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Trump, Biden hit Arizona, Supreme Court makes battleground state rulings

Latest news, polls, analysis and more.
Image: President Donald Trump and Joe Biden on a background of concentric circles made up of blue and red stars.
Chelsea Stahl / NBC News

The presidential race went west on Wednesday to court voters in the crucial state of Arizona, a swing state where Covid-19 woes could spell trouble for President Donald Trump.

Trump held afternoon rallies in Bullhead City and Goodyear after delivering remarks at his namesake hotel in Las Vegas. Joe Biden's running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., is visiting Phoenix and Tucson.

This live coverage has ended. Continue reading election news for Thursday, October 29, 2020.

Stories we're following today:

—'Anonymous' revealed

—Supreme Court makes Election Day rulings in two battleground states

—How polling this year is different from 2016

—Latest polls from battleground states and more

—Plan your vote here

—The road to 270: How Biden or Trump could win

Highlights below:

One battleground state, two rallies — and radically different versions of reality

PHOENIX — Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris held rallies 30 miles apart here on Wednesday, six days before Election Day, in this battleground state poised to shape the outcome of the race.

But voters could be forgiven for thinking the candidates were running in two different universes.

In Trump’s world, the coronavirus crisis is exaggerated and the biggest danger to the country is a threat of socialism or communism, while top-of-mind issues include alleged corruption by Joe Biden’s son Hunter and a “deep state” of government officials plotting against the president.

 

In the Biden-Harris world, the pandemic is an overarching issue that is crippling middle class pocketbooks, health care access is threatened by an incompetent president, and the nation is on a knife edge between a return to normalcy and a march to authoritarianism.

Symbolic of the two attitudes, Trump’s rally featured supporters packing into a section of the Phoenix Goodyear Airport, many of them elbow-to-elbow and maskless, while Harris held a drive-in event that was sparse and heavily socially distanced, with attendees covering their faces even when nobody was near them.

Click here for the full story. 

Minnesota governors urge patience on mail-in votes

Harris highlights Democrats' broad coalition

Deepa Shivaram

In her second visit to phoenix (the first was her joint event with Biden after the vice presidential debate), Harris entered the stage with artist Alicia Keys and spoke about the broad coalition of support that is backing Biden.

“We've got of course, Democrats. But we've got Republicans, Cindy McCain and Jeff Flake. Independents. People of all backgrounds coming together, understanding what is at stake,” Harris said.

She also repeated her line from earlier today in Tucson that there’s been talk about her values. Tonight in Phoenix, she specially mentioned it was coming from “the current occupant of the White House.”

'Quick, quick, quick': Trump rushes McSally at rally as she fights to hold her Senate seat

President Donald Trump offered a not-very warm welcome to Sen. Martha McSally on Wednesday at his campaign rally in Arizona, where his fellow Republican is trying to hold on to her seat.  

After saying she was "respected by everybody" and "great," Trump rushed McSally to the stage at his Goodyear rally to say a few words. "Martha, just come up fast. Fast. Fast. Come on. Quick. You got one minute! One minute, Martha! They don’t want to hear this, Martha. Come on. Let’s go. Quick, quick, quick. Come on. Let’s go," Trump said.

McSally spoke for just over a minute, and said she was "proud" to work with the president - something a moderator could not get her say during her debate with Democratic challenger Mark Kelly earlier this month. 

After McSally spoke, Trump called up a trio of politicians from out of state to speak- Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California. Of the three, only McCarthy is running for re-election in November. All spoke longer than McSally did - as did another guest speaker Trump called, Nigel Farage of Britain's Brexit party. Trump did not rush any of those four.

The Washington Post reported last week that Trump told donors at a fundraiser it was going to be "very tough" for Republicans to keep control of the Senate because there were some he'd have a hard time supporting. "There are a couple senators I can't really get involved in. I just can't do it. You lose your soul if you do," an attendee quoted him as saying. 

Click here for the full story

Supreme Court won't block mail ballots in North Carolina arriving up to six days after Election Day

The Supreme Court late Wednesday declined to block lower court rulings that allow six extra days for accepting ballots sent by mail in North Carolina. The justices left the later deadline in place, a victory for Democrats in a presidential battleground state.

Earlier in the day, in a defeat for Republicans, the court declined to take another look, on a fast track, at the issue of late arriving mail ballots in Pennsylvania, leaving intact a lower court ruling that said the state must count ballots that arrive up to three days after the election.

