Amy Coney Barrett: quick confirmation under threat as three senators infected

  • Democrats urge delay in process amid coronavirus turmoil
  • Senate judiciary committee to convene as planned on 12 October

Senate Republicans are facing a shrinking window of time before the November 3 election to confirm Donald Trump’s supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, following the news that at least three Republican senators have tested positive for the coronavirus and more are quarantining after likely exposure.

Related: Confusion mounts over Trump's true condition after doctor's Covid briefing – live

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Chaotic Trump-Biden debate may count for little – voters have already decided

Interruptions, bickering and a shocking tone may ultimately not matter, pollsters say, as most people have already made up their minds

First-time independent voter Benaja Richardson tuned into Tuesday’s now infamous debate between US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden hoping to be presented with a vision of the future and unity amid the turbulence of the current climate.

Instead the 18-year-old student from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a potential swing state, said it opened her eyes to “truly what catastrophic times we’re in”.

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Trump in quarantine as Covid diagnosis throws US into fresh upheaval

America’s leadership has been plunged into extraordinary uncertainty after Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus, raising questions over how far the infection has penetrated the heart of government.

Related: Donald and Melania Trump showing 'mild' Covid symptoms as Joe and Jill Biden test negative – live

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Trump’s Covid diagnosis throws final month of campaign into total confusion

Huge questions over practical matters of rallies and travel, but also of whether Trump falls ill – and what that means for the election

Hours after the announcement that he had tested positive for Covid-19, Donald Trump canceled a planned trip to Florida for a campaign rally on Friday and announced that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, who also tested positive, would enter quarantine.

Related: What happens if Trump is incapacitated and how would it impact the election?

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Trump signals he won’t agree to rules changes for debates – as it happened

From me and Joan E Greve:

In a memorable moment from the Republican National Convention, Guilfoyle rallied supporters in what Guardian Washington bureau chief David Smith described as “a high-octane audition for Evita – without an audience”.

She said that Democrats “want to destroy this country and everything that we have fought for and hold dear” and later screamed, “Ladies and gentlemen, leaders and fighters for liberty and the American Dream: the best is yet to come!”

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Biden tells white supremacist groups to ‘cease and desist’ after Trump’s debate ’embarrassment’ – live

When a reporter asked Trump about his comments on the Proud Boys last night, the president asked for a “definition” of the extremist far-right group.

Trump says he does "not know who the Proud Boys are," but they should "stand down and let law enforcement do their work."

(He said they should "stand by" last night.) pic.twitter.com/kgi2R8DgN9

Trump just spoke to reporters on the South Lawn before leaving for Minnesota, where he will hold campaign events this evening.

Addressing his comments last night on the Proud Boys, Trump claimed he did not know who the extremist far-right group was.

Related: Trump's refusal to condemn white supremacy fits pattern of extremist rhetoric

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The Guardian view on the US presidential debate: a bad night for the world | Editorial

The dismal spectacle reminded viewers what is at stake in November for the US – and the rest of us

One unmistakable winner emerged from Tuesday’s presidential debate: Xi Jinping. The loser was the American public – and anyone else unfortunate enough to have sat through the grim 90-minute spectacle.

Variously described by commentators as a trainwreck, dumpster fire, shitshow and the worst debate in presidential history, it reflected the state of the race and the nation after four years of Donald Trump. This is America in 2020: wracked by a pandemic that has killed 200,000 people and highlighted its deep structural failings on healthcare and inequality, as well as the parlous state of its politics – a realm of bitter divisions in which facts appear to be optional.

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Biden and Trump trade insults in frenzied presidential debate – video highlights

The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden deteriorated into an ugly display of contempt on Tuesday night, as the president relentlessly interrupted and attacked his Democratic rival during clashes over the coronavirus pandemic, racism, the economy, mail-in voting and the future of the supreme court

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Presidential debate live: Trump tries to steamroll Biden in chaotic clash

Here is the full story from my colleagues Kari Paul and Lois Beckett on how the Trump was received at watch parties in California:

Related: How the chaos of the first debate was received at three very different watch parties

After recording in the early hours UK time and with, he says, his “jaw somewhere close to the floor,” the Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland discusses the highlights and lowlights of the debate with Guardian columnist Richard Wolffe on this today’s episode Politics Weekly Extra:

Related: Insults and interruptions on US election debate night: Politics Weekly Extra

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Trump ensures first presidential debate is national humiliation | Analysis

Analysis: Only one man looked remotely presidential on the debate stage in Cleveland, Ohio, and it was not the incumbent

Cry, the beloved country. Donald Trump ensured Tuesday’s first US presidential debate was the worst in American history, a national humiliation. The rest of the world – and future historians – will presumably look at it and weep.

More likely than not, according to opinion polls, his opponent Joe Biden will win the November election and bring the republic back from the brink. If Trump is re-elected, however, this dark, horrifying, unwatchable fever dream will surely be the first line of America’s obituary.

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Why Joe Biden is better than Donald Trump for the US economy | Nouriel Roubini

It’s a myth that Republicans handle the economy better – US recessions almost always occur under the GOP

Joe Biden has consistently held a wide polling lead over US President Donald Trump ahead of November’s election. But, despite Trump’s botched response to the Covid-19 pandemic – a failure that has left the economy far weaker than it otherwise would have been – he has maintained a marginal edge on the question of which candidate would be better for the US economy. Thanks to Trump, a country with just 4% of the world’s population now accounts for more than 20% of total Covid-19 deaths – an utterly shameful outcome, given America’s advanced (albeit expensive) healthcare system.

