US military suicides increased in 2023, Pentagon reports
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(WASHINGTON) — U.S. military suicides increased by 30 in 2023, according to a Defense Department report released Thursday, continuing an upward trend the Pentagon has struggled to combat.
“The findings urgently demonstrate the need for the Department to redouble its work in the complex fields of suicide prevention and postvention,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Thursday.
There were 523 service members who took their own lives last year, and the total force rate of suicide deaths per 100,000 service members was 9% higher than in 2022, the report said.
“Numerically, that was somewhat higher than the 493 that we lost in 2022, although that increase in terms of the rate and the count for the active component was not a statistically significant increase,” said Dr. Timothy Hoyt, deputy director of force resiliency for the DOD.
But while there was a slight dip in the military suicide rate in 2022, and a relatively modest increase in 2023, officials described a concerning overall upward trend since 2011 for active-duty forces.
“For the longer term, we continue to see a gradual, statistically significant increase in the active component suicide rates from 2011 to 2023,” said Dr. Liz Clark, director of the Pentagon’s Suicide Prevention Office. “There is a low likelihood that this change is due to natural variation or chance.”
Though concerning, military suicide rates have been comparable to those of the wider U.S. population over that time period.
While active-duty and reserve suicide rates increased in 2023, rates for the National Guard dipped slightly, according to the report.
The Pentagon is pursuing several lines of effort to reduce instances of suicide in the ranks, including by working to foster a supportive environment, improve mental health care, reduce stigma for seeking help and better suicide prevention training.
“Since his first day in office, the health, safety and well-being of our military community has been one of Secretary Austin’s top priorities,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said during the Thursday Pentagon briefing. “As you’ve heard him say many times before, we owe it to our service members and our military families to provide the best possible care, to identify risk factors and spot warning signs and to eliminate stigmas around seeking help, and when it comes to suicide, one loss to suicide is one too many. The department remains focused on long-term, sustained initiatives to prevent suicide.”
If you or one of your loved ones are struggling or needs extra support, you are not alone. Please call the suicide and crisis lifeline at 9-8-8.
Participants in the annual Christmas Parade march down Main Street, December 1, 2023, in Rio Grande City, Starr County, Texas. The vast majority of rural Starr County, which follows the Rio Grande River border with Mexico, is Mexican American, and Spanish is the most commonly spoken first language. The area is a center for migrants crossing into the United States, but many residents have family on both sides of the border and cross legally on a regular basis. (Andrew Lichtenstein/ Getty Images)
(RIO GRANDE CITY, TX) — Starr County, Texas, voted predominantly Republican this month — for the first time in 100 years.
Home to some 75,000 residents across about 1,200 square miles, it has a relatively small footprint, in a state where everything is glorified for its bigness.
But it’s been making an outsized impression in national politics. Even after its historic flip from blue to red, a century in the making, it’s continued to garner headlines.
Last week, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham offered up 1,402 acres of Starr County to facilitate President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans.
In a letter to Trump dated Nov. 19, Buckingham said she’s offering the land, located along the border of Mexico, “to be used to construct deportation facilities.”
She has also proposed alternative uses for it, including as a site for detention centers.
“Now it’s essentially farmland, so it’s flat, it’s easy to build on. We can very easily put a detention center on there — a holding place as we get these criminals out of our country,” Buckingham said in a recent interview with Fox News.
The land, which Buckingham declared property of the state in 2023, adds to another parcel previously owned by the Texas General Land Office, bringing the southern border acreage that it controls in Starr County up to 4,000.
ABC News’ Mireya Villarreal visited Starr County to ask residents what issues and values most influenced them to vote for Republican candidates this year, instead of upholding their century-long blue streak.
“The economy is just driving, I think, everybody crazy,” said Becky Garza, the owner of Texas Cafe in Rio Grande City, the largest city in Starr County.
She explained that she used to complain about buying a box of eggs for $10, and now they’re $20.
“If things don’t get better, I might have to either cut staff, cut hours, or I’m going to start with cutting hours and then from there work it, maybe cut down, maybe cut the menu, you know, to keep the place open, you know, because I don’t want to lose my my customers,” Garza said.
