Trump news: President accuses Democrats of anti-Catholic bias at charity event after Biden speaks of his faith

Campaign rages at debates commission plans to add ‘structure’ to next events

Trump rows back and says he 'doesn't know who the Proud Boys are' after debate outrage

Donald Trump and Joe Biden gave back-to-back remarks at the 2020 Alfred E Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, broadcast virtually from New York, typically a tuxedo affair that during an election year features candidates delivering chummy remarks and discussions of faith during the Catholic charities fundraiser.

This year, the president accused his rival’s party of housing “anti-Catholic bigotry" as he pitched his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, moments after Mr Biden invoked his own Catholic faith.

The former vice president spoke to the “hope and possibility” for America’s future as it emerges from the public health crisis.

Their appearances follows Tuesday’s chaotic debate, though the president’s campaign has pushed against the Commission for Presidential Debates plan to add more “structure” to the next rounds after the opener was marred by constant cross-talk and the president’s interruptions.

His campaign accused the nonpartisan committee of political bias and listed a number of unofficial online polls declaring the president the winner of the first debate. 

Fox News’ anchor Chris Wallace, who moderated the first debate between Mr Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden, said it was the president who “bears the primary responsibility for what happened.”

The White House was repeatedly asked to “unambiguously” denounce white supremacy, following remarks by the president at the debate urging nationalist gang the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during while he dodged demands to condemn white supremacism.

Republicans have distanced themselves from his remarks while the FBI warns that the election and pre-inaugural period could be potential for violent “flashpoint” among right-wing extremists.

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Key points:

• Trump issues partisan attacks on rival party at Catholic fundraiser
• White House asked to denounce white supremacy group
• President attacks Ilhan Omar as crowd chants ‘Lock her up!’
• Trump U-turns on Proud Boys and claims not to know who they are
• Brad Parscale leaves re-election campaign after arrest
• Presidential debate rules to be redrawn after Tuesday’s toxic bout

[1 October 2020 20:56 · Danielle Zoellner]

Chris Wallace ‘sad’ after moderating chaotic Trump-Biden debate: ‘A terrible missed opportunity’

Chris Wallace said he was sad after hosting the first presidential debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden earlier this week, describing the event as “a terrible missed opportunity”.

The Fox News anchor who moderated the debate on Tuesday night said he had “no way” of knowing beforehand how the president would routinely interrupt him and Mr Biden, adding that he had “never been through anything like this” in an interview with the New York Times.

Chris Riotta reports: 

[1 October 2020 21:08 · Danielle Zoellner]

BREAKING NEWS: Trump campaign launches blistering attack on debates commission as moderator Wallace blames president for debacle

Donald Trump's campaign was in meltdown mode on a press call about the Commission on Presidential Debates on Thursday, accusing the nonpartisan organisation of political bias and rattling off obscure online polls showing the president won Tuesday's debate.

At virtually the same time on Thurdsay, the moderator of the first debate, Fox News host Chris Wallace, said on his programme that Mr Trump "bears the primary responsibility for what happened" at the debate that was widely criticised as a national disgrace for its chaotic format, incessant interruptions, and general lack of policy substance.

The president "was determined to butt in and throw Joe Biden off," Mr Wallace said, adding that he had initially — and erroneously — believed the debate's rules would lead to a productive evening of presidential discourse.

Griffin Connolly reports: 

[1 October 2020 21:35 · Danielle Zoellner]

Donald Trump is biggest single source of coronavirus misinformation researchers say

Donald Trump is the biggest individual source of coronavirus misinformation, according to a new study.

Researchers at Cornell University found that mentions of the president were responsible for 38 per cent of the overall “misinformation conversation” and the single largest factor in what they branded an “infodemic.”

“The biggest surprise was that the president of the United States was the single largest driver of misinformation around Covid,” Sarah Evanega, the director of the Cornell Alliance for Science and the study’s lead author told the New York Times.

