Joe Biden
Barack Obama condemned President Donald Trump in a speech on Wednesday at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, urging Americans to vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden as "the next 13 days will matter for decades to come."
"Philadelphia, we got 13 days — 13 days until the most important election of our lifetimes. And you don't have to wait for Nov. 3 to cast your ballot," Obama said.
"Donald Trump isn't suddenly going to protect all of us. He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself," he added. "Here's the truth. I want to be honest here. This pandemic would have been challenging for any president. But this idea that somehow this White House has done anything but completely screw this up is just not true."
The editorial board of American newspaper USA Today has published its first presidential endorsement in its history, urging Americans to vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
"In 2016, we broke tradition in urging you not to vote for Trump. Now we're making our first presidential endorsement. We hope it's our last," so the Editorial Board. "We urged readers not to vote for Donald Trump, calling the Republican nominee unfit for office because he lacked the “temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents.” We stopped short, however, of an outright endorsement of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. This year, the Editorial Board unanimously supports the election of Joe Biden, who offers a shaken nation a harbor of calm and competence."
The former chairman of the Republican National Committee and former lieutenant governor of Maryland, Michael Steele, has endorsed Joe Biden for president.
In an advertisement for the conservative political group "The Lincoln Project" Steele has stated his endorsement for Joe Biden and said: "I'm a lifelong Republican and I'm still a Republican, but this ballot is how we restore the would of our nation, electing a good man, Joe Biden, and a trailblazer, Kamala Harris and ensure an orderly transfer of power or plunge our country into chaos".
Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, picked up the endorsement of the Rolling Stone magazine.
The magazine announced the endorsement on October 19 with an editorial that starts with: "We’ve lived for the past four years under a man categorically unfit to be president. Fortunately for America, Joe Biden is Donald Trump’s opposite in nearly every category."
Joe Biden's town hall event on ABC averaged around 13.9 million viewers while President Donald Trump's had around 13 million viewers across three different channels.
"The words of a president matter, no matter whether they’re good, bad or indifferent, they matter. When a president doesn’t wear a mask, or makes fun of folks like me when I was wearing a mask for a long time, then people say it mustn’t be that important," Biden told host George Stephanopoulos on ABC.
In the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, the former vice president Joe Biden leads Donald Trump 54% to 43% among likely voters. It's the highest difference between both candidates since this poll began testing the Biden-Trump matchup in February.
In 2016, Donald Trump had 46% of the votes nationally but clinched a victory in key states in the Electoral College. The current poll shows Biden ahead in several key states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg declared Saturday support for Democrat Joe Biden in the upcoming US presidential election.
On Twitter, Thunberg wrote: "I never engage in party politics. But the upcoming US elections is above and beyond all that.
From a climate perspective it’s very far from enough and many of you of course supported other candidates. But, I mean…you know…damn!
Just get organized and get everyone to vote #Biden"
Taylor Swift has announced that she will be voting for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
"The change we need most is to elect a president who recognizes that people of color deserve to feel safe and represented, that women deserve the right to choose what happens to their bodies, and that the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to be acknowledged and included," Swift told V Magazine, adding that she believes under Bidenx and Harris, "America has a chance to start the healing process it so desperately needs."
The New England Journal of Medicine, for the first time since it was founded in 1812, has taken a stance on a US presidential election. The publication calls, in an editorial, American voters to throw the president out of office.
The editorial reads "When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent." Although the piece does not name President Donald Trump, or his opponent Joe Biden, it does refer to the Trump administration several times.
The bipartisan Commission of Presidential Debates has announced that the second debate between United States President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden will be held online.
Trump has now stated that he is not planning on participating in the virtual format. He specifically stated that he is "not going to waste" his time on a virtual debate.
The only scheduled vice-presidential debate of the campaign between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris was objectively calmer and more civilized than the previous presidential debate.
In total Pence interrupted Harris ten times, while Harris interrupted Pence five times. Pence spoke for 38 minutes, three minutes longer than Harris.
During the discussion, neither candidate answered a question if they had discussed stepping in for Trump or Biden if one of them would die in office.
In addition, Harris did not answer the question if she and Biden are planning on expanding the number of supreme court seats while Pence refused to state that he would accept the results of the election.
During the debate viewers also discussed a fly sitting on Pence's head for two minutes and his left eye that had a distinctly pinky-red tone.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro rejected a $20 billion offer made by Joe Biden, during the US presidential debate Tuesday, about stopping deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Bolsonaro stated that the government is already taking "unprecedented actions" to protect the forest.
The Brazilian president wrote on Twitter that "The greed of some countries about the Amazon is a reality. However, the externalization by someone who disputes the command of his country clearly signals giving up a cordial and fruitful coexistence.”
