Trump rally live: Trump may announce 2024 run in Ohio tonight

LIVE – Updated at 00:45 Donald Trump is heading to Ohio today to campaign for would-be Republican Senator JD Vance, who is fighting hard to keep the state’s open Senate seat in the Republican column.Mr Trump’s appearance comes after a raucuous rally in Florida yesterday. He delivered an incoherent speech in which he mocked Nancy Pelosi – leading the crowd to burst into a chant of ‘lock her up!’ just days after the speaker’s husband was released from hospital after being violently attacked.At the same rally, Mr Trump appeared to rein in his attacks on Florida Gov Ron DeSantis after a derisive new nickname for the Republican rising star angered the governor’s inner circle. He had earlier dismissed Mr DeSantis, widely considered a likely 2024 presidential candidate, as ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ at a rally in Pennsylvania, reportedly infuriating the governor’s staff. However, in Florida on Sunday, he told the crowd they should re-elect Mr DeSantis tomorrow.With the ex-president hinting ever more strongly that he is planning to run again, one of the more noteworthy potential Republican candidates, Tom Cotton, has reportedly told aides and associates he will not be running after months spent laying the groundwork for a campaign. Crowd cheers as Trump attacks Nancy Pelosi after assault on House speaker’s husbandWill Trump’s scandal-plagued Senate endorsements come back to bite the GOP?Trump raving about NY judge’s decisionTrump kicks off final midterm rally blitz in Iowa with growing list of familiar grievancesTrump’s rumoured announcement gets people talking… 00:45 , John Bowden Donald Trump is due up in minutes in Ohio, but his crowd a few nights ago was less than interested in the diatribe that he delivered that night.That’s according to a Univision reporter, who was on scene for the rally in Latrobe on Saturday evening.’Trump complained that ‘the media never turn the cameras around’ so I did and saw half the crowd at this PA rally had left thirty minutes before it ended,’ Univision reporter Fabiola Galindo Sawao tweeted.Read more in The Independent: © Provided by The Independent Half of Trump’s Pennsylvania rally crowd empties out before he’s done speaking 00:06 , John Bowden Donald Trump’s rally is underway in Ohio, with the president set to address his fans at 8 pm eastern.The rally is being held in Dayton, and is expected to be attended by his chosen US Senate candidate, JD Vance, as well as the state’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine.The Independent will carry Donald Trump’s remarks live on our Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned. Monday 7 November 2022 23:00 , John Bowden Donald Trump is set to take the stage in a few hours for one last pre-midterms rally in Ohio, ostensibly in support of Senate candidate JD Vance.But the ex-president is rumoured to be considering making a campaign announcement of his own tonight – his long-expected 2024 bid for the presidency.’Stay tuned tomorrow night in the great state of Ohio,’ he told fans on Sunday, speaking at a similar rally in Miami. ‘Stay tuned.’According to The Hill’s Brett Samuels: ‘Confirming that Trump has talked with some aides about announcing a 2024 presidential bid as early as Monday night in Ohio, though nothing is set in stone. Some aides urging an early announcement, others saying wait til (at least) next week.’ Monday 7 November 2022 22:34 , John Bowden Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape the Senate GOP caucus could end up being the reason that the Republican Party fails to take the upper chamber tomorrow.Unfaltering loyalty to Mr Trump seems to have prevailed over traditional vetting procedures this time around, and as a result the GOP’s chances of breaking the Democratic Party’s Senate majority have wavered significantly while their opponents hungrily eye potential pickups in Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.Read more in The Independent: © Provided by The Independent Will Trump’s scandal-plagued endorsements come back to bite the GOP? Monday 7 November 2022 19:30 , Andrew Naughtie Ron DeSantis has been slammed by a former chair of the Republican Party for the ‘blasphemy’ in one of his campaign ads, which claims the Florida governor is a ‘fighter’ created by God ‘on the eighth day’.Former RNC chair Michael Steele appeared on The Sunday Show on MSNBC, saying that the advert was ‘some of the most a**-backwards blasphemy I’ve ever heard in my life’.’It tells you what this white Christian nationalism is all about, that’s who it appeals to,’ Mr Steele added on Sunday. ‘It doesn’t appeal to churchgoing folks on Sunday, people who actually read the Bible. On the eighth-day, really? Church much? Seriously, on the eighth day?’Read more from Bevan Hurley and Gustaf Kilander: © Provided by The Independent Ron DeSantis blasted by ex-Republican party chair for ‘blasphemy’ over ad Monday 7 November 2022 19:00 , Andrew Naughtie A moment of perhaps unintended levity was sprinkled into a speech delivered by Rep Matt Gaetz while he was stumping at Donald Trump’s rally in Florida ahead of this week’s midterms.’It is closing time in these midterm elections. The fight is on, and there is no closer in American politics like Big Daddy Don,’ said GOP congressman Matt Gaetz, a conclusion that earned him a rousing round of cheers and applause from the crowd gathered at