theguardian--2020-10-12--Judges' politics absolutely sway how they decide cases. I crunched the numbers | Zalman Rothschild

Not much is certain about US politics these days .
But if there ’ s one thing we know about Amy Coney Barrett ’ s confirmation hearings it is this : she will be asked about the role politics will play in her judicial decision making .
If history is precedent , Judge Barrett will adamantly reject the supposition that her politics impact her adjudication .
Starting with Chief Justice John Roberts – who , during his confirmation hearings , famously described the judicial role as one of a neutral baseball umpire “ call [ ing ] balls and strikes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for both liberal and conservative US supreme court nominees to declare that politics have no bearing on judicial decision making .
In reality , there is no dearth of data measuring the extent to which judges decide cases based on political preferences .
Consider the recent spate of cases concerning religious institutions which challenged coronavirus-related lockdown orders as violations of religious freedom .
Freedom of religion and the future supreme court are of particular importance : the survival of many recent progressive initiatives - including the Affordable Care Act ’ s mandate requiring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contraception , and laws prohibiting discriminatory treatment of LGBTQ people , to list just two – will rest in no small measure on courts ’ interpretation and application of the “ free exercise ” religion clause of the first amendment of the constitution .
Findings from a survey I conducted suggest that the outcome in some subsets of religious freedom cases track political affiliation to a staggering degree .
I surveyed every merits-based federal court decision pertaining to a free exercise challenge to a stay-at-home order .
The findings are staggering : 0 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a religious institution ; the vast majority ( 67 % ) of Republican-appointed judges have sided with a religious institution ; and 0 % of Trump-appointed judges have ruled against religious institutions .
In other words , all Trump-appointed judges have sided with religious institutions and all Democrat-appointed judges have sided with the state or city government .
To be sure , my sample set – 74 cases – is not enormous .
But the ability to predict to such a high degree the outcome of cases implicating the same free exercise question @ @ @ @ @ @ @ illuminating .
It suggests that Covid-19 has produced not only a partisan divide in the courts , but also that freedom of religion itself has become dramatically politicized .
It was not long ago that religious freedom was considered a bipartisan issue , garnering near unanimous support on Capitol Hill .
When the supreme court in 1990 drastically narrowed the meaning of free exercise , it was met with outrage from Republicans and Democrats alike .
That outrage fueled the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ( RFRA ) , which was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ court had eviscerated .
RFRA passed the House unanimously and was approved in the Senate by a vote of 97-3 .
Such collaboration on religious freedom could not be imagined today .
In the wake of Obergefell v Hodges , in which the supreme court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 , conservatives became alarmed at the prospect of America shifting sharply more “ progressive ” on cultural and social issues .
Conservatives , especially rightwing Catholics and evangelical Protestants , rallied around the banner of religious freedom .
They fought the Affordable Care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the accommodations for churches in the Act were insufficient .
Religious pharmacists also sought exemptions from state requirements that they dispense contraceptives .
Yet by far the most charged battle over religious accommodation has concerned same-sex marriage .
Conservatives worked hard at the state and federal levels to carve out religious exemptions through state statutes and proposed constitutional amendments .
Liberals saw these exemptions as fronts to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals and women seeking contraception .
As a result , Democrats in Congress are attempting to pass the Equality Act , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ based on sexual orientation and gender identity .
A specific provision would pre-empt the possibility of RFRA being employed as a defense against a discrimination allegation .
The Democratic congressman Jerry Nadler – who was a vocal advocate of RFRA two and a half decades ago – co-sponsored the new legislation .
Religious freedom has undergone a cataclysmic change over the last decade .
Whereas it was once seen as an American value on which Americans across the aisle could agree , now its polarization in society is mirrored in the judiciary .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Rather than take to heart the possibility that a cake shop owner truly feels inhibited by his religious beliefs to assist in the celebration of a gay marriage , advocates for gay rights – and the judges who agree with them – insist on being served by a religious baker , dismissing out of hand the legitimacy of his religious objections .
Meanwhile , some religious employers demand to be exempted from merely having to notify the government that they will not provide conception healthcare under their insurance plans , claiming that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Neither side seems willing to give an inch , thus further entrenching a polarization that has now infected the judiciary to a staggering degree .
To “ save th [ e ] honorable court [ s ] , ” and the country , we must learn to listen to , and take to heart , the positions of others .
What we need in a polarized country is not the idle fantasy that politics can or will never play a role in adjudication – it always will – but to strive for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the power of encounter , of giving and listening to the other side , and of being open to compromise .
• None Zalman Rothschild is nonresident fellow at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center and Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University School of Law

Not much is certain about US politics these days. But if there’s one thing we know about Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings it is this: she will be asked about the role politics will play in her judicial decision making. If history is precedent, Judge Barrett will adamantly reject the supposition that her politics impact her adjudication. Starting with Chief Justice John Roberts – who, during his confirmation hearings, famously described the judicial role as one of a neutral baseball umpire “call[ing] balls and strikes” – it has become a commonplace for both liberal and conservative US supreme court nominees to declare that politics have no bearing on judicial decision making.
In reality, there is no dearth of data measuring the extent to which judges decide cases based on political preferences. Consider the recent spate of cases concerning religious institutions which challenged coronavirus-related lockdown orders as violations of religious freedom. Freedom of religion and the future supreme court are of particular importance: the survival of many recent progressive initiatives - including the Affordable Care Act’s mandate requiring employers to provide health insurance that covers contraception, and laws prohibiting discriminatory treatment of LGBTQ people, to list just two – will rest in no small measure on courts’ interpretation and application of the “free exercise” religion clause of the first amendment of the constitution. Findings from a survey I conducted suggest that the outcome in some subsets of religious freedom cases track political affiliation to a staggering degree.
I surveyed every merits-based federal court decision pertaining to a free exercise challenge to a stay-at-home order. The findings are staggering: 0% of Democrat-appointed judges have sided with a religious institution; the sizeable majority (64%) of Republican-appointed judges have sided with a religious institution; and 0% of Trump-appointed judges have ruled against religious institutions. In other words, all Trump-appointed judges have sided with religious institutions and all Democrat-appointed judges have sided with the state or city government. To be sure, my sample set – 81 judicial decisions – is not enormous. But the ability to predict to such a high degree the outcome of cases implicating the same free exercise question (in remarkably similar contexts) is illuminating. It suggests that Covid-19 has produced not only a partisan divide in the courts, but also that freedom of religion itself has become dramatically politicized.
It was not long ago that religious freedom was considered a bipartisan issue, garnering near unanimous support on Capitol Hill. When the supreme court in 1990 drastically narrowed the meaning of free exercise, it was met with outrage from Republicans and Democrats alike. That outrage fueled the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which was designed to resurrect the religious freedom the court had eviscerated. RFRA passed the House unanimously and was approved in the Senate by a vote of 97-3.
Such collaboration on religious freedom could not be imagined today. In the wake of Obergefell v Hodges, in which the supreme court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, conservatives became alarmed at the prospect of America shifting sharply more “progressive” on cultural and social issues. Conservatives, especially rightwing Catholics and evangelical Protestants, rallied around the banner of religious freedom. They fought the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate and argued that the accommodations for churches in the Act were insufficient. Religious pharmacists also sought exemptions from state requirements that they dispense contraceptives.
Yet by far the most charged battle over religious accommodation has concerned same-sex marriage. Conservatives worked hard at the state and federal levels to carve out religious exemptions through state statutes and proposed constitutional amendments. Liberals saw these exemptions as fronts to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals and women seeking contraception. As a result, Democrats in Congress are attempting to pass the Equality Act, a bill which would prohibit almost all discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. A specific provision would pre-empt the possibility of RFRA being employed as a defense against a discrimination allegation. The Democratic congressman Jerry Nadler – who was a vocal advocate of RFRA two and a half decades ago – co-sponsored the new legislation.
Religious freedom has undergone a cataclysmic change over the last decade. Whereas it was once seen as an American value on which Americans across the aisle could agree, now its polarization in society is mirrored in the judiciary. The root of the problem is inflexibility. Rather than take to heart the possibility that a cake shop owner truly feels inhibited by his religious beliefs to assist in the celebration of a gay marriage, advocates for gay rights – and the judges who agree with them – insist on being served by a religious baker, dismissing out of hand the legitimacy of his religious objections. Meanwhile, some religious employers demand to be exempted from merely having to notify the government that they will not provide conception healthcare under their insurance plans, claiming that even doing that violates their religious sensibilities. Neither side seems willing to give an inch, thus further entrenching a polarization that has now infected the judiciary to a staggering degree.
To “save th[e] honorable court[s],” and the country, we must learn to listen to, and take to heart, the positions of others. What we need in a polarized country is not the idle fantasy that politics can or will never play a role in adjudication – it always will – but to strive for a world in which we believe in the power of encounter, of giving and listening to the other side, and of being open to compromise.


theguardian--2020-10-12--The US's cold war with China won't disappear if Joe Biden becomes president | Alex Doherty

