Author: PolitCens

Former U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday that President Donald Trump is “incapable of taking the job seriously,” as Obama campaigned for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the key state of Pennsylvania.The drive-in rally in the city of Philadelphia was Obama’s first in-person event in support of Biden, who served as vice president during his two terms in office.”I never thought Donald Trump would embrace my vision or continue my policies, but I did hope for the sake of the country that he might show some interest in taking the job seriously,” Obama told the crowd sitting in nearly 300 cars spread across a stadium parking lot.  “But it hasn’t happened,” Obama said, “He hasn’t shown any interest in doing the work or helping anybody but himself and his friends or treating the presidency like a reality show that he can use to get attention.”Final Trump-Biden Debate: What to Watch ForDebate takes place in Nashville, TennesseeTrump was a frequent critic of Obama during his predecessor’s time in office and has continued to attack Obama during his own four-year term in office.  Earlier this month, he tweeted that the Obama-Biden administration was “TERRIBLE!!!”At his own rally Wednesday, Trump cited Obama’s support of 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, saying, “It was nobody who campaigned harder for Crooked Hillary than Obama, right?”Obama portrayed a Biden presidency as different in tone and priorities than the Trump administration and included criticism of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 222,000 people in the United States.“I get that this president wants full credit for the economy he inherited and zero blame for the pandemic that he ignored. But you know what, the job doesn’t work that way,” Obama said.  “Tweeting at the television doesn’t fix things. Making stuff up doesn’t make people’s lives better. You’ve got to have a plan. You’ve got to put in the work.”Pennsylvania has been a focus for both the Trump and Biden campaigns in their final push for support ahead of the November 3 election.  The state carries 20 of the 270 electoral votes a candidate needs to win a White House term.  Trump defeated Clinton in Pennsylvania in 2016, the first time a Republican had won the state since 1988.Biden has visited Pennsylvania more than any other state, and Trump made his latest appearance there on Tuesday.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden face off Thursday in their final debate ahead of the Nov. 3 election. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti reports from Nashville, Tennessee.
Camera: Miguel Amaya
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A Maryland man was arrested and accused of making death threats against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday.
 
The suspect was identified as James Dale Reed, 42, who was also charged with threatening sexual violence against Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, in a letter he left at a neighbor’s house that bore a sign supporting the Democratic ticket.
 
The resident of Frederick, Maryland, who initially denied threatening violence against the candidates, was captured on the neighbor’s video doorbell on October 4 delivering the letter at their doorstep.
 
Prosecutors said Reed was questioned at home and later arrested after he admitted to the offense.
 
In a statement, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert Hur said the threats were illegal, and his office takes them seriously. Hur added that his office will “hold accountable those who make them.”
 
The Secret Service has since filed a criminal complaint in federal court against Reed, who said he wrote the threatening letter because he was troubled by the political situation, according to an affidavit.
 
Reed’s action comes days after over a dozen men were charged with plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and at a time when civil rights groups warn of election-related violence.
 
