Harris Speech Will ‘prosecute The Case Against Trump’ Aide Says
Kristen Welker
Just hours before Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech tonight, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Kamala Harris, is expected to unleash her harshest criticism yet of the president and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
She will prosecute the case against Trump, one Harris aide told NBC News.
Harris will speak at 3 p.m. in Washington on President Trump’s failures to contain COVID-19 and protect working families from the economic fallout and the Biden-Harris plan to contain COVID-19 and build a different path forward in America, according to a press release.
Harris has done some virtual campaign events but this will be her first public appearance since the Democratic convention. The campaign is framing this as a response to the RNC and a prebuttal of the president. She isnt taking questions afterward and neither she nor Biden have traveled anywhere since she was named his running mate in contrast to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, who have crisscrossed the country over the same period.
The Democrats had previewed a robust counterprogramming effort this week, and while some top surrogates have held phone calls and briefings with reporters, so far their efforts have failed to break through, particularly against the backdrop of another Black man being shot and killed by police, this time in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Hurricane Laura. Harris will address Kenosha with emphasis, an aide said.
The Claim: President Donald Trump Promised To ‘terminate’ Social Security If He Is Reelected
Recent posts from Social Security Works a nonprofit focused on expanding Social Security, improving Medicare and lowering the cost of prescription drugs claim that President Donald Trump will end Social Security if he is reelected.
“Donald Trump says he will ‘terminate’ Social Security if reelected,” a post on Monday reads. “A vote for Trump is a vote to destroy our social security system.”
“Millions of seniors and people with disabilities struggle to make ends meet,” another post from the same day reads. “Yet Donald Trump says he will ‘terminate’ Social Security if reelected. That’s a disastrous plan.”
The posts come after Trump signed a series of executive orders on Aug. 8 intended to provide relief from the detrimental economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
More:Trump again threatens executive orders to extend benefits after stimulus talks fall apart
Trump Mocks Some Undocumented Immigrants As Having Low Iqs
Dartunorro Clark
During the segment on immigration policy, Trump said the only undocumented immigrants who show up for court hearings are those with the lowest IQ.
He was referring to the practice of catch and release, which allows migrants to stay in the country while they wait for hearings on their immigration cases.
The comment drew immediate backlash on Twitter. Trump has questioned the IQs of others in the past, many of whom were people of color.
Adam Edelman and Ben Kamisar
Trump said Thursday, “We have 180 million people out there that have great private health care far more than what were talking about with Obamacare.”
“Joe Biden is going to terminate all of those policies,” he added.
“Under what he wants to do, which will basically be socialized medicine, he wont even have a choice, they want to terminate 180 million plans,” Trump added.
Trump has made this claim repeatedly, and NBC News has fact checked it repeatedly. This claim is false. It conflates Biden’s plan with those of other Democrats pushing “Medicare for All.”
While estimates vary about how many Americans have private insurance, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that 180 million people have private insurance.
Many Republicans have sought to tie the proposals for “Medicare for All” to all Democrats and it is true that many Democratic members of Congress are sponsoring the bill . But Biden has criticized “Medicare for All” throughout his campaign.
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Trump Speech Missing Several Of His Favorite Talking Points
Shannon Pettypiece
While President Trump launched attack after attack on Joe Biden, he left out a number of his favorite topics of criticism in his acceptance speech.
He made no mention of mail-in voting, which he has alleged, without evidence, will lead to widespread voter fraud and could prevent the country from ever knowing the result of the election. There is no evidence that mail-in voting is at risk for fraud.
Trump also avoided bringing up Bidens son Hunter, a line of attack his campaign believed at one point would be central to their takedown of Biden. He also made no mention of Bidens running mate Kamala Harris, who his campaign has struggled to find an effective way to criticize.
With protests raging outside the White House gates and in Wisconsin over racial injustice, Trump made only a passing mention of race and there was no mention of racism.
Harris Criticizes Massive White House Crowd
We are focusing on the science, the facts, and the data. Trump
President Trump ridiculed Joe Biden for spending his entire career opening borders. But the Obama-Biden administration is often criticized by its own allies for record deportations of immigrants.
