US election briefing: Democrats unleash powerhouse surrogates as Trump insults Detroit in Detroit

Thursday saw Democrat powerhouse surrogates unleashed on the campaign trail. The Harris campaign announced that Bill Clinton would campaign for Harris in southern battleground states, starting this weekend, while Barack Obama began his swing state tour in Pennsylvania – the battleground with the highest number of electoral college votes.

Appearing at the University of Pittsburgh, Obama sought to encourage young people to get their friends and relatives to vote. He said Trump saw power “as a means to an end” and took aim at his “concept of a plan” for healthcare.

“The good news is Kamala Harris has an actual plan,” Obama said.

“They’ve got to release the kraken,” veteran Democrat campaign strategist James Carville told the New York Times, adding that the Harris campaign should be using Obama and other surrogates “more aggressively”.

Inflation, meanwhile, weakened to its slowest pace in more than three years in September, as price growth continued to fall back from its highest levels in a generation. With concerns over the heightened cost of living at the heart of the presidential election campaign, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its final monthly inflation reading before voters head to the polls.

Here is what else happened on Thursday:

• Obama questioned Black men’s unwillingness to vote for Harris. Speaking at an event in Pennsylvania before his campaign speech at the University of Pittsburgh, he said: “We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighbourhoods and communities as we saw when I was running. Now, I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.” And: “You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses. I’ve got a problem with that.” A September NAACP poll showed that more than a quarter of Black men under 50 say they will vote for Donald Trump.

• Trump disparagingly compared Detroit, Michigan, to a developing nation. Pointing to the city’s recent history of economic decline from its heyday as the home of American car production, he said: “Well, we’re a developing nation too, just take a look at Detroit. Detroit’s a developing area more than most places in China.” Later in his speech, he said of Harris: “Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president. You’re going to have a mess on your hands.”

• Harris held events in Nevada and Arizona. The Democratic candidate spoke at a town hall in Las Vegas, hosted by Spanish language station Univision. She was questioned on Trump’s claims that the administration had not done enough to support people after Hurricane Helene, and whether people in Hurricane Milton’s path would have access to aid – a sign that Trump’s messaging is breaking through with some potential voters. “I have to stress that this is not a time for people to play politics,” Harris said in reply.

• Later, at a campaign event in Phoenix, Harris called on Arizonans to vote yes to Proposition 139, which protects the right to abortion. Talking about Project 2025, Harris said: “I can’t believe they put that in writing,” to loud, sustained boos from the crowd. “They’re out of their minds.” The swing state has 11 electoral college votes.

• A Quinnipiac university poll published on Wednesday showed Harris trailing Trump by two and three points respectively in Wisconsin and Michigan – states which, along with Pennsylvania, Democrats have labelled the “blue wall”.

• America’s top broadcasting regulatory body, the Federal Communications Commission, denounced Trump after the former president demanded that CBS be stripped of its licence for airing an edited answer in a primetime interview with Harris. He also called the network a “threat to democracy” and targeted other broadcasters for having their licences revoked also.

• The Kremlin confirmed that Trump sent Vladimir Putin Covid tests when they were scarce during the early stages of the pandemic, as reported this week in a book by veteran US political journalist Bob Woodward.

• The legal brawl between Georgia’s Trump-oriented state board of elections and Fulton county’s election office continues to intensify, in what’s being seen as a warm-up for the post-election cavalcade of 2020 redux lawsuits expected in November. Fulton county filed a lawsuit on Monday to prevent the board from placing 2020 election denialists on a monitoring team for the November election. In response, state board members voted to subpoena a wide range of records from the 2020 election in Fulton county.