A new SurveyUSA poll in North Carolina finds Cal Cunningham (D) leading Sen. Thom Tillis (R) in the U.S. Senate race by 10 points, 49% to 39%.
Cunningham was up by seven points in the September poll.
Fauci Says Trump Rallies Are Not a Good Idea
Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN that the new planned Trump campaign rallies are not a good idea, especially as infection rates are increasing across the country.
Said Fauci: “Now is even a worse time to do that.”
When the Doorbell Rings at 2:15 AM
The Nobel Prize committee couldn’t reach Paul Milgrom to share the news that he won the Nobel Prize in Economics, so his fellow winner and neighbor Robert Wilson knocked on his door in the middle of the night.
The moment was caught on his video door bell.
Trump Funnels Record Subsidies to Farmers
New York Times: “Federal payments to farmers are projected to hit a record $46 billion this year as the White House funnels money to Mr. Trump’s rural base in the South and Midwest ahead of Election Day.”
“The gush of funds has accelerated in recent weeks as the president looks to help his core supporters who have been hit hard by the double whammy of his combative trade practices and the coronavirus pandemic.”
Klobuchar Says Democrats Can’t Block Barrett
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) acknowledged on Monday that Democrats do not have “some secret, clever, procedural way to stop” the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, arguing that the only way for Americans to “change the trajectory of this nomination” is by voting, Axios reports.
She added: “And as good as we are, it’s probably not going to be some brilliant cross-examination that is going to change the trajectory of this nomination, but there is one thing that will. And that is the people of this country, that is them voting, that is them understanding exactly what the Republican Party and this administration are doing right now and how it’s going to affect their lives.”
Facebook Will Now Ban Posts Denying Holocaust
Facebook will ban posts that deny the Holocaust in a reversal of a long-held and controversial policy, Bloomberg reports.
Said CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a post: “I’ve struggled with the tension between standing for free expression and the harm caused by minimizing or denying the horror of the Holocaust. My own thinking has evolved as I’ve seen data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence.”
Biden Focuses on Two Big Themes
Gerald Seib: “Donald Trump was elected president in 2016 in part because he understood a few big things about the country’s mood, and stayed focused on them.”
“In similar fashion, Joe Biden leads in 2020 because he has bored in on two big themes that turn out to have broad resonance: The country is ready to unify rather than divide, and the coronavirus is, as he might say, a really big deal.”
Even Pence Couldn’t Articulate GOP’s Vision
Francis Wilkinson: “When the coherent half of the Republican ticket participated in the vice presidential debate this week, it was an opportunity for viewers to learn what the future holds. Yes, Vice President Mike Pence may be a talking-point machine, but to a debate audience that’s a more useful device than a random-lie generator. You can learn things from talking points.”
“There’s only one problem: Republicans have no points to talk about. If elections are about the future, the GOP plans are the blank piece of paper to which President Trump affixed his signature in his Covid photo-op at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.”
Quote of the Day
“Donald Trump and most of my Senate Republican colleagues know the truth: They won’t be able to get away with this after the American people have spoken in this election.”
— Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), quoted by CBS News, on Senate Republicans pushing ahead to confirm a Supreme Court justice just three weeks before the election.
Unofficial Ballot Drop Boxes Pop Up In California
The Orange County Register reports that unofficial ballot drop boxes are popping up throughout California.
“Only county elections officials can oversee ballot drop boxes, choosing the number, location, hours of operation and other details. County registrars are charged with making sure every box follows strict state guidelines for security, including making sure they can’t be tampered with and tracing the chain of custody of all ballots.”
Bloomberg Enlists Lin-Manuel Miranda
Mike Bloomberg is teaming up with Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda on a new ad campaign targeting Puerto Rican voters in Florida on behalf of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
In 2020, the Ground Game Is All Trump
Joshua Darr: “Political scientists are trained to look for campaign effects in situations with unequal effort by campaigns: for example, if one candidate is airing way more ads or receiving outsized media attention. In 2020, the campaign ground game not only meets this definition, but also is lopsided in the opposite direction as recent elections. Trump has over 300 field offices, according to my data, while Biden has no traditional offices — a complete reversal of the typical partisan pattern…”
“The Biden campaign’s complete lack of offices is explained by the coronavirus pandemic, and isn’t without logic. Sixty-three percent of voters are uncomfortable with canvassers knocking on their door…”
“Overall, it’s not clear if Trump is winning at voter contact or if Biden is playing a completely different game on a separate field. Biden is staying on message and prioritizing public health guidelines, while Trump is pressing any possible advantage he can get — and possibly pressing his luck — by sending volunteers to meet voters and each other in person.”
Amateur Hour at the Trump White House
John Harris and Daniel Lippman: “Nearly everyone remembers the old cliché: If you can’t trust someone to get the little things right, how can you ever count on them to do the big things?”
“President Trump had better hope that bromide, invoked everywhere from youth sports teams to sales training sessions, doesn’t apply to him.”
“As his presidency lurches toward a climactic judgment on Nov. 3, the little things lately have rarely gone more pervasively or embarrassingly wrong — at a time when public confidence in Trump’s handling of the big things is hardly robust.”
Meadows Refused to Speak to Reporters with Mask
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows pulled a microphone toward him to speak to reporters on Capitol Hill and then began to remove his mask from his face.
When a reporter insisted he keep his mask on, Meadows said he was more than 10 feet away.
After the reporter objected, Meadows turned to leave, saying: “I’m not going to talk through a mask.”
Kamala Harris Calls Hearing ‘Reckless’
Appearing virtually at the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Sen. Kamala Harris said the “reckless” hearing “should have been postponed,” ABC News reports.
She added: “This hearing has brought together more than 50 people to sit inside of a closed-door room for hours while our nation is facing a deadly airborne virus.”
New Battleground State Polls
From St. Leo University:
- FLORIDA: Biden 49%, Trump 43%
From Whitman Insight Strategies:
- PENNSYLVANIA: Biden 51%, Trump 46%
From New York Times/Siena:
- MICHIGAN: Biden 48%, Trump 40%
- WISCONSIN: Biden 51%, Trump 41%
Trump’s Gamble Falling Short
Amy Walter says that Donald Trump’s “thread the needle” re-election strategy required four main elements:
- A united, enthusiastic and engaged Republican base;
- A deeply flawed opponent;
- Decent support among independent voters (Even as Trump ran up the score among his base in 2016, he also carried independent voters by 2-points.);
- Third-party candidates siphoning off enough votes to allow Trump to win key states with a plurality as he did in 2016.
“Oh, and of course, it would also help to have a good economy, and not have a majority of Americans think that you have mismanaged a major health crisis.”
“Right now, only #1 is there for him. Even that rock-solid support from his base is looking shaky in the wake of his disastrous debate performance and COVID diagnosis.”
Michigan Senator Shares His Abortion Story
Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who is in a tight re-election race against anti-abortion challenger John James (R), shared a painful story with Elle magazine of his wife having a second-trimester abortion to save her life.
