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Donald Trump says he will vote to keep a six-week abortion ban in Florida when the issue comes up at the ballot box in November - less than 24 hours after saying it was “too short”.
The U-turn came shortly after Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania, where he criticized Democratic rival Kamala Harris's first sit-down interview with CNN on Thursday. The Harris campaign quickly responded to Trump’s endorsement of the Florida abortion ban.
“Donald Trump just made his position on abortion very clear: He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant,” the campaign said, in a statement.
Harris added: “I trust women to make their own health care decisions and believe the government should never come between a woman and her doctor.”
The former president also addressed the ultra-conservative parental rights group, Moms for Liberty, on Friday evening, during which he said the accusations leveled at him over using Arlington National Cemetery for campaign purposes were “so disgusting”.
Meanwhile, a new poll in Minnesota shows the race tightening in the state with Harris’s lead halving over August, despite Governor Tim Walz joining the ticket. However, another poll shows Harris building her lead.
Key Points
- Has Harris’s lead in Minnesota slipped?
- The Apprentice: Controversial Donald Trump biopic lands pre-election release date
- Trump speaks at Moms for Liberty event: From the DC bureau chief’s desk
- JD Vance won’t apologize for posting viral Miss Teen USA clip to take a swipe at Harris
- Trump claims IVF costs will be covered for all Americans
- Trump accuses Biden and Harris of ‘killing’ US troops amid Arlington cemetery spat
Why nobody believes Trump’s flip-flop on abortion and IVF
Eric Garcia reviews Donald Trump’s recent comments on reproductive rights and how they were received by his supporters and opponents.
Why nobody believes Trump’s flip-flop on abortion and IVF
Trump’s recent comments weren’t well received by the fierce anti-abortion activists who are among his supporters
Oliver O'Connell31 August 2024 17:00 1725119441
Donald Trump shares bizarre reason why people don’t want to eat bacon anymore
Donald Trump shared his bizarre reason why people don’t want to eat bacon anymore. The former US president said wind power is stopping people from eating bacon after he delivered a campaign speech in Wisconsin on Thursday (29 August). Trump gave his comments to a young rally-goer asking what his plan is, "to make life more affordable and bring down inflation for someone like me." Trump launched into what one critic denounced as a "word salad” and said: “You take a look at bacon and some of these products, and some people don’t eat bacon anymore.”
Oliver O'Connell31 August 2024 16:50 1725118481But Trump’s lawyers, according to Friday’s filing, don’t think prosecutors went far enough and say they “strongly maintain that many classes of conduct alleged in the Superseding Indictment are immune — including, but not limited to, Tweets and public statements about the federal 2020 Presidential election, communications with state officials about the federal election, and allegations relating to alternate slates of electors.”
They said they particularly objected to the continued inclusion of allegations about Trump’s badgering of Pence to get him to refuse to certify the counting of electoral votes. The Supreme Court said Trump was “at least presumptively immune” from prosecution for that conduct, Trump’s lawyers note.
“If the Court determines, as it should, that the Special Counsel cannot rebut the presumption that these acts are immune, binding law requires that the entire indictment be dismissed because the grand jury considered immunized evidence,” Trump’s lawyers wrote Friday.
AP31 August 2024 16:34 1725118121The timetable proposed by the Trump team envisions the case remaining snarled in pretrial arguments up until potentially fall 2025, or well after this November’s presidential election. Smith’s team did not propose specific dates but said it would be prepared to file an opening legal brief on the central issue of Trump’s immunity “promptly at any time the Court deems appropriate.”
The filing is an acknowledgment of the radically altered legal landscape since Smith filed the indictment in June 2023 and the challenges prosecutors have encountered in trying to hold Trump accountable this year.
Though prosecutors initially accused Trump of wide-ranging schemes to cling to power and to block the peaceful transfer of power, they must now contend with the aftermath of a Supreme Court opinion that said former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for exercising core constitutional powers and are presumptively immune for other official acts they take as president.
Smith’s team responded to the ruling with a new indictment this past week that removed allegations related to Trump’s dealings with the Justice Department, an area of conduct for which the court said Trump was immune from prosecution, and made other changes.
Continued...
AP31 August 2024 16:28 1725117894Trump team will seek dismissal of federal election subversion case as each side mulls the next steps
Lawyers for Donald Trump intend to urge a judge to dismiss the federal election subversion case against the former president after a Supreme Court opinion that narrowed the scope of the landmark prosecution, according to a court filing.
