Author: PolitCens

Amy Coney Barrett was formally sworn in Tuesday as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
 
Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath to the former federal appellate judge, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 52-48 vote late Monday.  
 
Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine joined the entire Democratic caucus voting against Barrett’s confirmation. Collins said she would not vote for Barrett’s confirmation because of the proximity of the vote to next week’s presidential election.   
 
According to the Associated Press, no other Supreme Court justice has been confirmed on a recorded vote with no support from the minority party in at least 150 years.  
 
Barrett is the third justice on the nine-member court to be nominated by President Donald Trump and significantly tips its ideological balance toward a 6-3 conservative majority.   
 
“It’s a privilege to be asked to serve my country in this office, and I stand here tonight truly honored and humbled,” Barrett said Monday. “Thanks also to the Senate for giving its consent to my appointment. I am grateful for the confidence you have expressed in me, and I pledge to you and to the American people that I will discharge my duties to the very best of my ability.”U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett poses with first lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump and her husband Jesse Barrett on the balcony of the White House after taking her oath of office Oct. 26, 2020.Democratic opposition
Democrats argued that the decision of picking a nominee for the seat should have been left up to whichever candidate wins the presidential election, a stance Republicans held when there was an election-year vacancy in early 2016. Republicans then refused to consider Democratic President Barack Obama’s nomination of another appellate judge, Merrick Garland.   
   
“The rushed and unprecedented confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett as Associate Justice to the Supreme Court, in the middle of an ongoing election, should be a stark reminder to every American that your vote matters,” Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden said in a statement Monday.
 
Trump praised Barrett on Monday as “one of our nation’s most brilliant legal scholars,” and said she will “make an outstanding justice on the highest court in our land.”
 
Barrett could potentially consider election disputes involving Trump, although it is unclear whether she might recuse herself since Trump named her to the court. She declined to say at her confirmation hearings whether she will avoid hearing disputes over extended deadlines for voters to return mail-in ballots and other issues Republicans and Democrats are contesting.    
Upcoming  Supreme Court cases
Barrett is set to be among the justices hearing a new challenge November 10 on whether to invalidate the country’s Affordable Care Act, which Trump has sought to overturn.   
 
The law, popularly known as Obamacare after the former president who championed its passage in 2010, is a measure that helps provide health care to millions of Americans. Its fate is a crucial concern for many people amid the surging number of new coronavirus cases in the United States. According to recent figures from the Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has more than 8.7 million confirmed cases and 225,730 deaths.  
 
Republicans have long argued that Obamacare costs taxpayers too much and gives government too much control over health care. The Republican-led Congress in 2017 eliminated the law’s mandate requiring that people buy health insurance if they could afford to do so. They now want the Supreme Court to invalidate the entire statute, saying that without that key insurance provision, the rest of the legislation is invalid. 
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South Africa, Africa’s most mature democracy, is watching the American election with great interest — and trepidation.  
Residents of the country, for the most part, say four years of U.S.-Africa relations under President Donald Trump have done nothing for their lives. VOA spoke to analysts and citizens in Johannesburg, the economic hub of the continent, about what matters to them as America votes.  
VOA has, during the past four years, spoken to hundreds of South Africans of all backgrounds about U.S. politics and found few who openly support Trump. Most pin their disapproval on reports that he made disparaging comments about African nations.  
   
On the streets of Johannesburg, entrepreneur Katyala Maine says he’s pulling for former Vice President Joe Biden. Here’s what he thinks of the current president:  
    
“He wants to make America great again, but America needs the rest of the world in order for it to be great. The fact that he believes that disinvestment or lesser aid to African countries is warranted, well, that’s his opinion,” Maine said.  
    
Others, like technical support worker Itumeleng Mofokeng, say they pine for the past, and try to ignore the deluge of news.   
 
“Personally, I’m still all for [former President] Barack Obama. I wish America could do the right thing and bring back Barack Obama. I’m not feeling … who’s our new president? Donald Trump? Personally, no, he’s not my favorite,” Mofokeng said.
    
American diplomat-turned-journalist Brooks Spector, who has lived in South Africa since the 1970s, says South Africans’ fascination with the U.S. is understandable.  
 
“It’s a kind of mirror image of their own society with a lot of the same prickly bits and wounds, but phrased or framed in a different kind of way so that they see — and Americans see this too, obviously — race relations in the United States is a topic of surpassing importance to the American society, history politics life, religion – the whole thing,” Spector said.
 
