US supreme court vacancy upends Senate races with just weeks to go

Open seat offers chance for both parties to rally their bases as Democrats see chance to take control of chamber

The shock of a sudden new vacancy on the US supreme court has rippled out to some of the most contentious Senate races in the final weeks before the 3 November elections, throwing the vital issue of who might win control of the body into confusion.

The recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg while Republicans control the Senate and the White House virtually ensures that her replacement will be conservative, swinging the court into a 6-3 conservative majority.

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Cindy McCain rebukes Trump and publicly endorses Joe Biden for president

McCain was motivated in part by Trump’s recent comments on the military, where he called war heroes ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’

Cindy McCain has endorsed Joe Biden for president, a stunning rebuke of Donald Trump by the widow of the Republican party’s 2008 nominee.

Cindy McCain tweeted on Tuesday: “My husband John lived by a code: country first. We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost. There’s only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is Joe Biden.”

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‘Follow your conscience,’ Biden urges Republicans as Trump pushes for supreme court nominee – video

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden makes a plea to Senate Republicans, asking them to 'follow their conscience' and defy president Donald Trump's push to name his nominee for the supreme court ahead of November's election. Trump says he plans to nominate a women for the seat as soon as possible, after Ruth Bader Ginsburg died aged 87 six weeks out from the US election. 'I appeal to those few Senate Republicans, that handful who really will decide what happens. Please follow your conscience,' Biden says. 'Don't vote to confirm anyone nominated under the circumstances President Trump and Senator McConnell have created. Don't go there. Uphold your constitutional duty, your conscience'

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Supreme court: Biden accuses Trump and Republicans of abuse of power

Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, made an urgent plea on Sunday to the conscience of Senate Republicans, asking them to defy Donald Trump and refuse to ram through his nominee to the supreme court before the November election.

Related: Rushing to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, McConnell shows power trumps principle | Robert Reich

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Trump vows to select Ginsburg replacement ‘without delay’ – live

Tim Alberta, the chap I quoted a while back re Mitch “Mule Piss” McConnell and his single-minded pursuit of judicial appointments, has a fascinating piece up at Politico.

“If there’s one Republican who could be convinced that filling the sudden supreme court vacancy is a bad idea,” he writes, “it’s President Donald Trump.”

Related: Trump names three sitting senators among 20 possible supreme court picks

Any number of variables could tip the scales in such a tight election. But it’s not difficult to deduce that had a supreme court seat not been hanging in the balance, Hillary Clinton would be president right now. When I offered this theory last year to McConnell … he grinned.

“I agree,” McConnell said.

Having been reminded countless times over the past 45 months that his Supreme Court gambit won him the trust of social conservatives – which, in turn, won him the election – Trump surely realizes that this is a moment of maximum leverage. Maybe he doesn’t bother using it; maybe he automatically produces more of the goods, keeping his most important customers satisfied, believing it’s one more accomplishment to point to.

But the president is transactional to his core. This was exactly the word– “transactional” – that Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, used when we discussed the supreme court list Trump unveiled in 2016.

News is starting to come out of the Senate Democrats’ caucus call today…

Per source Schumer started with moment of silence for RBG and said “nothing is off the table” next year if GOP moves forward w/nominating process

Related: Battle hymn of the Democrats: why it's time for liberals to fight dirty

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How Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death could affect Senate races – and Trump v Biden

Susan Collins of Maine is among vulnerable Republican senators as polls indicate voters trust Biden more on justice picks

On the question of supreme court nominees, the Republican senator Susan Collins has repeatedly threaded the same political needle. It is one with a shrinking eye.

Related: Ruth Bader Ginsburg changed America long before she joined the supreme court | Moira Donegan

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg: death of liberal justice gives Trump chance to reshape the US for generations

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has sparked a titanic political fight that could shape the future of US supreme court decisions on abortion rights, voting rights and other fundamental issues for a generation.

Related: What does Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death mean for the supreme court?

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Black churches say Donald Trump election ad incites ‘white terrorism’

  • Leaders call for removal of ad depicting worshippers as ‘thugs’
  • Video pairs Biden at prayer with scenes of street violence

Black American church leaders have accused Donald Trump of inciting “white terrorism” against people of colour and depicting churchgoers as “thugs” in a presidential election campaign ad.

They are calling for the advertisement’s removal from display and federal protection from any bias or threats it could provoke.

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Just 50 days until a US election both sides see as an existential struggle

Joe Biden holds a steady lead in the polls but plenty of time remains for surprises and even the act of voting is controversial

The election to decide whether Donald Trump will serve a second term as president has already begun, with voters in North Carolina filling out absentee ballots, Minnesotans preparing to start early in-person voting on Friday and other states revving up their election machinery.

But for most Americans, today marks 50 days until election day, 3 November, when voters will take varying degrees of health risks – and face hurdles to voting of varying heights – to cast their ballots in person for Trump or his potential Democratic successor, Joe Biden.