Graeme Massie reports: 

[1 October 2020 22:00 · Alex Woodward]

Trump campaign blusters in MSNBC interview on misleading Facebook ads

Here’s MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin kicking Donald Trumps’s campaign adviser Steve Cortes off air after he had accused the outlet of creating a “gotcha” moment for questioning the campaign’s own ads published on Thursday.

“This is the first time I have seen that so I can’t comment on it,” Mr Cortes said. “Frankly, I’m not going to take your word for it and I’m not going to take MSNBC’s word for it."

The ads promote a discredited conspiracy that Joe Biden relied on, or was planning to use, an earpiece during Tuesday’s debate.

It’s an old trick. I wrote about it here:

[1 October 2020 22:20 · Alex Woodward]

More on the Trump campaign’s Facebook ads: Team Trump promotes earpiece conspiracy with doctored image of Biden

Donald Trump’s campaign has published dozens of ads on Facebook and Instagram featuring doctored images showing Joe Biden wearing earbuds below a bar of text asking, “Who’s in Joe’s ear?"

If removed, it would be the second round of ads taken down by the platform this week, after it pushed a video claiming refugee admissions were linked to Covid-19 transmission – a remarkable piece of disinfo previewing the mess of “fake news” coming to social media as the election is underway.

We’ll let you know when we hear from Facebook.

[1 October 2020 22:50 · Alex Woodward]

Trump adviser baselessly casts doubt on Ilhan Omar’s US citizenship in latest racist attack

Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes, without evidence, suggested there’s “a lot of questions” about Ilhan Omar, a citizen who came to the US as a child refugee from Somalia, and whether her naturalisation was legitimate.

His comments follow the president’s ongoing attacks against the congresswoman, among the first Muslim women to serve Congress.

[1 October 2020 23:32 · Alex Woodward]

Big: Trump’s SCOTUS pick did not disclose participation in anti-abortion advert

NBC News Correspondent Heidi Przybyla reports that Amy Coney Barrett, Donald Trump’s pick to the US Supreme Court, his third since taking office in 2017, had participated in a 2006 two-page ad slamming the “barbaric legacy" of abortion rights.

The revelation follows fears she would work to undo the landmark ruling in Roe v Wade, which provides constitutional protection to women’s healthcare.

[1 October 2020 23:52 · Alex Woodward]

Trump campaign launches blistering attack on debates commission as moderator Wallace blames president for debacle

Donald Trump's campaign was in meltdown mode on a press call about the Commission on Presidential Debates on Thursday, accusing the nonpartisan organisation of political bias and rattling off obscure online polls showing the president won Tuesday's debate.

At virtually the same time,  Chris Wallace said the president "bears the primary responsibility for what happened" at the debate amid the chaos.

Washington correspondent Griffin Connolly has more:

[2 October 2020 00:02 · Alex Woodward]

Stay tuned: Trump and Biden to deliver remarks

Donald Trump and Joe Biden have the rare pleasure of speaking at the same event on Thursday, as both men are scheduled to appear at the 2020 Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, benefiting charities of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

It’s a virtual event this year, so we’ll likely see video conferenced or prepared remarks.

We’ll cover them live.

[2 October 2020 00:34 · Alex Woodward]

Trump says ‘end of pandemic in sight’ as he blames China while Biden invokes ‘hope’

Joe Biden opened his remarks at 2020 Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, delivered virtually, by himself and not in a crowded ballroom in tuxedos, with a reminder why: the public health crisis that has killed 200,000 people.

“A pandemic, a recession, reckoning on race,” he said.

But he urged people to “guard ourselves from recognising this is normal and to numb ourselves from the pain and suffering of millions of Americans.”

He said that while the losses are so catastrophic, and at times one feels like giving up, “there is no quit in America.”

He spoke to a sense of “hope and possibility” while invoking his Catholic faith.

Trump, also speaking on the tragic reasons why the event is held virtually, once again blamed China.

“China shouldn’t have let it happen, but it did,” he said, addressing the spread of the virus in New York City.

The CDC has found that the community transmission of the virus was largely from a European strain. Travel wasn’t restricted from Europe until March.

“The end of the pandemic is in sight,” he said.