15 days before America votes, religion seems to have taken the centerstage. Both Donald Trump & Joe Biden have turned to faith and are attending church services. Who will turn out to be 'the chosen one'? WION's Palki Sharma gets you a report.

Gravitas: Religion takes centerstage in US election

The final presidential debate between Donald Trump & his Democratic rival Joe Biden will feature a 'mute button' to allow each candidate to speak uninterrupted.

US Election 2020: Final Trump-Biden Presidential debate will feature 'mute button'

Early voting has begun in Florida, a 'battleground' state, which could decide the outcome of the November 03, Presidential election.

US Election 2020: Early voting underway in 'battleground' Florida

US President Donald Trump lashed out at the government's top infectious disease expert that is Dr Anthony Fauci, referring to Fauci & other health officials as 'idiots'.

US Election 2020: Trump lashes out at NIAID Director Dr Anthony Fauci

Donald Trump is trending for his trademark dance moves on his favourite exit song. Netizens are not only taking the Trump Dance Challenge but are also giving tutorials. WION reports.

Can you do the #TrumpDanceChallenge? U.S. Election 2020 New York Direct

The U.S. witnessed another historic women's march over the weekend against SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Pro-choice & LGBTQ rights activists called out the Trump Administration over Supreme Court battle. WION reports

Who will American women vote for? U.S. Election 2020 New York Direct

Donald Trump & Governor Gretchen Whitmer crossed verbal swords on interviews, at rallies & on twitter. The governor of Michigan called out Trump for inciting 'domestic terrorism' while trump supporters chanted 'LOCK HER UP' at Michigan rally. WION reports

Election showdown features Michigan governor ; U.S. Election 2020 New York Direct

With early voting reporting record turnout, Joe Biden made a campaign visit in the red state of North Carolina with his teen grand daughter Finnegan. The vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris will be joining him soon. Can Joe Biden swing North Carolina this time?

Can Joe Biden win North Carolina? U.S. Election 2020 New York Direct

With just 15 days to USElection2020, Donald Trump is spending most of his time flitting from rally to rally, revving up his mostly MASKLESS crowds. This weekend, Trump travelled to Nevada, Wisconsin & Michigan. WION reports.

A political joy ride of rallies; U.S. Election 2020 New York Direct

Democrats across the country are beginning to believe.

They are daring to believe that the national nightmare could be coming to an end, that Donald Trump will not only not be reelected, but that Democrats could also flip the Senate.

But, this is a hope, a possibility, that they are refusing to give voice to.

They are still stung by the shock of 2016. They believed the polls that said Hillary Clinton would win. Their faith in all polling remains shaken.

They tell themselves, “Take nothing for granted.” Allowing themselves to even entertain the notion that they are ahead is a threat to enthusiasm. Some may feel like they are behind, even though they aren’t.

But, the fact remains: If Election Day were today and access to the ballot was unencumbered and undisturbed, it is most likely that Joe Biden would become our next president.

Donald Trump and his campaign see the same data that the rest of us do, and campaigns also have internal data that they don’t make public. Trump sees himself behind and sees that calendar winding down. And, no matter what he’s done in the last few months, the race has barely changed.

This is why Donald Trump is attempting to undermine the legitimacy of the election, doing everything he can to suppress the vote, and refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Because he doesn’t believe that he can win.

It is clear that he is consumed by the prospect of losing.

As he told the crowd at a rally in Macon, Georgia, on Friday: “Running against the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics puts pressure on me. Could you imagine if I lose? My whole life, what am I going to do? I’m going to say I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics. I’m not going to feel so good. Maybe I’ll have to leave the country. I don’t know.”

Not only can we imagine him losing, it is clear that he can as well. In fact, Trump has repeated some version of the passage at rallies for the last few days.

And Trump isn’t even trying to make a case for a second term. He isn’t laying out a vision and a plan. He is simply demonizing Biden and painting the darkest possible vision of an America where he loses as Biden wins.

The following lines come from speeches Trump has delivered in just the last few days:

“If he wins, the radical left will be running the country, and they’re addicted to power, and God help us if they ever got it, because we would never have the same country again.”

“If he wins, there will be nothing but bedlam all over the place.”

“If Biden wins, China wins, all these other countries win.”

“If he wins, the radical left will be running the country. He won’t be running the country. The radical left will take over.”

