Donald Trump stands on stage with former first lady Melania Trump, as Lara Trump watches, at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, on November 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
| Photo Credit: AP

“Freedom! Freedom! I can’t move…Freedom, cut me loose!” by Beyonce was the anthem that charged up supporters of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris at rallies where she sought to define her candidacy as a fight, primarily, for gender rights. Her opponent Donald Trump, who emerged as winner on Tuesday, also promised freedom. “We will be free again.,” he would tell his supporters, terming the U.S. an “occupied country”, promising to “rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered”, by undocumented immigrants.

Freedom and liberty are the most used words in American political campaigns for centuries — and they can be carriers of many meanings. In 2024, Mr. Trump’s ideas of freedom had more resonance and this went beyond the allegory of America as an invaded country. Mr. Trump and his surrogates successfully created a narrative of ‘liberation’ from the ideological and information ecosystem patronised by the Democratic Party that dominates the country’s popular culture and political views.

Donald Trump becomes 47th U.S. President: Follow LIVE coverage

TV anchor-turned-Trump supporter Tucker Carlson told one of the campaign rallies: “He’s liberated us in the deepest and truest sense, and the liberation he has brought to us is the liberation from the obligation to tell lies… Donald Trump has made it possible for the rest of us to tell the truth about the world around us.” He went on to question Democratic views on transgender rights, global wars, Ukraine and Russia, trade deals and immigration, terming them all ‘lies’. Another key Trump ally, Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign appearances addressed young voters specifically: ‘My message to Gen Z: you want to be countercultural today? Get married. Have children. Defend free speech. Pledge allegiance to your nation. Show up on your campus and call yourself a conservative… or whatever you actually are. Give it a try, I bet it’ll be pretty liberating.”

Democrats have a strong grip over the U.S. mainstream media. As per a 2022 ABC News/Washington Post poll, in 2022, 36% of U.S. journalists identified themselves as Democrats when the proportion for the general population was 27%. This was the highest proportion of Democrats in the media in the last half a century. The proportion of Republican journalists shrunk, meanwhile — between 2002 and 2022, from 18% to 3%. The portrayal of Mr. Trump as a liar, and his politics as ‘post-truth’ became the mainstream wisdom of American discourse.

Transgender politics appears to have damaged the Democrats significantly. Mr. Trump and his surrogates made coming out possible for a large number of transgender sceptics who chose silence over social ostracisation. On Wednesday —Joe Scarborough, a strident critic of Mr. Trump and morning host on left-leaning MSNBC, cited the Democratic transgender agenda as a key reason for the party losing a lot of its traditional voters. Mr. Trump’s campaign ads in the concluding days put the spotlight on this question. “Kamala is for they/them,” one widely circulated ad said. “Trump is for you.”

All of Mr. Trump’s speeches and ads referred to an undefined “they/them” as those who were against the nation and people, and the concept was tied to transgender politics in these ads. Democrats realised gender and immigration issues were eroding their own votes, and Ms. Harris sought a course correction, but it did not help as it turned out.

Burden of Biden

Democratic strategy for the past 10 years has been centred on Mr. Trump’s personality. It began as a good enough reason to unite various factions within the party, and its diverse social constituents. In 2020, this approach worked well, as all other primary contenders quickly fell in line behind Mr. Biden. In 2024, the party elite tried a repeat of that by fielding Ms. Harris even without a primary and replacing the ageing incumbent.

Mr. Trump who was training his guns at Mr. Biden quickly changed tack — he turned soft on the sitting President, and focussed his ire entirely on Ms. Harris. Mr. Trump even suggested he might pardon Hunter Biden — the President’s son — who is facing investigations. Half in jest, Mr. Trump repeatedly said Mr. Biden wants him to win the election. The attack line against Ms. Harris that she is a radical progressive stuck. The more she tried to define herself, the more she fell into talking about Mr. Trump and the dangers posed by his term in office. As it turned out, she inherited all the deficiencies of Mr. Biden and none of his advantages.

New Delhi:

As US election counting trends pointed to a clear win for Republicans, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Donald Trump on his comeback as President. Describing Trump as “my friend”, the Prime Minister said in a post on X, “Heartiest congratulations my friend @realDonaldTrump on your historic election victory.”