This is not the first time Reed has been charged with making threatening statements. In 2014, he made similar threats to an unidentified person who was under Secret Service protection. 
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With the U.S. presidential election less than two weeks away and the focus on a handful of states expected to determine the outcome, incumbent Republican Donald Trump was back in North Carolina on Wednesday, where Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s running mate, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, also made appearances earlier in the day.“We’re going to win this state,” Trump predicted at an evening rally in Gastonia. Later at the event, he told the crowd of thousands, “I’ve been all over your state. You better let me win.”North Carolina is a key prize in the election as the victor gets 15 of the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency.Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the state four years ago by fewer than 200,000 votes, capturing just under 50% of ballots cast.“We need North Carolina and that’s why I’m here, that’s why he’s (Trump) been here,” Harris told reporters at the airport in Asheville after a campaign event on a nearby college campus. “The people of North Carolina are very much going to be a very big part of deciding this election, so we’re here to encourage the vote.”Three polls in the past week have shown Biden ahead of Trump by 3 points, within the margin of error of those surveys of voters.North Carolina is often characterized as a swing state, but some there suggest it is better to list it as battleground state because prior to Barack Obama in 2008, the last time the state voted for a Democrat for president was Jimmy Carter in 1976.“The historic 1929 textile mill strikes had its epicenter in Gastonia. As the textile industry has faded in North Carolina, Gastonia has retained some of its blue-collar heritage while also moving into the metropolitan orbit of Charlotte. The Trump campaign would have to run strongly in Gaston County to match its 2016 victory in North Carolina,” said professor Ferrel Guillory, who directs the Program on Public Life at the journalism and media school at the University of North Carolina.Professor Mac McCorkle at Duke University’s public policy school, where he directs its POLIS politics center, told VOA, “Gastonia is exactly the kind of place Trump needs to be or has to be at this juncture, if being in a particular place matters. It’s one those at least partly Charlotte exurban or ‘countrypolitan’ counties where Republicans have been getting and need to get more than 60% support.”Over the years, North Carolina has seen its furniture and textile industries wither while growth in the Research Triangle and Charlotte attracts a more diverse population.“North Carolina is not as simple as partisan breakdown,” with more than 40% of its residents born outside the state, said Susan Roberts, a political science professor at Davidson College.In a statement released Wednesday, Biden said, “Trump isn’t focused on caring for working families in North Carolina who cannot make their rent or mortgage payments, parents and educators struggling to educate their kids, or small-business owners losing everything they worked so hard to build. He has given up on his responsibility to get this virus under control.”Trump at his Gastonia rally, where he spent more than 75 minutes on stage, accused the media and the Democrats of focusing too much on the pandemic.“All you hear is COVID, COVID,” said the president, who has recovered from the virus after testing positive earlier this month. “That’s all they put on because they want to scare the hell out of everyone.”This year, COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has killed about 222,000 people in the United States out of a total of 8.3 million confirmed to have been infected. It has killed more than 4,000 people in North Carolina where new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and the percentage of COVID-19 tests that are positive are increasing statewide.Perhaps the chief issue for North Carolina voters is health care. Roberts, of Davidson College, notes that North Carolina is one of only 12 states that have opted not to adopt the expanded Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.Trump has repeatedly railed against the act, known as Obamacare. Biden’s campaign pledges to bolster the plan with a variety of adds-on that will “insure more than an estimated 97% of Americans.”
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President Donald Trump spent a decade unsuccessfully pursuing projects in China, operating an office there during his first run for president and forging a partnership with a major government-controlled company, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
China is one of only three foreign nations — the others are Britain and Ireland — where Trump maintains a bank account, according to a Times analysis of the president’s tax records. The foreign accounts do not show up on Trump’s public financial disclosures, where he must list personal assets, because they are held under corporate names.
The Chinese account is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management LLC, which the tax records show paid $188,561 in taxes in China while pursuing licensing deals there from 2013 to 2015.
In response to questions from The Times, Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, said the company had “opened an account with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States in order to pay the local taxes” associated with efforts to do business there. He said the company had opened the account after establishing an office in China “to explore the potential for hotel deals in Asia.”
