University of Michigan withdraws from hosting Biden-Trump debate due to coronavirus concerns

June 23, 2020: The Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Tuesday that the second presidential debate was being moved from Michigan to Florida. Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Karen Bass is being vetted for vice president by the Biden campaign. Notable Quote of the Day “Could a Black woman help boost turnout among Black voters, which dipped in 2016 compared to 2012? Maybe. Some political science research shows that Black people vote at higher rates when a Black candidate is on the ballot, although that finding is somewhat contested, and that research is about voting for a Black candidate, not a white candidate with a Black running mate. That said, basically the only thing that Abrams, Bottoms, Demings, Rice and Harris have in common is that they are Black, women, and reportedly being considered as running mates by the Biden campaign. It’s really hard to claim that both Demings and Rice — the latter of whom has never even run for elected office — would obviously generate an electoral boost, and that those boosts would be of similar size. If the goal is to pick someone with skill in appealing to Black voters in particular, Abrams would seem to be head and shoulders above the rest of these Black women. She ran for governor and nearly won in a state with a huge Black population, in an election that saw a surge in Black voter turnout that was likely the result of her campaign.” – Perry Bacon Jr., FiveThirtyEight Election Updates The Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Tuesday that the second presidential debate, scheduled for Oct. 15, is moving from the University of Michigan to the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami due to concerns with the coronavirus pandemic. Joe Biden is vetting Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Karen Bass (Calif.) for vice president, according to CBS News. Donald Trump is speaking in Phoenix on Tuesday at an event organized by Students for Trump. This is Trump’s third visit to Arizona in five months. Retweeting a Breitbart article on election fraud, Trump wrote, “This will be the Election disaster of our time. Mail-In Ballots will lead to a RIGGED ELECTION!” What We’re Reading FiveThirtyEight: The Debate Over Biden’s VP Pick Is Full Of Half-Truths And Misleading Arguments The New York Times: There’s a Reason Trump Is Fighting Hard for Arizona Politico: The Biden whisperer in the Senate Flashback: June 23, 2016 Bernie Sanders delivered a speech, titled “Where We Go From Here,” to his supporters about the future of his movement.

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