Clinton and Trump make late push across battleground states
‘The FBI is Trumpland’: anti-Clinton atmosphere spurred leaks, sources say
US election 2016: what you need to know before voting Clinton or Trump
Get live US election alerts in new innovative format from the Guardian
10.53pm GMT
New York has increased its terrorism alert status after the FBI announced that it is investigating intelligence that suggested al-Qaeda may be plotting attacks before Tuesday’s general election, according to CBS News, citing anonymous sources within the FBI.
Federal and local counterterrorism officials have gone on high alert following news of the threat.
10.43pm GMT
Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, is tweeting about sandwiches again:
For 26 years, I've eaten 2 ham & cheese sandwiches nearly everyday. Like millions of Americans, I bring my own lunch to work. pic.twitter.com/9BtGMK1vtr
10.36pm GMT
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton prepared to blitz five battleground states between them on Friday, with four days remaining until American voters will choose their next president.
Clinton began the day with a rally in Pennsylvania, a state where she holds a consistent lead over Trump, while the Republican nominee made a last-minute push in New Hampshire. Trump has surged in recent days in the Granite State, where he scored his first victory of the Republican primary contest earlier this year.
Related: Trump and Clinton visit battleground states as election day looms
9.59pm GMT
Upset with how the main broadcast networks have covered your preferred candidate? Good news: One member of Congress is calling for hearings on it!
Rep. Kevin Cramer is calling for congressional hearings on "network media bias in coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign." pic.twitter.com/MIHKbAKgkZ
9.53pm GMT
Dona’d Trump’s newest television ad, which namechecks the “global power structure” that is conspiring to deny the tycoon from becoming president, will be running in “key markets” in Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado, Iowa, North Carolina and New Mexico.
9.50pm GMT
President Barack Obama rebuked a crowd in Fayetteville, North Carolina, this afternoon as they booed a protester who interrupted his speech and waved a Donald Trump flag. Telling the audience that America is a country that respects free speech, Obama called on voters not to get distracted by the animosity of the election cycle and instead keep focused on ensuring Trump does not win.
9.44pm GMT
Watch it here:
9.09pm GMT
The Democratic National Committee informed the FBI that it suspected that its national headquarters had been bugged by parties unknown, according to a Mother Jones report citing two anonymous members of the DNC.
The potential bugging, a callback to the Watergate break-in, was discovered during a security sweep of the party’s national headquarters in Washington, DC, where a radio signal discovered near the office of the party’s chair “indicated there might be a listening device outside the office,” Mother Jones reports.
8.53pm GMT
Some of those emails are so bad, they’re beyond classified.
8.46pm GMT
Speaking at an airplane hanger in Wilmington, Ohio, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump vowed to “win the great state of Ohio, and we are going to win back the White House!”
Telling the audience that his campaign is about “restoring honesty to government,” Trump falsely alleged that the FBI has “multiple open investigations” into opponent Hillary Clinton, but that the system has a way of “flushing itself out.”
8.39pm GMT
Watch it live here:
8.34pm GMT
A coalition of young people and minority constituencies are helping Hillary Clinton build a “firewall” against Donald Trump key states, the campaign said this afternoon as the race tightens in the final days of the election.
Campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters on a conference call that early voter turnout in Florida, North Carolina and Nevada is showing positive signs for the campaign. In these battleground states, the campaign is working to cement a lead that Trump is “incapable of overcoming”.
8.32pm GMT
An Ohio judge has issued a temporary restraining order against members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to prevent them from intimidating voters in the Buckeye State after the filing of a lawsuit that alleged Trump’s campaign, in cahoots with a GOP operative and his political action committee, were conspiring to suppress minority votes in the state.
US District Judge James Gwin ruled in a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Democratic Party that any members of Trump’s campaign or affiliated with Roger Stone’s Pac would face contempt-of-court charges, according to Cleveland.com.
8.16pm GMT
Rather than just... talking about cleaning up the swamp, he might start by draining his own swamp and asking Mr. Christie to resign as the head of his transition.
8.10pm GMT
How could you reclaim a meme that’s been appropriated by white supremacists? That’s the challenge faced by Pepe the Frog’s creator Matt Furie.
Furie has launched the #SavePepe campaign in an attempt to transform the cartoon frog from a symbol of hate used by racist Donald Trump supporters to a symbol of peace. He’s urging people to flood the internet with their own “peaceful or nice” versions of Pepe to claw the character back from the alt-right.