The most important policy aspect, he said, is the African Growth and Opportunities Act, which expires in 2025. The act allowed South Africa to export $8.55 billion dollars’ worth of goods, duty free, to the U.S. in 2018.   
   
But some South Africans, like photographer Ezra Qua-Enoo, say they are indifferent to the world’s largest economy.   
 
“Donald Trump and his policy on Africa? I actually don’t know what his policy on Africa is. But, like, I actually don’t care for what’s happening in America at all, to be honest,” Qua-Enoo said.  
    
Africa has not come up often on the campaign trail, but Trump’s periodic tweets about the continent — from his concerns about killings of white farmers in South Africa to more recent comments about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam — have sparked criticisms from African leaders.   
 
Biden has also seldom brought up the continent but counts former Obama-era policy experts on his campaign team — a sign he may seek to restore the previous administration’s Africa policy.  
 
This election may be unfolding on the other side of the world, South Africans say, but the result could affect their lives too — and they are watching.  
  
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The U.S. Senate approved President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, on Monday. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports on the crucial vote that is happening a little over a week before Election Day.Produced by: Katherine Gypson               Camera: Adam Greenbaum  
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Trailing in the polls, President Donald Trump has seized upon recently disclosed emails allegedly from the son of Democratic candidate Joe Biden as an “October Surprise” that could alter the race. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on how this development compares to past October Surprises.Producer: Brian Padden
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The U.S. Senate is set to confirm federal appellate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to a seat on the Supreme Court in a vote late Monday. If confirmed, Barrett would be the third justice on the nine-member court to be nominated by President Donald Trump and significantly tip its ideological balance toward a 6-3 conservative majority.  Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and Senator Susan Collins of Maine is the only Republican to say she would not vote for Barrett’s confirmation because of the proximity of the vote to next week’s presidential election. Collins says either the Republican Trump or his Democratic challenger Joe Biden should make the court selection next year after one of them wins the election and is inaugurated to a new presidential term in January. Democrats have opposed Barrett’s nomination, both objecting to her credentials and to the process of filling the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon, in such rapid fashion, a month after Trump nominated her. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives for a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans as they work toward the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, at the Capitol in Washington, October 26, 2020.Assuming she is confirmed, the White House is planning a Monday evening swearing-in ceremony for Barrett. Several people who attended a similar event when Trump nominated her September 26 later contracted coronavirus.   Democrats opposed to Barrett have argued that the decision of picking a nominee for the seat should have been left up to whichever candidate wins the presidential election, a stance Republicans held when there was an election-year vacancy in early 2016. Republicans then refused to consider Democratic President Barack Obama’s nomination of another appellate judge, Merrick Garland. “The Senate is doing the right thing” in advancing Barrett’s confirmation, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday. “We’re moving this nomination forward.” The Senate voted 51-48 Sunday to end Democrats’ filibuster on Barrett’s nomination, starting a period of 30 hours of debate before the final vote. “Senate Democrats are taking over the floor all night to fight this sham process by Senate Republicans,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said. “We will not stop fighting.” Barrett could immediately hold a seat on the court to consider election disputes involving Trump, although it is unclear whether she might recuse herself since Trump named her to the court. She declined to say at her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee two weeks ago whether she will avoid hearing disputes over extended deadlines for voters to return mail-in ballots and other issues Republicans and Democrats are contesting. Barrett almost assuredly would be among the justices hearing a new challenge November 10 on whether to invalidate the country’s Affordable Care Act, which Trump has sought to overturn.  The law, popularly known as Obamacare after the former president who championed its passage in 2010, is a measure that helps provide health care to millions of Americans. Its fate is a crucial concern for many people amid the surging number of new coronavirus cases in the United States.  Republicans have long argued that Obamacare costs taxpayers too much and gives government too much control over health care. The Republican-led Congress in 2017 eliminated the law’s mandate requiring that people buy health insurance if they could afford to do so. They now want the Supreme Court to invalidate the entire statute, saying that without that key insurance provision, the rest of the legislation is invalid.  
