Kamala Harris at Wisconsin rally: ‘Women have died because of Trump’s abortion bans’ – as it happened

We’re closing this blog. Thanks for tagging along! See all our coverage of the 2024 US elections.

Here’s a look back at the day’s political news:

• Kamala Harris delivered her speech at a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin, where she highlighted the case of Amber Thurman, who died in Georgia due to a strict abortion ban.

• In Madison, Kamala Harris restated her plan to give a tax cut to 100 million Americans and expand the child tax credit. This measure aims “to help young and new parents buy a car seat, a crib, baby clothes in that most significant phase of their development”.

• Mark Robinson, the lieutenant governor of North Carolina, will not attend Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday after CNN reported on his troubling online posts.

• Harris took the stage in Atlanta earlier today, where she also decried the state’s abortion ban. She condemned Donald Trump in her speech, recounting how he appointed three of the justices who would go on to vote for Roe v Wade’s downfall.

• Georgia’s election board voted to require that ballots be counted by hand, a move that could complicate and slow down determining whether the swing state has voted for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in the November election.

• The Secret Service report looking into the 13 July assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump revealed that agents did not have the necessary discussions in advance regarding how the warehouse should be guarded, and about the positioning of a local team on the roof of the warehouse building.

• The House unanimously approved allowing a bipartisan taskforce investigating the July assassination attempt targeting Donald Trump in Pennsylvania to also scrutinize the apparent second attempt on his life on Sunday in Florida.

• North Carolina’s Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, was still in the race for governor on Friday morning after the deadline passed overnight for him to withdraw or be removed from the ballot. He is facing increasing pressure to step down after CNN reported he attacked Martin Luther King Jr, backed the reinstatement of slavery and referred to himself as a “black Nazi” in comments on a pornographic website.

• Donald Trump is due to visit North Carolina tomorrow. When asked about the CNN report by the Associated Press, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt did not mention Robinson by name or answer questions as to whether he would appear with Trump at tomorrow’s campaign rally in Wilmington, or had been invited to do so.

• Donald Trump bemoaned a lack of support from Jewish voters just hours after allegations emerged that a Republican ally had referred to himself as a “black Nazi” on a pornography website.

Harris wrapped up her speech in Madison by reminding crowd members that “the stakes are even higher” in this election.

“Wisconsin, it all comes down to this,” she said. “We are here together because we love our country. We love our country and we understand the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth.”

Kamala Harris then said Donald Trump poses a threat to women’s freedoms, specifically on abortion rights.

She reminded folks in Madison about the former president’s selection of three members of the supreme court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v Wade, which they did.

“Women are being denied care during miscarriages,” Harris said. “They didn’t want this. And we know that women have died because of Trump’s abortion bans.”

Harris told the story of Amber Nicole Thurman, a 28-year-old Georgia woman, who died after doctors hesitated to treat her following a complication from a medication abortion.

Earlier today, Harris also recounted Thurman’s story during a speech in Georgia.

Harris called her opponent Donald Trump “an unserious man”.

“The consequences of putting him back in the White House are extremely serious,” she said. “Just Google Project 2025,” she added, referring to the Heritage Foundation-led policy blueprint for the next Republican administration.

“It’s a detailed and dangerous blueprint for what he will do if he were elected president,” she said.

Project 2025 was written by a number of supporters as well as officials who previously served under the former president. The plan calls to defund childcare and overhaul the justice department to give the president and loyalists more power in decisions about who to investigate and prosecute.

Talking about the economy, Harris said she also intends to lower the cost of living.

“While our economy is doing well by many measures, prices for everyday necessities like groceries are still too high,” said the vice-president.

Harris restated her plan to give a tax cut to 100 million Americans and expand the child tax credit. This measure aims “to help young and new parents buy a car seat, a crib, baby clothes in that most significant phase of their development”.

Harris addressed a pressing concern for Americans: affordable housing, particularly problematic in her home state of California.

“We have a shortage of housing in America,” she said. “With my plan, we are going to cut red tape and work with the private sector to build 3 million new homes by the end of my first term.”

She pointed to her plan to provide first-time homebuyers with $25,000 in down payment assistance so “they can just get their foot in the door.”

Harris pointed to her professional background as a prosecutor in Oakland, California.

“I stood up for women and children against predators who abused them,” Harris said. “I took on the big banks and delivered $20bn for middle-class families who faced foreclosure because of predatory lending practices.

“I stood up for veterans and students who were being scammed by the big for-profit colleges, and for workers who are being cheated out of the wages they were due, and for seniors facing elder abuse.”

The vice-president then addressed concerns for small business owners.

She addressed last week’s debate against Donald Trump, an event filled with falsehood-ridden tangents about crowd sizes, abortion access and immigration policy.

It was the same old tired show, the same old tired playbook we’ve heard for years with no plan on how he would address the needs of the American people

“Folks, it’s time to turn the page, and America is ready to start a new way forward,” Harris said during her speech in Madison, Wisconsin.

“Let’s not pay too much attention to the polls, because let’s be clear, we are the underdog in this race,” Harris said.

She pointed to her parents’ teaching stint at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

“So every time I land, the governor says: “Welcome home,” she said.

Kamala Harris has started her speech at a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin.

The last time the vice-president held a rally in Wisconsin was last month at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, with her running mate Tim Walz tagging along.

Aaron Sorkin, the creator of The West Wing, took the stage at the White House to celebrate the TV show’s 25th anniversary and called Joe Biden’s decision to give up the nomination “a selfless act of statesmanship”.

“Over the years, I’ve noticed that during times of political tension, pundits will warn us not to expect a West Wing moment,” Sorkin said. “They mean not to expect a selfless act of statesmanship, not to expect anyone to put country first. Don’t expect anyone to swing for the fences or reach for the stars.

“But the fact is, West Wing moments do happen, and Dr Biden, we saw proof of that on the morning of July 21. That was the kind of thing we write stories about.”