WASHINGTON – The latest on the presidential campaign (all times local):
11:10 p.m.
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President Donald Trump’s campaign and Republicans raised $247.8 million in September — better than the month before, but still lagging far behind his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, who raised $383 million over the same stretch.
Trump’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and its joint fundraising committees finished the month with $251.4 million cash on hand — dramatically less than the $432 million Biden reported having in the bank just weeks before the Nov. 3 election.
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh nonetheless insists the president is hitting the “final stretch with strength, resources, record & huge ground game needed to spread message and secure re-election.”
Trump and Republicans jointly raised $210 million in August, a robust sum dwarfed by the record $364.5 million raised by Democrats and Biden.
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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE:
President Donald Trump traveled to North Carolina and Florida on Thursday and participated in an NBC town hall from Miami at 8 p.m. Eastern. His Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, participated in an ABC town hall from Philadelphia at the same time.
Read more:
— Trump and Biden compete for TV audiences in dueling town halls.
— Poll by AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds majorities of Americans are highly critical of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his own illness.
— Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris temporarily suspends in-person events after two campaign associates test positive for coronavirus.
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HERE'S WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON:
10:10 p.m.
A spokesperson for President Donald Trump’s campaign is declaring that the president “defeated” town hall moderator, Savannah Guthrie, and derided the NBC “Today” host as a “surrogate” for Democrat Joe Biden’s campaign.
Campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh also said after Thursday’s event that the president “masterfully handled Guthrie’s attacks and interacted warmly and effectively with the voters in the room.”
The statement follows a contentious hourlong town hall during which Trump largely dodged tough questions from Guthrie and voters alike about his struggle to control the pandemic, his refusal to release his tax returns, his vague promises to fix the nation’s health care system and his reluctance to condemn white supremacists and a conspiracy-theory group that believes Trump’s critics are violent child molesters.
The president was visibly upset at times with Guthrie and said more than once that they were “on the same side.” Trump has cast himself as a victim of media bias for years.
Biden had a separate town hall at the same time on ABC News.
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9:50 p.m.
Democrat Joe Biden says President Donald Trump has not been “chastened” by the claims of racial injustice that have marked his presidency.
Asked what he would do if he lost the election, Biden said Thursday that he hopes that if he fails to beat Trump, then it doesn’t mean “we are as racially, ethnically and religiously at odds with one another as it appears the president wants us to be.”
Biden says if he loses he will return to teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. However, he also said he would continue to press for racial justice, deferring to the leaders such as the late Georgia Rep. John Lewis as having made a bigger impact than he ever would.
Biden says, “People need hope.” He adds: “We’re a diverse country. And unless we are able to treat people equally, we’re never going to reach our potential.”
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9:35 p.m.
Joe Biden says there should be “zero discrimination” against transgender people and he promised to restore protections for them that President Donald Trump has sought to remove.
At his ABC News town hall Thursday, Biden said he would reverse Trump’s moves to revoke protections for transgender people against sex discrimination in health care and restrict military service by transgender men and women. He also condemned violence against transgender women of color.
He told an anecdote about his late son, Beau Biden, helping pass a transgender protection law in Delaware while serving as state attorney general, an effort inspired by a worker in the attorney general’s office.
The former vice president also recounted a story from his youth where he witnessed two men kissing and said his father turned to him and said, “Joey, it’s simple: They love each other.”
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9:25 p.m.
Joe Biden is putting distance between his clean energy goals and the Green New Deal, saying the policy plan popular with progressives isn’t achievable within the timeframes it has laid out.
At a Thursday town hall, he pointed to a piece of the deal that calls for 100% renewable and zero-emission energy sources by 2030. Biden says that “you can’t get there” and that the country needs more time to invest in technologies that will eventually lead to net-zero emissions.
He’s detailing his own climate plan that includes ending subsidies and tax breaks for oil companies, putting more land into conservation, planting more trees and plants to absorb carbon from the air and even finding more creative ways to use animal manure. Biden also says the country needs to ramp up its efforts around expanded use of electric vehicles.
His campaign website calls the plan a crucial framework for meeting the nation’s climate challenges.
“My deal’s a crucial framework, but not the New Green Deal,” Biden said, misstating the plan’s name.
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9:20 p.m.
President Donald Trump tried to end his contentious town hall meeting on a positive note.
Asked what he’d say to undecided voters, the Republican president declared Thursday night that he’s “done a great job” in his first term and predicted that “next year is going to be better than ever before.”