Related: #SavePepe: cartoon frog's creator tries to take meme back from alt-right
8.04pm GMT
Finishing a barn-burner of a speech in Fayetteville, North Carolina, President Barack Obama framed the upcoming general election as an opportunity for those who have supported him over the past eight years to help cement his legacy.
“It isn’t that often where in your life you’ve got a chance to move history,” Obama said. “It’s not that often where you have the chance to bend the arc of history in the direction of justice. It’s not that often where you know you can make a difference. This is one of those moments.”
7.59pm GMT
Right now, Donald Trump is calling on his supporters to monitor ‘certain areas’ on Election Day. I don’t know what ‘certain areas’ he’s talking about. But you do.
7.52pm GMT
Come on! You can’t do that! That ain’t right! Not only is it not right, but it ain’t right!
7.48pm GMT
Speaking on Hillary Clinton’s behalf in Fayetteville, North Carolina, President Barack Obama told a large college-aged audience that unlike Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton doesn’t need Lithuania pointed out on a map - and that she made him a better president.
“She made me a better president,” Obama said.
7.45pm GMT
Speaking in North Carolina, President Barack Obama framed Donald Trump as “uniquely unqualified” to hold the office of the presidency, pointing out that Trump’s rhetoric and behavior runs counter to lessons that any parent teaches their children.
“Nobody’s higher than you, but nobody’s lower than you. You don’t lift yourselves higher by putting somebody else down,” Obama said, citing qualities he has instilled in his own daughters. “We can’t have a president who, ever day, seems to violate those basic values. The problem is that he’s done it so much that it’s become almost normal. It’s like suddenly reality TV has entered into the race for the presidency.”
7.35pm GMT
Calling Donald Trump “uniquely unqualified” and “temperamentally unfit” to be president of the United States, President Barack Obama was interrupted by a deafening “Hillary!” chant after an elderly veteran appeared to protest during his address.
After a few minutes of din, during which the president put on his best substitute-teacher hat to calm the crowd down.
7.35pm GMT
President Barack Obama, campaigning on Hillary Clinton’s behalf at Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North Carolina, tells the audience of college-aged voters that “we’ve got some business to do.”
“The good news is that you don’t have to wait ’til election day to vote!” Obama said. “You have until tomorrow to register and vote at any one-stop location in your county - and there’s one less than a half-mile away from here.”
7.21pm GMT
Watch it here live:
7.15pm GMT
Moments before President Barack Obama is due to make a campaign appearance on Hillary Clinton’s behalf in North Carolina:
If Obama worked as hard on straightening out our country as he has trying to protect and elect Hillary, we would all be much better off!
6.59pm GMT
Here’s a live stream of Barack Obama’s upcoming event for Hillary Clinton in Fayetteville, NC:
6.29pm GMT
Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani, the former NYC mayor, said on Fox this morning that he knew in advance of a new FBI inquiry announced last week into emails relating to Hillary Clinton:
Giuliani, citing former agents: "There's a revolution going on inside the FBI, and it's now at a boiling point." https://t.co/qKi7UhaMct
Deep antipathy to Hillary Clinton exists within the FBI, multiple bureau sources have told the Guardian, spurring a rapid series of leaks damaging to her campaign just days before the election.
Current and former FBI officials, none of whom were willing or cleared to speak on the record, have described a chaotic internal climate that resulted from outrage over director James Comey’s July decision not to recommend an indictment over Clinton’s maintenance of a private email server on which classified information transited.
Related: 'The FBI is Trumpland': anti-Clinton atmosphere spurred leaking, sources say
6.04pm GMT
Another day closer to the presidential election, another slew of surveys – most of them showing that Hillary Clinton is in the lead. But the size of the Democratic candidate’s advantage varies considerably from poll to poll, partly because some questionnaires ask voters to consider the fact that there are more than two presidential nominees.
Green party candidate Jill Stein is on the ballot in 45 states and voters in another three states can choose to write her name in. And the Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is on the ballot in 50 states.
Related: Who will be hurt more by a third party 'protest' vote – Clinton or Trump?
