Facebook Vows To Crack Down On Voter Intimidation In Election – NPR
Facebook Vows To Crack Down On Voter Intimidation In Election – NPR

With more people voting by mail this year, Facebook and other social media companies are preparing for a potential delay in election results.

Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images


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Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

With more people voting by mail this year, Facebook and other social media companies are preparing for a potential delay in election results.

Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Facebook said on Wednesday it would crack down on efforts to intimidate voters, amid growing concerns over potential confrontations at polling places and calls from the Trump campaign for an “army” of poll watchers.

The company said it would remove posts urging people to monitor voting places if the posts “use militarized language or suggest that the goal is to intimidate, exert control, or display power over election officials or voters.”

Yet a prominent example of such a post, in which Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, urges “every able-bodied man, woman to join Army for Trump’s election security operation,” will remain on the platform. Facebook says it does not apply its policies retroactively.

The company will remove only new posts that use militarized language such as “army” or “battle,” Monika Bickert, head of content policy, told reporters on Wednesday. “Under the new policy, if that [Trump] video were to be posted again, we would indeed be removing it,” she said.

Facebook also announced it will stop running all political and issue ads in the U.S. for at least a week after polls close on Election Day “to reduce opportunities for confusion or abuse,” amid growing expectations that the results of the presidential election may not be immediately known.

“We know this election will be unlike any other,” Sara Schiff, Facebook’s product lead for political advertising, told reporters.

Facebook defines “social issue” ads in the U.S. to cover a wide range of subjects, from civil and social rights, environmental politics and guns to health, immigration and education.

The post-election advertising ban brings the company in line with Google, which last month said it will not publish political ads after polls close. Twitter and TikTok banned all political ads last year. Facebook, which has resisted calls to fact-check political ads, had previously said it would not accept any new political ads in the week before the Nov. 3 vote.

Election watchers and social media companies say they are bracing for the possibility that final results will be delayed because so many people are voting by mail during the pandemic.

Facebook is under pressure to rein in political content that could be used to mislead or manipulate voters, whether it comes from foreign actors like Russia, which used the platform to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, or from Americans. That includes President Trump, who has repeatedly made false claims online about mail-in voting and attempted to undermine the legitimacy of the election.

Social media companies have tightened their rules against election misinformation and efforts to dissuade people from voting. But critics say Facebook in particular often waits too long to act on posts that break its rules, and has allowed the president too much leeway.

On Wednesday, Facebook also gave more details on its plans to prevent candidates from claiming premature victory or misrepresenting the vote-counting process. Once polls close, it will run a banner with information about the counting process at the top of the Facebook and Instagram apps.

If a presidential candidate claims victory before a race is called, Facebook says it will label such posts to “add more specific information” that counting is still in progress and a winner has not been declared.

Once a winner has been declared, if another candidate or party contests the results, Facebook will update the notification at the top of its apps with the winner’s name and label posts from presidential candidates with the winner.

Editor’s note: Facebook is among NPR’s financial supporters.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/10/07/921287946/facebook-vows-to-crack-down-on-voter-intimidation-in-election

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Barrett speaks with key Senate Dems amid calls to delay her hearing – POLITICO
Barrett speaks with key Senate Dems amid calls to delay her hearing – POLITICO

In statements and interviews Wednesday, Senate Democrats continued to express concern about the confirmation process for Barrett and pressed the nominee on her views on the Affordable Care Act, Roe v. Wade, and other key issues.

Coons told reporters after his call with Barrett that she did not commit to recusing herself from cases related to the upcoming election. President Donald Trump has publicly suggested that the Senate needs to confirm Barrett before Nov. 3 to ensure that there are nine justices on the court, in the event of a disputed election.

“She made no commitment to recusal,” Coons said. “She went through what the factors are for recusal and said it would essentially depend on the circumstances for any judge to make any recusal decision.”

Whitehouse, meanwhile, said he spoke to Barrett in order to “plant a seed of awareness” about the influence of dark money and the impact that groups like The Federalist Society and the Judicial Crisis Network have on the Supreme Court.

“I wanted the call because I wanted to walk her through the case of how these entities that are all around the court are funded and what it is that they seek to accomplish through the influence they are extending over the court,” Whitehouse said in an interview.

Whitehouse said that while Barrett was “polite,” his concerns about her nomination were not alleviated.

Judd Deere, a spokesperson for the White House, said, Wednesday that in her phone calls “the Judge emphasized the importance of judicial independence and spoke about her judicial philosophy and family.”

Senate Democrats have called repeatedly to delay filling the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death last month of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, arguing that whoever wins the Nov. 3 election should choose Ginsburg’s replacement. Democrats are accusing Republicans of hypocrisy after they refused to consider the 2016 nomination of Merrick Garland by President Barack Obama, and they also note that the Senate has never confirmed a Supreme Court justice so close to a presidential election. In addition, Democrats say that if the Senate is not safe enough to be in session, the Senate Judiciary Committee also should not convene.

