Biden, Trump trade jabs, prepare for post-election ballot court battle

[webfact]

Biden, Trump trade jabs, prepare for post-election ballot court battle

By Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt

 

FILE PHOTO: A combination picture shows U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaking during the first 2020 presidential campaign debate, held on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., September 29, 2020. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

 

SCRANTON, Pa./MONACA, Pa. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden traded barbs on Monday and exhorted last-minute voters to turn out as they stumped in battleground states on the final day of a polarizing campaign that has shattered early voting records.

 

Even as the candidates made their final arguments, however, their campaigns were already laying the groundwork for post-election disputes.

 

Trump, who is trailing in national opinion polls, has continued to lob unfounded attacks at mail-in ballots, suggesting he would deploy lawyers if states are still counting votes after Election Day. His deputy campaign manager, Justin Clark, said the campaign would fight any Democratic attempt to "subvert state deadlines for receiving and counting ballots."

 

In response, Biden campaign manager Jennifer O'Malley Dillon reminded reporters on Monday that states routinely needed time after election night to finish counting votes in past U.S. elections.

 

"Under no scenario will Donald Trump be declared a victor on election night," she said.

 

The election has already prompted an unprecedented wave of litigation over whether to adjust voting rules in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Monday, a federal judge in Texas rejected a Republican bid to throw out about 127,000 votes already cast at drive-through voting sites in the Democratic-leaning Houston area.

 

At a rally in Scranton in eastern Pennsylvania, Trump reminded an enthusiastic crowd that he won the state in 2016 despite polls suggesting he would lose and warned that election officials' plan to count ballots up to three days after Election Day was a "dangerous situation."

 

 

"You have to have a date. You can't extend dates," he said.

 

In the western Pennsylvania town of Monaca, Biden told supporters that the country's future rested in their hands.

 

"What happens tomorrow will determine what this country will look like for generations," he said.

 

Trump, 74, is seeking to avoid becoming the first incumbent president to lose re-election since fellow Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992. Despite Biden's national polling lead, the race in swing states is seen as close enough that Trump could still piece together the 270 votes needed to prevail in the state-by-state Electoral College system that determines the winner.

 

After visits to North Carolina and Pennsylvania, Trump was headed to Wisconsin and Michigan - four states he won narrowly in 2016 but that polls show could swing to Biden this year. As he has done for months, the president spoke to large crowds, where many attendees eschewed masks and social distancing despite the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Biden, 77, who has made Trump's handling of the pandemic the central theme of his campaign, spoke in Ohio and Pennsylvania to much smaller gatherings. He was set to hold an evening drive-in rally in Pittsburgh alongside singer Lady Gaga.

 

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll in Florida, a perennial swing state, showed Biden with a 50%-46% lead, a week after the two were in a statistical tie.

 

Early voting has surged to levels never before seen in U.S. elections. A record-setting 97.3 million early votes have been cast either in person or by mail, according to the U.S. Elections Project.

 

The number is equal to 70% of the entire voter turnout for the 2016 election and represents about 40% of all Americans who are legally eligible to vote.

 

That unprecedented level of early voting includes 60 million mail-in ballots that could take days or weeks to be counted in some states, meaning a winner might not be declared in the hours after polls close on Tuesday night.

 

Some states, including critical Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, do not start processing mail-in votes until Election Day, slowing the process.

 

'VOTER INTIMIDATION IS ILLEGAL'

Twitter said on Monday it would attach a warning label to any tweets, including those from candidates, that claim an election win before either state election officials or national news outlets do so.

 

In a sign of how volatile the election could be, buildings in several cities were boarded up, including around the White House in Washington and Macy's flagship department store in New York.

 

The FBI was investigating an incident in Texas when a pro-Trump convoy of vehicles surrounded a tour bus carrying Biden campaign staff.

 

The caravan, which Trump praised, prompted the Biden campaign to cancel at least two of its Texas events, as Democrats accused the president of encouraging supporters to engage in acts of intimidation.

 

Eight state attorneys general, representing Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, warned on Monday they would not tolerate voter intimidation.

 

"Voter intimidation is illegal in every state, whether it happens in person or from a car," North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said in a statement. "People who witness concerning behavior should immediately report it to law enforcement authorities."

 

Trump has repeatedly said without evidence that mail-in votes are prone to fraud, although election experts say that is rare in U.S. elections. Mail voting is a long-standing feature of American elections, and about one in four ballots was cast that way in 2016.

 

Democrats have pushed mail-in voting as a safe way to cast a ballot, while Trump and Republicans are counting on a big Election Day in-person turnout.

   

FINAL PUSH

Trump will wrap up his campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the same place he concluded his 2016 presidential run.

 

Biden, running mate Kamala Harris and their spouses are spending most of Monday in Pennsylvania, splitting up to hit all four corners of a state that has become vital to the Democrats' hopes. Biden is spending Election Day in Pennsylvania, with stops in Scranton, his childhood home, and Philadelphia.

 

Former President Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice president for eight years, will hold a get-out-the-vote rally in Atlanta on Monday before an evening rally in Miami.

