‘Only consequential presidents get shot at,’ Trump tells event – US politics live

Running for president is ‘a dangerous business,’ Republican nominee says at a town hall event in Michigan, following Sunday’s apparent assassination bid

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the run-up to the US presidential election.

The fallout from Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt on Republican nominee Donald Trump is continuing. Last night the former president made his first public appearance since the incident, which occurred while he was playing golf in Florida.

On Tuesday, Kamala Harris was interviewed by a panel of three National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) members, during which the vice-president talked about the anti-immigrant sentiment toward Haitians in Springfield, Ohio; Israel’s war in Gaza; domestic economic issues; gun violence; and reproductive rights. The conversation was one of the few interviews Harris has done since becoming the Democratic nominee.

JD Vance defended his comments about Haitian immigrants eating pets during a Tuesday rally, saying that “the media has a responsibility to factcheck” stories – not him. The rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, came two days after the Ohio senator told CNN host Dana Bash it was OK “to create stories” to draw attention to issues his constituents care about, regarding inflammatory and unfounded claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had eaten residents’ pets.

The FBI and the US Postal Inspection Service on Tuesday were investigating the origin of suspicious packages that have been sent to or received by elections officials in more than 15 states, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or that any of the packages contained hazardous material. The latest packages were sent to elections officials in Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York and Rhode Island.

Donald Trump is planning to appear with Polish President Andrzej Duda in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Sunday, according to two sources familiar with the plan, reports Reuters. The dual appearance is not yet finalised, said one of the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss plans that are still private. But if the dual appearance goes forward, it would mark a rare instance of a foreign leader appearing alongside a US presidential candidate on the campaign trail.

A false claim circulating on social media that Kamala Harris was involved in an alleged hit-and-run in San Francisco in 2011 is the work of a covert Russian disinformation operation, according to new research by Microsoft. The Russian group responsible, which Microsoft dubs Storm-1516, is described as a Kremlin-aligned troll farm.

America Pac, one of the largest and the most ambitious of the groups supporting Donald Trump’s campaign, is replacing its voter turnout operations in the crucial battleground states of Arizona and Nevada, according to two people familiar with the matter. The political action committee, backed by billionaire Elon Musk, has ended its contract with the September Group and will hire a new company to knock on doors with fewer than 50 days left until the election.