- Former President Barack Obama will take to the campaign trail on Wednesday for the first time in the race in support of his former vice president, Joe Biden.
- Sinclair Broadcasting, a conservative media company, will air a pre-taped town hall with Donald Trump, who campaigns in North Carolina on Wednesday.
- Threatening emails declaring “vote for Trump or else” have reportedly been sent to voters in Florida, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Alaska.
- Trump’s campaign said he would participate in the debate, despite protesting against the topics and new rules muting mics.
- More than 40.1 million US voters have already cast ballots, according to the United States Elections Project tracker.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the United States elections. This is Joseph Stepansky.
Wednesday, October 21:
15:30 ET – Poll: Many in US distrust campaign info
In a presidential election year that has thrown the country’s divisions into stark relief, Americans can agree on this: Misinformation about government and politics is a major problem, according to a new poll.
The survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Opinion Research and USAFacts finds that while voters say it’s pretty easy to find accurate information about voting, they have a harder time knowing whether there’s any factual basis for the information they’re getting from and about the candidates.
“The misinformation, it’s just blossomed to the point where it’s unmanageable,” nurse Liana Price, 34, of Tampa Bay, Florida, who supports Democrat Joe Biden in the contest against President Donald Trump and worries misinformation about the election could sway voters, told the Associate Press. “You try to explain and provide facts and actual research, but people don’t believe it.”
Among the poll’s findings: More than 8 in 10 rated the spread of misinformation about government a “major problem”.
15:00 ET – Trump tweets pictures from 60 Minutes interview
Trump has tweeted pictures from a 60 Minutes which he reportedly abruptly ended because he was unhappy with reporter Leslie Stahl’s line of questioning.
Trump had previously tweeted that “for the sake of accuracy” he was considering releasing the interview before it aired.
“This will be done so that everybody can get a glimpse of what a FAKE and BIASED interview is all about,” he wrote.
14:30 ET – US to seek Trump’s exit from rape accuser’s defamation lawsuit
A judge on Wednesday will consider whether to excuse Trump from a defamation lawsuit by a writer who accused him of raping her in a Manhattan department store a quarter century ago and then falsely denying it happened.
In an afternoon hearing, District Judge Lewis Kaplan is expected to weigh a request by E Jean Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, to stop Attorney General William Barr’s effort to intervene on Trump’s behalf.
The Department of Justice has argued that Trump acted in his official capacity when denying Carroll’s claims because they were matters that interested the public or his constituents, and therefore could not be sued personally for defamation.
It wants to substitute the federal government for Trump as a defendant, and formally move Carroll’s case to federal court from the New York state court where it began. That would shield Trump from liability and likely doom Carroll’s defamation claim.
The lawsuit is one of many legal actions Trump faces as he prepares to seek reelection on November 3.
14:00 ET – Poll roundup: Biden leads in Pennsylvania, Iowa close
Two new polls out of Pennsylvania show Biden with a lead in the crucial battleground state.
A USA Today/Suffolk University poll released today shows Biden with a 49-42 lead while a Reuters/Ipsos poll has Biden up 49-45. Both polls surveyed likely voters through October 19.
Trump won Pennsylvania by about 44,000 votes and held a rally in Erie last night. Former President Barack Obama will campaign in Philadelphia on behalf of Biden today, marking his first campaign appearance of 2020.
Meanwhile, in Iowa, a state Trump won by 8 percentage points in 2016, a new Monmouth poll shows Trump and Biden statistically tied among likely voters: Trump with 48 percent support, Biden with 47 percent.
Interestingly, when different turnout models are applied, Biden takes a lead. In a high-turnout scenario, Biden leads 50-47 percent. In a low-turnout model, Biden leads 51-46 percent. A New York Times/Siena College poll released this afternoon has Biden up 46-43 percent among Iowa likely voters, with 7 percent undecided or refusing to name a preference.
13:00 ET – House Speaker Pelosi expects Democrats to increase House majority in November: MSNBC interview
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she expects Democrats to increase their majority in the House of Representatives in the November 3 elections.
“I know we will increase our numbers in the House,” Pelosi said. She added that if the election were held “today,” Democrats would win the White House and the Senate as well as the House. “I’m optimistic.”
12:30 ET – 40.1 million US voters have already cast ballots
More than 40.1 million US voters have already cast their ballots, either in early voting or mail voting, according to the US Elections Project tracker.
The number of ballots cast represents 29 percent of all votes counted in the 2016 presidential election.
The number of early and mail voters have smashed previous presidential elections.
12:00 ET – Trump campaign started October with $63 million to spend, compared to Biden campaign’s $177 million: Report
The Trump campaign entered October with $63 million in the bank, compared to the Biden campaign’s $177 million, putting the president at the largest deficit at this point in the race in modern presidential campaign history, according to Politico.