The vote was 5-3 and newly confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett didn’t take part in the North Carolina case, the court said, for the same reason cited in the Pennsylvania case, “because of the need for a prompt resolution and because she has not had time to fully review the parties’ filings."

Click here to read the full story.

Anxiety 2020: Voters worry about safety at the polls

The Associated Press

With Election Day next week, voters can point to plenty of evidence behind the anxiety. More than 226,000 people have died of the coronavirus in the United States, and cases are spiking across the country. A summer of protests of racial injustice and sometimes violent confrontations has left many on edge. Gun sales have broken records. Trump has called on supporters to monitor voting and has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power or to explicitly condemn a white supremacist group.

There was the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and another spate of violent protest this week over a police shooting of a Black man in Philadelphia.

“Human beings don’t do well with uncertainty, and there’s been a lot of uncertainty this year,” said Mara Suttmann-Lea, an assistant professor of government at Connecticut College conducting research on voting. ”Absolutely I’m seeing heightened levels of anxiety ... and it's a more general, existential anxiety — ‘What is the state of our democracy?’"

Those worries have shown up in polling. About 7 in 10 voters say they are anxious about the election, according to an AP-NORC poll this month. Biden supporters were more likely to say so than Trump supporters — 72 percent to 61 percent.

Click here for the full story. 

In Pennsylvania, Obama voters who switched to Trump could hold the key

Trump rips 'Anonymous' author Miles Taylor as a 'sleazebag'

President Trump tore into admitted "Anonymous" author Miles Taylor at a campaign event in Arizona, calling him a "sleazebag" and a "low-level lowlife" who "should be prosecuted."

Anonymous "turned out to be a low-level staffer — a sleazebag who has never worked in the White House," Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Goodyear. He called Taylor "a disgruntled employee" who he was told was fired for "incompetence."

Taylor says he resigned from the Department of Homeland Security in 2019 out of frustration with the Trump administration's directives. 

Trump joked that he thought the person behind a harsh New York Times op-ed and a book called "The Warning" would be somebody higher up. "I thought it might have been Hope Hicks. I thought it might have been Jared," he quipped referring to son-in-law Jared Kushner. 

"The whole thing was just one more giant hoax from the Washington swamp," Trump said. Referring again to Taylor, Trump said, "in my opinion, he should be prosecuted." He didn't say for what.   

 

Supreme Court won't immediately consider whether PA can count ballots that arrive after Election Day

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Wednesday to take another look, on a lightning fast track, at the issue of late arriving mail ballots in the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania, leaving intact a lower court ruling that said the state must count ballots that arrive up to three days after the election.

It was the second time Republicans asked the court to roll back the deadline. They lost Oct. 19 on a 4-4 vote, when the justices denied their request to put a hold on a lower court order extending the deadline.

Wednesday’s vote was 5-3, with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch saying the court should have taken the case immediately.

In trying again, the Republicans apparently hoped that newly appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett's arrival would give them the fifth vote they need to prevail. But she sat this one out, taking no part in the consideration or disposition of the motion. A court spokeswoman said that was "because of the need for a prompt resolution of it and because she has not had time to fully review the parties’ filings."

Read more here.

Pot candidate upends Minnesota U.S. House race even after his death

The Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS — Adam Weeks was never going to win Minnesota’s 2nd District seat in Congress, but the deceased Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate has had an outsized effect on the race.

His death in September from an apparent accidental fentanyl overdose set off a legal battle over whether the contest should be delayed until February. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that it won't be. Now, according to a published report, Weeks left a voicemail for a friend in which he said he was recruited to the race by Republicans solely to siphon votes away from Democratic Rep. Angie Craig in a competitive suburban-to-rural district south of Minneapolis.

The Star Tribune obtained a voicemail that Weeks left for his friend, Joey Hudson, four weeks before Weeks died last month. In the recording, which the newspaper said Hudson gave them, Weeks said Republican operatives approached him in the hopes he’d “pull votes away” from Craig and give an advantage to the “other guy,” Tyler Kistner, the GOP-endorsed candidate.

A Minnesota GOP spokesman did not immediately return messages seeking comment Wednesday.

Read more here.

Former DHS official Miles Taylor reveals he is writer of scathing Trump op-ed

Miles Taylor, the former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff who stepped forward in August to blast President Trump's leadership, said Wednesday he's "Anonymous," the senior administration official who wrote a scathing op-ed and book about the Trump White House.