6.00pm GMT
Donald Trump is making a last-minute push in New Hampshire, where he has surged in polls in recent days and where he scored his first victory of the Republican primary contest earlier this year. Here’s a report on the state of the race by Ben Jacobs in Atkinson, New Hampshire, and Sabrina Siddiqui in Pittsburgh:
Former New Hampshire governor John Sununu predicted before Trump appeared there on Friday that the margin for the winning candidate could come down to 5,000 votes.
5.46pm GMT
The Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui lends Clinton an ear:
Clinton: "Imagine how easily it could be that Donald Trump would feel insulted and start a real war, not just a Twitter war" at 3 a.m.
Clinton: "Think about what it would mean to entrust the nuclear codes to someone ... who lashes out at anyone who challenges him."
5.38pm GMT
.@HillaryClinton, taking stage at venue in Heinz Field, wishes luck to Steelers Sunday against Baltimore. Acknowledges Coach Tomlin's wife
Maryland just became a swing state https://t.co/XkjU1zHqct
5.28pm GMT
We’re sick of Cuban’s acronym. How can Trump close in Pennsylvania?
@ForecasterEnten pic.twitter.com/Uvb2i4d77E
5.23pm GMT
Cuban is doing an acronym
with Trump’s name
with the word “Trust.”
Each letter
of Trump’s name
stands for something bad that defines the candidate, in Cuban’s conceit.
Oh that’s why they brought Cuban to Pittsburgh – he’s from the P-burgh suburb of Squirrel Hill, he says.
In Pittsburgh, one of the more... creative intros of Hillary Clinton we've heard this year, from @mcuban: T-R-U-S-T as a mnemonic device. pic.twitter.com/TjBeaft8aP
5.20pm GMT
Here comes Mark Cuban in Pittsburgh. Scroll back a block for the feed.
“You cannot be president of the United States if you don’t know when to shut up.”
5.16pm GMT
If you’d rather watch Pennsylvania Democratic senate candidate Katie McGinty than Donald Trump, here’s the live video feed on Clinton’s rally in Pittsburgh:
5.08pm GMT
With Trump in New Hampshire: spokeswoman Hope Hicks, paid CNN commentator Corey Lewandowski, and current campaign manager Kellyanne Conway:
#teamwork #NH pic.twitter.com/5T4oOEyBt2
Trump is talking about the beauty of New Hampshire including the roads
Trump: "I consider the trees and the whole thing, it's so beautiful."
4.59pm GMT
Here’s Donald Trump now onstage in Atkinson, New Hampshire. He’s currently riffing on John Podesta’s email.
4.50pm GMT
Take it from CNN’s Dan Merica:
You should follow @dougmillsnyt everyday, but especially today, when he is getting behind the scenes access for Clinton's day in PA->MI->OH https://t.co/Bf3OoWWNdR
.@HillaryClinton talks with her staff on board her campaign plane before taking off for PA. HRC is hitting 4 states today. pic.twitter.com/SZuk3IXFvo
4.46pm GMT
New Jersey governor Chris Christie has issued a statement on the Bridgegate verdict in which he once again claims “I had no knowledge prior to or during these lane realignments, and had no role in authorizing them,” and in which he promises to “set the record straight in the coming days.”
Here’s the statement in full:
On January 9, 2014, I apologized to the people of New Jersey for the conduct exhibited by some members of my Administration who showed a lack of respect for the appropriate role of government and for the people we serve. Those people were terminated by me and today, the jury affirms that decision by also holding them responsible for their own conduct.
Like so many people in New Jersey, I’m saddened by this case and I’m saddened about the choices made by Bill Baroni, Bridget Kelly and David Wildstein. Today’s verdict does not change this for me.
4.41pm GMT
In which journalist Brian Williams asks journalist Mark Halperin, who has produced some aggressively non-confrontational coverage of Donald Trump (see below), about what color the sky is in Trumpland, and Halperin loses the struggle to maintain anodyne TV face:
Brian Williams melts Halperin's face. This is excruciating. pic.twitter.com/bmhokzCnjO
This transcript of Mark Halperin’s Trump interview can’t be real… pic.twitter.com/M4x4EkuW1f
4.33pm GMT
The Trump campaign has issued a statement in the name of Dr Darrell Scott, a Cleveland pastor, criticizing Hillary Clinton’s planned appearance at a rally tonight with Jay-Z (and Beyoncé? maybe?).
“For all of her talk about fighting for kids, [Clinton] has no problem sharing a stage with someone who glamorizes acts of violence and having pushed drugs in our local communities,” Scott’s statement says. (Read more about him and his controversial support for Trump.)