“No deals, transactions or other business activities ever materialized and, since 2015, the office has remained inactive,” Garten said. “Though the bank account remains open, it has never been used for any other purpose.”
Garten would not identify the bank in China where the account is held.
China continues to be an issue in the 2020 presidential campaign, from the president’s trade war to his barbs over the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. His campaign has tried to portray former Vice President Joe Biden as misreading the dangers posed by China’s growing power. Trump has also sought to tar his opponent with overblown or unsubstantiated assertions about Hunter Biden’s business dealings there while his father was in office.
As for the former vice president, his public financial disclosures, along with the income tax returns he voluntarily released, show no income or business dealings of his own in China. However, there is ample evidence of Trump’s efforts to do business there.
As with Russia, where he explored hotel and tower projects in Moscow without success, Trump has long sought a licensing deal in China. His efforts go at least as far back as 2006, when he filed trademark applications in Hong Kong and the mainland. Many Chinese government approvals came after he became president.
In 2008, Trump pursued an office tower project in Guangzhou that never got off the ground. But his efforts accelerated in 2012 with the opening of a Shanghai office, and tax records show that one of Trump’s China-related companies, THC China Development LLC, claimed $84,000 in deductions that year for travel costs, legal fees and office expenses.
The Times said Trump’s tax records show that he has invested at least $192,000 in five small companies created specifically to pursue projects in China over the years. Those companies claimed at least $97,400 in business expenses since 2010, including some minor payments for taxes and accounting fees as recently as 2018, the Times reported.
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The world is watching as the U.S. prepares for a crucial election for president and thousands of other representatives at all levels of government. In Africa’s most mature democracy, South Africa, citizens are watching the drama with interest — and with the aid of a few seasoned journalists who are attempting to explain the quirks and developments of this historic poll. For 12 years, South African reporter Sherwin Bryce-Pease has had the job of explaining America — and U.S. politics — for his nation’s state broadcaster from his base in New York.   2020, however, is posing a new storytelling challenge, with a pandemic and an election that, even for many American journalists, is a tough task. But, Bryce-Pease says, the difficulty is universal. “The truth deficit that we’ve encountered with this White House, you know, whether it’s from the president’s medical team post his COVID-19 diagnosis just the other day — you’re not getting the facts necessarily from this White House. So we also always have to, sort of, put it through a prism. What has the president said? And is it actually true? And this complicates the life of a journalist here,” he said.  FILE – The White House is seen on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, May 24, 2019.His election coverage focuses broadly on the presidential race and on U.S.-Africa relations. He believes his audience prefers Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in this race, largely because of Biden’s connection to former president Barack Obama and for Biden’s vice presidential pick, Kamala Harris.  Also, he said, President Donald Trump’s disparaging comments about Africa have made him unpopular on the continent.  In Johannesburg, retired U.S.-diplomat-turned-writer Brooks Spector also tries to make sense of American politics for a South African audience, in the Daily Maverick newspaper. This election, he says, has taken him to some strange places in his column.  “About a month ago, I wrote a column which urged for international monitoring groups to check the American election to help keep it honest, straight and free and fair,” he said. His is not an isolated opinion. The African Union has even suggested an election observation mission to the U.S. — a plan that does not appear to have materialized, though smaller teams from individual African states are reportedly planning their own observation missions.  In that way, says analyst Liesl Louw-Vaudran, this poll could also influence how African nations behave in the future.  “There’s a paradigm shift, more than even a mind shift, in a sense that African countries and governments always feel, you know, on the back foot when it comes to everything: governance, even the responses to COVID-19,” Louw-Vaudran said. “And what we’ve seen this last six months is that actually even the developed nations have been struggling. Their systems of governance are also under threat, as much as we have huge problems here.” Bryce-Pease says this is an important time to be covering the U.S. “This is a strange moment for the United States, and I think we need to recognize that,” he said. “I mean, the fact that you are questioning the electoral process of this shining city on a hill really does give a lot of people pause. … So I don’t know how America comes out of this. The question is: What kind of leadership will you have post November 3rd? I think that will be the determinant of where we go here.” Wherever that is, Africa will be watching.  
 