“If Biden wins, your borders are gone, which means your health care is gone, the middle class is gone, and your safety is gone.”

“If Sleepy Joe Biden and the Democrat Socialists are elected, every citizen in America will be subjected to their extreme ideology, possessed by this Marxist madness.”

It is a sign to me that he fully expects his reelection bid to fail. It means that Democrats’ optimism about the election outcome is well placed. This man is panicking. He made it clear when he said at a campaign rally in Michigan on Saturday:

“And you know then they say, they’re taking away … Me, I’m taking away their freedom. Then they say, ‘If you lose, will you have a friendly transition?’ I say, ‘I want a fair election.’ Then they say, ‘Will you have a fair … We want a fair and friendly transition.’ I said, ‘Really? Well, when I won, you spied on my campaign, we caught you trying to overthrow the president of the United States. You’re crooked as hell. And we caught you, and let’s see what happens to them. But you’re crooked as hell.’ And to me, that didn’t exactly look like a friendly transition.”

The postelection drama threatens to be a disaster that could truly test America’s institutions and indeed our democracy itself. But, we’ll just have to deal with that when we get to it.

Now, we are witnessing something else that we must not overlook: a rejection of hate, division and dishonesty. We are witnessing America acknowledging that character matters.

I dare not make election predictions because to do so is folly. There are still two weeks remaining in this campaign. Anything could happen. But, the situation for Trump continues to be dire and time is running out.

I’m allowing myself to believe.

Democrats across the country are beginning to believe. They are daring to believe that the national nightmare could be coming to an end, that Donald Trump will not only not be reelected, but that Democrats could also flip the Senate.

Democrats across the country are beginning to believe. They are daring to believe that the national nightmare could be coming to an end, that Donald Trump will not only not be reelected, but that Democrats could also flip the Senate. But, this is a hope, a possibility, that they are refusing to give voice to. They are still stung by the shock of 2016. They believed the polls that said Hillary Clinton would win. Their faith in all polling remains shaken. They tell themselves, “Take nothing for granted.” Allowing themselves to even entertain the notion that they are ahead is a threat to enthusiasm. Some may feel like they are behind, even though they aren’t. But, the fact remains: If Election Day were today and access to the ballot was unencumbered and undisturbed, it is most likely that Joe Biden would become our next president. Donald Trump and his campaign see the same data that the rest of us do, and campaigns also have internal data that they don’t make public. Trump sees himself behind and sees that calendar winding down. And, no matter what he’s done in the last few months, the race has barely changed. This is why Donald Trump is attempting to undermine the legitimacy of the election, doing everything he can to suppress the vote, and refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Because he doesn’t believe that he can win. It is clear that he is consumed by the prospect of losing. As he told the crowd at a rally in Macon, Georgia, on Friday: “Running against the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics puts pressure on me. Could you imagine if I lose? My whole life, what am I going to do? I’m going to say I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics. I’m not going to feel so good. Maybe I’ll have to leave the country. I don’t know.” Not only can we imagine him losing, it is clear that he can as well. In fact, Trump has repeated some version of the passage at rallies for the last few days. And Trump isn’t even trying to make a case for a second term. He isn’t laying out a vision and a plan. He is simply demonizing Biden and painting the darkest possible vision of an America where he loses as Biden wins. The following lines come from speeches Trump has delivered in just the last few days: “If he wins, the radical left will be running the country, and they’re addicted to power, and God help us if they ever got it, because we would never have the same country again.” “If he wins, there will be nothing but bedlam all over the place.” “If Biden wins, China wins, all these other countries win.” “If he wins, the radical left will be running the country. He won’t be running the country. The radical left will take over.” “If Biden wins, your borders are gone, which means your health care is gone, the middle class is gone, and your safety is gone.” “If Sleepy Joe Biden and the Democrat Socialists are elected, every citizen in America will be subjected to their extreme ideology, possessed by this Marxist madness.” It is a sign to me that he fully expects his reelection bid to fail. It means that Democrats’ optimism about the election outcome is well placed. This man is panicking. He made it clear when he said at a campaign rally in Michigan on Saturday: “And you know then they say, they’re taking away … Me, I’m taking away their freedom. Then they say, ‘If you lose, will you have a friendly transition?’ I say, ‘I want a fair election.’ Then they say, ‘Will you have a fair … We want a fair and friendly transition.’ I said, ‘Really? Well, when I won, you spied on my campaign, we caught you trying to overthrow the president of the United States. You’re crooked as hell. And we caught you, and let’s see what happens to them. But you’re crooked as hell.’ And to me, that didn’t exactly look like a friendly transition.” The postelection drama threatens to be a disaster that could truly test America’s institutions and indeed our democracy itself. But, we’ll just have to deal with that when we get to it. Now, we are witnessing something else that we must not overlook: a rejection of hate, division and dishonesty. We are witnessing America acknowledging that character matters. I dare not make election predictions because to do so is folly. There are still two weeks remaining in this campaign. Anything could happen. But, the situation for Trump continues to be dire and time is running out. I’m allowing myself to believe.