The Trump campaign is not impressed with Jay Z as a role model. Statement is from Cleveland pastor / Trump surrogate Rev. Darrell Scott. pic.twitter.com/jgrallU6Ls
Here’s a call for Hillary Clinton to denounce Beyonce for singing about going to Red Lobster pic.twitter.com/aJkRgvxE7G
When he fuck me good, I take his ass to Red Lobster (cause I slay)
When he fuck me good, I take his ass to Red Lobster (we gon slay)
4.08pm GMT
Ahead of election day, we’ve been asking those who have volunteered to work the polls to get in touch and tell us about their experiences and thoughts about participating. Responses have arrived from first-time volunteers and poll worker veterans alike, with a common theme throughout: They’ve heard Donald Trump’s warnings of a “rigged” election, and want to share their two cents. (Curious about the difference between a poll worker and a poll monitor? Learn more, here.)
I’ve been an election officer in Delaware for six election cycles, a total of 16 primaries, national, or local elections. We have never denied a person the right to vote; we want people to vote... We’ve never been informed that a voter’s ballot was deemed irregular, suspect, or invalid. That’s zero out of almost 20,000.
My poll-worker training class was filled with well-intentioned and attentive people. But there is a lot to learn in that 4 hours and from what I can tell, significant room in our voting system for human error... My class was packed, around 50 people, and many trainees were lost or behind. It would’ve been impossible for the trainer to make sure everyone was following. Overall, it was heartening to see so many people interested in the election process, but disappointing to see how antiquated, underfunded, and messy our process truly is.
I have a full-time position, but am happy to give up 14 hours of my time on Election Day to the cause of civic participation... I am, however, extremely uneasy with Trump’s rhetoric encouraging unlicensed “poll watchers.” I took poll worker training at the county courthouse last week, where we were given the run-down on legal and illegal forms of poll watching and how to deal with it if we experience the latter form... We were told in training that Kansas polling locations until Jan. 2017 prohibit the carrying of firearms, and that any who carry them can be forced to leave immediately. I know, however, that I will not be volunteering to tell someone with a gun to leave the premises.
Related: Are you a poll worker for the US election? Share your experiences
4.01pm GMT
House speaker Paul Ryan is going to bat for incumbent senate Republican Ron Johnson in Wisconsin today. If they can find the light switch.
Power is completely out now where @SpeakerRyan and @RonJohnsonWI are to hold rally in 45 minutes pic.twitter.com/aLf9fRd1ig
3.59pm GMT
Oh why not, let’s loop it again.
3.54pm GMT
Will Christie hit the campaign trail in New Hampshire tomorrow?
Reminder Christie is head of Trump's transition team, and per campaign release last night he's due to campaign for Trump in NH & PA tomorrow pic.twitter.com/3WHZXnfps2
Bigger story is that this is the final wknd surrogate list for the GOP nominee!https://t.co/zz5hpnwpTW
3.44pm GMT
What if Chris Christie had been Donald Trump’s running mate?
Arguably the most significant decision by Trump in this campaign was to pick Pence rather than Christie as his running mate.
Christie has not been charged over the bridge imbroglio, but questions linger over how much he knew and it dealt a major blow to his own presidential hopes. In a Republican primary debate last December, when Christie said he would order US forces to shoot down Russian aircraft over Syria, rival Rand Paul shot back: “When we think about the judgment of someone who might want world war three, we might think about someone who might shut down a bridge because they don’t like their friends.”
Now the timing of the trial is a headache that Trump, already mired in numerous controversies, could do without in the last stretch of the presidential election.
Related: Bridgegate trial and Chris Christie's role could mean more trouble for Trump
3.36pm GMT
BREAKING: #Bridgegate jury finds Bill Baroni and Bridget Kelly guilty on all counts.
Testimony in the Bridgegate trial indicated that Christie, the New Jersey governor, knew about the bridge lane closures at the time, which he has denied. It’s not clear what legal jeopardy he may be in, if any. But two of his closest allies (formerly) were just convicted on criminal charges in federal court.
3.26pm GMT
Will Farrell works to get out the millennial vote. (For Clinton.)
