‘This will make lib heads explode’: Donald Trump Jr posts 2024 picture

Donald Trump Jr posed in front of a “Don Jr 2024” sign in Nevada on Saturday, posted the picture online and waited for “the lib heads to explode”.

Related: 'Owning the libs': how Donald Trump Jr became the unlikely political heir apparent

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White House chief of staff says ‘we’re not going to control pandemic’, after Pence staffers test positive – live

Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York state, is having a field day over the comments of the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows this morning. In a rare moment of transparency, Meadows admitted to a Sunday political talk show that the Trump administration had no intention of containing coronavirus, saying: “We’re not going to control the pandemic”.

Cuomo said that thinking was tantamount to giving in to the virus. “They surrendered without firing a shot. It was the great American surrender,” he said on Sunday, as reported by the Daily News.

After the Senate voted to move forward with the final vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell spoke on the Senate floor, celebrating the lasting influence of the vote for posterity.

“By tomorrow night, we’ll have a new member of the United States Supreme Court,” he told the chamber.

McConnell, just after the Senate votes to limit debate on Amy Coney Barrett: "A lot of what we’ve done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election. They won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come."

Also, McConnell's right hand, which was deeply bruised earlier this week and prompted several Qs about his health, appears much better. Most of the bruising is gone https://t.co/WPFJcqsog2

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‘Sue if you must’: Lincoln Project rejects threat over Kushner and Ivanka billboards

  • Lawyer for group issues scathing response to legal letter
  • Times Square ads blame Trump advisers for Covid deaths

The Lincoln Project “will not be intimidated by empty bluster”, a lawyer for the group wrote late on Saturday, in response to a threat from an attorney for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner over two billboards put up in Times Square.

Related: 'On the brink': US coronavirus cases surge in final days before election

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‘Power grab’: how Republican hardball gave us Amy Coney Barrett

Confirmation of a sixth conservative on the nine-member court is due on Monday, the result of ruthless Republican politics

The almost certain confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court on Monday represents a “power grab” by Republicans facing possible wipeout at the ballot box, activists and analysts say.

Related: Revealed: ex-members of Amy Coney Barrett faith group tell of trauma and sexual abuse

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Biden gains as suburban women and elderly voters turn backs on Trump

Nine days out from election day, polling shows the Democratic nominee with big leads in key demographics

Joe Biden’s hopes of reaching the White House could rest on two crucial demographic groups that appear to be deserting Donald Trump: elderly people and suburban women.

Related: Trump assaulted American democracy – here's how Democrats can save it

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Obama campaigns for Biden in Florida as Trump heads to battleground Ohio – as it happened

It’s been a lively day on the election trail. We’re closing this blog now but will be back with all the developments in US political news, as it happens, tomorrow.

Here are the main events of the day:

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris is calling for an administration that is frank about racist police brutality in America.

“There isn’t a Black man I know, be it a relative or friend, who has not had some sort of experience with police that’s been about an unreasonable stop, some sort of profiling or excessive force,” she said.

We can’t just speak the truth about police brutality in our nation—we must act to change our systems of justice and demand accountability. pic.twitter.com/arSdFLi7Wj

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US 2020 election could have the highest rate of voter turnout since 1908

Data from the US Elections Project predicts a record 150m ballots, representing 65% of eligible voters, for this election

More than 50 million Americans have cast ballots in the US presidential election with 11 days to go in the campaign, a pace that could lead to the highest voter turnout in over a century, according to data from the US Elections Project on Friday.

The eye-popping figure is a sign of intense interest in the contest between Republican Donald Trump and Joe Biden, his Democratic challenger, as well as Americans’ desire to reduce their risk of exposure to Covid-19, which has killed more than 221,000 people across the United States.

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Trump v Biden: the key moments of the final presidential debate – video highlights

Joe Biden and Donald Trump have gone head-to-head for the final time before the US election on 3 November in the final television debate, helped by a mute button on the candidates’ microphones that prevented interruptions.

Squaring off in Nashville, Biden had to field aggressive questioning about his son’s business dealings and when Trump compared himself to Abraham Lincoln, the challenger branded his opponent 'one of the most racist presidents we’ve had in modern history'. Here is a look back at the key moments

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The final Trump-Biden presidential debate: five key takeaways

Trump tried to change his tone, Biden calls the president a racist and ‘Bidencare’ is now a thing

In the days leading up to the debate, Donald Trump’s advisers urged the president to stay calmer than he was at the first presidential debate in Cleveland last month, when he was widely criticized for repeatedly and aggressively interrupting his Democratic presidential rival, Joe Biden.

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Humanity has eight years to get climate crisis under control – and Trump’s plan won’t fix it

Donald Trump presented a fantasy world in which fossil fuels are ‘very clean’ but realpolitik tempers Biden’s climate crisis stance

In Donald Trump’s world – laid bare during Thursday night’s final presidential debate with his Democratic rival Joe Biden in Nashville – fossil fuels are “very clean”, the US has the best air and water despite his administration’s extensive regulatory rollbacks, and the country can fix climate change by planting trees.

Related: Biden mauls Trump's record on coronavirus in final presidential debate

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Biden says Trump ‘gone round the bend if he thinks we’ve turned corner’ on Covid as cases surge – as it happened

Here’s a summary of today’s events:

The Washington Post is already looking ahead to the contest to become the Republican party’s presidential nominee in 2024, regardless of whether Donald Trump sinks or swims on 3 November.

In an opinion piece Sunday penned by the respected political analyst and talk show host Hugh Hewitt, the newspaper lists 20 names of prominent and not-so-prominent Republican governors, senators, congressmen and women and two Trumps – Don Jr and Ivanka – he thinks are likely to throw hats into what promises to be a crowded ring.

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Trump attempts to save himself in battleground states as Covid cases surge

With little more than two weeks to reverse his dismal standing in the polls, and amid a coronavirus resurgence that could sink his pursuit of a second term, Donald Trump has embarked on a tour of battleground states.

Related: Trump's hopes fade in Wisconsin as 'greatest economy' boast unravels

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Trump: If I lose, it will be to the worst candidate in history – video

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

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?

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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

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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.

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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.

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Amy Coney Barrett hearing: top Republican praises judge for being ‘unashamedly pro-life’ – live

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:

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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.

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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

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