Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic governor of New Jersey, on Thursday called on her own lieutenant governor, Dale Caldwell, to immediately resign in response to a probe that found Caldwell had engaged in sexual harassment and repeatedly broken state ethics rules.

The investigation, published in a report dated Wednesday but announced by Sherrill the following evening, found that Caldwell had engaged in "serious, repeated violations of state policy." These included making sexual overtures to the friend of a staff member in that staffer's presence and, after being rejected, told the staffer: "you young women are looking for young sperm."

Caldwell, a Democrat, had also broken state ethics policy by lobbying for a promotion for a state employee with whom he'd maintained a romantic relationship, and by bringing guests to ticketed events without paying for them, the report concluded.

Sherrill's office engaged a private law firm to investigate allegations into Caldwell in response to an anonymous letter in May, according to the report.

In publicizing her demand for Caldwell's resignation, Sherrill sought to differentiate her governorship from the ethics of the Trump administration.

"The Lieutenant Governor's resignation is necessary and in the best interest of New Jersey residents," Sherrill wrote in a post to social media on Friday.

She continued: "The President continues to undermine confidence in public service at the federal level. In New Jersey, I will not accept a culture that sweeps misconduct under the rug. We have to be better than that — people expect and deserve better."

Caldwell's lawyer, Thomas Calcagni, has disputed the allegations according to the AP, calling the investigation a one-sided operation that did not include necessary due process.

"The Lieutenant Governor was not provided a meaningful opportunity to address each of these anonymous allegations," he said in a statement.

In our second live discussion ahead of the elections, Joseph Gedeon, Dara Kerr and Chris Stein will join us at 11am EDT (4pm BST) to answer your questions about who is backing candidates in the upcoming midterms.

Our reporters will cover who is funding the campaigns, where the money is going and how it's shaping the election outlook ahead of the votes on 3 November.

You can follow along here later today:

Journalists for CNN and MS Now were denied access to the White House state dinner in honor of Xi Jinping, China's president, on Thursday evening, hours after a federal judge ruled the Trump administration must allow them in after imposing a ban last week.

"About an hour before Xi's arrival was scheduled, the White House said CNN could cover the event, but only with a photojournalist and audio technician, notably excluding the network's editorial team consisting of a reporter and producer," CNN reported.

MS Now, another outlet banned from the White House by Trump last week for what he calls overly negative coverage of his presidency, also said its White House reporter, Laura Barrón-López, was prevented from covering Xi's arrival for the state dinner despite applying for credentials to cover the event. When Barrón-López asked a White House staffer why she was denied access, the staffer said she should "talk to Steven", apparently meaning White House communications director Steven Cheung, MS Now reported.

Xi's arrival for the dinner, with his wife, Peng Liyuan, was streamed live on YouTube by the White House, but none of the major US networks provided live broadcast video of the event in solidarity with CNN, a member of the broadcast pool.

Earlier on Thursday, journalists for CNN, MS Now and Politico, which was also part of the ban issued last week, were finally granted access to the White House after days of being barred from the building.

Earlier attempts by the journalists to enter the building had been unsuccessful, and lawyers representing the three organizations had told a judge that the White House has already "repeatedly violated" his overnight order requiring the Trump administration to return the press badges of journalists from the three news organizations.

Timothy Kelly, the US district judge who appeared skeptical of arguments from lawyers representing the White House during a hearing on Wednesday, issued an early morning order forcing the administration to return access for a 14-day period.

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

Donald Trump is taking Chinese president Xi Jinping to visit the National Archives later today, showing off the sacred texts of US democracy to the leader of the world's most powerful communist country.

Xi is expected to depart Washington after touring the nation's vault of records, where the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are held, AP reported.

The three-day state visit came as the US celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding and Trump said on Thursday that he wanted to show Xi "some of the greatest treasures of that proud history."

The archives has a special exhibit marking the sesquicentennial, titled 'The American Story,' which highlights the country's accomplishments and advances, along with images depicting its darker moments.

Trump showed Xi one copy of the Declaration of Independence on Thursday - a wall-mounted copy he keeps in the Oval Office. The US president also said he wanted to show Xi artefacts about the relationship between the two countries.

"Just as our ancestors reached across the ocean centuries ago to trade, to learn, and to build a better world, our two countries do really the same thing, and we're very proud of it," he said.

Xi's day will begin at the White House, where Trump and first lady Melania Trump will host the Chinese leader and his wife, Peng Liyuan, for tea.

In other developments:

• Donald Trump welcomed to the White House for a state dinner in honor of the Chinese leader that was not televised because the White House continued to deny full access to the event to CNN journalists on Thursday, despite a court order.

• Writing on his social media platform, Trump complained that two of the three outlets he banned from the White House, CNN and MS Now, "refused to cover" his elaborate welcome of Xi to the White House. He did not mention that the two broadcasters were not in position to cover the event live because his own actions and those of his aides, who continued to block their reporters.

• As Israel's prime minister attacked him at the UN, New York's mayor, , doubled down on his support for Palestinians by making public video of himself hosting Palestinian families from Gaza.

• , the Democratic socialist congressional candidate from New York, was among dozens of activists arrested near the United Nations on Thursday at a protest against Netanyahu's appearance organized by Jewish Voice for Peace.

• The Trump administration used taxpayer funds to air a White House-produced, pro-Trump ad on Fox News this week.