WASHINGTON (AP) — Coverage of the U.S. presidential campaign (all times EDT):
Updated 1:25 p.m.: A month ago, Speaker Paul Ryan told House Republicans he would neither defend nor work for Donald Trump’s election. Now America’s top elected Republican is talking unity.
Ryan said in an interview Monday on WTMJ-AM that “I do not want to harm our team going into the election. I want to unify our team going into the election.”
The Wisconsin congressman said in a statement Sunday that the way to end the Clinton era is to elect Trump. It was one of the first explicit calls for electing Trump since Ryan effectively abandoned the presidential candidate over crude, predatory remarks about groping women.
Ryan is seeking re-election as speaker. Some House Republicans have criticized him for his tepid support for Trump.
Updated 1:05 p.m.: The lone American off the planet has cast his vote from space. That’s in keeping with NASA’s motto of “Vote while you float.”
NASA said Monday that astronaut Shane Kimbrough (KIM-broe) filed his ballot from the International Space Station sometime over the past few days. He arrived at the orbiting lab in mid-October. Before launching, Kimbrough said it was going to be special, being able to say “I voted from space.”
NASA says the previous U.S. space station resident, Kate Rubins, also cast an absentee ballot from up there, before returning to Earth a week ago.
A 1997 Texas law allows U.S. astronauts to vote from space. For NASA astronauts, home is Houston when they’re not circling the globe.
Updated 1:05 p.m.: President Barack Obama is making an explicit pitch to Michigan’s auto workers. He says that Donald Trump doesn’t care about their future.
Obama is campaigning Monday for Hillary Clinton in Ann Arbor, outside Detroit. He said he and Democrats have “earned some credibility here” after saving the auto industry through federal bailouts early in Obama’s presidency.
Obama said in contrast, Trump said Washington could have let the auto companies go bankrupt. He said if even two of the major auto companies had gone bankrupt, it could have cost a million U.S. jobs and killed Michigan’s auto industry.
Obama says auto workers shouldn’t be “bamboozled” by the Republican business mogul.
Updated 12:55 p.m.: Police officials in New York say they plan a show of force for Election Day equal to New Year’s Eve in Times Square and last year’s visit by Pope Francis.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and top NYPD officials said Monday that more than 5,000 police officers will be assigned on Tuesday to secure midtown Manhattan, where both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will spend election night. Police also will be posted at polling places across the city.
The contingent includes heavy weapon units trained to respond quickly to terror threats. Both uniformed and plainclothes officers will flood the subways and crowded areas like Times Square.
Streets will be closed around the New York Hilton, scene of Trump’s gathering, and the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, scene of Clinton’s festivities.
Updated 12:50 p.m.: Hillary Clinton is ending her campaign with a decidedly positive message, after days of focusing on attacking Donald Trump.
Clinton Is telling voters they don’t have to accept a “dark and divisive” future, saying she doesn’t recognize the country Trump describes in his campaign speeches. The Democratic presidential candidate is promising a brighter future that will address the economic inequality facing America.
She said: “Tomorrow you can vote for a hopeful, inclusive, bighearted America.”
Clinton is campaigning in Pittsburgh, a crucial area in a key battleground state. She’ll return to Pennsylvania on Monday night for a campaign rally with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama. She’s also making stops in Michigan and North Carolina.
Updated 12:40 p.m.: Chelsea Clinton says Donald Trump has fueled the bullying in schools that her mother, Hillary Clinton, wants to stop.
The former first daughter is introducing President Barack Obama at a rally Monday for her mother in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She says Obama hasn’t gotten enough credit for progress on his watch.
Chelsea Clinton said if Americans care about health care, jobs, women’s rights and LGBT equality, they need to vote on Tuesday. She’s making a particular pitch to Michigan’s auto workers in nearby Detroit.
Chelsea Clinton says she’s so proud that her two children were born while Obama was president.
