Trump town hall: President rages against Savannah Guthrie and protesters arrested as Biden holds rival event

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Trump says only Jesus Christ is more famous than him

Donald Trump and Joe Biden took part in dueling town hall appearances on what should have been the night of the second presidential debate.

On the same day that the presidential candidates should have clashed, would-be moderator Steve Scully was suspended by his employer C-Span after seeking advice from an anti-Trump activist and lying about it when confronted.

Instead, Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor of NBC News’s Today show, hosted the Trump town hall in Miami while ABC News' chief anchor, George Stephanopoulos, hosted Biden in Philadelphia.

Key Points

• Biden stays on and answers more questions
• A combative performance from Trump
• Biden : ‘I don’t believe anyone should be going to drug courts for drug use’
• Social media praise for Savannah Guthrie
• Why should people give Trump a second chance?

[15 October 2020 12:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

‘#BoycottNBC’: Network faces backlash after announcing live Trump event on night of cancelled presidential debate

The president and Joe Biden were due to face off in a second presidential debate this evening but will instead feature in rival televised town hall events after Trump refused to take part remotely.  

NBC has been facing sustained criticism for rewarding the president for his obstinacy on social media, as Louise Hall reports. 

[15 October 2020 12:40 · Joe Sommerlad]

Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden hits out at Trump for pushing conspiracy theory

The president promoted a wild story on Twitter yesterday claiming that the Obama-era CIA held the al-Qaeda terrorist in Iran before transporting him to Pakistan to be executed in 2011 as a “trophy kill” to boost the 44th president’s election hopes.

Contradicting itself somewhat, the theory also argues that Bin Laden could still be alive and that a body double was killed in his stead.

Robert J O’Neill, the SEAL credited with assassinating the architect of 9/11, took exception to the president’s messaging on Twitter:

James Crump has more on his withering response.

[15 October 2020 13:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Biden campaign rakes in record-breaking $383m in September fundraising

Trump has yet to release his numbers for last month but would be doing well to get anywhere close to his challenger, who whipped up a record-breaking sum for his election war chest last month that even eclipses his unprecedented fundraising for August, when his campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised $364m.

The haul leaves Biden with $432m in the bank just weeks before the 3 November election.

The gobs of cash the Democrat has raised since securing the nomination amount to a complete reversal in fortune for the former vice president.

During the Democratic primary, he struggled to raise cash and was almost broke by the time he won the South Carolina primary, which catapulted him to a commanding Super Tuesday performance.

In the months since, a flood of donations and low spending has enabled him to eclipse Trump's once-formidable cash reserves.

In the tweet announcing his September haul, Biden thanked his supporters and said he was "humbled."

He added: "There's still more work to be done, but I wanted to share the good news."

Your move Don.

[15 October 2020 13:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

Breonna Taylor’s mother on Trump, race in America and her daughter’s legacy

Andrew Buncombe brings us this exclusive interview with Tamika Palmer, mother of the Louisville woman whose tragic death at the hands of white police officers in a botched raid in March set the stage for the Black Lives Matter protests we saw erupt this summer following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

[15 October 2020 13:40 · Joe Sommerlad]

Treasury secretary says coronavirus relief before Election Day 'difficult' despite Trump's remarks

Steve Mnuchin has admitted that another coronavirus aid package is unlikely to pass before Election Day, as millions of out-of-work Americans await extended unemployment relief eight months after the onset of the pandemic and economic fallout.

"At this point getting something done before the election and executing on that would be difficult," he said at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Wednesday.

Alex Woodward has more on this.

[15 October 2020 14:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

John Bolton denies responsibility for deaths of Iraqi civilians: ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about’

Trump’s estranged ex-national security adviser, one of the leading US advocates of the Iraq War has denied having the deaths of Iraqi people on his conscience, insisting that the war only lasted four weeks and accepting no responsibility for the violence that reigned for years afterwards.

Bolton, who served as UN ambassador under George W Bush before his ill-fated return under Trump, made the comments to veteran interviewer Mehdi Hasan on his show on online service Peacock TV.

Hasan asked Bolton if he really harboured no regrets about the Iraq war, for which he was a loud advocate in the early 2000s.

“All those thousands of people who died in Iraq,” asked Hasan, “all of those innocent Iraqi civilians, men, women, children, killed by US airstrikes, some of them in massacres – Haditha, Mahmudiyah, Balad – none of those weigh on your mind?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” replied Bolton. “The Iraq War, which was the period that lasted about four weeks and resulted in the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, was a brilliant military victory by the United States and other coalition forces.”

Andrew Naughtie has this report.

[15 October 2020 14:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

Mary Trump gives worrying prediction as to what will happen if her uncle loses

The president’s niece has been speaking to CNN’s Don Lemon and says Trump will make sure Biden’s transition period is “unbelievable and disgusting” should he lose the election.

“He's not going to take it well,” Mary Trump told Lemon. “Losing is not an acceptable thing in my family. My grandfather set his business and his family up as a zero-sum game and that meant only one person could win and everybody else needed to lose.”

Greg Evans has this for Indy100.

[15 October 2020 14:40 · Joe Sommerlad]

Amy Coney Barrett hearing resumes as Lindsey Graham confirms 22 October vote

The Senate Judiciary Committee is back in session, although the nominee herself is not present in the chamber today.

This is the big development so far:

Here’s Matt Mathers with what the road ahead looks like.

[15 October 2020 15:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump speaking on Fox Business imminently

We’ll bring you his ravings as they happen.

[15 October 2020 15:15 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump says Pelosi will cave into pressure on economic stimulus package and says no more Covid lockdowns

The president tells Stuart Varney he is optimistic about Capitol Hill agreeing a new bailout before the election and sounds in feisty form, laying into Pelosi and China unprompted and saying Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer “wants to be a dictator”.

He’s leaping all over the place on topics - we’re now onto lockdowns and the coronavirus second wave. 

“We’re not doing any more,” he says of regional shutdowns, before praising Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s response to the coronavirus (which is generally thought to have been disastrous), saying his son Barron is over his bout with the virus and returning to hawking Regeneron.

He says he is tested frequently but not daily and begins laying into New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

Here’s Chris Riotta on the president’s latest attack on Governor Whitmer, just last week revealed to be the subject of a kidnapping plot foiled by the FBI.