But most Senate Republicans see no reason for delay and argue that history is on their side, because they control both the White House and the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday evening that the plan is for the Senate to confirm Barrett before the election. Republicans also maintain that the hearing will be conducted safely, and that senators have the option of attending remotely.

There is little Senate Democrats can do to stop Barrett’s nomination. Instead, they’ve focused their messaging on the future of Obamacare and abortion rights. In an act of protest, however, several Senate Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have said they will not meet with Barrett because they view her confirmation process as illegitimate.

Among the Democratic senators who have met or spoken with Barrett is Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. But he, too, left the meeting expressing concern about her and about Senate Republicans’ push to confirm her quickly.

In a statement last week, Manchin said, “Despite her impressive background and credentials, Judge Barrett offered no contrast to her prior views and writings about the Affordable Care Act which continue to give me serious concerns if she were to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.” Manchin added that he continues to “oppose this process.”

Andrew Desiderio contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/07/amy-coney-barrett-senate-democrats-427438

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Biden crosses 270 threshold in CNN’s Electoral College outlook for first time – CNN
Biden crosses 270 threshold in CNN’s Electoral College outlook for first time – CNN
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MUST WATCH

    Alabama (9), Alaska (3), Arkansas (6), Idaho (4), Indiana (11), Kansas (6), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (8), Mississippi (6), Missouri (10), Montana (3), Nebraska (4), North Dakota (3), Oklahoma (7), South Carolina (9), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (11), Utah (6), West Virginia (5), Wyoming (3) (125 total)
      California (55), Connecticut (7), Delaware (3), DC (3), Hawaii (4), Illinois (20), Maine (3), Maryland (10), Massachusetts (11), New Jersey (14), New Mexico (5), New York (29), Oregon (7), Rhode Island (4), Vermont (3), Virginia (13), Washington (12) (203 total)

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/politics/electoral-college-joe-biden-donald-trump/index.html

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Florida fights to avoid extending voter registration – POLITICO
Florida fights to avoid extending voter registration – POLITICO

Voters prepare to turn in their mail-in ballots, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department in Doral, Fla. | AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee

TALLAHASSEE — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his chief election official said the state has no reason to extend a voter registration deadline and that doing so would undermine the public’s faith in the upcoming presidential election.

The argument was made late Wednesday in a filing with the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, where civil rights groups are suing after the state’s voter registration portal failed on Oct. 5, the last day people could sign up to vote.

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Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker ordered the state to respond to the lawsuit in advance of a preliminary injunction hearing set for Thursday morning.

Lawyers for the DeSantis administration, relying on statements from state and local election officials, said reopening voter registration rolls would cause confusion in the final weeks before Election Day, when President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden will be on the ballot and officials predict record turnout in the battleground state.

“Another extension under the circumstances will serve to reinforce the confusion and mistrust voters have surrounding this election, further strengthening the rampant misinformation and disinformation campaigns that are already undermining the November general election,” Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley said in a declaration accompanying the state filing.

Attorneys for the state said election supervisors need time to prepare and sought to undercut the groups bringing the lawsuit because they relied on testimony from two people who already are registered to vote.

The state’s online voter portal crashed on Oct. 5 under a surge of heavy traffic, prompting Secretary of State Laurel Lee to extend the deadline for registration from Oct. 5 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 6.

Seven civil rights and left-leaning groups sued Lee and DeSantis, both Republicans, seeking to push the deadline back at least another two days. The groups admonished state officials for the site’s failure, saying online registration was crucial due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday by The Advancement Project National Office, Demos, New Florida Majority, and others said Broward County resident Augusta Sandino Christian Namphy, was unable to register Monday because the site kept crashing.

The DeSantis administration, it its filing, said Namphy has been registered to vote for three years and has been issued voter identification cards in the past.

A spokesperson for The Advancement Project did not immediately respond to questions about Namphy’s registration.

Florida’s voter registration deadline, 29 days ahead of the election, is one of the earliest in the country.

Lee in a tweet said that the site was only dark for 15 minutes Monday, but a surge of heavy traffic resulted in people getting error messages into the evening. State officials told the court early Wednesday that at its height the site hit with 1 million visits an hour, a stunning number given that Florida currently has roughly 14 million in the voters.

In its filing, the state said about 50,000 Floridians were able to register Tuesday and slightly more than 70,000 registered Monday, the day the portal crashed. The volume was comparable to 2018, when nearly 86,000 voters registered through the website in the two days before that year’s deadline.

“To suggest that the State’s extension was inadequate — without any contrary evidence — is thus empty rhetoric,” wrote attorney Mohammad Jazil, Department of State general counsel Bradley McVay, and James Uthmeier, deputy general counsel for DeSantis.

After a review by law-enforcement officials, Lee said in a statement on Tuesday that there was no sign of outside interference or “malicious activity” that contributed to the site‘s failure.

Democrats viewed the portal’s crash suspiciously, noting that the site has had problems before during periods of peak voter interest. All 13 Democratic members of Florida’s congressional delegation sent a letter late Tuesday to DeSantis calling on him to extend voter registration by one day, calling the initial extension “welcome but inadequate.”

