USA elections 2020: Trump - Biden | Summary of 30 October
US elections latest: headlines
- Two candidates campaigning in the vital swing states of Wisconsin and Minnesota on Friday
- Final day of early voting in eight states
- Texas has already received more votes this year than the state's entire turnout for 2016
Related articles that may be of interest:
Black voters in Georgia break records at polls
As Georgia wrapped up weeks of early voting on Friday for the Nov. 3 election, Black voter turnout had far surpassed the level seen at the same time in 2016.
Some 1 million Black voters have already cast ballots this year, up from 712,000 this time four years ago, according to TargetSmart, a Democratic analytics firm.
It is part of a rush to the polls in Georgia. More than 3.8 million Georgians had already cast ballots as of 5 p.m. on Friday, compared to 4.1 million overall in the last presidential election.
Ex-NFL player tweets Trump support, expected to appear with president at Green Bay rally
Brett Favre became the latest ex-athlete to declare his support for President Donald Trump, tweeting that the Republican nominee will have his vote on Friday.
The former NFL quarterback and three-time MVP voiced his backing days after ex-golfer Jack Nicklaus shared a lengthy endorsement.
Trump goes in the trash ahead of election at Madame Tussauds, Berlin
The waxwork museum Madame Tussauds in Berlin loaded its effigy of TV star-turned Republican president Donald Trump into a dumpster on Friday, a move apparently intended to reflect its expectations of next Tuesday’s presidential election.
In what seemed a further calculated insult, the statue of his predecessor and nemesis Barack Obama, who counted Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel among his closest allies, remained in place, beaming and besuited.
“Today’s activity is rather of a symbolic character ahead of the elections in the United States,” said the museum’s marketing manager Orkide Yalcindag. “We here at Madame Tussauds Berlin removed Donald Trump’s waxwork as a preparatory measure.”
Trump has trailed his Democratic challenger Joe Biden in national opinion polls for months, partly because of widespread disapproval of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping Europe and the United States, though recent polls have shown him gaining ground in a handful of key states.
Why can't Alexandria Ocasio Cortez run as Democratic candidate?
Why can't Alexandria Ocasio Cortez run as Democratic candidate?
Despite the vitriol directed at her from many on the right, the congresswoman known as AOC would receive significant support if she could run.
So why did she not join the running for the Democratic presidential nomination?
Here's why:
Trump's handling of covid-19 crisis "utterly disqualifying" - Biden
Joe Biden has released a statement after the US passed nine million coronavirus cases on Friday, describing Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic as "as severe an indictment of a president’s record as one can possibly imagine" and "utterly disqualifying".
"More than 9 million cases of COVID-19 have been now confirmed in the United States - 20 percent of the world’s reported caseload - and the virus is surging in nearly every state," Biden said.
"More than 228,000 Americans have lost their lives. It is as severe an indictment of a president’s record as one can possibly imagine, and it is utterly disqualifying.
"Anyone who is responsible for plunging and ensnaring America in this crisis - anyone who could do so without an ounce of shame or a shred of empathy - should not be president."
Stevie Wonder to join Biden, Obama in Michigan on Saturday
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign has announced that legendary musician Stevie Wonder will be joining Biden and Barack Obama in Michigan this weekend.
Biden, who was vice-president to former President Obama between 2009 and 2017, are to campaign together at drive-in rallies in Flint and Detroit on Saturday, with Wonder to appear with the pair at the latter event.
"There is no defeating it while denying it"
Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg says Donald Trump Jr’s claims that coronavirus deaths in the US are down to "almost nothing" illustrate why Americans should not leave President Trump in charge of the country’s fight against the pandemic by voting him in for a second term.
“There is no defeating it while denying it,” Buttigieg, who was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, told CNN on Friday. “Why should we trust them to deal with this issue if they even now don’t admit how serious it is?”
Speaking to Fox News on Thursday, Trump Jr said: "The reality is this: If you look, I put it up on my Instagram a couple days ago, because I went through the CDC data, because I kept hearing about new infections. But I was like, ‘Well, why aren’t they talking about deaths?’ Oh, oh, because the number is almost nothing."
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the US registered 971 new coronavirus deaths on Thursday.
There have been just over 229,500 coronavirus-related fatalities in the country during the pandemic so far. The CDC’s latest ensemble forecast has predicted that up to 256,000 will have died by 21 November.
What's Biden's plan for Medicare?
What's Biden's plan for Medicare?
What are the details of Democratic challenger for the presidency Joe Biden's ambitious plan to expand Medicare and reduce costs to patients?
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USA coronavirus live online updates: cases, deaths, stimulus checks and latest news
Coronavirus: live US updates
A reminder that you can also follow live, US-focused updates on the coronavirus pandemic right here:
"Covid, covid, covid!"