 

Biden has finished his campaign on the offensive, traveling almost exclusively to states Trump won in 2016.

 

Biden accuses Trump of giving up on fighting the pandemic, which has killed more than 230,000 Americans and cost millions of jobs. Polls show Americans trust Biden more than Trump to fight the virus.

 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert, has said the first doses of an effective coronavirus vaccine will likely become available to some high-risk Americans in late December or early January.

 

Trump, who has often disagreed with Fauci publicly, suggested early on Monday he might fire him after the election.

 

"Elect me, and I'm going to hire Dr. Fauci, and we're going to fire Donald Trump," Biden said in Cleveland.

 

(Reporting by Steve Holland in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Trevor Hunnicutt in Cleveland, Ohio; Additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Costas Pitas and Nandita Bose; Writing by Joseph Ax and John Whitesides; Editing by Scott Malone, Howard Goller and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-03

 

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[Jack Mountain]

Only who choose can win or lose ...

 

Anyway, it's Beer and Popcorn time ...

[PatOngo]

16 minutes ago, webfact said:

their campaigns were already laying the groundwork for post-election disputes.

Oh how very civilized! ????

[Chomper Higgot]

Has Trump declared victory yet?

[Tug]

Imo alot of hot air from trump from Biden a lot of real reasons to put a stop to this fiasco now!

[PatOngo]

1 hour ago, Tug said:

Imo alot of hot air from trump from Biden a lot of real reasons to put a stop to this fiasco now!

Hey! It IS America!

[Redline]

The Republican Party will do anything to stop people’s vote from being counted, or stop them from voting to begin with-especially minorities.

As more liberal people move into conservative states, even the archaic electoral college won’t help them stay in control.

Technology is the future, and the overwhelming majority of techies are liberals-possibly because they are educated.

I guess that’s why conservatives are blatantly breaking laws and norms now.

If they can’t make the USA a banana republic now, it may be their last surge.  Especially if liberals make higher education and healthcare free, or affordable.

Whites will be the minority in the not to distant future in the USA.

[Silencer]

Mailed-in state ballots have always taken days (or weeks) to count, in every previous election. Yet this time, Trump (and many of his supporters) are claiming it is "stealing" the election if those mailed-in votes turn the final count from a Trump to Biden state victory. No, it isn't. It's the way it has always worked.

[ravip]

Any website where the US Election progress can be seen at a glance graphically?

If I remember correct, in 2016, the Guardian had it like two (or three) Rev Counters on a dashboard.

[vandeventer]

President Trump doesn't need to call Biden names. Everyone has been doing this for 47 years. This might be a close election and that will bring in the lawyers and the rioters, lets hope it doesn't develop into something very nasty! 

[JonnyF]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Even as the candidates made their final arguments, however, their campaigns were already laying the groundwork for post-election disputes.

 

How ridiculous! Have they been watching the bitter Remainer crowd in the UK trying to overturn the Brexit vote for the last 4 years? They'll be contacting Gina Miller next ????.

 

Hopefully we get a clear victory for Mr. Trump. The world has enough issues right now without Biden gaining power.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, JonnyF said:

 

How ridiculous! Have they been watching the bitter Remainer crowd in the UK trying to overturn the Brexit vote for the last 4 years? They'll be contacting Gina Miller next ????.

 

Hopefully we get a clear victory for Mr. Trump. The world has enough issues right now without Biden gaining power.

IMO a win for Biden means a president Harris not too far in the future. Some may come to regret their choice if that comes to pass, IMO.

Let's remember that she didn't do well in the primaries.

[riclag]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

In a sign of how volatile the election could be, buildings in several cities were boarded up, including around the White House in Washington and Macy's flagship department store in New York.

Dem run cities,sad!

[Chomper Higgot]

16 minutes ago, riclag said:

Dem run cities,sad!

Who ordered a wall built around the WH and why?

[Brunolem]

3 hours ago, Redline said:

 

As more liberal people move into conservative states, even the archaic electoral college won’t help them stay in control.

 

Especially if liberals make higher education and healthcare free, or affordable.

 

 

Liberals?

 

Do you mean the bolcheviks?

 

Everything will be free with them, no doubt, except speech...

[placeholder]

6 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Who ordered a wall built around the WH and why?

Maybe the same guy who will be cowering in the White House bunker?

[Jingthing]

6 minutes ago, Brunolem said:

Liberals?

 

Do you mean the bochevicks?

 

Everything will be free with them, no doubt, except speech...

I'm sure he didn't mean Bolsheviks. He meant American liberals. They are not the same thing. Its great to see Sunbelt states such as Georgia, Arizona  and Texas progress in that direction. 

 

 

[Jingthing]

9 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Has Trump declared victory yet?

In his stable genius mind undoubtedly.

[Eric Loh]

I read that Trump cancelled his election night party at his DC hotel. Smart as ominous sign  of losing is evident.

[Jingthing]

3 hours ago, ravip said:

Any website where the US Election progress can be seen at a glance graphically?