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Trump aides insist Woodward tapes reveal strong leadership on Covid

The revelation that Donald Trump deliberately downplayed the coronavirus pandemic forced key aides on to desperate defence on Sunday, barely 50 days from the presidential election.

Related: Roger Stone to Donald Trump: bring in martial law if you lose election

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Has Trump spent his election war chest before the war really starts?

The president’s campaign has paid out $800m, but at a crucial phase he is making cuts while Joe Biden is outspending him

More than $180,000 per second. That is what Donald Trump’s two TV ads during the Super Bowl worked out at in February, offering vivid proof of the outsized role of money in American politics – and of his re-election campaign’s premature and profligate spending.

The 2020 presidential election has been described by both sides as the most important in living memory and is certainly proving the most expensive. Hundreds of millions of dollars have flooded both campaigns and, in the pandemic-enforced absence of shaking hands and kissing babies, may prove even more influential than usual.

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Go west: Trump and Biden take campaign to Arizona and Nevada

Donald Trump was headed for Nevada on Saturday, aiming to erode poll leads enjoyed by Joe Biden there and in Arizona, another key state, as the 3 November presidential election draws near.

Related: Trump in Fox News interview to accuse Biden of taking drugs

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Disloyal review: Michael Cohen’s mob hit on Trump entertains – but will it shift votes?

The president’s fixer wanted to be a Goodfella but ended up taking a fall. His revenge is a tawdrily readable tell-all memoir

Michael Cohen is no saint. Aside from the obvious, Donald Trump’s former fixer has never entered into a formal cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors, a fact duly noted by the US attorneys’ office for the southern district of New York in its sentencing memorandum. Because of that, the “inability to fully vet his criminal history and reliability impact his utility as a witness”.

Related: Michael Cohen book details Trump's racism and toxic family dynamic

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‘Rest in peace Jay’: sympathy for the far right foretells Trump’s election strategy

The president has shown a lifelong penchant for inflaming racist hatreds and fears – expect much more of this before November

Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump tweeted a rare statement of condolences, as the confirmed death toll in the US climbed past 183,000.

Related: Biden to accuse Trump of stoking violence in US after Portland clashes

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‘It’s a coin toss here’: will swing voters in this Wisconsin county stick by Trump?

In Forest county, Wisconsin – which backed Obama before Trump – voters voice doubts about both major candidates

Joe Biden has blown his chance to win over Kristen, to be found selling home-baked cakes and pies at a farmer’s market in Forest county, northern Wisconsin.

The 46-year-old was once a fan of Barack Obama, voting for him twice before switching her allegiance to Donald Trump four years ago. Kristen, who doesn’t want her last name used, was minded to back Trump again in November but was holding off to see who Biden chose as his vice-presidential running mate.

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‘Two visions of the US’: Trump and Biden offer contrasts on race, Covid and economy

The Democratic and Republican national conventions offered two radically different diagnoses of the problems confronting America

One version told of a president who is callous and cruel. “My dad was a healthy 65-year-old,” said Kristin Urquiza, whose father voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and died from Covid-19 in June. “His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump – and for that he paid with his life.”

The other spoke of a president blessed with compassion. Kayleigh McEnany recalled taking a phone call as she recovered from a preventative mastectomy. “It was President Trump, calling to check on me,” she said. “I was blown away. Here was the leader of the free world caring about me.”

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Michael Moore warns that Donald Trump is on course to repeat 2016 win

Film-maker says enthusiasm for president in swing states is ‘off the charts’ and urges everyone to commit to getting 100 people to vote

The documentary film-maker Michael Moore has warned that Donald Trump appears to have such momentum in some battleground states that liberals risk a repeat of 2016 when so many wrote off Trump only to see him grab the White House.

“Sorry to have to provide the reality check again,” he said.

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Protesters try to drown out Donald Trump’s acceptance speech on last day of RNC – video highlights

Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday, as protesters outside the White House did their best to drown out his speech. Here are highlights of the last night of the 2020 Republican national convention

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Trump unleashes diatribe of falsehoods and baseless attacks in RNC finale

Trump portrayed Biden as a creature of the Washington swamp, beat the drum of law and order and said little about racial injustice

You write him off at your peril. Donald Trump stood at one of America’s most hallowed spaces on Thursday – the White House – and bent it to his will, just as he has bent the Republican party and swaths of America.

Related: RNC: Trump paints Biden as a 'radical' candidate and a danger to America

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Donald Trump slams Joe Biden in Republican nomination acceptance speech – video

Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican party's nomination for re-election in front of the White House on Thursday night.

'This is the most important election in the history of our country,' Trump said after he 'profoundly' accepted his party's nomination.

Trump went on to excoriate the Democratic party and argue that the choice for voters is between a president who has a record of unmatched accomplishments and an opposition party and candidate eager to tear down the country.

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