Democrats dare to believe

US Election 2020: United States Republican President Donald Trump, and his Democratic rival Joe Biden may not agree on much, but both recently urged supporters to vote as early as possible.&nbsp;

In Nevada, Trump asked voters to cast ballots early, while Biden asked voters in North Carolina to “go vote today”.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/us-supreme-court-to-review-legality-of-trumps-remain-in-mexico-asylum-policy-336475" hreflang="en">US Supreme Court to review legality of Trump's 'remain in Mexico' asylum policy</a>

Ahead of the November 3 election, 27.9 million Americans have already cast their votes, either by mail or in person, based on data from the US Elections Project at the University of Florida, setting a new record. Many are voting early to avoid last minute rush at polling stations given the severity of the pandemic in the US.

Trump was heard saying in Carson City, Nevada - "Early voting is under way, so get out and vote." Trump had lost Nevada in 2016.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-biden-vs-trump-the-story-of-dueling-town-halls-335917/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Biden, meanwhile, urged people in North Carolina to cast ballots as early as possible. At least 20 per cent of the state’s registered voters had already cast their votes. In 2016, Trump had won North Carolina by 3.66 percentage points.

"We gotta keep the incredible momentum going; we can't let up," Biden said during a "drive-in rally" in Durham. "Don't wait - go vote today."

Biden also launched an attack on Trump for his claims over the weekend. Trump had said that the US had “turned the corner” in terms of the pandemic. Biden noted how the cases continue to increase to highest levels in many parts of the country.

"As my grandfather would say: 'This guy's gone around the bend if he thinks we've turned the corner. Things are getting worse, and he continues to lie to us about circumstances”, Biden said.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/my-fathers-relationship-with-pm-modi-is-incredible-donald-trump-jr-336468" hreflang="en">My father's relationship with PM Modi is incredible: Donald Trump Jr</a>

Trump had recently contracted COVID-19, and had mocked Biden for being too cautious about the pandemic.

"Listen to the scientists!" Trump said, while mocking Biden. “If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression”, Trump added.

In response, Biden campaign said - “New coronavirus cases are surging and layoffs are rising”.

Both are set to debate for the final time on Thursday in Tennessee. The second debate was cancelled because Trump refused to attend a virtual debate.

US Election 2020: United States Republican President Donald Trump, and his Democratic rival Joe Biden may not agree on much, but both recently urged supporters to vote as early as possible.

US Election 2020: United States Republican President Donald Trump, and his Democratic rival Joe Biden may not agree on much, but both recently urged supporters to vote as early as possible. In Nevada, Trump asked voters to cast ballots early, while Biden asked voters in North Carolina to “go vote today”. Also read: US Supreme Court to review legality of Trump's 'remain in Mexico' asylum policy Ahead of the November 3 election, 27.9 million Americans have already cast their votes, either by mail or in person, based on data from the US Elections Project at the University of Florida, setting a new record. Many are voting early to avoid last minute rush at polling stations given the severity of the pandemic in the US. Trump was heard saying in Carson City, Nevada - "Early voting is under way, so get out and vote." Trump had lost Nevada in 2016. Biden, meanwhile, urged people in North Carolina to cast ballots as early as possible. At least 20 per cent of the state’s registered voters had already cast their votes. In 2016, Trump had won North Carolina by 3.66 percentage points. "We gotta keep the incredible momentum going; we can't let up," Biden said during a "drive-in rally" in Durham. "Don't wait - go vote today." Biden also launched an attack on Trump for his claims over the weekend. Trump had said that the US had “turned the corner” in terms of the pandemic. Biden noted how the cases continue to increase to highest levels in many parts of the country. "As my grandfather would say: 'This guy's gone around the bend if he thinks we've turned the corner. Things are getting worse, and he continues to lie to us about circumstances”, Biden said. Also read: My father's relationship with PM Modi is incredible: Donald Trump Jr Trump had recently contracted COVID-19, and had mocked Biden for being too cautious about the pandemic. "Listen to the scientists!" Trump said, while mocking Biden. “If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression”, Trump added. In response, Biden campaign said - “New coronavirus cases are surging and layoffs are rising”. Both are set to debate for the final time on Thursday in Tennessee. The second debate was cancelled because Trump refused to attend a virtual debate.