As mentioned below, President Donald Trump's rallies have seen him claim that the media is trying to hurt his election campaign by, he alleges, allowing the coronavirus crisis to dominate the headlines.
Here is the Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell's take on Trump's "covid, covid, covid" complaints:
Trump in Wisconsin for second rally of day
Many are maskless in Green Bay, Wisconsin, at Donald Trump’s second packed rally of the day, CNN reports - despite Governor Tony Evers sounding the alarm over a surge in infections that has seen the state register more covid-19 cases per capita over the past week than all but two others in the US.
Trump repeats disproved claim over rise in cases
Campaigning in Waterford Township, Michigan, President Donald Trump has repeated his oft-made - and disproved - claim that the US’ rising coronavirus case numbers are a reflection of increased testing.
Trump also once again grumbled about the dominance of the pandemic in the news cycle - a complaint which led former President Barack Obama to criticize his successor for being “jealous” of covid-19 earlier this week.
"You know, everything is covid covid covid,” Trump said. “You know that. You turn on the news, covid covid covid covid covid. And you know, cases are up. Why are cases up? Because we test more than anyone in history."
Biden: "We cannot afford four more years of Donald Trump"
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks during a drive-in campaign rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday.
The rally saw Biden lay into President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, declaring: "Trump has given up".
"Folks, we cannot afford four more years of Donald Trump," Biden added, per The Guardian.
Biden is campaigning in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota on Friday.
(Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP)
How many votes did Trump get in Florida in the 2016 presidential election?
How Trump won Florida by less than a single point
As the 2020 presidential election race reaches a crescendo both candidates are focusing a lot of their attention on Florida, one of the all-important swing states. President Donald Trump picked up the 29 Electoral College votes in 2016, narrowly beating Hillary Clinton in a state that she had been projected to win comfortably.
Can Trump repeat what he did four years ago and keep the Sunshine State Republican, or will his slender victory be overturned?
Full story:
Biden heads to Iowa as he looks to take back Rust Belt states
The Democratic candidate speaks to reporters shortly before flying to the first leg of his whistle-stop Friday tour of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. In 2016 Trump performed extremely well in these northern industrial states and Biden needs to turn at least a few of the (formerly) Blue Wall back in his favour if he is to win the presidency on 3 November.
Not sure which states make up the all-important Rust Belt? Check out our handy guide.
Trump calls for vote counting to finish on Election Day
The President took to Twitter tocriticise a Supreme Court decision to allow votes postmarked before Election Day to be counted up to 12 November. With vulnerable people still advised to isolate where possible and huge queues already seen at voting stations up and down the country, experts are expecting an influx of mail-in ballots.
The fear is that the US Postal Service will not be able to deliver the ballots to a counting centre as quickly as usual, so the extension will prevent any votes being missed. Trump's tweet reads as the latest in his ongoing battle against postal voting that he has erroneously linked to election fraud.
Earlier this year the USPS requested extra funding to help deal with the increase in mail-in ballots but Trump refused. When speaking to Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo in August, the President admitted that he knew this move would hamper them on Election Day.
“They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said, back in August. “If they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.”
Today is the last day of early voting in a number of states
Writer Ari Berman, author of 'Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America', is only too aware of the barriers to voting and warns Americans not to miss their chance to have their say in such a polarising election.
Voters in Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Minneapolis, Maine, Nevada, Texas and Utah have until the end of today, 30 October, to get their votes in or wait until Election Day. The latest data from Elect Project's early voting counter shows that 84,541,764 Americans have already cast their votes. Nationally, this represents 61.3% of the total turnout for the 2016 presidential election.
Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College, believes that the huge number of pre-Election Day votes is a consequence of a renewed enthusiasm amongst voters: “We’re seeing a very energized, interested electorate, and we’re seeing a public, I think, that is responding to a message that you need to cast that ballot early this year."
Texas breaks all-time turnout record
With four days to go the 'Lone Star State' has already seen more votes cast in this year's race than in any previous presidential election. There is still another full day of early in the state as well as a late surge expected on Election Day.
Texas is the second-most valuable state with a mammoth 38 Electoral College votes on offer to the victor. It is historically deeply Republican territory and has not voted for a Democratic candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976. However the influx of new voters is reportedly likely to benefit the Democrats with some close to the Biden campaign holding out hope of flipping the state.
Initially Team Biden appeared to have written Texas off but favourable polling figures have given them hope of 'expanding the map' i.e. taking a previously unlikely state. Biden's running mate Kamala Harris has been in Houston in recent days, the first Democrat vice presidential candidate to visit Texas in the build-up to the election since 1988.