The presumption that Republicans are better than Democrats at economic stewardship is a longstanding myth that must be debunked. In our 1997 book, Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy, the late (and great) Alberto Alesina and I showed that Democratic administrations tend to preside over faster growth, lower unemployment and stronger stock markets than Republican presidents do.

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Trump reels from taxes bombshell as he gets set for crunch debate with Biden

  • President under pressure from New York Times revelations
  • First TV head-to-head takes place in Cleveland on Tuesday

Donald Trump heads into the first US presidential debate against Joe Biden on Tuesday night trailing in opinion polls and now reeling from dramatic newspaper revelations detailing his chronic financial losses and years of tax avoidance.

Related: Democrats on the attack after Trump tax return revelations – live

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Brad Parscale, former Trump campaign manager, hospitalised after self-harm threats

Police called to Fort Lauderdale home said Parscale, who had access to firearms, accompanied officers willingly

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale has been hospitalised after he threatened to harm himself, according to Florida police and campaign officials.

Police were called to the home in Desota Drive in the Seven Isles community of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, late on Sunday afternoon. The home is owned by Bradley and Candice Parscale.

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Will the New York Times taxes report sink Donald Trump?

His returns examined at last, the president stands exposed as a tax avoider and serial debtor. It raises serious questions – but also, most likely, the passions of his fervent supporters

From the moment he rode down an escalator in the marble-clad, gold-trimmed Trump Tower to declare his candidacy for US president, Donald Trump was selling himself as a successful businessman who could run a successful economy.

Related: New York Times publishes Donald Trump's tax returns in election bombshell

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New York Times publishes Donald Trump’s tax returns in election bombshell

Donald Trump, a self-proclaimed billionaire, paid only $750 in federal income taxes in the year he was elected US president, according to a stunning New York Times investigation that could shake up the presidential election.

Related: Trump says overturning Roe v Wade 'possible' with Barrett on supreme court

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Biden’s team hopes for repeat of his 2012 performance as Trump debate nears

The vice-presidential candidate who debated Paul Ryan helped turn the trajectory of Obama’s reelection campaign

For Democrats and supporters of former vice-president Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, the hope is that the version of Biden who faced then-congressman Paul Ryan back in 2012 shows up for the debate against Donald Trump on Tuesday in Ohio.

The Biden who showed up for the Ryan debate eight years ago helped turn around the trajectory of then-President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign. Ask just about any former Obama campaign alumna or Democratic strategist and they will concede that Obama’s performance against Mitt Romney in the first debate was lacking.

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Trump names Amy Coney Barrett for supreme court, stoking liberal backlash

Donald Trump’s pick for America’s highest court, Amy Coney Barrett, is an “ideological fanatic” who threatens abortion rights, healthcare and the environment, activists warned on Saturday, before Trump unveiled his third supreme court nominee in the White House Rose Garden.

Related: 'Not special any more': how the Senate has failed the American people

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Trump nominates Amy Coney Barrett to supreme court – live

A quick glance at the guest list for Amy Comey Barrett’s nomination ceremony today makes troubling reading. Among the guests were representatives from Judicial Watch, which has described climate science as a “fraud”; the Heritage Foundation (which has also pushed back against climate science); and the Family Research Council (which has opposed abortion, divorce and LGBT rights).

Attendees at Trump's SCOTUS nomination of Amy Coney Barrett:
•Judicial Crisis Network's Carrie Severino
Heritage Foundation's Kay Cole James
•Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton
•Family Research Council's Tony Perkins
•Cleta Mitchell—a lawyer tied to many GOP 'dark money' nonprofits https://t.co/q5BzTkPBs9

Now that Amy Coney Barrett has been nominated for the supreme court, the senate hearings are likely to last from 12-15 October. And, as is more than likely, she will be confirmed by the Republican-held Senate by 29 October, well before the 3 November elections.

Donald Trump’s rival for the presidency, Joe Biden, has issued a statement saying the process should be delayed until after the election.

Election Day is just weeks away, and millions of Americans are already voting because the stakes in this election could not be higher. They feel the urgency of this choice – an urgency made all the more acute by what’s at stake at the U.S. Supreme Court.

They are voting because their health care hangs in the balance. They are voting because they worry about losing their right to vote or being expelled from the only country they have ever known. They are voting right now because they fear losing their collective bargaining rights. They are voting to demand that equal justice be guaranteed for all. They are voting because they don’t want Roe v. Wade, which has been the law of the land for nearly half a century, to be overturned.

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Netflix faces call to rethink Liu Cixin adaptation after his Uighur comments

Five US senators have written to question plans to adapt The Three-Body Problem after its author voiced support for China’s mass internments in Xinjiang

Five Republican US senators have asked Netflix to reconsider its plans to adapt the bestselling Chinese author Liu Cixin’s book The Three-Body Problem, citing Liu’s comments in support of the Chinese government’s treatment of Uighur Muslims.

In a letter to Netflix, the senators said they had “significant concerns with Netflix’s decision to do business with an individual who is parroting dangerous CCP propaganda”. The letter cites Liu’s interview with the New Yorker last year, in which the Chinese novelist was asked about the mass internment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.

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