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A close aide to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has tested positive for COVID-19, a spokesperson for the office said late Saturday.“Today, Marc Short, chief of staff to the vice president, tested positive for COVID-19, began quarantine and assisting in the contact tracing process,” Devin O’Malley said, adding that Pence and his wife, Karen, tested negative Saturday and were in good health.Pence “will maintain his schedule in accordance with the CDC guidelines for essential personnel,” O’Malley said. On Sunday the vice president is to address a campaign rally in North Carolina.Asked about Short when he returned to Washington Saturday evening, after rallies in three U.S. states, President Donald Trump said, “I did hear about it just now. I think he’s quarantining. I did hear about that. He’s going to be fine. But he’s quarantining.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump was holding three large rallies in North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin on Saturday while his challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, focused on the battleground state of Pennsylvania where he held two drive-in campaign events.Trump, the Republican incumbent, attacked the Democrats and the media for continuing to focus on the coronavirus, accusing them of deflecting what he termed scandals involving Biden and his son Hunter.“You’re trying to scare people” by reporting on the pandemic, the president told reporters at the Columbus airport before his second rally. “Don’t scare people.”At his first event in Lumberton, North Carolina, he spoke about testing for COVID-19, a day after the United States registered a single-day record number of cases.”In some ways it’s good. In many ways it’s foolish,” Trump said of increased testing. “Cases are up. If we tested half, cases would be half.”The record number of cases gives “the fake news media something to talk about,” added the president.Trump made the remark at a packed rally in defiance of pandemic social distancing guidelines in Lumberton.At a second, similar event in Circleville, Ohio, the president said the coronavirus “is going away” but the media only talk about “cases, cases, cases” and not a drop in COVID-19 deaths.Hospitalizations, however, for the virus are increasing in many states.Prior to his Saturday appearances, Trump cast an early vote for himself in his home state of Florida, to which he switched his official residence from New York last year.“It’s an honor to be voting,” the president told reporters immediately after depositing his ballot at a library in West Palm Beach after spending the night at his nearby Mar-a-Lago resort. “I voted for a guy named Trump.”At Biden’s second event of the day, rock musician Jon Bon Jovi played three songs before the nominee addressed the drive-in rally in a high school parking lot in Dallas, Pennsylvania, where honking of horns substituted for applause.“These days on the radio and at the [Trump] rallies on the TV, I always hear a lot of ‘me, me, me,’ but I really do believe that Joe believes in the power of we,” said the singer, a New Jersey native who spent boyhood summers in Erie, Pennsylvania.The event took place in the pivotal county of Luzerne, which voted for the ticket of Barack Obama and Biden in 2012 but helped to deliver Pennsylvania to Trump four years ago.Biden earlier in the day also held a socially distanced drive-in event in Bucks County, a suburban county near Philadelphia that Hillary Clinton captured by a slim margin in 2016.On the coronavirus, the former vice president warned, “There’s going to be a dark winter ahead unless we change our way.”Trump at his first rally of the day mocked that comment, sarcastically calling his opponent “a very inspiring guy.”Obama, meanwhile, spoke Saturday at a drive-in rally in North Miami, Florida.“What we do in the next 10 days will matter for decades to come,” said the former president.Obama contended that his successor has failed in the job and “doesn’t even acknowledge the reality of what’s taking place across the country” with the pandemic.Trump, said Obama, has treated the presidency “like a reality show to give himself more attention.”Although the presidential election is less than two weeks away, more than 57 million people have already voted. Another 100 million or so are expected to cast ballots before a winner is declared.Most nationwide polls show Biden comfortably ahead of Trump and the challenger with slight leads in key states expected to swing the outcome of the election.
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U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski announced Saturday that she would vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett, giving crucial support to President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee before the conservative judge faces a final vote expected Monday.The Alaska Republican had been a rare holdout on Barrett, expressing concern that the nomination had proceeded so close to a presidential election. Even though Barrett already appeared to have sufficient support for confirmation from Senate Republicans who hold the majority in the chamber, Murkowski’s vote now gives Trump’s nominee additional backing.Murkowski announced her support for Barrett in a speech during Saturday’s session. “While I oppose the process that has led us to this point, I do not hold it against her,” she said.The Senate opened a rare weekend session Saturday as Republicans raced to put Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court and seal a conservative majority before Election Day despite Democratic efforts to stall the confirmation.No chance for DemocratsDemocrats are poised to mount more time-consuming procedural hurdles, but the party has no realistic chance of stopping Barrett’s advance in the Republican-controlled chamber. Barrett, a federal appeals court judge, is expected to be confirmed Monday and quickly join the court.