Trump’s upbeat final answer followed an intense hourlong session in which voters and moderator Savannah Guthrie pressed him repeatedly on difficult topics. Trump was sweating at times and appeared visibly angry about the aggressive questions, especially early in the session.
In the end, Trump dodged specific questions about the timing of his personal coronavirus testing, his plans for the nation’s health care and his tax returns. He also faced tough questions about white supremacy, conspiracy theories and his reluctance to embrace face masks during the pandemic.
Thursday’s event was held in place of the second presidential debate, which was canceled after Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis. He’s scheduled to face Democrat Joe Biden next week for the final debate before Election Day.
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9:15 p.m.
President Donald Trump demurred when asked whether he supports overturning Roe v. Wade.
Trump was asked Thursday about the ruling establishing abortion rights nationwide during a town hall in Florida. He said, “I don’t want to do anything to influence anything right now.”
Trump, who nominated Amy Coney Barrett to serve on the Supreme Court, says he worries that discussing his viewpoint could be seen as “trying to give her a signal” on how to rule.
Trump says that he didn’t tell Barrett what decision to make and that he didn’t want to do anything to influence her. He says he wants Barrett to get approved and “then I want her to go by the law, and I know she’s going to make a great decision for our country.”
Barrett has presented herself to senators as a judge committed to a strict reading of the Constitution, holding deep personal and religious beliefs but vowing to keep an open mind on what would be a 6-3 conservative-majority court if she is approved.
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9:10 p.m.
Joe Biden says he is willing to take a position before Election Day on the idea of expanding the Supreme Court “depending on how” Republicans handle Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination.
Biden has refused to answer the question directly, calling it a distraction from Republicans’ rush to confirm Barrett before Election Day.
His latest answer Thursday in an ABC News town hall suggests Biden might be willing to consider some Democrats’ call to expand the court as a counter to GOP powerplays on the court in recent years.
Biden repeated Thursday that he’s “not a fan” of so-called court packing. But he also said he believes Republicans are violating the spirit of the Constitution with a confirmation process while people are already voting in the presidential election.
Republicans four years ago refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to succeed conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February of that presidential election year.
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9:05 p.m.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is failing to acknowledge the criticisms of the 1994 crime bill, which he as a member of the Senate helped write and pass and which has been used to illustrate systemic racism in the nation.
However, last year Biden publicly accepted responsibility for his part in the passage of the legislation, especially that which toughened sentences for crack cocaine possession, calling it a “big mistake” for its damage to the Black community.
He notes that members of the Congressional Black Caucus supported it, although today Black members of Congress, including his running mate California Sen. Kamala Harris, had previously criticized Biden for his part in it.
Biden notes his lead role in writing the Violence Against Women Act as part of the bill, but not the wholesale incarceration of Black men that mandatory minimum sentencing provisions, allowed by the bill, led to.
“The mistakes came in terms of what the states did locally,” he says.
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9:03 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he didn’t ask Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett whether she’d rule in his favor should the Supreme Court have to decide the 2020 election.
Trump and Republicans have cited the election as one reason they’ve rushed to seat Barrett on the court. Trump said he does not know whether she’d rule in his favor in any litigation over the vote.
Trump said Thursday at his town hall event: “It would be totally up to her.”
The president acknowledged he changed his standard for court appointments this year. In 2016, he argued that President Barack Obama should not be able to fill an empty seat eight months before the election. This year he is pushing Barrett through less than three weeks before Election Day.
Trump said the reason was Democratic opposition to his last nominee, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual harassment in his 2018 confirmation. “The whole ballgame changed when I saw the way they treated Judge Kavanaugh,” Trump said. “I have never seen a human being treated so badly.”
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9 p.m.
President Donald Trump is acknowledging he may owe $400 million as part of his business dealings, but he’s not saying to whom he owes money.
Trump on Thursday night was pressed on a New York Times report citing tax returns showing he has business debts exceeding $400 million.
He insisted that he didn’t owe any money to Russia or any “sinister people.”
He described his debts as a “very very small percentage.” He said: “$400 million is a peanut.”
The president suggested repeatedly Thursday night that he would be willing to release details about his debts, but it’s unclear when that might happen. He again repeated his refusal to release his tax returns more than four years after he first promised he would.
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8:55 p.m.
President Donald Trump did not give a direct answer to a woman who identified herself as the mother of a Black son who asked him to describe his plan to protect Black and Latino males from police brutality.