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A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that as long as a voter in the state of North Carolina has mailed their absentee ballot no later than Election Day, election officials can count it even if it arrives after Election Day. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied a challenge to a North Carolina State Board of Elections rule that said it will accept mail-in ballots as late as November 12. The original regulations would have made the cutoff November 6. The 12-3 ruling involved all of the court’s active judges, instead of a more typical three-judge panel, signaling the importance of the case. The issue is playing out in courts all over the country as election officials, political parties and rights groups battle on the question of to what extent rules in each state should be changed as more people seek to avoid having to go to a polling place on November 3 due to the coronavirus pandemic. “Everyone must submit their ballot by the same date,” said the 4th Circuit ruling.  “The extension merely allows more lawfully cast ballots to be counted, in the event there are any delays precipitated by an avalanche of mail-in ballots.”FILE – An election worker enters a polling station in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 24, 2019, as the station prepares for early voting.The courts have generally sided with the rules put in place by state legislatures and election officials while denying challenges from political parties and outside groups. The legal challenges have included many of the states considered key to deciding which candidate will win the presidential election, such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling by Pennsylvania’s top court allowing mail-in ballots to be counted if they arrive by November 6. Various courts gave voters in Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin similar extensions, but in each of those cases a higher court overturned the ruling.  Voters in all three states must now make sure their ballots are received by Election Day in order to be counted. Overall, about 20 U.S. states currently allow ballots to come in after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by November 3. Many states are also allowing people to cast ballots in person ahead of Election Day.  Combined with the mail-in votes, about 38 million people had already cast a ballot by Tuesday night, according to the U.S. Election Project. 
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Wasting no time, the Senate is on track to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court by next Monday, charging toward a rare weekend session as Republicans push past procedural steps to install President Donald Trump’s pick before Election Day.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he will begin the process as soon as the Senate Judiciary Committee wraps up its work Thursday. With a 53-47 Republican majority, and just two GOP senators opposed, Trump’s nominee is on a glide path to confirmation that will seal a conservative hold on the court for years to come.  
McConnell said Monday that Barrett demonstrated  over several days of public hearings the “sheer intellectual horsepower that the American people deserve to have on the Supreme Court.”
Without the votes to stop Barrett’s ascent, Democrats have few options left. They are searching for two more GOP senators to break ranks and halt confirmation, but that seems unlikely. Never before has a court nominee been voted on so close to a presidential election.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer decried what he called the “farcical” process to “jam” through Trump’s choice, even as the coronavirus outbreak  sidelined GOP senators.
“The Republican majority is running the most hypocritical, most partisan and least legitimate process in the history of Supreme Court confirmations,” he said during speech as the Senate opened.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to meet Thursday to vote on recommending Barrett’s nomination to the full Senate.  
By Friday, procedural votes are expected, continuing over the weekend as Republicans push through the steps for a final vote to confirm Barrett as soon as Monday.
The 48-year-old appellate court judge  from Indiana delivered few specific answers during several days of public testimony as senators probed her previously outspoken views against abortion, the Affordable Care Act and other issues before the court. She declined to say whether she would recuse herself from cases involving the election between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump has said he wants the judge seated in time to hear any potential disputes from the Nov. 3 election. He also has said he’s looking for a judge who would rule against the Obama-era health care law, which is headed to the court in a case justices are expected to hear Nov. 10.  
If confirmed, Barrett would be Trump’s third justice on the court. She would fill the vacancy from the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the liberal icon, locking in a 6-3 conservative majority on the high court.
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Facebook, Twitter and other internet companies are rolling out new policies on controversial content during the U.S. presidential campaign. Michelle Quinn reports.
Camera: Deana Mitchell
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The second and final debate before the U.S. presidential election appears set to go forward with new rules in place meant to prevent the candidates from talking over each other. President Donald Trump expressed his displeasure with the overall setup, telling reporters Monday that while he thinks “it is very unfair,” he will be a part of Thursday’s event in Nashville, Tennessee. “I will participate but it’s very unfair that they changed the topics and it’s very unfair that again we have an anchor who is totally biased,” Trump said. Kristen Welker, a respected NBC White House reporter, is moderating the debate and has chosen to ask Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden about fighting COVID-19, American families, race in America, climate change, national security and leadership. Trump’s campaign said earlier Monday the debate should focus more on international issues. Biden’s campaign said Trump was seeking to avoid discussing how his administration has handled the coronavirus pandemic, and that both sides had agreed to let moderators choose the topics for the debates.Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to speak during a campaign event at Riverside High School in Durham, N.C., Oct. 18, 2020.”As usual, the president is more concerned with the rules of a debate than he is getting a nation in crisis the help it needs,” Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo said. The format of Thursday’s debate will be 15-minute segments for different topics, during which each candidate will have two minutes to speak, followed by open discussion. In the first presidential debate in late September, Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden, who at one point responded: “Will you shut up, man?” The commission pledged to institute reforms to better facilitate a meaningful debate, and on Monday announced that during the two-minute exclusive period, only one candidate will have his microphone turned on. “Both campaigns this week reaffirmed their agreement to the two-minute, uninterrupted rule,” it said in a statement. “The Commission is announcing today that in order to enforce this agreed upon rule, the only candidate whose microphone will be open during these two-minute periods is the candidate who has the floor under the rules.” The commission said neither campaign may be totally satisfied with the rules, but that it believes the actions “strike the right balance and that they are in the interest of the American people.” The presidential candidates first debated in late September and were due to have another earlier this month.  But Trump tested positive for COVID-19 and when the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates decided to have the candidates participate remotely, the president withdrew. 