“As you build on the successes of your previous term, I look forward to renewing our collaboration to further strengthen the India-US Comprehensive Global and Strategic Partnership. Together, let’s work for the betterment of our people and to promote global peace, stability and prosperity,” he added.

Heartiest congratulations my friend @realDonaldTrump on your historic election victory. As you build on the successes of your previous term, I look forward to renewing our collaboration to further strengthen the India-US Comprehensive Global and Strategic Partnership. Together,… pic.twitter.com/u5hKPeJ3SY

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 6, 2024

Donald Trump is on the brink of a massive victory in what was predicted to be a close election. The Republicans managed to swing all seven battleground states to their advantage — a stunning feat considering the Democrats won them 6-1 in the 2020 election.

Addressing his supporters as the poll projections pointed to his victory, Trump said it was a “magnificent victory for the American people”. He also referred to the July 13 assassination attempt and said “God spared my life for a reason”.

Describing the Republican campaign as the “greatest political movement of all time”, Trump said, “We are going to help our country heal, fix our borders, we made history for a reason tonight. We have achieved the most incredible political win. I want to thank the American people. I will fight for you and your family with every breath in my body.”

Trump said the Democrats are now looking at a massive electoral votes score of 315.

What makes the Republican victory bigger is the fact that they have also taken control of the Senate and are leading in the election for the House of Representatives.

In his victory speech, Trump thanked his supporters, running mate JD Vance, wife Melanie Trump and his children for their support in what has been a challenging campaign. He also gave a shoutout to Tesla CEO and X boss Elon Musk, who has been voicing support for Trump.

New Delhi:

Two hours into the US election counting, Republican candidate Donald Trump and his Democrat opponent Kamala Harris are leading in three and two swing states, respectively. While Harris leads in Pennsylvania and Michigan, Trump is ahead in Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina. Leads are not yet in for the swing states of Nevada and Arizona.

Also known as battleground states, swing states hold the key to victory in the US election. These states have a nearly equal level of support for both the Democrats and Republicans, and the election is won and lost in these states. This year, the swing states are Pennsylvania, with 19 electoral college votes, Michigan (10), Georgia (16), Wisconsin (10), North Carolina (16), Nevada (6) and Arizona (11).

Both the former President and the incumbent vice-president are pushing for the magic figure of 270 electoral college votes that will pave they way to the Oval Office in the White House. According to the current trends, Trump is leading with 177 votes, while Harris is at 99.

According to exit polls, the state of democracy, economy and abortion were the key issues on voters’ minds when they headed to poll booths. A CBS News poll revealed that almost six in 10 people ranked the state of democracy as their number one issue, followed by abortion, which was picked by five per cent of voters as an important issue. The economy was a priority issue for one in ten.

A CNN exit poll said nearly three-quarters of the electorate holds a negative view of the way things are in the US today.

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Warren, Michigan.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Economic insecurity and cultural anxieties triggering white nativism is the familiar explanation for the sustained popularity of Donald Trump in the United States, but that may not be the whole story. Segments of Hindu and Muslim immigrants in the key swing State of Michigan also support the Republican for the same reasons, as they begin to view the Democratic Party’s cultural agenda disorienting and its soft border policy threatening their interests.

Kamal Rahman, who was mayoral candidate in Hamtramck, a city in the outskirts of Detroit which has an all-Muslim council, had voted for Joe Biden in 2020, and always for Democrats earlier but this time he is rooting for Mr. Trump. “Trump is better for all immigrants, Hindu or Muslim, in America and for all Muslims around the world,” Mr. Rahman, who migrated from Bangladesh told The Hindu on Friday evening, even as Mr. Trump campaigned for Muslim votes in the city. “American attacks killed more Muslims when Barack Obama was President than when Trump was. Trump did not start new wars when he was in office and he has promised he will stop ongoing wars,” Mr. Rahman said, blaming the “collapse of leadership under the Biden-Harris” administration for the plight of Palestinians. The multi-front war in West Asia is one major reason for Muslims – Arab and South Asian – to split from the Democrats this time.