Questioned Thursday during an NBC News town hall in Miami, Trump fell back on his oft-repeated claim that he’s done more for the African American community than any president except Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
He talked about criminal justice reform legislation he signed into law, opportunity zones, funding for historically Black colleges and universities.
Trump didn’t say so Thursday, but he has made it clear that he stands with the police. He says the majority of police are good people whose profession is tarnished by a few “bad apples.”
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8:53 p.m.
Joe Biden is giving a winding explanation about why he should get the votes of young Black people who may not be enthusiastic about supporting him.
Biden initially touched on the criminal justice system during his ABC News town hall Thursday night, suggesting it needed to be made “fair” and “more decent” before moving on to an assortment of economic and educational policies.
He said Black Americans need to be given tools to help generate wealth, including increased loans for Black-owned businesses and homeowners.
The former vice president said America also needs to increase its funding for schools with lower-income families and suggesting adding more school psychologists in schools. He also proposed adding $70 billion to historically Black colleges and universities.
At the end of his five-minute answer, he offered to provide “a lot more” information to the young Black man who asked the question.
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8:50 p.m.
The first half of President Donald Trump’s NBC News town hall was dominated by testy exchanges with “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie after she pushed him on a variety of issues.
Under the intense questioning Thursday, Trump told Guthrie “we should be on the same side.”
Guthrie pressed Trump to say when he last tested negative for the coronavirus before his positive diagnosis earlier this month. He did not say.
She pressed him on his prolific tweeting, telling him he’s not someone’s “crazy uncle” who can tweet whatever they want. He said the tweet she focused on was a retweet.
Guthrie also challenged Trump on his dubious claims about mask-wearing, telling the president that his own government experts are “all in unison” on their benefits.
At one point she exclaimed, “I don’t get it.”
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8:47 p.m.
President Donald Trump inaccurately contends there is a tremendous problem with voter fraud and takes issue with FBI Director Christopher Wray saying last month that he has not seen evidence of a widespread issue.
Trump said at a town hall event in Miami: “Well, then, he’s not doing a very good job.”
Trump has baselessly claimed voter fraud is widespread even though studies show it is rarer than being struck by lightning. He has also augmented routine election mishaps to sow distrust in the outcome of the coming election.
The president claimed that pro-Trump ballots were being dumped in garbage cans, an apparent reference to nine military ballots accidentally being thrown out in an elections office in a GOP-controlled Pennsylvania county. He also rattled off several examples of erroneous mail ballots being sent without noting they had all been corrected.
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8:45 p.m.
President Donald Trump is insisting he’s going to implement an improved and more affordable health care system, but he’s refusing to give any details.
Trump attacked the Affordable Care Act over and over again when asked about his own plans to lower health care costs Thursday night at a town hall. He claimed, incorrectly, that he’s already lowered health care costs. And while he’s been making similar promises for more than four years, he has yet to outline a specific plan.
In the town hall, he said only that he would implement “much better health care under a much better price.”
Trump also repeated his pledge to protect people with preexisting conditions, even though his administration is trying to overturn the Affordable Care Act -- and its protection for people with preexisting conditions -- at the Supreme Court.
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8:40 p.m.
Democrat Joe Biden is hedging on whether he would mandate that all Americans be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Biden said Thursday during a town-hall-style event in Philadelphia that it would depend on the reliability of the vaccine.
He says that it would “have to have a very positive impact and how you can affect positively 85% of the American public,” and that he would likely receive the vaccine if it met that criteria.
Biden says we “should be talking about” mandating the vaccine, knowing that it’s difficult to enforce. But likewise, he says, it’s difficult to enforce a mask mandate, though scientists suggest they slow the spread.
“You can go to every governor and get them in a room,” he says. “The words of a president matter, no matter whether they’re good, bad or indifferent, they matter.”
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8:35 p.m.
Democrat Joe Biden says he doesn’t plan to eliminate all the tax cuts enacted by President Donald Trump, just those that apply to the top earners.
Referencing tax cuts for the top 1%, Biden said Thursday at an ABC town hall: “That’s what I’m talking about eliminating, not all the tax cuts that are out there.”
His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, said in the vice presidential debate that Biden would repeal the tax bill passed by Congress and signed by Trump “on day one″ but also that he wouldn’t raise taxes on people making less than $400,000. Vice President Mike Pence pointed out repealing the entire tax bill would eliminate tax cuts for lower earners.
He referred to a card he pulled from his pocket with facts and figures on how much money would be raised through certain tax rates.
Biden says raising taxes on corporations and high-income earners would bring in a lot of money to invest in programs that can “make your life easier.”