Trump rallies in Butler for first time since attempted assassination: Live

MAGA lawmaker Mike Lawler has been forced to apologize after a photo emerged of him wearing blackface at a Halloween college party.

The photo of the 38-year-old rising House star, published by The New YorkTimes, shows Lawler dressed as Michael Jackson at a party at Manhattan College in October 2006.

In the image, Lawler, who is in a close-run race to hold onto his seat, is sporting a red leather Thriller jacket and striking one of Jackson’s signature poses. His face has been visibly darkened.

James Liddell has the story.

During a campaign event on Friday in North Carolina, Donald Trump said he would create a task force to monitor “woke generals” and eliminate diversity trainings in the military.

“They’re gone,” Trump told the crowd, referring to the generals.

The proposal came in response to a question from Matthew Lohmeier, a former F-15 pilot who was relieved of his command in Trump’s Space Force in 2021 after criticizing diversity and inclusion training on a conservative podcast.

More details in our full story.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, former Donald Trump aide-turned-TV presenter, has praised longtime Republican Liz Cheney for putting aside her “ambition” and “career” to endorse Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

On the latest episode of The View, co-host Griffin appeared to get emotional as she spoke out in awe of Cheney, who on Thursday (October 3) pledged her support of Vice President Harris.

“Liz Cheney is one of the people I admire most,” the former Pentagon Press Secretary, 35, said on the latest episode of the ABC talk show.

Inga Parkel has the story.

The Trump campaign is once again encouraging its supporters to vote early, despite Donald Trump’s regular attacks on mail-in voting.

This time, it was RNC co-chair Lara Trump who closed today’s North Carolina rally with a call for early votes.

So what does Trump actually think about early voting? Well, it depends on the day.

Senator JD Vance had kind words for Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — just hours after she suggested that a mysterious “they” can control the weather and inflicted Hurricane Helene on Republican voters in Georgia and North Carolina.

Greene is well known for repeating nonsense conspiracy theories. She’s voiced her belief in “Jewish space lasers”and has been cozy with QAnon ideas both before and during her time in office.

She made her latest bizarre claim on X, this time concerning the weather.

“Yes, they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done,” Greene wrote.

Graig Graziosi reports.

During his North Carolina town hall on Friday, Donald Trump just claimed he gave the military the largest pay raise in its history.

In fact, in late 2023, it was Joe Biden who gave the military its largest basic pay raise in decades.

Donald Trump and Representative Anna Paulina Luna are both tearing into the Biden-Harris administration’s response to Hurricane Helene.

Trump claimed the response was the worst disaster response since Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, while Representative Luna baselessly accused federal officials of cutting off aid because conservative communities were among those that got hit by the storm.

In fact, Asheville, one of the cities facing the most storm destruction, is highly Democratic, and sits in a county that went for Joe Biden in 2020.

Stephen Colbert has pointed out a “weird word choice” in special counsel Jack Smith’s latest court filing regarding Donald Trump in the federal election interference case.

The 165-page dossier, which was unsealed by a federal judge in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, alleges that Trump intentionally lied to voters, election officials, and even his vice president in a “desperate” effort to cling to power. It marks the most detailed case laid out by prosecutors to date, coming after the Supreme Court ruling granted him some immunity from criminal prosecution.

Kevin E G Perry reports on what word caught Colbert’s eye.

Trump just brought up the now-familiar Republican claim that Kamala Harris lost hundreds of thousands of migrant kids on her watch.

As usual for the Trump campaign, the comment is related to a kernel of actual fact and a whole lot exagerration.

“300,000 children are missing during the Biden reign,” Trump said.

“Many of them are dead. Many of them are in sex slavery. Many of them are in slavery, period,” Trump continued.

Here’s the actual news that spawned this GOP smear, an inspector general report that found that hundreds of thousands of migrant children hadn’t appeared in removal proceedings because they hadn’t been immediately served with notices to appear.

Donald Trump is campaigning in Fayetteville, North Carolina, at the moment, an important appearance in a state still recovering from the impact of Hurricane Helene.

We’ll be following the latest live.