And she doesn’t think she’s the only one who’s making those kinds of hard decisions, she told ABC News.
Jaime Escobar, the mayor of neighboring Roma, another city of Starr County, agrees. He suggested that residents are more influenced by the local economy than what’s being said in Washington, D.C.
“We no longer want to be considered just a poor community because we’re rich culturally,” he told ABC News. “We’re proud of our Mexican-American heritage, but we don’t — no longer want to be dependent just on the government.”
But with D.C. being invited into their backyard, it’s bound to bring the topic of migration and deportation to the forefront — even for those who may not have prioritized the issue during the election cycle.
Asked about how people might respond to a detention facility in nearby Starr County, Escobar said, “People don’t want families to be torn apart. That’s the last thing we want.”
“But at the same time,” he added, “we hope that Trump and his administration do the right thing and focus on the criminal element first, and then see how in the meantime, we’ll see how the policies can be implemented in a better way.”
Buckingham, on the other hand, believes that “folks who live down on the border feel really abandoned by those open border policies.”
She told ABC News, “They feel like it’s directly harming their communities, both their safety and their prosperity.”
In the same interview this week with ABC News, Buckingham also said that she would “absolutely” offer up even more of Texas, the way that she did Starr County.
“I have 13 million acres. If any of them can be of help in this process, we’re happy to have that discussion,” Buckingham said.
Trump has said he would carry out his mass deportation plans — a top campaign promise — by declaring a national emergency and using “military assets” to deport migrants currently living in the U.S. without legal permission.
He backed up his commitment with the choice of several immigration hard-liners to join his administration, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem for secretary of homeland security and former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan as “border czar.” Both picks require Senate confirmation.
But with an estimated 11 million people presumed to be living in the U.S. without legal immigration status, the promises have raised questions of both feasibility and cost.
Removing them could cost billions of dollars per year, according to estimates from the American Immigration Council.
And while Republican-friendly areas of Texas might feel compelled to support the effort, other southern border states, like Arizona and California, have already expressed their disinterest.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs told ABC News Live last week that she would not use state police or the National Guard to help with mass deportation.
“We will not be participating in misguided efforts that harm our communities,” she said.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge has struck down the Biden administration’s program known as “Keeping Families Together,” dealing a major blow to the estimated half a million undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens that DHS estimates would have benefited.
The administration announced the program in June, but a coalition of 16 Republican-led states — led by Texas and Stephen Miller’s America First Legal — quickly filed a lawsuit after applications were made available in August.
A federal judge put the program on hold just days after hopeful applicants filed their paperwork.
The program would have provided temporary relief from deportation for undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens through a process known as “parole in place.” It would have allowed them to apply for legal status without having to leave the country.
On Thursday, Judge J. Campbell Barker ruled in favor of the Republican-led effort to dismantle the program, agreeing with Republican states that the administration had exceeded its statutory authority because the Immigration and Nationality Act allows for paroling people “into the United States,” not to those already in the country.
Noncitizen spouses are already eligible for legal status under current laws but often have to apply from their home countries and face up to a 10-year ban from returning to the U.S.
In August, ABC News spoke with a 24-year-old woman who was one of the first people to be approved under the program. She is married to a U.S. citizen and they have a 3-year-old child.
It’s unclear at the moment what will happen to people who have already submitted their paperwork, like Cecilia, and if they’ll be able to get their application fees refunded.
ABC News has reached out to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the White House for a comment.
“District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker did not just dismantle the Keeping Families Together program, he shattered the hopes of hundreds of thousands of American families. The Biden-Harris program would have allowed noncitizen spouses and noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens to stay in the country after they’ve contributed to our communities, helped grow our economy, and built lives with their loved ones” Ashley DeAzevedo, president of American Families United, said in a statement to ABC News.
“We urge the Biden-Harris administration to immediately appeal Judge Barker’s ruling, preventing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and 15 other Republican Attorneys General cruel lawsuit from devastating over 550,000 individuals in mixed-status families. Families like ours deserve better than this blatant attempt to stop a legal program, and we will not stop until the courts rectify this injustice,” DeAzevedo said.
