Record Democratic turnout not enough for Jones in Alabama
Alabama U.S. Sen. Doug Jones received more than 200,000 more votes this year than he did when he won the seat three years ago. But despite record Democratic turnout, it wasn’t nearly enough in the deeply red state as Republican former college football coach Tommy Tuberville racked up huge margins to handily defeat Jones and Democrats’ hopes of maintaining inroads in the Deep South state this year. Jones, who was considered the Senate’s most endangered Democrat, topped former President Barack Obama’s 2008 record for most votes for a Democratic candidate in Alabama, state Democratic Party Executive Director Wade Perry said. Yet huge GOP numbers pushed the incumbent down to just 40% of the overall vote. Tuberville made fealty to President Donald Trump the central pillar of his campaign and told voters at a campaign stop that, “God sent us and elected Donald Trump.” Boosted by GOP enthusiasm, straight-ticket voting, and fame from his coaching days at Auburn University, Tuberville won about 60% of ballots, running about two percentage points behind Trump in the state. “Alabama, welcome back to the Republican U.S. Senate,” Tuberville shouted after taking the stage to loud cheers at his election night party in downtown Montgomery. “I am going to fight like heck against Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi,” he said. “I will be guided by our shared values, conservative values and I will always vote with the majority of people in the state of Alabama.” Tuberville’s victory followed a campaign where Tuberville shunned most media outlets in favor of conservative talk radio and he declined to debate Jones. Jones, a former U.S. attorney best known for prosecuting Ku Klux Klansmen responsible for Birmingham’s infamous 1963 church bombing, became the first Alabama Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate in a quarter-century when he won in 2017. His victory was aided by scandal after Republican Roy Moore, already a controversial figure in the state, faced allegations of sexual misconduct from decades earlier. Some Republicans in the state sat out that race or supported Jones. Republicans were eager to portray Jones’ 2017 win as an anomaly, and hammered at Jones over a handful of votes, including the Democrat’s decision to convict Trump during the impeachment trial. “He will be the perfect example in political science classes around this nation of how to lose a U.S. Senate seat with $15 million dollars because you ignored the will of the majority of the people. It will be a short class,” Alabama Republican Party Chairwoman Terry Lathan said of Jones. Jones, despite outspending Tuberville 4-1, lost by a wide margin. “There’s nothing else we could have done. It was a record Democratic turnout, exceeded only by a record Republican turnout,” Alabama Democratic Party Executive Director Wade Perry said Wednesday. “We’ve got two years to do a better job. We’ve got some work to do,” Perry said. “I’m proud of Alabama Democrats and very proud of our staff. We worked very hard and had a record turnout. It just wasn’t enough.” David Mowery, an Alabama-based political consultant, said “Republican DNA is hard-baked into the state” making it a difficult path for any Democrat, even a well-funded one. He said Alabama does not have the growing suburban populations that have helped turn some southern states into battlegrounds. “We’re a Republican state and the only thing that can change that is a big-league scandal and a known bad actor like Roy Moore,” Mowery said. Although he was denied a full term in the Senate, Jones said there was work to continue. “At the end of the day, my time in the Senate is going to be over, but our time is just beginning, our time to make our state so much better than what it has been, to make sure we continue the march of progress,” Jones said as he stood with his family on stage. Jones said he did not regret the votes, such as impeachment and opposing Trump’s Supreme Court nominee — which fueled conservative outrage against him — because he said those were votes he took on principle. Ahead of Tuesday, Jones had acknowledged he faced an uphill battle to keep the seat in a campaign that seemed as much about laying groundwork for the future. He helped install new leadership at the Alabama Democratic Party. The senator also lamented a political environment that has moved to partisan rancor and away from bipartisanship. “The Senate doesn’t have that kind of deliberative spirit anymore,” he said. “There’s a lot more friendliness and bipartisanship that goes on behind the scenes that folks don’t see, but it needs to be on the floor of the Senate, it needs to be in front of the cameras, it needs to be where people can see these great debates on policy, and on issues, and how you can find that common ground.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Presidency hinges on tight races in battleground states
The fate of the United States presidency hung in the balance Wednesday morning, as President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden battled for three familiar battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that could prove crucial in determining who wins the White House. It was unclear when or how quickly a winner could be determined. A late burst of votes in Michigan and Wisconsin gave Biden a small lead in those states, but it was still too early to call the race. Hundreds of thousands of votes were also outstanding in Pennsylvania. The high stakes election was held against the backdrop of a historic pandemic that has killed more than 230,000 Americans and wiped away millions of jobs. Both candidates spent months pressing dramatically different visions for the nation’s future and voters responded in huge numbers, with more than 100 million people casting votes ahead of Election Day. But the margins were exceedingly tight, with the candidates trading wins in battleground states across the country. Trump picked up Florida, the largest of the swing states, while Biden flipped Arizona, a state that has reliably voted Republican in recent elections. Neither cleared the 270 Electoral College votes needed to carry the White House. Trump, in an extraordinary move from the White House, issued premature claims of victory and said he would take the election to the Supreme Court to stop the counting. It was unclear exactly what legal action he might try to pursue. Biden, briefly appearing in front of supporters in Delaware, urged patience, saying the election “ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted.” “It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare who’s won this election,” Biden said. “That’s the decision of the American people.” Vote tabulations routinely continue beyond Election Day, and states largely set the rules for when the count has to end. In presidential elections, a key point is the date in December when presidential electors met. That’s set by federal law. Several states allow mailed-in votes to be accepted after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday. That includes Pennsylvania, where ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 can be accepted if they arrive up to three days after the election. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf tweeted that his state had over 1 million ballots to be counted and that he “promised Pennsylvanians that we would count every vote and that’s what we’re going to do.” Trump appeared to suggest those ballots should not be counted, and that he would fight for that outcome at the high court. But legal experts were dubious of Trump’s declaration. “I do not see a way that he could go directly to the Supreme Court to stop the counting of votes. There could be fights in specific states, and some of those could end up at the Supreme Court. But this is not the way things work,” said Rick Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California-Irvine. Trump has appointed three of the high court’s nine justices including, most recently, Amy Coney Barrett. Democrats typically outperform Republicans in mail voting, while the GOP looks to make up ground in Election Day turnout. That means the early margins between the candidates could be influenced by which type of votes — early or Election Day — were being reported by the states. Throughout the campaign, Trump cast doubt about the integrity of the election and repeatedly suggested that mail-in ballots should not be counted. Both campaigns had teams of lawyers at the ready to move into battleground states if there were legal challenges. The tight overall contest reflected a deeply polarized nation struggling to respond to the worst health crisis in more than a century, with millions of lost jobs, and a reckoning on racial injustice. Trump kept several states, including Texas, Iowa and Ohio, where Biden had made a strong play in the final stages of the campaign. But Biden also picked off states where Trump sought to compete, including New Hampshire and Minnesota. But Florida was the biggest, fiercely contested battleground on the map, with both campaigns battling over the 29 Electoral College votes that went to Trump. The president adopted Florida as his new home state, wooed its Latino community, particularly Cuban-Americans, and held rallies there incessantly. For his part, Biden deployed his top surrogate — President Barack Obama — there twice in the campaign’s closing days and benefitted from a $100 million pledge in the state from Michael Bloomberg. Democrats entered the night confident not only in Biden’s prospects, but also in the the party’s ability to take control of the Senate. But the GOP held several seats that were considered vulnerable, including in Iowa, Texas and Kansas. The House was expected to remain under Democratic control. The coronavirus pandemic — and Trump’s handling of it — was the inescapable focus for 2020. For Trump, the election stood as a judgment on his four years in office, a term in which he bent Washington to his will, challenged faith in its institutions and changed how America was viewed across the globe. Rarely trying to unite a country divided along lines of race and class, he has often acted as an insurgent against the government he led while undermining the nation’s scientists, bureaucracy and media. The momentum from early voting carried into Election Day, as an energized electorate produced long lines at polling sites throughout the country. Turnout was higher than in 2016 in numerous counties, including all of Florida, nearly every county in North Carolina and more than 100 counties in both Georgia and Texas. That tally seemed sure to increase as more counties reported their turnout figures. Voters braved worries of the coronavirus, threats of polling place intimidation and expectations of long lines caused by changes to voting systems, but appeared undeterred as turnout appeared it would easily surpass the 139 million ballots cast four years ago. No major problems arose on Tuesday, outside the typical glitches
In 2020 finale, Donald Trump combative, Joe Biden on offense
In the closing hours of a campaign shadowed by a once-in-a-century pandemic, President Donald Trump charged across the nation Monday delivering an incendiary but unsupported allegation that the election is rigged, while Democratic challenger Joe Biden pushed to claim states once seen as safely Republican.
Bruised and haunted, US holds tight as 2020 campaigns close
Just over her mask, Patra Okelo’s eyes brimmed with tears when she recalled the instant that a truth about America dawned and her innocence burned away. One moment on Aug. 11, 2017, she thought the tiki torches blazing in the distance at the University of Virginia were “the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, lighting up the darkness.” Later, on television, she could see the fire more clearly. Hundreds of white supremacists carried those torches, sparking 24 hours of fury and death that transformed Charlottesville into an enduring battle cry of the 2020 presidential election. “My heart broke that night,” Okelo, now 29, said on Saturday, as President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden blitzed across the country to make the closing arguments of their bitter contest to lead the divided nation. Presidential elections are traditionally moments when Americans get a high-definition look in the mirror. But by the final, frenetic sprint of the 2020 race, the world had long peered into the country’s darkest corners and seen a battered and haunted image staring back. The presidency and control of the Senate are in the balance, but for many, there was something even more urgent. Survival was the immediate goal, both as human beings and as a country whose very name seems aspirational at a time of such division and angst. The list of threats is long and personal: Coronavirus has killed more than 230,000 people in the U.S., and infections are surging in almost every state. The economy and with it families are suffering from uncertainty. The legacy of slavery ripped through society yet again this year after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests and crackdowns by law enforcement. Okelo can draw a line from the August night in 2017 when she first saw the torches to the last hours of the 2020 election. She voted for Biden. On Aug. 12, 2017, in the hours after the torchlight parade, James Alex Fields Jr. plowed his car into a group of protesters on 4th Street and killed activist Heather Heyer. That intersection is now decorated with purple flowers and messages in chalk. Okelo says she has avoided the area ever since. Trump blamed “both sides” for that conflagration. Earlier this year, he boarded up the White House and used federal forces to protect it from the protests over Floyd’s death. And when asked, he has most often refused to condemn white supremacy. Okelo, who is Black, heard when Biden launched his campaign for president with the words, “Charlottesville, Va.” “My younger brother is in danger,” Okelo said she has come to realize. “So I waited in line today, and I voted as I did.” But the connection between 2017 and now also is marked by contrasts. A year ago, Americans were riveted by the House impeachment proceedings against Trump for his appeals for political help from Ukraine. The Senate acquitted him at the beginning of 2020, followed by Trump’s victory lap and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s show-topping rip of his State of the Union speech. A campaign that started with more than two dozen Democrats competing for the right to challenge Trump ended with Biden the party’s nominee, and one of his rivals, California Sen. Kamala Harris, as his running mate, the first Black or Indian woman to seek the vice presidency. It seems like a distant, more innocent time. When Harris announced her own presidential bid nearly two years ago, she did it before nearly 20,000 people attending an outdoor event in her home city of Oakland, California. Campaigning in the West in the race’s final week, Harris spoke in Las Vegas to a socially distanced crowd of people sitting on blankets spaced 6 feet apart. White circles around chairs denote appropriate social distancing. As for the sound of the 2020 race, car horns have replaced the roar of Democratic crowds. “Honk if you’re fired up! Honk if you’re ready to go!” former President Barack Obama has said in the final swing. On the Republican side, Trump remained energized by large, mostly unmasked crowds in defiance of the advice from his administration’s top public health officials. The president was making a final blur of 10 rallies across battleground states, arguing falsely that the coronavirus was on the wane and falling back on familiar anthems about Hillary Clinton, his vanquished 2016 rival, and building a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. “Tuesday is our big deal as a country!” Trump said on Sunday, as he braved flurries and a stiff wind chill in Michigan. The president is aiming to run up support in the whiter, more rural parts of the state with warnings that a Biden win could be disastrous for the economy. Down in the polls and at a cash disadvantage, Trump expressed confidence and said of Biden at one point, “I don’t think he knows he’s losing.” In contrast, Biden’s campaign rallies through Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania were strictly distanced and often drive-in affairs where mask-wearing is required. At an Atlanta-area event on Sunday, a Biden staffer stepped to the podium and enforced the rules just before Harris spoke. “Y’all need to go back to your cars,” the aide said. “We are not a Trump rally.” Also defining this campaign at its ragged end is a hovering uncertainty and anxiety. Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses to Biden, and his exhortation to supporters to “stand back and stand by” the polls to make sure the vote is legit sounded to some like a call to intimidate voters and elections officials. Images and reports, such as a get-out-the-vote rally in North Carolina on Saturday that ended with law enforcement pepper spraying the crowd, kept the country on edge. State police said participants were blocking the roadway and had no authorization to be there. In Texas, Trump supporters in cars and trucks swarmed around a Biden campaign bus at high speed on a highway. The
Donald Trump, Joe Biden fight for Florida, appeal for Tuesday turnout
President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden are encouraging voters to turn out in person on Election Day next Tuesday, both campaigning in Florida, a state all but essential to the Republican’s pathway to another term. More than 80 million Americans have already voted, absentee or by mail, and Trump and Biden are trying to energize the millions more who will vote on Tuesday. While the Election Day vote traditionally favors Republicans and early votes tend toward Democrats, the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 227,000 people in the United States, has injected new uncertainty. Trump and Biden were appearing in Tampa hours apart on Thursday. They’re visiting the western end of the state’s Interstate 4 corridor, an area known for rapid residential growth, sprawling suburbs and its status as an ever-changing, hard-fought battleground during presidential elections. “You hold the power. If Florida goes blue, it’s over,” Biden told supporters Thursday. Trump was celebrating a new federal estimate that the economy grew at a stunning 33.1% annual rate in the July-September quarter — by far the largest quarterly gain on record — making up ground from its epic plunge in the spring, when the eruption of the coronavirus closed businesses and threw tens of millions out of work. “So glad this great GDP number came out before November 3rd,” Trump said in a tweet, predicting dire consequences if Biden is elected. But economists warned that the economy is already weakening again and facing renewed threats as confirmed viral cases are surge, hiring has slowed and federal stimulus help has largely run out. Biden, in a statement, criticized Trump over the report. “The recovery is slowing if not stalling,” he said, “and the recovery that is happening is helping those at the top but leaving tens of millions of working families and small businesses behind.” The visits come as Biden has framed his closing argument to voters on responsible management of the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump promises that the nation is on course to “vanquish the virus” even as it sets records for confirmed new infections. The president had been scheduled to hit another Southern battleground state, North Carolina, on Thursday evening but canceled his event in Fayetteville as Tropical Storm Zeta brought wind gusts reaching 50 mph to the area. Trump is holding three rallies on Saturday in Pennsylvania before launching on a whirlwind tour of battlegrounds including Florida, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania in the closing 48 hours of the race. Biden, meanwhile, heads later in the week to three more states Trump won in 2016: Iowa, Wisconsin and then Michigan, where he’ll hold a joint Saturday rally with former President Barack Obama. Biden’s campaign also announced he will visit Minnesota Friday hours before Trump holds a rally in one of the few Clinton-voting states Trump is hoping to pick up this year. The pandemic’s consequences were escalating, with deaths climbing in 39 states and an average of 805 people dying daily nationwide — up from 714 two weeks ago. The sharp rise sent shockwaves through financial markets, causing the Dow Jones Industrial Average to drop 900-plus points. Trump, who frequently lauds rising markets, failed to mention the decline on Wednesday. Trump is betting on the GOP’s vast field and data operations, and efforts known as “poll flushing” — monitoring precinct lists for who has and has not yet voted — to provide a late boost of votes on Election Day. The Republican National Committee, which has more than 3,000 field staff and claims more than 2.5 million volunteers, will use that information to reach out to Trump supporters to ensure they get to the polls. Nowhere may those efforts be more important than in Florida. Without the battleground state’s 29 electoral votes, Trump’s path to victory is exceptionally difficult. Trump was introduced in Tampa by his wife, first lady Melania Trump, who praised her husband’s presidency, saying “under Donald’s leadership, we have blocked out the noise and focused on you, the American people.” Trump is banking on local news coverage of his visit to overcome a substantial advertising deficit stemming from a late cash crunch. Biden and his allies are outspending Trump and his backers by more than 3-to-1 in Florida — about $23 million to about $7 million — in the final push to Election Day, according to data from ad tracking firm Kantar/CMAG. Biden, meanwhile, is pouring tens of millions of dollars into a torrent of online advertising that will deliver his closing message of the presidential campaign, highlighting his promise to govern for all Americans while blasting Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. “I’m running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president,” Biden says in one of the digital ads, which will take over the masthead of YouTube.com on Thursday. “I will work as hard for those who don’t support me as those who do. That’s the job of a president — the duty to care for everyone.” How much exactly Biden will spend is unclear. His campaign says it is putting a “mid-eight figure” dollar amount behind over 100 different ads, which means they could be spending as little as $25 million — but potentially much more. The ads will run on social media platforms including Instagram and Facebook, streaming services such as Hulu and music applications like Pandora. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, launched its closing message to voters Thursday, not mentioning Trump, in an apparent aim to help GOP candidates up and down the ballot with a focus on traditional Republican messages around lowering taxes and health care. In both Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, and the adjacent Pinellas County, Democrats are crushing vote-by-mail. As of Wednesday morning, 53,000 more Democrats than Republicans had voted by mail in Hillsborough. In Pinellas, the largest of the four counties in the state to switch from Obama to Trump in 2016, that number was just shy of 30,000. Republicans in both counties have a slight edge in the state’s in-person early voting, which began last Saturday as Trump himself
Amy Coney Barrett confirmation rises as issue in Kentucky Senate race
