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US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden have batted away key questions during separate meet-the-voter TV events. Mr Trump, a Republican, declined to disavow a bizarre online conspiracy, while Mr Biden, a Democrat, would not divulge plans for the Supreme Court. Both candidates were on the defensive at times on their records, Mr Trump for a range of issues and Mr Biden on race.
President Donald Trump has returned to the campaign trail less than two weeks after testing positive for coronavirus. He told thousands of supporters, many not wearing masks, that he could give them “a big fat kiss”, at a rally in the battleground state of Florida. His rival, Joe Biden, speaking in Ohio, accused the president of “reckless behavior” since his diagnosis.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s top infectious disease expert, has criticized Donald Trump’s reelection campaign for using his words out of context to make it appear as if he was praising the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. “In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate,” Fauci said in a statement to CNN on Sunday.
The contenders for US vice-president have clashed over the coronavirus pandemic in their only debate ahead of next month’s election. Democrat Kamala Harris called Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic “the greatest failure of any presidential administration” in history. Vice-President Mike Pence, a Republican, said the Democratic Party’s pandemic plan amounted to “plagiarism”. Opinion polls indicate the Republican president is trailing by single digits in a handful of battleground states.
President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden began the first US presidential debate with heated exchanges over coronavirus, race relations and election integrity. The two men frequently interrupted each other with angry interjections, with Mr Biden eventually snapping at his opponent: “Will you shut up, man?” Mr Trump, who has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election, repeated his unfounded allegations that mail-in voting would lead to fraud.
The president sparked fresh anger and disbelief on Thursday after he refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Some Republicans, long criticized for allowing and enabling Trump to trample on political norms, did seek on Thursday to reassure the public that, in the event of a Biden victory, the transfer of power will go ahead.
Donald Trump has suggested that people in the state of North Carolina should vote twice in the November election. “Let them send it in and let them go vote,” Trump said in an interview with WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Wednesday when asked about the security of mail-in votes. “And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
Two members of a key congressional committee have asked the FBI to open a criminal investigation of the leadership of the US Postal Service (USPS), alleging that the postmaster general has slowed mail delivery in an attempt to rig the 2020 presidential election. The letter referred to reports that postmaster general Louis DeJoy, a mega-donor to Donald Trump, and the USPS board of governors “have retarded the passage of mail”.
Donald Trump has floated the idea of delaying November’s presidential election, repeating his false claim that widespread voting by mail from home would result in a “fraudulent” result. The suggestion prompted swift and fervent rejections from experts and critics, as well as high-profile members of his own party. The US constitution grants the power to set an election date to Congress, not the president.
President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has rejected claims that a social media campaign by Tik-Tok users and K-Pop fans was behind lower-than-expected turnout for Saturday night’s Oklahoma rally. Teenagers are said to have booked tickets without intending to turn up so as to produce empty seats. But the Trump 2020 team said it had weeded out bogus reservations.