‘CHOOSE THE LESSER EVIL’ in US election, says Pope as Catholic leader criticizes Kamala Harris and Donald Trump

Pope Francis made the remarks after a 12-day international tour and said both US presidential hopefuls have policies that are “against life”.

The Pope has told American Catholics to “choose the lesser evil” as he criticised both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Pope Francis launched the surprise intervention in the US election on his flight from Singapore to Rome on Friday.

He was critical of vice president Harris over her stance supporting abortion rights, claiming the procedure is an “assassination”, and said that Mr Trump’s plan to deport millions of immigrants was a “grave” sin.

Then, he called on American Catholics to “choose the lesser evil” when they headed to the polls in November.

He did not elaborate further.

In his remarks, he did not name Ms Harris or Mr Trump, and instead referred specifically to their policies and their genders – but he did say Catholics should vote.

The 87-year-old said: “Not voting is ugly. It is not good. You must vote.