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took a victory lap Wednesday for shepherding Amy Coney Barrett onto the U.S. Supreme Court, while his Democratic challenger questioned his priorities. Amy McGrath said the Republican should have done more to deliver more coronavirus aid to hurting Kentuckians. She called it a symptom of what ails the Senate, saying that under McConnell’s leadership “everything’s been polarized, everything has been red or blue, dysfunctional.” McConnell countered that he’s “never seen the Democrats so radical” and tried linking McGrath to her party’s progressive leaders — a tested GOP tactic in Kentucky. He also recounted his role in President Donald Trump’s impeachment acquittal in the Senate, telling a campaign audience: “I led the opposition to impeaching Donald Trump and I’m proud of it.” McConnell and McGrath, a retired Marine combat pilot running as a political outsider, are engaged in a bruising, mega-spending campaign. Trump’s chief ally in Congress, McConnell has touted his leadership post as an asset for Kentucky as he seeks a seventh term. But McGrath has chided McConnell for his decades in the Senate and has called for term limits for senators. With less than a week until Election Day, McConnell played up his alliance with Trump in putting conservatives on the federal bench. The GOP-led Senate has confirmed more than 200 judicial nominees of the Republican president, including three Supreme Court justices. The push to reshape the judiciary continued with Barrett’s confirmation Monday to the high court. “It was a proud moment when we confirmed her Monday night,” McConnell said during a campaign stop in Oldham County, near Louisville. “We worked through the weekend … and we made an important difference for the country.” McConnell referred to the confirmations of Trump’s judicial picks as “the most significant thing we could do that would last a long time.” McConnell has led in polling. But McGrath is putting up a fight — backed by tens of millions in campaign funds bankrolling her TV advertising blitz. McGrath said Barrett’s confirmation was done in a “hypocritical and cynical fashion” by McConnell, who blocked former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in an election year. “Now eight days from an election he jams one through,” McGrath said in Louisville on Tuesday. “That’s not America. That’s not what our Senate’s supposed to be doing. And he knows it.” Instead, the focus should have been on reaching a deal to deliver more federal aid to a pandemic-stricken country, she said. “He won’t help Kentuckians in their time of need,” McGrath said. “It’s him that’s stopping this. That’s the Congress that he built. You know what, that’s his legacy. That in a moment of national crisis, he cared about himself. He cared about his political party. He cared about his power.” Insisting he wants another coronavirus relief bill, McConnell said he tried pushing through targeted relief for schools, small businesses, and the health care sector but was stymied by Senate Democrats. McConnell continued to tout his lead role in passing a $2 trillion economic rescue package early in the pandemic. His follow-up relief bill totaled about $500 billion, which stalled amid partisan wrangling over its size and scope. McGrath has said McConnell waited too long and offered too little in the follow-up bill. Continuing a campaign theme, McGrath said every American deserves affordable and accessible health care, adding “there are lots of ways to get there.” She supports adding a public health insurance option and expanding access to Medicare for people 55 and older. The Democratic challenger warned that adding Barrett to the Supreme Court imperils the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, and said McConnell was complicit. “Sen. McConnell tried for a decade to get rid of it,” McGrath said. “He couldn’t do it legislatively. Now he’s trying to do it in the courts.” At their recent debate, McConnell said: “No one believes the Supreme Court is going to strike down the Affordable Care Act.” With Kentucky being hit by another coronavirus surge, McConnell urged people to wear masks in public and practice social distancing until a vaccine is developed and distributed. “We will get through this, and I promise you we will have one or more vaccines that work … and we’re going to kill this virus,” he said. Kentuckians have been voting by mail-in ballots for weeks, and early in-person voting started more than two weeks ago and continues up to Election Day. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Susan Collins votes against Amy Coney Barrett, heads home to save Senate job
When Republican Sen. Susan Collins had to vote on a Supreme Court justice in 2018, she deliberated under the spotlight for weeks, building suspense that ended with a dramatic floor speech. When she announced her support for President Donald Trump’s nominee, she triggered an onslaught of Democratic anger. On Monday, Collins cast her vote against Trump’s pick without any speech and quickly headed home to Maine to try to save her political career. Collins’ contrasting moves on the Supreme Court nominations of Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett underscore the difficulty for a senator trying to find middle ground in an election in which the battle lines appear starker than ever. Her vote in favor of Kavanaugh rallied Democrats against her and angered some moderate supporters, while her vote against Barrett may not do much to win them back. Throughout the campaign, the four-term senator has had to fight off accusations that her years in Washington have changed her and that she puts Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the GOP over the interests of regular Mainers. “I was taught to give back to my community, to serve others, and to act with integrity. That’s what I’ve always done,” Collins told The Associated Press. “I certainly have not changed.” But Maine and American politics are changing. The state known for its fierce independent spirit as much as its lighthouses and lobsters is becoming less so, and Democrats, not independents, now comprise the biggest voting bloc. Throw in a well-funded opponent, along with a polarizing president, and the last Republican member of Congress from New England finds herself battling for her political survival. Collins’ Democratic rival, Sara Gideon, the speaker of the Maine House, called the senator’s vote against Barrett “nothing more than a political calculation.” Collins’ spokesperson fired back by accusing Gideon of making “a craven political calculation seven months ago when she shut down the Legislature to focus on her campaign.” Polls show an extremely close race despite more than $120 million allocated for ads by the candidates and their allies. And the money is still pouring into the race, one of a handful that could decide which party controls the Senate. Losing the fundraising battle, Collins is focusing on her message that she’s an experienced, bipartisan senator who’s in line to become chair of the appropriations committee, which directs all federal spending. That would be in stark contrast, she said, to a “rookie” senator. Gideon is using the latest battle over a Supreme Court nominee to remind voters that Collins backed most of Trump’s judicial nominees, resulting in a rightward shift in the judiciary. She’s also attacking Collins’ vote for Trump’s tax cuts that she says favored the rich over working-class Mainers. Gideon said for all of Collins’ talk about seniority, she doesn’t have much influence in her caucus, as demonstrated in her inability to stop the vote on Barrett. Collins, who has never missed a vote, said she voted against Barrett out of fairness to Democrats, who were denied an election-year vote on then-President Barack Obama’s nominee in 2016. “It doesn’t seem like her seniority has much influence in her caucus, or that ability to bring things home for Mainers,” Gideon said. Collins easily won her last election, and it was just a couple of years ago that the senator was cheered when Cyndi Lauper welcomed her on stage during a concert on the Bangor riverfront, a year before the Kavanaugh vote galvanized Democrats. “This woman is a hero. And she’s my hero. And she’s a Republican,” Lauper told the crowd as she walked Collins to the center of the stage. Lauper praised her for her work with LGBTQ homeless youth. But things have changed since then. The Human Rights Campaign, which had endorsed Collins in three previous elections, now endorses Gideon. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which was neutral in Collins’ 2014 race, is backing Gideon. Collins, 67, insists she’s the same centrist who’s willing to work with members of either party. She also points to the millions she’s brought home for Maine, including Bath Iron Works and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and her Paycheck Protection Program that helped more than 250,000 Mainers during the coronavirus pandemic. “Susan Collins is exactly the same person she was when she was first elected. Certainly, the national discourse has changed tremendously,” said Kevin Raye, former chief of staff for retired Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe. On the campaign trail, Gideon, 48, is known for her socially distanced “Supper with Sara” events held under a tent. Collins, meanwhile, has been on a bus tour across the state. Jeff Corey, president of Days Jewelers, met Collins during a visit to Waterville and said Collins’ experience, pragmatism, and bipartisanship make her the best candidate to serve the interests of Mainers. “Look, the American people right now are looking for collaboration with our leaders, finding common ground and getting things done,” he said, noting that the Lugar Center at Georgetown University has ranked Collins as the most bipartisan senator. Among Democrats, Collins doesn’t get much credit for standing up to Trump, even though she has been critical of his handling of the pandemic, his attempt to strike down the Affordable Care Act, the diversion of funding for the border wall, and the removal of protesters from Lafayette Square for a photo op. Critics say she hasn’t been forceful enough in her denunciations of Trump. Collins has declined to say whom she’ll vote for on Election Day. She wrote in a candidate in 2016 rather than vote for Trump. James Bennett, a former Republican who’s supporting Gideon, said it’s time for a change. “I’d thought of her as being an independent thinker until the last four years. She’s not thinking for herself. She’s just following the party line,” said Bennett, a retired defense contractor from Camden. The race will be decided by ranked choice voting, providing a new layer of uncertainty. Under the election system, voters will get to rank all four candidates —
Joe Biden vows to unify and save country; Donald Trump hits Midwest
Joe Biden traveled Tuesday to the hot springs town where Franklin Delano Roosevelt coped with polio to declare the U.S. is not too politically diseased to overcome its health and economic crises, pledging to be the unifying force who can “restore our soul and save this country.” The Democratic presidential nominee offered his closing argument with Election Day just one week away while attempting to go on the political offensive in Georgia, which hasn’t backed a Democrat for the White House since 1992. He promised to be a president for all Americans regardless of party, even as he said that “anger and suspicion is growing and our wounds are getting deeper.” “Has the heart of this nation turned to stone? I don’t think so,” Biden said. “I refuse to believe it.” While Biden worked to expand the electoral map in the South, President Donald Trump focused on the Democrats’ “blue wall” states that he flipped in 2016 — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — and maintained a far busier travel schedule taking him to much more of the country. At a cold, rain-soaked rally in the Michigan capital of Lansing, Trump said Biden supported the North American Free Trade Agreement and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, both of which he said hurt the auto industry and other manufacturing in the state. “This election is a matter of economic survival for Michigan,” the president said, arguing that the state’s economy was strong before the coronavirus pandemic hit. “Look what I’ve done.” Trump also cheered Senate candidate John James — who may ultimately have a better chance of winning the state than the president — while attacking Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for moving aggressively to shut down much of the state’s economy to slow the virus’ spread. He even seemed to cast doubt on federal authorities breaking up what they said was a plot to kidnap her, which Whitmer has argued Trump’s “violent rhetoric” helped spark. “It was our people that helped her out with her problem. And we’ll have to see if it’s a problem. Right?” Trump said. “People are entitled to say ‘maybe it was a problem. Maybe it wasn’t.’” Biden, even as he predicted the country could rise above politics, went after his election rival, accusing Trump anew of bungling the federal response to the pandemic that has seen new cases surging in many areas, and failing to manage the economic fallout or combat institutional racism and police brutality that have sparked widespread demonstrations. “The tragic truth of our time is that COVID has left a deep and lasting wound in this country,” Biden said, scoffing at Trump’s pronouncements that the nation is turning a corner on the virus. He charged that the president has “shrugged. He’s swaggered. And he’s surrendered.” Venturing into Georgia was a sign of confidence by the Biden team, which is trying to stretch the electoral map and open up more paths to the needed 270 Electoral College votes. The former vice president plans to travel to Iowa, which Trump took by 10 points in 2016, later in the week. And his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, is hitting Arizona and deep red Texas. Besides Lansing, Trump traveled to West Salem, Wisconsin. First lady Melania Trump was on the road, too, making her first solo campaign trip of the year in Pennsylvania. And Vice President Mike Pence was in South Carolina, maintaining his campaign schedule despite several close aides testing positive for the coronavirus last weekend. There, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is in a potentially tight reelection race. Hillary Clinton flirted with GOP territory in 2016, only to lose traditional Democratic Midwestern strongholds. But a top Biden adviser rejected the notion that the campaign is spreading itself too thin, noting that the former vice president’s visit follows weeks of paid advertising in Georgia and visits by Harris and the candidate’s wife, Jill Biden. In the coming days, Biden will also visit Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida, where former President Barack Obama gave a speech in Orlando on Tuesday, blistering Trump with the theory that he was only worrying about the virus because it was dominating news coverage. “He’s jealous of COVID’s media coverage,” Obama said. “If he had been focused on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs across the country this week.” Trump expressed his displeasure that Fox News carried his Democratic predecessor’s speech live, complaining to reporters about it and tweeting the network was “playing Obama’s no crowd, fake speech for Biden.” In Atglen, Pennsylvania, Melania Trump said she was feeling “so much better now,” just weeks after being diagnosed with the virus. She slammed Biden’s “socialist agenda,” praised her husband as “a fighter” and commented on his use of social media. “I don’t always agree the way he says things,” she said, drawing laughter from the crowd, “but it is important to him that he speaks directly to the people he serves.” The Trumps left for their campaign trips at the same time, and the president gave the first lady a quick peck on the cheek before they boarded separate planes. The president also visited Omaha, Nebraska, after a Sunday stop in Maine. That anticipates a razor-thin Electoral College margin since both areas offer one electoral vote by congressional district. “We have to win both Nebraskas,” Trump told the big crowd that gathered at the city’s Eppley Airfield, presumably referring to Omaha and the state’s more rural districts. While Biden rarely travels to more than one state per day, the Republican president has maintained a whirlwind schedule, focusing on his argument that he built a booming economy before the coronavirus pandemic upended it. Trump is planning a dizzying 11 rallies in the final 48 hours before polls close. His latest swing is also something of a victory lap after the Senate on Monday approved the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to give conservatives a commanding 6-3 advantage on the Supreme Court. Trump has sought to use the vacancy created by the