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Thursday’s debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger former Vice President Joe Biden will feature a mute button to allow each candidate to speak uninterrupted, organizers said Monday, in a bid to avoid the disruptions that marred the first matchup. The Presidential Commission on Debates said each candidate’s microphone would be silenced to allow the other to make two minutes of opening remarks at the beginning of each 15-minute segment of the debate. Both microphones will be turned on to allow a back-and-forth after that time. Trump’s campaign objected to the change but said the president would still take part. “President Trump is committed to debating Joe Biden regardless of last-minute rule changes from the biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favored candidate,” campaign manager Bill Stepien said. The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest developments. The news came the day the number of Americans voting early ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3 crossed the 30 million mark and as Trump tries to reframe a contest in which national and state opinion polls show him trailing. Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden during a chaotic and ill-tempered debate on Sept. 29, and Biden responded with insults. Trump backed out of a second scheduled debate set for last Thursday over a disagreement about the virtual format following his COVID-19 infection. At that time, he raised concerns about having his microphone muted. “You sit behind a computer and do a debate – it’s ridiculous, and then they cut you off whenever they want,” Trump said in an Oct. 8 interview on Fox Business. On Monday, Trump’s campaign said it was unhappy with the announced set of topics for Thursday’s debate, arguing that it should focus more on foreign policy and complaining that the nonpartisan group was tilted toward Biden. Biden’s campaign said both sides previously agreed to let moderators choose the subjects. It said Trump wanted to avoid discussing his stewardship of the coronavirus pandemic, which surveys show is the top issue for voters. “As usual, the president is more concerned with the rules of a debate than he is getting a nation in crisis the help it needs,” Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo said. 
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The spread of misinformation makes the search for trustworthy news that much harder. But as Tina Trinh reporters, tech companies are identifying media bias and helping readers discern the real news from the fake.
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President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden campaigned Sunday in swing states they are trying to flip during the Nov. 3 election that is just more than two weeks away. Trump began his day in Nevada, making a visit to church before a fundraiser and an evening rally in Carson City. Once considered a battleground, Nevada has not swung for a Republican presidential contender since 2004. The rally drew thousands of supporters who sat elbow to elbow, cheering Trump and booing Biden and the press. The vast majority wore no masks to guard against the coronavirus, though cases in the state are on the rise, with more than 1,000 new infections reported Saturday. The president warned that a Biden win would lead to further lockdowns and at one point appeared to mock Biden for saying he would listen to scientists. “He’ll listen to the scientists. If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression,” Trump said. Biden, a practicing Catholic, attended Mass in Delaware before campaigning in North Carolina, where a Democrat has not won in a presidential race since Barack Obama in 2008. Both candidates are trying to make inroads in states that could help secure a path to victory, but the dynamics of the race are remarkably stable. Biden enjoys a significant advantage in national polls, while carrying a smaller edge in battleground surveys. Earlier in the day, Trump sat in the front row at the nondenominational International Church of Las Vegas as the senior associate pastor, Denise Goulet, said God told her early that morning that the president would secure a second term. “At 4:30, the Lord said to me, ‘I am going to give your president a second win,'” she said, telling Trump, “you will be the president again.” Trump spoke briefly, saying “I love going to churches” and that it was “a great honor” to attend the service. He dropped a handful of $20 bills in the collection plate before leaving. The message was far different later in the day, when Biden attended a virtual discussion with African American faith leaders from around the country. Biden held up a rosary, which he said he carries in his pocket every day. “I happen to be a Roman Catholic,” Biden said. “I don’t pray for God to protect me. I pray to God to give me strength to see what other people are dealing with.” Earlier, at a drive-in rally in Durham, North Carolina, Biden focused heavily on promoting criminal justice changes to combat institutional racism and promised to help build wealth in the Black community. He noted that Trump had said at one of his rallies that the country had turned the corner on the pandemic. “As my grandfather would say, this guy’s gone around the bend if he thinks we’ve turned the corner. Turning the corner? Things are getting worse,” Biden said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. recorded more than 53,000 new cases of the coronavirus Sunday. In addition to public polling that indicates Biden has an edge, the former vice president enjoys another considerable advantage over Trump: money. Trump raked in $12 million during a fundraiser Sunday afternoon at the Newport Beach home of top GOP donor and tech mogul Palmer Luckey, which also featured a performance by the Beach Boys. But over the past four months, Biden has raised over $1 billion, a massive amount of money that has eclipsed Trump’s once-overwhelming cash advantage. Trump’s visit to Nevada is part of an aggressive schedule of campaign events, where he has leaned heavily into fear tactics. Trump’s Carson City rally was held at an airport where he relived fond moments from his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton, revisited his long-running feud with NFL players and went on an extended rant about water management policy, which he blamed for people having to “flush their toilet 15 times.” He also added to his litany of attacks against Biden, claiming that, if Biden were elected, he would mandate new lockdown measures that would make Carson City “a ghost town” and “the Christmas season will be canceled.” Biden started his day with Mass in Delaware at St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine, as he does nearly every week. He and his wife, Jill, entered wearing dark-colored face masks. She carried a bunch of flowers that including pink roses. The church is a few minutes’ drive from Biden’s home. Biden’s son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, is buried in the cemetery on its grounds. Joe and Jill Biden visited the grave after the service. Trump attends church far less often but has drawn strong support from white Evangelical leaders and frequently hosts groups of pastors at the White House. Trump often goes to the Church of Bethesda-By-The Sea near Mar-a-Lago in Florida for major holidays, including Easter, and he attended a Christmas Eve service last year at Family Church in West Palm Beach before the onset of the pandemic. 
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When Michigan voter Dr. Mahmoud Al-Hadidi casts his ballot in the November election, there is one issue that rises above all others as he makes his choice — respect.
 
