Biden news: Former VP says polls can’t be ‘taken for granted’ as he blasts Ivy League snobbery

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, speaking on Thursday (REUTERS)

In dueling campaign stops with the president in Minnesota, Joe Biden mocked Donald Trump for repeatedly saying he will reveal an infrastructure plan that never seems to materialize.  

Mr Trump took particular exception to his opponent's continued reference of a Columbia University study showing implementation of coronavirus guidelines a week earlier would have saved 36,000 lives.

It was the second campaign event in as many days for Mr Biden after his CNN town hall appearance on Thursday night, in which he was mocked for breaking social distancing rules with host Anderson Cooper.

During the event, Mr Biden said he had benefited from white privilege and knew how it felt to be looked down upon because he was from working class Scranton and didn't go to an Ivy League university.

New polls showed Mr Biden well ahead of Mr Trump in Arizona and Maine. But in a call with Senate Democrats on Friday, the party's November contender said he takes nothing for granted and that he plans on appearing in key battleground states as the election enters the final bend.

Despite the continued advantage in the polling and only 46 days left before the public democratically elects the next occupant of the White House, Biden again called on the president to step down from his position in the Oval Office before his first term has expired.

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[18 September 2020 12:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump suggested coronavirus would mean end to hand shakes with ‘disgusting people’, says ex-aide now voting for Biden

Donald Trump once suggested that coronavirus could be a “good thing” because people would not have to shake hands with "disgusting people", according to a former White House aide who helped steer the Trump administration’s response to Covid-19.

In a video released by the Republican Voters Against Trump campaign, former homeland security adviser Olivia Troye said she planned to vote for Biden in November’s election, saying Trump “doesn't actually care about anyone else but himself”

Ooof. You can see it for yourself below:

Here’s Justin Vallejo’s report on the ex-aide to Mike Pence’s brutal reasoning for backing Biden.

[18 September 2020 11:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump and Biden both heading for key battleground state of Minnesota

Minnesota has backed Democratic presidential candidates for nearly half a century and rarely receives much attention during the final stages of the race, when campaigns typically focus their resources on more traditional swing states like Florida or Pennsylvania.

But Minnesota will feel like a genuine battleground on Friday when President Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, campaign here to mark the beginning of early voting.

They're expected to avoid the urban core of Minneapolis to focus on rural and working class voters, some of whom shifted to Republicans for the first time in 2016. Trump will be in Bemidiji, about 200 miles north of Minneapolis, while Biden will swing through Duluth, on the banks of Lake Superior and close to the Wisconsin border.

Since narrowly losing Minnesota in 2016, Trump has focused relentlessly on the state in hopes that a victory this year could offset losses in other states. He has visited regularly and kept a close eye on issues of particular importance to rural corners of the state, reversing an Obama administration policy prohibiting the development of copper-nickel mining and bailing out soybean, corn and other farmers who have been hurt by trade clashes with China.

More recently, he's embraced a "law and order" message aimed at white suburban and rural voters who may be concerned by protests that have sometimes become violent. That's especially true in Minnesota, where the May killing of George Floyd by a police officer sparked a national reckoning on systemic racism.

But for all the work Trump has put into the state, it may elude him again in November.

A series of polls over the past week show Biden has built a consistent lead over Trump. And in the 2018 midterms, Democratic turnout surged in suburbs, small cities and even on the Iron Range, across the blue-collar mining towns that were once labor strongholds but had been trending Republican.

David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth, which has produced anti-Biden ads, said Minnesota may help the Trump campaign build momentum.

"They're looking beyond the poll numbers and seeing the potential there," said McIntosh, a former congressman from Indiana. "It's always smart strategy to go on offense somewhere."

In 2018, Democrats flipped two suburban congressional districts, took back control of the state House by winning suburban Trump-voting areas and came within one seat of winning control of the state Senate. Democrats won every statewide race that year, even as they lost a rural congressional district.

Trump's path to Minnesota success likely depends on finding more votes in rural, conservative areas - running up the score beyond his 2016 tally. It's a strategy he's trying to pull off elsewhere and depends on a robust field operation with the money and time to track down infrequent or first-time voters. That could be a tall order since Minnesota already sports one of the nation's highest voter turnout rates.