Read the full filing here
The defense team, in a joint filing late Friday with prosecutors that lays out dueling proposals for the next steps, foreshadowed a series of anticipated challenges that would draw out until deep into next year the criminal case charging Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Those include arguments that a new and more limited indictment issued by prosecutors this past week still contains allegations for which Trump, as a former president, is entitled to immunity, such as his conversations with his then-vice president, Mike Pence.
Defense lawyers also intend “as a threshold matter” to seek the dismissal of the case on the same grounds that a federal judge in Florida cited last month in tossing out a separate prosecution charging Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The judge in that case, Aileen Cannon, held that special counsel Jack Smith, whose team brought the case, was unlawfully appointed and that his office was improperly funded.
The federal court filing in Washington offers competing visions for how the case should proceed and comes before a status conference set for the coming week — the first court appearance in the case in months.
The Supreme Court opinion made it all but certain that no trial can be held before the election, and it now falls to US District Judge Tanya Chutkan to determine which of the acts in the indictment can be included in the case and which must be stripped out.
Continued...
AP31 August 2024 16:24 1725117041Watch: Trump does impression of Elon Musk talking about SpaceX
Oliver O'Connell31 August 2024 16:10 1725116441Latest poll updates: Can Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump?
Alicja Hagopian, The Independent’s data correspondent, takes a look at the latest numbers.
Can Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump? Latest poll updates from the 2024 election
Here’s what the latest polls say about the 2024 presidential election, from The Independent’s data correspondent
Oliver O'Connell31 August 2024 16:00 1725115782Trump rally faces security scare as man storms press area and is tasered
Donald Trump’s latest rally in Pennsylvania was rocked by a security scare when a man stormed into the press area and was tasered by law enforcement – just weeks after the former president survived an assassination attempt.
The incident unfolded on Friday while Trump was speaking to a crowd of supporters in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Rachel Sharp has the latest.
Man tasered after storming Trump rally press area – weeks after shooting
Incident comes just weeks after the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which raised pointed questions about the level of security at political events
Oliver O'Connell31 August 2024 15:49 1725114641Arlington National Cemetery: Trump campaign stoops to insulting US Army ‘hacks’
A prominent Donald Trump campaign adviser dubs the US army as “hacks,” doubling down in the campaign’s dispute with Arlington National Cemetery officials.
The Republican nominee and his campaign have been in hot water after they filmed Trump’s August 26 visit to the military cemetery to attend a wreath-laying ceremony, despite an Arlington National Cemetery worker warning them against doing so due to federal laws — an exchange that resulted in an alleged physical altercation.
Kelly Rissman has the story.
Trump campaign stoops to insulting US Army ‘hacks’ over Arlington cemetery debacle
Trump’s co-campaign manager reposted a video from Monday’s cemetery visit and tagged Army Secretary Christine E Wormuth in an apparent effort to escalate the situation
Oliver O'Connell31 August 2024 15:30 1725114345Has Harris’s lead in Minnesota slipped?
Kamala Harris’ lead in Minnesota has been halved by Donald Trump, one new poll shows, despite Governor Tim Walz joining the ticket.
The most recent survey by SurveyUSA and local TV networks KTSP, KAAL and WDIO, shows Harris’s lead over Trump has been cut in half to five percentage points since late July.
She is now on 48 per cent to Trump’s 43 per cent, compared to 50 per cent to 40 per cent in a poll conducted between July 23 and 25.
The new poll surveyed 635 likely voters and has a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percentage points.
“I think you see in the national polls that Kamala Harris is getting sort of a post-convention bump,” says Brian McClung, communications director for former Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty. “So the opposite has occurred in your SurveyUSA poll, but I think this is where we expect the race to be.”
Former Minnesota DFL Party Chair Mike Erlandson agrees, saying the 10-point lead for Harris last month might have been the result of excitement about a shake-up in the race with President Joe Biden dropping out.
“She’s in good shape in Minnesota, and frankly, the Democratic and Republican conventions happening, adding Tim Walz to the ballot, everybody’s paying attention now, right? So if I was those guys, I’d be excited to be up by five points in Minnesota.”
The poll showed Harris was leading among women (55:37 per cent), independents (42:35 per cent), and voters from urban areas (57:34 per cent) and suburban areas (53:39 per cent).
Trump meanwhile leads among men (48:42 per cent) and voters in rural areas (54:37 per cent).
However, surveys conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies and The Telegraph at the beginning, middle, and end of August show Harris’s lead growing across the state from five percentage points to seven, and then nine points by August 29.
Oliver O'Connell31 August 2024 15:25 Newer1 / 6Older
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