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, noted the political rancor, but defended his handling of the process.FILE – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell holds a face mask while participating in a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Oct. 20, 2020.“Our recent debates have been heated, but curiously talk of Judge Barrett’s actual credentials or qualifications are hardly featured,” McConnell said. He called her one of the most “impressive” nominees for public office “in a generation.”The fast-track confirmation process is like none other in U.S. history so close to a presidential election. Democrats call it a “sham” and say the winner of the November 3 presidential election should name the nominee to fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York warned Republicans the only way to remove the “stain” of their action would be to “withdraw the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett until after the election.”With the nation experiencing a surge of COVID-19 cases, Democrats were expected to force a series of votes throughout Saturday on coronavirus relief legislation, including the House-passed Heroes Act that would pump money into schools, hospitals and jobless benefits and provide other aid.Majority Republicans were expected to turn aside the measures and keep Barrett’s confirmation on track, which would lock a 6-3 conservative majority on the court for the near future. Senators planned to stay in session Saturday and Sunday.FILE – Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett testifies during the third day of her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 14, 2020.Barrett, 48, presented herself in public testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee as a neutral arbiter of cases on abortion, the Affordable Care Act and presidential power — issues soon confronting the court. At one point she suggested, “It’s not the law of Amy.”But Barrett’s past writings against abortion and a ruling on the Obama-era health care law show a deeply conservative thinker.Trump said this week he was hopeful the Supreme Court would undo the health law when the justices take up a challenge November 10, the week after the election.At the start of Trump’s presidency, McConnell engineered a Senate rules change to allow confirmation by a majority of the 100 senators, rather than the 60-vote threshold traditionally needed to advance high court nominees over objections. The GOP holds a 53-47 majority in the chamber.Collins to vote ‘no’Most Republicans are supporting Barrett’s confirmation. In the wake of Murkowski’s announcement on Saturday, only Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine has said she won’t vote for a nominee so close to the presidential election.Republicans on the Judiciary Committee powered Barrett’s nomination forward Thursday despite a boycott of the vote by Democrats.Senator Lindsey Graham, the committee chairman, acknowledged the partisan nature of the proceedings, but said he could not live with himself if the Senate failed to confirm someone he said was such an exceptional nominee. The South Carolina Republican called Barrett a “role model” for conservative women and for people of strongly held religious beliefs.Democrats decried the “sham” process and said Barrett would undo much of what was accomplished by liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg.By pushing for Barrett’s ascension so close to the November 3 election, Trump and his Republican allies are counting on a campaign boost, in much the way they believe McConnell’s refusal to allow the Senate to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee in February 2016 created excitement for Trump among conservatives and evangelical Christians eager for the Republican president to make that nomination after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.FILE – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., attends the second day of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 13, 2020.Graham, for example, with his high-profile role leading the hearings, has been raking in about $1 million a day this month for his reelection campaign. That rate outpaces Graham’s third-quarter total of $28 million, which his campaign said represented the largest amount ever raised by any Republican Senate candidate in a single quarter, in any state.Barrett was a professor at Notre Dame Law School when she was tapped by Trump in 2017 for an appeals court opening. Two Democrats joined at that time to confirm her, but none is expected to vote for her in the days ahead.During the three days of testimony, and subsequent filings to the Senate committee, Barrett declined to answer basic questions for senators, such as whether the president can change the date of federal elections, which is set in law. Instead, she pledged to take the cases as they come.
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U.S. President Donald Trump cast his ballot for the November 3 presidential election in his adopted home state of Florida Saturday, while his Democratic challenger Joe Biden spends the day focusing on the key swing state of Pennsylvania.
 
