Election 2024 live updates: Kamala Harris picks Time Walz vice president

It’s Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz, according to reports from AP and CNN.

The liberal governor has been chosen as Kamala Harris’ running mate as she looks to boost the Democratic ticket in the Midwest, with his Pennsylvania counterpart Josh Shapiro missing out.

Here’s our profile of Walz.

Vice President Kamala Harris has decided on a running mate, AP sources say, with an announcement due in the coming hours.

She reportedly went to bed last night without having definitively made up her mind, CNN reported earlier, the candidate wanting one last chance to sleep on her decision.

That means that Harris will only now be informing her chosen running mate, as well as the advisers around her, sometime this morning.

Nevertheless, preparations for the eventual announcement — including preparatory work for this evening’s Philadelphia rally, where Harris and her running mate will appear together for the first time – have had to go on, even with the campaign stuck in waiting mode.

To that end, her team has had to have multiple versions of signs printed featuring Harris’ name alongside those of Shapiro, Walz and others.

Here’s Eric Garcia on why Minnesota’s Governor, who has relished labelling Trump and JD Vance “weird”, could be the smart pick.

Now that we’re reportedly down to a final two, here’s a look at the two contenders to be Harris’ prospective running mate in detail.

First up, here’s John Bowden on the Pennsylvania Governor.

We’re expecting an emailed statement and concurrent social media announcement, probably by video, at some point today announcing Harris’ final decision on her running mate, which, as we’ve seen, looks like being either Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro or Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

The news will have to break in good time for this evening’s rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – where Shapiro could presumably expect a hero’s welcome – which kicks off at 5.30pm local time (10.30pm GMT).

It’s taking place at Temple University’s Liacouras Center in the north of the city, a venue which claims to have up to 10,000 seats and is the largest indoor public assembly venue north of City Hall at 340,000 square feet.

After tonight, Harris and her running mate will “crisscross the country, traveling to battleground states to meet voters where they are and highlight the stakes of this election”, according to a statement from her campaign.

That whistle stop tour will take them, over the next five days, to Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; The Research Triangle in North Carolina; Phoenix, Arizona; and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Over in Donald Trump’s social media dungeon, he’s been desperately pushing a new nick name for Harris: “Kamabla”.

I don’t know, is he losing the magic? Doesn’t do much for me.

He has also been attacking one of his favourite media enemies, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, over the veteran journalist’s brutal takedown of MAGA Florida Congressman Bryon Donalds on Sunday, which you can see for yourself below.

The Republican told Adin Ross that he would like to “fire” ABC News journalist Rachel Scott, who grilled him about his past comments about race during a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week.

During his appearance on Ross’s livestream on Kick on Monday, Trump was asked for his reaction to the event, which his campaign appeared to cut short by 30 minutes when it was clear that he led the session off the rails.

“This woman starts talking… about racism, and I said, ‘You didn’t even say hello to me,’ and I’m doing them a favor by doing this,” Trump told Ross on Monday.

“I’m doing this out of respect to the Black community.”

Scott has since said she has received death threats in the wake of Trump’s embarrassment at the event.

Republican candidate Donald Trump was interviewed by YouTube personality Adin Ross on Monday, who presented him with a Rolex watch and a Tesla Cybertruck wrapped in a photograph of the former president taken moments after a gunman shot him at a rally in Pennsylvania last month.

Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money trial won’t be delayed by a long-shot lawsuit from Missouri’s Republican attorney general, whose challenge to a gag order against the former president was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

The challenge from Andrew Bailey argued that a gag order and a potential jail sentence against the Republican presidential nominee amounted to election interference and would deprive Missouri voters from hearing the candidate before they cast their ballots.

Justices denied that challenge in a brief order on Monday.

The order also noted that Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas would have allowed Bailey to at least file the suit, but would not have granted him his requested emergency relief.

Alex Woodward has this report.

Harris has now officially been declared the Democratic party’s presidential candidate for the 2024 election in place of President Joe Biden – making history as the first Black woman and Asian American to top a major party ticket.

Her nomination became official late on Monday night, after a five-day round of online balloting by Democratic National Convention (DNC) delegates came to an end.

The DNC announced her win in a statement, revealing that she had earned the support of 99 per cent of the 4,567 delegates casting ballots in the roll call vote.