In a post on Medium entitled "Why I'm no longer Anonymous," Taylor said he wrote the op-ed as a way to get the White House to focus on what he was saying about the danger he thought Trump posed to the country, instead of focusing on him.

Read more here.

Face masks required in all Texas polling locations, federal judge rules

Nicole Via y Rada

A federal court judge in San Antonio, Texas, mandated face masks at all state polling locations for all voters, poll workers and poll watchers. 

U.S. District Court Judge Jason Pulliam struck down Texas Gov. Abbott’s order that exempted polling locations from a statewide mask mandate Tuesday night. In his opinion, the judge called Abbott’s order a direct violation of the Voting Rights Act because it “creates a discriminatory action against Black and Latino voters.” 

Polling places were among 11 exemptions that Abbott’s July 2 executive order granted. 

Mi Familia Vota, a Latino voting outreach organization, the Texas NAACP and a Texas voter filed a voting rights suit against Abbott and Ruth Hughes, the Texas secretary of state on July 16, which included the mask exemption. Pulliam dismissed the case on Sept. 20 but an appellate court brought it back to court under a separate claim in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Tuesday's ruling comes after a plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction. 

“This is a major victory for democracy,” Héctor Sánchez Barba, the executive director and CEO of Mi Familia Vota said in a news release. “Voters should not have to choose between protecting their health and exercising their fundamental right to vote.”

Trump jokes about not paying his microphone vendor

Lauren Egan and Natalia Abrahams

Trump has had some audio issues at his first campaign rally of the day in Bullhead, Arizona, partly to do the wind. 

"Whoever did this microphone, don't pay him. You know I have a reputation for not paying. And it's a false reputation," Trump said. 

"Its probably a RINO that's operating it," Trump joked. Earlier in the event he called RINOs the "lowest form of human life."

Trump will host a second rally in Arizona later this afternoon. 

Election Confessions: What people really think about the candidates

NBC News

Trump faces cash crunch in battleground ad spending

NBC News

With six days to go before Election Day, President Trump faces a cash crunch in battleground state ad spending, including in Florida.

Maryland man arrested after allegedly refusing to wear mask at polling place, sheriff says

A Maryland man faces charges after refusing to wear a mask at an early voting site after election workers and law enforcement asked him to put a mask on or leave, authorities said.

Daniel Swain, 52, was charged Monday with violation of the governor’s orders and trespassing charge after refusing to leave a voting site or comply with the location’s mask policy, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan expanded the state's mask order in July, requiring face coverings in most indoor locations and made violation of the order a misdemeanor offense.

Deputies were told that the Harford County Board of Elections had a designated area for voters who were unable or unwilling to wear a mask, but that Swain and another man allegedly refused to vote in that area.

Trump returns to law and order attacks on Biden following Philadelphia unrest

President Donald Trump responded to the unrest in Philadelphia following a police-involved shooting there Monday by blaming Democratic officials in the state.  He said his administration was also looking into the shooting of Walter Wallace, but didn't offer any specifics when asked what he would do to prevent police shootings, particularly those involving the mentally ill. 

Wallace, whose family said was bipolar and experiencing a mental health crisis, was shot and killed while holding a knife during a confrontation with police.

“We are watching it very closely,” Trump said of the protests in Philadelphia where there has been looting and injuries. “We’re waiting for a call. If they want help we will be there within one hour, we're ready to go within one hour.”

Before taking questions from reporters, Trump announced several endorsements from local industry groups, including the Nevada Trucking Association and the Retail Association of Nevada. Trump stopped overnight in the state where he stayed at his Trump International Hotel before going to Arizona for two rallies. Trump had no public events in Nevada, where polls show him running behind. Joe Biden had a 6-point lead in the most recent poll.

Businesses near the White House board up ahead of Election Day

NBC News

Image: Businesses Around White House In D.C. Board Up In Anticipation Of Election Night Unrest
Image: Businesses Around White House In D.C. Board Up In Anticipation Of Election Night Unrest
Image: Businesses Around White House In D.C. Board Up In Anticipation Of Election Night Unrest
Workers add protective wood boards to the windows of a Wells Fargo bank, a CVS store and the McPherson Building on Wednesday as they prepare for possible demonstrations following next week's presidential election.Sarah Silbiger / Getty Images

Pennsylvania election officials ordered to keep late mail ballots separate

WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania officials have notified the U.S. Supreme Court that the Secretary of the Commonwealth issued guidance to county boards of election directing them “to securely segregate all mail-in and civilian absentee ballots received between 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, and 5:00 p.m. on Friday, November 6, 2020, from all other voted ballots.”

