Biden calls midterms ‘defining moment’ but avoids swing states in last days before election – live

Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Live feed From 5h ago 09. 15 EDT Last night, Joe Biden gave an address warning of dire consequences if voters elect Republican extremists to office next Tuesday. Today, he’s heading west to campaign not in the tightest contests or those considered the best chances to oust sitting Republicans , but rather for incumbent Democrats trying to hang on to their seats.

It’s the perfect illustration of the dynamic for Biden, more than a year after his approval ratings tanked and stayed there. His presidential bully pulpit allowed him to make a speech where he warned, “Make no mistake, democracy is on the ballot for all of us. ” But his unpopularity had forced him into a cautious approach to campaigning – almost a tacit admission that when it comes to the races that could define the next two years of his presidency, his ability to help is limited.

The Associated Press today published a piece looking at what today’s travel itinerary says about the dynamic. Here’s how they put it: . css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.

5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} His itinerary illustrates the limited political clout of a president who has been held at arm’s length by most Democrats in tough races this cycle. It also suggests that the president, whose approval rating remains underwater, has concluded that he can be most effective using the waning days before polls close to shore up support for Democratic candidates in areas that he easily won in 2020. Key events 1h ago US government representatives visit jailed basketball star Brittney Griner in Russia 2h ago Democrats in deep trouble on crime messaging, veteran pollster argues 2h ago The day so far 6h ago ‘We’re facing a defining moment’, Biden argued.

Will voters agree? Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature 13m ago 14. 20 EDT Martin Pengelly More from Hillary Clinton ’s interview with CNN earlier, in which she discussed Republican midterms messaging that seems set for success next Tuesday. Hillary Clinton.

Photograph: Franck Robichon/EPA The former first lady, senator, secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee focused on “this emphasis on crime that we’ve seen in every ad that I run across from the Republicans . “I find it ironic and frankly disturbing that when Paul Pelosi is attacked by an intruder in his own home with a hammer, the Republicans go silent about that crime. “They’re not concerned about voter safety, they just want to keep voters scared because they feel that if voters are scared, if they’re responding to negative messages, they’ll have a better chance and that’s really regrettable.

Unfortunately, sometimes it works, and we can’t let people just hear that and believe it. ” Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of the Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi , was attacked in San Francisco last week. Clinton referred to comments about the attack by Republicans including Kari Lake , the Trump-aligned candidate for governor in Arizona.

“It was a horrifying incident,” Clinton said, “but sadly a real indicator of where we are in our country right now that you would have people on the Republican ticket, like the woman running in Arizona, laughing about an attack on anyone, let alone an 82-year-old man whose wife happens to be the second-in-line to the presidency. “I am rarely shocked anymore, but the reaction I’ve seen from a number of Republicans, both in person and online making fun of that attack, somehow trying to turn it into a joke, the same party that wants us to be worried about crime. The hypocrisy is incredibly obvious.

” Clinton also discussed threats to democracy around the world – and linked them to what she said was the Republican threat at home. She said: “This is a time of great ferment, and it is a time when the United States should be standing strongly on behalf of our values of democracy and freedom, of opportunity and equality, instead of being engaged in this culture war driven by the political opportunism of people on the Republican side of the ledger. “… The best thing we can do to lead the world in this struggle between democracy and autocracy is to get our own house in order and I hope that we’ll do that starting Tuesday.

” 34m ago 14. 00 EDT Joanna Walters Hillary Clinton has been talking about the economy – which is top of many people’s minds as the midterm elections roar towards us and voting is underway. She acknowledged in talking to CNN earlier today that the economy was of course something that needed to be talked about this election cycle.

Democrats’ prospects are blighted by record inflation and a cost of living crunch and Clinton wants them to talk up their record and put current economic challenges into the wider context. “What I wish we could convey more effectively, if you look at what has been accomplished in the first two years of the Biden presidency, with Congress working hand in hand, there has been an enormous amount of commitment of new building, new infrastructure, new investments in manufacturing, new ways to lower healthcare costs,” she said. The former first lady and secretary of state added: “In fact the work that’s been done by the Democrats in helping the economy and helping people deal with what is global inflation, not just American inflation, is truly impressive, and we’ve got to get that message across more effectively.

