US election: five key moments in an extraordinary campaign

In this photo illustration, the names of the candidates for the 2024 Presidential election, including Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, and Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, appear on a vote-by-mail ballot on October 02, 2024 in Miami, Florida. Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — Courts, bullets and verbal stumbles have made their mark on this year’s US election campaign — one of the most extraordinary in the nation’s history.

Here are five key moments so far as candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris edge towards election day on November 5.

Trump the felon

“Trump Guilty,” is splashed across the world’s front pages. On May 30 the Republican becomes the first former US president to be convicted of felony crimes — 34 counts to be exact.

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He is found to have falsified business records to hide a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of his 2016 election win, so that she would not publicize their alleged sexual encounter.

In the explosive six-week trial, Daniels shares excruciating details about their apparent one-night stand, including the sex position and Trump’s silky pajamas.

The ordeal pulls him from the campaign trail, but huge media attention ensures he keeps the spotlight — even if it is on his criminality.

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Nothing in US law prevents Trump from running for the White House after the guilty verdict, and Republicans double down their unwavering support for the party standard-bearer, who still faces three other criminal cases.

Debate drama

Democratic hopes appear shattered after President Joe Biden, the party’s presumptive nominee, delivers a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27.

The 81-year-old fumbles his words and often appears to forget what he is saying, bolstering fears that he is not fit to run again for president.

Biden brushes it off as a “bad night” but dissenters say otherwise, with donors threatening to pull funding if he does not step aside.

Post-debate polling shows Trump pulling away from Biden but the White House insists there is zero chance he will withdraw.

Assassination attempt

A sun-baked Trump rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 provides the election campaign’s most shocking moment yet.

Popping sounds ring out, Trump touches his ear, sees blood, and drops to the stage floor. Secret Service officers surround him as screams ring out in the crowd.

Within seconds Trump is helped back to his feet. “Fight, fight, fight!” he mouths to a now cheering audience, raising his fist to create one of the most iconic images in US political history.

The gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, is shot dead at the scene by the Secret Service, and Trump survives with a minor graze to his right ear.

Trump’s base is galvanized. “I took a bullet for democracy,” he tells his supporters at a later rally.

Biden says ‘bye’

At 1.46 pm on Sunday, July 21, a beleaguered President Biden announces in a tweet that he will not seek reelection, yielding to intense concerns over his ability to defeat Trump in November.

It makes him the first sitting president since 1968 not to seek reelection, and upends the White House race.

Kamala Harris, the first female, Black and Asian-American to serve as US vice president, gains Biden’s endorsement to replace him in the campaign.

Within two weeks she formally secures the Democratic nomination, making her the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket.

Harris re-energizes Democrats and delivers immediate results in opinion polls by clawing back Trump’s gains, including in the election-deciding swing states.

Trump’s second scare

Trump’s weekend round of golf in Florida on September 15 is shattered by the sound of gunshots — this time fired by a Secret Service agent foiling what the FBI calls an apparent assassination attempt.

The Republican nominee is unharmed in the second such scare in two months.

Investigators say the gunman, Ryan Routh, did not shoot at Trump but instead fled when a security agent opened fire after seeing his rifle pointing through a tree line at the golf course.

Trump attributes the assassination scare to the allegedly provocative “rhetoric” of Biden and Harris.

The Democrats say they condemn political violence, but the incident highlights the volatility of US politics just weeks before voters head to the polls.