Trump, who switched his official residence from New York to Florida last year, voted early in the day in West Palm Beach after spending the night at his nearby Mar-a-Lago resort.  
 
“It was a very secure vote. Everything was perfect,” Trump told reporters as he left the Palm Beach county library, which serves as a polling location. “It’s an honor to be voting.”
 
Asked who he voted for, the president said, “I voted for a guy named Trump.”
 
The president is on his way to Lumberton, North Carolina, for a campaign rally. He will also hold rallies in Circleville, Ohio, and Waukesha, Wisconsin.FILE – Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware, Oct. 23, 2020.Former Vice President Biden, meanwhile, holds drive-in events in Bucks County, a suburban Philadelphia county that Hillary Clinton captured by a slim margin in 2016, and in nearby Luzerne County. Former President Barack Obama won Luzerne County twice before voters there cast ballots overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016.
 
Biden’s campaign also seeks voter support Saturday in the key state of Florida, with Obama holding a drive-in rally in North Miami on behalf of his former vice president.
 
Although the presidential election is less than two weeks away, more than 52 million people have already voted. Another 100 million or so are expected to cast ballots before a winner is declared. 
 
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As the United States saw its highest number of new coronavirus cases reported in a single day, former Vice President Joe Biden announced that if he defeats President Donald Trump in next month’s election, he will push for a nationwide mask mandate.“I’ll go to every governor and urge them to mandate masks in their state. And if any refuse, I’ll go to the mayors and county executives to get local masking requirements in place nationwide,” Biden said in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, 11 days before the vote.“As president, I’ll mandate mask-wearing in all federal buildings and on interstate transportation because masks save lives,” he said.More than 80,000 new COVID-19 infections were reported Friday by Johns Hopkins University, topping the single-day record of 77,362 set July 16.All but about a half dozen of the 50 U.S. states have shown increased coronavirus cases this week compared to last week. At least 14 states have reported new highs in hospitalized coronavirus patients in the past seven days.Trump criticized Biden on Friday in Florida for emphasizing the infection, for which there is yet no vaccine or cure.“All he talks about is COVID COVID, COVID because they want to scare people, and we’ve done so well with it,” Trump said in the senior citizens’ community of The Villages.“We’re rounding the turn. We’re rounding the corner. We’re rounding the corner beautifully,” he said.Later, at a second campaign rally in Pensacola, he told a packed crowd of thousands, where few were wearing masks, “we want normal to fully resume and that’s happening.”Trump’s critics have accused him of holding “super-spreader events,” in defiance of federal health guidelines and local regulations on social distancing.Biden, laying out his pandemic response plan Friday, criticized Trump for asserting during their nationally televised debate Thursday night that the country is learning to live with the coronavirus.“As I told him last night, we’re not learning to live with it,” Biden said.“We’re learning to die with it, and there is a dark winter ahead,” he said.There are predictions from public health officials of a coronavirus case surge as cold weather sets in across the Northern Hemisphere.Biden said Friday that “once we have a safe and effective vaccine, it has to be free to everyone — whether or not you’re insured.”Trump continues to defend his administration’s handling of the pandemic amid criticism he has sidelined top career government infectious diseases experts on his coronavirus task force, in favor of outsiders such as Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuro-radiologist who has minimized the importance of masks.Atlas has also reportedly promoted the argument that lockdowns and prohibitions on gatherings and indoor activities do more damage than good and lead to increases in poverty and mental problems.COVID-19 has killed more than 223,000 people in the United States and infected nearly 8.5 million.Trump on Friday, without giving specifics, vowed “we will eradicate the pandemic and defeat this scourge from China once and for all.”
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As the United States saw its highest number of new coronavirus cases reported in a single day, former Vice President Joe Biden announced that if he defeats President Donald Trump in next month’s election, he will push for a nationwide mask mandate.“I’ll go to every governor and urge them to mandate masks in their state. And if any refuse, I’ll go to the mayors and county executives to get local masking requirements in place nationwide,” Biden said in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, 11 days before the vote.“As president, I’ll mandate mask-wearing in all federal buildings and on interstate transportation because masks save lives,” he said.More than 80,000 new COVID-19 infections were reported Friday by Johns Hopkins University, topping the single-day record of 77,362 set July 16.All but about a half dozen of the 50 U.S. states have shown increased coronavirus cases this week compared to last week. At least 14 states have reported new highs in hospitalized coronavirus patients in the past seven days.Trump criticized Biden on Friday in Florida for emphasizing the infection, for which there is yet no vaccine or cure.“All he talks about is COVID COVID, COVID because they want to scare people, and we’ve done so well with it,” Trump said in the senior citizens’ community of The Villages.“We’re rounding the turn. We’re rounding the corner. We’re rounding the corner beautifully,” he said.Later, at a second campaign rally in Pensacola, he told a packed crowd of thousands, where few were wearing masks, “we want normal to fully resume and that’s happening.”Trump’s critics have accused him of holding “super-spreader events,” in defiance of federal health guidelines and local regulations on social distancing.Biden, laying out his pandemic response plan Friday, criticized Trump for asserting during their nationally televised debate Thursday night that the country is learning to live with the coronavirus.“As I told him last night, we’re not learning to live with it,” Biden said.“We’re learning to die with it, and there is a dark winter ahead,” he said.There are predictions from public health officials of a coronavirus case surge as cold weather sets in across the Northern Hemisphere.Biden said Friday that “once we have a safe and effective vaccine, it has to be free to everyone — whether or not you’re insured.”Trump continues to defend his administration’s handling of the pandemic amid criticism he has sidelined top career government infectious diseases experts on his coronavirus task force, in favor of outsiders such as Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuro-radiologist who has minimized the importance of masks.Atlas has also reportedly promoted the argument that lockdowns and prohibitions on gatherings and indoor activities do more damage than good and lead to increases in poverty and mental problems.COVID-19 has killed more than 223,000 people in the United States and infected nearly 8.5 million.Trump on Friday, without giving specifics, vowed “we will eradicate the pandemic and defeat this scourge from China once and for all.”
