Associated Press

Here’s what we’re watching today:

• Trump’s Mar-a-Lago remarks: While he didn’t mention comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s controversial remarks about Puerto Rico, Trump expounded at length about his Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday, which he called a “lovefest,” a term he has also used to reference the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

• Harris in Washington: Harris will give a speech from the same location where Trump helped incite a mob on Jan. 6, 2021. Harris chose the spot to draw a contrast between her and her opponent.
• Fires in ballot boxes: Incendiary devices were set off Monday at two ballot drop boxes — one in Portland and another in nearby Vancouver, Washington — destroying hundreds of ballots in what one official called a “direct attack on democracy.”

The first presidential election since the Jan. 6 attack will test new guardrails from Congress
LISA MASCARO, October 29, 2024

This presidential election, the first since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, will be a stress test of the new systems and guardrails that Congress put in place to ensure America’s long tradition of the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

After the Jan. 6 attack, Congress set out to shore up the process and prevent a repeat of that unprecedented period when Trump, joined by some GOP allies in Congress, refused to concede defeat to President Joe Biden. Trump spent months pushing dozens of failed legal cases before sending his supporters to the U.S. Capitol, where they disrupted the electoral count with a bloody riot. He faces a federal indictment for the scheme, which included slates of fake electors from states falsely claiming he won.