Notably, the news site, citing Federal Election Commission filings, noted that the $100 million of his own money Trump said he may inject into his campaign has never materialised.
So far, Trump has contributed just $8,000 to his bid from his own money. In 2016, Trump contributed $66 million to his run.
11:30 ET – Opponents in Utah’s governor’s race release rare joint message of civility
Republican candidate Spencer Cox and Democratic candidate Chris Peterson, who are vying to be the governor of Utah, have released videos calling for civility in the election process and saying they will both accept the results.
In one video, which both candidates posted to Twitter, Peterson says “we can debate issues without degrading each other’s character”, while Cox adds “We can disagree without hating each other.”
“We believe that Utahns expect better of us and that we think that all Americans should expect better of their political leaders. And so we got together and threw this together very quickly. And it’s it’s resonating,” Cox said during an interview on MSNBC on Wednesday.
“We both care about being kind to one another. We do have policy disagreements. But we came together to push this out because we recognize that there are some real challenges our country is facing in terms of the peaceful transfer of power and continuing to be kind to one another in a difficult political season,” Peterson added during the interview.
11:00 ET – Trump records show Chinese bank account: Report
Trump spent years cultivating business projects in China, where he maintained a previously unknown bank account, The New York Times reported Tuesday, as the US president attempts to portray election rival Biden as weaker on Beijing.
Trump has spent recent days promoting a murky claim that Biden’s son Hunter sold access to his father in Ukraine and China when he was vice president under Barack Obama. Under his “America First” banner, Trump has portrayed China as the greatest threat to the United States and global democracy.
Trump, however, who maintained an office in China during his first run for president, and partnered with a major government-controlled company, the Times reported. Trump additionally keeps a previously unknown bank account in China, controlled by Trump International Hotels Management, according to an analysis of his tax records by the paper. It is one of only three foreign nations – including Britain and Ireland – in which he does so.
The tax records show the company “paid $188,561 in taxes in China while pursuing licensing deals there from 2013 to 2015,” the Times reported. Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten said the company had “opened an account with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States in order to pay the local taxes.”
“No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialized and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” he told The Times. “Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose.”
10:30 ET – Threatening emails reported in closely watched states
Threatening emails which reportedly warned “you will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you” have been sent to voters in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida and Alaska, according to the Washington Post.
Authorities in two of those state, Florida and Alaska, were investigating the emails, according to the newspaper. The emails claimed to be from the far-right Proud Boys group and appeared to target Democrats while claiming to be “in possession of all your information”.
The chairman of the Proud Boys denied involvement to the Washington Post.
10:00 ET – Trump Sinclair Broadcasting town hall to air Wednesday
Trump on Wednesday will be featured in a town hall hosted by Sinclair Broadcasting company, a local news conglomerate that has been accused of enforcing conservative and pro-Trump content on its local news stations.
In 2018, local news anchors were made to read a script that borrowed blatantly Trumpian language in deriding “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country”.
Sinclair said it had also extended a standing invitation to Biden to take part in a town hall, according to The Hill news site.
Wednesday’s 19:00 ET (23:00 GMT) event will be hosted by Eric Bolling, a former Fox News host who has been accused of spreading misinformation on the coronavirus pandemic and has focused heavily on an unsubstantiated New York Post report on emails allegedly taken from Joe Biden’s son’s computer.
09:30 ET – Barack Obama to hold first in-person campaign event for Biden
Former President Barack Obama is returning to Philadelphia on Wednesday for his first in-person 2020 campaign event for Biden.
Obama, known as one of the Democratic Party’s strongest orators, delivered Hillary Clinton’s closing argument in the same city in 2016. With the coronavirus pandemic upending campaigning, Obama will be speaking to a much smaller crowd at a drive-in rally, where supporters will listen to him over the radio inside their cars.
Democrats say Obama is the one person who knows Biden best, both as his former partner in the White House and personally. The former president remains one of the party’s greatest assets in the final stretch of the campaign.
“Especially in Philadelphia, he is the ultimate draw and still a great standard-bearer for Democrats,” former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter told Reuters news agency.
Read more about the crucial battleground Pennsylvania here.
09:00 ET – Court upholds North Carolina voters’ mail ballots can be counted if post marked by election day
A federal appeals court has ruled that election officials can count a mail-in ballot if it is postmarked by election day, even if it arrives after November 3.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied a Republican challenge to the North Carolina Board of Elections rule that said ballots post-marked by election day would be counted if they arrived by November 12.
With an unprecedented number of US citizens voting by mail as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, voting access advocates have raised concerns over state laws that require ballots to be delivered to election officials by election day.
_______________________________________________________________
Read all the updates from Tuesday, (October 20) here.
