Kamala Harris gives ‘closing argument’ at the Ellipse; Trump campaign announces lawsuit against Bucks County over long lines and early cut-offs for voters casting mail ballots

Former President Donald Trump tried to win over voters in one of Pennsylvania’s largest Puerto Rican communities Tuesday, just two days after a comedian drew national outrage for making crude remarks about the island during a campaign rally.

During Tuesday’s rally in Allentown, a majority Latino city in the Lehigh Valley, Trump said he was offering “a message of hope for all Americans.”

“Our country will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer, stronger than ever before,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Tx.) will be in Philadelphia Wednesday, first with filmmaker Spike Lee in the morning, and then with Temple University’s Black Law Students Association in the evening.

Crockett and Lee will join Philly Black Men for Kamala at Laborers’ Training Center at 11 a.m., The Philadelphia Tribune reported.

Crockett, a former Civil Rights attorney and National Bar Association regional director, will then join the Temple students for a fireside chat at 6:30 p.m.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is planning to file a lawsuit against Bucks County over long lines and early cut-offs at county election offices for voters requesting and casting mail ballots, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley announced Tuesday night.

“I’m proud tonight to tell you that the Trump-Vance campaign has just filed a huge lawsuit against Bucks County for turning away our voters,” Whatley announced to the crowd during Trump’s rally in Allentown. “We are going to fight this thing in court, and all we ask of you is to stay in line. Donald Trump needs your votes. Donald Trump needs Pennsylvania. America needs Pennsylvania.”

Though Whatley said the suit had already been filed, it could not be located on Bucks County’s database of court records Tuesday evening.

Kamala Harris, speaking in front of the White House, both distanced herself from President Joe Biden and embraced her one-time running mate.

Harris said she has been honored to serve with Biden but she said she “will bring my own experiences and ideas to the Oval Office.”

“My presidency will be different because the challenges we face will be different,” Harris said.

Former President Donald Trump tried to win over voters in one of Pennsylvania’s largest Puerto Rican communities Tuesday, just two days after a comedian drew national outrage for making crude remarks about the island during a campaign rally.

During a rally in Allentown, a majority Latino city in the Lehigh Valley, Trump said he was offering “a message of hope for all Americans.”

“Our country will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer, stronger than ever before,” he said.

In what appears to be an organized effort, right-leaning activists have challenged the mail ballot applications of hundreds of voters in suburban Philadelphia in recent days, claiming their targets no longer live at the addresses where they are registered to vote.

But voting rights advocates broadly dismiss the effort as baseless, legally invalid, and born of a misunderstanding of government data.

While they predict most of the challenges will be swiftly rejected, they say the campaign is yet another instance of a loose network of right-wing organizers billing themselves as “election integrity” advocates sowing confusion about state voting laws and creating headaches for elections administrators already bombarded by misinformation surrounding the voting process.

Vice President Kamala Harris will spend election night at her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss her campaign’s plans.

If elected, Harris would be the first graduate of a historically Black university to occupy the Oval Office.

At first, Nadya Rodriguez cursed angrily when she heard the joke. The one told at Sunday’s Trump rally about her native Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage.” The joke that has reverberated throughout the Latino community, raising questions about a key demographic in Tuesday’s presidential contest.

But then, the Trump-supporting mother and factory worker said she laughed.

“I thought it was funny,” she said. “A lot of people expect Latinos to say ‘forget Trump,’ and that’s not me.”

Zoraida Buxo, the Republican “shadow senator” from Puerto Rico, endorsed former President Donald Trump Tuesday, saying during a rally in Allentown that Trump will reverse Biden administration policies on the economy, immigration, and the cost of living.

“It’s easy to be distracted or misled by propaganda, emotional manipulation, and distortion of the truth and facts,” Buxo said. “I urge you to watch out and stay focused on what is truly important when you go to cast your vote. We need change, and Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are not the option to bring about the kind of change that you need and want.”

She added that Trump will “deliver results for all.”

