Biden to address Hurricane Helene damage as Trump tries to turn it into campaign issue – US politics live

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Trump attacks Biden, Harris over Helene response at lengthy Pennsylvania rally

Donald Trump’s rally in Erie, Pennsylvania yesterday stretched for nearly two hours, and began with the former president accusing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris of failing to respond as Hurricane Helene struck the southeastern United States.

“Biden is in Delaware sleeping right now in one of his many estates,” Trump said, before alleging Harris was “at fundraising events with her radical left lunatic donors, when big parts of our country have been devastated by that massive hurricane and are underwater, with many, many people dead.”

Here’s the moment:

Harris’s campaign has thus far held back on making similar statements about Trump, but did seize on his comments downplaying the link between worsening natural disasters and climate change:

Biden to address Hurricane Helene damage as Trump seeks to turn storm into campaign issue

Good morning, US politics blog readers. After churning across the southern US and causing massive destruction and dozens of deaths in North Carolina, Georgia and elsewhere, Hurricane Helene appears set to collide with the presidential campaign. Donald Trump will speak this afternoon in Valdosta, Georgia about the storm, undoubtedly with an eye on turning the swing state’s voters away from Kamala Harris. The former president has already made the hurricane’s destruction into an attack line on the Democrats, reportedly accusing Joe Biden of “sleeping” as the storm raged. Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania yesterday he also accused Harris of turning a blind eye to the destruction.

Biden plans to speak from the White House at 10.30am ET about his administration’s response to the storm, while Harris has announced the cancellation of campaign events in Las Vegas today so she can return to Washington DC and be briefed on the storm’s impact at Fema headquarters. She’ll arrive just after 5pm.

Here’s what else is happening today:

• Harris’s economic policies are more popular with voters than Trump’s, new polling commissioned by the Guardian finds. The vice-president laid out her plans in a major speech last week.

• The vice-presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz is set for tomorrow evening, with both candidates preparing for what is currently the last scheduled debate before the election.

• Israel may or may not be on the verge of launching a ground invasion of Lebanon. We have a live blog covering the crisis, and you can read it here.