Mr. Trump has sensed the opportunity in this tilt among minority voters in the State he won in 2016 and lost in 2020. Amer Ghalib, the Yemeni American mayor of Hamtramck, and now a political ally of Mr Rahman, has endorsed Mr. Trump and so has Bill Bazzi, the first Muslim and Arab American mayor of Dearborn Heights, another nearby city. Mr. Trump was in Dearborn, called the Arab capital of America, on Friday. “We have a great feeling for Lebanon, and I know so many people from Lebanon, the Lebanese people,” Mr. Trump said. “The Muslim population, they’re liking Trump, and I’ve had a good relationship with them. ..we want their votes, and we’re looking for their votes, and I think we’ll get their votes.” Earlier in the week, Mr. Trump had specifically addressed the Hindu community on Deepavali, promising to protect their religious freedom.

Though three of the Muslim members of the Hamtramck city council are supporting Ms. Harris, Mr. Rahman and Mr. Ghalib are united in their preference for Mr. Trump. “I will not run for mayor next time if Ghalib is contesting,” he said.

Mr. Rahman is also coordinating his community mobilisation with Sunny Reddy, a Telugu businessman who is running for the governing board of Wayne State University as a Republican. Top on Mr. Reddy’s agenda are, “fighting wokeness” and ensuring that affirmative action barred by the US Supreme Court in 2023 does not make a “backdoor return.” Mr. Rahman concurs. “Children of immigrants are denied college admission when race considerations kick in. People from all Asian countries are clubbed together as one in such policies, and even after the SC barred it, there are moves to factor race and gender,” said Mr. Reddy, wowing to ensure that the court order prevails. Both of them – the Republican and the Democrat- are in agreement that Democrats are diverting the resources of the Citizenship and Immigration Services are diverted to process applications of undocumented entrants into the country. “Let’s be very clear on this one – illegal immigration is most harmful for legal immigrants, present and future,” said Mr. Reddy.

Ashok Baddi, trustee of a local temple who identifies himself as a Hindu activist is a Democrat but on Saturday morning, he was mobilising several Indian families to vote for Mr. Trump. “We will have at least 100 people voting in a group today,” he said, quickly adding that barring for President, his other votes will all be for Democrat candidates, including a Muslim. “Trump and Modi-ji work well, and his presidency will be good for bilateral relations,” Mr. Baddi said. Mr. Baddi feels at least half of Hindus in Detroit region would be voting Mr. Trump, Mr. Ramhan puts the proportion of Trump supporters among Muslims at 20 percent. “Most supporters of Trump prefer to remain silent.”

Conflicts over gender debates and school administration in the recent past, in Detroit and surrounding cities of Hamtramck and Dearborn Heights are also among the reasons for minorities relooking at their association with the Democratic Party. “It is one thing to say that everyone should have equal rights. But to indoctrinate children, and to even offer them transition therapy in schools, is unacceptable to immigrant communities,” Mr. Rahman said. Both Mr. Reddy and Mr. Rahman had no personal knowledge of any such incidents, but they view the Democrats as promoters of such an agenda nationwide. “But we have incidents of inappropriate books being placed in school libraries. The law does not even allow these children to choose between their father and mother in the event of a custody battle, until a certain age. How can we argue that let kids choose whatever they want?” said Mr. Reddy.

With the U.S. elections to be held on November 5, both the Democrats and the Republicans have amped up their respective campaigns. Considered one of the most significant elections in U.S. history, tensions are high as the nation battles a cost-of-living crisis while simultaneously arming and aiding two wars happening in different parts of the world.

One of the major issues on which voters are deciding their mandate is immigration policy. A study by the Pew Research Centre showed that about six-in-ten voters (61%) today say immigration is very important to their vote. It is of particular importance to Republican voters specifically, as 82% of Donald Trump supporters say it is a very important issue compared to 39% of Kamala Harris supporters who think the same.

A look at how immigration policy has evolved in the U.S. over the years.