(WASHINGTON) — With five days until Election Day, Kamala Harris is attacking Donald Trump for saying Wednesday night in Wisconsin that, against his advisers’ advice, he is going to keep saying he will “protect the women” “whether the women like it or not.”
Both candidates continue their whirlwind campaigns in the West.
Harris seizes on Trump’s comment about protecting women ‘whether the women like it not’
Harris seized an opportunity to criticize Trump on abortion after for his comments at his rally Wednesday night in which he said he would protect women “whether the women like it or not.”
“Donald Trump thinks he should get to make decisions about what you do with your body,” Harris posted on X. “Whether you like it or not.”
Harris’ campaign clipped Trump’s comments and edited it into a loop with a split screen of headlines about Trump saying “he could prosecute women for abortions,” “might monitor pregnancies,” and other abortion-related headlines.
More than 59 million Americans have voted early
As of 5:45 a.m. on Thursday, more than 59 million Americans have voted early, according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
Of the total number of early votes, 31,018,125 were cast in person and 27,952,363 were returned by mail.
Musk asks for $1 million lottery case to be moved to federal court
In a filing late Wednesday evening, Elon Musk sought to have the lawsuit against his $1 million giveaway moved into federal court, arguing the claims “turn principally on the allegation that defendants are somehow unlawfully interfering with a federal election.”
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has accused Musk and his America PAC of running an illegal lottery and violating state consumer protection laws.
The filing specifically states “this is not a case” about whether or not Musk violated state or federal laws that prohibit vote buying.
But Musk’s Wednesday filing notes the lawsuit’s repeated references to the upcoming presidential election. That includes Krasner’s claim that Musk and his PAC “hatched their illegal lottery scheme to influence voters in that election.”
“The complaint, in truth, has little to do with state-law claims of nuisance and consumer protection,” Musk’s attorney wrote in his filing.
“Rather, although disguised as state law claims, the complaint’s focus is to prevent defendants’ purported ‘interference’ with the forthcoming federal presidential election by any means.”
The filing argues any order in the case would “require judicial intervention into the progress of an ongoing federal election” — a move they say is not allowed.
The filing comes before a Thursday morning hearing in Philadelphia on the issue.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
Harris responds to Trump’s comments on protecting women
Vice President Kamala Harris seized an opportunity to criticize former President Donald Trump on abortion after the Republican presidential nominee told a rally Wednesday night that he would protect women “whether the women like it or not.”
“Donald Trump thinks he should get to make decisions about what you do with your body,” Harris wrote on X. “Whether you like it or not.”
Harris’s campaign clipped Trump’s comments and edited it into a loop with a split screen of headlines about Trump saying “he could prosecute women for abortions,” “might monitor pregnancies” and other abortion-related headlines.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie
Harris slams Trump after reports he promised RFK Jr. public health role
Vice President Kamala Harris commented late Wednesday night on the promises former President Donald Trump has allegedly made to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Putting an anti-abortion conspiracy theorist in charge of our public health agencies says everything you need to know about how Donald Trump would govern,” Harris wrote on X.
“He is more unhinged than ever, and if he wins, he’ll have no one to hold him back.”
Trump said Sunday of RFK Jr.: “I’m going to let him go wild on health, I’m going to let him go wild on the food, I’m going to let him go wild on medicines.”
In response, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “No formal decisions about cabinet and personnel have been made, however, President Trump has said he will work alongside passionate voices like RFK Jr. to make America healthy again.”
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Kelsey Walsh, Soo Rin Kim and Lalee Ibssa
Harris woos 1st-time voters during Wisconsin concert series
Vice President Kamala Harris held another get-out-the-vote rally in Madison, Wisconsin, Wednesday, joined by musical stars including Mumford and Sons, The National’s Matt Berninger, Gracie Abrams and Remi Wolf.
Harris applauded the audience — many of whom were young first-time voters — for using their “power.”
“You grew up with active shooter drills, are fighting to keep our schools safe,” Harris said. “You will now know fewer rights than your mothers and grandmothers,” the vice president added.