The cutoff under Pennsylvania law for receiving mail in ballots to count is 8 p.m. A state Supreme Court ruling extended that to 5 p.m. on Nov. 6 but that extension is under court challenge. Republicans are asking the Supreme Court to declare that order unconstitutional.  

Republicans asked that, at a minimum, late ballots be kept separate. The state took the action today on its own.

Florida man arrested for allegedly altering governor's voter registration online

Police in Florida have arrested a man they say changed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's address in the state's voter registration database.

DeSantis noticed when he tried to vote in person Monday and was told by a poll worker his address had been changed by an unknown party, according to a report from the Collier County Sherriff's office.

The internet protocol address used to make the change helped police track down the suspect, a 20-year-old Floridian who had recently Googled DeSantis's Wikipedia page for his age so that he could make the change, the report said.

Florida voters whose addresses appear wrong when they go to vote can still cast a provisional ballot.

305,000 unregistered Asian American swing state voters still have time to register, study finds

Lakshmi Gandhi

Thousands of eligible Asian American voters in seven crucial swing states could define the course of the 2020 election if they utilize the same-day voter registration options available to them.

The Research group New American Economy found that there were almost 305,000 currently unregistered Asian Americans living across the seven states in question. Three of the biggest populations live in Nevada (77,400), Michigan (63,800) and Minnesota (58,700).

The study found that because seven out of 13 swing states have same-day registration, Asian immigrants and other potential voters of color in those areas would have an outsize influence on the outcome of the Nov. 3 presidential contest if they decide to head to the polls.

New American Economy defined the swing states with same-day registration available as Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Read more here.

Biden hammers Trump over Covid-related consequences of gutting Affordable Care Act

Joe Biden on Wednesday drilled down on President Trump over his attempted gutting of the Affordable Care Act, saying that the law’s dismantling would result in thousands of people who'd been sickened with Covid-19 also, possibly, not being able to have access to insurance or a free vaccine

Referring to the Trump administration’s efforts to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act, Biden said Trump "is on a single mind crusade to strip Americans of their healthcare."

"That would only create another enormous crisis in the public health system," he said during a brief speech to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Nov. 10 in a case challenging the health care law.

"If you have diabetes, asthma, or even complications from COVID-19, you're going to lose the protection," Biden said, noting also Obamacare mandates that insurers cover many vaccines. "Overturning the ACA can mean the people have to pay to get a COVID-19 vaccine, once it's available."

Democratic Senate candidates have ad spending advantage in nearly every competitive race

Melissa Holzberg

Democratic Senate candidates have outspent Republicans in TV and radio ad spending in nearly every competitive Senate race, according to data from Advertising Analytics. 

In Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, one Georgia seat, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas the Democratic challenger or incumbent has outspent the Republican on TV and radio ads. The only race where Republicans have outspent Democrats is the special election in Georgia which features two Republican candidates, Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Rep. Doug Collins, and just one chief Democratic candidate, Rev. Raphael Warnock. 

Read more here.

Obama to join Biden in Michigan on Saturday

Nicole Via y Rada

Obama will join Biden on the campaign trail at a stop in Michigan this Saturday. 

The former president has made solo campaign appearances in Orlando and Pennsylvania this past week on behalf of the Democratic nominee. 

Saturday's event will be the first time since Biden won the nomination that the former running mates campaigned in-person together.

Biden slams Trump after rallygoers left in the cold

Joe Biden lashed out at Trump after hundreds of the president's supporters were left in the freezing cold for hours after a rally at an airfield in Omaha.

"It's an image that captured President Trump's whole approach in this crisis, he takes a lot of big pronouncements. He makes a lot of big pronouncements, but they don't hold up," he told reporters during a brief speech in Wilmington, Delaware. "He gets his photo op and he gets out. He leaves everyone else to suffer the consequence of his failure to make a responsible plan."

Bidens cast their ballots

Marianna Sotomayor

Joe Biden cast his ballot for president in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday afternoon shortly after delivering remarks on Covid-19. He was joined by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden.

Georgia poll: Biden holds lead among registered voters

Natalia Abrahams

Joe Biden leads with 50 percent in a new poll of Georgia registered voters by Monmouth University, compared to Trump who was supported by 45 percent of voters.

Georgia has consistently voted for Republicans in recent elections, but polling this year has shown a tight race. Biden campaigned there on Tuesday.