” . @HillaryClinton : “The work that is being done by the Democrats in helping the economy and helping people deal with what is global inflation, not just American inflation, is truly impressive, and we’ve got to get that message across more effectively. ” pic.

twitter. com/rZQx1ItZ6I — The Hill (@thehill) November 3, 2022 Tonight, Clinton is one of the headliners at a Get Out The Vote event in New York City to bolster New York state’s Democratic governor Kathy Hochul , who is not home and dry against her Republican challenger Lee Zeldin . State attorney general Letitia James will be there as well as other grandees and the top headliner will be US vice president Kamala Harris .

1h ago 13. 28 EDT US government representatives visit jailed basketball star Brittney Griner in Russia Joanna Walters The White House has announced that US representatives today visited US basketball player Brittney Griner in Russia, where she has been imprisoned since the early days of Russia’s war on Ukraine , Reuters reports. The two-time Olympic gold medallist was arrested on 17 February at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia .

She was sentenced on 4 August to nine years in a penal colony. Last month her appeal against that harsh sentence failed and there are fears Griner could be moved to one of Russia’s far-flung prison colonies within weeks. US basketball player Brittney Griner appears on a screen via video link from the detention centre during a court hearing to consider an appeal against her prison sentence, in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region, Russia on October 25.

Photograph: Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters Although at that time, Griner’s legal team said she was not “expecting any miracles” from the appeals process, the decision nonetheless would be a blow to the sports star, who pleaded guilty to the drug charges in July and has thrown herself several times on the mercy of the Russian court only to be given an unusually harsh sentence, even for Russia. “We are told she is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters today aboard Air Force One as she accompanied US president Joe Biden on an election campaign trip to New Mexico, followed by California. FILE – Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner, left, watching practice with teammate Diana Taurasi in 2018 in Arizona.

Photograph: Matt York/AP Earlier in October, Brittney Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner told CBS Mornings that Brittney, who was on her way to play in Russia during the WNBA offseason when she was arrested, is afraid of being abandoned by the United States. “She’s very afraid about being left and forgotten in Russia ,” Cherelle Griner said. She said Brittney told her in a phone call that she felt “like my life just doesn’t matter.

” Brittney Griner’s story always transcended sport. She’s a real American trailblazer Read more Updated at 13. 30 EDT 2h ago 12.

50 EDT Democrats in deep trouble on crime messaging, veteran pollster argues It’s clear that the spike in voter support Democrats experienced over the summer has worn off in the final weeks before the midterms, raising the possibility of a disastrous Tuesday for the party as it tries to defend its slim hold on both chambers of Congress. Longtime Democratic strategist Stanley B. Greenberg has published an explanation of one reason why Democrats failed to keep their momentum: their own voters lost faith in their ability to tackle crime.

Writing in The American Prospect , Greenberg argues that Republicans effectively used increasing fears of violence nationwide to tar Democrats as soft on the issue, and the strategy was so potent even some racial groups that traditionally vote for Joe Biden ’s allies saw the GOP as better able to tackle the problem. Greenberg based his conclusions on a polling effort he oversaw: . css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.

5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} New York City has seen citywide shooting incidents increase by 13 percent compared to July 2021, and the number of murders increased for the month by 34 percent compared to this time last year. Philadelphia and Chicago experienced prominent shoot-outs on the subway, and in Philadelphia overall shootings have increased by 3 percent and violent crimes are up 7 percent. As a result, crime was a top-tier issue in the midterm election, and that included Blacks, who ranked it almost as high as the cost of living in poll after poll.

For Hispanics and Asian Americans, crime came just below the cost of living as a priority. And Republicans continued to remind voters that Democrats continued to support “defunding the police,” even by linking candidates to organizations they took money from, like Planned Parenthood, which back in 2020 called for defunding. The Democrats had so little credibility on crime that any message I tested this year against the Republicans ended up losing us votes, even messages that voters previously liked.

The only message that worked with voters was one in which Democrats promised to greatly expand police forces and publicly called out members seen as not doing enough to fight crime, Greenberg writes. He adds that it’s a far cry from much of the party’s messaging since the racial justice protests that began in the summer of 2020, after which many Democrats focused more on police abuses than on communities’ fears of violence: . css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.

5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} In a mid-October poll, I was able to test a crime message that got heard. It got heard because it dramatized more police, said Democrats heard our communities on violent crime, and also called out the small minority of Democrats who failed to address violent crime, and said, “Democrats in Congress are mainstream” and support our “first responders. ” To be honest, I didn’t want to open up this debate during the campaign when Democrats could do little to address it.

That is why I am writing this article now, being published right before the election. Our effective crime message began with respect for police, but this time, the Democrat proposes to add 100,000 more police. That is a pretty dramatic offer that says, my crime plan begins with many more police.

