Welcome to today’s US election briefing for Australia.
It was telling perhaps that a major talking point at the end of Wednesday night’s first and only debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris was a fly that sat on Pence’s head for a full two minutes (a flurry of hastily-created parody Twitter accounts ensured even that didn’t stay interesting for long). However diverting, US vice presidential debates are rarely consequential.
But given one of them will serve as vice president to the oldest president in US history, there was plenty at stake in Wednesday night’s contest.
Pence’s manner has always drawn a sharp contrast with his boss – milder, calmer and on the surface, more polite. But on Wednesday he was just as able to dodge questions as Trump had done a week earlier on the handling of the pandemic, which Harris characterised as the “greatest failure”, which should mean Republicans had “forfeited their right to re-election”.
Despite dogged attacks from Harris, the vice president deftly stuck to talking points engineered to rile the Republican base – accusing Joe Biden of supporting abortion “up to the moment of birth” – and eliding questions on climate change to repeatedly assert a Biden administration would ban fracking (if only, many progressive Democrats may have been thinking).
Many experts said the debate should never have taken place in person, especially given the inadequacy of the safety precautions – 12 feet of space and two plexiglass barriers – which the Pence campaign initially objected to. The debate took place as a new internal memo revealed 34 White House staffers and contacts had been infected as part of a growing cluster. Nevertheless, Pence’s wife Karen ascended the stage at its completion without her mask – in apparent defiance of the rules.
Another sign that despite their sharply different style, Pence and Trump aren’t so different after all.
The big stories
Trump said he felt “perfect” as he returned to the Oval Office, despite concerns that he should be self-isolating as Covid-19 continued to spread among senior White House figures.
Over the course of 90 minutes, Harris assailed Trump and Pence over their stewardship of the American government at the VP debate, denouncing his administration’s response to the various crises affecting the nation. You can read the full report here.
The ousted director of the office involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine has quit his post at the National Institutes of Health, charging that the Trump administration “ignores scientific expertise, overrules public health guidance and disrespects career scientists”.
Economists warned on Wednesday that the US economy was facing a “watershed moment” as Trump vacillated on agreeing to a new round of stimulus cash for people and businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Donald Trump’s accountant must turn over the president’s tax records to a New York state prosecutor, an appeals court has ruled, in a decision that almost certainly sets up a second trip to the US supreme court over the issue.
Top Republican Mitch McConnell lashed out at media outlets – including the Guardian – for reporting on supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s background in a strict religious group.
Facebook has announced significant changes to its advertising and misinformation policies, saying it will stop running political ads in the US after polls close on 3 November for an undetermined period of time. Elizabeth Warren called the changes “performative”.
Quote of the day
I think this was a blessing from God that I caught it.
– Trump on being infected with Covid-19.
Election views
Will the US media call the election right on election night? Don’t count on it, argues this concerning piece from past presidents of the American Political Science Association. This election, with a high proportion of mail-in votes, could take days or even weeks to count accurately, so the impetus of networks to be the first to call a winner poses real dangers.
“When he’s not serving as a cardboard cutout smiling over Trump’s shoulder, Pence likes to play the role of a genial veterinarian delivering the sad news about your dead pet hamster,” writes Richard Wolffe in his analysis of the VP debate. Ultimately it will change nothing about the election, he says.
Podcast of the day
The Guardian’s Washington bureau chief explains the questions that still remain about the president’s illness despite assurances from his medical team, and looks at how the president and his staff could have been exposed to the virus despite extensive testing in the White House. Listen to the Today in Focus episode here.
Around the web
“When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy.” It’s been four years since the Access Hollywood tape was released revealing Trump’s grotesque boast. This Huffington Post longread explores its impact on the 2016 election and American conversations around sexual assault and power.
To understand why Trump’s call yesterday to halt negotiations on the next round of stimulus until after this election caused such alarm, read this piece from the Atlantic on how apocalyptic the pandemic recession has been for many American workers.
I have taken great pleasure in Claudia Conway’s TikTok but this article in New York Magazine – shaming journalists for investing too much in a literal child – is really worthwhile: “The liberal tendency to slot this particular teen girl into a pattern of hero-seeking behaviour does no one any favours.”
What the numbers say: 61,912
The median charge in US dollars for a hospital stay for an American coronavirus patient aged over 60, according to the NYT (but not the president of course, who received his care free).
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