Biden, 77, has acknowledged he has been affected by a stutter since childhood.
US Presidential Elections 2020 Live Updates: Joe Biden is calling the struggle to reopen US schools amid the coronavirus a “national emergency” and accusing President Donald Trump of turning his back to instead stoke passions about unrest in America’s cities. The Democratic presidential nominee’s broadsides came a day ahead of his own trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Biden said he wants to help “heal” a city reeling from another police shooting of a Black man.
The Biden campaign has announced the launch of ‘Hindu Americans for Biden’, as part of its efforts to attract the over two million members of the community in the US and address their issues, including hate crimes.
Indian-American Congressman from Illinois, Raja Krishnamoorthi, is scheduled to address the first meeting of ‘Hindus for Biden’ on Thursday, the organisers said on Tuesday. The move from the Biden campaign comes over a fortnight after the Trump campaign on August 14 announced the formation of the ‘Hindu Voices for Trump’.
In the November 3 presidential election, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his Indian-American running mate Kamala Harris will challenge incumbent Republican President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
This is, perhaps, for the first time in the history of the US presidential elections that the two major political parties have made an outreach coalition for the Hindus in the country. The development is being seen as a sign of the growing political prominence of Hindus in America. Hinduism is the fourth largest faith in the US, representing approximately one per cent of the US population in 2016.
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence stand on stage during the first day of the 2020 Republican National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
U.S. Attorney General William Barr said on Wednesday that mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election could be vulnerable to fraud, echoing an argument President Donald Trump has made to denounce the use of voting by mail."People trying to change the rules to this methodology, which, as a matter of logic, is very open to fraud and coercion. It's reckless and dangerous, and people are playing with fire," Barr said in an interview with CNN.Voting by mail is not new in the United States - nearly one in four voters cast presidential ballots in 2016 that way.
Joe Biden is calling the struggle to reopen US schools amid the coronavirus a "national emergency" and accusing President Donald Trump of turning his back to instead stoke passions about unrest in America's cities. The Democratic presidential nominee's broadsides came a day ahead of his own trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Biden said he wants to help "heal" a city reeling from another police shooting of a Black man. The wounding of Jacob Blake and subsequent demonstrations have made the political battleground state a focal point for debate over police and protest violence, as well as the actions of vigilante militias.
A law firm with ties to prominent Democrats has filed a lawsuit attempting to keep rapper Kanye West off presidential ballots in Virginia. Attorneys for Perkins Coie filed a lawsuit in Richmond on Tuesday on behalf of two people who say they were tricked into signing an Elector Oath backing West's candidacy. Under state law, a candidate must have 13 electors pledge their support for a candidate as part of the criteria to appear on the ballot.
The lawsuit alleges that 11 of West's 13 electors may be invalid and asks the court to block West's name from appearing on ballots, which are set to be printed soon. Virginia will begin mailing absentee ballots later this month.
West supported President Donald Trump for reelection until announcing his own presidential bid in July. (AP)
President Donald Trump is recycling a baseless conspiracy theory to claim that recent protests have been orchestrated by powerful people in "dark shadows" intent on undermining his reelection prospects.
The claims first took root on Facebook and Twitter earlier this year after racial justice protests swelled across the country following the deaths of Black Americans in police custody. Thousands of social media users shared posts suggesting a covert network was coordinating the protests and rioters were descending on communities across the country.
Trump appeared to amplify those unfounded conspiracy theories in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham that aired Monday night, suggesting that protests in Washington during the Republican National Convention were orchestrated by unspecified forces. "We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that," said Trump, adding that the matter is under investigation. When asked by reporters Tuesday for additional details on his assertion, Trump said someone else witnessed the activity and he would have to check to see if that person was willing to speak with news media. (AP)
China has taken a "naive" US and its leaders for a ride over the past several decades, according to former top Indian-American diplomat Nikki Haley, who said the Trump administration through its robust Indo-Pacific strategy is now learning who its real friends are.
Speaking at the third India-US Leadership Summit organised virtually by the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF), former US Ambassador to the UN Haley on Tuesday said Americans know that Indians are not a threat to them and as such, it is time for Indians to share their success story.
The US has been pushing for a greater role for India in the strategic Indo-Pacific which is seen by many countries as an effort to contain China's growing clout in the region. "Let's acknowledge how China did it. China was very strategic. This was very planned out and America was very naive. The thought leaders in America thought that if we were nice to China, if we open doors to China, it would become more like the West, that China would become more democratic," Haley said.
President Donald Trump charged into the latest eruption in the nation's reckoning over racial injustice on Tuesday, blaming "domestic terror" that he said fuelled the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and declaring it was enabled by Democratic leaders.
While Trump declared the violence "anti-American," he offered no words for the underlying cause of the anger and protests - accusations of police violence against Black men - and did not mention Jacob Blake, who was badly wounded last week in Kenosha. Soon after arriving in the city, a visit made over the objections of state and local leaders, Trump toured the charred remains of a block besieged by violence and fire.
With the scent of smoke still in the air, he spoke to the owners of a century-old store that had been destroyed and continued to link the violence to the Democrats, blaming those in charge of Kenosha and Wisconsin while raising apocalyptic warnings if their party should capture the White House. (AP)
Facebook said Tuesday that it removed a small network of accounts and pages linked to Russia's Internet Research Agency, the "troll factory" that has used social media accounts to sow political discord in the U.S. since the 2016 presidential election.
The people behind the accounts recruited "unwitting" freelance journalists to post in English and Arabic, mainly targeting left-leaning audiences. Facebook said Tuesday the network's activity focused on the U.S., U.K., Algeria and Egypt and other English-speaking countries and countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
The company said it started investigating the network based on information from the FBI about its off-Facebook activities. The network was in the early stages of development, Facebook added, and saw "nearly no engagement" on Facebook before it was removed. The network consisted of 13 Facebook accounts and two pages. About 14,000 accounts followed one or more of the pages, though the English-language page had a little over 200 followers, Facebook said. (AP)
Massachusetts voters on Tuesday were deciding one of the high profile battles on this year's primary ballot - the contest pitting incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward Markey against U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III.
The 39-year-old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, promising a new generation of leadership, is hoping to become the next Kennedy to take a seat in the U.S. Senate by ousting the 74-year-old Markey. While the two agree on many policies, each has tried to paint the other as out of touch on key issues.
Kennedy has gone after Markey on the issue of racial inequity, criticising his initial opposition to school desegregation efforts in Boston in the 1970s and noting criticism of Markey by the father of Danroy "DJ" Henry, a young Black man from Massachusetts killed by police 10 years ago. Kennedy has also highlighted his family's political legacy, in part in response to Markey, who during one debate told Kennedy he should tell his father - former U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy II - not to help fund a political action committee that was going after Markey. (AP)