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.
Continue reading...Category Archives: US elections 2020
‘You’re a crook’: barbs-strewn Georgia election debate goes viral – video
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
- ‘It’s voter suppression’: the Republican fight to limit ballot boxes
- Sign up for Fight to Vote – our weekly US election newsletter
The polls point to a Biden victory but can they be trusted this time?
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.
Continue reading...US election 2020: Trump and Biden hold dueling rallies in Florida – live
- Biden’s drive-in event is a striking difference from Trump’s outdoor crowd
- Trump and Biden will speak hours apart at rallies in Tampa
- Pelosi: ‘I feel very confident Biden will be elected’
- Will conservative evangelicals stay loyal to Trump?
- Covid crisis drives Arizonans to the polls
- Ohioans hit by GM plant closure regret Trump votes
- Sign up for Fight to Vote – our weekly US election newsletter
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.
Continue reading...God and the GOP: will conservative evangelicals stay loyal to Trump? – video
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
Israeli zeal for second Trump term matched by Palestinian enmity
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.
Continue reading...Trump repeats claim ‘Covid, Covid, Covid’ dominates news to undermine his campaign – live
- 26 states currently at or near record numbers for new infections
- Trump’s election day director waging war on Philadelphia
- What would the first 100 days of a Biden presidency look like?
- Trump aide preparing second-term immigration blitz
- Sign up for Fight to Vote – our weekly US election newsletter
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
Continue reading...If Biden wins what would the first 100 days of his presidency look like?
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
Continue reading...Trump says Covid numbers ‘way down’ as US passes 226,000 deaths – video
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
Continue reading...We thought Reagan was the devil – then came Trump. America, we’re rooting for you
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).
Continue reading...Donald Trump’s campaign investigating ‘attack’ on website
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”.
Continue reading...Obama mocks Trump: ‘He’s jealous of Covid’s media coverage’ – video
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.'
Continue reading...Biden attacks Trump’s ‘rushed and unprecedented’ confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett – US politics live
- Full story: Barrett confirmed in major victory for conservatives
- Why Barrett’s addition to court may undermine climate fight
- Bob Woodward: The Trump Presidency – live event today
- Sign up for Fight to Vote – our weekly US election newsletter
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.”
Continue reading...US embassy warns Colombian politicians not to get involved in US elections
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.
Continue reading...US Senate to hold final vote on Amy Coney Barrett confirmation – live
- Trump aide admits ‘we’re not going to control pandemic’ as Pence staff test positive
- Nearly 60 million Americans cast early vote as record-shattering turnout expected
- Many midwest Democrats stayed home in 2016. Will they turn out for Biden?
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.
Continue reading...Senate votes on Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to supreme court – live
- Barrett is certain to be confirmed by Republicans tonight
- Democratic candidate criticizes president’s ‘super-spreader events’
- Fauci says US still in first wave of coronavirus infections
- Study: Republicans closely resemble autocratic parties
- North Carolina Republicans try to block mail ballot deadline extension
- Sign up for Fight to Vote – our weekly US election newsletter
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.
These Philadelphians are dancing all the way to the ballot box – video
These voters in Philadelphia have broken the monotony of the long voting lines by breaking into dance to the Cha Cha Slide by DJ Casper
- US 2020 election could have the highest rate of voter turnout since 1908
- Many midwest Democrats stayed home in 2016. Will they turn out for Biden?
‘This will make lib heads explode’: Donald Trump Jr posts 2024 picture
- President’s son campaigns in swing state Nevada
- ‘Sue if you must’: Lincoln Project rejects Kushner-Ivanka threat
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
Continue reading...White House chief of staff says ‘we’re not going to control pandemic’, after Pence staffers test positive – live
- Will midwest Democrats turn out for Biden?
- Biden gains among suburban women and elderly
- US election polls tracker: who is leading in the swing states?
- Sign up for Fight to Vote – our weekly US election newsletter
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
Continue reading...‘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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