the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition on Sunday.The pet name for the 45th president seemed to gain the approval of the heavily MAGA crowd gathered in Miami over the weekend, but the same could not be said for the reception the nickname received online.Johanna Chisholm reports: © Provided by The Independent ‘How is this real life?’: Critics react to Matt Gaetz nicknaming Trump ‘Big Daddy’ Monday 7 November 2022 18:30 , Andrew Naughtie A new book claims that King Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry were reportedly so unhappy with former president Donald Trump’s 2012 remarks about Kate Middleton, they unleashed ‘torrents of profanity.’Earlier this week, Newsweek reported on excerpts obtained from Christopher Andersen’s upcoming royal biography, The King: The Life of Charles III. The book, which is slated for release in the US next week and in the UK on December 8, explains what took place within the royal family after Mr Trump tweeted disparagingly about Kate Middleton.Jenna Amatulli reports. © Provided by The Independent King Charles reacted with ‘profanity’ to Trump’s Kate Middleton comments, book claims Monday 7 November 2022 18:00 , Andrew Naughtie The eldest son of former president Donald Trump on Sunday accused the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor who is currently running for Senate as a Democrat of having no detectable brain activity during warm-up remarks at one of his father’s signature political rallies.Speaking to a crowd of supporters at a Miami, Florida, rally in support of Senator Marco Rubio, Donald Trump Jr suggested Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman is not up to the job on account of a stroke he suffered in May.He accused Democrats of wanting to ‘release violent offenders’ from prisons, and cited the example of Mr Fetterman, who the younger Mr Trump called ‘the brain dead potential senator from Pennsylvania’. He added that Mr Fetterman has ‘mush for brains’ as well.Andrew Feinberg reports: © Provided by The Independent Donald Trump Jr continues vile attack on John Fetterman over stroke Monday 7 November 2022 17:30 , Andrew Naughtie Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was reportedly ‘passively’ mean to a student because she was Black and taught inaccurate information regarding the US Civil War when he taught high school early in his adulthood.The New York Times reported this week that Mr DeSantis spent his first year after graduating from Yale University teaching at Darlington School, one of the Georgia’s oldest and largest boarding schools.At least one student from his days teaching there, Danielle Pompey, claimed he treated her poorly, and she believes it was because of the colour of her skin.Graig Graziosi writes: © Provided by The Independent DeSantis’ students speak out about ‘hostile’ behaviour towards Black people and more Monday 7 November 2022 17:00 , Andrew Naughtie Veteran Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn made waves recently when comparing aspects of the Trumpist tendency in US politics to the rise of the Third Reich. Yesterday, he appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss his remarks, and declined to back down:Jim Clyburn on Fox News defends comparing Trumpism to Nazism: “I’ve studied history all of my life. I taught history. And I’m telling you, what I see here are parallels to what the history was in this world back in the 1930s in Germany.” pic.twitter.com/E7iM4eJE0p- Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 6, 2022 Monday 7 November 2022 16:30 , Andrew Naughtie Republican Long Island Congressman Lee Zeldin, who’s now running to unseat Democratic New York governor Kathy Hochul, was among the first elected GOP officials supporting Mr Trump’s presidential bid, more than a year before he won the 2016 election. He voted against both of Mr Trump’s impeachments and tried to block the creation of a congressional committee to investigate the Capitol attack.Hours after the mob breached the halls of Congress on 6 January 2021, Mr Zeldin joined 146 other House Republicans to challenge the outcome. He posted a clip of his speech on the House floor on 6 January with the title ‘in defense of the Republic.’ That night, he streamed himself from inside the Capitol to appear on The Ingraham Angle on Fox News, telling host Laura Ingraham that the violent riots are ‘bigger than the president’ and ‘bigger than 2020′.And now, with his race looking far more competitive than expected, he could be on the brink of running one of the US’s largest states.Alex Woodward looks at the state of play. © Provided by The Independent A Trump-endorsed Republican could end up running New York: The rise of Lee Zeldin Monday 7 November 2022 16:00 , Andrew Naughtie Ron DeSantis – a likely rival for the 2024 Republican Party nomination should the two men announce their competing candidacies as anticipated – while campaigning for the GOP’s Doug Mastriano and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania on Saturday night.’We’re winning big, big, big in the Republican Party for the nomination like nobody’s ever seen before. There it is, Trump at 71, Ron DeSanctimonious at 10 per cent,’ Mr Trump told a rally crowd in Latrobe, pointing to poll numbers on a big screen as he coined a new nickname for a man many view as his likeliest successor.However, Mr Trump was quick to tone down his mockery the following Sunday, perhaps in response to outrage from several