“Those that logged on to the website on Monday, within the legal deadline for voter registration, should not be silenced because of this breakdown,” the delegation wrote. “Nor should those who seek to vote in November be penalized for failing to become aware of an altruistic, though hastily-crafted remedy consisting of just several added hours of registration availability.

“Without a robust, well-publicized extension remedy, this situation has the superficial appearance of being another example of the voter suppression tactics that Florida has sadly come to be synonymous with in recent years.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/10/07/florida-fights-to-avoid-extending-voter-registration-1322333

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Pence and Harris meet for vice presidential debate as administration is gripped by Covid-19 – CNN
Pence and Harris meet for vice presidential debate as administration is gripped by Covid-19 – CNN

By Maeve Reston, CNN

Updated 8:33 PM ET, Wed October 7, 2020

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/politics/us-election-vice-presidential-debate/index.html

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Donald Trump calls catching COVID ‘blessing in disguise,’ touts experimental antibody treatment: ‘I feel like perfect’ – USA TODAY
Donald Trump calls catching COVID ‘blessing in disguise,’ touts experimental antibody treatment: ‘I feel like perfect’ – USA TODAY

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/10/07/trumps-touts-experimental-regeneron-covid-antibody-treatment/5917010002/

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Trump wants Congress to approve more $1,200 stimulus checks. That may not be easy – CNBC
Trump wants Congress to approve more $1,200 stimulus checks. That may not be easy – CNBC

President Donald Trump is calling for Congress to move on approving a second round $1,200 stimulus checks to millions of Americans.

But don’t count the money just yet.

The president tweeted on Tuesday night he supports stand-alone legislation to authorize those payments. That was a reversal from his position earlier in the day, when he said he wanted Washington lawmakers to hold off on stimulus negotiations until after the election.

Trump has also called for other stand-alone legislation to provide $25 billion to help the airline industry and $135 billion for additional Paycheck Protection Program loans to small businesses.

It’s unclear, however, whether that call to action from the commander in chief will encourage the divided parties to come together and approve more one-time payments.

More from Your Money Mindset:
What to know before investing stimulus money
Consider these factors before accepting an early retirement package
Many forced to raid retirement money amid pandemic

House Democrats have pushed for a $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill, while the White House has instead indicated it would be willing to spend $1.6 trillion.

Based on comments House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made Wednesday on daytime TV show “The View,” it does not sound like Trump’s proposal could be enough to ease the political stalemate.

“All he has ever wanted in the negotiation was to send out a check with his name printed on it,” Pelosi said. “Forget about the virus, forget about our heroes, forget about our children and their need to go to school safely and the rest.

“He’s just again rebounding from a terrible mistake he made yesterday and the Republicans in Congress were going down the drain with him on that.”

What it would take to get a second round of checks

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/07/trump-calls-for-congress-to-approve-second-1200-stimulus-checks.html

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‘A Republican Party unraveling’: GOP plunged into crisis as Trump abruptly ends economic relief talks, dismisses virus – The Washington Post
‘A Republican Party unraveling’: GOP plunged into crisis as Trump abruptly ends economic relief talks, dismisses virus – The Washington Post

Follow live updates on the election and the vice-presidential debate here.

Democrats Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala D. Harris hold a steady lead over President Trump and Vice President Pence, with an edge of 53 percent to 43 percent among registered voters, according to the latest Post-ABC News poll. Biden also leads Trump in the key battleground of Pennsylvania.

How to vote: Find out the rules in your state. Some states have already started sending out mail ballots; see how to make sure yours counts. Absentee and mail ballots are two terms for the same thing, mostly used interchangeably. Barring a landslide, we may not have a result in the presidential election on Nov. 3. Are you running into voting problems? Let us know.

Electoral college map: Who actually votes, and who do they vote for? Explore how shifts in turnout and voting patterns for key demographic groups could affect the presidential race.

Policy: Where Biden and Trump stand on key issues defining the election.

Battlegrounds: Want to understand the swing states? Read about Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Arizona, and sign up for The Trailer and get more states, plus more news and insight from the trail, in your inbox three days a week.

Coming up: Trump and Biden are scheduled to debate three times this fall; here’s what to know about the 2020 presidential debates. Are you planning on watching the debate? The Washington Post wants to hear from you.

Show More

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-republicans-senate-coronavirus/2020/10/07/6cbfc724-08bb-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html

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NJ letter carrier arrested for allegedly discarding ballots, other mail | TheHill – The Hill
NJ letter carrier arrested for allegedly discarding ballots, other mail | TheHill – The Hill

A Postal Service mail carrier in New Jersey was arrested Wednesday for allegedly discarding mail, including 99 general election ballots.

Nicholas Beauchene was charged with one count of delay, secretion or detention of mail and one count of obstruction of mail. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the delay charge, and up to six months in prison and a $6,000 fine for obstruction.

The discarded ballots were addressed to residents of West Orange, N.J., U.S. Attorney Craig Carpentino said.