“ China ate your lunch , Joe.
” That was the characteristically offhand way Donald Trump accused Joe Biden last month of having been duped during his tenure as vice-president .
It is a criticism of the Democratic candidate ( derisively labelled “ Beijing Biden ” in Trump ’ s attack ads ) that is congruent with the opinions of Republican party China hawks , who have long been critical of the Democrats for enabling China ’ s economic and political rise during the Clinton and Obama administrations .
Recognising perceived Democrat softness on China as an effective pressure point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hostile policies towards China as the presidential election has drawn nearer .
Yet while there are many reasons progressives ought to hope for a Biden victory in November , it is unlikely that a Democratic presidency would halt the slide towards a new cold war .
It may be true that a President Biden would be less bellicose than Donald Trump , and the greater predictability of US policy under the Democrats might reduce the likelihood of an accidental military escalation in the South China Sea .
However , not being hobbled by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first ” ideology of Donald Trump , the Democrats will be more able , and perhaps more willing , to build an international anti-China alliance that would further sour Sino-American relations .
People everywhere ought to be profoundly worried at such a prospect .
Although it was a Democratic administration that facilitated China ’ s integration into the circuits of global capital in the 1990s , that process took place at a time when China occupied a complementary yet subordinate position in relation to the US .
China posed no real military threat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the exploitation of China ’ s well-educated , poorly paid and effectively non-unionised workforce .
But now that China has successfully moved up the value chain and is competing with the US in advanced technologies , the complementarity of the two economies is much less clear .
Increasingly it is not just Republicans , but also Democrats and liberal intellectuals who see the relationship between China and the US as a zero-sum competition .
China poses the first serious threat to US economic and political hegemony since the end of the cold war @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would preoccupy any occupant of the White House .
While the makings of an international anti-China alliance already exist , the presence of the mercurial Donald Trump in the White House has encouraged US allies to hedge their bets and pursue a more independent course .
A Biden victory will draw those allies closer to the American orbit and a Democratic administration can be expected to take advantage of the increasing anti-China sentiment among US allies .
Last year the European Union designated China as a “ strategic competitor ” and the formerly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Japan and South Korea to counterbalance Beijing .
France and the UK are working to freeze Huawei out of their 5G networks , while China ’ s relations with Australia are at an all-time low .
In the Pacific , Japan is seeking closer military and intelligence collaboration with western powers and is strengthening military ties with the Hindu nationalist government in India , whose relations with China soured dramatically following the fatal clashes on the disputed Sino-Indian border in June .
And yet so far the anti-China drift has had an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is counterbalanced by China ’ s economic importance to its neighbours and the entwinement of the American and Chinese economies .
But a Biden administration could well seek to create a semi-formal anti-China alliance .
Already , Michèle Flournoy , tipped as Biden ’ s likely defense secretary , is calling for a strengthening of American military capabilities and the deepening of ties with US allies in Asia .
While Trump ’ s China rhetoric has centred on the issues of trade , industrial espionage , and paranoid fantasies regarding the Covid-19 virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on China ’ s human rights abuses in Xinjiang and its increasing authoritarianism in Hong Kong .
Biden will be able – far more effectively than Trump – to weaponise the issue of human rights to foster international public support for an anti-China turn .
Adopting aggressive policies to punish China over its clampdown in Hong Kong and Xinjiang might feel good , but in all likelihood , such an approach will do little to help victims of Chinese state repression .
Worsening tensions will encourage Beijing to treat domestic opponents as agents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the increased militarisation of the western Pacific will enhance Beijing ’ s not unreasonable fears that it is being encircled by hostile powers .
As Justice Is Global director Tobita Chow argues , China ’ s leaders are more likely to moderate their behaviour domestically if legitimate criticisms over human rights are not entwined with an across the board anti-China agenda .
Heightened tensions with China come at a crucial moment in the struggle to respond to the climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic .
Whether it ’ s on the question @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the coronavirus or building an international consensus on decarbonising the global economy , cooperation with China is critically important .
If on 3 November Joe Biden is elected the 46th president of the United States , progressives will rightly breathe a sigh of relief , but both in the US and abroad we ought to gird ourselves to push back against a Democrat administration that may well seek to enlist its allies in a dangerous and destructive new cold war .
• Alex Doherty is the host of the Politics Theory Other @

“China ate your lunch, Joe.” That was the characteristically offhand way Donald Trump accused Joe Biden last month of having been duped during his tenure as vice-president. It is a criticism of the Democratic candidate (derisively labelled “Beijing Biden” in Trump’s attack ads) that is congruent with the opinions of Republican party China hawks, who have long been critical of the Democrats for enabling China’s economic and political rise during the Clinton and Obama administrations. Recognising perceived Democrat softness on China as an effective pressure point, the Trump administration has adopted increasingly hostile policies towards China as the presidential election has drawn nearer.
Yet while there are many reasons progressives ought to hope for a Biden victory in November, it is unlikely that a Democratic presidency would halt the slide towards a new cold war. It may be true that a President Biden would be less bellicose than Donald Trump, and the greater predictability of US policy under the Democrats might reduce the likelihood of an accidental military escalation in the South China Sea. However, not being hobbled by the capricious personality and unilateralist “America first” ideology of Donald Trump, the Democrats will be more able, and perhaps more willing, to build an international anti-China alliance that would further sour Sino-American relations. People everywhere ought to be profoundly worried at such a prospect.
Although it was a Democratic administration that facilitated China’s integration into the circuits of global capital in the 1990s, that process took place at a time when China occupied a complementary yet subordinate position in relation to the US. China posed no real military threat and American corporations were profiting handsomely from the exploitation of China’s well-educated, poorly paid and effectively non-unionised workforce. But now that China has successfully moved up the value chain and is competing with the US in advanced technologies, the complementarity of the two economies is much less clear. Increasingly it is not just Republicans, but also Democrats and liberal intellectuals who see the relationship between China and the US as a zero-sum competition.
China poses the first serious threat to US economic and political hegemony since the end of the cold war. And China’s extraordinary rise would preoccupy any occupant of the White House. While the makings of an international anti-China alliance already exist, the presence of the mercurial Donald Trump in the White House has encouraged US allies to hedge their bets and pursue a more independent course. A Biden victory will draw those allies closer to the American orbit and a Democratic administration can be expected to take advantage of the increasing anti-China sentiment among US allies.
Last year the European Union designated China as a “strategic competitor” and the formerly dovish German government is now strengthening ties with Japan and South Korea to counterbalance Beijing. France and the UK are working to freeze Huawei out of their 5G networks, while China’s relations with Australia are at an all-time low. In the Pacific, Japan is seeking closer military and intelligence collaboration with western powers and is strengthening military ties with the Hindu nationalist government in India, whose relations with China soured dramatically following the fatal clashes on the disputed Sino-Indian border in June.
And yet so far the anti-China drift has had an informal, ad hoc character, and is counterbalanced by China’s economic importance to its neighbours and the entwinement of the American and Chinese economies. But a Biden administration could well seek to create a semi-formal anti-China alliance. Already, Michèle Flournoy, tipped as Biden’s likely defense secretary, is calling for a strengthening of American military capabilities and the deepening of ties with US allies in Asia.
While Trump’s China rhetoric has centred on the issues of trade, industrial espionage, and paranoid fantasies regarding the Covid-19 virus, the Democrats have focused greater attention on China’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang and its increasing authoritarianism in Hong Kong. Biden will be able – far more effectively than Trump – to weaponise the issue of human rights to foster international public support for an anti-China turn.
Adopting aggressive policies to punish China over its clampdown in Hong Kong and Xinjiang might feel good, but in all likelihood, such an approach will do little to help victims of Chinese state repression. Worsening tensions will encourage Beijing to treat domestic opponents as agents of the US and its allies, and the increased militarisation of the western Pacific will enhance Beijing’s not unreasonable fears that it is being encircled by hostile powers. As Justice Is Global director Tobita Chow argues, China’s leaders are more likely to moderate their behaviour domestically if legitimate criticisms over human rights are not entwined with an across the board anti-China agenda.
Heightened tensions with China come at a crucial moment in the struggle to respond to the climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. Whether it’s on the question of creating an effective public health response to the coronavirus or building an international consensus on decarbonising the global economy, cooperation with China is critically important. If on 3 November Joe Biden is elected the 46th president of the United States, progressives will rightly breathe a sigh of relief, but both in the US and abroad we ought to gird ourselves to push back against a Democrat administration that may well seek to enlist its allies in a dangerous and destructive new cold war.


theguardian--2020-10-11--Biden looking good - but concern over polls means Democrats are cautious

