Political Fallout From Trump NYC Rally
Plus, federal court blocks Virginia voter roll purge, state asks Supreme Court to intervene
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Good morning,
Election betting is all the rage this season, and Robinhood— a commission-free investing platform— is joining the party.
Beginning Monday, Robinhood users can trade a Kamala Harris or Donald Trump contract.
To trade, you must be a US citizen.
Other election markets have made headlines in recent weeks for their popularity, access to US markets, and some wild multi-million dollar bets on Trump. The odds have impacted some real-life trading on Wall Street.
A US appeals court cleared Kalshi to restart election betting after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sought to stop the election outcome trading.
The CFTC is appealing the ruling.
On Polymarket, which is banned in the US, a French trader bet over $28 million that Trump would win using four accounts.
Mosheh, Jill, & Lauren
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📌 TRUMP & HARRIS MAKE CLOSING ARGUMENTS: TRUMP FACES BACKLASH FOR COMMENTS AT HIS MSG RALLY
Today marks one week until Election Day. Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are making their final arguments to voters.
Harris is set to make her case today from the same backdrop on the National Mall where Trump made his Jan. 6 speech before a mob stormed the Capitol. American democracy will be a central theme of her speech. It is a return to the main argument President Biden tried to make during his campaign earlier this year. It didn’t have enough mass appeal back then, but the Harris campaign hopes it does the trick with independents and Nikki Haley Republicans in the final days.
On Sunday, Trump took to his hometown’s main stage, New York City’s Madison Square Garden, to start to make his closing remarks to voters. He focused on his traditional themes of lowering inflation, bringing stability to the world, using tariffs to boost American jobs and launching the largest deportation of illegal migrants in history. He called the US “occupied.”
However, it was one of the earlier speakers at the Trump rally drawing much of the attention. Stand-up comedian Tony Hinchcliffe aka ‘Kill Tony’ made a number of disparaging jokes about ethnic and racial groups–including calling Puerto Rico an “island of garbage”—during his set.
Harris’s campaign quickly held a news conference in Philadelphia, where Puerto Rican leaders expressed outrage at the Sunday remarks.
A Democratic super PAC was texting hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania to make sure they saw a clip from the rally. There are an estimated 500,000 voters of Puerto Rican heritage expected to vote in a state where the margin of victory is likely to be less than 100,000 votes.
THAT’S NOT ALL
The rally included speeches from dozens of Trump allies, including former First Lady Melania Trump, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Speaker Mike Johnson, and billionaire Elon Musk. However, it was Hinchcliffe’s comments drawing the most backlash.
He also called out a Black man in the audience and referenced him carving watermelon instead of pumpkins for Halloween— used as a racist trope against African Americans.
Hinchcliffe also made a crude sex-joke about Hispanics’ use of birth control, portrayed Jews as cheap and Palestinians as rock-throwers.
Most of the jokes didn’t go over well with the audience in the arena.
Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ricky Martin and other celebrities with ties to Puerto Rico all called out the comments and reinforced their support for Harris.
Harris happened to be in Philadelphia that day speaking to the Puerto Rican community— 3.8% of the swing state’s Pennsylvania’s population is of Puerto Rican heritage.
MEA CULPA & “TAKE A CHILL PILL”
Soon after, Trump’s campaign spokeswoman said the joke “was in poor taste” and did not reflect the campaign’s views. It was a rare apology by the Trump campaign. Meanwhile, Senator JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, said Americans should not get offended at every little thing and should have a sense of humor.
“Can we all just take a chill pill and take a joke from time to time,” he said.
It’s not clear how much of an impact Hinchcliffe’s comedy set, or other crude remarks referring to Harris and “her pimp handlers” and as the “anti-Christ,” will have as voters make their final decisions. Most voters we have spoken to are focused on issues, but the two sides will use any perceived missteps or rhetoric to their advantage in the final days.
MSNBC commentators and Harris’s VP pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz went so far as to compare the rally to an infamous 1939 pro-Nazi gathering at the same venue. They say blaming migrants for economic woes and wanting a mass deportation is similar to 1939’s “Free America!” chants.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) replied “what isn’t a joke and truly outrageous is how “journalists” are helping Kamala Harris’s with her dangerous campaign of hate by calling Trump the new Hitler and how MSNBC used old footage of Nazi rallies TO SMEAR TRUMP SUPPORTERS AS NAZIS!”
