Election live updates: Trump and Harris hit swing states as poll shows virtual tie

For generations of American schoolchildren, a key rite of passage in civic education has been a visit to a centuries-old, two-story Georgian structure in downtown Philadelphia.

That building, formally known today as Independence Hall, has over the centuries played host to multiple American presidents, and remains the centerpiece of a national park celebrating America’s founding. It is where the constitution was born.

On Thursday, it was business as usual outside the iconic venue. Young students in identical hats emblazoned with their school and class year filed past on their way into the rooms where the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were debated and approved by the nation’s founding fathers. Senior citizens on an organized tour walked past the front entrance on their way to the next stop on their journey.

But across Chestnut Street, on a sidewalk abutting the green grass of Independence Mall, another, much smaller group was gathering for a group photograph.

A federal judge offered a withering single-sentence summary to tell Ron DeSantis why his administration can’t threaten to criminally prosecute TV stations for airing abortion rights ads.

“To keep it simple for the State of Florida,” Judge Mark Walker wrote on October 17, “it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”

Police have knocked on doors. Government-funded ad campaigns and websites have called opponents liars, and state investigators have accused them of fraud. State officials sent cease and desist letters to local news networks threatening them with legal action, which the judge blasted as “indirect” government censorship. The state attorney who wrote the letters abruptly stepped down after sending them. “A man is nothing without his conscience,” he wrote in his resignation letter.

Judge Walker dealt a temporary blow to the Republican governor’s efforts. But advocates fear DeSantis is paving the way to throw out election results for a ballot measure that would protect reproductive rights. If approved by voters, that ballot measure would derail the governor’s anti-abortion agenda and overturn the state’s abortion bans.

McDonald’s workers have now given their verdict on the former president’s performance – and came away less than impressed.

Kelly Rissman has the story.

Donald Trump’s latest campaign publicity stunt, which saw him working a shift in a McDonald’s, has prompted a flurry of memes comparing him to the award-winning restaurant-based TV show The Bear.

The first time Trump went to campaign in Latrobe, Pennsylvania – Palmer’s hometown – in September 2020, he is said to have recounted a story of admiring the legendary golfer’s naked body to his team before traveling to the city.

Ariana Baio has the story.