Trump news: President calls out ‘Barack Hussain Obama’ as supporter at Florida rally appears to make ‘white power’ symbol
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Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail on Friday with a rally targeting senior voters at The Villages retirement community in Florida.
Trump made eyebrow-raising claims like Biden taking away seniors' air conditioning and remembering Barack Hussain Obama, as a member of the crowd appeared to make the so-called "white power" dog whistle in the background.
Biden, meanwhile, returned to his home state of Delaware to outline his coronavirus pandemic plan a day after the US hit a record for the number of new Covid-19 cases, announcing a mask mandate on all interstate transportation and in all federal buildings.
The candidates were coming off their final in-person debate, which turned out to be a remarkably civil affair with lower ratings than their previous encounter.
Trump was also back to work in the White House to announce an historic peace deal between Israel and Sudan, with five more - including Saudi Arabia - expected to be announced after the dam broke with United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in recent weeks.
Trump tried to get Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Biden on a phone call in front of reporters. Bibi did not take the bait, with commentators noting that he is probably keeping a keen eye on the current polling numbers.
Veteran GOP pollster Frank Luntz said that Trump may have won the battle of the last debate, but Biden has won the war. He says it's "impossible" for the president turning around voter sentiment this late in the election cycle.
Trump is also up against a campaign that has broken all records for its spend on television and digital advertising in a presidential election, with still more than a week to go before polls close.
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US sees record-breaking increase in infections
As Donald Trump claimed the US was “rounding the corner” on the coronavirus pandemic during Thursday debate with Joe Biden, the country recorded 77,640 new cases - a one-day total higher than at any point to date.
According to NBC News analysis, Thursday’s infections surpassed the previous record of 75,723, set on 29 July.
The record-breaking daily tally comes as the total number of coronavirus cases in the country approaches 8.5 million, with almost 225,000 deaths.
It comes after Dr. Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday afternoon that increases in cases represented a "distressing trend", with coronavirus cases "increasing in nearly 75 percent of the country."
Biden attacks Trump over demand for Central Park Five to face death penalty
The Democratic challenger made light work of rubbishing the president’s claims to have done more for black America than any leader “with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln” during last night’s debate.
While Trump made that preposterous statement and claimed to be “the least racist person in the room”, Biden reminded him of his refusal to apologise for demanding the execution of five innocent black youths in the early 1990s.
Here’s my story.
Biden attacks Trump over demand Central Park Five faced the death penalty
Democrat shames incumbent over intervention in notorious New York wrongful arrest case
Biden warns of 'dark winter' as Trump has 'no plan' for Covid case rise
The candidate’s offered starkly different outlooks on the coronavirus pandemic last night.
The US has suffered an estimated 8.46 million cases of Covid-19 and about 223,000 deaths, with concerns growing that the coming autumn influenza season could be about to make matters worse.
“We’re about to go into a dark winter. A dark winter,” Mr Biden told the audience.
“[Mr Trump] has no clear plan, and there’s no prospect that there’s going to be a vaccine available for the majority of the American people before the middle of next year.”
The president dismissed the Democrat’s pessimism, responding: “I don’t know if we’re going to have a dark winter at all. We’re opening up our country. We’ve learned and studied and understand the disease, which we didn’t at the beginning.”
Here’s my report.
Biden warns of ‘dark winter’ for America as Trump has ‘no plan’ for Covid case rise
‘Anybody responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States,’ Democratic challenger says
How the mute button amplified the differences between Trump and Biden
The threat of being silenced seemed to prompt a complete rethink from the president last night, forcing him to abandon his hectoring style and coming off almost reasonable as a result of it.
But the difference between the two contenders was still as cavernous as ever.
Mute button amplified the differences between Trump and Biden
‘I am the least racist person in this room,’ Trump declared at one point during debate
Mary Trump has received her last Christmas card from her uncle
The president’s niece absolutely eviscerated her relative’s performance on the debate stage last night in conversation with CNN’s Don Lemon, denouncing the “evil” and “incompetence” of his adminstration and declaring: "The only thing more grotesque than the cruelty and the lying is the racism."
"The only safe place for Donald to live is the past," the author of Too Much and Never Enough commented. "He will never take responsibility for anything. Ever."
Matt Mathers has this report.
Donald Trump's niece Mary accuses president of "cruelty", "lies" and "racism" during final debate
‘The only safe place for Donald to live is the past,’ says president’s niece
Trump provokes outrage in India over ‘filthy’ comments
Despite a more cautious approach to his second presidential debate with Joe Biden, president Donald Trump still managed to provoke upset in India, where social media users and politicians picked-up on his comments that the country’s air quality was “filthy”.
Mr Trump, who was praising his withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords, argued that the United States was “treated unfairly” because - in his opinion - Russia, China and India were bigger polluters.
"Look at China, how filthy it is. Look at Russia. Look at India. It's filthy. The air is filthy. I walked out of the Paris Accord as we had to take out trillions of dollars and we were treated very unfairly," Mr Trump said on Thursday night.
Those comments stroke a chord with many Indians, many of whom were aware that the country’s biggest cities can suffer from poor air quality in winter months.
Indian congressman, Salman Nizami, wrote on Twitter: “Filthy means dirty (गंदा). This is what Donald Trump has called India.”
Cuomo hits-back at Trump claims New York a ‘ghost town’
Andrew Cuomo has hit back at Donald Trump after he said New York City was “dying” as a result of Covid restrictions, and had become “a ghost town”.
The president, in the second election debate on Thursday night, used New York City as an example of over-zealous lockdowns, which he said were harming businesses and doing more damage than the virus.
Mr Cuomo, New York’s governor, almost immediately hit-back in a television appearance and said: “New York has a lower infection rate than the White House,”
Harriet Alexander has the report:
Andrew Cuomo hits back at Trump’s ‘ghost town’ comment
New York’s governor pointed out there was a higher infection rate in the White House than in his state
US records more than 77,000 new cases
Donald Trump insisted that the US is “turning the corner” on the coronavirus pandemic as the nation broke its highest single-day infection record with more than 77,000 confirmed cases on Thursday, eight months into the pandemic.
Mr Trump also claimed that the US is “learning to live” with the virus that has killed more than 220,000 Americans, and at least 5,300 in the past week.
Alex Woodward has the report:
Trump insists US 'turning corner' on Covid as cases hit single-day record
As more than 5,000 Americans die from Covid-19 within a week, Joe Biden says ‘anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president’
Astronaut casts ballot in space
Some 50 million ballots have already been cast in the 2020 US election, but not all of them will have been made in space.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins was able to cast her ballot from space ahead of 3 November election day, voting more than 200 miles above earth, onboard the International Space station.
Graeme Massie reports:
Astronaut casts her ballot from the International Space Station
NASA says Kate Rubins also voted from space in 2016 election
AOC attacks Trump’s name-calling and disrespect for women
As the two presidential candidates sparred over climate change proposals on Thursday, Donald Trump name-dropped Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who later hit back at the use of her nickname.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez, universally known as “AOC”, wrote on Twitter that Republicans - including the president - “advertise their disrespect of women” by constantly referring to women’s nicknames.
Mr Trump had, not for the first time, refereed to the New York representative as “AOC plus three”, in an attack on her Green New Deal plan to combat the climate crisis.
She added in another tweet: “AOC is a name given to me by community & the people. Y’all can call me AOC. Government colleagues referring to each other in a public or professional context (aka who don’t know me like that) should refer to their peers as 'Congresswoman,' 'Representative,' etc. Basic respect 101”
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