On Politics

Thu Oct 31 2024

Rebecca Morin | Senior National News Reporter

@RebeccaMorin_

Happy Halloween! It's Rebecca Morin, senior national news reporter at USA TODAY. A big happy birthday to my brother, Joseph! (Do we think he'll see this?)

We're five days until Election Day. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are in the final push. Both candidates have stops in Nevada. Trump will also stop in New Mexico, and Harris will rally with voters in Arizona. Follow along for updates here.

Trump pounces on Biden's 'garbage' comment. But he's used the same word for opponents

On Wednesday evening, Donald Trump rolled up to his event in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in the front seat of a garbage truck decorated with his campaign's logo and an American flag. The former president made "garbage" a central theme of his campaign yesterday – a response to Joe Biden's gaffe where he appeared to refer to former Trump's supporters as "garbage." Biden clarified that he was referring to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally as "garbage." Read more.

But while Trump is telling his supporters that Biden's comment shows what Democrats really think about half the country, the former president has a well-documented, long list of disparaging remarks himself. Trump even used the word "garbage" to refer to his adversaries in September and has labeled political opponents "scum."

Kamala Harris is moving past the comment – and Biden's gaffe – and has instead honed in remarks Trump made Wednesday evening about women. Trump on Wednesday said: "I'm going to do it whether the women like it or not. I'm going to protect them." Harris told reporters Thursday that his comment was "very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies."

A politics pit stop

•	'No Obamacare:' Mike Johnson says Republicans will overhaul health care if Trump wins
•	Joe Biden will attend the inauguration in January, regardless of who wins
•	Jake Paul encourages voting Trump for president, even though he can't because he lives in Puerto Rico
•	86 minutes: North Korea missile test records longest-ever flight time
•	Watch: Early voters in Georgia say they trust the process

Trump's deportation plan: A cost to taxpayers, billions for big business

Donald Trump has pledged that if elected, he would carry out mass deportations of at least 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. It's a plan that would cost taxpayers billions of dollars. And big business that runs the federal government's immigration detention and deportation system could reap the rewards of Trump's plan. Read more.

•	How much would mass deportations cost? A mass deportation of 1 million people per year could cost $88 billion annually, according to the nonpartisan American Immigration Council. Read more.

Halloween at the White House

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden (who dressed up as a panda!) passed out candy during a Halloween event at the White House on Wednesday. From Spiderman to wizards to chickens (or maybe a rooster?), the president and first lady playfully interacted with the trick-or-treaters.

U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. first lady Jill Biden host a trick-or-treaters celebration for Halloween at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 30, 2024. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Nathan Howard, REUTERS