Several Latino speakers backing former President Donald Trump warmed up a crowd of supporters in Allentown, despite Trump’s campaign coming under fire for a crude remark made about Puerto Rico at a separate rally on Sunday.

Tim Ramos, a former Republican mayoral candidate in Allentown, greeted the crowd in Spanish and expounded his “love for the island of Puerto Rico.”

“We are beautiful people from a beautiful island, from our flag to our beaches to our salsa music. We encapsulate what true beauty is,” Ramos said. “We need a leader who understands that and sees that in us. Donald Trump is that leader.”

As thousands of MAGA-clad fans waited in line to see Donald Trump in downtown Allentown on Tuesday, a few dozen gathered for a counterprotest to highlight a hot-button issue: Trump and the Latino vote in Pennsylvania.

Allentown is a majority-Latino stronghold with one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in the state — a demographic that Trump has found himself flailing to court in the lead-up to Election Day.

The fallout, critics say, stems most immediately from the crude joke made by a pro-Trump comedian at the Republican’s rally on Sunday, which referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

Joe Rooney, a retired Marine pilot who then flew for Delta Airlines and lives in Abington, asked former President Donald Trump if he's seen the movie True Grit with John Wayne.

“I hope you don't mind me saying this, but you have true grit,” Rooney said to Trump.

He said that the Abington and Montgomery County GOP are working daily to elect Trump.

Maribel Valdez, a stroke survivor and roundtable participant, was called on to share her experience with the Medicare hotline. But before she could do that, Maribel, who moved to the United States from Puerto Rico in 1981, took the opportunity to tell former President Donald Trump that "Puerto Rico stands behind you."

Valdez's comments come as the Trump campaign is dealing with heavy backlash from pundits and Democrats over comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's comments about Puerto Rico — which he called a "floating island of garbage" — at Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

"I think no president's done more for Puerto Rico than I have," Trump said to the crowd Tuesday.

The closest thing to speaking about senior issues during his remarks was former President Donald Trump touting the FDA's “right-to-try” policy that he signed into law in 2018, which allows terminally ill patients to use certain drugs that haven’t been approved yet by the FDA.

The FDA previously offered clinical trials to access unapproved drugs.

He repeated his past claim that the policy has saved thousands of lives, which is not supported by evidence.

At the roundtable geared toward discussing senior citizen issues, like Social Security and Medicare, former President Donald Trump has barely spoken about the topic in the over 15 minutes since he started speaking.

He spent a large portion of his long-winded remarks discussing border security and delivering fear-stoking claims about immigration, which he said was a more important issue than the economy.

Also part of Trump's meandering tangent, he’s railed against his political opponents, including Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, and former United States Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.

Former President Donald Trump repeated false claims about voter registration in Lancaster and York Counties that he posted on Truth Social earlier in the day.

He claimed there were 2,600 fake voter registrations in Lancaster County — which is not true.

“We have a very good DA, and he's probably going to do his thing, and I hope he will, but it's, all written by the same hand,” Trump said. “Okay, maybe that's just coincidence. Maybe everybody has exactly the same handwriting there.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said Tuesday that he’s worried about the rhetoric former President Donald Trump is using to describe election administration in Pennsylvania, saying his “rhetoric is not based on fact.”

“Every single vote will be counted, and that’s what’s gonna happen,” said Casey, a Democrat who spoke to reporters during a campaign event in Allentown. “So he and others can create some conspiracy theories around it, but that’s what’s gonna happen. That’s what happened in 2020.”

Trump on Monday claimed officials in Lancaster County were “caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms,” which is not true. Officials there said they encountered registration applications that showed signs of fraud – not ballots – and the former president drastically overcounted the number of impacted documents.

Just moments ago, the environment in The Drexelbrook Event Center was calm. Attendees were sitting in their seats, waiting for former President Donald Trump — or any other speaker — to come on stage.

But then, Pitbull’s “Give Me Everything” came on. And so ensued an impromptu dance party ensued.