As the Democratic presidential primaries drew to a close in the spring , Laura Hubka was left wondering how she was going to sell Joe Biden to voters in her corner of rural Iowa .
Hubka , an ultrasound technologist and chair of Howard county Democrats , lamented that the party cast aside an array of more inspirational , younger and original candidates in favor of a fading politician past his prime .
Personally , she backed Pete Buttigieg , the young , gay former Indiana mayor .
Hubka couldn ’ t see how a candidate as uninspiring as Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a part of Iowa that swung heavily from Barack Obama to Donald Trump four years ago .
She quietly braced herself for yet another defeat .
Months later , Biden is riding high in the polls and , if the numbers are to be believed , is on his way to a significant victory in three weeks to put an end to the most tumultuous presidency of modern times .
Support for the former vice-president has surged in recent days as the White House lurches from crisis to disaster .
Democrats are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them the nightmare of losing an election four years ago that all the polls said Hillary Clinton was going to win .
Biden is up to 16 points ahead nationally on the back of Trump ’ s antics in the most undignified presidential election debate in history and his cavalier attitude to other people ’ s health after he contracted coronavirus .
Suddenly must-win states like Pennsylvania , Michigan and Wisconsin seem safe for Biden .
States that looked to be just beyond his grasp , like Florida and Iowa , and maybe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , are competitive .
But Hubka is not sure she does believe the polls .
“ I don ’ t want to believe any of them , and I don ’ t want anyone else to believe them either .
I don ’ t want one person to stay home and not vote , like when they thought Hillary Clinton was 15 points ahead , ” she said .
“ I do think that there ’ s a few people that may have been making excuses for Trump who feel a little more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might vote for Joe Biden .
But sitting where I live , I don ’ t feel like there ’ s a 14 , 15 point lead .
He ’ s not ahead by that.
” Poll after poll nevertheless says that Biden is in a commanding position with his numbers constantly pushed up by voters recoiling from Trump ’ s actions .
A Franklin Pierce University survey in recent days showed that far from engendering sympathy , the president contracting Covid-19 precipitated a collapse in support .
Days earlier , Biden held @ @ @ @ @ @ @ After the diagnosis , the former vice-president surged to 55 % while the president fell back to just 34 % .
Other polls mirror those findings .
Crucially , Biden has a 12-point lead among independent voters who will decide the election in key swing states .
For all that , the political analyst Larry Sabato thinks Hubka is wise to be cautious .
He said Biden ’ s position would be much weaker if not for the president ’ s chaotic and cavalier handling of a pandemic that has claimed 215,000 deaths @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more by election day .
But he said the polls do not reflect what will happen when the votes are counted .
“ He ’ s not winning by 14 or 16 points .
Not a chance .
We ’ re too polarized for that .
What happened was a lot of Trump supporters became discouraged after the debate and after his hospitalization and simply wouldn ’ t participate in the polls .
This has happened before .
So I think Biden will win , probably by a healthy margin .
But nothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s a sugar high , ” said Sabato , director of the Center for Politics as the University of Virginia .
Republican party election organizers recognized months ago that the election was shaping up as a referendum on Trump ’ s handling of coronavirus and he was not being judged favorably .
Hubka acknowledges that without the pandemic , Biden would be struggling to compete with the president .
“ I absolutely do think if the stock market was still high and unemployment numbers were still at 3 % it would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ His poll numbers would not be where they are , ” she said .
But Sabato said that while coronavirus has been key in Biden ’ s rise , it is not the only factor in an increasingly disastrous year for the president .
“ Covid changed everything .
On January 1 , most people in my field believed that Trump was the favorite .
The economy was golden .
He was the incumbent .
He could take full credit the way incumbents always do , even if they had nothing to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discouraged , ” said Sabato .
“ Then came the pandemic and the economic collapse .
Then the police shootings of blacks , and the incredible irresponsibility of Donald Trump and his key associates which has resulted in a cell of Covid in the White House .
The debate was a complete disaster for Trump .
This is karma , some would say.
” Trump ’ s attempts to delegitimize the Black Lives Matter protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May helped drive younger voters toward Biden , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ great affinity with .
Katybeth Davis lives in a blue-collar community just south of Detroit that swung heavily to Trump four years ago .
That shift was instrumental in delivering Michigan to the president by just 10,704 votes , providing an important part of the electoral college that put him in the White House .
Polls now put Biden eight points ahead in Michigan .
“ You see Biden signs all over the place now when you hardly saw any for Hillary , ” said Davis , a 36 year-old construction company supervisor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” , including African , Native American and European ancestry .
Davis was drawn into political activism by the Black Lives Matter protests , a cause she said has done a lot more than the coronavirus to mobilize younger voters who did not engaged with politics before .
“ There is a huge surge in the younger voters participating , going into the lower income neighborhoods doing voter registration , ” she said .
“ They see that everything we ’ ve worked for , a lot of social justice issues , are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We have a rightwing supreme court now .
We could lose marriage equality .
Women ’ s rights .
The huge reason I believe that women are going for Joe now is because they realize that Roe v Wade is literally on the line .
Immigration ’ s on the line .
This is our diversity that ’ s on the line .
This is racial equality , gender equality .
This is literally every single value that we have.
” Opinion polls show that not only are voters under 30 overwhelmingly more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who say they will definitely vote is up to 63 % from 47 % four years ago , according to a Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics poll .
Biden also has a consistent and widening lead in another prize state , Florida .
If he were to take it , that would almost certainly block any hope of Trump winning the election , although Biden is still doing worse with conservative Latinos there than his Democratic predecessors .
Trump supporters routinely dismiss the increasingly alarming polls for their man as flawed or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doing no better than Clinton who was polling similar numbers and still lost .
“ It ’ s not true , ” said Sabato .
“ Biden is doing much better than Clinton , mainly because he doesn ’ t stir the negative emotions that Hillary did .
Some of it was just pure gender bias but a lot of it was with her personality , and dislike for the Clintons .
So I think Biden is in a much better position .
He ’ s relatively inoffensive.
” Other underlying trends in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There has been a significant shift to the former vice-president among older voters , some of them recoiling from Trump ’ s lack of respect for the decorum of his office .
For the first time in at least two decades , a majority of voters over 65 back a Democrat for president with Biden winning 60 % support .
Women have also shifted to Biden in significant numbers .
He commands a huge 27-point margin among female voters , nearly twice that for Clinton four years ago .
Biden is even gaining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 2016 .
Support among black voters is as strong as always for Democratic presidential candidates but the key will be turning out African Americans to the polls after they stayed home in large numbers when Clinton ran .
All of this matters most in the handful of states that will decide the election .
Wisconsin is among the most crucial after Obama ’ s significant majority there in 2012 vanished when Clinton lost the state by only about 23,000 votes even though the polls put her ahead by about six points .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ points in the lead .
Charles Franklin , director of Wisconsin ’ s respected Marquette poll , said that is a reason to be cautious but there are important differences .
For a start , the proportion of voters saying they are undecided in Wisconsin is about half that of 2016 so there is less room for Trump to pick up additional support .
In addition , four years ago the polls showed a lot of people really didn ’ t like Clinton even if they didn ’ t like Trump either so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden is regarded much more favorably , making it easier to vote against Trump .
Franklin ’ s latest poll also shows an increased determination to vote this year , and that is likely to benefit Biden .
“ It suggests that we will be very close to a record for turnout in a presidential year when the state saw a fall in turnout in 2016 , ” he said .
“ Most of the drop-off in votes four years ago was on the Democratic side .
Hillary Clinton got close to 250,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mitt Romney in 2012 ) .
But Trump only barely exceeded Romney ’ s total .
Given the way Democrats feel about President Trump , I don ’ t expect to see a similarly one-sided drop-off this year .
I think Democrats generally are very positive to Joe Biden , but they are extraordinarily negative to Donald Trump .
So in many ways , Trump is the Democrats ’ greatest get-out-the-vote argument.
” It is difficult to see how Trump overcomes any surge in turnout for Biden in Wisconsin and other swing states @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remains loyal , he does not appear to be picking up significant numbers of new voters who have come on board because they are happy about the way things have gone over the past four years .
Instead he is struggling to hold on to those he won over in 2016 .
As much as Hubka would liked to have seen her fellow Democrats chose a different presidential candidate , she thinks Biden turned out to be a fortuitous choice at time when significant numbers of voters appear to have retreated from their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want an end to the crazy ” .
“ I don ’ t find a lot of people jumping for joy that it ’ s Joe Biden but they ’ re glad that it ’ s him because they feel like he can win .
He can reassure Republicans who want to get away from Trump .
They know that he was with Obama and they can look at him and say , ‘ At least he can fill this space and do the job and I can sleep at night , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happen next , ’ ” said Hubka .
Still , Americans are acutely aware that this is 2020 and there are more than three weeks to the polls , an eternity in a month that has already seen its share of political drama .
Democrats see the president ’ s attempts to disrupt the election , such as his attacks on postal voting , as an implicit recognition that he is losing and only expect him to get more desperate .
Trump ’ s calls to mobilise militias to ostensibly monitor the vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to intimidate voters in areas likely to back Biden , alarms Hubka .
So does his endorsement of the white nationalist militias during the debate , particularly after the FBI exposed a rightwing militia plot to abduct the governor of Michigan .
It ’ s all part of a pattern of increasingly erratic behaviour , including Trump berating his own cabinet last week for not prosecuting his political enemies , that has Democrats on edge whatever the polls may say .
“ I feel a little more confident that Biden can win but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s going to happen tomorrow or the next day , ” said Hubka .
“ I ’ m fatigued .
Every day I wake up worrying about what craziness Trump ’ s going to bring .
I don ’ t know that I ’ ve ever felt this uneasy about all sorts of different things that are happening right now .
I can ’ t get a good feel of it .
It makes me nauseous , actually , just thinking of what ’ s he gon na do to win.
” “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t think there ’ s anything that Trump could do right now that would save him .
Even if he has a vaccine before the election .
I don ’ t even think a big stimulus package is going to help either .
To be honest , I think the Republicans have even come to terms with it .
I just want it to be over with .
I really do , ” she said .