U.S. Presidential elections 2024: Key dates and events to note

Foundation of the melting pot

Before U.S. independence in 1776, the country was a colony of the British Empire. The U.S. War of Independence was mainly against the regressive policies of King George the Third who restricted trade and free movement. Thus, the U.S. Declaration of Independence, signed and ratified on July 4, 1776, states that King George “has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands”.

Therefore, the ‘population of states’ and ‘migrations hither’ are the foundations of the U.S. and intrinsic to its development and economic progress.

Moreover, the image of the U.S. as a beacon of light for people of all origins with the desire to make their own fortunes or require a safe haven from persecution, chaos or poverty in their home countries, has been emphasised over and over again. The Statue of Liberty, situated in New York, symbolises this sentiment. In its Museum, it is inscribed, “Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/ The wretched refuse of your teeming shore”. These words gain added significance when one realises that it is through the port of New York that a lot of immigrants from the ‘Old World’ entered into the ‘New World’.

Also Read | U.S. President Biden offers massive immigration relief to non-citizens ahead of election

Anti-immigrant hysteria

Post U.S. independence, keeping true to the spirit of the Declaration, free movement across borders was encouraged. Migration of labour was a necessity as the U.S embarked upon its nation building project.

However, while borders were open, in order to be recognised as a U.S. citizen, a certain set of rules were established, the first of them codified through the Naturalization Act of 1790. This Act was limited to only free White Christian men. It excluded women, indentured servants, non‐​whites, and slaves. Thus, while migration was encouraged, the privilege of citizenship was often withheld from a majority of groups. Even Native Americans, the indigenous people of the land, were not given citizenship till the Treaty of the Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830.

The U.S. experienced its first wave of mass migration in the 1850s, with the crippling potato famine in Ireland and the advent of the gold rush in California. While the sudden influx of primarily Irish and German immigrants did give way to anti-immigrant and especially anti-Catholic sentiment in some parts of the U.S., (the most famous manifestation of this being the Know Nothings party formed exclusively around these xenophobic views), their fervour did not last long.

Parallelly, during the Gold Rush in the 1850s, a lot of Chinese immigrants also entered the nation. These workers, often poor and vulnerable, were taken advantage of by industrial bosses and made to work in unsafe conditions for meagre wages. They were considered cheap labour and found employment as farmhands, domestics, laundry workers, and most famously, railroad workers. It was the Chinese Americans who built the Transcontinental Railroad in the U.S., one of the biggest reasons for its growth as an economic superpower.

However, the fact that Chinese immigrant labour was preferred due to their willingness to work for cheap caused direct competition with white labourers. This led to rioting and protests by the white labour class and trade unions who said the Chinese immigrants were taking their jobs. To quell the riots, the U.S. government in 1882, for the first time, brought in an immigration policy specifying a particular nationality — the Chinese Exclusion Act. It mandated a ban on Chinese immigration for 10 years. 

Post the 1870s, after the U.S. Civil War, the country witnessed yet another wave of migrants attracted by the rapid industrialisation. These migrants were mostly from the poorer countries of southern and eastern Europe such as Italy, Poland and Slovenia. As labour competition increased, native-born Americans were worried about the rising poverty and lack of education within these groups. These migrants were seen as reluctant to ‘assimilate into American society’.

Thus, competition in the labour market with Chinese and European immigrants, and fears of cultural isolation led to the U.S. Congress passing the Immigration Act of 1924. The Act introduced a quota system where visas were granted for 2% of the total number of people of each nationality in the U.S. as per the 1890 census. It introduced literary tests for incoming immigrants and increased the taxes collected from them upon arrival. The Act also banned immigration from Asia.

The period after the quota act severely restricted migration to the U.S. It was finally in the 1960s, with the advent of the Civil Rights movement, that the quota system for immigration was finally abolished with the Immigration and Nationality Act, 1965. It took out the nationality clause and opened the doors again for Asian immigration. Post 1965, immigration to the U.S. increased, particularly from Latin American and Asian nations. It also increased the number of illegal immigrants.

Also Read | Hanging on to the American Dream

The 9/11 effect

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda carried out four coordinated terrorist attacks on U.S. soil which killed 2,977 people. Subsequent investigations following the attack found that most of the 9/11 hijackers were able to obtain a visa from a U.S. consulate without detection. Moreover, some were in the country at the time of the attack with expired visas. This presented the U.S. government with the task of addressing both failures in intelligence and gaps in domestic immigration law. 