Amy Coney Barrett confirmed as Supreme Court justice
Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to the Supreme Court late Monday by a deeply divided Senate, Republicans overpowering Democrats to install President Donald Trump’s nominee days before the election and secure a likely conservative court majority for years to come. Trump’s choice to fill the vacancy of the late liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg potentially opens a new era of rulings on abortion, the Affordable Care Act and even his own election. Democrats were unable to stop the outcome, Trump’s third justice on the court, as Republicans race to reshape the judiciary. Barrett is 48, and her lifetime appointment as the 115th justice will solidify the court’s rightward tilt. Monday’s vote was the closest high court confirmation ever to a presidential election, and the first in modern times with no support from the minority party. The spiking COVID-19 crisis has hung over the proceedings. Vice President Mike Pence’s office said Monday he would not preside at the Senate session unless his tie-breaking vote was needed after Democrats asked him to stay away when his aides tested positive for COVID-19. The vote was 52-48, and Pence’s vote was not necessary. With Barrett’s confirmation assured, Trump was expected to celebrate with a primetime swearing-in event at the White House. Justice Clarence Thomas was set to administer the Constitutional Oath, a senior White House official said. “Voting to confirm this nominee should make every single senator proud,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, fending off “outlandish” criticism in a lengthy speech. During a rare weekend session he declared that Barrett’s opponents “won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.” Pence’s presence presiding for the vote would have been expected, showcasing the Republican priority. But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his leadership team said it would not only violate virus guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “it would also be a violation of common decency and courtesy.” Some GOP senators tested positive for the coronavirus following a Rose Garden event with Trump to announce Barrett’s nomination last month, but they have since said they have been cleared by their doctors from quarantine. Pence was not infected and his office said the vice president tested negative for the virus Monday. Underscoring the political divide during the pandemic, the Republican senators, most wearing masks, sat in their seats, as is tradition for landmark votes, and applauded the outcome. Democratic senators were not present, heeding Schumer’s advice not to linger in the chamber. Democrats argued for weeks that the vote was being improperly rushed and insisted during an all-night Sunday session it should be up to the winner of the Nov. 3 election to name the nominee. However, Barrett, a federal appeals court judge from Indiana, is expected to be seated swiftly, and begin hearing cases. Speaking near midnight Sunday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called the vote “illegitimate” and “the last gasp of a desperate party.” Several matters are awaiting decision just a week before Election Day, and Barrett could be a decisive vote in Republican appeals of orders extending the deadlines for absentee ballots in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The justices also are weighing Trump’s emergency plea for the court to prevent the Manhattan District Attorney from acquiring his tax returns. And on Nov. 10, the court is expected to hear the Trump-backed challenge to the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. Just before the Senate vote began, the court sided with Republicans in refusing to extend the deadline for absentee ballots in Wisconsin. Trump has said he wanted to swiftly install a ninth justice to resolve election disputes and is hopeful the justices will end the health law known as “Obamacare.” During several days of public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barrett was careful not to disclose how she would rule on any such cases. She presented herself as a neutral arbiter and suggested, “It’s not the law of Amy.” But her writings against abortion and a ruling on “Obamacare” show a deeply conservative thinker. Full Coverage: U.S. Supreme Court Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, praised the mother of seven as a role model for conservative women. “This is historic,” Graham said. Republicans focused on her Catholic faith, criticizing earlier Democratic questions about her beliefs. Graham called Barrett “unabashedly pro-life.” At the start of Trump’s presidency, McConnell engineered a Senate rules change to allow confirmation by a majority of the 100 senators, rather than the 60-vote threshold traditionally needed to advance high court nominees over objections. That was an escalation of a rules change Democrats put in place to advance other court and administrative nominees under President Barack Obama. Republicans are taking a political plunge by pushing for confirmation days from the Nov. 3 election with the presidency and their Senate majority at stake. Only one Republican — Sen. Susan Collins, who is in a tight reelection fight in Maine — voted against the nominee, not over any direct assessment of Barrett. Rather, Collins said, “I do not think it is fair nor consistent to have a Senate confirmation vote prior to the election.” Trump and his Republican allies had hoped for a campaign boost, in much the way Trump generated excitement among conservatives and evangelical Christians in 2016 over a court vacancy. That year, McConnell refused to allow the Senate to consider then-President Barack Obama’s choice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, arguing the new president should decide. Most other Republicans facing tough races embraced the nominee who clerked for the late Scalia to bolster their standing with conservatives. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said in a speech Monday that Barrett will “go down in history as one of the great justices.” But it’s not clear the extraordinary effort to install the new justice over such opposition in a heated election year will pay political rewards to the GOP. Demonstrations for and against the nominee have been more muted at the Capitol under coronavirus restrictions. Democrats were unified against Barrett. While two Democratic senators voted to confirm
U.S. to get 9th justice with Dems powerless to block Amy Coney Barrett