According to Monmouth, over half of Georgia’s registered voters have already cast their ballots. While Biden leads amongst those who have already voted, Trump is still expected to win the election day vote.

Democrats are also gaining traction in the state’s Senate races. The Republican incumbent David Perdue has lost his advantage to Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff. A major shift from just a month ago where Perdue was holding a solid 5 percentage point lead.

The state’s other Senate seat will be decided by special election, where again Democrats are holding a lead with candidate Raphael Warnock.

The poll of 504 registered voters was conducted Oct. 23 to 27 and has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points. 

NYC-based organization helps senior citizens travel to early voting sites

A NYC-based organization is working to help transport senior citizens to early voting sites in Harlem this week.

The Harlem-based community group solutionsNOW launched their “Seniors to the Polls” initiative as a way to make sure senior citizens could safely vote amid the pandemic.

"Now more than ever, we know the importance of voting or not voting and what that can lead to," Erin Ruby, a co-founder of the group, told NBC News, adding, "We don’t want physical access to be a barrier to vote."

"Seniors to the polls" volunteers and voters stand outside an early voting site in the Harlem neighborhood of New York on Oct. 28, 2020.
"Seniors to the polls" volunteers and voters stand outside an early voting site in the Harlem neighborhood of New York on Oct. 28, 2020.Courtesy solutionsNOW

The organization is providing free shuttle buses to bring senior citizens who are living at various developments in the area to the early polling sites.

Volunteers will be riding on the buses with the seniors, who will be socially distanced, to assist them in getting on and off, as well as standing in lines as placeholders for those who are unable to stand outside in the cold for long periods of time.  

The organization will also offer free transportation to senior citizens in the area on Election Day.

Ernst's Democratic challenger pauses RV tour because of Covid-19 contact

Rebecca Shabadis in Washington, D.C.

The campaign for Democratic Senate candidate Theresa Greenfield in Iowa announced Wednesday that it was temporarily pausing its RV tour because several staffers came into contact with a person last week who tested positive for Covid-19. 

Communications Director Sam Newton said in a statement that the campaign was pausing events including the ones scheduled for Wednesday. Greenfield is in a tight race against incumbent GOP Sen. Joni Ernst.

"Theresa regularly gets tested for COVID-19 and recently tested negative, but she's getting tested again to be safe. She is eager to get back on her GOTV tour once we get test results and we're absolutely certain it's safe to do so, which is hopefully very soon," he said. 

Voting history of Detroit woman, 103, dates back to FDR

The Associated Press

Image: Talu Massey
Talu Massey, who voted for FDR and JFK, is seen at her home in Detroit on Oct. 27.Paul Sancya / AP

DETROIT — Talu Massey is among the millions of Americans who voted before Nov. 3, resulting in record-breaking early turnout. But it's far from the Detroit resident’s first election. Very far. She voted for FDR, after all.

The 103-year-old is proud of her lengthy voting record, saying it’s every citizen’s “civic duty” to take part in the process.

Massey voted absentee in September, eight decades after she cast her first presidential ballot — for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“I don’t remember whether I made each election, but I have been constantly voting,” said Massey, who was born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1917. She moved to Detroit as an infant and has been a resident of the Motor City for 102 of her years, during which she voted for a host of Democrats, including John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama and now Joe Biden.

Massey recently made an appearance in a music video entitled “I Have a Right to Vote” that seeks to educate citizens about the hard-earned right to vote. The four-minute video features “Hamilton” original cast member Christopher Jackson, actors Billy Porter and Hill Harper and others reciting the words of voting-rights icons such as John Lewis and Frederick Douglass. Massey shows up just after tennis great Billie Jean King repeats the words of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Massey, a retiree who worked for the federal government, is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother. Her secret to long life: “I didn’t miss having fun growing up. I played a lot of sports. Clean living,” she said.

Group launches $1 million push to get Democrats to tell their friends to vote

Amanda Golden

Vote Tripling, a nonprofit that tries to increase voter turnout by having people contact their friends, is launching a $1 million program ahead of Election Day, the group told NBC News.

The goal is to text roughly 4 million Democrats in 24 states with competitive races, targeting those who already cast early ballots and therefore are unlikely to be the subject of outreach from campaigns. The group is a progressive behavioral innovation lab that designs, tests and scales behavioral science-based voter turnout tactics.