“What I know about you is these issues are not theoretical,” Harris continued. “This is not political for you. This is your lived experience. And I see you and I see your power. I see your power, and I am so proud of you.”
Harris largely stuck to her usual stump speech, contrasting herself to former President Donald Trump by pledging that as president she won’t be looking to “score political points,” but to “make progress.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie
‘Whether the women like it or not, I’m going to protect them,’ Trump says during rally
Following his press conference in a garbage truck, former President Donald Trump held a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin – still opting to sport his new orange safety vest.
He stuck to his stump speech heavily focused on immigration and the economy, he also made an appeal to women repeating he will be their “protector.”
Trump suggested that his campaign advised him to not say he’ll protect women, but he disagreed.
“We think it’s very inappropriate for you to say,” Trump said his campaign told him.
“I said, ‘Why, I’m president. I want to protect the women of our country.’ They said, ‘Sir, I just think it’s inappropriate for you to say,'” Trump explained.
“Well, I’m going to do it. Whether the women like it or not, I’m going to protect them,” Trump told the crowd. “I’m going to protect them from migrants coming in. I’m going to protect them from foreign countries that want to hit it, hit us with missiles and lots of other things.”
“I’m going to defend and I’m going to protect women. I’m not going to let people go up to the suburbs or go into places where they live, whether it’s suburbs or cities or farms. We’re going to protect our women, at the border, we’re going to protect our women, and also we’re going to protect our men and our children. We’re going to protect everybody.”
Trump then asked the crowd: “Is there any woman in this giant stadium who would like not to be protected? Is there any woman in this stadium that wants to be protected by the president?”
The moment was met with a large applause.
‘We all want the war in Gaza to end,’ Harris responds to ‘cease-fire now’ chants
A few chants of “cease-fire now” broke out as Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage during a rally at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Wednesday night.
“Listen, we all want the war in Gaza to end and get the hostages out as soon as possible,” Harris said in response to the chanting. “And I will do everything in my power to make it heard and known.”
As the chants continued, she said, “And everyone has a right to be heard. But right now I am speaking.” The remark garnered loud cheers.
The event was billed as a “Get Out the Vote” rally and took place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison featuring performances by Gracie Abrams and Mumford & Sons.
With less than a week before Election Day, Harris is taking her “closing argument” to voters on the road after a big speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night. (Pro-Palestinian protesters were also escorted out of that speech)
Harris’ remarks in Wisconsin lasted about 25 minutes. In them, she did not address President Joe Biden’s controversial comments Tuesday that seemed to refer to Trump supporters as “garbage.”
Trump’s final campaign stop ahead of Election Day scheduled to take place in Grand Rapids: Sources
Former President Donald Trump’s final campaign stop of the 2024 election is scheduled to take place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Monday, Nov. 4, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Grand Rapids was where Trump concluded his 2020 campaign and 2016 campaign as well.
In addition to Grand Rapids, he’s expected to make multiple campaign stops in battleground states on the eve of the Election Day, including in Pennsylvania.
-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Kelsey Walsh and Lalee Ibssa
Trump rides to WI campaign stop in garbage truck
Days after a comedian labeled Puerto Rico a “pile of garbage” at Donald Trump’s MSG rally, the former president rode to a Green Bay, Wisconsin, rally in a Trump-marked garbage truck Wednesday.
Trump continued to bash President Joe Biden’s response to the controversial moment from the MSG rally in which he said that Trump’s supporters were garbage.
Biden clarified his comments and Vice President Kalama Harris told reporters, “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
Trump, however, told reporters while riding in the garbage truck that “250 million people are not garbage.”
“I can tell you who the real garbage is but I will not say that,” he continued.
Trump falsely claimed there was corruption in Pennsylvania.
Later pressed if he would accept election results if there’s no evidence of fraud, Trump reiterated claims about Pennsylvania, and then said, “If they find no evidence of cheating anywhere, I’ll accept it.”
Pressed on a potential role Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could play in his administration, Trump vaguely said he would work with him but while not confirming that he’d be given the top Health and Human Services job.
