Donald Trump has described his Democratic presidential rival, Joe Biden, as the 'worst candidate in history' at a rally in Wisconsin. 'If I lose … what do I do? I'd rather run against somebody who is extraordinarily talented, at least this way I can go and lead my life.' Trump again insisted that he was immune from Covid-19, saying he 'got better fast' and that he 'can now jump into the audience and give you all a big kiss, the women and the men'
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US records highest daily coronavirus case total since July
- 68,000 new cases on Friday amid Covid-19 resurgence
- Dr Fauci warns of danger of ‘high community infection baseline’
- Trump to hold Wisconsin rally despite public gathering warning
More than 68,000 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the US on Friday, the highest number in a single day since July, further confirmation the country is in the midst of a coronavirus resurgence.
Related: American Crisis review: Andrew Cuomo on Covid, Trump … and a job with Joe Biden?
Continue reading...Trump blasts Sasse for predicting Senate Republican bloodbath
The president issued a familiar stream of insults on Twitter after the Nebraska senator heavily criticised him to constituents
Down in the polls to Joe Biden and campaigning through a surging pandemic, Donald Trump chose to devote time on Saturday morning to a Twitter rant against a member of his own party in the Senate, a chamber Republicans face losing on 3 November.
Related: Trump trails Biden with two weeks to go – but there could yet be surprises
Continue reading...Top Senate Republican says he has the votes to confirm Amy Coney Barrett
Judiciary committee expected to confirm supreme court justice nomination on 22 October before advancing to full Senate ballot
The Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said he has the votes to confirm the nomination of conservative Amy Coney Barrett as a supreme court justice as the upper chamber’s judiciary committee scheduled a vote for 22 October to advance the nomination towards a full Senate ballot shortly after.
Barrett’s progression towards taking up the seat vacated by the death of the liberal favorite Ruth Bader Ginsburg now appears virtually assured, but the unprecedented nomination of a new justice so close to a presidential election – and one who will shift the balance of the court rightward – has been contentious.
Continue reading...Democrats are resigned to losing the supreme court battle – but set on winning the war
Amy Coney Barrett’s supreme court confirmation hearings bring few surprises – with occasional glimpses of truth
It was the five-hour mark when the tech gods finally pulled the plug.
As Senator Richard Blumenthal started questioning supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, the Senate’s audio system crashed and her words floated away on the air.
Continue reading...Amy Coney Barrett hearing: top Republican praises judge for being ‘unashamedly pro-life’ – live
- Lindsey Graham lavishes praise on supreme court nominee
- Barron Trump had coronavirus, first lady reveals
- Barrett dodges abortion and healthcare questions
- Trump and Biden offer different visions of US role in world
- Trump in trouble as Florida’s seniors shift towards Biden
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Harris took up questioning Barrett on climate change.
Harris: Do you think COVID-19 is infectious?
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Continue reading...Trump and Biden offer starkly different visions of US role in world
The world is anxiously watching the election, with the candidates far apart on issues such as the climate crisis and nuclear weapons
Foreign policy barely gets a mention in this US election, but for the rest of the world the outcome on 3 November will arguably be the most consequential in history.
All US elections have a global impact, but this time there are two issues of existential importance to the planet – the climate crisis and nuclear proliferation – on which the two presidential candidates could hardly be further apart.
Continue reading...Amy Coney Barrett dodges abortion, healthcare and election law questions
- Democrats press supreme court nominee with little success
- Barrett argues she is not a pundit, on second day of hearings
- US politics – live coverage
On the second day of hearings before the Senate judiciary committee, Democrats pressed supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on healthcare, election law and abortion rights – and met with little success.
Related: 'Slayer Pete': Buttigieg emerges as Biden's unlikely Fox News fighter
Continue reading...Senators stir ghosts of Scalia and Ginsburg for Amy Coney Barrett hearing
Amid talk of originalism, harking to a time when only white men with property could vote, Republican ears pricked up
Depending on your point of view, the woman seated before the Senate judiciary committee for her first day of questioning was either the female Scalia or the anti-RBG. Or maybe, of course, both.
Related: Amy Coney Barrett dodges abortion, healthcare and election law questions
Continue reading...US election 2020: why are so many Americans being denied a vote? – podcast
Millions of American voters will be unable to cast their ballot in this year’s presidential election and those affected will be disproportionately first-time voters and from minority groups, reports Sam Levine
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”.
Continue reading...Amy Coney Barrett supreme court hearing sets stage for partisan clash
Four days of hearings are scheduled before the Senate judiciary committee, beginning with opening statements on Monday
Judge Amy Coney Barrett will appear on Capitol Hill for the opening of her supreme court confirmation hearings on Monday, setting the stage for an extraordinary partisan clash three weeks before election day.
Four days of hearings are scheduled before the Senate judiciary committee, beginning with opening statements on Monday, followed by two days of questioning. Thursday, the Senate panel will hear from outside experts.
Continue reading...Anthony Fauci criticises Donald Trump for using his words out of context
Doctor says use of his comments to praise president in Republican campaign ad is misleading
Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s top infectious disease expert, has criticised Donald Trump’s reelection campaign for using his words out of context to make it appear as if he was praising the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate,” Fauci said in a statement to CNN on Sunday. “The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP [Republican] campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials.”