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Vice President Mike Pence has voted in the general election in Indianapolis.
Pence and his wife, Karen, cast absentee ballots about 8:15 a.m. Friday, shortly after the polls opened in the Indianapolis City-County Building. They voted in a drop-off ballot box outside the county clerk’s office.
“It’s a great honor and great to be back home again,” Pence said, giving a thumbs-up sign toward cameras.
Pence did not answer questions shouted at him from the news media.
Indianapolis City-County Councilman Zach Adamson, a Democrat, was outside the building on behalf of Joe Biden’s campaign.
“I’m glad he’s coming to vote. We Democrats love it when people come to vote and we’d like more people to have access to the ballot. A lot of people are here because they are dissatisfied with what they are seeing, especially with the national response on COVID,” Adamson said.
Jeanne Barber, 69, of Indianapolis, came to vote without realizing Pence would be there.
Barber, who uses a motorized wheel chair, said she had to wait a few extra minutes to vote because of Pence but didn’t mind.
“I guess he has to vote somewhere,” she said.
Annie Gresh, 42, of Noblesville, was among a handful of protesters dressed as handmaidens outside the City-County Building. She wore a red handmaiden dress with a long skirt and a bonnet.
“We are so against this administration and we want to turn the tide,” Gresh said. “Instead of a blue wave, we want to see a blue tsunami.”
She said Pence should have voted by mail like President Donald Trump.
“He could have done it by mail instead of holding up those people’s time,” Gresh said.
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U.S. Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, engaged in a spirited debate Thursday night just ahead of the Nov. 3 national presidential election, presenting the nation with sharply divergent views of where they would take the country over the next four years.For 90 minutes, they traded barbs. They attacked each other’s positions on controlling the coronavirus and curbing the continual advance of the country’s world-leading death toll of more than 222,000. They argued over health care, wages for low-income workers, crime, race relations in the U.S., climate change and leadership in the White House.In the end, Trump said he deserved a second term in the White House because “success is going to bring us together. We had the best economy” before the coronavirus pandemic hit the country in early 2020 and that he would restore the world’s biggest economy.But he claimed that if Biden wins, “You’ll have a depression like no one’s seen.”Biden, a fixture on the American political scene for nearly a half century as a senator and second in command to former President Barack Obama, repeatedly assailed Trump’s presidency as misguided, uncaring and chaotic — while vowing to reunite the country.“We’re going to have science over fiction, and hope over fear,” Biden said, “This election is about decency, honor, respect and treating people with dignity. You haven’t gotten that for the last four years.”While both candidates scored important points in their final meeting, neither appeared to have gotten the upper hand or delivered a telling blow that might immediately alter the course of the campaign.More civil, less rancorousEven with pointed attacks on each other, their second and last debate 12 days before the election was more civil and less rancorous than the first time they faced each other on a debate stage in late September. The debate moderator, NBC News’ White House correspondent Kristen Welker, kept the discussion under control.The two candidates, both in their 70s, interrupted each other Thursday night but not as much as three weeks ago, partly because the independent Commission on Presidential Debates alternately turned off their microphones for two minutes apiece as they began discussions of each of six new issues to allow each to answer without being interrupted by the other.The commission imposed the microphone regimen on the premise that American voters – at least the relatively few who claim they are still undecided on how they will vote – might get a clearer view of where each candidate might take the country when one of them is inaugurated Jan. 20 if each could deliver a statement uninterrupted.Millions of Americans have made up their minds about the election, with more than 47 million people having cast early ballots by mail or in person. Many have said that during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. they wanted to avoid coming face to face with other voters in the expected long lines at polling stations on Election Day.Biden laid into Trump’s handling of the coronavirus in his opening remarks, saying, “He says we’re rounding the corner” in dealing with the pandemic. “Anyone responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president. This is the same fella who told you it would be gone by Easter.”Trump accused Biden of wanting to shut down the country to end the spread of the virus if he becomes president.“He’ll close down the country if one person in our massive bureaucracy says shut it down,” Trump said.“We have to open our country,” Trump said. “We can’t close up our nation or we won’t have a nation. … People are learning to live with it (COVID).”“Live with it? No, people are learning to die with it,” Biden shot back.Health care, minimum wage and moreOn health care, Trump accused Biden of fostering a plan for “socialized medicine” in the country, but Biden said he wants to improve the Affordable Care Act adopted under Obama in 2010 while Trump has offered no replacement plan despite repeated promises to do so while seeking a legal ruling by the Supreme Court to end the health care program for millions of Americans amid the pandemic.Biden said a national minimum wage of $15 hour an hour for workers was necessary to help low-income wage earners. But Trump said it should only be an option on a state-by-state basis because otherwise small businesses in some communities would be bankrupted by having to pay the higher wages beyond the current base wage of $7.25 an hour.Biden claimed U.S. race relations have deteriorated under Trump. The president retorted, as he often has, that no U.S. leader, possibly other than Abraham Lincoln who freed slaves in the 19th century, has done more for black people than he has.Trump attacked Biden for passage of a 1994 anti-crime bill that incarcerated far too many minorities for drug offenses. Biden acknowledged that the law was a mistake that over time he has worked to repair.He said that drug users ought to be enrolled in health care treatment programs, not jailed.