NYT reports that Trump campaign has cancelled election night party
Advisors close to Team Trump have told the New York Times that the President will no longer be hosting an Election Night event at his Washington Trump International Hotel, choosing instead to be at the White House that evening. As recently as last week the campaign had sent out emails to supporters offering the chance to "join Team Trump at the Election Night Party in my favorite hotel."
Although no firm details had been confirmed some had questioned how the President intended to maintain social distancing in a hotel party. This may be the first sign that the Trump Campaign is finally weaning itself off such large-scale events but with rallies continuing in Minnesota and Wisconsin today that seems unlikely. Maybe, with the result looking unlikely to be confirmed on Election Night, the President just wants to get a good night's kip after after a frantic campaigning schedule.
What are Donald Trump's plans for a second term?
The President rarely goes into specifics when discussing policy but in the midst of a national crisis Trump has been forced to lay out his plans for the future.
The number of daily covid-19 cases is on the rise again with over nine million Americans having now caught coronavirus and the President is under pressure to prove that he is the man to get it under control.
As a consequence the American economy is battling through one of the most volatile years in history and the economic gains made in his first three years have been completely wiped out. The Republican Party's ethos of self-reliance and small government is coming under strain as Trump looks to restart the economy without breaking the bank.
Trump and Biden converge on battleground state of Wisconsin
After going head-to-head in Florida yesterday, both candidates will visit Wisconsin today as they look to secure a slice of the all-important Rust Belt. Trump flipped the state in 2016, beating Hillary Clinton by just a single percentage point to pick up the 10 Electoral College votes. The Clinton campaign was so confident of retaining the 'Badger State' that she did not visit once in the build-up to the election. Biden is not making that mistake.
After a narrow victory four years ago things are looking precarious for the President with a recent Marquette poll putting Biden 5 points ahead with just four days to go. A polling average done by Real Clear Politics from 10 October to 26 October had the challenger 6.7 percentage points ahead on average.
Trump's 2016 win was the Republicans' first victory in Wisconsin since 1984 and he has work to do if he is to perform a miraculous double on 3 November.
Trump could be "a dead man walking"
"Opinion polls suggest that Trump could be a dead man walking, hurtling towards a psychologically crushing defeat like one-term president Jimmy Carter against Ronald Reagan in 1980," writes the Guardian's David Smitt
"Yet on the trail he continues to project the image of a happy warrior cruising to re-election, regaling big crowds with selective poll numbers, bogus conspiracy theories and his own brand of humor. And his base remains loyal to the end with cheers, merriment and chants of 'Four more years!', 'Lock him up!' and 'Build that wall!'"
"If Trump does lose next week – and the polls have been wrong before so that remains a big “if” – he will go down with all guns blazing."
USA Election 2020: how could mail voting affect the result?
USA Election 2020: how could mail voting affect the result?
It’s predicted that more than double the mail-in votes will be cast this year, compared to a normal presidential election. How could this affect the result? Read our report by Emily France..
Joe Biden says he won't use threat of cutting U.S. troop levels in ties with South Korea
Democratic US presidential challenger Joe Biden said that if elected he will strengthen Washington's alliance with Seoul and not use the threat of reducing US troop levels in South Korea as a bargaining chip.
During the Trump administration, South Korea and the United States have been at odds over how much of the cost South Korea should shoulder to accommodate US Forces Korea (USFK), a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. (Reuters)
Biden's plan to combat covid-19
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has shared his latest communiqué on his plan to combat coronavirus.
"You have my word: if I have the honor of serving as your president, I will do everything in my power to defeat COVID-19," tweeted Biden, who laid out a seven-point plan:
- Fix Donald Trump’s Testing-and-Tracing Fiasco
- Support Our Health Care Workers
- Lead with Science
- Ensure COVID-19 Treatments and Vaccines are Widely Accessible and Safe
- Protect Older Americans and Others at High Risk
- Rebuild Our Defenses
- Lead by Example
Taxes: what to expect with Biden and Trump
Biden has called for tax hikes on wealthy households with income exceeding $400,000, Trump has proposed “cutting taxes to boost take-home pay.”
"In order for an overhaul of the tax code to happen, Democrats will need to win both houses of Congress and the White House," says CNBC in this detailed report at what voters should know about both candidate's tax policies...
Trumps refocuses campaign on economy
With many Americans already believing that Donald Trump has given up on the battle against coronavirus, the president himself has decided to refocus his campaing on the economy with just days to go until the 3 November ballot, as the FT reports.
Live US elections updates: welcome
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the run-up to the 2020 presidential and congressional elections in the United States.
There are now just a few days to go until Election Day on 3 November, which will see President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden go head to head for the White House - although a record total of more than 70 million Americans have already voted.