Their push for "vote tripling" will ask volunteers to text three friends and remind them to vote, hoping to inspire those who aren’t already engaged in the election. The hope is that the contact tree will grow.

“What is found, study after study, is that the very best way to get someone to vote is for them to be encouraged by one of their friends,” said Robert Reynolds, founder of VoteTripling.org. “This type of friend-to-friend engagement affirms the true, sincere power people have to motivate others to vote. Unlike other forms of mobilization, this doesn’t feel like a chore to voters: they like being asked to do it.”

 The group's trial runs have found that "vote tripling"  boosts turnout and scales faster than other friend-to-friend voter turnout tactics. In the 2018 midterms, Vote Tripling worked with 26 Democratic campaigns to get out the vote, enlisting over 18,000 volunteers.

 

Hillary Clinton says she may pack 'a bag lunch' to wait in line and vote

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said she hasn't voted yet, but she's prepared to pack "a bag lunch" and wait on line for hours to cast her ballot for Joe Biden.

Clinton, who was able to bypass the line to vote for herself in 2016, said she's held off on voting so far because of the lengthy waits, but will bite the bullet soon. 

"I was going to vote early. That was my current plan because New York has done it for the first time. But the lines, even with where I live are like two, three, four hours long. So I'm waiting for either a break in the line so I can vote early or I'll just, you know, take up a bag lunch and go stand in line, hold on Election Day, depending upon what I can get done," she told SiriusXM’s Signal Boost in an interview Wednesday. 

Clinton, who was leading in the polls heading into Election Day in 2016, said: "I'll be nervous. I'm always nervous on election days, not matter whether I'm running or not. And obviously this year, I'm incredibly focused on it." 

Adding to her anxiety, she said, is concern it may take some time to determine who won the election. "I am worried that we're not going to have a final conclusion, though, for a couple of days, if not longer," she said. 

Asked if she could could see President Donald Trump being re-elected, she said: "No. I don't think about it. I refuse to."

 

In the final 48 hours of his campaign, Trump plans to hold 11 rallies

Natalia Abrahams and Monica Alba

Trump will attempt to hold 11 rallies in several key states in the final 48 hours before Election Day, according to a campaign official.

Trump is expected to spend the majority of his time in Pennsylvania, Florida and North Carolina — although a final schedule hasn’t been set. According to the campaign official, the strategy is to have him in as many places as possible.

His campaign announced Wednesday that he’ll appear at events on Friday in Michigan and Minnesota and in Wisconsin, where Biden will also be campaigning on that day.

Trump is being vastly outspent by Biden in battleground states. And for most of the summer and early fall, Trump was unable to hold in-person campaign rallies because of the ongoing pandemic, denying him his primary tool to counter being outspent. 

Advisers have told Trump they think he can potentially bump up his vote by half a percentage point to a full point by demonstrating “effort” and “energy” with so many events in the final days. Since the president's return to the campaign trail, he’s done 26 large events.

TikTok follows Facebook and Twitter, will limit premature claims of victory

Save those lip-syncs of "We Are the Champions."

TikTok announced Wednesday that it will be working with fact checkers to reduce the "discoverability" of clips that claim victory before Trump or Biden is declared the victor by The Associated Press.

The move follows similar precautions put in place by Facebook and Twitter that are part of efforts to limit the spread of misinformation about the outcome of the election.

"Out of an abundance of caution, if claims can't be verified or fact-checking is inconclusive, we'll limit distribution of the content," Eric Han, head of safety for TikTok U.S., wrote in a blog post. "We'll also add a banner pointing viewers to our election guide on content with unverifiable claims about voting, premature declarations of victory, or attempts to dissuade people from voting by exploiting COVID-19 as a voter suppression tactic."

The president has repeatedly cast doubt on the election and pushed misleading information, including saying that recently that the U.S. must have the "final total" of votes on Nov 3. Votes are always counted well after Nov. 3, with election results certified by by states weeks later.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf joins "TODAY" to discuss President Trump's comments during a campaign stop in Allentown that questioned the voting process in the state. 

Young voters in swing states are a big part of the early surge. That could boost Biden

Younger Americans are voting early in droves this cycle, far outpacing their pre-Election Day turnout in several key swing states at this time in 2016.

So far, voters ages 18 to 29 have cast more than 6 million early votes, according to data from NBC News Decision Desk/Target Smart, a Democratic political data firm. Four years ago at the same time, the number was about 2 million.

The increase is visible in states such as Ohio, Texas, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina — swing states that saw substantial early voting last time around.