Will Ferrell: comedian, actor, just your average millennial. pic.twitter.com/ExfbQX3AS1
3.18pm GMT
A jury has reached a verdict in the criminal trial of former Chris Christie allies Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni. We’ll pass it on when we have it. Christie is heading up Donald Trump’s White House transition team, should he need one.
On Thursday, defense lawyers had moved for a mistrial. The Asbury Park Press describes the charges:
Kelly and Baroni are fighting charges they worked together to close access lanes to the [George Washington] bridge to punish Mark Sokolich, the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, for not endorsing Christie for re-election in 2013. Baroni was the deputy executive director of the Port Authority and Kelly was a deputy chief of staff to Christie at the time. A second agency official, David Wildstein, has pleaded guilty.
BREAKING: Jury reaches verdict in George Washington Bridge lane-closing trial involving 2 ex-allies of New Jersey Gov. Christie.
3.08pm GMT
Anthony Baxter follows up his 2011 documentary You’ve Been Trumped with the sequel, You’ve Been Trumped Too, about Donald Trump’s battle with Aberdeenshire residents over his golf course. The film follows what has happened to elderly widow Molly Forbes after Trump’s building workers cut off her water supply. Here’s some footage:
2.57pm GMT
2.50pm GMT
Rear Admiral Deborah Loewer, a lifelong Republican who was director of the White House situation room on September 11, has cut a new add endorsing Hillary Clinton.
“I can tell you firsthand, in a crisis, the president needs to be disciplined, even-tempered and steady,” Loewer says. “I see all those traits in Hillary Clinton, and none of them in Donald Trump.”
2.47pm GMT
Dallas Mavericks owner and bona fide verified billionaire Mark Cuban will introduce Clinton in Pittsburgh at her first rally of the day, the campaign advises:
Mark Cuban to introduce Hillary Clinton at Pittsburgh rally today and will go after Trump over his net worth, per campaign.
A Trump Tower Goes Bust in Canada. Even a Russian customer can't help @jasoninthehouse https://t.co/b23BGunvts
1.49pm GMT
At around 1am ET last night, Jon Ralston reached his final tally of early voting in Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas) for the day. He says, as he has been for a week, that Democrats have built a firewall in early voting in the state that Trump won’t likely be able to climb on election day:
Huge day for Dems in Clark County. Dems won by nearly 6,000 votes (18,122-12,328). Mr. Trump, they have built that firewall above 60,000.
State of play in NV:
Dems build Clark firewall to 61K.
Trump path very narrow here. Needs HUGE Tuesday GOP turnout.https://t.co/1pS7nvPBhm
You can hate Harry Reid if you want, but the Dem GOTV machine he's built out in NV is something else.
1.40pm GMT
How a top Obama strategist explains the Hillary Clinton campaign’s late-stage moves to safeguard territory that looked inviolable a couple weeks ago, in a Politico piece titled What if everyone’s wrong?:
You’re more nervous if you’re playing Russian roulette than flipping a coin.
Department of Bedwetting: 2016 https://t.co/BZ5jeY0kJD pic.twitter.com/eBpWCVnuYW
12.57pm GMT
Next week’s New Yorker.
Good morning. pic.twitter.com/3zPl3WJYI9
12.27pm GMT
Hello and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. Today’s Friday and the election’s on Tuesday. That’s soon. You read it here first.
Donald Trump is not giving up on Pennsylvania. His last event of the work week is scheduled to take place in Hershey, in Dauphin County, which Barack Obama won by six points in 2012 – better than his statewide average. Pennsylvania is a big prize. It awards 20 electoral votes – gives them every time to the Democrats, in fact, going back six elections. It would be a great win for Trump. But he appears to be losing there. We don’t know what his internal polling says. Here’s what the publicly available polling says:
The CMAs have scrubbed all evidence of Beyoncé's performance from the web https://t.co/eu1Hxgf3uf via @Mic
Related: CMA awards: group denies scrubbing Beyoncé from its website after show
Another new NH poll from UMass shows dead heat 44-44. (In field exactly during peak Comey) https://t.co/0p7InmIw5L
ABC/Post poll, the main evidence cited that Comey had an impact, is now back at pre-Comey levels (and I'd bet it improves again tomorrow) pic.twitter.com/pmuedNj8At
Related: US election: Trump duels Clinton and Sanders in North Carolina
Trump may be a car wreck, but at least his car is pointed in right direction. Hillary is a drunk-driver going the wrong way on the freeway.
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