Category Archives: US elections 2020

‘He just says it as it is’: why many Nigerians support Donald Trump

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His books were a hit long before he took office, and some Christians see his presidency as a blessing

The pursed, stony expression is familiar in Peter Odoakang’s striking oil painting of Donald Trump, but not the outfit. The US president is portrayed wearing a wine- and peach-coloured agbada and cap, traditional Yoruba attire, fitting him into the mould of a south-western Nigerian leader or “big man”, as Odoakang says.

“People see him in agbada and say wow, it fits him. People really laugh about it and react to it,” says Odoakang, 23, of the portrait commissioned by a company in Lagos, which he says brings Trump’s “personality into our setting”.

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Trump falsely claims at Michigan rally ‘our doctors get more money if someone dies of Covid’ – live

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In several of his rallies this week, Donald Trump has accused the media of focusing on the coronavirus crisis only for political purposes, in order to damage him.

Barack Obama has trolled him for it in rallies in Florida, where the former president warned that America could not afford four more years of Trump and needed to put Joe Biden into the White House next week.

A federal judge this afternoon ordered the US Postal Service (USPS) to adopt “extraordinary measures” at some processing locations to ensure the timely delivery of millions of ballots before Tuesday’s presidential election.

US district judge Emmet Sullivan said he was ordering the measures in places where election mail processing scores for completed ballots returned by voters were below 90% for at least two days from October 26-28.

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The US election that doesn’t count: Guam goes to the polls but votes won’t matter

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‘Now that I live in Guam, I cannot vote’. The first Americans to ‘vote’ on polling day have no say in who will be president

Politics is a favourite sport on the streets of Hagatna, where voters are preparing for the US elections.

Billboards adorn every street corner and conversations are dominated by candidates and their policies. But when Guamanians go to the polls on 3 November and mark down their preference for president, their “votes” won’t count.

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US election roundup: Trump and Biden swing through battleground states

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Both candidates to campaign in Minnesota and Wisconsin while president rails against supreme court over North Carolina ruling

The two US presidential candidates swung through northern battleground states on Friday amid signs that the coronavirus pandemic was once more threatening to overcome hospital capacity in several US regions.

Donald Trump was due to hold a succession of airport rallies in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, while Joe Biden was scheduled to have drive-in rallies in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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Why the US military would welcome a decisive 2020 election win

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Military chiefs keen to stay out of the way – a decisive result lowers risk of prolonged crisis and the protests it could generate

Federal laws and longstanding custom generally leave the US military out of the election process.

Related: US election 2020: Trump and Biden both head to crucial swing states Minnesota and Wisconsin - live updates

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‘You’re a crook’: barbs-strewn Georgia election debate goes viral – video

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Republican senator David Perdue has pulled out of the final debate with his Democratic challenger, Jon Ossoff, after the pair exchanged personal attacks during a televised debate on Wednesday.

In the debate moderated by WTOC-TV, Ossoff called the incumbent 'a crook', while Perdue accused his rival of profiting off 'communist China'. The exchange later went viral after Ossoff shared the clip on social media

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The polls point to a Biden victory but can they be trusted this time?

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Although polling averages gave Clinton the edge over Trump in 2016 there are significant differences in the evidence today

For months, activists and Democratic party officials have been telling Joe Biden supporters that the only answer to the question “can we trust the polls?” is to go out and vote for Biden, and then get others to do the same.

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US election 2020: Trump and Biden hold dueling rallies in Florida – live

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Election officials in US battleground states are still fighting to limit the usage of ballot drop boxes, with only days left until 3 November.

Related: 'To me, it's voter suppression': the Republican fight to limit ballot boxes

Joe Biden will campaign in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin tomorrow.

Both candidates have been making the rounds to swing states in a final push ahead of election day. In Florida today, where polls have found Biden neck-and-neck with Trump, the former vice-president appealed to Latinos – a key demographic that could help deliver victories to Democrats.

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God and the GOP: will conservative evangelicals stay loyal to Trump? – video

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In 2016, white evangelicals made up a quarter of all US voters. And 81% of them voted for Donald Trump. Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone head to the pivotal battleground state of North Carolina to see if Trump's religious base is showing signs of crumbling. They meet extreme evangelical pastors, travelling progressive preachers and the moral movement leader Rev William Barber


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Israeli zeal for second Trump term matched by Palestinian enmity

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Netanyahu’s clear choice for US president seen as ‘extremely dangerous’ in Palestine

Anyone in any doubt about Benjamin Netanyahu’s preferred candidate in the US presidential election need only visit his personal Twitter account.

Right at the top, behind the headshot of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, is a banner photo of him with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, their eyes fixed on each other.

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Trump repeats claim ‘Covid, Covid, Covid’ dominates news to undermine his campaign – live

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Several polls of battleground states were just released, so the blog is going to sum them up.

First up is Georgia, where Biden has pulled slightly ahead of Trump, according to Monmouth University.