Attendees clapped their hands to the beat as different Trump supporters took turns dancing down the center aisle and waving their hands in air.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said a crude joke about Puerto Rico made at a Trump rally Sunday could sway down-ballot races in Pennsylvania, home to nearly half a million Puerto Ricans.

“It’s broken through like very few other things have in this whole campaign,” said Casey, who’s locked in a tight battle for reelection against GOP challenger Dave McCormick.

Casey appeared in Allentown Tuesday for a conversation about reproductive rights alongside U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D., Illinois) and U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, also a Democrat. Wild is similarly facing a tight battle for reelection against Republican state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in a race that could determine control of the U.S. House.

Mary Carlile and Joan McGrane, Delaware County residents, had never met before. But now they say they’re friends after the pair stood side-by-side — and flanked by Trump supporters — with their anti-Trump signs along the driveway of The Drexelbrook Event Center.

Carlile, 72, held a sign that said “Emperor Has No Clothes” while McGrane held a sign that said “Nope” with a cartoon of Trump’s hair on top.

The two Democrats had heard a Republican candidate was coming to the area and McGrane took the opportunity to bring her sign out in protest.

In a pristine ballroom at The Drexelbrook Event Center, Maryann Brink and her husband, Alan, were sitting between two chandeliers toward the back of the room, waiting for former president Donald Trump to speak at Tuesday’s roundtable. Trump is scheduled to discuss senior citizens’ issues, and Maryann Brink wants one thing from the former president:

“Don’t tax my social security,” said Brink, of Radnor.

Trump has publicly pledged to not cut Social Security and Medicare, but experts warn his policy platform – including the tax cuts on Social Security — could deplete the program’s cash in six years, which would be sooner than previous projections showing the program insolvent by 2034, Forbes reported.

Hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump lined the streets of Allentown Tuesday morning, creating a sea of red hats and flags outside a sports arena downtown.

Just a few blocks away, Democrats slammed Trump inside a campaign office for his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. And a progressive organization that advocates for Latinos planned to protest Trump’s evening rally following crude remarks made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe about Puerto Rico at a Sunday event that drew national outrage.

It all made for a what’s amounted to a city-halting scene in Allentown, the third-largest city in Pennsylvania, where streets are shut down for blocks around the rally site and schools are closed for the day. Media are descending on the city, which is majority Latino and home to more than 34,000 Puerto Ricans, following the rally speaker’s Sunday remark that the territory is a “floating island of garbage.”

A federal judge tossed a lawsuit from six Pennsylvania Republican congressmen on Tuesday, saying their efforts to challenge the validity of thousands of ballots cast by U.S. citizens living abroad had come too late and that they had no standing to sue.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner said the challenge — filed last month by U.S. Reps. U.S. Reps. Scott Perry, Dan Meuser, Glenn Thompson, Mike Kelly, Lloyd Smucker, and Guy Reschenthaler — relied on “phantom fears of foreign malfeasance” to raise merely speculative claims that bad actors could take advantage of state policies to cast illegal votes.

What’s more, the judge said in a 21-page opinion, granting the congressmen the relief they sought — the segregation of all ballots submitted by Pennsylvanians living abroad — was too drastic and too disruptive a remedy to implement this close to the election.

A bit of free advice for Vice President Kamala Harris lingered on a Center City building for nearly a week.

Taped to the side of a red-brick building on the northeast corner of 17th and Locust Streets hung an all-caps message whose form followed its content: “Kamala: Shorter Answers. Get to the Point.”

The author is well-known Philadelphia advertising veteran Elliot Curson.

As the deadline to request a mail in ballot quickly approaches — it’s 5 p.m. today — Pennsylvania Secretary of State urged voters to exercise patience if they wanted to request a ballot in person and said he had asked county election offices to ensure anyone in line by 5 p.m. could request their ballot.

During his daily election briefing Tuesday, Al Schmidt said counties "must" give voters the opportunity to apply for a mail ballot if they're in line today by 5 p.m. But there is no legal requirement for counties to listen to Schmidt's guidance.

