Category Archives: Donald Trump

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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Republicans use section 230 hearing to berate tech CEOs and claim Trump is ‘censored’

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Congressional hearing with Twitter, Facebook and Google CEOs was meant to focus on federal law that protects internet companies

Republican lawmakers berated the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google in a hearing that was ostensibly about a federal law protecting internet companies but mostly focused on how those companies deal with disinformation from Donald Trump and other conservatives.

Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai testified before Congress on Wednesday about section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a law underpinning US internet regulation that exempts platforms from legal liability for content generated by its users.

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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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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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‘Let me finish’: John Bolton clashes with BBC journalist Emily Maitlis over Trump – video

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John Bolton, a former national security adviser to the Trump administration, gets into heated exchanges with BBC Newsnight's Emily Maitlis over why he did not appear at Donald Trump's impeachment trial. He repeatedly tells Maitlis to 'let him finish', and blames House Democrats for empowering Trump when they failed to convict him during the impeachment trial. Maitlis also pressed Bolton on why he worked alongside Trump despite admitting he saw him as corrupt and a threat to American security

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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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Kazakh-American group claims Borat Subsequent Moviefilm ‘incites violence’

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The Kazakh American Association has released a letter on social media accusing Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest Borat film of ‘justifying harassment’

A group of Kazakh-Americans has demanded that Amazon withdraw Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Sacha Baron Cohen’s new satirical comedy which – like its 2006 predecessor Borat – identifies Kazakhstan as the home country of its fictional journalist character Borat Sagdiyev.

In a letter published on social media shortly before the film’s official launch, addressed to three senior Amazon executives, the Kazakh American Association says that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm “may cause irreparable harm to to Kazakhstan’s national image and people as its comedic nature may justify ethnicity-based harassment”. It adds: “This film incites violence against a highly vulnerable and under-represented minority ethnic group.”

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

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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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‘Deep down, he’s a terrified little boy’: Bob Woodward, John Bolton and others on Trump

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The authors of recent exposés, including Mary Trump and Anthony Scaramucci, on the president, his time in office – and what they expect to happen at the polls

Bob Woodward is associate editor of the Washington Post and the author of 20 books on American politics. In 50 years as a journalist he has covered nine presidents. His reporting on the Watergate break-in and cover-up with his colleague Carl Bernstein helped bring down Richard Nixon and won the Post a Pulitzer prize. His latest book about Donald Trump, Rage, is based on 10 hours of interviews, spread over 19 taped phone calls, often initiated by the president himself, in which Trump proved “only too willing to blow the whistle on himself”, as the Observer’s review noted.

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Donald Trump not following science, says US medical chief Anthony Fauci – video

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Chief medical expert Anthony Fauci says President Trump is not following the science in suggesting that he is now immune and could 'come down and start kissing everybody'. In an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US tempers Trump’s claims that there will be a vaccine by the end of the year, noting that a rollout will take 'several months into 2021' and that early use will focus on vulnerable populations and healthcare workers

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

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

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The challenger aims to fix the foreign policy upheaval of the Trump years but such an agenda presents many challenges

By any measure, Joe Biden is old in the ways of the world. As Barack Obama’s vice-president, he met all the big international actors. As chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, he helped direct US foreign policy.

After four years of Donald Trump’s manic leadership, the Democrat offers a steady, dependable hand on the tiller. Biden’s grand aim: a glorious American restoration, at home and abroad.

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

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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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