- The Senate is set to confirm Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Monday.
- President Donald Trump will hold several events in Pennsylvania, one of the most important states for an Electoral College victory.
- Presidential candidate Joe Biden has no scheduled events, while running mate Kamala Harris will take part in the Senate vote.
- Vice President Mike Pence will also be present for the vote, he has said, despite several aides recently testing positive for the coronavirus.
- Over 59 million Americans have already cast their votes, according to the US Elections Project, with just eight days until the November 3 election.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the United States elections. This is Joseph Stepansky.
White House plans celebration after Barrett confirmation
The White House is planning a Monday night celebration of the Republican Senate’s expected confirmation of Barrett, a month after a similar event was linked to a COVID-19 outbreak that preceded Trump’s own infection.
While Democrats have fiercely opposed the conservative jurist’s nomination, Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority and her confirmation to a lifetime post on the court seems assured. Trump pressed the Senate to confirm Barrett before the election, which would create a 6-3 conservative majority on in the highest court in the country.
The September 26 Rose Garden ceremony at which Trump officially named Barrett to replace the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg preceded a wave of COVID-19 cases among top Republicans including Trump and first lady Melania Trump. The president spent three nights hospitalized receiving COVID-19 treatment.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters the event planned for Monday evening likely would be held outdoors, saying :”Tonight, we’ll be doing the best we can to encourage as much social distancing as possible.”
Man charged in burning of ballot drop box in Boston
A man has been charged with lighting a fire in a Boston ballot drop box and damaging dozens of ballots, police said Monday.
Worldy Armand, a 39-year-old Boston resident, was taken into custody late Sunday after drug control unit officers on patrol saw a man who matched the description of the suspect authorities were looking for in the ballot box fire, police said. Police said he also had an active warrant for receiving stolen property.
Armand faces a charge of willful and malicious burning, police said. It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney to comment on his behalf. The FBI said Sunday that it’s investigating the fire that was set around 4 AM in a ballot drop box outside the Boston Public Library downtown.
Officers called to the scene saw smoke coming out of the box before firefighters managed to extinguish the fire by filling the box with water, police said. There were 122 ballots inside the box when it was emptied Sunday morning, and 87 of them were still legible and able to be processed, according to the Massachussetts secretary of state’s office. Voters can go online to see whether their ballot was processed.
Kushner criticised for comment on Black Americans
Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has said the president wants to help Black people succeed but that they have to want to be successful for the policies to work.
“But he can’t want them to be successful more than they want to be successful,” Kushner said on the Fox Friends programme on Monday morning.
He said Black people are mostly Democrats, but are starting to see that Trump’s policies can help them solve problems they have complained about for years.
Kushner also criticised people who raised their voices after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody, but then didn’t follow through and work to find ways to improve the lives of Black people in America.
“You saw a lot of people who were just virtue signaling – they go on Instagram and cry, or they would, you know, put a slogan on their jersey or write something on a basketball court,” Kushner said. “Quite frankly, that was doing more to polarize the country than it was to bring people forward. You solve problems with solutions.”
Republican US Senate candidate Jason Lewis rushed into surgery
Minnesota Republican Senate candidate Jason Lewis has been rushed into emergency surgery for a severe internal hernia.
The Lewis campaign said in a statement Monday that the condition is life-threatening if not treated quickly.
Campaign manager Tom Szymanski said in the statement that Lewis experienced severe abdominal pain early Monday morning and was taken to an emergency room. He said Lewis, prior to going into surgery, was in good spirits, optimistic and speculating about when he could resume campaigning.
Trump continues to cast unfounded doubt on election results
Trump has told supporters at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania that the only way he could lose is through “massive fraud”, while adding “we’re watching your Philadelphia, we’re watching at the highest level”.
Trump has repeatedly claimed nefarious intent by election officials in Philadelphia, without evidence. His campaign has urged supporters to monitor the polls.
“It’s the only way we can lose in my opinion, is massive fraud,” Trump said.
“A lot of strange things happen over the years in Philadelphia. And we’re watching your Philadelphia, we’re watching at the highest level,” he said.
He later told supporters “be very vigilant and watch”.
