Welcome to your daily update ahead of the US presidential election on November 3. With fourteen days to go, we watch President Donald Trump launch a frontal attack on the ‘American Jaap van Dissel’ and the Democrats achieve a legal victory in ‘battleground state‘ Pennsylvania.
Trump versus Fauci
Trump is firmly targeting one of his own officials: immunologist Anthony Fauci, a White House corona advisor. “People say, ‘It will be. Just leave us alone.’ They are tired of it. People are tired of listening to Fauci and those other idiots, but I can’t fire him, “the president complained during a conference call with his campaign team Monday morning. He called the immunologist a “disaster.”
The immediate cause for the president’s wrath: an interview with the immunologist in the current affairs program 60 Minutes, which aired Sunday. Fauci contradicted Trump’s claim that the end of the pandemic is in sight. The immunologist also said that the president’s corona contamination did not surprise him, having previously found that the White House was not following proper precautions.
Journalists asked Trump about his criticism of the immunologist later on Monday. “Fauci is a very nice guy. He gets a lot of time on television. Yes, he is on TV a lot. He likes that and we let him do his thing”, said the president. “Sometimes he says things that are a little bit weird and a little bit wrong, but I don’t want to hurt him. He’s been here for 350 years, I don’t want to hurt him.”
“Mr. President, you are right about one thing: the American people are tired,” Trump’s opponent Joe Biden said. a statement. “The people are tired of your lies about the virus. It’s tired of seeing more Americans die and more people losing their jobs because you refuse to take this pandemic seriously.”
Trump and Fauci have regularly collided with each other since the beginning of the corona crisis. The ratios hit rock bottom recently, after the immunologist was skeptical of the president’s promises that there will be a vaccine before the end of the year and that every American can benefit from experimental treatments in the short term.
It seems that Trump has not finished his all-out attack on the doctor. In a interview met Fox and Friends he said earlier today that Fauci is “not a team player”.
Whether he will win over many moderate voters with this strategy is the question. Polls in recent months have consistently shown that about two-thirds of Americans consider 79-year-old Fauci to be a reliable source of information about the coronavirus. For the president, the share was about a quarter. Among Republicans, Fauci will be quickly less popular, but they already vote for Trump.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (Photo: ANP)
Late votes may still be counted in Pennsylvania
The Democrats won a victory in the Supreme Court on Monday. That addressed the question of whether postal votes arriving up to three days after election day in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania should still be counted. The state’s highest court previously ruled that the pandemic and postal delays were such grace period justify. This also applies to ballots without postmark, provided there is no other proof that they were sent before 3 November.
The Republicans asked the country’s highest court to suspend that ruling. This took the votes of five of the eight chief justices, but the score was 4-4. Conservative court president John Roberts joined his three progressive colleagues. The judges’ considerations were not disclosed.
At the end of last week, the Pennsylvania government announced that nearly 1.8 million Democrats have already applied for a ballot for early or postal voting, compared to some 670,000 Republicans. The extension of the deadline is therefore likely to be mainly in favor of the Democratic Party.
Due to this legal development, the election results are expected to take even longer. Pennsylvania was already expected to be one of the last states to finish counting. Early votes may not be counted until election day. The congress of the state, of which both chambers are in Republican hands, said it does not want to change this.
The outcome in the Supreme Court shows that the incoming new Chief Justice, conservative Amy Coney Barrett, may play a decisive role in future election disputes. She is expected to wear a black robe by the end of this month.
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The first debate between the presidential candidates on September 29 was a chaotic and hostile spectacle. (Photo: ANP)
Further…
- During the last debate between Trump and Biden, Friday morning from 3:00 AM (Dutch time), a mute button assuring each candidate of two minutes of uninterrupted speaking time per question. This is followed by a free discussion of 15 minutes, during which the button will not be used. Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien called the decision “a last-ditch effort to give the debate committee’s favorite candidate an advantage.”
- According to it US Elections Project More than 34 million Americans have already voted. That is 24.5 percent of the total votes in 2016. In the nineteen states that register whether a voter is affiliated with a party, 52.8 percent of the votes cast to date have been cast by a Democrat and 25.2 percent. by a Republican.
Thank you for your attention and see you tomorrow! Do you have questions about the US Presidential Race, a suggested topic or other comments? Send an email to [email protected].
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