys, who were tried as adults, actually pleaded not guilty. And the victim, Trisha Meili, although almost killed, was found unconscious in the park, survived and testified in court.

Yusef Salaam watched the debate in Philadelphia, afterwards telling the Washington Post in an interview: “Here we are right now, full-circle moment, being able to be participants in this great democracy on the cusp of everything really powerfully supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I’m ready for it.”

Central Park Five sue Trump

Joanna Walters

The five Black and Hispanic teenagers who were wrongfully convicted for the 1989 rape of a white jogger in New York’s Central Park have sued Donald Trump for defamation over statements he made at last month’s US presidential debate, Reuters reported.

Known widely as the Central Park Five, the defendants spent between five and 13 years in prison before they were cleared in 2002 based on new DNA evidence and the confession of another person.

Trump falsely said at the September 10 debate with presidential rival Kamala Harris that the Central Park Five had killed a person and pleaded guilty.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Philadelphia by Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise, called Trump’s statements “demonstrably false.”

A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign called the case “just another frivolous, election interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists.”

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Shanin Specter, said in a statement that Trump’s remarks “cast them in a harmful false light and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on them.” The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified monetary damages for reputational and emotional harms as well as punitive damages.

Kamala Harris is on tour of the three Great Lakes swing states with Liz Cheney, a Republican former congresswoman who broke with her party over their support for Donald Trump. In their first event together in a Philadelphia suburb, Harris warned voters to take Trump seriously, while Cheney said she came around to backing the Democrats because she does not think the former president will stand up for American allies. They will appear together in metro Detroit and then Milwaukee before the day is through. Meanwhile, Tim Walz was on daytime talk staple “The View”, where he said that Trump’s comments about deploying the national guard against his political enemies was a sign that he planned to bend the country’s “constitutional guardrails”.

Here’s what else has happened today so far:

• The White House proposed an expansion of contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) that will allow women to access birth control without a prescription.

• Harris has scheduled an interview with NBC News from her home at the Naval Observatory in Washington DC on Tuesday.

• A new poll found Trump may have lost his edge among voters when it comes to handling the economy, while Harris is viewed more favorably overall.

Liz Cheney’s support for Kamala Harris is somewhat inexplicable.

She was a conservative Republican in Congress who supported almost none of the Democrats’ legislative priorities, but her break with Donald Trump led to her falling out with the party, and losing her seat. She is also the daughter of Dick Cheney, the former vice-president who was an ardent supporter of the US invasion of Iraq.

Asked at the event alongside Harris about how she came around to backing Democratic national security priorities, Cheney noted that hundreds of national security officials have endorsed the vice-president, and said Trump’s policies were too dangerous to tolerate:

The choice here, with respect to national security policy, is a man who has proven, he’s absolutely proven, that he will not stand up, he won’t defend this nation with respect to our own constitution and rule of law. And vice-president Harris, who has been clear in terms of support for Ukraine, in terms of recognizing and understanding across the board that America cannot maintain our own freedom and security if we walk away from our allies around the world.

Donald Trump has taken an almost humorous tack to his campaign lately, including holding a staged campaign event at a McDonald’s over the weekend that saw him work the drive-thru window.

Speaking alongside Liz Cheney, Kamala Harris warned voters not to fall for his jokes:

In many, many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man, but the consequences of him being president of the United States are brutally serious. There are things that he says that will be the subject of skits and laughter and jokes, but words have meaning coming from someone who aspires to stand behind the seal of the president of the United States. These are the things that are at stake.

Kamala Harris is soon to take the stage in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where she will be campaigning with Republican former congresswoman Liz Cheney.

It’s one of three events in each of the Great Lakes battleground states she will do today with Cheney, who lost her primary two years ago after falling out with Donald Trump. The push is part of the Harris campaign’s efforts to win over moderate voters in key areas who they believe can be persuaded not to back the former president.

We’ll let you know what the vice-president has to say.

Kamala Harris’s running mate is being interviewed on ABC daytime talk staple “The View” right now, where he warned that Donald Trump’s recent comments about sending the national guard after “the enemy within” – as he has taken to calling his political enemies – is a sign that he is willing to bend America’s “constitutional guardrails”.

“The guardrails are off with Donald Trump right now,” Walz said. “I’m an optimist, but our systems are strained, and the ability to politicize the military has never been tried in this country. He’s trying it.”

Walz also took a crack at answering the question of what Harris would do differently as president than Joe Biden. Trump’s campaign attacked the vice-president last week after she said she wouldn’t do anything differently, comments she then had to walk back. Here’s what Walz said:

Kamala Harris will be joined on the campaign trail today by Liz Cheney, a Republican former congresswoman who lost her primary because of her opposition to Donald Trump.

Earlier this month, Cheney, who was the top Republican on the January 6 committee, expressed doubts that Republican House speaker and Trump ally Mike Johnson would certify Harris’s election win. “I do not have faith that Mike Johnson will fulfill his constitutional obligations,” she said on NBC.

Axios reported yesterday that Johnson reached out to Cheney by text message to object to her comments. “We had a little debate in conversation, on text message, back and forth and agreed to disagree,” the speaker told Axios, adding that he told Cheney “how disappointed I was in that, to make things personal, because I’ve not done that.” He continued:

You know the idea that President Trump is somehow a danger to the Republic, and that any of us who support him are a danger or would not fulfill our constitutional obligations, all these things that have been said are it’s just nonsense.

She knows, she knows me. She used to know me well and knows that I’m a constitutional conservative, and I take all matters at this level very seriously, and I will fulfill my constitutional oath. And to say otherwise is just dishonest.

In her own statement to Axios, Cheney said: “Mike knows this is a conscious choice between right and wrong and can’t honestly rationalize supporting Trump on this.”

Kamala Harris will sit for an interview with NBC News tomorrow from her home at the Naval Observatory in Washington DC, the network announced.

The vice-president will speak to Hallie Jackson as she steps up her interviews and media appearances ahead of the 5 November election.

The interview is set to air at 6.30pm on Tuesday.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released this morning contained some positive news for Kamala Harris, though there’s no telling if it is predictive of the election outcome.

The survey found that Harris is viewed more favorably than Donald Trump, including among the independent voters that could decide the seven swing states. It also reported that Trump no longer appears to have the advantage he once did on handling of economic issues, even though the former president has made that a centerpiece of his campaign with accusations that Democratic policies have driven up prices. That’s one of two main messages he’s been pushing, along with promises to crack down on migrants – an area on which the poll finds Trump maintains his advantage.

Here’s what it found about the two candidates’ favorability:

Registered voters’ opinions of the candidates have not changed much since last month. In general Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are viewed more positively than Trump or JD Vance. A large majority of Democratic voters have positive views of Harris and Walz, and Republicans voters feel favorably toward Trump and Vance. Independent voters are closely divided in their opinion of Harris while most have a negative view of Trump. Independent voters have similar opinions about both vice-presidential candidates.

When it comes to economic issues, 40% of registered voters trust Harris to handle the cost of groceries and gas, and 42% trust Trump. Six percent trust both equally, and 12% neither. On the cost of housing, Harris is more trusted with 42% support to Trump’s 37%, while 7% truth both and 14% trust neither.