Schmidt urged voters to be patient, noting that more than 20,000 mail ballot applications had been submitted statewide in the last 24 hours.

Washington, D.C., police are expecting a massive crowd of people to attend Vice President Kamala Harris' speech Tuesday outside the White House.

D.C. Chief of Police Pamela Smith told reporters the rally on the Ellipse could attract upward of 52,000 people, according to organizers. Overflow crowds will be directed to the Washington Monument, Smith said.

Gates are expected to open at 3 p.m.. Harris' speech is expected to begin around 7:15 p.m.

A Marple Township woman and GOP committeeperson was detained and cited for disorderly conduct at the Delaware County Government Center on Monday after, county officials say, she interacted with residents waiting to request and cast their mail-in ballots.

Val Biancaniello, 55, was “disruptive, belligerent, and attempting to influence voters waiting in line,” according to a statement Tuesday from a county spokesperson.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley shared the video of Biancaniello in handcuffs on X arguing Biancaniello was simply encouraging voters to stay in line.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to arrive in Allentown for a rally Tuesday evening, but he was preceded in town by another president — albeit a fictional one.

Martin Sheen, known for his role as President Jed Bartlet on The West Wing, stood in a crammed campaign office in Allentown Tuesday just a few blocks from where hundreds of Trump supporters were lined up to attend the former president’s rally.

Sheen was there to stump for Vice President Kamala Harris, alongside a handful of local elected officials, including Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk. The actor waxed poetic about political activism — saying “we are rightly called and challenged to find something in our lives worth fighting for” — and led the group in a rendition of “America the Beautiful.”

After rapper Quavo performed a medley of Migos’ greatest hits to a packed crowd at LOVE Park, the rapper marched hundreds of prospective voters to City Hall as a brass band played covers of Rihanna, Whitney Houston, and Coldplay songs.

The procession was the pinnacle of an event hosted by the Civic Responsibility Project and Daybreaker — a professional party company — aimed at getting people to vote early. Earlier in the day, Bill Nye addressed the crowd after a free yoga class and hourlong DJ set.

At 11:45 a.m, the line to vote early at City Hall wrapped around the building as a stilt walker and poll dancer entertained the crowd.

Barbara Bush, 42, the daughter of former President George W. Bush, was in Doylestown to knock doors for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign over the weekend.

"It was inspiring to join the Harris-Walz campaign and meet voters in Pennsylvania this weekend," Bush said. "I’m even more hopeful after speaking to so many voters about the important issues at stake in this election, including protecting women’s rights."

Barbara Bush publicly supported marriage equality in 2011 and Planned Parenthood in 2017, and told People in 2010 she doesn’t label herself with a political party.

No, Lancaster County was not “caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person” as former President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social Monday night.

Trump, who has a long history of spreading false information about Pennsylvania elections, took aim at Lancaster County and York County, both of whom have reported encountering voter registration applications that showed signs of fraud.

But Trump’s post drastically over-counted the impacted documents, and went beyond reality to falsely claim that Lancaster County had encountered “Fake Ballots.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro made a late-night appearance on Monday on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he talked about getting vetted to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, his position on the Israel-Hamas War, fixing I-95, and more.

In the 22-minute interview with Stewart, Shapiro made his pitch to voters on behalf of Harris and shared his “Get S– Done” governing motto with the national audience. He also fielded a complaint from Steward, a New Jersey resident, about the state of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

"You get a certain point past Bucks County, and all of the sudden the whole ride is this," Stewart said while bouncing on his chair. "And then all the sudden, somewhere around Happy Valley, it just goes down to one lane, and you're like, 'What the hell's going on around here?'"

Maria Rodriguez, 37, is a proud Puerto Rican. It took racist comments at a Trump rally last weekend — and an early morning yoga class in LOVE Park — to get her to vote.

Rodriguez was unsure if she wanted to vote in the first place until Sunday evening, when comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage” to pump up the crowd during a rally for former President Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden. Now, she plans to cast her ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris at City Hall before work.