As the Democratic presidential primaries drew to a close in the spring, Laura Hubka was left wondering how she was going to sell Joe Biden to voters in her corner of rural Iowa.
Hubka, an ultrasound technologist and chair of Howard county Democrats, lamented that the party cast aside an array of more inspirational, younger and original candidates in favor of a fading politician past his prime. Personally, she backed Pete Buttigieg, the young, gay former Indiana mayor.
Hubka couldn’t see how a candidate as uninspiring as Biden would draw support away from the president in a part of Iowa that swung heavily from Barack Obama to Donald Trump four years ago. She quietly braced herself for yet another defeat.
Months later, Biden is riding high in the polls and, if the numbers are to be believed, is on his way to a significant victory in three weeks to put an end to the most tumultuous presidency of modern times. Support for the former vice-president has surged in recent days as the White House lurches from crisis to disaster. Democrats are daring to hope they can put behind them the nightmare of losing an election four years ago that all the polls said Hillary Clinton was going to win.
Biden is up to 16 points ahead nationally on the back of Trump’s antics in the most undignified presidential election debate in history and his cavalier attitude to other people’s health after he contracted coronavirus. Suddenly must-win states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin seem safe for Biden. States that looked to be just beyond his grasp, like Florida and Iowa, and maybe even Republican strongholds like Texas and Georgia, are competitive.
But Hubka is not sure she does believe the polls.
I don’t want one person to stay home and not vote, like when they thought Hillary Clinton was 15 points ahead Laura Hubka
“I don’t want to believe any of them, and I don’t want anyone else to believe them either. I don’t want one person to stay home and not vote, like when they thought Hillary Clinton was 15 points ahead,” she said. “I do think that there’s a few people that may have been making excuses for Trump who feel a little more ashamed or a little more like they might vote for Joe Biden. But sitting where I live, I don’t feel like there’s a 14-, 15-point lead. He’s not ahead by that.”
Poll after poll nevertheless says that Biden is in a commanding position with his numbers constantly pushed up by voters recoiling from Trump’s actions. A Franklin Pierce University survey in recent days showed that far from engendering sympathy, the president contracting Covid-19 precipitated a collapse in support. Days earlier, Biden held a five point lead over Trump. After the diagnosis, the former vice-president surged to 55% while the president fell back to just 34%.
Other polls mirror those findings. Crucially, Biden has a 12-point lead among independent voters who will decide the election in key swing states.
For all that, the political analyst Larry Sabato thinks Hubka is wise to be cautious. He said Biden’s position would be much weaker if not for the president’s chaotic and cavalier handling of a pandemic that has claimed 215,000 deaths and will probably take tens of thousands more by election day. But he said the polls do not reflect what will happen when the votes are counted.
A parade of more than 300 golf carts supporting Je Biden caravan to the Sumter county elections office in Florida to cast their ballots on 7 October. Photograph: John Raoux/AP
“He’s not winning by 14 or 16 points. Not a chance. We’re too polarized for that. What happened was a lot of Trump supporters became discouraged after the debate and after his hospitalization and simply wouldn’t participate in the polls. This has happened before. So I think Biden will win, probably by a healthy margin. But nothing like the current numbers suggest. It’s a sugar high,” said Sabato, director of the Center for Politics as the University of Virginia.
Republican party election organizers recognized months ago that the election was shaping up as a referendum on Trump’s handling of coronavirus and he was not being judged favorably. Hubka acknowledges that without the pandemic, Biden would be struggling to compete with the president.
“I absolutely do think if the stock market was still high and unemployment numbers were still at 3% it would have been more difficult for Joe Biden. His poll numbers would not be where they are,” she said.
But Sabato said that while coronavirus has been key in Biden’s rise, it is not the only factor in an increasingly disastrous year for the president.
“Covid changed everything. On January 1, most people in my field believed that Trump was the favorite. The economy was golden. He was the incumbent. He could take full credit the way incumbents always do, even if they had nothing to do with the economic engine. Democrats were discouraged,” said Sabato.
“Then came the pandemic and the economic collapse. Then the police shootings of blacks, and the incredible irresponsibility of Donald Trump and his key associates which has resulted in a cell of Covid in the White House. The debate was a complete disaster for Trump. This is karma, some would say.”
Donald Trump and Joe Biden participate in a presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, on 29 September. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
Trump’s attempts to delegitimize the Black Lives Matter protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May helped drive younger voters toward Biden, a candidate few of them feel any great affinity with.
Katybeth Davis lives in a blue-collar community just south of Detroit that swung heavily to Trump four years ago. That shift was instrumental in delivering Michigan to the president by just 10,704 votes, providing an important part of the electoral college that put him in the White House.
Polls now put Biden eight points ahead in Michigan.
“You see Biden signs all over the place now when you hardly saw any for Hillary,” said Davis, a 36 year-old construction company supervisor who describes herself as “super mixed-race”, including African, Native American and European ancestry.
Davis was drawn into political activism by the Black Lives Matter protests, a cause she said has done a lot more than the coronavirus to mobilize younger voters who did not engaged with politics before.
“There is a huge surge in the younger voters participating, going into the lower income neighborhoods doing voter registration,” she said. “They see that everything we’ve worked for, a lot of social justice issues, are on the line with this election. We have a rightwing supreme court now. We could lose marriage equality. Women’s rights. The huge reason I believe that women are going for Joe now is because they realize that Roe v Wade is literally on the line. Immigration’s on the line. This is our diversity that’s on the line. This is racial equality, gender equality. This is literally every single value that we have.”
Opinion polls show that not only are voters under 30 overwhelmingly more likely to back Biden but the number who say they will definitely vote is up to 63% from 47% four years ago, according to a Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics poll.
Supporters hold signs as they await the arrival of Joe Biden in Erie, Pennsylvania, on 10 October. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Biden also has a consistent and widening lead in another prize state, Florida. If he were to take it, that would almost certainly block any hope of Trump winning the election, although Biden is still doing worse with conservative Latinos there than his Democratic predecessors.
Trump supporters routinely dismiss the increasingly alarming polls for their man as flawed or faked, and claim that Biden is doing no better than Clinton who was polling similar numbers and still lost.
“It’s not true,” said Sabato. “Biden is doing much better than Clinton, mainly because he doesn’t stir the negative emotions that Hillary did. Some of it was just pure gender bias but a lot of it was with her personality, and dislike for the Clintons. So I think Biden is in a much better position. He’s relatively inoffensive.”
Other underlying trends in the polls look good for Biden. There has been a significant shift to the former vice-president among older voters, some of them recoiling from Trump’s lack of respect for the decorum of his office. For the first time in at least two decades, a majority of voters over 65 back a Democrat for president with Biden winning 60% support.
Women have also shifted to Biden in significant numbers. He commands a huge 27-point margin among female voters, nearly twice that for Clinton four years ago. Biden is even gaining among middle-aged men who overwhelmingly favoured Trump in 2016. Support among black voters is as strong as always for Democratic presidential candidates but the key will be turning out African Americans to the polls after they stayed home in large numbers when Clinton ran.
All of this matters most in the handful of states that will decide the election. Wisconsin is among the most crucial after Obama’s significant majority there in 2012 vanished when Clinton lost the state by only about 23,000 votes even though the polls put her ahead by about six points. Now Biden is consistently five to 10 points in the lead.
Charles Franklin, director of Wisconsin’s respected Marquette poll, said that is a reason to be cautious but there are important differences. For a start, the proportion of voters saying they are undecided in Wisconsin is about half that of 2016 so there is less room for Trump to pick up additional support.
In addition, four years ago the polls showed a lot of people really didn’t like Clinton even if they didn’t like Trump either so many of them stayed at home. Biden is regarded much more favorably, making it easier to vote against Trump.
Franklin’s latest poll also shows an increased determination to vote this year, and that is likely to benefit Biden.
Joe Biden speaks as Kamala Harris listens in Phoenix, Arizona, on 8 October. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP
“It suggests that we will be very close to a record for turnout in a presidential year when the state saw a fall in turnout in 2016,” he said.
“Most of the drop-off in votes four years ago was on the Democratic side. Hillary Clinton got close to 250,000 fewer votes than Obama got (against Mitt Romney in 2012). But Trump only barely exceeded Romney’s total. Given the way Democrats feel about President Trump, I don’t expect to see a similarly one-sided drop-off this year. I think Democrats generally are very positive to Joe Biden, but they are extraordinarily negative to Donald Trump. So in many ways, Trump is the Democrats’ greatest get-out-the-vote argument.”
It is difficult to see how Trump overcomes any surge in turnout for Biden in Wisconsin and other swing states. While the president’s base remains loyal, he does not appear to be picking up significant numbers of new voters who have come on board because they are happy about the way things have gone over the past four years. Instead he is struggling to hold on to those he won over in 2016.
As much as Hubka would liked to have seen her fellow Democrats chose a different presidential candidate, she thinks Biden turned out to be a fortuitous choice at time when significant numbers of voters appear to have retreated from their craving for change and now “just want an end to the crazy”.
“I don’t find a lot of people jumping for joy that it’s Joe Biden but they’re glad that it’s him because they feel like he can win. He can reassure Republicans who want to get away from Trump. They know that he was with Obama and they can look at him and say, ‘At least he can fill this space and do the job and I can sleep at night, not wondering what crazy thing is going to happen next,’” said Hubka.
Still, Americans are acutely aware that this is 2020 and there are more than three weeks to the polls, an eternity in a month that has already seen its share of political drama. Democrats see the president’s attempts to disrupt the election, such as his attacks on postal voting, as an implicit recognition that he is losing and only expect him to get more desperate.
Trump’s calls to mobilise militias to ostensibly monitor the vote, which Democrats interpret as a call to intimidate voters in areas likely to back Biden, alarms Hubka. So does his endorsement of the white nationalist militias during the debate, particularly after the FBI exposed a rightwing militia plot to abduct the governor of Michigan.
It’s all part of a pattern of increasingly erratic behaviour, including Trump berating his own cabinet last week for not prosecuting his political enemies, that has Democrats on edge whatever the polls may say.
I feel a little more confident that Biden can win but we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day Laura Hubka
“I feel a little more confident that Biden can win but we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day,” said Hubka. “I’m fatigued. Every day I wake up worrying about what craziness Trump’s going to bring. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt this uneasy about all sorts of different things that are happening right now. I can’t get a good feel of it. It makes me nauseous, actually, just thinking of what’s he gonna do to win.”
Davis is more relaxed.
“I’m not nervous. I don’t think there’s anything that Trump could do right now that would save him. Even if he has a vaccine before the election. I don’t even think a big stimulus package is going to help either. To be honest, I think the Republicans have even come to terms with it. I just want it to be over with. I really do,” she said.