After the attack, U.S. Congress made significant changes to immigration law and policy. In 2002, the Congress passed the Homeland Security Act, which created the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by absorbing the Immigration and Naturalization Service as well as Customs. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was then formed under the DHS. It is the ICE that now primarily deals with border control and security vulnerabilities in immigration. 

Here we see both policy and perspective shift on immigration and more specifically illegal immigration. What was earlier a matter of economics, as illegal migrants were seen as burdening the State exchequer, had now entered the realm of national security. 

Such a conflation of one’s undocumented status with being a threat to domestic security can be understood by the remarks of former Attorney General John Ashcroft at a conference after the attacks, “Let the terrorists among us be warned: If you overstay your visa — even by one day — we will arrest you…. We will use all our weapons within the law and under the Constitution to protect life and enhance security for America.”

The 9/11 attacks can be seen as the beginning of the current hysteria around immigration to the U.S. Images in the media of ‘hoards’ or ‘swathes’ of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexican border often categorise them as criminals and within other undesirable categories. This is followed by claims of immigrants ‘stealing jobs’, ‘refusing to assimilate’, ‘free-loaders’ and so on; claims that we now know are not in any novel accusations.

The U.S. as a nation has become an economic superpower because of its immigration policy. Be it from William Colgate to the Chinese immigrants who built the Transcontinental Railways to Elon Musk, immigrants have made their mark in various fields and speeded up the process of industrialisation in the U.S.

It would be prudent for the U.S. to regulate immigration with policies which encourage safe travel and offer a path to citizenship.

Former President Donald Trump smiles with supporters on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, during a roundtable event at the Drexelbrook Event Center in Drexel Hill, Pa.
| Photo Credit: AP

Republican Donald Trump went into damage control mode and tried to win over the Latino community on Tuesday after insulting comments about them by a speaker at a signature event of his campaign in New York on Sunday snowballed into a controversy. “Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania, a critical swing State that he won narrowly in 2016 and lost narrowly in 2020. A speaker at the Trump rally had termed the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.”

A majority of the population of the town in eastern Pennsylvania, — 150 km to the east of New York City — of 1.25 lakh are Latino or Hispanic. In 2020, President Joe Biden won Pennsylvania by 81,000 votes, and in 2016, Mr. Trump won it by 44,292 votes of the total 61.7 lakh votes polled. In both the elections, Mr. Trump lost the Lehigh County where Allentown falls — in 2020, by 14,000 votes. Polls indicate a very narrow lead for his rival, Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024 in Pennsylvania. More than 50 million people across the U.S. have already voted through early voting mechanisms and both parties are urging their supporters to come out and vote. “Vote, vote, vote,” Mr. Trump exhorted his supporters, and alleged the Democrats were trying to manipulate voting. While he reiterated all the issues that define his politics — promise of mass deportation of illegal immigrants, a Trump tariff to protect American manufacturing and avoiding global wars — the focus of the speech was on Latino voters.

Mr. Trump had Latino Senator from Florida Marco Rubio join him on stage as both tried to turn the tables on the Democrats on the ‘garbage’ barb. Mr. Biden, during a call to mobilise Latino voters simultaneous with the rally, said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters….His, his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American.”

Mr. Rubio, who was invited to the stage by Mr. Trump, shared with the audience Mr. Biden’s comment. Mr. Trump was quick to draw parallels between Mr. Biden’s comment and his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton’s reference to his supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”

“Garbage, I think, is worse,” Mr. Trump said, before quickly turning it into a question of Mr. Biden’s mental state and internal rivalry among the Democrats. “But he doesn’t know. You have to please forgive him..” Mr. Trump said. “Please forgive him for not knowing what he said…honestly, he doesn’t.”

Mr. Trump also sought to suggest a wedge between Mr. Biden who was replaced as the Democrat nominee after campaigning began. “And I am convinced that he likes me more than he likes Kamala. But that’s a terrible thing.”

Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory in the Caribbean, about 1,000 miles southeast of Florida. Residents of the island cannot vote in the U.S. federal election, but those who have moved to the mainland can. Around 60 lakh people of Puerto Rico origin live in the U.S, and in Pennsylvania they are a consequential voting bloc.

Democrats and their allies had latched on to the garbage remark at the Trump rally, and Latino leaders from both parties condemned it. The Trump campaign distanced itself from the speaker, and clarified that the remarks did not reflect the opinion of the candidate. After Mr. Biden’s remarks drew flak, the White House clarified that he was referring to the one Trump supporter who was speaking, and his comments. As campaigning peaks, both sides have found in garbage, a potential keyword that both hope to turn in their favour.

Ahead of the U.S. presidential elections, which is slated to take place on November 5, 2024, the recent assassination attempt on former U.S. President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump brought back the memories of past assassination attempts on US political leaders. Mr. Trump is not the first former president to survive an assassination attempt, and the events of the last few months find echoes in American history.

Mentioned below are political history of other leaders, which is peppered with incidents of assassination attempts on presidents or candidates.

Donald Trump

The latest assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump in September is something which is not new to him as he was targeted in July as well this year. Reportedly, on September 15, 2024, Mr. Trump was the target of “what appears to be an attempted assassination” at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, the FBI said. The incident was the latest jarring moment in a campaign year marked by unprecedented upheaval. Nine weeks prior, the Republican presidential nominee survived another attempt on his life on July 13 when he was shot during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and a bullet grazed his ear. The accused, Ryan Routh, involved in the September assassination bid, was apprehended, and another accused Thomas Crooks, who shot Trump in his ear at a rally in 2024, was killed by the Secret Service. July 13 was not the first time that the 78-year-old‘s life was under threat. Similar attempts have been made as far back as in 2016 when he ran for President for the first time. 

Ronald Reagan

The then President of United States Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded on March 30, 1981 by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as he was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton. It was by the quick actions of his lead Secret Service agent and hospital personnel that his life was saved. Reagan’s courage over those tense hours further when he was shot cemented his relationship — and political standing —with the people of America and also changed the way he approached the job over the next eight years.

Gerald Ford

In September 1975, former U.S. President Gerard Ford faced two assassination attempts in one month. The attempts were made within just 17 days — both occurring in California and carried out by women. The first happened on September 5, 1975, and the assassin, Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme, was tried and convicted. The second assassination attempt on September 22, 1975, took place when he was out in California again, this time to speak at an annual convention at the AFL-CIO. The assassin was identified as Sara Jane Moore. Meanwhile, following both attempts, a bulletproof trench coat was given to Ford the following month, in October 1975.

Robert F. Kennedy

The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy was one of four major assassinations of the 1960s in the United States, which came several years after the assassination of Kennedy’s brother John in 1963 and the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, and two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Robert Francis Kennedy was 42 when he was shot down in Los Angeles on 5 June 1968. A United States senator and candidate in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Kennedy won the California and South Dakota primaries on June 4, and he addressed his campaign supporters after leaving the podium and exiting through a kitchen hallway; he was mortally wounded by multiple shots fired by Sirhan following which he died 25 hours later.

John F. Kennedy

On November 22, 1963. John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting. He was fatally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine. Oswald never stood murder trial, because, while being transferred after having been taken into custody, he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a distraught Dallas nightclub owner.

Theodore Roosevelt

On October 14, 1912, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was shot just before he was scheduled to go onstage at a campaign event. Roosevelt, who survived an assassination attempt by John Schrank, went ahead to give his speech anyway with a bullet in his chest. The incident stands as one of the most sensational yet largely forgotten events in American political history. He stoically went on to deliver an 84-minute campaign speech that night with the round from a .38 revolver lodged inside the cavity of his chest.

William McKinley

William McKinley, was the 25th president of the United States. He died on September 14, 1901, of complications from bullet wounds inflicted by Leon Czolgosz. Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot the President during one of his public appearances when he was shaking hands with the public and was shot twice in the abdomen. He was the third American president to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881.