"I don't think they're there," said Joe Radinovich, a Democrat who lost a bid for a northern Minnesota congressional district in 2018. Radinovich noted the major organizational challenge and expense in tracking new voters, making sure they're registered and getting them to vote - especially during a pandemic. "We have relatively high turnout already. Most people vote. I just don't think it's there. I think those people showed up in 2016," he said.

In 2016, Trump won that district that includes the Democratic city of Duluth by 15 percentage points. But in the midterms two years later, Radinovich lost by just under six percentage points.

Still, Trump has spent more than a year building a sizable Minnesota ground game. Republicans are out knocking on doors and interacting personally with voters in ways that Democrats mostly have not, preferring online operations amid the coronavirus.

The president's reelection campaign announced this week a $10m ad buy in a series of states, including Minnesota. It has spent nearly $17m on advertising in the state since last October, compared to almost $6.3m for Biden over the same period, according to a review of Kantar/CMAG data by The Associated Press.

Democrats warn that Biden still may have his work cut out for him. Duluth mayor Emily Larson said the Trump campaign has far outpaced Biden in local yard signs — which indicates enthusiasm but may not ultimately affect the outcome.

"One of the things the Trump campaign has been very good about is visibility in Duluth, but also in areas around Duluth," Larson said.

Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, said that while Biden isn't likely to carry the congressional district that includes Duluth, he might be able to pick up enough support there to deny Trump the votes he needs to win statewide.

"If your opponent is on the ropes or on the ground, you don't get up," Martin said.

AP

[18 September 2020 11:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

FBI director warns Russia ‘very active’ in election meddling and seeking to denigrate Biden

Christopher Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee yesterday that the Kremlin has already been “very active” in attempting to hack the upcoming US election (as it was in 2016) and had been working to “denigrate” the Democratic nominee, Vladimir Putin evidently preferring four more years of chaos with Trump.

Here’s what else Wray had to say.

[18 September 2020 10:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

Trump claims Osama bin Laden, Qassem Soleimani and Isis ‘would still be alive’ if Biden were in charge

The president drastically ramped up his ludicrous Twitter attacks on his challenger yesterday, declaring that the late al-Qaeda leader (assassinated during Barack Obama’s tenure) plus the Iranian Quds commander and the Islamist terror faction would all still pose a global threat without him in the White House.

Didn’t he almost bring the international community to the brink of war early in the new year by having Soleimani needlessly taken out? And didn’t that kick 2020 off nicely?

He also remains determined to tie Biden to anti-police sentiment…

 …and to China, neither accusation containing any meaningful substance.

[18 September 2020 10:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

Biden addresses crime, fracking and Trump’s ‘suckers’ comment on military

Here are a few more key exchanges from the candidate’s town hall last night, which he saw him take questions from the public with far greater ease than his rival managed on ABC on Tuesday.

[18 September 2020 09:50 · Joe Sommerlad]

Nominee blasts attorney general as ‘sick’ for comparing mask-wearing to slavery

Another impressive moment for Biden came when he took Bill Barr to task for his shocking attack on coronavirus masks as the greatest assault on civil liberties since slavery.

Here’s Gino Spocchia on Barr’s comments earlier this week for context.

[18 September 2020 09:20 · Joe Sommerlad]

Biden characterises election as ‘Scranton vs Park Avenue’

The Democratic challenger was clearly energised by being back in his old hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, last night and did not miss an opportunity to use the industrial city as a point of contrast between himself and his opponent.

 While busily outlining his many differences from Trump, Biden did also make a point of acknowledging that both men had benefitted from white privilege during their careers.

[18 September 2020 08:52 · Joe Sommerlad]

Biden calls on Trump to step down over ‘criminal’ coronavirus response

Joe Biden lamented America’s “lost” freedoms as a result of Donald Trump’s slow response to the coronavirus pandemic during a CNN town hall on Thursday night, attacking his administration as “thoroughly, totally, irresponsible” and “criminal” as the nation’s death toll neared 200,000.

Speaking from his home town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, the Democratic presidential nominee called on his election opponent to step down, expressing distaste for “guys like Trump, who inherited everything" then "squandered what they inherited”.

Here’s John T Bennett’s report.

[18 September 2020 08:21 · Gino Spocchia]

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election campaign.