The president has repeatedly suggested unfounded claims that widespread fraud could undermine the election. Monitors have warned that his rhetoric baselessly casting doubt on the eventual results increases the likelihood of post-election unrest.
In Pennsylvania, Trump slams Biden debate comments on transitioning away from oil
Holding his first of three Pennsylvania rallies on Monday, Trump renewed attacks on Biden’s comments that he would eventually transition away from the oil industry.
“I want to begin today by discussing an issue of existential importance to Pennsylvania,” Trump said during a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “Last week sleepy Joe Biden made perhaps the most shocking admission ever uttered in the history of presidential debates…Joe Biden confirmed his plan to abolish the entire US oil industry.”
Trump was referring to Biden’s comments during Thursday’s debate that he would “transition away from the oil industry…The oil industry pollutes, significantly. It has to be replaced by renewable energy over time”.
The president has repeatedly seized on the comments, especially in key Battleground Pennsylvania, the largest natural gas producer in the US after Texas. He has also repeated false claims that Biden would ban hydraulic fracking, a key means of extracting natural gas in the state.
Facebook planning for possible election unrest: Report
Social media giant Facebook is planning for possible election-result related chaos by using internal tools designed by “at-risk” countries, according to the Wall Street Journal, who cited people familiar with the matter.
The measures, which have been used in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, among others, include slowing the spread of viral content and making it easier to suppress potentially inflammatory posts, according to the newspaper.
Executives from Facebook have said they would only use the tools in severe circumstances such as election-related violence, but they feel they need to be prepared for all possibilities, the sources told the newspaper.
Trump to clean house if he wins: Report
Trump is planning to fire FBI Director Christopher Wray, and is also expected to replace CIA Director Gina Haspel and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, if he wins re-election, according to a report by Axios citing unnamed sources familiar with the plan.
Wray and Haspel in particular are distrusted in Trump’s inner circle, according to the news site. Wray has attracted the president’s ire for failing to launch an official investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign connections, according to the sources.
Haspel, meanwhile, upset the president by blocking the release of CIA documents related to the investigation of how former President Barack Obama handled a probe into Trump and Russia.
So-called ‘body man’ reportedly one of those in Pence orbit to test COVID-19 positive
Zach Bauer, Pence’s so-called “body man” who accompanies the vice president day and night helping him with tasks, is one of those in Pence’s orbit who have tested COVID-19 positive, according to CNN.
At least five people close to Pence, including his chief of staff, have tested positive for the virus, according to local media. The White House, however, has said the vice president will continue to campaign in the final days of the election, calling him “essential personnel”.
Pence’s office have said he most recently tested negative on Monday morning, although health experts say the virus can take days to detect after an individual is infected.
Over 60 million Americans have already cast ballots
At least 60,268,395 United States citizens have already cast ballots in either in-person early voting or by mail, according to the US Elections Project, outpacing the total number of early and mail voters in 2016.
Four years ago, about 57.2 million US citizens had cast ballots early or by mail by election day.
So far in 2020, the number of early ballots cast equals 43.7 percent of all votes counted in 2016.
Democrats ask Pence to skip Barrett vote over COVID-19 risk
A deeply torn Senate is set to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Monday, but Democratic leaders are asking Vice President Mike Pence to stay away from presiding over the session due to potential health risks after his aides tested positive for COVID-19.
Barrett’s confirmation is not in doubt, as Senate Republicans are overpowering Democratic opposition to secure President Donald Trump’s nominee the week before Election Day. Pence said at a Florida rally Saturday, “As vice president, I’m president of the Senate,” and indicated he will attend the vote, as is customary for landmark votes. “I wouldn’t miss that vote for the world,” he added.
But Democrats said in a letter to Pence, who serves in the largely ceremonial role of Senate president and can break a tie vote, that it’s “not a risk worth taking,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Associated Press news agency.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his leadership team wrote that not only would Pence’s presence violate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, “it [would] also be a violation of common decency and courtesy.”
“Nothing about your presence in the Senate tomorrow can be considered essential,” the Democrats wrote. They warned of the risk not just to senators but to the police, restaurant workers and others who keep the US Capitol running.