If I remember correct, in 2016, the Guardian had it like two (or three) Rev Counters on a dashboard.

New York  Times

https://fivethirtyeight.com/

[Jingthing]

10 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

I read that Trump cancelled his election night party at his DC hotel. Smart as ominous sign  of losing is evident.

Yes and no.

Yes for the obvious reason that he knows he's gonna lose and no, D.C  was threatening to seize his liquor license for hosting a super spreader event there. What a lovely man!

[Jingthing]

2 hours ago, vandeventer said:

President Trump doesn't need to call Biden names. Everyone has been doing this for 47 years. This might be a close election and that will bring in the lawyers and the rioters, lets hope it doesn't develop into something very nasty! 

What are you talking about. Joe Biden is liked personally by a majority of Americans. 45  can't say that. 

[Jingthing]

2 hours ago, JonnyF said:

 

How ridiculous! Have they been watching the bitter Remainer crowd in the UK trying to overturn the Brexit vote for the last 4 years? They'll be contacting Gina Miller next ????.

 

Hopefully we get a clear victory for Mr. Trump. The world has enough issues right now without Biden gaining power.

45 has a small chance of winning but if he does it won't be quick or clear.

[Fat is a type of crazy]

33 minutes ago, riclag said:

Dem run cities,sad!

All we've seen so far is Texan Trump supporters hassling Biden's bus, Trump supporters in New Jersey taking over a bridge, Trump supporters in New York take over a bridge, and lots of rhetoric from your favourite President - supporting the Texas incident above,  saying a decision to count ballots in the normal way in Pennsylvania is dangerous and may induce violence, and that he won't accept the result of the election if he loses. There's more but who really cares what he says ...

RicLag is this super spreader really someone you support...THAT'S sad..

[rabas]

28 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Who ordered a wall built around the WH and why?

 

Candace Owens, best selling author of BLACKOUT and BLEXIT, toured Washington DC today and noted many boarded up businesses were writing We support BLM, don't attack on their barricades. So people know where problems are coming from.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candace_Owens

[placeholder]

Just now, rabas said:

 

Candace Owens, best selling author of BLACKOUT and BLEXIT, toured Washington DC today and noted many boarded up businesses were writing We support BLM, don't attack on their barricades. So people know where problems are coming from.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candace_Owens

Well if Candace Owens says so. And thanks for providing the link:

"Owens has appeared on fringe conspiracy websites, such as InfoWars.^[3][5][9] In 2018, she was a guest host on Fox News. and began to distance herself from the far-right conspiracy websites, although she refused to criticize InfoWars or its hosts.^[3]

In May 2018, Owens suggested that "something bio-chemically happens" to women who do not marry or have children, and she linked to the Twitter handles of Sarah Silverman, Chelsea Handler, and Kathy Griffin, saying that they were "evidentiary support" of this theory.^[36][37]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candace_Owens

There's a lot more in that Wikipedia article that doesn't exactly inspire confidence in her reporting.

 

[rabas]

32 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Well if Candace Owens says so. And thanks for providing the link:

Here is the news link.  Watch the video with her message for Blacks on Election day.  Liberals don't like her because she used to be one and turned on them. She is smart as whip, a New York Times best-selling author, and has said she plans to run for the Senate. She also knows how a disposal works.

 

I believe she is number 2 on the New York Times Best Sellers list. When you watch the black vote tomorrow, she was one of the architects.

[placeholder]

44 minutes ago, rabas said:

Here is the news link.  Watch the video with her message for Blacks on Election day.  Liberals don't like her because she used to be one and turned on them. She is smart as whip, a New York Times best-selling author, and has said she plans to run for the Senate. She also knows how a disposal works.

 

I believe she is number 2 on the New York Times Best Sellers list. When you watch the black vote tomorrow, she was one of the architects.

It's a pity she's not honest and indulges in ridiculous speculations. And thanks for that Wikipedia link. Did you read the article?

So tell me, how much of the black vote is going to go for Trump? Should I start applauding her efforts at 10%? 15%?  20%?

[placeholder]

1 hour ago, rabas said:

 

Candace Owens, best selling author of BLACKOUT and BLEXIT, toured Washington DC today and noted many boarded up businesses were writing We support BLM, don't attack on their barricades. So people know where problems are coming from.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candace_Owens

Clearly, she's a very honest person:

Candace Owens tells Fox News race wasn’t an issue when she was younger, but she seems to be forgetting something

Yes, Owen, who apparently doesn’t recall race issues in her youth, reportedly received a payout of $37,000 from a lawsuit alleging her high school failed to act after white teens threatened her and repeatedly hurled racial slurs.

One of them reportedly referred to her as “dirty,” threatened to burn her house down and tar and feather her. Owens ultimately left school for six weeks, explaining at the time that it was too traumatic to attend class with the accused.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/candace-owens-tells-fox-new-race-wasnt-an-issue-when-she-was-younger-but-she-seems-to-be-forgetting-something-2019-11-12

[puipuitom]

How deep a country can sink....