US election 2020: Trump and Biden finally agree on something as November 3 nears

With almost&nbsp;two weeks to go for the US election 2020,&nbsp;President Donald Trump said his election campaign is doing is ''doing very, very well''.

Speaking at&nbsp;an evening rally in Carson City, Trump said, ''I guess the poll numbers are looking good in many of the states, and once people hear what we've done and it's all clarified I think they have to go with us''.

His statement comes after several national and battleground state polls show that Trump is lagging behind his Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden.

Also see:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/us-election-2020-key-moments-of-donald-trumps-presidential-tenure-335800">US election 2020: Key moments of Donald Trump's presidential tenure</a>

Trump, scrambling to make up lost ground, is on a furious multi-state barnstorming tour, hopping on Sunday from Nevada to California and then back to Nevada for a day of rallies and fundraising, before moving on to Arizona on Monday.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/us-protest-erupt-against-donald-trumps-supreme-court-pick-336215/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Biden will cancel Christmas

The Republican president attacked his&nbsp;Biden at his rally saying that if elected, he&nbsp;will surely ''cancel Christmas''.

Coronavirus relief package

Trump said on also said on Sunday&nbsp;that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to be "coming along" regarding a coronavirus relief package, hours after Pelosi said that differences with Trump's administration remained but that she was optimistic legislation could be pushed through before Election Day.

"I think Nancy Pelosi maybe is coming along. We'll find out," Trump told reporters in Nevada.

"I want to do it at a bigger number than she wants. That doesn't mean all the Republicans agree with me, but I think they will in the end," he said.

Pelosi, the top elected US&nbsp;Democrat, said she wanted a bill passed before the November&nbsp;3 presidential election between Republican Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, but acknowledged an agreement would have to come within 48 hours for that to happen.

"I'm optimistic because, again, we've been back and forth on all of this," Pelosi said in an interview.

But with her negotiating partner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in the Middle East until Tuesday, a deal appears to be a long shot

The White House proposed a $1.8 trillion stimulus last week to help Americans struggling with the economic ravages of the coronavirus pandemic. Pelosi said the offer fell short in a range of areas, including tax credits for poor people, aid to state and local governments, worker protections and rent help. She has stuck to her demand for a $2.2 trillion aid and stimulus package.

The Republicans who control the Senate are loath to pass another giant relief bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would vote on Wednesday on a $500 billion proposal to target specific areas of need.

With almost two weeks to go for the US election 2020, President Donald Trump said his election campaign is doing is ''doing very, very well''. Speaking at an evening rally in Carson City, Trump said, ''I guess the poll numbers are looking good in many of the states, and once people hear what we've done and it's all clarified I think they have to go with us''.

