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Obama reportedly told Biden's campaign staff not to let him 'embarrass himself'
August 16, 2019 -
Biden's lead doubles to 10 points in new Fox News poll
2:02 a.m. -
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Scott Walker reportedly played the role of Kamala Harris during Pence's debate prep
1:26 a.m. -
Amy Coney Barrett wouldn't sit out any Supreme Court case on a contested election
1:21 a.m. -
5-year-old shows his appreciation for firefighters by giving them a Baby Yoda doll
12:41 a.m. -
The New England Journal of Medicine urges people to vote Trump out in an extraordinary editorial
12:34 a.m. -
CNN's instant poll says Harris won VP debate
12:25 a.m. -
Former Sen. Joe Donnelly shuts down Pence's line of attack over ISIS hostages
12:20 a.m.
Former President Barack Obama isn't yet sporting a Biden 2020 hat, but that doesn't mean he isn't paying attention to his former vice president's campaign.
Although Obama has gone to great lengths to not endorse an individual in the 2020 Democratic primaries, he has reportedly been more involved in Biden's camp than he's let on. Obama has gone so far as to request briefings with Biden's team to discuss strategy, including one meeting before Biden announced his candidacy in April, reports The New York Times. In some of his meetings with Biden and Co., Obama has tried to emphasize the importance of Biden expanding his inner circle with younger voices, reportedly telling Biden his advisers are too old and out of touch.
Despite his watchful eye, Obama has been wary of Biden seeking the nomination. At one point before Biden entered the race, Obama reportedly said: "You don't have to do this, Joe, you really don't." Biden, who benched himself during the 2016 election, responded by saying he couldn't miss another shot to beat President Trump.
In March, Obama reportedly told Biden's advisers that they needed to make sure the former Vice President didn't "embarrass himself" or "damage his legacy." Coming from Biden's supposed best friend, that one's gotta hurt. Read it at The New York Times. Marianne Dodson
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has doubled his lead over President Trump in a Fox News national poll of likely voters released Wednesday. In the new poll, conducted after the first presidential debate and after Trump contracted COVID-19, Biden leads by 10 percentage points, 53 percent to 43 percent; in the previous Fox News poll three weeks ago, Biden led by 5 points.
Biden's 10-point advantage is in line with other recent polls. The RealClearPolitics average has Biden up 9.7 points, 51.6 percent to 41.9 percent, while FiveThirtyEight clocks Biden's lead at 9.5 points (51.7 percent to 42.2 percent) and gives him 84 in 100 odds of winning the Electoral College.
There are several outsized reasons for Biden's lead in the new Fox News poll. First, the two biggest issues for voters are the coronavirus pandemic and the economy, and Biden beats Trump by 39 points among the COVID-19 voters while Trump leads by only 12 points with economy voters. A 72 percent majority agrees with Biden that masks should be required attire outside the home, 24 percent said the virus is under control, and 65 percent rate economic conditions as poor or fair.
Trump spent the summer attacking anti-racism protests and touting "law and order," but "those who say violent crime is the most important factor to their vote favor Trump by a single point, while voters who prioritize racism back Biden by 44," Fox News reports. And voters increasingly like Biden, whose favorability rating has grown to a net-positive 16 points, and dislike Trump, now at a net-negative 10 points.
The Fox News poll was conducted via phone Oct. 3-6 by Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Co. (R). The pollsters surveyed 1,012 likely voters, and the poll's margin of sampling error is ± 3 percentage points. Peter Weber
To prepare for Wednesday night's debate, Vice President Mike Pence participated in three 90-minute practice sessions with former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) all standing in as Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), NBC News' Hallie Jackson reports.
Pence also received debate help from Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who called him on the phone, a person with knowledge of the matter told Jackson.
On Harris' side, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg played the role of Pence during their debate prep. In an interview with Indianapolis Monthly published on Sunday, Buttigieg said it would "be a real mistake to underestimate" Pence's skills as a debater, adding that he was "very effective in 2016." Buttigieg appeared on MSNBC after Wednesday's debate and said he was "so proud" of Harris' performance, and later tweeted that she "powerfully made the case for why we must end the chaos and restore decency by electing Joe Biden." Catherine Garcia
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has indicated she believes the Supreme Court was wrong on two high-profile cases, one recognizing a legal right to abortion and the other upholding the Affordable Care Act, and she evidently told Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Wednesday she believes the Supreme Court was correct to step in and stop a recount in Florida in 2000, controversially ensuring the election of George W. Bush. Coons told reporters he raised Bush v. Gore with Barrett in a phone call, and she had a "different view of that case" than he does.
Bush v. Gore is relevant now because President Trump, who nominated Barrett, has made it relevant. "I specifically asked her whether she would recuse herself from any election-related case because President Trump has publicly said that he wants her seated on the Supreme Court in time for the election so she can rule on any dispute," Coons said. "She made no commitment to recusal." That's a hard no, ABC News' Terry Moran reports:
Judge Amy Coney Barrett says she will not recuse herself from any possible election-related cases if she is confirmed as a SCOTUS justice. @TerryMoran reports. https://t.co/rJxLDwoEis pic.twitter.com/cdDiY9PthE
— ABC News (@ABC) October 8, 2020
Republicans are rushing to confirm Barrett, cementing a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court majority, and although several GOP senators are out with COVID-19, they are expected to seat her before the election. Peter Weber
When Tyler Eubanks organized a donation drive for firefighters battling blazes across the western United States, she expected people to drop off clothes, snacks, and other essentials, and was delighted when a 5-year-old boy named Carver instead showed up with a Baby Yoda doll.