📌 COURTS BLOCK VIRGINIA’S VOTER ROLL PURGE OF SUSPECTED NONCITIZENS; STATE ASKS SCOTUS TO STEP-IN
Virginia election officials asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to allow the state to remove roughly 1,600 alleged noncitizens from its voter rolls.
The state’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order in August requiring DMV data to be checked daily against voter rolls to identify noncitizens. Anyone flagged was notified and given two weeks to dispute their status before being removed, state officials said.
The DMV flags those who checked a box on their driver’s license applications indicating that they were not US citizens.
The Justice Department argues citizens who skipped the question or mistakenly checked the box are losing their voting access, plus purging this close to an election is violation of the law.
JUSTICES AGREE
Three appeals court judges for the 4th Circuit agreed on Sunday with a lower federal court judge who ruled that we are now too close to the election for a purge to happen, and the order violated a provision of the National Voter Registration Act.
It requires states to complete programs aimed at purging ineligible voters from registration lists up to 90 days before federal elections to avoid last-minute mistakes (kicking legal voters off).
Virginia’s revamped removal program was launched exactly 90 days before Election Day.
Youngkin’s defense is that the program was already in place, the order just increased the frequency of the data reporting from monthly to daily.
OTHER STATES AT PLAY
Trump and allies have pointed to DMV and census data of battleground states like Nevada, Michigan, North Carolina and Arizona to allege that noncitizens are bloating registration lists.
In August, 84 days before Election Day, Alabama’s Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen announced about 3,200 individuals previously identified as being noncitizens would be removed from the state’s voter rolls. About 2,000 of them were citizens and courts blocked the state from enacting the purge.
✔︎ Mo News Reality Check: Noncitizens cannot vote in federal or state elections, and illegally voting can result in a fine, up to one year in federal prison, and deportation.
A Bipartisan Policy Center analysis of The Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Cases database found only 77 instances of noncitizens voting between 1999 and 2023.
⏳ SPEED READ
🚨NATION
📌 Hundreds of ballots set on fire in three states as Election Day approaches (NPR)
📌 Over 200,000 subscribers flee 'Washington Post' after Bezos blocks Harris endorsement (CNBC) Bezos defends action (AXIOS)
📌 Philadelphia DA sues Elon Musk over controversial $1 million voter giveaway (ABC NEWS)
📌 Russia, China and Cuba amplified falsehoods about recent hurricanes, US official says (MIAMI HERALD)
🌎 AROUND THE WORLD
📌 Israel passes two laws to restrict the work of a UN agency that aids Palestinians in Gaza (ABC)
📌 Tens of thousands rally in Georgia to denounce the parliamentary election they say was rigged (AP)
📌 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia are headed for Ukraine, US says (USA TODAY)
📌 Imposters stole thousands of pounds of posh cheddar, rattling the UK cheese world (NPR)
📌 Shanghai puts a stop to ‘controversial’ Halloween costumes (NBC)
📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH
📌 McDonald's bringing back Quarter Pounder after beef patties ruled out as source of E. coli outbreak (FOX BUSINESS)
📌 Trump Media shares surge up to 20% after Trump’s NYC rally, nears X shares (CNBC)
📌 Volkswagen plans to close ‘at least’ 3 German plants and cut thousands of jobs (CNN)
📌 Apple's AI update is here: What to know about Apple Intelligence, top features (USA TODAY)
📌 Economists warn of new inflation hazards after election (WSJ)
🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
📌 Commanders' stunning win awakens fans' election superstitions (AXIOS)
📌 Colin Farrell finishes Dublin Marathon while pushing friend in a wheelchair (CNN)
📌 Immersive entertainment company Cosm lands rights to broadcast NFL games (NBC NEWS)
📌 Jon Stewart extends ‘Daily Show’ hosting gig through 2025 (THE WRAP)
🗓 ON THIS DAY: OCTOBER 29
1993: The first ‘Got Milk?’ advertisement aired.
1998: High-definition television (HDTV) sets were introduced in the US.
2003: LeBron James at 18 years old makes his NBA debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He is still play in the league this season, alongside his son Bronny.
2012: Superstorm Sandy slammed ashore in New Jersey. It is blamed for more than 180 deaths.