“In this election, honestly, respect and recognition,” the emergency room physician told VOA during a recent interview at his lakefront home in the southeastern part of the state. “The Muslim community would like to be acknowledged as part of this great American nation, and not as an alien culture to this nation. The Muslim community would like to be treated with respect.”
 
Al-Hadidi supported Democratic former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. He also backed Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, in her successful run in 2018.
 
But this time around, he isn’t sure if he’ll support Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden over President Donald Trump, a Republican.
 
“I would like some of my concerns addressed before I make up my mind,” he said.
 
One concern is the U.S. government’s “Terrorist Screening Database” — commonly known as “the watchlist” — which many Muslim Americans feel targets innocent members of their community. A subset of the database is the “no fly” list of individuals barred from boarding commercial flights.
 
“Definitely that list should be updated,” Al-Hadidi said. “Those who are wrongfully on that list should have their dignity back and should be removed. And that would be fair and just.”
 
Al-Hadidi added that he would like to see a Muslim American appointed to a high-ranking position in the next administration.
 
“You’ve got to tell people something to excite them to go out and vote,” said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News, a website and newspaper popular with Michigan’s large Arab and Muslim American community. “Just because Biden is not Trump is not a good reason for me to go out and vote.”
 
While Muslim Americans make up about one percent of the overall U.S. population, they have an outsized influence in Michigan, a battleground state that President Trump narrowly won in 2016 by just over ten thousand votes out of more than 4.5 million cast.
 
While the state’s 270,000 registered voters of the Muslim faith could impact the outcome of this year’s presidential race, their preferences are just as diverse as their community.
 
“Some members of our community can believe that Trump is good on the economy, on business,” Siblani said in an interview at his office in Dearborn. “They may vote on this principle. But a majority of the Arab American community, they want from Biden to hear some commitment to them to excite them to go out and vote because, frankly, under Obama-Biden, Muslims were discriminated against [as well].
 
“The terrorist watch list started under the Bush administration, but it has been beefed up and became more hurtful to the community than ever,” he added.  
 
Siblani also says many in the community are outraged over the Trump administration’s ban on travelers from some countries with majority-Muslim populations — a ban Biden has pledged to end. At the same time, he said there is recognition and support for Trump’s efforts to promote peace and reduce U.S. troop levels in the Middle East.
 
“We would like to have a conversation with the Trump administration,” he said. “I believe that there are some issues that we are very interested in. Him not being very hawkish on war in the region, that’s very important to us.”
 
Siblani believes the choice for president in this election is not an easy one for many Muslim Americans.
 
“There is like 50% to 60% of our community that is not excited by the Biden campaign,” he said. “They’re disgusted with the Trump campaign.”
 
Others see the contest differently.
 