With almost two weeks to go for the US election 2020, President Donald Trump said his election campaign is doing is ''doing very, very well''. Speaking at an evening rally in Carson City, Trump said, ''I guess the poll numbers are looking good in many of the states, and once people hear what we've done and it's all clarified I think they have to go with us''. His statement comes after several national and battleground state polls show that Trump is lagging behind his Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden. Also see: US election 2020: Key moments of Donald Trump's presidential tenure Trump, scrambling to make up lost ground, is on a furious multi-state barnstorming tour, hopping on Sunday from Nevada to California and then back to Nevada for a day of rallies and fundraising, before moving on to Arizona on Monday. Biden will cancel Christmas The Republican president attacked his Biden at his rally saying that if elected, he will surely ''cancel Christmas''. Coronavirus relief package Trump said on also said on Sunday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to be "coming along" regarding a coronavirus relief package, hours after Pelosi said that differences with Trump's administration remained but that she was optimistic legislation could be pushed through before Election Day. "I think Nancy Pelosi maybe is coming along. We'll find out," Trump told reporters in Nevada. "I want to do it at a bigger number than she wants. That doesn't mean all the Republicans agree with me, but I think they will in the end," he said. Pelosi, the top elected US Democrat, said she wanted a bill passed before the November 3 presidential election between Republican Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, but acknowledged an agreement would have to come within 48 hours for that to happen. "I'm optimistic because, again, we've been back and forth on all of this," Pelosi said in an interview. But with her negotiating partner, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in the Middle East until Tuesday, a deal appears to be a long shot The White House proposed a $1.8 trillion stimulus last week to help Americans struggling with the economic ravages of the coronavirus pandemic. Pelosi said the offer fell short in a range of areas, including tax credits for poor people, aid to state and local governments, worker protections and rent help. She has stuck to her demand for a $2.2 trillion aid and stimulus package. The Republicans who control the Senate are loath to pass another giant relief bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would vote on Wednesday on a $500 billion proposal to target specific areas of need.

US election: Donald Trump claims his campaign is doing 'very, very well'

Did you catch Steve Harvey’s “Funderdome” on ABC? How about “The World’s Best” on CBS, “The Contender” on Epix, or “World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge” on Amazon Prime? Or the Christian-themed dramas “A.D. The Bible Continues” on NBC and “Messiah” on Netflix?

No? Well, you’re hardly alone. And the man behind the string of flops is Mark Burnett, the legendary TV producer who shaped Donald Trump’s image from “The Apprentice” through his 2016 inauguration. Like his greatest creation, Trump — who sought and then lost an idiotic television ratings war Thursday night with Joe Biden — Burnett seems to be struggling to keep his grip on the cultural moment.

Burnett’s story has been told often, and until 2016 he was eager to help tell it — how he reshaped American television with “Survivor” in 2000 and how, with the 2004 start of “The Apprentice,” he “resurrected Donald Trump as an icon of American success,” as The New Yorker put it. He’s been in Trump’s ear ever since: He held a planning meeting for the 2016 inauguration in his Ritz-Carlton apartment, the event’s planner, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, wrote. His associates produced the Republican National Convention this summer, Michael Grynbaum and Annie Karni reported for The New York Times. When Trump took the presidential helicopter from the hospital to the White House this month, panicked Twitter commentators compared an official video of his triumphal return to the work of Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. But Burnett was the artiste whose influence really shined through on the video, though a spokeswoman said he did not consult on it.

“The level of production coming out of the White House is something we would have appreciated having,” Bill Pruitt, a producer on the “The Apprentice,” said of the video’s specific camera angles and its particular obsession with helicopters, a longtime favorite prop of Burnett’s dating back to “Survivor.” “As is customary for this, the reality TV version of a presidential campaign, it seems they’re not striving as much for ‘four more years’ as they are ‘Season 2.’ ”

But that style may have fallen out of fashion. Burnett, 60, the defining TV impresario, salesman and deal maker of the aughts, hasn’t put his stamp on a bona fide hit since the debut of “The Voice” in 2011. He shaped reality TV’s bombastic, gimmicky and sometimes cruel early years. But the genre has matured and shifted in the streaming age to what are sometimes sweeter and more positive productions, like Netflix’s “Floor Is Lava” and “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo.”

And Burnett, until 2016 one of the most prominent figures in Hollywood, has gone dark. His Trumpian gift for telling his own story — about his triumphant reinvention of a once-great studio, MGM, and his plan to bring Jesus Christ to entertainment — has foundered on the reality of corporate infighting, creative struggles and a religious streaming network that never got off the ground.

“The impact that he was going to have on the film and Christian community has kind of gone bust,” said Peter Bart, who was a top executive at MGM before a long run as editor-in-chief of the trade newspaper Variety. “If that’s your main mission and your legacy is Trump and maybe the failure of the next MGM — that’s not a good chapter in his life.”

The current chapter of Burnett’s career began in earnest when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the once-great studio that had recently emerged from bankruptcy, bought out Burnett’s production company in 2015 for $120 million, consummating an earlier $400 million deal. That put him in charge of the studio’s television division. MGM got his stake in long-running shows like “The Voice” and “Shark Tank,” and the promise of more of his magic. MGM’s chief executive, Gary Barber, blessed the acquisition in high corporate gobbledygook: “We believe this synergistic transaction will be very accretive,” he said in a statement.

