2020 US Election
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th October, 2020) US Federal regulators said the United States is unlikely to have a COVID-19 vaccine available before the November 3 election to the chagrin of President Donald Trump, who has come under more fire for shutting down talks with lawmakers on passing a multi-trillion pandemic relief package for Americans.
The US food and Drug Administration has decided on a two month waiting period before approving its new COVID-19 vaccine for general use, ensuring it will not be available to the general public before the November 3 presidential election, The New York Times reported.
The FDA has issued stronger guidelines for the introduction into general use of any vaccine to prevent COVID-19, an action the Trump administration had previously prevented.
The report comes a day after Trump said a vaccine would be available "momentarily." Trump made the claim in a video message just hours after leaving Walter Reed hospital where he was treated for COVID-19. Trump's doctors on Tuesday said the president had no symptoms but another of his advisers got infected. Rival Joe Biden said he would not debate Trump on October 15 if the president had COVID-19.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's lead over incumbent Trump in the US state of Pennsylvania swelled to 12 points, triple last month's margin, as more voters trust Biden's ability to manage the novel coronavirus crisis, according to a Monmouth University Poll on Tuesday.
Trump reacted to the recent polling numbers with disbelief on Tuesday.
"How does Biden lead in Pennsylvania Polls when he is against Fracking (JOBS!), 2nd Amendment and Religion? Fake Polls. I will win Pennsylvania!" Trump said in a tweet.
As of Tuesday evening, Biden is up by 9 points nationally in the Realclearpolitics.com (RCP) average of the most recent 10 major polls. The former vice president is leading in nine of the ten largest battleground states including Florida (+3.5%), Pennsylvania (6.3%), and Ohio (1.2%), according to RCP. However, Biden's lead in five of these swing states is within the margin of error. Trump, meanwhile, leads in Texas by 3.2%, the largest swing state.
The state government of Florida has extended its deadline for voters to register for the November 3 national and presidential elections for a day until Tuesday evening after its web site crashed on Monday because of exceptionally heavy traffic, Governor Ron DeSantis said.
"Today, I issued a directive to re-open Florida's voter registration deadline to participate in the November 3, General Election before 7 pm EST [Eastern Standard Time] for applications submitted online and by 7 pm local time for in-person registration, today, October 6," DeSantis said on Tuesday.
The new deadline to register was 7 pm. Tuesday, the governor said. In a statement, Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee said the state's online registration portal had experienced "unprecedented volume and traffic" of 1.1 million requests an hour on Monday evening.
Congress should draft and debate new laws to fight fake news, election and misinformation coordinated by foreign governments and other entities, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in written testimony to the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
"Congress should consider legislation, like we are doing in Colorado, to combat deep fakes, election misinformation, and foreign coordination," Griswold told the House Administration Subcommittee on Elections.
Congress should also strip social media companies of the protections from prosecution they have enjoyed for nearly a quarter of a century in order to make them more responsible in monitoring third party content on their web sites, Griswold, a Democrat urged.
TRUMP POSTPONES COVID-19 RELIEF TALKS UNTIL AFTER ELECTION
Trump said in a statement on Tuesday that he asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to focus on approving Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett and to set aside negotiations with Democrats to pass a new COVID-19 relief bill until after the November 3 election. Trump said the $2.4 trillion COVID-19 relief bill would be used to bailout Democrat states with high crime.
Trump has repeatedly said he thinks the election will be decided before the Supreme Court because of the likelihood of voter fraud from the record-level of mailed-in ballots expected.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump has shown contempt for health care professionals, first responders and the children of America. Trump remains committed to his proposed $150 billion tax cut for the wealthiest people in America from the CARES Act, while he refused to give real help to poor children, the unemployed and America's hard working families, the speaker added.