In reversal, Trump to rally in Iowa and Kansas in final days before midterms – live

Two scheduled campaign appearances by Donald Trump – one in Kansas, another in Iowa – that Trump had initially backed out of are now back on, according to the White House.

“Rallies are BACK ON! President Trump loves his supporters, and in addition to nearly 20 tele-rallies, he will hold back-to-back rallies in Kansas and Iowa on Sunday,” the White House said in a statement. “No one works harder, fights harder, or loves the American people more than President Donald J. Trump!”

Trump had initially planned to campaign in Kansas on Saturday and Iowa on Sunday. Now, both Trump rallies are slated to happen back-to-back on Sunday.

Republican officials had originally said Trump abandoned plans to attend the rallies to instead focus on remote tele-rallies that would’ve allowed him to reach more states in the final days of the midterms. But a source interviewed by the Associated Press said that the president’s schedule had seen been reconfigured to include both the virtual and in-person rallies planned for Trump.

Trump’s sudden departure from the events in Kansas and Iowa raised eyebrows, appearing like an unexpected retreat from in-person campaigning as Republicans faced a potentially blistering midterm election, and for a president who has famously enjoyed the campaign stage.

Pollsters from The Washington Post and George Mason University, seeking to shed light on a closely-watched Senate race in Kansas, found themselves with an issue.

Democrats, the poll found, were overwhelmingly more likely than Republicans to engage with poll-takers on the issue. And while partisan differences in participants’ likelihood to answer polls is common, the scale of the problem was exceptional in Kansas.

Even after tailoring the poll to net more responses from hesitant would-be voters, the poll still received participation from a wide gap of 32 percent of Democrats compared to 12 percent by Republicans.

The poll’s result shows Adam Hamilton, the Democratic candidate for Senate who is leading a surprisingly tight campaign against Republican Roger Marshall, by 52 percent to 43 percent. But the Post felt it necessary to caution that the poll likely overestimates Democrat support.

The results of that poll may temper Democratic optimism for next week’s midterm elections, which has been buoyed by a series of polls showing Democrats leading or closely contesting key races, including some for normally deep-red Senate seats.

In a series of posts to his personal social media platform this morning, Trump appeared to back Pete Hegseth’s firing of the Pentagon’s top military planner, as well as his referral for prosecution in connection with an alleged leak of information.

Hegseth dismissed Gen Brett Sylvia, a high-ranking army strategist serving on the Pentagon’s joint staff, on Thursday following allegations that he shared classified information.

On Friday, Trump shared a pair of screenshots to Truth Social of conservative commentators applauding Hegseth’s decision and calling for the general’s prosecution.

One of those posts refererred to Sylvia as a “traitor” and said he should be “sent to Leavenworth,” the prison for military personnel convicted in a court-martial.

Speaking to a Kansas City radio host this morning, Donald Trump said – as he has many times before – that an end to the Iran war is imminent.

The wary, Trump said, “is going to get wrapped up soon,” Trump said ‌in an interview with Kansas City ​radio host Pete Mundo.

Trump said the conflict’s resolution would require “a guarantee there’ll never be ⁠a nuclear weapon” in Iran.

Since launching the war in February with hopes for a quick capitulation from Iran’s decimated leadership, Trump has consistently expressed the belief that the war would end, even as fighting has escalated and economic shocks from the conflict have multiplied. On the campaign trail, he has asserted that fighting will end soon after the US midterms, so long as Republicans maintain a majority in Congress.

Recent reporting indicates that the President may be preparing another round of intense military action on Iran, in the event the country’s leadership doesn’t agree to a deal.

Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola has denied that she knew anything about an effort to put another candidate on the Alaska ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent as the Justice Department escalated a criminal investigation with new grand jury subpoenas.

“I just want to clear the air,” she said at the top of a speech in a downtown bar in Juneau, Alaska’s capital.

“I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters.”

Peltola is running against senator Dan Sullivan. A person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press that subpoenas seeking grand jury testimony or documents, along with records preservation demands, were issued after The New York Times reported that Peltola’s campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting Dan J Sullivan Jr as part of an alleged effort to confuse voters.

Members of Congress sent a scathing letter to federal immigration officials this week demanding answers about conditions inside a Texas immigration jail, as detained immigrants on a prolonged hunger strike claim officials are retaliating against them and threatening them with force-feeding.

A group of seven congressional Democrats sent the letter earlier this week to Markwayne Mullin, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary, and David Venturella, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acting director, protesting about the treatment of hunger strikers.

The El Valle detention facility in Raymondville, Texas, detaining men and women, has fallen under scrutiny in recent weeks for allegations of harsh conditions. Detained immigrants on hunger strike say the facility has substandard medical care, undrinkable water and guards that mistreat them.

Some hunger strikers are also protesting against their prolonged detention and are asking for their cases to move more quickly or to be transferred closer to loved ones in other parts of the country.

“It is abundantly clear that DHS continues to demonstrate gross disregard for the health, dignity, personhood, and safety of our communities,” the group of lawmakers, led by the Illinois representative Delia Ramirez, said in their letter to the DHS and ICE. “However, we remain committed to conducting oversight, advocating for our constituents, and pursuing accountability.”

The representatives “unequivocally condemn” conditions reported at the facility.

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

Donald Trump has cancelled weekend rallies in Iowa and Kansas, instead opting to support Republican candidates with tele-rallies as midterm campaigning reaches its final days ahead of the midterms.

Trump was scheduled to hold in-person rallies on Saturday and Sunday but the Republican National Committee (RNC) announced that he would instead spend a “72-hour sprint” doing rallies by phone rather than in person.

It is a move the RNC said would maximize Trump’s ability to speak to voters nationwide, adding that telerallies are planned for nearly 20 states and more may be announced.

It marks an abrupt shift in Trump’s pledge to push through the final days of the campaign doing rally after rally to galvanize his supporters. As of Thursday, he had done 25 rallies during the month of October, falling short of a goal he had once placed north of 30.

The president travelled to South Carolina yesterday for the second time in a month, a sign of Republican anxiety about Darline Graham’s ability to fend off a robust challenge from Democratic candidate Annie Andrews for a critical US Senate seat.

Voters in South Carolina have not sent a Democrat to the Senate in nearly three decades. But Andrews, a pediatrician who previously ran unsuccessfully for Congress , is urging voters seeking change to “try something new for once.”

Beyond South Carolina, Republicans are entering the final days of this year’s midterm elections navigating tight contests in Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Iowa and Alaska. Both parties are also closely following developments in the Mississippi Senate race, AP reported.

Trump lashed out at a Reuters reporter who asked him why he cancelled the planned appearance at a rally in Kansas on Saturday in support of a embattled Republican senator, Dr Roger Marshall. “You’re sick to ask that question,” the president said.

In other developments:

• Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, confirmed on Thursday that his campaign is no longer airing an attack ad that features the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Dr Amy Acton.

• Donald Trump called again for Democrat Mary Peltola to be criminally prosecuted and disqualified from the Alaska Senate race for her campaign allegedly recruiting a man named Dan Sullivan to run against Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.

• Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed will campaign on Sunday in Detroit with Haley Stevens, the congresswoman he narrowly defeated to win the Democratic party’s nomination in August.

• Tom Hoyle, who achieved instant viral fame on Thursday by comparing Trump supporters to a cult in a live interview with Fox News before the president’s rally in South Carolina, was removed from the venue by three Secret Service agents.