But with Burnett inside, Barber now had a charismatic rival for the affection of the chairman of the company’s board, Kevin Ulrich. One source of tension between Burnett and his new boss, two former executives said, was the enthusiasm of Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey, for faith-based programing. The couple are outspoken Christians, and in 2013 they had produced “The Bible” for the History Channel, with Downey cast as the Virgin Mary. They then founded Lightworkers Media, which MGM now controls, and had hopes that MGM would turn it into a powerhouse.

But although Burnett promised associates that his friendship with the president would be great for business, he was also intensely sensitive to criticism of his old friend. He objected in particular, two people present at the time said, when an MGM board member, Jason Hirschhorn, began sharply criticizing Trump in his newsletter, REDEF in 2016. Katie Martin Kelley, MGM’s spokeswoman, said Hirschhorn’s “public statements at the time caused friction for many people at MGM,” and Hirschhorn, who left the board in 2017, declined to comment.

Since the 2016 election, Burnett has gone to great lengths to keep a public distance from Trump, batting away suggestions that he helped with the Republican National Convention. “They are not in communication and he had no involvement with any of the president’s public activities around his hospitalization for COVID-19,” Kelley said in an email.

Burnett didn’t respond to interview requests directly or through an MGM spokeswoman. After years in the headlines, he is keeping his profile low, and his name didn’t even appear in a recent, gloomy Wall Street Journal assessment of MGM’s finances. Some of his old partners, like Les Moonves at CBS and Paul Telegdy at NBC, have been forced out of their positions, and a new generation of network executives doesn’t jump quite so quickly at his calls. But if he’s not quite the producing star he once was, he’s still closing deals. In 2018, Amazon Prime resurrected a show called “Eco-Challenge,” which Burnett started producing in the 1990s, though Amazon has dropped plans for a second season, MGM confirmed. When I asked MGM’s chief communications officer, Kelley, about the perception that Burnett had lost his creative touch, she responded with a litany of his long-running shows.

“In his capacity as an executive producer, he has produced more than 70 seasons of shows for ABC (‘Shark Tank,’&nbsp;12 seasons), CBS (‘Survivor’ 40 seasons), Fox (‘Beat Shazam,’ 4 seasons), NBC (‘The Voice,’ 19 seasons), and the most recently launched ‘World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge’ on Amazon Prime,” she said. “Combined, programs where he serves as an EP have generated 18 Emmy wins, and 150 nominations. Burnett’s TV division is consistently amongst the most profitable divisions of MGM.”

But the last great question for Burnett, of course, is Trump TV. Journalists often imagine that Trump will start a 24/7 news channel to the right of Fox News should he lose the presidency. But the best move of Trump’s career, tax returns obtained by The Times showed, was in reality, not news — his partnership with Burnett in “The Apprentice.” My colleague James Poniewozik wrote once that Trump’s problem is that “now there’s no Mark Burnett to impose retroactive logic on the chaos.”

People who have worked with Burnett say they can’t help imagining that he’s working all the angles on the final, realest reality show of all, following a former president back into the real world.

Did you catch Steve Harvey’s “Funderdome” on ABC? How about “The World’s Best” on CBS, “The Contender” on Epix, or “World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge” on Amazon Prime?