The message includes the same urgent reforms, but also adds, “those very communities want us to get behind law enforcement” and “fight violent crime as a top priority. ” This crime message defeats by 11 points a Republican crime message that hits Democrats for defunding the police, being with Biden who is soft on crime, and presiding over Democratic cities with record homicide rates. Democrats are in so much trouble on crime, yet this message wins dramatically in the base and competes with working-class targets.

2h ago 12. 28 EDT The day so far We are five days away from the 8 November midterm elections, and Joe Biden last night gave a primetime speech in which he sought to remind Americans that many Republicans on ballots this year hold views that could threaten the country’s democracy. We’ll soon find out if voters believed him.

Here’s a look at what has happened today so far: Republicans rolled their eyes at Biden’s speech, with the Senate’s GOP leader calling it a distraction from crime and inflation, which was echoed by the party’s candidate for governor in Michigan. A noted domestic violence researcher agreed with Biden’s warnings about democracy , saying that research indicates only a minority of Americans support violence in politics – though that still may be as many as 13 mn people. A top aide to Donald Trump said she has advised the former president to announce his 2024 run for office after the midterms.

Some Democrats hoped Trump’s return to the presidential campaign trail before the vote would be positive for democratic turnout. 2h ago 12. 10 EDT One of Donald Trump’s top advisors Kellyanne Conway held forth with reporters today about what she advised the former president when it comes to announcing his next run for office, Semafor reports.

Trump is widely expected to run for president again in 2024, but the bigger question is when he will announce. Some Democrats hoped he would so before the midterms, so they can steer voters’ attention back to the divisive former leader. Here’s what Conway, one of his best known aides, told reporters: Kellyanne Conway, at a roundtable with reporters, says she advised Trump not to announce before the midterms “if he does at all.

” She then said it’ll happen soon and mentioned Tiffany Trump’s wedding as his estate. — Kadia Goba (@kadiagoba) November 3, 2022 “I personally think he should do what he wants to do and I understand that he wants to make right all the issues that he made right while he was president. ” — Conway when asked if she personally thinks Trump should run in 2024.

— Kadia Goba (@kadiagoba) November 3, 2022 Conway’s projection on Trump’s biggest threat. to the presidency: a spoiler. She did not name a specific potential Republican candidate.

— Kadia Goba (@kadiagoba) November 3, 2022 3h ago 11. 54 EDT While Joe Biden argued democracy is on the ballot on Tuesday, Amy Westervelt reports that outcome could also have a major impact on climate change: Climate is on the ballot in a big way this November, despite the fact that it is not front and center in any of the campaigns. Even when it comes to voter turnout, the mood of climate voters has been a topic of conversation among political consultants for months.

“Several months ago I was very concerned about the apathy we were seeing in young climate voters because of Democrats’ failure to even talk about the successes they have had,” Rania Batrice, political strategist and founder of Batrice & Associates, says. “But I do feel like there’s been a little bit of a renewed sense of urgency. In Georgia, for example, early voting just started and it’s already breaking all kinds of records.

” Batrice says the fallout from the supreme court decision in Dobbs, which overturned the Roe v Wade precedent on abortion, is a big part of that urgency, but that the Biden administration’s increased action on climate this year plays a role too. For the campaigns she’s working on this midterm cycle – Beto O’Rourke for governor of Texas, John Fetterman for Senate in Pennsylvania, Charles Booker for Senate in Kentucky and Mandela Barnes for Senate in Wisconsin – Batrice says her advice on climate is simple: “Meet people where they’re at, and talk about climate in ways that relate to people’s daily lives. ” ‘A renewed sense of urgency’: climate on the ballot in US midterm elections Read more 3h ago 11.

31 EDT In Pennsylvania, Chris McGreal reports that a major pro-Israel group is facing criticism for backing Republicans who denied the 2020 election, but not a Democratic candidate who would make history if elected: More than 240 Jewish American voters in Pittsburgh have signed a letter denouncing the US’s largest pro-Israel group for backing extremist Republican election candidates while spending millions of dollars to oppose a Democrat who would be Pennsylvania’s first Black female member of Congress. The letter condemned the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) for its attempts to defeat Summer Lee, a candidate for the district that includes Pittsburgh, after failing to block her during the Democratic primaries earlier this year because of her criticisms of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians. The signatories said they were “outraged that at this critical moment in American history, Aipac has chosen to cast Democrats like Lee as extremists” while endorsing more than 100 Republican candidates who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The letter suggested that Aipac does not represent the views of the majority of American Jews and is working against their interests by also endorsing Republicans who promote white supremacy , a particularly sensitive issue in a city where 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogues were murdered in an antisemitic attack four years ago. “We also condemn AIPAC’s endorsement of lawmakers who have promoted the antisemitic ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory that helped inspire the murder of eleven members of the three synagogues housed at Tree of Life,” the letter said. Pittsburgh Jews decry pro-Israel group’s support for Republican extremists Read more 3h ago 11.