“It was so infuriating that yet again politicians are treating Puerto Ricans like we are less than,” said Rodriguez, an engineer. “I want to see our country move forward with inclusivity.”

Across the street from a quiet City Hall, Philadelphia’s LOVE Park with bustling at 9 a.m. with the sounds of rhythmic EDM and brass band.

The occasion: A nonpartisan early voting project.

Sponsored by the Civic Responsibility Project and Daybreakr (a professional day party company), the event — dubbed The Purple Tour — is meant to turn casting your ballot into a celebration.

From an outsider’s perspective, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s reelection race in purple Bucks County should be competitive.

It is the last area in the Philadelphia suburbs represented by a Republican rather than a Democrat. Former President Donald Trump lost the district in the last two presidential elections and is on the ballot again this year. And it mirrors the profile of suburban communities across the U.S. that have rejected Republican representation in the Trump era.

But Fitzpatrick, a former FBI agent seeking his fifth term in Congress, is treating the race like a sure bet. He has not participated in a single debate and has largely avoided public campaign events — and the media — as he has mounted a low-key reelection campaign. He’s barely acknowledged he’s in a race against Democrat Ashley Ehasz.

Comedian Joe Rogan offered some insight into why Vice President Kamala Harris has not appeared for an interview on his popular podcast. 

Writing on social media early Tuesday morning, Rogan corrected reports Harris turned down an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. 

“They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour,” Rogan wrote. “I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin.”

Former President Donald Trump will travel to Delaware County to participate in a roundtable event hosted by conservative nonprofit, Building America’s Future, in Drexel Hill Tuesday afternoon.

The event is now scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., pushed back after Trump began an event at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida about an hour and half late Tuesday morning.

Later today, Trump will hold a rally at the PPL Center in Allentown. Doors were scheduled to open at 3 p.m., with Trump scheduled to speak around 7 p.m., but that start time could also be pushed back.

» READ MORE: Trump campaign zeroes in on Lehigh County — including Allentown, home to 34,000 Puerto Ricans

Vice President Kamala Harris will stay close to home in Washington, D.C., Tuesday for what her campaign has called a “major closing argument address” at the Ellipse park near the White House.

That address, delivered at the same site former President Donald Trump delivered his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, ahead of the Capitol riot, is expected to attract about 20,000 attendees, according to a permit from the National Park Service.

Timing details had not yet been publicly announced.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign this week is zeroing in on the Lehigh Valley, home to one of the largest Latino populations in the state, shortly after a comedian’s comments about Puerto Rico at a Sunday rally drew national outrage.

Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., appeared in Lehigh County on Monday, hosting a get-out-the-vote event in Allentown and speaking at a sporting club about eight miles outside the city, where he urged supporters to call their friends and bring them to the polls. On Tuesday, Trump himself will hold a rally at a sports arena in the heart of Allentown.

The appearance will be the former president’s first major event since several speakers at a Sunday rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden drew condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike. Most notably during the Sunday rally, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made multiple racist remarks targeted toward Latinos and Black people, including referring to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

If you were hoping to cast your ballot by mail in Pennsylvania, you'll need to take action by the end of the day.

The deadline to apply for a mail ballot from your county election office is 5 p.m. Tuesday. All Pennsylvania voters can apply to vote by mail – you can find information on how to apply here.

The mail ballot application can be accessed here and you can find your local board of elections’ office addresses and contact information here.

The 2024 presidential election is just around the corner, and The Inquirer’s voters guide is bringing you key information about your ballot in Pennsylvania.

General elections — this year’s held on Nov. 5 — determine which candidates will be elected for their respective offices. The major party candidates on the ballot are typically chosen through the primary elections held in the spring. Voters can pick any candidate in the general election, regardless of their political party. This guide provides key points for all federal and statewide races as well as state legislative races in Philadelphia and its four collar counties.

The ballot will be crowded this year. Pennsylvanians will vote for U.S. president; their representatives in the U.S. Senate and House; representatives in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, including members of the state House and state Senate; as well as auditor general, attorney general, and treasurer.