James Garfield

James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, was shot at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. on July 2, 1881. He died in Elberon, New Jersey, two and a half months later on September 19, 1881. The shooting occurred less than four months into his term as president. Charles J. Guiteau was convicted of Garfield’s murder and executed by hanging one year after the shooting.

Abraham Lincoln

The 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head, Lincoln died the next morning. Lincoln’s death plunged much of the country into despair, and the search for Booth and his accomplices was the largest manhunt in American history to that date.

Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama gesture as they attend a campaign event for Harris at Wings Event Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

In an emotional speech in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday evening, former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama called on men, undecided voters and those planning to sit up the election to vote for Vice President and Democratic candidate for the White House, Kamala Harris, warning them about the stark consequences of voting for her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.

Ms. Obama addressed a packed stadium prior to Ms. Harris’s speech at the Wings Event Centre in the city of just over 70,000 residents in the crucial midwestern battleground state.

Specifically addressing men, the former first lady described in vivid detail the consequences of tightening restrictions on reproductive rights, as she warned men that there would be a general decline in women’s reproductive health, causing a range of consequences, from women bleeding to death during childbirth to their mothers and sisters being affected by undetected cervical cancer.

Mr. Trump had boasted that, through his appointment of three Supreme Court justices, he was responsible for overturning Roe versus Wade, which broadly protected a woman’s right to an abortion. Following the overturning of this legal precedent by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, a number of States have enacted or attempted to enact or have contemplated laws tightening access to not just abortions but in vitro fertilization (IVF) and contraceptives. Doctors and those helping a woman obtain an abortion could face criminal liability and jail time.

“This will not just affect women; it will affect you and your sons,” said Ms. Obama, directly addressing male voters.

“And look, I don’t expect any man to fully grasp how vulnerable this makes us feel or to understand the complexities of our reproductive health experiences. In all honesty, most of us as women don’t fully understand the breadth and depth of our own reproductive lives,” she added. Ms. Obama attributed this knowledge gap to a lack of research funding for women’s health.

“Because a vote for him is a vote against us. Against our health, against our worth.” she said, tearing up.

Ms. Obama said she wondered how the race could be so close, arguing that Ms. Harris was ready for the moment.

The former First Lady also wondered aloud why Ms. Harris was being held to a different standard from Mr. Trump. She pointed out that former Vice President Mike Pence and other former allies and Cabinet Ministers of Mr. Trump, including four-star generals, were not supporting Mr. Trump’s 2024 candidacy. Ms. Obama reminded the crowd that the former Joint Chiefs of Staff (Mark Milley) had described Mr. Trump as being “fascist to the core”.

 Ms. Obama asked why the public was “choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle at every turn”.

“I hope that you will forgive me if I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to his erratic behaviour, his obvious mental decline, and his history as a convicted felon. A known slum lord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse … all of this while we pick apart Kamala answers from interviews that he doesn’t even have the courage to do you all,” Ms. Obama said.

The former First Lady reminded women who lived in households where the men did not listen to or value their opinions that their vote was a private matter. “You get to choose,” she said.

Michigan is part of the ‘Blue Wall’. These are states that Democrats have traditionally won. Mr. Trump won Michigan along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in 2016, helping him win the White House. U.S. President Joe Biden won all three states in 2020.

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks during a presidential debate hosted by ABC as Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Donald Trump ruled out a second U.S. Presidential debate with rival Kamala Harris on Wednesday (October 9, 2024), hours after Fox News offered to host a candidate showdown later this month before election day on November 5.

The Republican ex-president and Democratic Vice President, locked in an excruciatingly close White House battle, have faced off just once, in September. Despite suggestions by multiple news outlets, it appears they will not meet again before the vote.

“It is very late in the process, (early) voting has already begun — there will be no rematch!” Trump said in an all-caps post on his Truth Social media platform, nixing the possibility of a follow-up to the candidates’ first debate in Philadelphia.

“Kamala stated clearly, yesterday, that she would not do anything different than Joe Biden, so there is nothing to debate,” Trump added.

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Ms. Harris had previously challenged Trump to a debate hosted by CNN on October 23, but the former President declined.