11 EDT Georgia is home of one of the country’s tightest Senate races, and yesterday, Republican candidate and former NFL star Herschel Walker attempted to contrast himself with Barack Obama, Martin Pengelly reports: Hitting back after Barack Obama questioned his fitness for a US Senate seat, Herschel Walker said: “Put my résumé against his résumé. ” Obama, 61, was a civil rights attorney and community organiser in Chicago, an Illinois state politician, a US senator from 2005 to 2008, then 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. Walker, 60, won the Heisman Trophy, the top honor in college football.

He had a stellar NFL career, mostly with the Dallas Cowboys, then went into business. His entry into politics, endorsed by Donald Trump and seeking to unseat the Democrat Raphael Warnock in Georgia, has been anything but smooth. Less than a week from election day, however, the two men are locked in a close race .

Herschel Walker hits back at Barack Obama: ‘Put my résumé against his’ Read more 4h ago 10. 56 EDT How big of a deal are Tuesday’s midterms? So big that spending on advertisements has exceeded the 2020 presidential elections. Adam Gabbatt takes a look at the messages Americans are seeing on TV, the web and elsewhere: As the US midterm elections loom, Republicans and Democrats have spent almost $10bn (£8.

6bn) so far on ads. It’s a staggering figure, one that exceeds even the spending on the 2020 presidential election, and is almost triple the amount spent during the last midterms. Both parties – and their dark money backers – have splashed exorbitant amounts on TV, digital and print advertising, but their focus has been very different.

For Democrats, abortion has been a key issue. The party has spent almost 20 times more than it did on abortion-related ads in the 2018 midterms, NPR reported . For Republicans, there have been different messages: that inflation, crime and taxes are out of control.

The result has been a whirling atmosphere for the average American, where to turn on the TV is frequently to see the two parties, and their candidates, talking straight past one another about different things. Ad wars: Republicans and Democrats spend big to push messages on abortion, inflation and crime Read more 4h ago 10. 41 EDT In Arizona, Kari Lake is running for governor on a platform of refusing to accept Joe Biden’s election, or even her own potential defeat.

The Guardian’s Maanvi Singh reports on how Lake has embraced Donald Trump’s Maga ideology in her quest for the state’s top office: Local news anchor Kari Lake refused to announce that Joe Biden had won Arizona on election night two years ago. Now, she’s the telegenic new face of Maga Republicanism, poised to possibly become the state’s next governor. With early voting underway, polls show Lake in a dead heat with her opponent Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state.

The contest will test the strength of Donald Trump’s enduring influence on the Republican party and its supporters. And the entire enterprise of free elections in Arizona hangs in the balance. If Lake wins, her administration will oversee the 2024 elections in a key state that could help determine who wins the presidency.

She could work with the likes of Mark Finchem, the far-right Oath Keeper who is running to become the state’s top election official. Already, she has said she’ll only accept the 2022 election results if “fair, honest and transparent” by her standards, declining to say whether she’d accept defeat. ‘A really dangerous candidate’: Kari Lake, the new face of Maga Republicanism Read more 4h ago 10.

19 EDT When Biden warned about Republican extremists last night, just who did he mean? The Guardian’s Sam Levine and Rachel Leingang report on the candidates who present a direct threat to democracy and are on the ballot in Tuesday’s vote: There are several races on the ballot this fall that will have profound consequences for American democracy. In several states, Republican candidates who doubt the 2020 election results, or in some cases actively worked to overturn them, are running for positions in which they would have tremendous influence over how votes are cast and counted. If these candidates win, there is deep concern they could use their offices to spread baseless information about election fraud and try to prevent the rightful winners of elections from being seated.

In total, 291 Republicans – a majority of the party’s nominees this cycle, have questioned the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, according to a Washington Post tally. Election deniers are running for offices up and down the ballot that could play a critical role in future elections. They’re running to be governors, who play a role in enacting election rules.