theguardian--2020-10-13--Trump holds first rally since Covid diagnosis, as Senate opens bitter hearings on court pick – live

Joe Biden ’ s campaign went on a fresh offense against the Trump administration on Monday , campaigning in a red state and accusing Republicans of hypocrisy as they sought to portray Democrats as anti-religious during the supreme court hearings for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett .
Biden campaigned in Ohio , attempting to expand the battleground map and keep Trump on the defensive in a state thought to be out of reach for Democrats after Trump ’ s wide margin of victory there four years ago .
A slew of recent polls has had the Democratic challenger leading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ double digits .
Likewise , many battleground state surveys , though often narrower than the national picture , have Biden with healthy leads .
The situation has led several top Republicans to make rare public warnings of losing the White House – and maybe even Republicans losing the Senate .
On the campaign trail Biden stressed an economic message and touted his own record while casting Trump as having abandoned working-class voters who helped him win rust belt states that put him in the White House in 2016 .
In Toledo , Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local General Motors ’ powertrain plant .
The former vice-president spoke in a parking lot with about 30 American-made cars and trucks arrayed nearby , and he struck a decidedly populist note , praising unions and arguing that he represented working-class values while the Republican Trump cared only about impressing the Ivy League and country club set .
“ I don ’ t measure people by the size of their bank account , ” Biden said .
“ You and I measure people by the strength of their character , their honesty , @ @ @ @

Maanvi Singh (now), Joan E Greve and Martin Belam (earlier)

13 Oct 2020 02.59 BST Summary A recap from me and Joan E Greve: Donald Trump held his first rally since contracting Covid-19. Lagging in the polls, he was eager to appear healthy as he downplayed the severity of the pandemic and returned to classic stump talking points about the border wall and unfriendly media.
Lagging in the polls, he was eager to appear healthy as he downplayed the severity of the pandemic and returned to classic stump talking points about the border wall and unfriendly media. Dr Anthony Fauci said holding large rallies is “asking for trouble”. In an interview with CNN, he also reiterated that “it’s really unfortunate and really disappointing” that the Trump campaign took his words out of context in a campaign ad.
In an interview with CNN, he also reiterated that “it’s really unfortunate and really disappointing” that the Trump campaign took his words out of context in a campaign ad. Joe Biden was on the offense, campaigning in red-state Ohio. The Democratic nominee spoke harshly of Trump’s response to the virus and his handling of his own infection. The former vice-president also accused Republicans of hypocrisy as they sought to portray Democrats as anti-religious during the supreme court hearings for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett.
The Democratic nominee spoke harshly of Trump’s response to the virus and his handling of his own infection. The former vice-president also accused Republicans of hypocrisy as they sought to portray Democrats as anti-religious during the supreme court hearings for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. The Senate judiciary committee held the first day of Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination hearings. The supreme court nominee and every member of the committee delivered an opening statement. Questioning of Barrett begins tomorrow.
The supreme court nominee and every member of the committee delivered an opening statement. Questioning of Barrett begins tomorrow. Barrett emphasized judges should not try to legislate from the bench in her opening statement. “Courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life,” Barrett said. “The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people.”
“Courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life,” Barrett said. “The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the people.” Senate Republicans accused their Democratic colleagues of attacking Barrett’s Catholic faith, even though Democrats did not mention her faith. Instead, Democrats used their opening statements to warn that Barrett’s confirmation to the supreme court could jeopardize the Affordable Care Act.
Instead, Democrats used their opening statements to warn that Barrett’s confirmation to the supreme court could jeopardize the Affordable Care Act. Kamala Harris argued the Senate should postpone Barrett’s hearings and focus on passing another coronavirus relief bill. Delivering an opening statement virtually from her Senate office, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee said, “Senate Republicans have made it crystal clear that rushing a supreme court nomination is more important than helping and supporting the American people who are suffering from a deadly pandemic and economic crisis.”
Updated at 03.21 BST
13 Oct 2020 02.23 BST Joan E Greve Deeper look: Biden campaigns in red state Ohio Joe Biden’s campaign went on a fresh offense against the Trump administration on Monday, campaigning in a red state and accusing Republicans of hypocrisy as they sought to portray Democrats as anti-religious during the supreme court hearings for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. Biden campaigned in Ohio, attempting to expand the battleground map and keep Trump on the defensive in a state thought to be out of reach for Democrats after Trump’s wide margin of victory there four years ago. A slew of recent polls has had the Democratic challenger leading Trump in national polls, often by double digits. Likewise, many battleground state surveys, though often narrower than the national picture, have Biden with healthy leads. The situation has led several top Republicans to make rare public warnings of losing the White House – and maybe even Republicans losing the Senate. On the campaign trail Biden stressed an economic message and touted his own record while casting Trump as having abandoned working-class voters who helped him win rust belt states that put him in the White House in 2016. In Toledo, Biden addressed United Auto Workers who represent a local General Motors’ powertrain plant. The former vice-president spoke in a parking lot with about 30 American-made cars and trucks arrayed nearby, and he struck a decidedly populist note, praising unions and arguing that he represented working-class values while the Republican Trump cared only about impressing the Ivy League and country club set. “I don’t measure people by the size of their bank account,” Biden said. “You and I measure people by the strength of their character, their honesty, their courage.” Biden campaigns in red state Ohio, hoping to expand battleground map Read more
13 Oct 2020 01.46 BST Meanwhile, the Biden campaign has hit back against Trump’s characterization of Biden as old and frail ... After 74-year-old Trump told his ralliers, “I am not an old person, I am a young person,” and made references to his 77-year-old opponent’s choice to broadcast campaign events from his “basement”, among the Biden’s campaign’s responses were celebrations of the former vice-president’s relative mastery of walking up and down inclines. https://t.co/kQzttvt1Q7 pic.twitter.com/PvVe6twk7Z — Mike Gwin (@MichaelJGwin) October 13, 2020
Updated at 02.23 BST
13 Oct 2020 01.38 BST Trump spoke for about 65 minutes – a bit shy of the usual hour and a half he normally takes up at his campaign rallies. With just weeks to go before election day, and early voting underway, Trump has been eager to return to a full schedule of in-person rallies as he scrambles to hold on to his slipping supporters. Polls have his Democratic opponent Joe Biden ahead by an average 12 points, in polls taken since 1 October. Trump is also losing support from seniors, who are the most vulnerable in a pandemic that has already killed more than 214,000 Americans. In a frenetic push to solidify support, Trump and his campaign have sought to downplay the threat of coronavirus. The president’s own demonstrations of reckless, maskless bravado appears to be key to that strategy, as Trump characterizes his opponent as frail and confined to his basement.
Updated at 03.00 BST
13 Oct 2020 01.03 BST As Donald Trump declared himself “immune” at his Florida rally, a new case study published in The Lancet revealed a 25-year-old man in Nevada was infected with coronavirus twice this year. This is the first confirmed case of reinfection in the US. The two infections in this one patient occurred six weeks apart. Reinfections are rare – there are only five such cases documented worldwide. But much is still unknown about how or why this happens. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently advises that those who have recovered from Covid-19 generally appear to be protected from reinfection for three months – but this newly documented case bucks that expectation.
Updated at 01.24 BST
12 Oct 2020 00.33 BST “You better vote for me Puerto Rico. You better vote for me,” Trump said. Residents of Puerto Rico and other US territories are not entitled to vote for president in federal elections, though Puerto Ricans living in US states can vote for president (and Florida is home to hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans). The territory’s Republican governor Wanda Vázquez Garced recently endorsed Trump.
Updated at 00.35 BST
12 Oct 2020 00.21 BST Boasting about his recovery, Trump claimed he is “immune” to the virus now. “I feel powerful,” he said. “I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women and everybody – I’ll give a big, fat kiss.” The president has been eager to appear energetic after a recent hospitalization following his Covid-19 diagnosis, repeatedly boasting that he’s “young” at 74 and even claiming, on Fox News that he is a “perfect physical specimen”. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that those with mild or moderate coronavirus infections can return to being around others after 10 days, the research on whether or not people can get reinfected is still ongoing.
Updated at 00.24 BST
12 Oct 2020 00.09 BST Biden and Trump hold very different campaign events Audience members observe a social distance while listening to Biden deliver remarks at a Voter Mobilization Event campaign stop at the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati. Photograph: Tom Brenner/Reuters In Cincinnati, earlier today, Biden addressed a socially distanced, sparse group. He took aim at the president’s comments downplaying the severity of the pandemic and emphasized his plans. “I have a plan to deal with this pandemic responsibly,” Biden said. “Testing, tracing, masking, not politicizing the race for the vaccine. Plan for its safe and equitable distribution. Provide the funding for PPE and other resources for schools and businesses to reopen safely.” 01:22 Joe Biden in Ohio: Trump 'turned his back on you' – video Biden is leading Trump by 10 percentage points nationally, per an average of national polls.
Updated at 03.00 BST
12 Oct 2020 00.04 BST Trump takes stage at packed rally “We’re winning by a lot more now than we were four years ago,” Trump said. “We’re going to win four more years in the White House.” A packed crowd of supporters standing shoulder to shoulder chanted “USA” in response.
Updated at 00.06 BST
12 Oct 2020 23.43 BST If no other GOP senators end up exposed to coronavirus, the party may be on track to vote on Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination by the 22. CNN’s Manu Raju reports that North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, who delivered his opening statement remotely after testing positive for Covid-19 is expected to return to the Senate tomorrow. GOP on track for confirmation of Barrett by month’s end. Tillis, who tested positive earlier this month, is expected back tomorrow, per an aide. With Lee and Tillis back, GOP should have quorum for Thursday when Graham has scheduled a business meeting. Committee will vote Oct. 22 — Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 12, 2020 Mike Lee, the Republican senator of Utah, showed up and spoke during the first day of hearings without a mask, despite his recent Covid-19 diagnosis.
Updated at 23.47 BST
12 Oct 2020 23.34 BST David Smith Analysis: Amy Coney Barrett’s hearing kicks off with hypocrisy and healthcare That was rich. Senate Republicans, otherwise known as Donald Trump’s Praetorian Guard, lined up on Monday to pay pious homage to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the separation of powers and the halcyon days of political bipartisanship.
A visitor from outer space might have thought that they were the upholders of civics and civility at the start of Amy Coney Barrett’s supreme court hearing on Capitol Hill. No matter that Trump has played divider-in-chief or that Republicans blocked Barack Obama’s nominee to the court in 2016. It was a morning of hypocrisy and healthcare. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee and the Trump appreciation society, reminded everyone that both Ginsburg and her ideological opposite, Justice Antonin Scalia, were confirmed almost unanimously. “I don’t know what happened between then and now,” he said, wistfully. “We can all take some blame but I just want to remind everybody there was a time in this country where someone like Ruth Bader Ginsburg was seen by almost everybody as qualified for the position of being on the supreme court, understanding that she would have a different philosophy than many of the Republicans who voted for her.” No justice has been confirmed so close to a presidential election. Graham, who promised not to confirm one in an election year (saying “Use my words against me”, which plenty of Democrats are), acknowledged a point everyone could agree on: “This is going to be a long, contentious week.” As senator after senator drew their battle lines, 48-year-old Barrett, sitting silently in a big black face mask, resembled a prisoner in the dock. Republicans sought to normalise her rushed nomination, arguing the Senate was merely doing its duty while setting up straw men: Democrats want to attack her Catholic faith (none did), Democrats want to play foul as they did with Brett Kavanaugh (hardly), Democrats want to expand the court (objection: relevance), Democrats want to conflate the judiciary with policy (true). Amy Coney Barrett's hearing kicks off with hypocrisy and healthcare | David Smith Read more