Updated 12:35 p.m.: Hillary Clinton is being introduced by Tom Colicchio, famous for his role as a judge on the television show “Top Chef.”
The celebrity chef urged voters in Pittsburgh Monday to support Clinton.
He said he met Clinton when she was a senator from New York and she would urge him to use foods from upstate New York farmers.
He said Clinton “can tie this country together.”
The two embraced when she took the stage.
Clinton is spending the final hours before Election Day on a four-state tour of battleground states.
Updated 12 p.m.: Donald Trump’s running mate is urging Republican voters to “come home” and ensure that Democrat Hillary Clinton “is never elected president of the United States.”
Mike Pence told a Duluth, Minnesota, crowd Monday that Clinton would bring “the politics of personal enrichment” and “outright corruption” to the Oval Office.
He dismissed the FBI’s Sunday announcement that the agency has found no new evidence of criminal wrongdoing in Clinton’s handling of national security information while secretary of state.
Pence noted that FBI Director James Comey had previously confirmed the presence of classified material in emails sent on a private server Clinton used. Pence insisted that amounts to a crime.
The Indiana governor plans at least two more rallies in battleground states before Election Day.
Updated 11:55 a.m.: Donald Trump is criticizing the FBI’s decision not to criminally charge Hillary Clinton. He says “now it’s up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box.”
Trump kicked off his Election Day eve blitz with a rally Monday in Florida. He told the Sarasota crowd that “the system is rigged, but at least we know it.”
He claimed that “our country is a laughing stock all over the world.”
The Republican nominee than pantomimed quotation marks when he said the word “justice” as he hit the FBI and the Department of Justice for their handling of the case.
FBI Director James Comey notified Congress Sunday that a review of new emails connected to Clinton’s servers did not produce evidence that would warrant charges.
Updated 11:45 a.m.: An ex-aide to former President Bill Clinton alleged in a hacked email that Chelsea Clinton used the family’s charitable foundation to help underwrite her 2010 wedding.
The 2012 exchange between Doug Band and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta was released by the WikiLeaks organization. Stolen messages have chronicled tensions within the Clinton Foundation between Band and the daughter of the Democratic presidential nominee.
Band told Podesta that Chelsea Clinton was gossiping to outsiders that she was investigating questionable spending. Band suggested that she is the one who should be scrutinized for “using foundation resources for her wedding.” He did not provide details about this. A spokeswoman for Chelsea Clinton declined to comment.
Band was later forced out amid issues with his outside consulting firm.
Updated 11:40 a.m.: Donald Trump is kicking off his last, breakneck day of campaigning before polls open with a rally in Sarasota, Florida.
Trump is telling thousands of supporters packed into a local fairgrounds arena Monday that the election is now in their hands.
He told them: “Get out there. I mean, I did my thing. I worked.”
Trump is planning to continue a frenzied campaign pace, with rallies in five states Monday, including North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan.
Trump is also continuing to paint rival Hillary Clinton as a corrupt and alluding to the scrutiny of her use of a private email sever as secretary of state.
Trump is also having some fun. At one point, he held up a mask in his likeness and complimented its hair.
That’s the same phrasing the White House used when Comey initially announced that the FBI was looking into more emails related to its investigation of Clinton. In a follow-up letter Sunday, Comey said the FBI review was completed and it was standing by its recommendation that no charges be filed.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Monday told reporters aboard Air Force One that the White House hasn’t been briefed on the investigation and didn’t receive advance notice about Comey’s latest letter.
Earnest says Obama still has confidence in Comey.
Updated 10:50 a.m.: Philadelphia’s public transit system will be up and running in time for Election Day now that a weeklong strike has ended. That’s a relief to the state’s Democrats.
Democratic city officials were worried that the strike could affect turnout at the polls Tuesday. Pennsylvania does not offer early voting, so Election Day turnout is key.