Continue reading on NBCNews.com. 

With just six days until Election Day, President Trump and Joe Biden are hitting key battleground states hard while voters head to the polls early in record numbers. NBC White House correspondent Peter Alexander reports for TODAY.

First Read: Biden is vastly outspending Trump in the final week

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Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann and Melissa Holzberg

No, the Trump campaign isn’t broke. But it sure is facing a significant cash crunch in the final days of the 2020 race.

Trump's campaign has $10.1 million booked on television and radio ads between Wednesday and Election Day, compared to Biden's $50 million, according to Advertising Analytics, per NBC’s Ben Kamisar.

The president can still count on a big assist from the Republican National Committee, which is spending another $12.6 million in key swing states like Florida, as well as from outside groups set to spend tens of millions more.

Continue reading on NBCNews.com. 

In battleground states, Trump grapples with a surging foe: The coronavirus

Image: Donald Trump
President Donald Trump at a rally Tuesday in Lansing, Mich.Evan Vucci / AP

LANSING, Mich. — President Donald Trump's campaign stops on Tuesday read like a rundown of some of the nation's top coronavirus hot spots.

There was Wisconsin, where the rate of positive tests has passed 25 percent. Nebraska, where health officials are reporting the highest number of hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic. And Michigan, where the number of cases has nearly doubled in recent weeks, and some medical facilities are nearing capacity amid the surge in new infections.

But at the campaign events themselves, and at similar rallies over the presidential race's waning days, the surging numbers haven't been the coronavirus issue on which he has appeared most focused.

Continue reading on NBCNews.com. 

Tenacious D features Buttigieg and Warren in 'Rocky Horror' 'Time Warp' vote video

The band Tenacious D — known for their comedic rock songs — released an election-focused cover of the song "Time Warp" from the musical "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

The video encourages viewers to vote and includes a line up of celebrities and political figures, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Hundreds of Trump supporters stuck on freezing cold Omaha airfield after rally

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Hundreds of President Donald Trump supporters were left in the freezing cold for hours after a rally at an airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday night, with some walking around three miles to waiting buses and others being taken away in ambulances.

Many of those at the rally at the Eppley Airfield faced hours in long lines to get in and clogged parking lots and busy crowds to get out, hours after his Air Force One departed around 9 p.m. Crowds cleared about 12:30 a.m.

According to dispatches from Omaha Police department, recorded by radio communications platform, Broadcastify, at least 30 people including the elderly, an electric wheelchair user and a family with small children were among those requiring medical attention after hours of waiting in the cold at the rally at the Eppley Airfield.

Continue reading on NBCNews.com. 

Poll: Biden leads Trump in Michigan, Wisconsin

Rebecca Shabadis in Washington, D.C.

Biden leads Trump in both Michigan and Wisconsin, according to Washington Post-ABC News polls released Wednesday. 

The surveys found that Biden leads Trump by 7 percentage points in Michigan, 51 percent to 44 percent. In Wisconsin, 57 percent said that they support Biden compared to 47 percent who back Trump. 

The president narrowly carried both states in the 2016 presidential election. 

The poll also found that more than half of registered voters in both states trust Biden more than Trump to handle the coronavirus pandemic. 

Obama takes hard swings at Trump while campaigning in Florida

Trump to suburban women: 'We're getting your husbands back to work'

The Associated Press

President Donald Trump has a new message to suburban women as he campaigns in Michigan: "We're getting your husbands back to work."

Trump, who polls show has diminishing support from suburban women, also criticized the restrictions put in place to slow the spread of Covid-19.

He told women in the crowd of thousands in Lansing: "We’re getting your husbands back to work, and everybody wants it and the cure can never be worse than the problem itself."

The comments came as part of criticism of the state’s governor, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. The crowd also chanted, “Lock her up!”

Trump took credit for the actions of federal law enforcement in disrupting an alleged plot to kidnap Whitmer, while seemingly raising questions about the seriousness of the threat.

“It was our people that helped her out with her problem,” Trump says. “And we’ll have to see if it’s a problem. Right? People are entitled to say, ‘Maybe it was a problem, maybe it wasn’t.’”

Trump campaign website hacked

President Donald Trump's campaign website appeared to fall victim to hackers on Tuesday night.

"This site was seized," read a message that was briefly posted on a page at donaldjtrump.com. The "world has had enough of the fake news spreaded daily" by the president, the message continued.

The message said it had information that "discredits" the president and his family, and demanded cryptocurrency to either release or withhold the information.