theguardian--2020-10-13--US election 2020: why are so many Americans being denied a vote? – podcast

As the November election approaches , Donald Trump is continuing to make stark claims about voter fraud , particularly focused on postal voting .
Despite a lack of evidence , many are interpreting the president ’ s claims as a prelude to his challenging the result should he be defeated .
Fears of fraud are also being used by many states to place more hurdles in the way of voters trying to cast their ballots .
The Guardian ’ s Sam Levine tells Anushka Asthana about the bureaucratic steps required to cast a legal vote in some states and how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of votes from disproportionately younger and minority voters .
He also describes how millions of former prisoners are being denied votes decades after release due to bureaucratic errors or minuscule unpaid fines .
He met Alfonso Tucker , a resident in Alabama , who was struck from the register over a $ 4 fine and whose son of the same name was also prevented from voting .
Meanwhile , there are growing fears of intimidation at the polls , not least following Trump ’ s performance at the presidential debate in which he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rightwing Proud Boys group to “ stand back and stand by ” .

Presented by Anushka Asthana with Sam Levine; produced by Mythili Rao and Axel Kacoutié; executive producers Phil Maynard and Nicole Jackson

As the November election approaches, Donald Trump is continuing to make stark claims about voter fraud, particularly focused on postal voting. Despite a lack of evidence, many are interpreting the president’s claims as a prelude to his challenging the result should he be defeated. Fears of fraud are also being used by many states to place more hurdles in the way of voters trying to cast their ballots.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine tells Anushka Asthana about the bureaucratic steps required to cast a legal vote in some states and how research shows that they mean the discounting of votes from disproportionately younger and minority voters. He also describes how millions of former prisoners are being denied votes decades after release due to bureaucratic errors or minuscule unpaid fines. He met Alfonzo Tucker, a resident in Alabama, who was struck from the register over a $4 fine and whose son of the same name was also prevented from voting. Meanwhile, there are growing fears of intimidation at the polls, not least following Trump’s performance at the presidential debate in which he failed to denounce white supremacists, telling the rightwing Proud Boys group to “stand back and stand by”.
Archive: CNBC; NBC News; Smithsonian Archives; MSNBC; WFTS-TV; WTSP; KETK-TV; CNN; Now This; KPN; WXIA-TV; CBSN; Twitter; CNN


theguardian--2020-10-13--Trump holds packed rally after Covid diagnosis as he struggles in polls

Keen to appear lively and well after his recent hospitalization for Covid-19 , Donald Trump held his first rally since being diagnosed , addressing a packed , largely maskless crowd in Florida – a state he desperately needs to win .
“ I feel so powerful , ” he boasted to his cheering supporters , 11 days after announcing his infection .
“ I ’ ll walk into that audience .
I ’ ll walk in there , I ’ ll kiss everyone in that audience .
I ’ ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women – everybody , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a bit hoarse .
With just weeks to go before election day , and early voting under way , Trump has been eager to return to a full schedule of in-person rallies as he scrambles to hold on to supporters .
Polls have his Democratic opponent , Joe Biden , ahead by an average of 10.4 points as of Friday .
Trump is also losing support from seniors , who are the most vulnerable in a pandemic that has already killed more than 214,000 Americans .
In a frenetic push to solidify support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to downplay the threat of coronavirus .
The president ’ s own demonstrations of reckless , maskless bravado appear to be key to that strategy , as Trump characterizes his opponent as frail and confined to his basement .
Seniors were among the crowd , who chanted “ USA ” and “ We love you ” , at the rally outside Orlando on Monday night .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that the highest risk events during the pandemic are “ large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and attendees travel from outside the local area ” – a description which more or less sums up a rally .
Although the rally was held outside , where the virus is less likely to spread , attendees ’ lack of social distancing and masking at Trump events has raised concerns .
Earlier in the day , Dr Anthony Fauci , the nation ’ s top infectious disease expert , said holding large rallies was “ asking for trouble ” , telling CNN that Americans should be vigilant as coronavirus cases tick up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ We ’ ve seen that when you have situations of congregate settings where there are a lot of people without masks , the data speak for themselves , ” Fauci said .
“ It happens .
And now is even more so a worse time to do that , because when you look at what ’ s going on in the United States , it ’ s really very troublesome.
” The president ’ s physician , meanwhile , issued a statement noting that Trump had been taking Abbott Pharmaceutical ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on consecutive days ” .
As has been characteristic in recent weeks , Dr Sean Conley left out key information – including which days and how many .
He also offered that the rapid tests – which are less accurate than PCR tests processed in labs – were not used “ in isolation for the determination of the president ’ s negative status ” and cited “ additional clinical and laboratory data ” , leaving many details of Trump ’ s condition vague .
Biden held a much different campaign event on Monday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crowd in Cincinnati .
Condemning the president ’ s response to the pandemic , the Democratic nominee asked rhetorically : “ How many empty chairs are there around the dinner table because of his negligence ?
” But even as Biden discussed his plans for addressing the pandemic , Trump had moved on – discussing his hopes for the US to land a man on Mars and disparaging the media .
Monday night marked a return to the president ’ s classic stump speeches , divorced from reality , with a throwback to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is paying for ” the border wall .
The president has planned to hold rallies in battleground states all week , without any new safety precautions .
Trump also insisted he was leading in Nevada , Arizona and North Carolina .
That he is decidedly not – and has not been for months – is perhaps the best explanation as to why the president is so eager to return to a packed campaign schedule .