According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, approximately 1,875 pieces of mail were recovered from dumpsters in North Arlington and West Orange between Oct. 2 and Oct. 5. They were slated for delivery in Orange and West Orange.

Prosecutors allege that Beauchene was the only mail carrier assigned to deliver to those addresses. He is scheduled to appear Wednesday in Newark federal court.

Aside from the ballots, prosecutors said 627 pieces of first class mail, 873 pieces of standard class, two pieces of certified mail, and 276 campaign flyers for West Orange Town Council and Board of Education candidates were recovered.

An attorney for Beauchene was not identified in court documents.

Mail-in voting is under intense scrutiny this year, with more Americans casting their ballots by mail due to coronavirus concerns.

President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump and Biden’s plans would both add to the debt, analysis finds Trump says he will back specific relief measures hours after halting talks Trump lashes out at FDA over vaccine guidelines MORE has repeatedly alleged that mail-in voting will lead to widespread voter fraud, despite there being no evidence to support the claim.

The White House recently highlighted a handful of discarded ballots in Pennsylvania, but Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (D) said there was no “intentional fraud” involved.

The Trump campaign sued New Jersey in August seeking to overturn Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) executive order requiring every voter in the state receive mail-in ballots, in addition to being allowed to vote in person.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/520029-nj-letter-carrier-arrested-for-allegedly-discarding-mail-ballots

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Gov. Newsom signs executive order protecting CA land and coastal waters – KCRA Sacramento
Gov. Newsom signs executive order protecting CA land and coastal waters – KCRA Sacramento
YOLO COUNTY, Calif. —

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday he was signing an executive order meant to protect California’s land and coastal waters.

The order is to conserve 30% of the state’s land and coastal waters by 2030, the governor said.

“I am here today to advance an effort to codify efforts that are already underway here in the state of California, but advance them more formally by establishing a framework to preserve and protect over 30% of the state’s lands to be conserved here in the state of California and extend that to our coastal waters as well,” Newsom said.

According to Newsom, California will be the first state to implement such a plan for both land and coastal conservation and will join several other nations doing the same.

“We will join other parts of the globe, some 38 nations and some national governments that have done the same. This is an international movement. California, as the fifth-largest economy in the world, needs to flex its muscles,” he said.

In late September, Newsom signed an executive order that would ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by the year 2035.

He urged Californians to “pull away from the gas pumps” and encouraged other states to join California for the good of the environment and public health.

This is a developing story.

Stay with KCRA 3 for the latest.

Source Article from https://www.kcra.com/article/newsom-new-efforts-curb-climate-change-california/34303174

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Biden crosses 270 threshold in CNN’s Electoral College outlook for first time – CNN
Biden crosses 270 threshold in CNN’s Electoral College outlook for first time – CNN

By David Chalian and Terence Burlij, CNN

Updated 8:00 PM ET, Wed October 7, 2020

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/politics/electoral-college-joe-biden-donald-trump/index.html

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Pelosi, Mnuchin signal openness to $25B bailout for US airlines after Trump reverses course on stimulus – Fox Business
Pelosi, Mnuchin signal openness to $25B bailout for US airlines after Trump reverses course on stimulus – Fox Business
video

Uncertain future for airline pilots

Although, airlines have put in place multiple safety protocols passenger volume is still down by 70%. Those in the airline business are hopeful that a vaccine may help but even then they think normalcy may be far away.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled openness to a standalone coronavirus relief bill for the pandemic-stricken airline industry on Wednesday morning during a phone call with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, according to a tweet from her spokesperson.

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“The secretary inquired about a standalone airlines bill. The speaker reminded him that Republicans blocked that bill on Friday & asked him to review the DeFazio bill so that they could have an informed conversation,” Drew Hammill tweeted.

Transportation Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio on Friday attempted to pass an extension of the just-expired Payroll Support Program for another six months by unanimous consent, but Republicans thwarted the effort, saying that it had not been cleared by leadership from both sides of the aisle.

PELOSI CITES POWELL IN LATEST PUSH FOR CORONAVIRUS RELIEF AID

Under the legislation, airlines and contractors would receive $28 billion if they avoided job cuts or reducing workers’ pay through March 31, 2020.

The renewed push to pass the legislation comes one day after President Trump abruptly announced he was breaking off negotiations until after the November election.

“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill,” Trump tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

But hours later, he appeared to reverse course, calling on lawmakers to approve another $25 billion for U.S. airlines and $135 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, a small business rescue fund.

NEARLY HALF OF AMERICANS WHO LOST JOB TO PANDEMIC CAN’T LAST A MONTH ON SAVINGS

“The House & Senate should IMMEDIATELY Approve 25 Billion Dollars for Airline Payroll Support, & 135 Billion Dollars for Paycheck Protection Program for Small Business. Both of these will be fully paid for with unused funds from the Cares Act. Have this money. I will sign now!” Trump wrote.