Carver also wrote a note to accompany the doll, thanking the firefighters and telling them The Mandalorian character could be "a friend for you in case you get lonely." Eubanks collected the doll and other donations in the towns of Molalla and Colton in Oregon, but the items were distributed to firefighters outside of the state, too, in Utah and Colorado. Baby Yoda has been making the rounds, and captains tell Eubanks that firefighters are lining up to take selfies with the doll.
"The smallest gift of kindness goes a long way," Mike Lewelling, fire management officer at Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, told Today. "This has been a very long and stressful fire season and many firefighters are away from their families for weeks, and even months." Both the Baby Yoda doll and Carver's note are morale boosters, Lewelling said, and put a "smile on even the toughest of firefighters out there." Eubanks has set up a Facebook page so people can keep track of Baby Yoda and see photos of him with the firefighters. Catherine Garcia
The first question at Wednesday's vice presidential debate was why the U.S. has fared so much worse than other countries in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. The New England Journal of Medicine had offered an answer hours earlier, in a very unusual editorial: The U.S. government has, uniquely in the world, "failed at almost every step." The 202-year-old medical journal's editors did not endorse Joe Biden, as Scientific American did last month, or mention President Trump by name, but the message was a clear prescription to vote him out in November.
"The United States came into this crisis with enormous advantages," the editors detail. But "the response of our nation's leaders has been consistently inadequate. The federal government has largely abandoned disease control to the states. Governors have varied in their responses, not so much by party as by competence. But whatever their competence, governors do not have the tools that Washington controls. Instead of using those tools, the federal government has undermined them."
The federal government's "weak and inappropriate" policies have cause additional U.S. deaths "at least in the tens of thousands," the editorial estimates, concluding:
Anyone else who recklessly squandered lives and money in this way would be suffering legal consequences. Our leaders have largely claimed immunity for their actions. But this election gives us the power to render judgment. Reasonable people will certainly disagree about the many political positions taken by candidates. But truth is neither liberal nor conservative. When it comes to the response to the largest public health crisis of our time, our current political leaders have demonstrated that they are dangerously incompetent. We should not abet them and enable the deaths of thousands more Americans by allowing them to keep their jobs. [New England Journal of Medicine editorial]
"We rarely publish editorials signed by all the editors," Dr. Eric Rubin, the NEJM's editor-in-chief, told CNN. And "the reason we've never published an editorial about elections is we're not a political journal and I don't think that we want to be a political journal — but the issue here is around fact, not around opinion. There have been many mistakes made that were not only foolish but reckless and I think we want people to realize that there are truths here, not just opinions." Read the full editorial at The New England Journal of Medicine. Peter Weber
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) won the first and only vice presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle Tuesday night — at least in the eyes of those who responded to a rapid CNN reaction poll.
The instant survey showed 59 percent of those who watched the event thought Harris out-performed Vice President Mike Pence on stage, compared to just 38 percent who thought Pence won the night. Harris also improved her favorability rating by seven points in the poll, while Pence's numbers remained flat in that category.
Results of the CNN instant poll: 59% say Harris won, 38% say Pence won. pic.twitter.com/aiy7Ee3Mx3
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 8, 2020
Those numbers may or may not hold up in the next few days as more thorough reactions to the debate come in, but, for now, Harris appears to have done enough to maintain Joe Biden's substantial lead in the polls. Tim O'Donnell
Vice President Mike Pence targeted Joe Biden on Wednesday over the Obama administration's handling of ISIS hostages, having invited the parents of Kayla Mueller, who was killed by members of the Islamic State in 2015, to the debate hall, and claiming the former VP blew "an opportunity" to save her.
But former Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly (D) had a different recollection of Biden's efforts to bring home ISIS hostages when he was serving under President Obama, as well as of then-Indiana Gov. Pence's participation. "Mr. Vice President, out of respect for the Kassig family, I have never discussed, in a political forum, my efforts as Indiana's United States Senator to free Peter Kassig and the other hostages from ISIS captivity," he tweeted Wednesday night. "Your comments tonight leave me no choice."
"As you know, I (and so many others) worked day after day with the Obama/Biden administration, our military, and others to try and bring Peter and the others home from ISIS captivity," Donnelly went on. "We worked nonstop to see the Kassig family together again with their son, and I was heartbroken we could not get him home. I know firsthand the hard work put in by these Patriots, including the Administration, that you criticize tonight."
He added: "One thing I do clearly remember is I saw and spoke to those in the Obama/Biden administration in this all out effort to free Peter and the other hostages much more than I saw or heard from you about this effort."
Kassig, like Mueller, was an aid worker in Syria; he was from Indiana, where Pence was governor at the time, and killed by ISIS in 2014. Pence's attempt to redirect the conversation to terrorism was likely an attempt to move to more "favorable terrain" for the Trump administration, Axios reports. Jeva Lange