Keen to appear lively and well after his recent hospitalization for Covid-19, Donald Trump held his first rally since being diagnosed, addressing a packed, largely maskless crowd in Florida – a state he desperately needs to win.
“I feel so powerful,” he boasted to his cheering supporters, 11 days after announcing his infection. “I’ll walk into that audience. I’ll walk in there, I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women – everybody,” he added, his voice still a bit hoarse.
With just weeks to go before election day, and early voting under way, Trump has been eager to return to a full schedule of in-person rallies as he scrambles to hold on to supporters. Polls have his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, ahead by an average of 10.4 points as of Friday. Trump is also losing support from seniors, who are the most vulnerable in a pandemic that has already killed more than 214,000 Americans.
In a frenetic push to solidify support, Trump and his campaign have sought to downplay the threat of coronavirus. The president’s own demonstrations of reckless, maskless bravado appear to be key to that strategy, as Trump characterizes his opponent as frail and confined to his basement.
Attendees listen to Donald Trump speak at his campaign rally in Sanford, Florida. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Seniors were among the crowd, who chanted “USA” and “We love you”, at the rally outside Orlando on Monday night. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that the highest risk events during the pandemic are “large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6ft apart and attendees travel from outside the local area” – a description which more or less sums up a rally.
Although the rally was held outside, where the virus is less likely to spread, attendees’ lack of social distancing and masking at Trump events has raised concerns.
Earlier in the day, Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said holding large rallies was “asking for trouble”, telling CNN that Americans should be vigilant as coronavirus cases tick up in many parts of the country. “We’ve seen that when you have situations of congregate settings where there are a lot of people without masks, the data speak for themselves,” Fauci said. “It happens. And now is even more so a worse time to do that, because when you look at what’s going on in the United States, it’s really very troublesome.”
The president’s physician, meanwhile, issued a statement noting that Trump had been taking Abbott Pharmaceutical’s rapid tests and received negative results “on consecutive days”. As has been characteristic in recent weeks, Dr Sean Conley left out key information – including which days and how many. He also offered that the rapid tests – which are less accurate than PCR tests processed in labs – were not used “in isolation for the determination of the president’s negative status” and cited “additional clinical and laboratory data”, leaving many details of Trump’s condition vague.
Biden held a much different campaign event on Monday – addressing a spare, socially distanced crowd in Cincinnati. Condemning the president’s response to the pandemic, the Democratic nominee asked rhetorically: “How many empty chairs are there around the dinner table because of his negligence?”
01:22 Joe Biden in Ohio: Trump 'turned his back on you' – video
But even as Biden discussed his plans for addressing the pandemic, Trump had moved on – discussing his hopes for the US to land a man on Mars and disparaging the media. Monday night marked a return to the president’s classic stump speeches, divorced from reality, with a throwback to his erstwhile rallying cry that Mexico “is paying for” the border wall.
The president has planned to hold rallies in battleground states all week, without any new safety precautions.
Trump also insisted he was leading in Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina. That he is decidedly not – and has not been for months – is perhaps the best explanation as to why the president is so eager to return to a packed campaign schedule.


theguardian--2020-10-12--Biden campaigns in red state Ohio, hoping to expand battleground map

Joe Biden ’ s campaign went on a fresh offense against the Trump administration on Monday , campaigning in a red state and accusing Republicans of hypocrisy as they sought to portray Democrats as anti-religious during the supreme court hearings for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett .
Biden campaigned in Ohio , attempting to expand the battleground map and keep Trump on the defensive in a state thought to be out of reach for Democrats after Trump ’ s wide margin of victory there four years ago .
A slew of recent polls has had the Democratic challenger leading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ double digits .
Likewise , many battleground state surveys , though often narrower than the national picture , have Biden with healthy leads .
The situation has led several top Republicans to make rare public warnings of losing the White House – and maybe even Republicans losing the Senate .
On the campaign trail Biden stressed an economic message and touted his own record while casting Trump as having abandoned working-class voters who helped him win rust belt states that put him in the White House in 2016 .
In Toledo , Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local General Motors ’ powertrain plant .
The former vice-president spoke in a parking lot with about 30 American-made cars and trucks arrayed nearby , and he struck a decidedly populist note , praising unions and arguing that he represented working-class values while the Republican Trump cared only about impressing the Ivy League and country club set .
“ I don ’ t measure people by the size of their bank account , ” Biden said .
“ You and I measure people by the strength of their character , their honesty , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hearings for Barrett began back in Washington the Biden campaign took umbrage at Republican criticisms that they had targeted Barrett ’ s Catholic faith as a reason not to nominate her – despite the fact that Democrats focused almost entirely on issues like healthcare .
A spokesperson for Biden accused Republicans of double standards , noting the Democratic nominee would be only the second Catholic president in US history if elected next month .
“ Where were these Republican senators when Trump outrageously attacked Biden ’ s faith , saying he ’ d @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bates said in a tweet .
Trump said during an August campaign event that Biden would “ take away your guns , destroy your second amendment .
No religion , no anything , hurt the Bible , hurt God.
” Trump added of Biden : “ He ’ s against God , he ’ s against guns , he ’ s against energy , our kind of energy.
” In Ohio Biden highlighted his role as vice-president as the Obama administration rescued the US auto industry after the 2008 financial collapse .
George @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 2008 election , but the Obama administration managed most of the rescue program .
“ The auto industry that supported one in eight Ohioans was on the brink , ” Biden said at the drive-in rally , eliciting horn honks from people listening from their vehicles .
“ Barack and I bet on you , and it paid off.
” Trump , meanwhile , was resuming campaign travel for the first time since testing positive for the coronavirus , holding an evening rally in Florida .
And Vice-President Mike Pence staged his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capital , Columbus , concluding remarks at Savko & Sons , an excavation company that hosted Obama at one of its job sites in 2010 , shortly before Biden took the stage in Toledo .
In a nod to Senate confirmation hearings on Barrett ’ s nomination to the Supreme Court – where Biden ’ s running mate , California senator Kamala Harris , was participating remotely – Pence declared to applause that “ we ’ re going to fill that seat ” .
Pence also noted that Biden has refused to say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some progressive Democrats who would like to see the party expand the number of seats on the supreme court , should Democrats win the White House and the Senate on 3 November while retaining control of the House .

Joe Biden’s campaign went on a fresh offense against the Trump administration on Monday, campaigning in a red state and accusing Republicans of hypocrisy as they sought to portray Democrats as anti-religious during the supreme court hearings for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett.
Biden campaigned in Ohio, attempting to expand the battleground map and keep Trump on the defensive in a state thought to be out of reach for Democrats after Trump’s wide margin of victory there four years ago.
A slew of recent polls has had the Democratic challenger leading Trump in national polls, often by double digits. Likewise, many battleground state surveys, though often narrower than the national picture, have Biden with healthy leads. The situation has led several top Republicans to make rare public warnings of losing the White House – and maybe even Republicans losing the Senate.
On the campaign trail Biden stressed an economic message and touted his own record while casting Trump as having abandoned working-class voters who helped him win rust belt states that put him in the White House in 2016.
In Toledo, Biden addressed United Auto Workers who represent a local General Motors’ powertrain plant. The former vice-president spoke in a parking lot with about 30 American-made cars and trucks arrayed nearby, and he struck a decidedly populist note, praising unions and arguing that he represented working-class values while the Republican Trump cared only about impressing the Ivy League and country club set.
“I don’t measure people by the size of their bank account,” Biden said. “You and I measure people by the strength of their character, their honesty, their courage.”
Meanwhile as the nomination hearings for Barrett began back in Washington the Biden campaign took umbrage at Republican criticisms that they had targeted Barrett’s Catholic faith as a reason not to nominate her – despite the fact that Democrats focused almost entirely on issues like healthcare.
A spokesperson for Biden accused Republicans of double standards, noting the Democratic nominee would be only the second Catholic president in US history if elected next month. “Where were these Republican senators when Trump outrageously attacked Biden’s faith, saying he’d ‘hurt God’?” Andrew Bates said in a tweet.
Trump said during an August campaign event that Biden would “take away your guns, destroy your second amendment. No religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God.” Trump added of Biden: “He’s against God, he’s against guns, he’s against energy, our kind of energy.”
In Ohio Biden highlighted his role as vice-president as the Obama administration rescued the US auto industry after the 2008 financial collapse. George W Bush signed the aid package after the 2008 election, but the Obama administration managed most of the rescue program.
“The auto industry that supported one in eight Ohioans was on the brink,” Biden said at the drive-in rally, eliciting horn honks from people listening from their vehicles. “Barack and I bet on you, and it paid off.”
Trump, meanwhile, was resuming campaign travel for the first time since testing positive for the coronavirus, holding an evening rally in Florida. And Vice-President Mike Pence staged his own midwestern event in Ohio’s capital, Columbus, concluding remarks at Savko & Sons, an excavation company that hosted Obama at one of its job sites in 2010, shortly before Biden took the stage in Toledo.
In a nod to Senate confirmation hearings on Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court – where Biden’s running mate, California senator Kamala Harris, was participating remotely – Pence declared to applause that “we’re going to fill that seat”.
Pence also noted that Biden has refused to say whether he will heed the calls of some progressive Democrats who would like to see the party expand the number of seats on the supreme court, should Democrats win the White House and the Senate on 3 November while retaining control of the House.