During their administration, immigration from Mexico was virtually zero as more Mexicans and their children left the U.S. than migrated to the country.
There were spikes in migrations of unaccompanied children and families under President Obama and Biden, but apprehensions of people at the border a measure of migration levels used by the government rose in fiscal 2019 to its highest annual level in 12 years, according to the Pew Research Center.
Jane C. Timm and
In recent months, our nation, and the entire planet, has been struck by a new and powerful invisible enemy. Like those brave Americans before us, we are meeting this challenge. We are delivering lifesaving therapies, and will produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner! Trump claimed on Thursday night.
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New Polls Show Tightening Races For Control Of The Senate
Reuters
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kellys lead over Arizona Republican incumbent Martha McSally appeared to narrow in a race that could determine control of the Senate, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows.
Here are the latest results for three Senate races on which Reuters/Ipsos is polling:
- Arizona: Kelly leads McSally, 51 percent to 44 percent in a poll conducted from Oct. 14-21, but Kelly held a 11-point lead in a previous poll.
- North Carolina: Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham and incumbent Thom Tillis were tied at 47 percent in a poll conducted from Oct. 14-20. A poll conducted the week before showed Cunningham leading Tillis by four points.
- Michigan: Democratic incumbent Gary Peters held a 5-point lead over GOP challenger John James, 50 percent to 45 percent, in a poll conducted from Oct. 14-20. Peters led James by eight points in a poll conducted the week before.
The poll was conducted online and in English. The Arizona survey included 658 likely voters and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points. The earlier Michigan poll surveyed 686 likely voters and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points. North Carolinas surveyed 660 likely voters and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points.
Biden Ready To Fight Back If Trump Goes After His Family Campaign Says
Ahead of tonights debate, the Biden campaign is telegraphing that if President Trump goes after Joe Bidens family, it plans on attacking him for spreading and amplifying Russian disinformation.
In a pre-debate press call with reporters, the campaign’s deputy manager, Kate Bedingfield, said that the campaign expected Trump to continue to bully and attack Hunter Biden and his foreign dealings during tonights debate. She said that Biden is prepared for those attacks as well, hoping to flip the attention to the fact that Trump is more obsessed with Bidens family than America’s families amid a pandemic.
Here’s the thing, these attacks are backfiring on Trump. You know, despite leveling them in the first debate, poll after poll showed voters resoundingly thought Biden won that debate because voters are sick and tired of Trump’s lies and we’ve heard the same debunked attacks for over a year, she said.
A senior campaign adviser, Symone Sanders, also commented on the Commission on Presidential Debates decision to mute the microphones, saying that the debate will serve as a test of presidential temperament, especially for the president.
Joe Biden holds a 10-point lead over President Trump ahead of tonight’s final presidential debate, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll of likely voters released Thursday afternoon.
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Inside The Debate Hall: Lots Of Masks And Some Notable Vips
Hallie Jackson, Jonathan Allen and Freddie Tunnard
The view from inside the debate hall: masks. Lots of them. We havent seen anyone without one, though, notably, the Trump family hasnt arrived yet. They were the main ones defying the mask mandate at the Cleveland debate.
The presidents motorcade is set to arrive any minute, and Joe Biden is already here. Seats are marked off for some of those members of the first family Melania, Eric and Ivanka Trump. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, is also here in the hall as are some former members of Congress: Democrat Lincoln Davis and Republican Jimmy Duncan Jr. among them.
The arena is bigger and less intimate than the room for the first debate in Cleveland, and in another contrast, people are freely mingling and chatting. The vibe is pretty low-key.
Pete Buttigieg has made several viral appearances on Fox News in recent weeks as a Biden surrogate. On Thursday night, he appeared again and offered a retort to the accusations leveled against Hunter Biden.
“If they want to make this about the business deals of a government official, let’s talk about the president of the United States having a secret Chinese bank account,” Buttigieg said.
The Trump campaign had previously sought to push the accusation that Hunter Biden’s relationships in the Ukraine were illegal, and has recently shifted its focus to China.