The state has favored Democrats in recent presidential elections, but polls suggest the race is tightening. Democrat Hillary Clinton is counting on strong support in the Philadelphia area. Both candidates are campaigning in the state Tuesday.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and the union representing roughly 4,700 transit workers announced a tentative agreement early Monday. Subways were soon operating on a reduced schedule and limited trolley service was restored.
Updated 10:30 a.m.: The Justice Department says it will send more than 500 staffers to 28 states on Election Day to monitor the polls. That’s a 35 percent reduction from the number four years ago.
Department officials say personnel will be sent to 67 jurisdictions to watch for potential civil rights violations. Monday’s announcement comes amid rising concerns about voter intimidation, particularly aimed at minorities.
The number of personnel is less than the roughly 780 monitors and observers who were dispatched in 2012.
The Justice Department has said its poll-watching presence has been curtailed by a 2013 Supreme Court opinion that gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
In a statement, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the department is committed to ensuring that every eligible voter can participate in the election.
Updated 10:25 a.m.: Hillary Clinton is departing on a multi-stop swing of the presidential battleground states on the day before the election. She’s telling reporters that “we’re just going to work until the last vote is counted.”
Clinton said Monday that while she thinks she has “some work to do to bring the country together,” she wants to be the president for those who vote for her and those who don’t. She was speaking to reporters at an airport outside New York City.
Clinton said she has “a big agenda ahead of us” and is vowing to “get a lot done” if she defeats Republican Donald Trump.
The Democratic presidential nominee was campaigning in Pittsburgh; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Philadelphia and Raleigh, North Carolina.
Updated 8:55 a.m.: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he doesn’t know if the George Washington Bridge lane closure controversy cost him the vice presidential nomination.
Christie said Monday on “CBS This Morning” that he was runner-up to be Republican Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick. He denied a report that Trump had offered him the job, then rescinded it. He said he thinks Trump thought Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was the better choice.
Two of Christie’s former allies were convicted Friday for their role in re-aligning access lanes to the bridge in a political revenge plot against a Democratic mayor who didn’t endorse him.
Christie says he thinks Trump will defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton Tuesday because the momentum is on his side and the country wants change.
Updated 8:35 a.m.: Ohio Democrats want the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in their voter intimidation lawsuit in the swing state.
The party has filed an emergency request for the nation’s high court to lift a Cincinnati-based federal appeals court order. That ruling Sunday granted the Donald Trump campaign’s request to block a federal judge’s restraining order Democrats said was needed to prevent voter intimidation.
A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel said Ohio Democrats didn’t show “a likelihood of success” on their case’s merits.
The party told the U.S. Supreme Court the appellate judges ruled without reviewing “critical evidence” a lower court judge relied on in ruling that anyone engaging in intimidation or harassment inside or near polling places would face contempt of court charges.
Updated 7:35 a.m.: Donald Trump’s campaign manager says it’s not true that his staff has stopped him from tweeting.
Trump has exhibited unusual restraint on social media in the final days of the campaign. The New York Times reported on Sunday that aides “have finally wrested away” his Twitter account.
President Barack Obama seized on the report at a voter rally in Florida, telling the crowd that anyone who can’t be trusted with a Twitter account shouldn’t be trusted with control of the America’s nuclear weapons.
When asked Monday about the Times report by NBC’s “Today Show,” campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said: “No, it’s not true.”
Updated 3:15 a.m.: With the cloud of an FBI investigation lifted, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump struck strikingly different tones as they moved into the final hours of a volatile, nearly two-yearlong presidential campaign.
After days of attacks on Trump’s qualifications and temperament, Clinton cast herself as the candidate of “healing and reconciliation,” perhaps a surprising position for one of the most divisive figures in American politics. Trump, meanwhile, voiced new confidence as he brought his campaign — and his dark visions of a rigged American economic and political system— to longtime Democratic strongholds.
Overshadowing the flurry of last-minute campaigning was FBI Director James Comey’s latest letter to Congress, informing lawmakers the bureau had found no evidence in its hurried review of newly discovered emails to warrant criminal charges against Clinton.
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