U.S. airlines began cutting 35,000 jobs last week following the expiration of a $25 billion bailout fund that was created earlier this year as part of the CARES Act. Under the terms of the agreement, airlines were prohibited from cutting jobs or reducing workers’ pay through Sept. 30.

TRUMP REJECTS DEMS’ CORONAVIRUS RELIEF PROPOSAL, CALLS OFF NEGOTIATIONS ‘UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION’

Absent another stimulus deal, major airlines warned they will be forced to furlough thousands of pilots, flight attendants, gate agents and other employees.

Pelosi urged airlines to delay the furloughs last week, vowing that additional government relief is “imminent.”

TRUMP LASHES OUT AT ‘HEARTLESS’ DEMS OVER STALLED-OUT VIRUS RELIEF

Airlines have begged the government for additional aid after a rebound in air travel did not materialize this summer. While it’s mounted a tepid recovery since the height of the crisis, when it plunged 95%, air travel remains well below pre-pandemic levels.

Lawmakers are working on an increasingly tight deadline as they prepare to leave Washington to campaign ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Source Article from https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/pelosi-mnuchin-signal-openness-to-25b-bailout-for-us-airlines-as-trump-renews-push-for-some-stimulus

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Biden Leads Trump in Nevada and the Two Are Tied in Ohio, Polls Show – The New York Times
Biden Leads Trump in Nevada and the Two Are Tied in Ohio, Polls Show – The New York Times

Until recent weeks Mr. Biden’s campaign has barely contested Ohio, a state that has moved solidly toward Republicans in recent years. His campaign has been focusing what television advertising it has purchased in Ohio in markets that bleed into Michigan and Pennsylvania, battleground states that are more critical to his path to winning the Electoral College. But with polls showing a narrow race there, Democrats in the state have been urging the Biden team to be more competitive.

The former vice president’s polling lead is particularly significant in Nevada, where in 2016 nearly 70 percent of all votes were cast before Election Day. Nevada officials began mailing ballots to all registered voters on Sept. 24.

More than two million Ohioans — more than a quarter of the state’s registered voters — have requested absentee ballots, which officials were to begin mailing on Tuesday.

Christine Ponkowski, who owns a housecleaning business in Henderson, Nev., described Mr. Trump’s handling of his own coronavirus case as infuriating. Ms. Ponkowski, 56, won’t enter a room in a client’s home unless there are no other people present, to protect herself and her customers.

Ms. Ponkowski said she planned to cast her ballot for Mr. Biden on Thursday.

“It’s sad when anybody gets the virus,” she said. “I have family members who have gotten the virus. “My next thought is maybe this will wake him up. But it just empowered him and his minions who follow him.”

Like many Biden supporters, Ms. Ponkowski said she is planning to vote for the former vice president primarily to remove Mr. Trump from office. Asked why she plans to vote for Mr. Biden, she replied: “Because Bernie Sanders isn’t on the ticket.”

In both states, Mr. Biden is winning overwhelming support from voters who in 2016 cast ballots for third-party candidates or didn’t vote. In Ohio, 51 percent of third-party voters are backing Mr. Biden, compared with just 16 percent for Mr. Trump. In Nevada, Mr. Biden leads those voters 45 percent to 26 percent.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/us/politics/ohio-nevada-poll-trump-biden.html

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VP debate: Plexiglass dividers are a symbol of Pence’s Covid-19 failures – Vox.com
VP debate: Plexiglass dividers are a symbol of Pence’s Covid-19 failures – Vox.com

On Tuesday evening, Vice President Mike Pence’s team finally agreed to allow a plexiglass barrier to be placed near Pence when he debates with Kamala Harris in Utah on Wednesday evening. Frankly, it’s ridiculous but not at all surprising that Pence — chair of the White House coronavirus task force — resisted such a commonsense health precaution in the first place.

The dispute over the barriers started when the Biden-Harris campaign requested the Commission on Presidential Debates implement additional safety precautions and the Trump-Pence campaign resisted. The kerfuffle added some needless uncertainty to the debate prep, but it’s also emblematic of the Trump administration’s coronavirus failures, which will certainly be a central topic of conversation on Wednesday night. It highlights the Biden-Harris strategy of painting themselves as the responsible candidates who would take a safety-conscious approach to running the country in the middle of a public health crisis.

The Cleveland Clinic is advising the commission on health safety for the debates and has recommended the installation of plexiglass dividers to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which Pence has likely been exposed to (perhaps repeatedly) in recent days. This echoes similar guidance issued by the World Health Organization and the US’s public health and workplace safety agencies, recommending the use of clear plastic or glass barriers to reduce the spread of respiratory droplets.

But Pence’s team pretended there’s no good reason for them.

“We have yet to hear medical evidence what the plexiglass is for,” Pence Chief of Staff Marc Short told CNN earlier this week.

Even after agreeing to them, Short continued to mock Harris for requesting dividers on Wednesday morning:

Pence’s team likely wants to avoid a repeat of the optics of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s recent debate with Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison, where plexiglass dividers served as a symbol of the coronavirus failures of the Trump administration and its enablers.

