President Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally on the tarmac at Erie International Airport, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020, in Millcreek Township, Pennslyvania. (Jack Hanrahan/Erie Times-News via AP)
US Presidential Elections 2020 LIVE news updates: President Donald Trump is hopping from one must-win stop on the electoral map to the next in the leadup to a final presidential debate that may be his last, best chance to alter the trajectory of the 2020 campaign.
As Democrat Joe Biden holes up for debate prep in advance of Thursday’s faceoff in Nashville, Tennessee, he’s hoping for a boost from former President Barack Obama, who will be holding his first in-person campaign event for Biden on Wednesday in Philadelphia.
Obama, who has become increasingly critical of Trump over the three and a half years since he left office, will address a drive-in rally, where supporters will listen to him over the radio inside their cars. It comes a day after Trump, trailing in polls in many battleground states, stopped in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Trump was bound for North Carolina on Wednesday as he delivers what his campaign sees as his closing message.
“This is an election between a Trump super recovery and a Biden depression,” the president said in Erie, Pennsylvania. “You will have a depression the likes of which you have never seen.”
At least 35 million people have already cast their ballots, according to University of Florida’s US Election Project, more than a fourth of the total 2016 vote.
Joe Biden’s campaign entered October with a war chest that was almost three times larger than President Donald Trump’s, solidifying the Democratic nominee’s advantage in the final weeks of the campaign. (File photo)
Four years after Donald Trump's election reframed how many nations interacted with the United States, the way that the world's foremost superpower moves forward after its presidential election stands to impact many geopolitical pressure points - whether the victor turns out to be Trump or his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden.
From Iran to Cuba, from China to Israel, American involvement and influence on the international stage has evolved sharply since Trump took office in 2017. He swept away agreements with some nations, alienated longstanding allies and pulled out of multilateral obligations that he said didn't serve the interests of the United States.
Though the international community has sometimes criticized Trump's ''America First'' tenure, underscored by the president's approach to the coronavirus pandemic, there were already places, issues and conflicts where the United States' involvement wasn't always appreciated - under his predecessor, Barack Obama and other recent American leaders.
Before the pandemic struck, in the beginning of 2020, the most serious global concern was whether Washington and Tehran were on the cusp of a ruinous war that would inflame the Middle East.
While that has ebbed, many around the world are watching closely to see what happens next - and who will be living in the White House three months from today. (AP)
President Donald Trump is hopping from one must-win stop on the electoral map to the next in the leadup to a final presidential debate that may be his last, best chance to alter the trajectory of the 2020 campaign.
As Democrat Joe Biden holes up for debate prep in advance of Thursday's faceoff in Nashville, Tennessee, he's hoping for a boost from former President Barack Obama, who will be holding his first in-person campaign event for Biden on Wednesday in Philadelphia.
Obama, who has become increasingly critical of Trump over the three and a half years since he left office, will address a drive-in rally, where supporters will listen to him over the radio inside their cars.
It comes a day after Trump, trailing in polls in many battleground states, stopped in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Trump was bound for North Carolina on Wednesday as he delivers what his campaign sees as his closing message.
"This is an election between a Trump super recovery and a Biden depression," the president said in Erie, Pennsylvania. "You will have a depression the likes of which you have never seen."
He added: "If you want depression, doom and despair, vote for Sleepy Joe. And boredom." (AP)
In a presidential election year that has thrown the country's divisions into stark relief, Americans can agree on this: Misinformation about government and politics is a major problem.
A new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Opinion Research and USAFacts finds that while voters say it's pretty easy to find accurate information about voting, they have a harder time knowing whether there's any factual basis for the information they're getting from and about the candidates.
"The misinformation, it's just blossomed to the point where it's unmanageable," said nurse Liana Price, 34, of Tampa Bay, Florida, who supports Democrat Joe Biden in the contest against President Donald Trump and worries misinformation about the election could sway voters. "You try to explain and provide facts and actual research, but people don't believe it."
Among the poll's findings: More than 8 in 10 rated the spread of misinformation about government a "major problem." The deluge in political misinformation and conspiracy theories has fueled distrust in institutions and threatens to undermine confidence in elections, democracy and the nation itself, according to Cindy Otis, a former CIA officer, author and disinformation expert. (AP)
If Joe Biden defeats President Donald Trump next month, he'll quickly face a new challenge: standing up a new administration to lead a divided nation through a series of historic crises.
After making Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic a centerpiece of his campaign, Biden will have to show that his team can better handle the public health calamity. He will also have to contend with what Democrats say is the damage the Trump administration has done to the bureaucratic machinery in Washington, as well as low morale throughout the civil service. And he'll face pressure from liberals to deliver early wins with personnel and Cabinet picks to ensure their buy-in for his big policy fights to come.
With the election less than two weeks away, Biden and his aides are most focused on maintaining his advantage in polls against Trump.
But some Democrats are beginning to prepare for the challenges that may swiftly unfold once the campaign is over. �This will be one of the most important, most difficult and yes most costly transitions in modern American history," Chris Korge, the Democratic National Committee's finance chair, warned donors in a recent letter obtained by The Associated Press.
A new government report shows that since the coronavirus pandemic began, the US has seen 300,000 more deaths than it usually would.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has been tracking how many deaths have been reported and comparing them with counts seen in other years. Usually, between the beginning of February and the end of September, about 1.9 million deaths are reported.
This year, it’s closer to 2.2 million — a 14.5 per cent increase.
A new government report shows that since the coronavirus pandemic began, the US has seen 300,000 more deaths than it usually would.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has been tracking how many deaths have been reported and comparing them with counts seen in other years. Usually, between the beginning of February and the end of September, about 1.9 million deaths are reported.
This year, it’s closer to 2.2 million — a 14.5 per cent increase.
President Donald Trump’s sprawling political operation has raised well over $1 billion since he took the White House in 2017, and set a lot of it on fire.
Trump bought a $10 million Super Bowl ad when he didn’t yet have a challenger. He tapped his political organization to cover exorbitant legal fees related to his impeachment. Aides made flashy displays of their newfound wealth, including a fleet of luxury vehicles purchased by Brad Parscale, his former campaign manager.
Meanwhile, a web of limited liability companies hid more than $356 million in spending from disclosure, records show.
Responding to his Democratic rival's unprecedented fundraising in September, US President Donald Trump has claimed Joe Biden is a "servant" of lobbyists and "Washington vultures" who got rich by bleeding America dry, and asserted that he could be the "king" of all fundraisers, but does not want to do it.
At an election rally in Erie on Tuesday, Trump alleged, "He (Biden) is a servant of the globalist, lobbyist, wealthy donors and Washington vultures who got rich bleeding America dry. You know I said the other day... I never thought of it because they're raising a lot of money, (USD) 300 million. I could be the king of all fundraisers. I would be the greatest that ever lived the president of the United States."
Biden holds a massive cash advantage over Trump in the last leg of the campaign, with over USD 177 million in the bank, compared with USD 63.1 million for the president. (PTI)
With less than two weeks to go before the election day, the Associated Press reports that US President Donald Trump has been traveling from one location to another, targeting important states that will help him win the upcoming elections. Trump has been behind Joe Biden in several battleground states. In contrast to Trump’s targeting of voters in campaign rallies, Biden has instead been preparing for the next debate on Thursday.
One of those states include Pennsylvania. “If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing,” AP reported Trump saying. After days of debates on the format of the debates following Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis and more White House staffers testing positive, the Commission on Presidential Debates has established new procedures to reduce the interruptions that had occurred between Biden and Trump in the first debate. This time, while one candidate speaks, the other’s microphone will be muted.