GEORGIA VOTER POLL: President - @JoeBiden overtakes @realDonaldTrump

Registered voters:
45% Trump (47% in Sept.)
50% Biden (46%)

Likely voters, high turnout:
46% Trump (48%)
50% Biden (46%)

Likely voters, low turnout:
48% Trump (50%)
50% Biden (45%) https://t.co/aUyYrRGfMt pic.twitter.com/pygB8gmNML

Trump predicted he would “over-perform” on election day, as polls show him trailing nationally and in key battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

At a press event in Las Vegas, Trump says: “On Tuesday, we’re going to over-perform” #Elections2020 pic.twitter.com/UGf7ZHRbuJ

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If Biden wins what would the first 100 days of his presidency look like?

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If he succeeds in defeating Trump, the Democrat will have to urgently tackle the pandemic and rebuild global relationships

If Joe Biden wins the 2020 US election against Donald Trump next week, the new president-elect will face enormous pressures to implement a laundry list of priorities on a range of issues from foreign policy to the climate crisis, reversing many of the stark changes implemented by his predecessor.

Related: From climate to China, how Joe Biden is plotting America’s restoration

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Trump says Covid numbers ‘way down’ as US passes 226,000 deaths – video

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President Donald Trump says Covid-19 cases in the US are 'way down' despite nearly half a million people contracting the virus in the country over the last seven days, according to a Reuters tally. Speaking one week out from the election at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, Trump made a baseless prediction that the media would say the country was doing 'extremely well' one day after the election

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We thought Reagan was the devil – then came Trump. America, we’re rooting for you

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Veep writer Ian Martin once raged against the Gipper. Forty years later, the US is saddled with a human cronut

Dear America,

HEY! How you guys doing? Longtime British Americanophile “reaching out” across the Atlantic. I’m here to heart you, USA. I’m like “hope the hurting stops soon” (strong-arm mid-tone emoji).

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Donald Trump’s campaign investigating ‘attack’ on website

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Website was restored after briefly displaying warning that it was seized because ‘world’ had enough of ‘fake-news’ spread by Trump

Donald Trump’s campaign says its website was “defaced” on Tuesday evening, and that it is working with law enforcement to investigate the source of what it called an “attack”.

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Obama mocks Trump: ‘He’s jealous of Covid’s media coverage’ – video

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Former US president Barack Obama mocked Donald Trump at an election rally for Joe Biden in Florida. Obama criticised his successor’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, noting that Trump had complained about the amount of news coverage it had received even as the US death toll continues to climb. 'He’s jealous of Covid’s media coverage,' Obama said.

The former president also criticised Trump for his personal lack of coronavirus safety, saying that he had turned the White House into a 'hot zone' in the wake of two coronavirus outbreaks among the president and his senior staff. 'Florida, we can’t afford four more years of this,' Obama added. 'We cannot afford this kind of incompetence and disinterest.'

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Biden attacks Trump’s ‘rushed and unprecedented’ confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett – US politics live

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Donald Trump Jr has just retweeted Derek Hunter saying that “Leftists really seem to want dead police officers” in connection to the shooting of Walter Wallace Jr in Philadelphia.

Police shot and killed a guy coming at them with a knife who was given ample opportunity to drop it and didn't. Leftists really seem to want dead police officers. https://t.co/askRXGpEzs

Related: Philadelphia protesters take to streets after police killing of black man

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany once praised Joe Biden as “a man of the people” capable of “coming off as human” and “resonating with middle class voters”.

In an interview with a New York radio station in 2015, she also said that though she thought Donald Trump would be more likely to beat Biden, then considering a run for president, than Hillary Clinton, “I think the juxtaposition of kind of the man of the people and kind of this tycoon, is a problem.”

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US embassy warns Colombian politicians not to get involved in US elections

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At least three senior Colombian lawmakers have been accused of acting as surrogates for Donald Trump in Florida

The American embassy in Bogotá has warned Colombian politicians to “avoid getting involved” in the US election, amid a growing row over allegations that far-right lawmakers from the South American country are campaigning in support of Donald Trump.

At least three senior Colombian politicians have been accused of acting as Trump surrogates in Florida, a pivotal battleground state which has been flooded with political advertising and fake news aimed at Latino voters.

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US Senate to hold final vote on Amy Coney Barrett confirmation – live

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Here again is a link to the interview with Donald Trump published on Sunday by 60 Minutes, an institution in US television news known for editorial balance and seriousness of purpose. Significantly, the program also reaches millions of older voters, who overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2016 but who appear to be splitting their vote this year between the candidates.

In this clip, via Vox’s Aaron Rupar, Trump whines about the difficulty level of the questions he is being confronted with, after interviewer Lesley Stahl refuses to endorse one of his conspiracy theories about the Russia investigation.

I don’t understand how anyone can watch this and draw any conclusion other than Trump is completely unfit for his job pic.twitter.com/DA87zGehXI

Hello and welcome to our round-the-clock coverage as the 2020 US election enters its final lap. Only eight days to go.

On Sunday, the number of early voters in the election surpassed 58m, the number who voted early in 2016. That means the 2020 election will mark the first time in history that more than half of the overall US vote was cast early.

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Senate votes on Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to supreme court – live

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Voting has begun...

As McConnell continues his cynical, revisionist version of how we’ve ended up at this moment – awaiting the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett – the supreme court, one member short, is still working.

Just now, the court upheld a federal appeals court ruling that blocks a deadline extension for mail-in-ballots, awarding a victory for Republicans in a crusade against expanding voting rights and access.

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