US elections live: anger over two court abortion decisions; Trump taps into eugenics language in anti-migrant remarks

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Here is more on the Fema chief’s response to falsehoods spread by Treump about Hurricane Helene:

Trump has accused Joe Biden’s administration of “abandoning” people to the crisis and, baselessly, of being short of disaster relief funds due to money spent on undocumented migrants. Such claims are “frankly ridiculous” and creating a “truly dangerous narrative that is creating this fear” among affected people, Criswell said.

In multiple rallies in the past week, Trump has accused Biden and Kamala Harris of favoring migrants over disaster-hit areas. “They stole the Fema money, just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season,” Trump has said.

“Kamala spent all her Fema money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal immigrants.” Trump added the places worst hit are “largely a Republican area so some people say they did it for that reason”.

JD Vance, Trump’s Republican running mate, echoed this theme on Monday, telling Fox News that Fema’s focus on migrants is “going to distract focus from their core job of helping American citizens in their time of need”. Last week, Stephen Miller, a far-right Trump adviser, said that “Kamala Harris turned Fema into an illegal alien resettlement agency.”

Fema does, in fact, have a housing program that offers shelter to migrants leaving detention but this is separate from its disaster relief program. “No money is being diverted from disaster response needs. None,” the White House has stated.

Congress recently provided an extra $20bn for disaster relief but Biden has warned that more funding will be needed to help the long-term recovery of places increasingly assailed by powerful storms fueled by global heating.

Other conspiracy theories and erroneous claims have swirled online and in areas affected by Helene, such as the assertion that Fema will give only $750 to individuals as a loan (it is in fact a grant and can be followed by further claims for more than $40,000) or that the agency is seizing people’s land.

Trump did not make any public remarks as he paid his respects at the final resting place of a famous rabbi in New York earlier on Monday.

But he blasted Biden and Harris over their handling of the Middle East in an interview earlier, accusing the incumbent of having the “worst foreign policy of anybody in history probably.”

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “not listening at all” to Biden, said Trump – with the property tycoon lamenting that war-torn Gaza could one day be “better than Monaco”.

The event in Florida is starting now, though Trump is not yet speaking.

Trump’s event in Florida is so far running 30 minutes late. We will bring you any important lines from those remarks on the anniversary of the 7 October attacks by Hamas when they begin.

A slew of falsehoods about Hurricane Helene, including claims of funds diverted from storm survivors to migrants and even that Democrats somehow directed the hurricane itself, have hampered the response to one of the deadliest hurricanes to ever hit the US, the nation’s top emergency official has warned.

Misinformation spread by Donald Trump, his supporters and others about the hurricane has shrouded the recovery effort for communities shattered by Helene, which tore through five states causing at least 227 deaths and tens of billions of dollars of damage. Many places, such as in western North Carolina, are still without a water supply, navigable roads or vital supplies.

“It’s frankly disappointing we are having to deal with this narrative, the fact there are a few leaders having a hard time telling the difference between fact and fiction is creating an impedance to our ability to actually get people the help they need,” Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), told MSNBC on Monday.

Here is the press pool report – by the Guardian’s own David Smith – on Kamala Harris’s comments earlier on Governor Ron DeSantis not taking her calls about Hurricane Milton.

Harris said:

Moments of crisis, if nothing else, should really be the moment that anyone who calls themselves a leader says they’re going to put politics aside and put the people first.

People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment, in these crisis situations – these are the height of emergency situations – it is utterly irresponsible and it is selfish and it is about political gamesmanship instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.”

Earlier VPOTUS said she had just come off the phone with Fema Administrator Deanne Criswell. She commented on remarks made by Trump.

And I cannot stress enough to all the folks in Florida in the Tampa area, please listen to evacuation orders. Please listen to your local officials because I know a lot of folks out there have survived these hurricanes before; this one is going to be very, very serious and I urge you to grab whatever you need.

The other point I’d make is there’s a lot of misinformation being pushed out there by the former president about what is available, particularly for the survivors of Helene. First of all, it’s extraordinarily irresponsible. It’s about him, it’s not about you. The reality is Fema has so many resources that are available to those who desperately need them.”

Edward Helmore

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is reportedly refusing calls about storm recovery from Kamala Harris, more than a week after Hurricane Helene hit the state and two days before intensifying Hurricane Milton is expected to hit the south-west of the state.

Citing a DeSantis aide, NBC News reported on Monday that the Republican governor was dodging the Democratic presidential nominee’s calls because they “seemed political”.

“Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer,” the DeSantis aide told the outlet. DeSantis does not appear to have spoken to Joe Biden, either, to the aide’s knowledge.

The Florida governor has, however, been in touch with the Fema director, Deanne Criswell.

Last week, DeSantis said Biden had called him, but he was flying at the time so could not take the call. A source familiar with the planning for Biden’s trip to north Florida to survey Helene’s damage said that the Biden team had invited DeSantis to the event but their schedules conflicted.

The response to Hurricane Helene has become an intense political issue one month before the presidential election. The White House and local Democratic leaders have appealed for an end to misinformation about the storm and the response to it.

Summary

As we wait for Trump to begin delivering his remarks on the October 7 Hamas attack in Florida, here is where things stand:

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both attended events today in recognition of the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel.