theguardian--2020-10-12--‘I’m a perfect physical specimen’: absurd claims Trump made this weekend

In the last week , the president refused to attend a virtual debate with Joe Biden – a pre-condition that news organizations set due to the president ’ s recent diagnosis of Covid-19 .
In the absence of that debate , Trump appears to have fled back to his base , partaking in a string of lengthy , unfiltered interviews with favorable news outlets .
He has appeared on Fox four times in the last week , whilst blocking Dr Fauci from speaking on This Week on CBS .
Here ’ s what his week in interviews looked like .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Thursday morning interview with Maria Baritoromo , in which he bragged ( perhaps joked ? )
about beating his Covid-19 diagnosis , claiming : “ I ’ m back because I ’ m a perfect physical specimen and I ’ m extremely young.
” Hours after cancelling the second debate because he objected to doing it virtually , Trump appeared on Tucker Carlson ’ s Friday night show virtually .
The format was a mock tele-health visit , with Carlson pointing out that Trump ’ s coronavirus diagnosis was too recent for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him .
Trump was interviewed by Dr Marc Siegel , a Fox News contributor who has repeatedly compared the coronavirus to the flu , and disputed the evidence on masks .
Trump addressed criticism over going outside to greet supporters from his car just hours after being hospitalized with the highly contagious virus – claiming he could hear his fans from the hospital .
“ I was way up high .
And , you know , [ I ’ m in ] this very fortified military hospital that ’ s , you know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And yet through these very powerful windows , I could hear people screaming and shouting and with love , with real love.
” It sounds like he had no regrets about his decision , adding : “ I don ’ t think there was one negative person , and there was many , many , many people.
” ‘ We oughta do the debates ourselves , Sean ’ Trump then complained he gets an unfair ride during the debates on Sean Hannity ’ s show , calling his 2016 debate hosts “ Clinton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for his unfair treatment .
Then Trump suggested his own plan for the debates – one in which he gets to pick the station and the anchors .
“ I ’ m the president , so if we have debates I would rather just do it ourselves … I would pick some good anchor.
” Then , he said who he would like .
“ Let ’ s have a great host someone like the great Sean Hannity , we ’ ll get Rush [ Limbaugh ] , we ’ ll get Mark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get Laura [ Ingraham ] , we ’ ll get judge Jeanine … or Tucker [ Carlson ] , ” he said .
‘ The most honest guy in the world ’ On Friday , Trump also sat for a two hour interview with Rush Limbaugh – the conservative host to whom Trump awarded the medal of freedom .
Limbaugh kicked off with high praise , telling Trump : “ You are one of the strongest , most unwavering , most determined , loyal people I ’ ve ever met.
” Trump seemed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actually be the most honest person in the world .
“ A friend of mine said – who is a very smart successful guy , a lawyer – said you must be the most honest guy in the world , you ’ ve gone through three and a half years of investigations and they have found nothing , ” he said , referencing the recent investigations into his taxes , and the Russia probe .
On Sunday , radio host Mark Levin claimed that Trump is often painted as something he is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supremacist .
Levin asked why the media doesn ’ t instead ask Biden about his record , working with segregationists and opposing bussing .
“ You never really get a fair opportunity , ” said Levin .
“ It ’ s a shame , ” Trump responded .
“ I have done more for the African American community than anybody since Abraham Lincoln , I really have , no matter which way you cut it , ” he said .
Basking in the glow of immunity Trump was interviewed by Bartiromo on Sunday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fantastic – in fact , he referred to himself as “ having really a protective glow ” .
“ It seems like I ’ m immune , ” he told Bartiromo , before giving a potential timescale : “ I could be immune , maybe for I dunno , maybe a long time , maybe a short time – it could be a lifetime.
” Trump also claimed 2.2 million Americans were projected to die from the virus in the US , and so the US ’ s 214,000 death toll was an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that a 2.2 million dead estimate was knocking around at the start of the pandemic – but as pointed out by Vox ’ s Aaron Rupar , that estimate was based on a scenario in which the government literally did nothing in response to the virus .

In the last week, the president refused to attend a virtual debate with Joe Biden – a pre-condition that news organizations set due to the president’s recent diagnosis of Covid-19.
In the absence of that debate, Trump appears to have fled back to his base, partaking in a string of lengthy, unfiltered interviews with favorable news outlets. He has appeared on Fox four times in the last week, whilst blocking Dr Fauci from speaking on This Week on CBS. Here’s what his week in interviews looked like.
‘A perfect physical specimen’
Donald Trump prepared for the weekend with a Thursday morning interview with Maria Baritoromo, in which he bragged (perhaps joked?) about beating his Covid-19 diagnosis, claiming: “I’m back because I’m a perfect physical specimen and I’m extremely young.”
‘A great display of love’
Hours after cancelling the second debate because he objected to doing it virtually, Trump appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Friday night show virtually. The format was a mock tele-health visit, with Carlson pointing out that Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis was too recent for Fox to send a news crew to him.
Trump was interviewed by Dr Marc Siegel, a Fox News contributor who has repeatedly compared the coronavirus to the flu, and disputed the evidence on masks. Trump addressed criticism over going outside to greet supporters from his car just hours after being hospitalized with the highly contagious virus – claiming he could hear his fans from the hospital.
“I was way up high. And, you know, [I’m in] this very fortified military hospital that’s, you know, built to the highest standard. And yet through these very powerful windows, I could hear people screaming and shouting and with love, with real love.”
It sounds like he had no regrets about his decision, adding: “I don’t think there was one negative person, and there was many, many, many people.”
‘We oughta do the debates ourselves, Sean’
Trump then complained he gets an unfair ride during the debates on Sean Hannity’s show, calling his 2016 debate hosts “Clinton people” who he claims have apologized for his unfair treatment.
Then Trump suggested his own plan for the debates – one in which he gets to pick the station and the anchors. “I’m the president, so if we have debates I would rather just do it ourselves … I would pick some good anchor.” Then, he said who he would like. “Let’s have a great host someone like the great Sean Hannity, we’ll get Rush [Limbaugh], we’ll get Mark [Levine], we’ll get Laura [Ingraham], we’ll get judge Jeanine … or Tucker [Carlson],” he said.
‘The most honest guy in the world’
On Friday, Trump also sat for a two hour interview with Rush Limbaugh – the conservative host to whom Trump awarded the medal of freedom. Limbaugh kicked off with high praise, telling Trump: “You are one of the strongest, most unwavering, most determined, loyal people I’ve ever met.”
Trump seemed to agree, suggesting that he might actually be the most honest person in the world. “A friend of mine said – who is a very smart successful guy, a lawyer – said you must be the most honest guy in the world, you’ve gone through three and a half years of investigations and they have found nothing,” he said, referencing the recent investigations into his taxes, and the Russia probe.
Keep the suburbs strong
On Sunday, radio host Mark Levin claimed that Trump is often painted as something he is not – a, segregationist and a white supremacist. Levin asked why the media doesn’t instead ask Biden about his record, working with segregationists and opposing bussing.
“You never really get a fair opportunity,” said Levin.
“It’s a shame,” Trump responded. “I have done more for the African American community than anybody since Abraham Lincoln, I really have, no matter which way you cut it,” he said.
Basking in the glow of immunity
Trump was interviewed by Bartiromo on Sunday, during which he claimed he felt fantastic – in fact, he referred to himself as “having really a protective glow”.
“It seems like I’m immune,” he told Bartiromo, before giving a potential timescale: “I could be immune, maybe for I dunno, maybe a long time, maybe a short time – it could be a lifetime.”
When asked what he is doing to ensure safety of attendees at Florida rally, Trump claims he has a "protective glow" pic.twitter.com/edcBqC5L8j — Talking Points Memo (@TPM) October 11, 2020
Trump also claimed 2.2 million Americans were projected to die from the virus in the US, and so the US’s 214,000 death toll was an achievement by comparison.
It is true that a 2.2 million dead estimate was knocking around at the start of the pandemic – but as pointed out by Vox’s Aaron Rupar, that estimate was based on a scenario in which the government literally did nothing in response to the virus.