“Nobody should be going to jail because they have a drug problem,” Biden said.At another point, Trump claimed that Biden and his family had received millions of dollars in payments from foreign governments including China, Russia, and Ukraine, without offering proof.“They’re like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up millions,” Trump claimed.Biden responded, “The only guy making money (from foreign sources) is him,” gesturing at the president.As Trump repeatedly attempted to reroute the debate focus back to the business deals of Biden’s son Hunter, the former vice president looked directly into the camera at the millions of voters watching the debate and said the election “is not about his family or my family. It’s about your family. We should be talking about your concerns.”Thursday’s debate may have been the last, best chance for Trump, a real estate entrepreneur and reality television show host-turned-politician, to cut into Biden’s persistent lead in national and statewide polls. Biden holds an 8-to-10-percentage-point lead over Trump in national polls, but a lead of about half that in battleground states that will likely decide the overall outcome.
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U.S. Senate Judiciary Republicans on Thursday approved President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month, despite protests by Democrats the vote is too close to Election Day. VOA congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson looks ahead to the Senate confirmation vote next week.
Camera: Adam Greenbaum    Producers: Katherine Gypson, Emma Morris, Victoria Sneeden, Michael Rummel
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U.S. Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, sparred sharply Thursday night about the country’s world-leading coronavirus death toll at their second and final debate 12 days before the Nov. 3 national presidential election.“He says we’re rounding the corner” in dealing with the pandemic, Biden said of Trump, as the increasing U.S. death toll has topped more than 220,000. “Anyone responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president. This is the same fella who told you it would be gone by Easter.”Trump accused Biden of wanting to shut down the country to end the spread of the virus if he becomes president.“He’ll close down the country if one person in our massive bureaucracy says shut it down,” Trump said.The two candidates, both in their 70s, remained silent as each other made their opening remarks about coronavirus without interruption after the independent Commission on Presidential Debates alternately muted their microphones for two minutes apiece.It was a distinct initial contrast to their confrontation at the first debate in late September, when they repeatedly talked over each other, Trump more so than Biden, in what political pundits concluded was the worst-ever U.S. presidential debate.But once Trump, then Biden, delivered his opening comments, both of their microphones were turned on and they quickly started trading barbed comments on a debate stage at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennesse, as they answered questions posed by the debate moderator, NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker.Their exchanges were spirited but they did not talk over each other as much as in September at their first debate.The microphone regimenThe commission imposed the microphone regimen at the start of discussion on six current affairs issues chosen by Welker on the premise that American voters – at least the relatively few who claim they are still undecided on how they will vote – might get a clearer view of where each might take the country when one of them is inaugurated Jan. 20 if each could deliver a statement uninterrupted.Millions of Americans have already made up their minds about the election, with more than 47 million people already having cast early ballots by mail or in person. Many have said that during the unchecked coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. they wanted to avoid coming face to face with other voters in the expected long lines at polling stations on Election Day.Many Democratic voters favoring Biden said they wanted to be among the first to vote to oust Trump, to make him the third U.S. president in the last four decades to lose a bid for reelection after a single term. Republican voters have often told pollsters and news reporters they intend to vote on Election Day in person, as has been the norm for decades in U.S. national elections.Thursday’s debate could be the last, best chance for Trump, a real estate entrepreneur and reality television show host-turned-politician, to cut into Biden’s persistent lead in national and statewide polls. Biden, with nearly a half century on the American political scene as a U.S. senator and second in command to former President Barack Obama, holds an 8-to-10-percentage-point lead over Trump in national polls, but a lead of about half that in battleground states that will likely decide the overall outcome.Aside from questions about coronavirus, Welker is asking the candidates about American families, U.S. racial issues, climate change, national security and leadership.In an interview on Fox News earlier this week, Trump assailed Welker as “totally partisan” and attacked the debate commission as biased against him.The president said he is not happy about the decision to mute microphones of either of the candidates during the opening two-minute statements and claimed that the debate should have focused on foreign policy instead of the coronavirus pandemic and other domestic policy issues.Trump has continued to campaign at large rallies of supporters this week, relishing the energy he believes they add to his campaign and believing they are essential to winning a second term. Biden, meanwhile, stayed out of public view as he has since last weekend, remaining at his home in the eastern state of Delaware to prepare for the debate.   
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U.S. President Donald Trump has released an unedited interview with “60 Minutes” anchor Lesley Stahl before its scheduled Sunday broadcast after complaining she was biased against him.
 