A divided Senate is set to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, giving the country a ninth justice Monday as Republicans overpower Democratic opposition to secure President Donald Trump’s nominee the week before Election Day. Democratic leaders asked Vice President Mike Pence to stay away from presiding over her Senate confirmation due to potential health risks after his aides tested positive for COVID-19. But although Pence isn’t needed to break a tie, the vote would present a dramatic opportunity for him to preside over confirmation of Trump’s third Supreme Court justice. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his leadership team wrote that not only would Pence’s presence violate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, “it would also be a violation of common decency and courtesy.” But Senate Republicans control the chamber and Barrett’s confirmation isn’t in doubt. The 48-year-old Barrett would secure a conservative court majority for the foreseeable future, potentially opening a new era of rulings on abortion, gay marriage, and the Affordable Care Act. A case against the Obama-era health law is scheduled to be heard Nov. 10. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scoffed at the “apocalyptic” warnings from critics that the judicial branch was becoming mired in partisan politics as he defended its transformation under his watch. “This is something to be really proud of and feel good about,” the Republican leader said Sunday during a rare weekend session. McConnell said that unlike legislative actions that can be undone by new presidents or lawmakers, “they won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.” Schumer, of New York, said the Trump administration’s drive to install Barrett during the coronavirus crisis shows “the Republican Party is willing to ignore the pandemic in order to rush this nominee forward.” To underscore the potential health risks, Schumer urged his colleagues Sunday not to linger in the chamber but “cast your votes quickly and from a safe distance.” Some GOP senators tested positive for the coronavirus following a Rose Garden event with Trump to announce Barrett’s nomination, but they have since said they have been cleared by their doctors from quarantine. Pence’s office said the vice president tested negative for the virus on Monday. The confirmation was expected to be the first of a Supreme Court nominee so close to a presidential election. It’s also one of the first high court nominees in recent memory receiving no support from the minority party, a pivot from not long ago when a president’s picks often won wide support. Barrett presented herself in public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a neutral arbiter and suggested, “It’s not the law of Amy.” But her writings against abortion and a ruling on “Obamacare” show a deeply conservative thinker. She was expected to be seated quickly on the high court. “She’s a conservative woman who embraces her faith. She’s unabashedly pro-life, but she’s not going to apply ‘the law of Amy’ to all of us,” the Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Fox News Channel. At the start of Trump’s presidency, McConnell engineered a Senate rules change to allow confirmation by a majority of the 100 senators, rather than the 60-vote threshold traditionally needed to advance high court nominees over objections. It was an escalation of a rules change Democrats put in place to advance other court and administrative nominees under President Barack Obama. On Sunday, the Senate voted 51-48 to begin to bring the process to a vote as senators, mostly Democrats, pulled an all-night session for the final 30 hours of often heated debate. Two Republicans, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, voted against advancing the nominee, and all Democrats who voted were opposed. California Sen. Kamala Harris, the vice presidential nominee, missed the vote while campaigning in Michigan. Monday’s final tally was expected to grow by one after Murkowski announced her support for the nominee, even as she decried filling the seat in the midst of a heated race for the White House. Murkowski said Saturday she would vote against the procedural steps but ultimately join GOP colleagues in confirming Barrett. “While I oppose the process that has led us to this point, I do not hold it against her,” Murkowski said. Collins, who faces a tight reelection fight in Maine, remains the only Republican expected to vote against Trump’s nominee. “My vote does not reflect any conclusion that I have reached about Judge Barrett’s qualifications to serve,” Collins said. “I do not think it is fair nor consistent to have a Senate confirmation vote prior to the election.” By pushing for Barrett’s ascension so close to the Nov. 3 election, Trump and his Republican allies are counting on a campaign boost, in much the way they believe McConnell’s refusal to allow the Senate to consider Barack Obama’s nominee in February 2016 created excitement for Trump among conservatives and evangelical Christians eager for a Republican president to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Barrett was a professor at Notre Dame Law School when she was tapped by Trump in 2017 for an appeals court opening. Two Democrats joined at that time to confirm her, but none is expected to vote for her now. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump, Joe Biden debate marked by clashes, but less chaos
After the first presidential debate was panned so widely that organizers introduced a mute button, Thursday’s second and final debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden was far more civil. Whether because of that button or the terrible reviews — especially for Trump — the two interrupted each other far less frequently, even as they clashed on issues ranging from the coronavirus to crime. Trump, in particular, was on his best behavior early, especially with the moderator, whom he’d repeatedly attacked before the debate. “So far, I respect very much the way you’re handling this,” Trump said to NBC’s Kristen Welker when she gave him time to respond to Biden at one point. Because of the pandemic, only around 200 people were seated inside the debate hall in the massive college arena in Nashville. That included a representative of the Commission on Presidential Debates, who was tasked with ensuring each candidate had a two full minutes of uninterrupted time to deliver opening answers on six major topics, according to debate commission chair Frank Fahrenkopf. And it seemed to be working, at least during the debate’s opening questions. While Trump and Biden each shook his head disapprovingly during the other’s answer about the pandemic, there was minimal interruption. And neither man tried to speak while he was muted during the opening questions. A member of each of the Trump and Biden campaigns monitored the person who controlled the mute button backstage, Fahrenkopf told The Associated Press, noting that the button would not be used beyond the first four minutes of each topic. The button was among a handful of changes implemented by the nonpartisan debate commission to help ensure a more orderly debate following the raucous and widely criticized opening debate 23 days ago. Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19 two days after the event, and he and the White House have refused to say whether he abided by commission rules and tested negative for the virus before that debate. This time, Trump was given a test aboard Air Force One en route to Nashville Thursday and tested negative, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said. Biden’s campaign reported he also tested negative. Organizers initially planned to separate the candidates with plexiglass barriers, but removed them hours before the debate began. A Trump campaign official said the decision was made after Meadows called Anthony Fauci, the nation’s highly respected top infectious diseases expert, during a walkthrough of the venue site. Meadows them put Fauci on speakerphone, and Fauci told those in the room that all it would do was provide a false sense of security, the person said. Additionally, any audience member who refused to wear a mask would be removed, organizers said. Last month, several members of the Trump family removed their masks once seated in the debate hall, but were allowed to stay. This time, Melania Trump, who was appearing in public for the first time since her own diagnosis with the virus, was seen in her seat wearing a mask. Before the debate began, Fahrenkopf repeated the instruction to the small audience. “If you won’t leave, you’ll be escorted,” he said. Fahrenkopf said in an earlier interview that the safety measures would help reduce the risk of infection. “The Trump campaign’s attitude was that the president was not contagious anymore, but we’re going to go with our medical advisers,” he said. Indeed, the president of the university called it “the safest place in America tonight.” The primetime affair played out inside a 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) arena at Belmont University, a picturesque institution of more than 8,200 students just a mile from Nashville’s music row. The university also hosted a town hall-style debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain in 2008. There was a far smaller audience this time around. Only around 200 people were allowed inside, a mix of invited guests of the campaigns and the debate commission, students, the commission’s production team, security, and health and safety personnel. Audience members were seated in accordance with social distancing recommendations; several empty seats separated each person or small group. All audience members and support staff were required to undergo coronavirus testing onsite within three days of the event. They wore colored wristbands as evidence of their negative tests. There were several layers of security protecting the attendees, and dozens of protesters gathered just off campus beyond the security perimeter. One of them held a large white sign: “220,000 DEAD … Trump FAILED US.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
In debate countdown, Donald Trump holds rally, Joe Biden does prep
President Donald Trump pushed into arguably the most important state on the electoral map on Tuesday, opting for a rally in Pennsylvania instead of formal debate practice two days ahead of the final presidential debate that may be his last, best chance to alter the trajectory of the 2020 campaign. Democrat Joe Biden took the opposite approach, holing up for debate prep in the leadup to Thursday’s faceoff in Nashville. But Trump, trailing in polls in most battleground states, continued his travel blitz in the race’s final fortnight, and delivered what his campaign has wanted to be his closing message. “This is an election between a Trump super recovery and a Biden depression. You will have a depression the likes of which you have never seen,” the president said in Erie. “If you want depression, doom and despair, vote for Sleepy Joe. And boredom.” But the president’s pitch that he should lead the rebuilding of an economy ravaged by the pandemic has been overshadowed by a series of fights. In the last two days he has attacked the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and a venerable TV newsmagazine while suggesting that the nation was tired of talking about a virus that has killed more than 220,000 Americans. Before leaving the White House, Trump taped part of an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that apparently ended acrimoniously. On Twitter, the president declared his interview with Lesley Stahl to be “FAKE and BIASED,” and he threatened to release a White House edit of it before its Sunday airtime. Also trailing in fundraising for campaign ads, Trump is increasingly relying on his signature campaign rallies to deliver a closing message to voters and maximize turnout among his GOP base. His trip Tuesday to Pennsylvania was one of what is expected to be several to the state in the next two weeks. “If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole thing,” Trump said in Erie. Erie County, which includes the aging industrial city in the state’s northwest corner, went for President Barack Obama by 5 percentage points in 2012 but broke for Trump by 2 in 2016. That swing, fueled by Trump’s success with white, working-class, non-college-educated voters, was replicated in small cities and towns and rural areas and helped him overcome Hillary Clinton’s victories in the state’s big cities. But Trump will likely need to run up the score by more this time around as his prospects have slipped since 2016 in vote-rich suburban Philadelphia, where he underperformed by past Republican measures. This raises the stakes for his campaign’s more aggressive outreach to new rural and small-town voters across the industrial north. His aides worry that his opponent is uniquely situated to prevent that, as Biden not only hails from Scranton, but has built his political persona as a representative of the middle and working classes. Trump, who spoke for less than an hour, showed the crowd a video of various Biden comments on fracking in a bid to portray Biden as opposed to the process. The issue is critical in a state that is the second leading producer of natural gas in the country. Biden’s actual position is that he would ban new gas and oil permits, including for fracking, on federal lands only. The vast majority of oil and gas does not come from federal lands. Three weeks of wrangling over the debate format and structure appeared to have subsided Tuesday after the Commission on Presidential Debates unveiled a rules change meant to reduce the chaotic interruptions that plagued the first Trump-Biden encounter last month. This time, Trump and Biden will each have his microphone cut off while his rival delivers an opening two-minute answer to each of the six debate topics, the commission announced. The mute button won’t figure in the open discussion portion of the debate. Trump was to have been joined in Erie by first lady Melania Trump, in what was to be her first public appearance since she and the president were sickened with COVID-19. But her chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, said Tuesday that Mrs. Trump has a lingering cough and would not accompany the president. As Trump was on the road, Biden was huddling at his lakeside home in Wilmington, Delaware, with senior adviser Ron Klain, who is in charge of debate preparation. Also on hand: a group of aides that the campaign has purposely kept small to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus. Biden, who taped his own interview with “60 Minutes” on Monday at a theater near his home, had no public events Tuesday or Wednesday and wasn’t scheduled to travel — except to the debate itself — on Thursday. His running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, was out campaigning, and he was expected to receive a late boost from former President Barack Obama, who was to host an event Wednesday in Philadelphia. Biden is now tested about every two days for the coronavirus and has never been found to be positive. He suggested before last week’s planned second debate in Miami that the proceedings shouldn’t happen if Trump was still testing positive for COVID-19 after contracting the virus earlier in the month. The candidates instead held dueling town halls on separate networks after the commission said the debate should occur virtually, citing safety concerns, and Trump rejected the idea. Biden has been tightlipped about his preparation for the Nashville debate, saying only that he has focused on watching Trump’s past statements on key issues. Biden’s advisers see the final debate as a chance to discuss foreign policy, which they see as one of their candidate’s strengths. Biden has praised the Trump administration for helping to broker deals that the Gulf states of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates signed recognizing Israel, but otherwise has accused the president of shunning allies and making foreign relations more volatile at most points around the globe. The debate comes as Trump is again defending his handling of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more