The Supreme court upheld a ruling that will prevent abortions from being performed in some emergency circumstances in Texas. The court also rejected an attempt by an Alabama fertility clinic to avoid a wrongful death lawsuit that was at the center of a state high court ruling earlier this year that led to IVF access being briefly curtailed in the state

The Harris campaign launched a week-long media blitz, beginning yesterday with an appearance on the podcast Call Her Daddy, that will include appearances with Howard Stern, Stephen Colbert and The View this week.

Florida is bracing for Hurricane Milton to make landfall. The state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, has declined to speak with Harris or Joe Biden, but says the federal government has fulfilled his requests for aid.

A report by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget suggests that both the Harris and Trump campaigns are making promises that will increase US debt, but that Trump’s proposals are more expensive.

Richard Luscombe

Donald Trump will speak shortly in Miami at a commemoration for the victims and hostages of the 7 October Hamas attacks.

It’s a relatively small affair, some 350 or so seats are laid out in rows in the ballroom at the Trump golf resort in Doral. Supporters, some wearing red yamakas in the style of Trump’s traditional Maga (Make America great again) caps, passed memorials to those killed or taken hostage a year ago. Rows of candles accompanied pictures of the victims on a table. And outside the resort, in pouring rain, a man help up a sign that said “Thank you Trump for supporting Israel”.

The former president is expected to turn the event into an attack on Kamala Harris, whom he has called “weak” over Israel. In recent days he has called for Israel to bomb nuclear facilities in Iran in retaliation for that country’s missile attack on Israel last week.

Earlier Monday, Trump visited Ohel Chabad Lubavitch in Queens, New York, before flying to Florida.

In response to reports that Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, will not respond to her calls regarding hurricanes Helene and Milton, Kamala Harris tells reporters: “People are in desperate need of support right now, and playing political games at this moment … is just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish, and it is about political gamesmanship.”

Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, delivered remarks on Hurricane Milton’s impending landfall this afternoon. Although DeSantis has declined calls with Biden and Harris, he told reporters that Fema and the Biden administration have fulfilled his requests for aid.

“We have gotten what we need from the feds. We have been working constructively with all of the local communities,” he said, before criticizing a reporter’s question about declining calls with the Biden administration. “Some of these questions are just trying to create some sort of political angle.”

Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast yesterday, Kamala Harris hit back at Republicans’ remarks about her lack of biological children.

The Guardian’s Edward Helmore writes:

Kamala Harris hit back at the Republican Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s comments that the vice-president and Democratic White House nominee “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble” because she does not have children of her own.

“I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who, one, are not aspiring to be humble,” Harris told the Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper in a taped interview released on Sunday.

Sanders, a deputy White House press secretary during Donald Trump’s presidency, told a rally crowd in September that her “kids keep me humble.

“Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble,” Sanders said.

In a taped interview with Cooper, Harris said there are “a whole lot of women out here who have a lot of love in their life, family in their life and children in their life, and I think it’s really important for women to lift each other up”.

The Trump campaign has announced that the former president will be traveling to Coachella, California – a city best known for its music festival – this weekend.

The announcement says that, under Democratic leadership, the “notorious ‘California Dream’ has turned into a nightmare”.

Harris campaign officials appear unconcerned about the rally.

Donald Trump commemorated the anniversary of 7 October by visiting the grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century and a leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, in Queens, New York, today. Trump was joined by family members of Edan Alexander, an Israeli hostage taken by Hamas one year ago today.

He was also joined by conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro, who shared photos of the event on X:

As more news emerges on preparations for Hurricane Milton, including updates on Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ snub of a phone call from Harris, Fema is trying to dispel disinformation about its response to Hurricane Helene.

Deanne Criswell, who leads Fema, says false claims and conspiracy theories – spread most prominently by Donald Trump – are “demoralizing” aid workers and spreading fear.

Republicans, led by Trump, have spread misinformation since Helene made landfall, including rumors that the federal government was intentionally withholding aid to people in Republican areas, spending all its money to help immigrants, and that it used weather control technology to steer Helene toward Republican voters.

Kamala Harris and the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, planted a pomegranate tree outside her residence at the United States Naval Observatory before taking questions from members of the press.

Before doing so, Harris delivered brief remarks:

“We dedicate this tree to the 1,200 innocent souls, in an act of pure evil on October 7, 2023, who were massacred by Hamas terrorists,” Harris said, noting the American civilians who were among the dead and evoking the Jewish mourner’s prayer.

She also noted: “I will always make sure Israel has to defend itself” before adding: “We must work to relieve the immense suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza, who have experienced so much pain and loss over the year.”

The Trump campaign is already criticizing the event.

Harris to mark 7 October with memorial tree planting

Kamala Harris, together with the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, will in a few minutes hold a tree-planting ceremony to mark the one-year anniversary of the 7 October attack in Israel.

The vice-president will then deliver remarks at the event held at her residence at the United States Naval Observatory, which is about three miles from the White House in Washington DC.

It’s Harris’s only scheduled public speech today, and we will let you know what she has to say.

DeSantis declines to take Harris's call on Hurricane Milton

As Hurricane Milton churns towards Florida’s west coast, ABC News reports that the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, declined to speak to Kamala Harris.

A nationally prominent conservative, DeSantis mounted a failed campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, and since endorsed Donald Trump. Asked about the episode at the White House press briefing earlier today, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was the governor’s choice to speak to Harris or not: