US Elections: Kamala Harris Or Trump, Who’s Winning The Polls? | US Breaking | USA News

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Election 2024 updates: Trump court docs unsealed as candidates focus on Michigan

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris barnstormed across the important swing state of Michigan on Friday, hoping to energize voters with 17 days to go before polls open.

Trump lashed out at the judge and prosecutor in his federal election conspiracy case as nearly 2,000 pages of heavily redacted prosecution documents were made public. And he once again suggested that the Civil War, which ended slavery in the United States, could have been “settled” without bloodshed.

In Michigan, Harris visited Grand Rapids, Lansing and Oakland County for three campaign stops. Trump appeared in Oakland County for a roundtable event, and then ended the evening with a rally in Detroit that included an 18-minute delay due to a microphone malfunction.

Keep up with the USA TODAY Network’s live coverage of the 2024 campaign.

Microphone issues stall Trump rally in Detroit

Donald Trump’s rally in Detroit hit a snag on Friday night when the audio stopped working and the Republican presidential nominee passed the time walking around on the stage for about 18 minutes waiting for a fix.

The former president was in the middle of a riff about the economy in Michigan’s largest city when his microphone cut out.

He tried another hand-held microphone as well that didn’t work. To pass the time, Trump walked around on the stage, talking to staffers amid cheers from the crowd, which at one point launched into a wave to pass the time.

“Technical difficulties,” read a sign displayed to the crowd. “Complicated business.”

Music kicked in after about 15 minutes – Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” – and Trump’s microphone started working again.

“I won’t pay the bill for this stupid company that rented us this c—,” Trump said. “I won’t pay the bill and then we’ll have a story that Trump didn’t pay the bill to a contractor.”

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Trump calls Michigan mayor’s endorsement an honor

Trump made a short stop in a Detroit enclave on Friday afternoon where he called it an honor to have the endorsement of Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib who, in turn, described the GOP nominee’s visit to the city as historic.

“As you know, President Trump keeps saying that our country is in decline, and the ship is sinking. So sometimes it’s wise enough to sail against the wave so we can get to the shore safely under the leadership of President Trump and that’s why I endorsed President Trump in this area in Wayne County,” Ghalib said at an Oakland GOP outpost for Trump in the city home to the first all-Muslim city council in the U.S.

Wayne County is a Democratic stronghold where its diverse population represents the Democratic party’s coalition and the divides tearing it apart, including fractures over U.S. foreign policy toward Israel.

– Clara Hendrickson

Harris: It’s not ‘productive’ to emphasize differences with Biden

Harris said Friday that she does not think it would be “productive” for her to highlight policy differences with President Joe Biden on the campaign trail.

Biden opened the door for Harris to do so at an event in Philadelphia this week, where he said that Harris would “cut her own path” and “take the country in her own direction” if she’s elected president, just as he did following his vice presidency.

Asked about Biden’s comments and what she’d do differently, Harris told NBC in an interview, “Vice presidents are not critical of their presidents. I think that really, actually, in terms of the tradition of it, and also just going forward, it does not make for a productive and important relationship.”

Pressed by Peter Alexander, Harris said that “going forward, there is no question that I bring my own experiences and my own life experiences.”

She offered her proposals to expand Medicare to cover home health care and provide up to $25,000 of downpayment assistance to first-time homebuyers as examples.

– Francesca Chambers

Trump says Sinwar ‘not a good person‘

Speaking to reporters on an airport tarmac in Detroit, Trump made his first comments on the Hamas leader killed in an attack in Gaza Thursday, saying Yahya Sinwar “was not a good person.”

“That’s my reaction,” Trump told reporters Friday afternoon while en route to a rally in the battleground state.

Trump said he plans to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said Netanyahu reached out earlier following Sinwar’s death but the two didn’t immediately connect. Trump also accused President Joe Biden of holding Netanyahu back during Israel’s war against Hamas.

“He’s doing a good job,” Trump said of Netanyahu. “Biden is trying to hold him back.” Trump added that “(Biden) probably should be doing the opposite actually. I’m glad that Bibi decided to do what he had to do.”

Biden, who talked to Netanyahu on Thursday, has called Sinwar’s death an opportunity to revive talks for a long-discussed cease-fire and hostage-release deal and pursue a path to end the Gaza war.

– Joey Garrison