The footage Trump posted on Facebook Thursday shows him becoming increasingly irritated as Stahl questioned him on a number of topics, including his handling of the coronavirus crisis, the “Obamacare” replacement plan he has long touted but failed to produce and his apparent loss of support among suburban women.
 
“Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS,” Trump wrote in a tweet that included a link to the 38-minute video clip.
 
Trump attacked the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden throughout the interview and denounced the mainstream media for not reporting unsubstantiated allegations that have been published by the New York Post, a tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
 
As Trump continued to make unfounded allegations against Biden and former President Barack Obama, Stahl explained that “This is ’60 Minutes,’ and we can’t put on things we can’t verify.”
 
As Stahl noted that Trump was repeatedly offering attacks, Trump said, “It’s defense against attacks” and added, “I’m defending myself, and I’m defending the institute of the presidency.”
 
As Stahl asked Trump at the beginning of the interview if he was “ready for some tough questions,” a tense Trump seemed to become more irritable.
 
At the end of the video, Trump said, “Are you ready for tough questions. That’s no way to talk. That’s no way to talk.”
 
He later told Stahl, “You’re so negative,” and eventually ended the interview. Trump also refused to appear on camera with Vice President Mike Pence as planned.
 
The video released by Trump was filmed by White House staffers. CBS News said Trump’s aides had promised to use the clip “for archival purposes only.”
 
CBS News described the White House decision to release the video “unprecedented” and noted the interview would be broadcast on Sunday as scheduled.
 
“The White House’s unprecedented decision to disregard their agreement with CBS News and release their footage will not deter 60 MINUTES from providing its full, fair and contextual reporting which presidents have participated in for decades,” the network said in a statement. 
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Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Joe Biden said that if elected, he would put together a bipartisan commission of scholars to examine reforming a federal judiciary he called “out of whack,” noting that there are alternatives to consider besides expanding the Supreme Court. Biden, challenging Republican President Donald Trump in the November 3 election, made the comments in an interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes” to air this weekend. Excerpts were released Thursday. The former vice president said he would create a bipartisan commission of constitutional scholars including Democrats, Republicans, liberals and conservatives to review the U.S. judiciary. FILE – Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to participate in a town hall at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Oct. 15, 2020.”I will ask them to, over 180 days, come back to me with recommendations as to how to reform the court system because it is getting out of whack, the way in which it’s being handled, and it’s not about court-packing,” Biden added. “There’s a number of alternatives that … go well beyond packing,” Biden said. Some on the left have floated the idea of expanding the number of justices from the Supreme Court from the current nine if Biden wins to counter the court’s rightward drift in light of the actions of Senate Republicans in 2016 and now. Republicans have decried the idea as “court-packing.” Biden said last week he was “not a fan” of court-packing but has kept his options open. The number of justices has been fixed by law at nine for more than a century. His proposal of a commission allows Biden not to give a definitive answer on court expansion before the election. Biden’s comments were made public on the same day the Republican-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send Trump’s nomination of conservative appellate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote planned for Monday. Her confirmation would give the top U.S. judicial body a 6-3 conservative majority, which could be important in cases involving abortion, presidential powers, religious and gun rights, LGBTQ rights and other matters. Democrats were furious that Senate Republicans moved forward with Barrett’s nomination so near an election after refusing in 2016 to allow the chamber to act on a Supreme Court nomination by Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, because it was an election year. 
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