Trump also said that Ms. Harris, who became the Democratic nominee after President Biden ended his re-election bid following his disastrous debate with Trump, had backed out of a previous debate offered by Fox, although the Harris campaign had not publicly accepted the proposal.

The candidates did agree to debate on ABC News on September 10, and the Vice Presidential running mates — Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz — squared off on October 1.

But while Trump said he had agreed to participate in a September 4 debate on Fox, as well as one on September 25 on NBC News, Ms. Harris never did.

The Vice President, after positive reviews that she had bested Trump in their encounter, had expressed interest in doing a second debate, but the plans never came to fruition.

Fox for its part sent letters Wednesday to the two campaigns offering “one final pitch for a debate” between Ms. Harris and Trump, either on October 24 or October 27.

“This would present an opportunity for each candidate to make his or her closing arguments,” wrote Jay Wallace, President of Fox News Media.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump.
| Photo Credit: AP

Former president Donald Trump spent more than an hour ahead of Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate campaigning in a Democratic county that is crucial to Kamala Harris ‘ hopes for winning the key battleground state of Wisconsin.

Republican Trump appeared at a manufacturing facility in Waunakee, a suburb of Wisconsin’s capital city of Madison in the Democratic stronghold of Dane County. Trump had never campaigned in Dane County nor visited as president.

In an event advertised as economic-themed, Trump bounced from subject to subject, also taking on Democratic nominee Harris on issues, including foreign policy, crime and immigration, while intermittently pivoting to criticism of outgoing President Joe Biden.

“I’m asking every citizen to join me in launching sort of a new golden age for America,” Trump told hundreds inside Dane Manufacturing, a metal fabricator that has a long history of hosting Republican candidates and officeholders.

Trump also could not pass up a jab at former president Jimmy Carter on the Georgia Democrat’s 100th birthday.

With hollow praise, Trump declared the one-term Carter “the happiest man” because he “is considered a brilliant president” compared to Biden. Trump did not note Carter’s birthday, nor his status as the longest-living former president.

Later on Tuesday, Trump was to hold an event at a museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city and home to the state’s largest number of Democratic voters and second-largest number of Republicans. His appearance there was also meant to give him reach into the city’s conservative suburbs, a part of Wisconsin where his support has softened but where he must do well to win.

In Milwaukee, Trump was slated to speak in a small auditorium at a science museum along Lake Michigan’s lakefront. His event was not open to the public and his audience was to consist only of news media.

Last Saturday, he held a rally in western Wisconsin where he blamed Harris for crimes committed by people in the country illegally.

Both of his planned stops were ahead of Tuesday’s debate in New York between Trump’s running mate JD Vance, a senator from Ohio, and Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota.

Dane County, the location of Trump’s first stop, is Wisconsin’s fastest-growing county and an economic engine for the state, fueled by jobs in the health care and tech industries. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin.

Dane County’s population grew by about 30,000 people between 2016 and 2020. It has gone up by another 13,000 since then, based on the most recent US Census Bureau estimate.

That presents a challenge for Republicans, especially given that nearly 90 per cent of registered voters in the county cast ballots in 2020. Biden won 75 per cent of the vote that year in Dane County, beating Trump by 181,000 votes in the county while carrying the state by fewer than 21,000. Hillary Clinton beat Trump in Dane County in 2016 by 47 points, and Trump won the state by less than a point.

It’s a point former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson said he made to Trump. In remarks to the crowd before Trump arrived, Thompson said the former president should “go where the opposition is”.

“And, the retort was, ‘Isn’t Madison very liberal?'” Thompson said. “Yes, but Dane County has the third most Republican votes in the state of Wisconsin and all we have to do is increase them.” Democratic presidential candidates have long come to Dane County to hold massive rallies to fire up the base. Harris campaigned there on September 20, holding a rally in Madison that attracted more than 10,000 people.

Waunakee, which bills itself as the “only Waunakee in the world”, is slightly more Republican than the county as a whole. In 2020, Trump got 36 per cent of the vote there compared to less than 23 per cent countywide.

In Milwaukee, Trump was to speak at Discovery World, a science and technology museum along the shores of Lake Michigan.