Did you catch Steve Harvey’s “Funderdome” on ABC? How about “The World’s Best” on CBS, “The Contender” on Epix, or “World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge” on Amazon Prime? Or the Christian-themed dramas “A.D. The Bible Continues” on NBC and “Messiah” on Netflix? No? Well, you’re hardly alone. And the man behind the string of flops is Mark Burnett, the legendary TV producer who shaped Donald Trump’s image from “The Apprentice” through his 2016 inauguration. Like his greatest creation, Trump — who sought and then lost an idiotic television ratings war Thursday night with Joe Biden — Burnett seems to be struggling to keep his grip on the cultural moment. Burnett’s story has been told often, and until 2016 he was eager to help tell it — how he reshaped American television with “Survivor” in 2000 and how, with the 2004 start of “The Apprentice,” he “resurrected Donald Trump as an icon of American success,” as The New Yorker put it. He’s been in Trump’s ear ever since: He held a planning meeting for the 2016 inauguration in his Ritz-Carlton apartment, the event’s planner, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, wrote. His associates produced the Republican National Convention this summer, Michael Grynbaum and Annie Karni reported for The New York Times. When Trump took the presidential helicopter from the hospital to the White House this month, panicked Twitter commentators compared an official video of his triumphal return to the work of Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. But Burnett was the artiste whose influence really shined through on the video, though a spokeswoman said he did not consult on it. “The level of production coming out of the White House is something we would have appreciated having,” Bill Pruitt, a producer on the “The Apprentice,” said of the video’s specific camera angles and its particular obsession with helicopters, a longtime favorite prop of Burnett’s dating back to “Survivor.” “As is customary for this, the reality TV version of a presidential campaign, it seems they’re not striving as much for ‘four more years’ as they are ‘Season 2.’ ” But that style may have fallen out of fashion. Burnett, 60, the defining TV impresario, salesman and deal maker of the aughts, hasn’t put his stamp on a bona fide hit since the debut of “The Voice” in 2011. He shaped reality TV’s bombastic, gimmicky and sometimes cruel early years. But the genre has matured and shifted in the streaming age to what are sometimes sweeter and more positive productions, like Netflix’s “Floor Is Lava” and “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo.” And Burnett, until 2016 one of the most prominent figures in Hollywood, has gone dark. His Trumpian gift for telling his own story — about his triumphant reinvention of a once-great studio, MGM, and his plan to bring Jesus Christ to entertainment — has foundered on the reality of corporate infighting, creative struggles and a religious streaming network that never got off the ground. “The impact that he was going to have on the film and Christian community has kind of gone bust,” said Peter Bart, who was a top executive at MGM before a long run as editor-in-chief of the trade newspaper Variety. “If that’s your main mission and your legacy is Trump and maybe the failure of the next MGM — that’s not a good chapter in his life.” The current chapter of Burnett’s career began in earnest when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the once-great studio that had recently emerged from bankruptcy, bought out Burnett’s production company in 2015 for $120 million, consummating an earlier $400 million deal. That put him in charge of the studio’s television division. MGM got his stake in long-running shows like “The Voice” and “Shark Tank,” and the promise of more of his magic. MGM’s chief executive, Gary Barber, blessed the acquisition in high corporate gobbledygook: “We believe this synergistic transaction will be very accretive,” he said in a statement. But with Burnett inside, Barber now had a charismatic rival for the affection of the chairman of the company’s board, Kevin Ulrich. One source of tension between Burnett and his new boss, two former executives said, was the enthusiasm of Burnett and his wife, Roma Downey, for faith-based programing. The couple are outspoken Christians, and in 2013 they had produced “The Bible” for the History Channel, with Downey cast as the Virgin Mary. They then founded Lightworkers Media, which MGM now controls, and had hopes that MGM would turn it into a powerhouse. But although Burnett promised associates that his friendship with the president would be great for business, he was also intensely sensitive to criticism of his old friend. He objected in particular, two people present at the time said, when an MGM board member, Jason Hirschhorn, began sharply criticizing Trump in his newsletter, REDEF in 2016. Katie Martin Kelley, MGM’s spokeswoman, said Hirschhorn’s “public statements at the time caused friction for many people at MGM,” and Hirschhorn, who left the board in 2017, declined to comment. Since the 2016 election, Burnett has gone to great lengths to keep a public distance from Trump, batting away suggestions that he helped with the Republican National Convention. “They are not in communication and he had no involvement with any of the president’s public activities around his hospitalization for COVID-19,” Kelley said in an email. Burnett didn’t respond to interview requests directly or through an MGM spokeswoman. After years in the headlines, he is keeping his profile low, and his name didn’t even appear in a recent, gloomy Wall Street Journal assessment of MGM’s finances. Some of his old partners, like Les Moonves at CBS and Paul Telegdy at NBC, have been forced out of their positions, and a new generation of network executives doesn’t jump quite so quickly at his calls. But if he’s not quite the producing star he once was, he’s still closing deals. In 2018, Amazon Prime resurrected a show called “Eco-Challenge,” which Burnett started producing in the 1990s, though Amazon has dropped plans for a second season, MGM confirmed. When I asked MGM’s chief communications officer, Kelley, about the perception that Burnett had lost his creative touch, she responded with a litany of his long-running shows. “In his capacity as an executive producer, he has produced more than 70 seasons of shows for ABC (‘Shark Tank,’ 12 seasons), CBS (‘Survivor’ 40 seasons), Fox (‘Beat Shazam,’ 4 seasons), NBC (‘The Voice,’ 19 seasons), and the most recently launched ‘World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge’ on Amazon Prime,” she said. “Combined, programs where he serves as an EP have generated 18 Emmy wins, and 150 nominations. Burnett’s TV division is consistently amongst the most profitable divisions of MGM.” But the last great question for Burnett, of course, is Trump TV. Journalists often imagine that Trump will start a 24/7 news channel to the right of Fox News should he lose the presidency. But the best move of Trump’s career, tax returns obtained by The Times showed, was in reality, not news — his partnership with Burnett in “The Apprentice.” My colleague James Poniewozik wrote once that Trump’s problem is that “now there’s no Mark Burnett to impose retroactive logic on the chaos.” People who have worked with Burnett say they can’t help imagining that he’s working all the angles on the final, realest reality show of all, following a former president back into the real world.