“It’s not that people are deciding between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Often times it’s between Joe Biden and not voting,” said epidemiologist Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a former executive director of Detroit’s Health Department who ran against Whitmer for the Democratic nomination for Michigan governor in 2018.
 
Today he is chair of the political action committee Southpaw Michigan, which advocates for progressive causes.
 
“The point that I’ll always make to the community is you are voting for your own political power,” El-Sayed told VOA during a recent Skype interview. “As the proportion of Arab Americans voting and Muslim Americans voting in elections grows, it forces politicians to pay attention because if they want those votes … that can mean the difference between victory and defeat.”
 
A recent poll of American Muslims by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding conducted from March through April shows about 78 percent of those eligible to vote are registered, an 18 percent increase since 2016. While no poll of Muslim Americans has been issued in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, previous surveys have shown the community backing Democrats more often than Republicans.
 
Al-Hadidi senses great anticipation among Muslim Americans for the Nov. 3 election.
 
“The Muslim community is really motivated and a lot more educated that this election is going to make a big difference in their life in general,” he said. “There is a significant amount in the Muslim community, especially in this election, who are independent and open minded in how to vote in the presidential and federal elections.
 
“There is no Muslim monolith,” El-Sayed said. “No one community thinks with one mind. We are a diverse community just like any community in this country.” 
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In the U.S. state of Michigan, authorities have apprehended 13 men accused of conspiring to abduct and possibly kill the state’s governor. The plot, which involved a self-styled militia group armed with semi-automatic weapons and explosives, was timed to disrupt the U.S. election and incite an insurrection. Matt Dibble spoke to experts who are warning that provocative messaging from leaders and under-regulated social media could be driving the American political climate towards violence.
Camera: Sam Paakkonen        Producer: Matt Dibble
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President Donald Trump was outraised by Democrat Joe Biden in September and is being outgunned financially by his rival with just weeks to go until Election Day.
 
Trump’s campaign, along with the Republican National Committee and associated groups, raised $247.8 million in September, short of the $383 million raised by Biden and the Democratic National Committee in the same period. Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh tweeted that the Trump effort had $251.4 million on hand at the end of September, compared with $432 million for Biden.
 
Trump’s financial disadvantage was once unthinkable — incumbent presidents traditionally vastly outraise their rivals — and poses a challenge to his reelection prospects. The president’s campaign was betting on a well-stocked bank account to blanket airwaves and online with Trump ads. But last week he was outspent on advertising by Biden by more than $10 million, according to the ad tracking firm Kantar/CMAG.
 
“President Trump hits final stretch with strength, resources, record & huge ground game needed to spread message and secure re-election,” Murtaugh tweeted.
 
Biden’s fundraising benefited from a boost in donor enthusiasm following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Trump’s widely panned performance in the first presidential debate.
 
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The Women’s March returns to cities across the United States on Saturday, with organizers hoping thousands will turn out despite the pandemic.Organizers of the march in Washington are focusing on a range of left-leaning political issues, including urging Americans to vote President Donald Trump out of office and protesting the Supreme Court nomination of conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett, following the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.According to a permit issued by the National Park Service, organizers expect between 6,000 and 10,000 people to gather on Freedom Plaza for a midday rally, followed by a march to the Supreme Court.Also Saturday, a counterprotest organized by a conservative women’s group will take place at the Supreme Court. The Independent Women’s Forum plans an “I’m With Her” rally in support of Barrett’s confirmation.The Women’s March organizers said they are encouraging mask wearing and social distancing because of the pandemic. They also say they are discouraging attendance from people who live in coronavirus hot spots and are asking people around the country to join in local marches instead of traveling long distances.Hundreds of similar rallies and events are expected to take place Saturday throughout the country, with some set to take place virtually or be held via car caravan because of the pandemic. One march is set to begin at Cornell University, where Ginsburg attended college.The march comes as Senate Republicans plan to begin voting next week on the confirmation of Barrett, who, if confirmed, would give the court a 6-3 conservative majority. Democrats have expressed concern that Barrett could vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark ruling upholding a woman’s right to an abortion.The first women’s march was held in 2017 when millions of people rallied to protest the inauguration of Trump. Subsequent marches have since focused on electing more women to local, state and national offices.
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