They’re running to be secretaries of state, who oversee voting and ballot counting. They’re running attorneys general, who are responsible for investigating allegations of fraud handling litigation in high-stakes election suits. They’re running to be members of Congress, who vote to certify the presidential vote every four years.

They’re running to be state lawmakers, who can pass voting laws, launch investigations, and, according to some fringe legal theories, try and block the certification of presidential electors. US midterms 2022: the key candidates who threaten democracy Read more 4h ago 10. 04 EDT In Michigan, the state’s Republican candidate for governor Tudor Dixon brought up Biden’s speech as she campaigned today: Dixon says Democrats are trying to “control people with fear.

” “Look at Joe Biden’s speech yesterday! ‘Do not vote for Republicans because they have better plans. ’ That’s what I heard. ” — David Weigel (@daveweigel) November 3, 2022 Polls indicate Dixon is trailing incumbent Democrat Gretchen Whitmer in the state.

5h ago 09. 51 EDT In his response to Biden’s speech last night, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell sought to refocus the attention to crime, the economy and immigration, issues the GOP has campaigned on nationwide: President Biden is desperate to change the subject from inflation, crime, and open borders. Now he’s claiming that democracy only works if his party wins.

What nonsense. Americans aren’t buying it. Ask how the last two years have affected your family, and then get out and vote! — Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) November 3, 2022 5h ago 09.

36 EDT Stepping away for a minute from its context in relation to the midterms, here’s what University of Chicago political violence expert Robert A. Pape had to say about the substance of Biden’s speech last night: . css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.

5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} The data shows that President Biden is right: The violent threat to our democracy comes from an extreme minority— not just a minority of all Americans but a minority of even pro-Trump Republicans. Our national survey from September shows that an estimated 13 million adults support the use of force for Trump. That means well over 80% of Americans, both Democrats and most Republicans, reject violence for political reasons.

Bipartisan majority opposes political violence. Now it is crucial to turn that democratic majority into a bipartisan coalition against political violence. Here’s the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats’s latest study on political violence, which indicates only a small minority would support restoring Donald Trump to office through violent means.

But as the data makes clear, that group may be five percent of those surveyed, but it’s still representative of about 13 mn people. 5h ago 09. 15 EDT Last night, Joe Biden gave an address warning of dire consequences if voters elect Republican extremists to office next Tuesday.

Today, he’s heading west to campaign not in the tightest contests or those considered the best chances to oust sitting Republicans , but rather for incumbent Democrats trying to hang on to their seats. It’s the perfect illustration of the dynamic for Biden, more than a year after his approval ratings tanked and stayed there. His presidential bully pulpit allowed him to make a speech where he warned, “Make no mistake, democracy is on the ballot for all of us.

” But his unpopularity had forced him into a cautious approach to campaigning – almost a tacit admission that when it comes to the races that could define the next two years of his presidency, his ability to help is limited. The Associated Press today published a piece looking at what today’s travel itinerary says about the dynamic. Here’s how they put it: .

css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1. 5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} His itinerary illustrates the limited political clout of a president who has been held at arm’s length by most Democrats in tough races this cycle. It also suggests that the president, whose approval rating remains underwater, has concluded that he can be most effective using the waning days before polls close to shore up support for Democratic candidates in areas that he easily won in 2020.

6h ago 08. 56 EDT ‘We’re facing a defining moment’, Biden argued. Will voters agree? Good morning, US politics blog readers.

Last night, Joe Biden made a primetime address to warn Americans about the threats to democracy posed by political violence and Republicans who deny the outcome of the 2020 election. It’s a salient message, given that many GOP candidates nationwide have embraced baseless conspiracy theories about the election that brought Biden to power, but there’s a problem: poll after poll has shown most Americans have a sour view of Biden’s time in office, to the point that the president is avoiding many swing states in the final days before the 8 November midterms. Last night’s speech was meant as a reminder to voters of what the stakes are in next week’s elections.

We’ll see if they care. Here’s what else is happening today: Biden heads out west , first to deliver remarks on student debt relief at a community college in Albuquerque, New Mexico, then to rally with democratic candidates. After that, he’s in San Diego, California, where he will appear at an event for democratic congressman Mike Levin .

Vice-president Kamala Harris will go to New York to rally Democrats . Midterm countdown: we are five days away from Tuesday’s election. Topics US midterm elections 2022 US politics Democrats Joe Biden Republicans Donald Trump House of Representatives Reuse this content.