White House Or Trump Rally
WH has been transformed into a sort of campaign rally meets Republican National Convention site. Never before have the lines between the WH & the Trump campaign been more blurred. Also, I wasnt COVID tested so not clear that attendees will be. And, there is no mask mandate.
Joe Biden said Thursday that he plans on returning to the real-life campaign trail after Labor Day.
At a virtual fundraiser with Illinois attorneys, Biden was asked if he planned to resume physical campaigning in battleground states.
Biden said he plans to do so, but “without jeopardizing or violating state rules about how many people can in fact assemble. One of the things were thinking about is Im going to be going up into Wisconsin, and Minnesota, spending time in Pennsylvania, out in Arizona.”
“Were going to do it in a way that is totally consistent with being responsible, unlike what this guys doing,” he said, referring to the president’s handling of the coronavirus. “Hes totally irresponsible.”
He added that he’s missed being on the trail and acknowledged he has to make changes to his style.
Im a tactile politician. I really miss being able to, you know, grab hands, shake hands. You cant do that now,” he said.
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Huge Crowds Gather To Both Watch And Protest Trump Speech
Jeff Van Drew, the New Jersey Republican who changed his party affiliation after voting against Donald Trumps impeachment, will speak at the Republican convention on Thursday.
Van Drew joins a limited number of Democrats or former Democrats who spoke on Trumps behalf at his re-nominating convention. It provides a contrast with Biden, who featured higher-profile Republicans speaking at his event.
Poll Shows Democrats Lead In Three Iowa House Districts And Fourth Tightening
New polling in Iowa shows a tightening race in the states single Republican-held House seat while Democrats hold leads in the other three districts. A Monmouth University poll released Thursday shows two first-term Democratic incumbents leading in their races while the Democratic candidate leads in an open seat held by the party.
- Iowa-01: First-term Rep. Abby Finkenauer holds an 8-point lead among registered voters over Republican challenger Ashley Hinson, 52 percent to 44 percent. Women back Finkenauer by a 61 percent to 35 percent margin while men prefer Hinson, 53 percent to 43 percent.
- Iowa-02: The race to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack flipped from a slight GOP lead in the summer to a Democratic lead now. Rita Hart leads Mariannette Miller-Meeks by six points, 49 percent to 43 percent among registered. Miller-Meeks had a 47 percent to 44 percent lead in August.
- Iowa-03: First-term Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne widened her lead over former Rep. David Young in a rematch from 2018 since August she currently leads 52 percent to 43 percent. Axne has a 25-point lead among registered voters in Polk County, which she won by 16 points two years ago.
- Iowa-04: The race to replace controversial GOP Rep. Steve King, who lost his primary to Randy Feenstra, has tightened since the summer with Feenstra leading Democrat J.D. Scholten, who lost to King two years ago, by six points, 48 percent to 42 percent. The Republican held a 20-point lead over Scholten in August.
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This Is Whos Staying On Topic
Naitian Zhou
An hour into the debate and the nominees have stuck close to the moderators questions.
According to an NBC News analysis, Joe Biden and President Donald Trump have stayed on topic 82 percent of the time. This is better than the first presidential debate on Sept. 29, when the candidates were on topic close to half the time, also according to an NBC News analysis.
Biden tended to stay more on topic for questions about Covid-19. He was on topic for those about 89 percent of the time, and deviated more for questions relating to China, where he has only been on topic for 75 out of 113 seconds. Trump has stayed on topic for questions relating to ethics, where he was on topic the whole time, compared to staying on topic a little more than half the time for questions relating to the election.
See the latest on what the candidates are talking about and whether theyre staying on topic with the interactive NBC News presidential debate tracker.
Trump has long promised a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, with a plan that will provide people “big, beautiful health care, going back to January 2017, when he told The Washington Post he would provide insurance for everybody.
The White House and Republicans still have not disclosed their plan, and it is unclear whether they have one.
Trump said Thursday that “99.9 of young people recover” from Covid-19 and that “99 percent of people recover” from the virus.