But, as Harris’s camp argued, safety should be the top priority, especially considering the fact that there are now 32 coronavirus cases linked to the White House — all of them diagnosed since the September 26 Amy Coney Barrett event in the Rose Garden that Pence attended.

“Senator Harris will be at the debate, respecting the protections that the Cleveland Clinic has put in place to promote safety for all concerned,” said Sabrina Singh, a Harris campaign spokeswoman, according to CNN. “If the Trump administration’s war on masks has now become a war on safety shields, that tells you everything you need to know about why their Covid response is a failure.”

Pence has been swimming in a sea of coronavirus for weeks but is carrying on as if he’s immune to it

At the September 26 Rose Garden event, a mask-less Pence sat directly in front of Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who has since tested positive for coronavirus, and close to first lady Melania and former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, both of whom have also tested positive.

That wasn’t even Pence’s only possible exposure to the coronavirus on that day. Before the ACB event, Pence spent time at an absolutely packed prayer march with Pastor Greg Lauri, who also has tested positive for the coronavirus.

On Tuesday, news broke that White House adviser Stephen Miller tested positive for the coronavirus. Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, is Pence’s communications director and traveled to Utah with him for the debate.

While Katie Miller has already had Covid-19, the news serves as a stark reminder of why, in a sane world, Pence’s repeated exposures to the virus would prompt him to quarantine. Stephen Miller says he self-isolated at home for the last five days and tested negative each day, only to finally have a positive test on Tuesday. But predictably, the vice president’s physician produced a note on Tuesday saying that since Pence’s most recently coronavirus test was negative, he’s free to debate.

That’s not really how it works. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University, explained to Rolling Stone why a negative test isn’t a sufficient reason for someone like Pence to not quarantine.

“The reason for that 14-day quarantine if you’re exposed to even one confirmed case, much less [what Pence has been exposed to], is the fact that tests are not 100 percent reliable,” Rasmussen said. “We just saw that as [Press Secretary] Kaleigh McEnany has now tested positive after several days of negative tests. This virus has a 14-day incubation period, which means that you can still be infected without the virus being detectable by a test.”

Pence, however, has long flouted public health common sense for the sake of political expedience.

Pence has been just as irresponsible as Trump but with a more presidential tone

As head of the White House coronavirus task force, Pence has consistently misled the public while flouting mask mandates even when he’s visited hospitals. A very recent example of this came on Saturday, when Pence and his wife Karen talked to reporters without wearing masks even as Trump was hospitalized with coronavirus.

Pence’s line for six months now has been that the administration has done a great job and the end of the coronavirus pandemic is right around the corner. Some people may have bought that in April and May, but it’s become a harder sell as new daily case numbers have risen back up over 40,000 in recent weeks and the seven-day average of daily deaths remains above 500.

It will be hard for Pence to defend this record during Wednesday’s debate — especially while he’s encased behind plexiglass that serves as a physical embodiment of how his administration and task force has failed to keep America safe.

The last debate was a coronavirus debacle

The plexiglass controversy has swirled along with questions about if Trump was infectious with the coronavirus during last Tuesday’s presidential debate.

The White House has refused to say when Trump’s last negative coronavirus test occurred, which raises questions about whether Trump wasn’t being tested nearly as often as the White House wanted the public to believe he was or whether he may have had the coronavirus before he publicly announced his diagnosis early last Friday morning.

If that’s the case, it’s possible that Trump exposed Joe Biden to the coronavirus during the first presidential debate last Tuesday. It’s clear that the virus was in attendance that night in Cleveland — in addition to the White House cluster, at least 11 positive coronavirus tests have been traced to organizers of the first presidential debate or media members who covered it. Biden himself has repeatedly tested negative, but per CDC guidelines should still be self-isolating for another week. (He, however, is resuming campaign activities and plans to travel to Nevada on Friday.)

The Trump children made a big show of sitting in the debate hall last Tuesday without wearing masks. Debate officials have indicated that sort of behavior won’t be tolerated for the vice presidential debate. And Harris and Pence will stand 13 feet apart from each other — slightly further than Biden and Trump did.

Given the precarious nature of Trump’s health, the responsible thing for Pence to do would be to limit his travel until he’s sure that he won’t have to take over presidential duties. But with Trump’s reelection campaign on the ropes and in even worse shape than it was last week because of the White House coronavirus debacle, the vice president apparently feels the need to project a sense of normalcy.

But that, in a nutshell, embodies the White House’s coronavirus failures. Pence has spent seven months telling the public that everything is fine when it’s clearly not, and as a result, he’ll have to debate behind a sheet of plastic to protect the public from himself.

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Source Article from https://www.vox.com/2020/10/7/21504664/vice-presidential-debate-plexiglass-dividers

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Appeals court rejects Trump’s effort to block enforcement of tax returns subpoena – Fox News
Appeals court rejects Trump’s effort to block enforcement of tax returns subpoena – Fox News
Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for September 30

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling allowing Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office to enforce a subpoena to get President Trump‘s tax returns and other documents dating back to 2011, rejecting Trump’s attempt to block the effort.

