WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd October, 2020) Today, Sputnik is launching a new daily digest focused solely on the US 2020 presidential election. Our subscribers will be informed about key campaign developments, candidates' rallies, statements, and poll numbers, among other news.
US President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden continued to trade the same types of insults on Thursday as they did the previous evening during their first of three presidential debates, considered by many to be chaotic and extremely negative.
Over 73 million people watched Wednesday's debate, the Nielsen marketing research firm said. The viewership was 13 percent less than during the first showdown between Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016, which was watched by a record-breaking 84 million people.
Half of all US voters who watched the first presidential debates believe that Biden performed better than Trump, just 34 percent say the opposite, a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll revealed on Thursday. More than half, 52 percent, say they did not enjoy the show with 86 percent calling the debaters "interruptive". The vast majority said Trump "butted in" more than Biden - 71 percent to 18 percent. That did not deter Trump from tweeting: "I won the debate big, based on compilation of polls etc. Thank you!"
Trump suggested that he may not support changing debate rules for the remaining two rounds of his televised showdown with Biden.
"Why would I allow the Debate Commission to change the rules for the second and third Debates when I easily won last time?" he tweeted.
White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Trump wants to participate in the next debate but does not want the rules changed to cover for his rival's "inability to perform." The first debate, held on Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio, was marred by insults between the participants and frequent mutual interruptions. The organizers said that they may amend the rules of the show to give a moderator more tools to enforce order.
Thousands of social media users have been sharing posts purporting to provide evidence that Biden was wearing a wire and an earpiece during the first presidential debate. Higher quality photos and videos of the event show that the mark on Biden's shirt was likely a shirt crease, not a wire, and the object on his wrist appears to be a rosary that he wears to honor his late son.
Spending in the 2020 election is expected to reach $10.8 billion, making it the most expensive campaign in history, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive politics.
US Federal Election Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said the watchdog cannot initiate any campaign funding probes unless President Donald Trump and Congress act to fill at least one vacancy.
"We are down to three commissioners out of six," Weintraub said Thursday, adding that four commissioners are required to initiate any new investigations or make major decisions.
The governor of Wisconsin Tony Evers urged Trump to cancel two his campaign rallies scheduled for Saturday in a key battleground state which is experiencing a double-digit spike in coronavirus cases.
"Number one, he could not come. The second thing that could be done is for him to insist that if people are there, they wear a mask," local broadcaster WISN quoted Evers as saying.
Trump takes pride in massive attendance at his rallies, reaching tens of thousands spectators, and mocks Biden who prefers more secluded events.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a proclamation which confines each of the state's counties, some with the population of over a million, to a single mail-in ballot drop-off location. State Democrats denounced Abbott's order as "a blatant voter suppression tactic" ahead of the presidential election.
Senior Senate Democrats wrote a letter to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf requesting to release an intelligence paper which accuses a foreign actor of attempts "to undermine faith in the American system," echoing Trump's rhetoric on mail-in ballots.
Brad Parscale, former Trump senior aide, announced that he is stepping away from the reelection campaign days after an alleged attempt to harm himself. Politico quotes Parscale, who was once responsible for high-tech social media canvassing, as saying that he now seeks help to overcome "overwhelming stress."
The Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads the Republican incumbent Donald Trump by eight percentage points nationally, 51 percent to 43 percent, according to a Washington Post average of polls. Biden's margin is the same in Pennsylvania and smaller in other major battleground states - seven points in Wisconsin and Michigan, five in Arizona and one in Florida. Four years ago, Trump trailed in polls behind then-rival Hillary Clinton, but eventually gained the upper hand by winning several key states on election day.