“We’ll work with him, and he’s a very talented guy. He wants women’s health. He wants health for people, and we’re going to work with him. He’s a very, very talented guy,” Trump said.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Soo Rin Kim
Philly hearing on Musk lawsuit moved up to Thursday
The judge overseeing the lawsuit against Elon Musk and his $1 million dollar giveaway to registered voters who sign a petition supporting the First and Second amendments has moved up a hearing in the case to Thursday at 10 a.m., bumping it up from Friday, according to a new order.
The order from Judge Angelo Foglietta states that “all parties must be present.”
Earlier Wednesday, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner asked the court to “enhance its security” for the hearing.
Krasner said Musk’s post about the case on X has “triggered an avalanche of posts.” including “antisemitic attacks” against the prosecutor.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
Thank you cookies to NC election workers prompts hazmat response
A thank you present of pineapple-shaped cookies delivered to the Wake County Board of Elections in North Carolina prompted a hazmat response on Tuesday after election workers raised concerns about a suspicious package mailed from Hawaii.
“We are just on high alert with these things automatically,” said Wake County elections specialist Danner McCulloh, who cited recent incidents of suspicious packages containing powder sent to election offices across the country.
The Raleigh Police and Fire Departments quickly responded to the incident and bomb technicians x-rayed the package, according to Lt. Jason Borneo of the Raleigh Police Department.
After the package was deemed to not be a threat, emergency responders opened the package to learn it was full of cookies shipped from the Honolulu Cookie Company. The operations at Wake County Board of Elections were not impacted during the incident, a county spokesperson said.
According to McCulloh, a person who heard a radio story about Wake County decided to send the cookies unannounced to thank election workers.
“It was a kind gesture,” McCulloh said, though he recommended against others sending cookies to his office.
-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous
Harris brings her closing argument to Pennsylvania: ‘Turn the page’
Harris brought her “closing argument” to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, highlighting what she said is a clear contrast between her and Trump, and encouraging voters to cast their ballots in the election’s final days.
“We know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other. That is who he is. But Pennsylvania, that is not who we are,” Harris said, swapping out “America” for “Pennsylvania” from her speech at the Ellipse the night before.
Harris was interrupted several times by pro-Palestinian protesters.
“We are six days out of an election. We are six days away from an election. And ours is about a fight for democracy. And your right to be heard. That is what is on the line in this election. That is what is on the line in this election,” Harris said as she was being jeered by a protestor holding up a large Palestinian flag.
“Look, everybody has a right to be heard. But right now, I am speaking. And one of the biggest issues that folks around the country want to talk about and hear is about how we are going to bring down the price of living for working people,” she said.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie
Voters, Dems ask Supreme Court to reject RNC appeal of Pennsylvania ballot case
Two Pennsylvania voters and the state’s Democratic Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to reject a Republican request to block counting of provisional in-person ballots cast by people whose mail-in ballots were not put into a required security envelope.
The Democrats argued the Pennsylvania Supreme Court delivered a “straightforward” decision that state law permits voters whose mail ballots were not counted to “exercise their statutory right to vote provisionally rather than be disenfranchised altogether.”
The party contends that the RNC has no standing to bring a challenge in the case because it involves two ballots from the 2024 Democratic primary in which the Republican Party could not have been “injured.”
They also argued that the so-called Purcell principle — of nonintervention by courts close to a voting period — does not apply to state courts.
The Democrats also said the Republicans’ request for segregation and non-counting of provisional ballots would be a “sweeping” intervention and imposition on county boards of election which are not even parties to the case.
-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer‘It’s invaded our home,’ PA nuns swept up in misinformation campaign
‘It’s invaded our home,’ PA nuns swept up in misinformation campaign
A nun in Pennsylvania who was swept up in a misinformation campaign boosted by a Republican activist said she’s praying to be left alone.
Cliff Maloney, who runs a door-knocking organization, claimed in an X post one of his staffers visited an address in Erie, Pennsylvania, last week and was told none of the 53 registered voters who used that address actually lived there.
However, the address is home to 55 resident nuns of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie. All but two of the nuns are registered to vote.