Continue reading...Amy Coney Barrett to say she will judge cases on law not personal views
In opening remarks at confirmation hearing on Monday, supreme court nominee will say court ‘should not try’ to create policy
Amy Coney Barrett, Donald Trump’s latest controversial nominee for the US supreme court, will tell senators in her high-stakes confirmation hearing this week that she will approach cases based on the law, not her personal views, as Democrats urged her to step aside on upcoming contentious cases.
Barrett, a fervent Catholic with a record of opposing abortion rights, will say that courts “should not try” to create policy, during Monday’s opening remarks, which were obtained by multiple media outlets on Sunday.
Continue reading...Republicans express fears Trump will lose presidential election
Ted Cruz says he’s afraid of ‘bloodbath of Watergate proportions’ as John Cornyn slams Trump for ‘creating confusion’ over Covid
Ted Cruz fears an election “bloodbath”. His fellow top Republican senator Thom Tillis is talking in terms of a Joe Biden presidency. And even Mitch McConnell, the fiercely loyal Senate majority leader, won’t go near the White House over Donald Trump’s handling of coronavirus protocols.
Individually, they could arguably be seen as off-the-cuff comments from Trump’s allies attempting to rally support for the US president just days ahead of a general election that opinion polls increasingly show him losing.
Continue reading...Looks speak louder than words as Harris makes quotable case against Pence
The vice-presidential debate was more courteous than last week’s horror show but still showed two contrasting faces of America
It was always going to be about the two faces of America.
One: white, male, midwestern, evangelical Christian. The other: Black, female, coastal, progressive.
Continue reading...Pence-Harris vice-presidential debate: six key takeaways
Coronavirus was the key theme, but Harris also warned of the threat to Obamacare as both candidates dodged questions
The vice-presidential debate on Wednesday was less openly hostile than the Donald Trump-Joe Biden debacle last week – but provided a further insight into the state of both campaigns ahead of November.
Related: Kamala Harris and Mike Pence clash over coronavirus response in vice-presidential debate
Continue reading...Battle for the suburbs: can Joe Biden flip Texas? – video
Texas is a rapidly changing state with the fastest growing population in the US. Hispanic Texans are expected to become the majority by 2022, but will this help Joe Biden flip a Republican stronghold? Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone travel to suburban Dallas and the border city of McAllen to look at the political impact of this diversification and the legacy of Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tests positive for coronavirus – live
- McEnany says she is not experiencing any symptoms
- Walter Reed physician among critics of Trump drive-by visit
- Niece says president sees illness as sign of ‘unforgivable weakness’
- Poll: Trump 14 points behind Biden month before election
- Sign up for Fight to Vote – our weekly US election newsletter
A fascinating dispatch from Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair, who cites “two Republicans briefed on the family conversations” in reporting that Donald Trump Jr is worried by his dad’s car-ride-and-tweet-storm response to being hospitalised with Covid-19:
‘Don Jr has said he wants to stage an intervention, but Jared and Ivanka keep telling Trump how great he’s doing,’ a source said. Don Jr is said to be reluctant to confront his father alone. ‘Don said, ‘I’m not going to be the only one to tell him he’s acting crazy,’’ the source added.
One area where the family seems united is over the president’s manic tweeting early Monday morning. After Trump sent out more than a dozen all-caps tweets, the Trump children told people they want Trump to stop. ‘They’re all worried. They’ve tried to get him to stop tweeting,’ a source close to the family told me.
…Trump’s father, Fred Trump Sr, insisted on working even after his Alzheimer’s disease advanced in the 1990s … Every day Fred Sr would go to the office in Brooklyn and they would give him blank papers to sort through and sign. The phone on Fred’s desk was set up so that it could only dial out to his secretary. “Fred pretended to work,” the family friend said.
A new Times/Siena survey has Joe Biden ahead of Donald Trump in Arizona, a traditionally conservative state-turned presidential battleground.
Biden leads Trump 49% to 41% in Arizona, with just 6% of likely voters saying they were undecided. He is buoyed by his lopsided support among Hispanics, women and young people. The candidates are effectively tied in their support among seniors, a critical voting block in the state that has soured on Trump amid the Covid-19 outbreak.
Trump 14 points behind Biden a month before election, new poll shows
Trump’s advisers scramble to find a strategy for final weeks, saying ‘it’s important that our campaign vigorously proceed’
Donald Trump’s beleaguered campaign team woke up to another setback on Sunday as the president began his second full day in hospital: a new national poll showing their candidate 14 points behind his challenger Joe Biden with less than a month until the election day.
The NBC/Wall Street Journal survey indicating a 53-39% advantage for the Democratic party’s nominee injected urgency for Trump’s advisers already scrambling to find a strategy for the final weeks of the campaign until 3 November.
Continue reading...Revealed: Trump-linked consultant tied to Facebook pages warning election will cause civil war
Network run by fake news-publishing father and son spreads word to Trump supporters they should prepare for violence in November
A militia-promoting father and son duo of fake news publishers and a Trump-connected social media consultant are linked to pages which promote the idea of an American civil war with material presented in a way that appears to be an effort to sidestep Facebook’s fact-checking system.
Comments on their Facebook pages and other materials obtained by the Guardian show that some rank and file Donald Trump supporters are enthusiastically receiving the message that they should prepare for violence against their perceived political enemies in November.
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