The grand jury subpoena was issued to Trump’s accounting firm Mazars USA in August 2019 as part of an investigation of the Trump Organization. Trump sued, claiming immunity, and the matter eventually went to the Supreme Court, which rejected Trump’s arguments but said there were others he could still pursue and sent the case back down.

REP. KEVIN BRADY CALLS FOR PROBE INTO WHETHER TRUMP’S TAX INFORMATION RELEASE WAS ‘ILLEGAL’

“We have considered all of the President’s remaining contentions on appeal and have found in them no basis for reversal,” the court said in its ruling.

Through his lawyers, Trump argued that the subpoena was issued in bad faith, might have been politically motivated and amounted to harassment of him, especially since the wording copied the language in congressional subpoenas.

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Trump attorneys Jay Sekulow and Will Consovoy plan to file an application for a stay with the Supreme Court.

The investigation that led to the subpoena is focused on matters including payments made to keep two women — adult film star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal — from speaking about affairs they claim they had with Trump in the past, and which Trump has denied.

Fox News’ John Roberts, Marta Dhanis, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/appeals-court-rejects-trumps-effort-block-enforcement-tax-returns-subpoena

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Joe Biden’s Gettysburg Speech Was 25 Minutes Long, Didn’t Mention Trump Once – Newsweek
Joe Biden’s Gettysburg Speech Was 25 Minutes Long, Didn’t Mention Trump Once – Newsweek

Former Vice President Joe Biden delivered an address on Tuesday that many are calling the best speech of his campaign so far. He spoke for just 25 minutes and didn’t mention President Donald Trump‘s name once.

Biden gave the speech at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, site of perhaps the most famous battle of the American Civil War and where President Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic Gettysburg Address.

Biden quoted Lincoln’s opening line and drew on the 19th century Republican’s rhetoric in comments that warned of dangers to the country but also struck a positive note.

“He [Lincoln] taught us this: A house divided could not stand. That is a great and timeless truth,” Biden said.

“Today, once again, we’re at a house divided. But that, my friends, can no longer be. We are facing too many crises, we have too much work to do, we have too bright a future to have it shipwrecked on the shores of anger and hate and division.

“The country is in a dangerous place. Our trust in each other is ebbing. Hope seems elusive,” he said. Biden made what appeared to be references to the president without saying his name.

“Too many Americans seek not to overcome our divisions, but to deepen them,” he said. “We must seek not to build walls, but bridges. We must seek not to have our fists clinched but our arms open. We have to seek not to tear each other apart. We have to seek to come together.”

The Democratic nominee reiterated his campaign line that this election is a fight for the soul of the nation. He’s made similar remarks before, including during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on August 20.

“Today we’re engaged once again in a battle for the soul of the nation, the forces of darkness, the forces of division, the forces of yesterday are pulling us apart, holding us down and holding us back. We must free ourselves of all of them,” Biden said.

Biden also addressed the COVID-19 pandemic. He wore a mask to the podium and held it in his hand while he spoke. The crowd at Gettysburg was also socially distanced.

“Wearing a mask is not a political statement, it’s a scientific recommendation. Social distancing isn’t a political statement, it’s a scientific recommendation,” he said.

“We can be so much better. We can be better starting today,” Biden said, urging a national strategy for tackling the virus that puts politics aside in favor of saving lives.

“It’s a virus. It’s not a political weapon,” he said.

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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-gettysburg-trump-1536974

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DeSantis administration ordered to move quickly on voter lawsuit – POLITICO
DeSantis administration ordered to move quickly on voter lawsuit – POLITICO

Voting booth. | Tony Dejak/AP Photo

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker on Wednesday gave Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Secretary of State Laurel Lee until the end of the day to respond to a lawsuit that seeks to extend Florida’s voter registration deadline after the online registration portal crashed hours before the Oct. 5 cutoff.

Walker ordered the state to respond to the complaint by 7 p.m. Wednesday. He scheduled a hearing in the case for 8 a.m. Thursday.

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Walker rejected a request for a temporary restraining order late Tuesday. But during a hearing early Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, he told the state he wanted detailed information on how many people were using the registration website before it crashed, and how long it takes to add someone to the voter rolls.

Background: Florida’s registration portal was hit with a huge volume of traffic on Monday, causing the site to either crash completely or respond slowly as people attempted to sign up to vote. In response, Lee moved the voter registration deadline from 12 a.m. Tuesday to 7 p.m. Tuesday. The state will accept any mailed registrations postmarked Tuesday, she said.

The seven voting rights and left-leaning groups behind the lawsuit said the extension was insufficient and are seeking to extend the deadline by at least two more days.

Worth noting: Lee said the state added servers and took other steps in anticipation of a last-minute rush of applicants before the Oct. 5 deadline. An initial review by law enforcement showed no evidence of outside interference.

The portal drew heavy traffic again on Tuesday but functioned without problems, Lee told local election supervisors during a training exercise Wednesday.