Bolsonaro's right-wing government has been widely criticized for its approach to environmental regulations and its handling of destructive fires in the rainforest.
Joe Biden, who was close to President Donald Trump during the first presidential debate on Tuesday night, announced that both he and his wife have tested negative for Covid-19.
"I’m happy to report that Jill and I have tested negative for COVID. Thank you to everyone for your messages of concern. I hope this serves as a reminder: wear a mask, keep social distance, and wash your hands," Biden wrote on Twitter.
General Stanley McChrystal had attacked Joe Biden in the Rolling Stone magazine in 2010 and had subsequently been fired by then-president Barack Obama.
He has now appeared on television stating he thinks that Biden "would set a tone in which he brings out the best of people. Again, not everybody will agree with every policy ― nobody ever will ― and that’s healthy in a democracy" and added that "we have to believe in our values. You have to believe that your commander-in-chief, at the end of the day, is someone you can trust. And I can trust Joe Biden".
President Donald Trump has claimed "he paid millions of dollars in taxes" during the first presidential debate Tuesday, just days after a report by the New York Times showed the president paid no federal income taxes in 10 out of the last 15 years.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden suggested Trump "does take advantage of the tax code" and that the president "pays less tax than a schoolteacher."
"I don't want to pay tax," Trump responded, claiming that all business leaders did the same "unless they are stupid."
During the first presidential debate, moderator Chris Wallace asked President Donald Trump whether he would condemn white supremacists and ask them to stay down during ongoing demonstrations.
"Sure, I’m willing to, but I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing. I’m willing to do anything. I want to see peace," Trump said.
"Who would you like me to condemn?" Trump asked when urged by Biden to condemn the groups and is prompted the far-right group "Proud Boys."
"Proud Boys — stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what. I’ll tell you what. Somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right wing problem," so the president.
According to the BBC, Proud Boys responded to the president's remarks in their Telegram group, writing: "Standing down and standing by sir."
The first presidential debate was 90 minutes of interjections and altercations and moderator Chris Wallace repeatedly had to ask President Donald Trump not to interrupt former Vice President Joe Biden.
President Trump spoke a total of around 38 minutes compared to Biden with 43 minutes. The Covid-19 pandemic took up around 20 minutes of the debate, race and violence 17 minutes, election integrity 11 minutes and climate change 10 minutes. Trump interrupted Biden 73 times.
Key Points:
- President Trump questioned the legitimacy of the November election again and alleged he had seen "tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated." Biden countered that Trump's own FBI director didn't find evidence of widespread voter fraud. "This is all about trying to dissuade people from voting, because he is trying to scare people into thinking that it's not going to be legitimate. Show up and vote. You will determine the outcome of the election," so Biden.
- Biden called Trump "Putin's puppy" who "refuses to say anything to Putin about the bounty on the heads of American soldiers" and "the worst president that America has ever had."
- Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden, and Wallace had to unsuccessfully remind the President about the rules, saying: "Mr President. Your campaign agreed that both sides would get two-minute answers. Uninterrupted. Well, your side agreed to it. Why don't you observe what your campaign agreed to as a ground rule."
- Biden said that Trump has made the country "sicker, poorer, more divided and more violent," adding that during his time as vice president, he fixed the recession his administration inherited. "We left him a booming economy and he caused the recession," Biden said.
- Trump refused to denounce White supremacists, claiming that "almost everything I see is from the left-wing, not from the right-wing. I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace."
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden released his tax information. hours before he was scheduled to square off against President Donald Trump in the first of three presidential debates.
According to the returns, Biden paid nearly $288,000 in income taxes last year.
Biden's wife, Jill, and his California Senator Kamala Harris also released their tax information.
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will meet in the first presidential debate on September 29 at 9:30PM (Eastern Time) as the 2020 election enters into its final weeks.
The debate will take place in Cleveland, will last for an hour and a half, and will be moderated by Chris Wallace, anchor of "Fox News Sunday."
The "Open Letter to America" from the "National Security Leaders for Biden" has been signed by "489 retired Generals, Admirals, Senior Noncommissioned Officers, Ambassadors and Senior Civilian National Security Officials" who are endorsing Joe Biden for president.
Signatories include retired General Paul Selva, Trump's former senior military advisor, former Army Vice Chief of Staff Peter Chiarelli and former State Department Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage (R).
"Thanks to his disdainful attitude and his failures, our allies no longer trust or respect us, and our enemies no longer fear us. Climate change continues unabated, as does North Korea's nuclear program. The president has ceded influence to a Russian adversary who puts bounties on the heads of American military personnel, and his trade war against China has only harmed America's farmers and manufacturers," the letter reads. "We the undersigned endorse Joe Biden to be the next President of the United States. He is the leader our nation needs."