prominent conservative pundits, when he told another rally back in Florida (where he himself resides): ‘You’re going to re-elect the wonderful Marco Rubio to the United States Senate and you’re going to re-elect Ron DeSantis as your governor.’Joe Sommerlad writes: © Provided by The Independent What has Donald Trump said about Ron DeSantis? Monday 7 November 2022 15:30 , Andrew Naughtie The trial of leading Oath Keepers members on seditious conspiracy charges is continuing, with founder-leader Stewart Rhodes on the stand once again.Along with claiming that the president of the US ‘has absolute power to declassify anything’, which is inaccurate, he is also giving details of the militia group’s presence in and around Washington on January 6, when its members participated in the assault on the US Capitol.Rhodes estimates there were 100 Oath Keepers in DC on J6, and he was overseeing 60 of them. The rest were from a N.C. group that had split from his group- Sarah N. Lynch (@SarahNLynch) November 7, 2022RHODES describes Oath Keeper teams in DC on Jan. 5-6General escorts: VA, WY, UT, CA, NJ, NYLatinos for Trump: SC teamRoger Stone PSD: Alabama teamOther PSDs: Florida, OH- Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 7, 2022 Monday 7 November 2022 14:30 , Andrew Naughtie Republican senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas has become the first top Republican to pull out of the 2024 presidential race, according to reports.The reports have emerged after Donald Trump recently suggested he is likelier than ever to run for the White House for the third time.The far-right senator and rising GOP star was considered a top contender for the race if Mr Trump decided not to run.Mr Cotton had appeared to follow the presidential candidate playbook by releasing a book on American power, but will now become the first high-profile candidate to forgo the 2024 bid.Shweta Sharma reports. © Provided by The Independent Tom Cotton drops out of 2024 race as Trump readies announcement Monday 7 November 2022 14:00 , Andrew Naughtie Donald Trump’s typically unmoored speech at his rally yesterday included one particularly grim proposal: imposing a default death sentence for drug-dealing, a policy apparently designed to emulate a policy in China that all but circumvents American standards of due process in criminal trials:”I called him the king” — Trump on President Xi during a rant about the need to execute drug dealers pic.twitter.com/qBeKlJcclB- Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 6, 2022Mr Trump has called for the death penalty for drug dealers before. He appears to have been particularly enamoured of the approach favoured by former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, who oversaw a campaign of extrajudicial violence in the name of a ‘war on drugs’ that according to Human Rights Watch claimed more than 12,000 lives. Monday 7 November 2022 13:30 , Andrew Naughtie In an interview with Politico published yesterday, one of the Republican Party’s biggest donors has said what most of the party’s establishment dare not utter: that it’s time for the Trump era to end.According to hedge fund CEO and philanthropist Ken Griffin, there are ‘a litany of reasons’ to move on from Mr Trump, whom he did not support financially aside from a donation to his 2017 inauguration.Read the interview below.Ken Griffin tells ⁦@ShiaKapos⁩ he’s Ready for Ron >’think it’s time to move on to the next generation’ https://t.co/Ng9cMdEFrx- Jonathan Martin (@jmart) November 6, 2022 Monday 7 November 2022 13:00 , Andrew Naughtie Among the more exuberant speakers at Donald Trump’s Florida rally this weekend was Congressman Matt Gaetz, a devoted Trump acolyte who has over the last year been embroiled in a sex trafficking investigation.And as he addressed the crowd, Mr Gaetz’s devotion to the former president was on full display:Everything in our lives has been leading up to Matt Gaetz calling Donald Trump “daddy.” https://t.co/I6HPTZRxkz- Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) November 6, 2022 Monday 7 November 2022 12:00 , Andrew Naughtie Former President Donald Trump is predicting America’s destruction if his fellow Republicans don’t deliver a massive electoral wave on Tuesday. Democrats, led by President Joe Biden and two other former presidents, are warning that abortion rights, Social Security and even democracy itself are at stake.Three of the six living presidents delivered dire closing messages Saturday in battleground Pennsylvania entering the final weekend of the 2022 midterm elections, but their words echoed across the country as millions of Americans cast ballots to decide the balance of power in Washington and in key state capitals. Polls across America will close on Tuesday, but more than 39 million people have already voted. © Provided by The Independent Trump says US ‘in decline’; Biden has his own dire warning Monday 7 November 2022 11:30 , Andrew Naughtie Former president Donald Trump on Saturday appeared to take his first public swipe at the man who many Republicans have been eyeing as a potential alternative to take on Joe Biden in 2024: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.Mr Trump mockingly referred to his onetime ally, who won the Sunshine State’s 2018 gubernatorial election after earning the then-president’s endorsement, as ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’ while discussing his standing in the polls during a rally in Latrobe, Penn