What’s next: Walker will rule on a request for a preliminary injunction.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/10/07/desantis-administration-ordered-to-move-quickly-on-voter-lawsuit-1321933

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Federal judge rejects Trump’s efforts to curtail New Jersey vote-by-mail plans – CNN
Federal judge rejects Trump’s efforts to curtail New Jersey vote-by-mail plans – CNN

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/06/politics/federal-judge-new-jersey-canvass/index.html

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Kudlow refuses to say whether Trump wore a mask in his return to work – CNBC
Kudlow refuses to say whether Trump wore a mask in his return to work – CNBC

Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor, told CNBC on Wednesday the president returned to the Oval Office on Tuesday, a comment later denied by the White House.

“The president actually showed up in the Oval Office yesterday with extra precautions with respect to his Covid-19,” Kudlow said. “And he’s getting a lot better, he’s much stronger. So there was some limited activity.”

Asked by “Squawk Box” co-host Joe Kernen whether the president donned a mask while in the Oval Office, Kudlow said he “can’t be specific, Joe. It’s the work of the top rung of the federal government.”

But Kudlow was quickly contradicted by the White House, which in a tweet said Trump had not visited the Oval Office.

“While the President wanted to be in the Oval Office yesterday, he was not there—he stayed back in the residence working from there,” Ben Williamson, a White House spokesman, said in a tweet. “Safety preparations have been underway in the event he moves to working out of the Oval in the coming days.”

The comments from Trump’s top economic advisor came less than 48 hours after Trump was discharged from Walter Reed hospital, where the president spent the weekend being treated for the coronavirus.

“The president, as you’ve seen, has been masking quite a bit. And everyone else who comes into contact in the Oval – the traffic is limited as you might expect – but there are additional precautions, additional measures that have been taken,” Kudlow said.

The remarks from the Director of the National Economic Council, though contested by the White House, rekindled concerns that Trump could pose a risk to others.

That caution was on full display Tuesday, when Trump’s challenger in the 2020 election, former Vice President Joe Biden, said the two should hold off on their second scheduled debate if the president is still infectious.

“I think if he still has Covid, we shouldn’t have a debate,” Biden told reporters in Maryland. “I think we’re going to have to follow very strict guidelines. Too many people have been infected and it’s a very serious problem.”

“I’ll be guided by the guidelines of the Cleveland Clinic, and what the docs say is the right thing to do — if and when he shows up for debate,” the Democratic nominee added.

But concerns aren’t isolated to the Biden campaign after more than a dozen Trump administration officials have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in the past week. 

“In the White House, there’s a good deal of contract tracing, and we’re doing the absolute best we can,” Kudlow told CNBC. “We’ve added additional precautions to try to protect against any further positive testing and so forth. So we’ll see how that runs.”

Someone is considered contagious for 10 to 20 days from onset of symptoms, depending on the severity of the infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The president’s physicians are regularly testing him to determine his viral load, which can help determine when he’s no longer contagious. Trump announced early Friday that he and his wife tested positive. Among the most recent White House staff members who have announced positive tests in top domestic aide Stephen Miller. 

Editor’s note: This article was updated to reflect the White House’s assertion that while President Trump has returned to work, he has not returned to the Oval Office.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/07/kudlow-refuses-to-say-whether-trump-wore-a-mask-in-return-to-oval-office.html

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Subpoena for Trump tax returns heading back to Supreme Court after President dealt another setback – CNN
Subpoena for Trump tax returns heading back to Supreme Court after President dealt another setback – CNN

By Kara Scannell

Updated 12:21 PM ET, Wed October 7, 2020

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/politics/trump-tax-returns-subpoena-ruling/index.html

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Vice-presidential debate live updates: Pence, Harris poised to square off in Salt Lake City – The Washington Post
Vice-presidential debate live updates: Pence, Harris poised to square off in Salt Lake City – The Washington Post

Follow live updates on the election and the vice-presidential debate here.

Democrats Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala D. Harris hold a steady lead over President Trump and Vice President Pence, with an edge of 53 percent to 43 percent among registered voters, according to the latest Post-ABC News poll. Biden also leads Trump in the key battleground of Pennsylvania.

How to vote: Find out the rules in your state. Some states have already started sending out mail ballots; see how to make sure yours counts. Absentee and mail ballots are two terms for the same thing, mostly used interchangeably. Barring a landslide, we may not have a result in the presidential election on Nov. 3. Are you running into voting problems? Let us know.

Electoral college map: Who actually votes, and who do they vote for? Explore how shifts in turnout and voting patterns for key demographic groups could affect the presidential race.

Policy: Where Biden and Trump stand on key issues defining the election.

Battlegrounds: Want to understand the swing states? Read about Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Arizona, and sign up for The Trailer and get more states, plus more news and insight from the trail, in your inbox three days a week.

Coming up: Trump and Biden are scheduled to debate three times this fall; here’s what to know about the 2020 presidential debates. Are you planning on watching the debate? The Washington Post wants to hear from you.

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Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2020/10/07/vice-presidential-debate-live-updates/

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