“It’s invaded our home, if you want to describe it that way,” Sister Stephanie Schmidt, the prioress, told ABC News.
Maloney also posted the names and political affiliations of each nun on his X account, something Schmidt said made her empathize with countless other Americans caught up in misinformation on social media.
“It was very concerning, because this was a blatant lie, putting out to the public information that was just wrong,” she said.
“This campaign is filled with so much deceit, so much misinformation, and we have to wake people up, which is another reason why we’re going public with this, to alert people to not believe everything you read,” Schmidt added.
Maloney has not responded to repeated requests to answer questions from ABC News.
He later posted an update claiming his team was “analyzing” the new information about the nuns’ residence and said, “Once we have proof, we will be content.”
Schmidt says one of the things she’s praying for most is for this misinformation to leave them alone.
-ABC News’ Jay O’Brien
Trump slams Biden over ‘garbage’ comments, calls opponents ‘lowlifes’
Trump again responded to President Joe Biden’s Tuesday comments in which he appeared to refer to Trump supporters as “garbage.”
During his rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on Wednesday, the former president claimed, “Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters. He called them ‘garbage.’ And they mean it.”
“Frankly, they’ve treated you like garbage,” Trump added.
Although Biden later clarified his comments, in which he was responding to the derogatory comments about Puerto Rico made during Trump’s New York rally on Sunday, Trump labeled his opponents as “lowlifes” and claimed the current administration has “virtually destroyed” America.
“Kamala Harris, a low-IQ individual, is running a campaign of hate, anger and retribution. See, I’m very nice to them. They’re not nice,” he said.
Trump responded to a supporter who shouted, “She’s an idiot!” referring to Harris, sarcastically saying, “I didn’t say it. I didn’t say it. In fact, I’d like to admonish you, sir. You should not say that, please.”
Although Trump disavowed the supporter, his body language told a different story as he stood on stage laughing.
-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa and Soorin Kim
Michigan authorities charge ‘non-US citizen’ with illegal voting
Authorities in Michigan charged an unidentified non-U.S. citizen with allegedly illegally registering to vote and casting a ballot.
More specific details about the case, which took place in Ann Arbor on Sunday, were not immediately available.
The case was referred to law enforcement by a clerk, according to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit.
“We are grateful for the swift action of the clerk in this case, who took the appropriate steps and referred the case to law enforcement. We are also grateful to law enforcement for swiftly and thoroughly investigating this case,” they said in a joint statement.
“Noncitizen voting is an extremely isolated and rare event. Investigations in multiple states and nationwide have found no evidence of large numbers of noncitizens registering to vote. Even less common is a noncitizen actually casting a ballot,” they added.
-ABC News’ Mike Levine
Nicky Jam walks back Trump endorsement following MSG rally
Last month, Reggaeton music artist Nicky Jam, who is half Puerto Rican, stood on stage with a MAGA hat and endorsed Trump in Las Vegas.
On Wednesday, he announced he was rescinding that endorsement, citing the offensive comments about Puerto Rico made at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.
In an Instagram video to his 43 million fans, Nicky Jam told his fans in Spanish he couldn’t overlook the inflammatory language in recent days.
“The reason why I supported Donald Trump was because I thought it was the best thing for the economy in the United States, where many Latinos live … I thought it was the best move. Never in my life did I think that a month later a comedian was going to come to criticize my country and talk bad about my country and therefore, I renounce any support to Donald Trump and I throw my sides to any political situation,” he said.
During the Vegas rally, Trump thought Nicky Jam was a woman and said, “She’s hot,” before bringing him on stage.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Judge grants Trump campaign request to extend early voting deadline for PA county
A Pennsylvania judge swiftly granted a request from the Trump campaign to extend the in-person mail-in-ballot deadline in Bucks County by three days — extending it to the end of the day on Friday.
The campaign had asked for one-day extension.
In his one-page order, Judge Jeffrey Trauger wrote that the county violated the Pennsylvania Election Code after “turning away voters who sought to apply for a mail-in ballot and receive one in person before the deadline.”