A screengrab of www.donaldjtrump.com
A screengrab of www.donaldjtrump.com

The site then appeared to go offline soon after, and was restored minus the hacked message a short time later.

A spokesman for the Trump campaign, Tim Murtaugh, said, "The website was defaced and we are working with law enforcement authorities to investigate the source of the attack. There was no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site. The website has been restored."

Click here for the full story.

 

North Carolina's Senate race hit with a sexting scandal and a Covid diagnosis. Do voters care?

Sen. Thom Tillis has had a busy week.

The first-term Republican senator voted to confirm a new Supreme Court Justice, campaigned with Vice President Mike Pence, gave several rounds of media interviews and announced a packed schedule of events in the final days of his re-election bid.

Tillis' Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham, rocked by weeks of controversy, has been a bit harder to find.

His last scheduled interview was several weeks ago, and journalists requesting sitdowns say they're finding their calls unreturned. While he's still speaking to voters, many events are entirely virtual, and local reporters complain his campaign is no longer sending out schedules to the media.

And yet his campaign, pivotal in determining who controls the chamber, is still seen as one of the Democrats' best chances to flip a Senate seat this year.

Tillis announced he tested positive for the coronavirus on Oct. 2 after attending a White House event for Amy Coney Barrett. That same day, Cunningham, a married father of two and an officer in the Army Reserve who has centered his campaign on his character, was caught in a sexting scandal and later admitted to having an extramarital relationship.

Click here for the full story.

Texas Supreme Court upholds governor's order for one ballot drop-off site per county

Dartunorro Clark

The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Gov. Greg Abbott's order limiting counties to one drop-off site for absentee ballots, dealing a blow to Democrats and voting rights groups that won a temporary injunction blocking the mandate.

"The Governor's October Proclamation provides Texas voters more ways to vote in the November 3 election than does the Election Code. It does not disenfranchise anyone," the court said in its ruling.

Democrats and voting rights groups said Abbott's Oct. 1 order, which allowed for only one absentee ballot drop off location for every county regardless of its size, amounted to voter suppression because the order would affect the state's largest cities, such as Houston, some of which are Democratic strongholds.

Click here for the full story.

Trump stumps in Nebraska, pleads: 'Get the heck out and vote'

Dartunorro Clark

President Donald Trump stumped in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday, urging his supporters to vote while slamming Joe Biden with familiar attacks regarding the economy and the coronavirus pandemic. 

"I am standing here, freezing — I ask you one little favor," Trump told the crowd. "Get the heck out and vote."

Trump is trailing in national polls but is ahead in Nebraska. At the rally, he blasted Biden for the size of his rallies and also hit former President Barack Obama.

"They are trying to figure out like if Trump is getting these crowds and Biden is getting like 12 people, you know the circles. He fills in the circles," Trump said. He went on to claim that the coronavirus is not the reason for small numbers of people attending Biden's in-person events. "That's not the reason, okay? That's not the reason. It's a hell of an excuse but it's not the reason,” Trump said. 

Trump is spending time in the final stretch of the campaign in Nebraska because if the Electoral College is down to a single vote to the winning 270, unlike most states, which use a winner-takes-all system, Nebraska divides its Electoral College votes. It gives two to the winner of the statewide vote and one to the winner of each congressional district. Maine, where Trump has also spent time in the final days, has the same system. 

5 things to watch in the final week of the 2020 campaign

The flood of information coming to voters in the final week of an election can seem overwhelming.

Most of them just want to know one data point: the name of the winner. That information will have to wait at least until Election Day on Tuesday — and possibly beyond that. But there are ways to sift through bluster, spin and punditry to get a sense of how things are going between now and then.

In that vein, here's what to keep an eye on over the next week.

Democratic presidential effort poised to outspend Republicans in race's final days

President Trump's campaign looks to be heavily outspent on TV and radio ads in the final six days ahead of Election Day.

Trump's campaign has $10.1 million booked on television and radio between Wednesday and Election Day, compared to Biden's $46.9 million, according to Advertising Analytics, an ad-tracking firm. 

The president can still count on a big assist from the Republican National Committee, which is spending another $12.6 million in key swing states, and from outside groups set to spend tens of millions more.

But when all aligned outside groups are combined with the campaign's future spending, Democrats are set to outspend Republicans $93.4 million to $40.7 million on the presidential ad airwaves in the closing days. 

More about the Trump campaign's spending here.