Election 2020 live updates: Early voting begins in Florida; Trump and Fauci spar; 6 Russian operatives charged in hacking operation
Early in-person voting begins today in Florida, the battleground state where the Trump and Biden campaigns have increasingly dedicated their time and money in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.
The two campaigns have flooded the state with ads as polls show a tight race there. The Sunshine State’s 29 electoral votes are crucial to a win for both President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris will be in Orlando and Jacksonville Monday to encourage early voting. The California senator is restarting live campaigning after she canceled several weekend campaign events because members of her staff tested positive for COVID-19.
The two camps also are looking ahead to Thursday, when Biden and Trump will meet in a final debate in Nashville and the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on the confirmation of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
☕ The latest:
- The latest on stimulus: Will Republicans and Democrats reach a deal by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Tuesday deadline? Here what we know about COVID-19 relief talks.
- Bill Barr: The attorney general’s steadfast defense of President Donald Trump has drawn the Justice Department into the middle of partisan politics.
- John Brennan: The ex-CIA director told USA TODAY in an interview he worries about the social and political havoc President Donald Trump may unleash between Election Day and Inauguration Day if Joe Biden wins.
- Where are the candidates?: While Harris is in Florida, President Donad Trump holds rallies in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. Vice President Mike Pence campaigns Monday in Maine and Pennsylvania.
- Third debate: Trump attacked NBC News White House Correspondent Kristen Welker days before she moderates the final debate in Nashville on Thursday.
📊 What the polls are saying: Joe Biden still holds a commanding lead nationally over President Donald Trump, but Trump regained a slight polling average advantage in Ohio and took a chunk out of Biden’s gains in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. Meanwhile, Biden made gains in Georgia. Here’s what we learned from this week’s polls.
📆 15 days until Election Day, three days until the final presidential debate, 93 days until Inauguration Day, 75 days left in 2020.
🗳️ Voting: See USA TODAY’s Voter Guide for information on registering to vote, when your state begins voting and what the candidates think about the issues.
We will update this article throughout the day. You can follow all of USA TODAY’s politics reporters on Twitter or subscribe to our daily On Politics newsletter.
6 Russian intelligence operatives charged in global hacking operation; same group linked to 2016 election
Six Russian intelligence officers have been charged in a global computer hacking operation that targeted at least three countries and the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
The seven-count indictment unsealed Monday outlined what federal authorities described as the most “disruptive and destructive” effort attributed to a single operation, said Assistant Attorney General John Demers, chief of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Federal authorities said the Russian operatives were associated with the same group, known as the “Sandworm” team of military unit 74455, that was linked to Russia’s campaign to interfere with the 2016 U.S. election.
The action Monday does not include charges of election interference in the current United States election, but it does allege that the group sought to disrupt 2017 elections in France and destablize the governments of Ukraine and Georgia while attempting to sabotage computer networks supporting the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
– Kevin Johnson
Trump denies aides think he will lose election, says Fauci is a disaster
Facing polls that give Joe Biden double-digit leads – and news reports that some of his aides believe he will lose the election – President Donald Trump sought Monday to boost the morale of his staff with a pep talk.
“These are suppression stories and suppression polls,” Trump said during a 25-minute conference call.
Trump claimed “internal polls” show him ahead in key states – though he did not share details – and attacked reporters for promoting “fake news” about doubts within his campaign team.
The incumbent repeated deeply personal attacks on Biden, calling him “corrupt” and saying “he should be in jail,” despite a lack of any evidence of wrongdoing by the Democratic nominee.
Fauci and Trump:After Fauci said he’s not surprised Trump got COVID-19, president calls top disease experts a ‘disaster’
The president also criticized members of his own administration, singling out Dr. Anthony Fauci and saying that firing the infectious diseases expert would be more trouble than it’s worth.
Trump claimed Fauci drops a “bomb” every time he goes on television, but “there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him. This guy’s a disaster.”
Voters in numerous polls have questioned Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, but Trump said people don’t want to hear about the pandemic and are saying “just leave us alone.”
“People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots,” Trump said.
Published polls paint a different picture than the one Trump gave his staff.
An analysis of various polls from FiveThirtyEight gives Biden 52.5% of the national vote, compared to 41.8% for Trump, a difference of 10.7 percentage points.
The FiveThirtyEight analysis also gives Biden leads of more than 6.5 percentage points in the pivotal states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
– David Jackson
Fauci says he’s ‘absolutely not’ surprised Trump got COVID-19
Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said that it came as no shock to him when President Donald Trump announced he had tested positive for COVID-19 because the president regularly eschewed the use of masks “as a statement of strength” and put himself in “precarious” situations.
Fauci, who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, was asked in a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday if he was surprised the president contracted the coronavirus.
“Absolutely not,” Fauci replied.
Fauci said he believes Trump – who rarely wears a mask in public, particularly before he became infected – avoids masks because he sees it as “a statement of strength, like, ‘We’re strong, we don’t need a mask,’ that kind of thing.”
– William Cummings
Anthony Fauci:Fauci says president avoids masks as ‘statement of strength’
COVID stimulus updates: Pelosi says there’s a 48-hour deadline to get deal done
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Sunday the White House has 48 hours to reach a deal on COVID-19 relief before the Nov. 3 election.
“I’m optimistic,” Pelosi told ABC News “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos. “Because again, we’ve been back and forth on all of this.”
When pressed on whether Americans would see a COVID relief package passed before the Nov. 3 election, Pelosi said “that depends on the administration.”
“With all due respect to some of the people in the president’s administration, they are not legislators,” Pelosi said. The speaker then said “we now have agreement in the language,” though talks remained ongoing.
– Matthew Brown