He ordered the county to allow anyone who wishes to “apply for, receive, vote, and return a mail-in ballot” to be able to do so before the close of business on Friday.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
Philly DA asks for more security for Elon Musk hearing
DA Larry Krasner said in a new court filing Musk’s post about the case on X has “triggered an avalanche of posts.” including “antisemitic attacks” against the prosecutor.
One account was “inviting political violence” and posted Krasner’s home address, according to the filing.
“These posts, which unquestionable are criminal…. and remain posted on Musk’s X website today,” the filing states.
Another post read “Krasner loves visitors. Mask up and leave all cellphones at home,” according to the filing.
“The directives to ‘mask up’ and to ‘leave all cellphones at home’ are to prevent identification of illegal actors by video, by eyewitnesses, and by cellphone geolocation,” the filing states.
Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to ABC News for comment.
The hearing in the case is set for Friday at 10am.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
Harris stresses unity in Raleigh speech
Vice President Kamala Harris held her first of three Wednesday rallies in Raleigh, hammering a message of unity.
Harris encouraged North Carolinians to take advantage of early voting, which ends Saturday in the state.
“We have just six days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and we have work to do,” she said.
“It is time for a new chapter where we stop … pointing fingers at each other and instead let us lock arms with one another, knowing we have so much more in common than what separates us,” she said.
When a protestor began shouting, Harris spoke about bringing people with opposing views into her tent.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at the table, and I pledge to be a president for all Americans and to always put Americans before myself,” she said.
Harris also gave a shoutout to Gen-Z supporters.
“I see the promise of America in all the young leaders who are voting for the first time,” she said.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Cheyenne Haslett, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow
Trump campaign sues Pennsylvania county
The Trump campaign sued Pennsylvania’s Bucks County Board of Elections and others Tuesday night over claims the county “turned away voters,” according to a filing in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas.
The campaign filed a writ of summons, which contained no allegations or specific claims.
A spokesperson for Bucks County told ABC News in a statement Tuesday evening that the county “has been made aware that litigation may be filed tomorrow. We have no comment at this time.”
Lawyers for the county entered an appearance on Wednesday, according to the docket.
The county was previously accused of “suppressive and intimidating” tactics, including claiming voters were turned away and lines were closed early.
However, the county pushed back on any suggestion that what occurred in Bucks County amounts to intentional voter suppression.
“Contrary to what is being depicted on social media, if you are in line by 5 p.m. for an on-demand mail-in ballot application, you will have the opportunity to submit your application for a mail-in ballot,” the county said in a statement.
The county did acknowledge that there was indeed some “miscommunication” from officials on site.
Those in line applying for on-demand ballots were “briefly told they could not be accommodated,” the county said, but added that those individuals were ultimately allowed to submit their applications, according to officials.
In a post on X, the secretary of state’s office echoed that sentiment, asking for voters to “be patient.”
“Earlier today, we spoke with Bucks County election officials who assured us that every registered voter who goes to their county election office by 5 p.m. today will be provided an opportunity to apply for their mail ballot,” the post said. “Please be patient with all county election office staff as they work hard to ensure every registered voter is able to vote in this election,” he said.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
Supreme Court allows Virginia to purge 1,600 voters
The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing Virginia to move forward with its purge of 1,600 alleged noncitizens from the voter rolls ahead of Election Day.
The conservative majority’s decision — which was not explained — reverses rulings by a federal district court judge and a unanimous appeals court panel.
Both had said that Virginia’s purge, initiated by an executive order from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, violated federal law prohibiting the “systematic” removal of voters from registration lists within 90-days of an election.
The Supreme Court’s decision suggests that the justices acted either under the Purcell principle — to keep federal courts from intervening in state election administration too close to voting — or under the belief that Virginia had compellingly argued that the federal law’s “quiet period” didn’t apply here.
The state advanced the idea that noncitizens — who were never “eligible” to vote in the first place — can be removed at any time. It also emphasized in court briefs that anyone erroneously removed as an alleged noncitizen is given two opportunities to correct his or her registration status.
The three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — indicated they would have kept the purge on hold.
Noncitizen voters are already prohibited from registering to vote for federal and state elections.
The Virginia voters who were purged, however, can still have a chance to vote if they use Virginia’s same-day registration option at the polls.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares tweeted on Wednesday “I am pleased to announce that the US Supreme Court granted Virginia’s emergency stay to keep noncitizens off our voter rolls.”
Damon Hewitt, the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law which led the efforts in Virginia, blasted the decision.
“None of this activity is random. It’s all highly orchestrated, but it’s also orchestrated with a purpose,” he said in a statement,
-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer and Beatrice Peterson
Arnold Schwarzenegger, former GOP governor, endorses Harris
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Wednesday that he was going to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The Terminator” actor and longtime Republican said in lengthy X post that he didn’t like either party now given the divisions and lack of progress from leaders in Washington, D.C.
However, Schwarzenegger said he was “furious” over Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election, anti-immigrant rhetoric, economic policies and actions on Jan. 6.
“We need to close the door on this chapter of American history, and I know that former President Trump won’t do that. He will divide, he will insult, he will find new ways to be more un-American than he already has been, and we, the people, will get nothing but more anger,” he said.
“That’s enough reason for me to share my vote with all of you. I want to move forward as a country, and even though I have plenty of disagreements with their platform, I think the only way to do that is with Harris and Walz,” he said.
Will Nikki Haley campaign for Trump?
Nikki Haley recently said she is ready to campaign for Trump, despite not talking to him since June.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, when asked about whether Haley will make an appearance, said Tuesday he would “love” to see her on the trail, but said it was up to her schedule.
Haley was Trump’s last major challenger in the Republican primary. Despite hitting him hard in the final weeks of her campaign, she later endorsed him at the Republican National Convention.
And she’s continued some criticism of his campaign strategy. During an appearance on Fox News, she said the racist remark about Puerto Rico by a comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally was “harmful” and that the campaign “need[s] to go and tell Puerto Ricans how much, you know, they do value them.”
She also said the Trump team had to improve its messaging to women.
“I mean, that this bromance and this masculinity stuff,” she said. “I mean, it borders on edgy to the point that it’s going to make women uncomfortable. You know, you’ve got affiliated PACs that are doing commercials about calling Kamala the ‘C-word,’ or you had speakers at Madison Square Garden, you know, referring to her and her pimps.”
“That is not the way to win women. That is not the way to win people who are concerned about Trump style,” Haley added.
Harris responds to Biden’s ‘garbage’ comments
On the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews about to depart for a day of campaigning, Harris was asked about President Joe Biden’s “garbage” comment seeming to refer to Trump supporters. The White House and Biden have said he was specifically referring to the racist remarks made by some speakers at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.
“Listen I think that first of all, he clarified his comments,” Harris said. “But let me be clear, I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
“You heard my speech last night and continuously throughout my career, I believe that the work that I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not,” she said. “And as president of the United States, I will be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not.”
Trump escalates baseless rhetoric on Pennsylvania’s election system
It’s a state that could tip the result of the 2024 election.
And Trump is ramping up rhetoric sowing doubt on the state’s voting process.
In a post on his social media site on Wednesday morning, Trump claimed there’s “cheating” happening at “large scale levels.” He did not elaborate or provide evidence for his claims.
Some isolated incidents have emerged, including approximately 2,500 potentially fraudulent voter registration applications being investigated in Lancaster County, though officials stressed the system worked and that voters can be confident in the election.
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim and Olivia Rubin
Harris hits the road with her closing pitch
Harris will take her closing argument to voters on the road after a big speech at the Ellipse in Washington on Tuesday night. She holds a 12:30 p.m. ET rally in North Carolina, a 4:35 ET event in Pennsylvania and a 9:30 p.m. ET rally in Wisconsin.
Trump will also be in North Carolina for a 1 p.m. ET rally before a 7 p.m. ET rally in Wisconsin.
Looming large over the campaign trail are President Joe Biden’s comments from a Vote Latino campaign call Tuesday night. His wording angered Republicans, who saw him as referring to the supporters of Trump as “garbage.” The White House and Biden himself, seeking to clarify the remark, argued he was referring to the racist rhetoric made by a speaker at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.