Trump is losing his touch. So is the TV producer who shaped his image

In just 15 days from now, United States will seal it's fate for the next 4 years. President Donald Trump and Democrat Presidential nominee Joe Biden have hit the campaigning round running.

US Election 2020: Candidates' campaigning round starts, visit to churches ahead of polls

US Election 2020 Key States : Whenever there is any <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/us-election">presidential election </a>in the United States, battleground or swing states come into fore as these states cannot be termed as <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/democratic-party">Democratic </a>or <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/republican-party">Republican</a>.

In the 2016 US Election, <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/donald-trump">Donald Trump </a>won six of these states, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Arizona.

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/if-he-doesnt-win-donald-trump-will-be-back-in-2024-steve-bannon-336275">If he doesn't win, Donald Trump will be back in 2024: Steve Bannon</a>

However, polls suggest that Trump is trailing in all these states, even though margins are narrow in some.&nbsp;

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-and-trump-say-theyre-fighting-for-americas-soul-what-does-that-mean-336269">Biden and Trump say they’re fighting for America’s ‘soul.’ What does that mean?</a>

Let's look at US election 2020 key states&nbsp;that will decide the fate of Trump and Democratic contender <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>.

<h2>US Election 2020 Key States&nbsp;</h2>

Pennsylvania

It is a state where Biden was born, and a region that has seen decades of industrial decline.&nbsp;

Trump supporters are campaigning heavily in this state, with campaign team even going door-to-door in the suburbs to lure the voters.&nbsp;

Biden's big support will be big cities of the states, while Trump is expecting support from the state's rural west and conservative central areas.

Pennsylvania's suburbs and northeast will be crucial to decide which way the state is leading.&nbsp;

According to an average of state polls by the website RealClearPolitics (RCP), Biden leads Trump by 5.6 percentage points in the state.&nbsp;

US Election 2020 Key States:&nbsp;Michigan

Trump managed to narrowly win this state in 2016.

Michigan, also known as the Great Lakes states, is concerned about the state of the economy due to coronavirus pandemic and Trump's response to the crisis.

Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has continually clashed with Trump over issues related to coronavirus and the strict lockdowns in the state have angered conservatives.&nbsp;

Recently, a group of right-wing members was also arrested by the FBI for plotting to kidnap Whitmer.

RCP says Biden is ahead in Michigan with 7.2 percentage points.&nbsp;

US Election 2020 Key States:&nbsp;Wisconsin

The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton paid the price for not campaigning in the state in the last election.&nbsp;

To not repeat such a mistake this time, Democrats held their national convention in Wisconsin though the event was made online due to coronavirus crisis.&nbsp;

Both Trump and Biden and their Vice Presidential candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris have campaigned in the state.

Biden is leading in Wisconsin by 6.3 percentage points, according to RCP.&nbsp;

Florida

It is largest of all the swing states and a large number of retired individuals reside here.&nbsp;

The state's massive Latino voters will be crucial and polls suggest the support for Democrats has declined from the 2016 levels.&nbsp;

However, Florida's senior citizen voters are also moving away from Trump because of his handling of the pandemic.&nbsp;

Many experts say Florida is a Trump firewall; if he loses here, he will lose the presidency.

With a margin of 1.4 percentage points, Biden is leading in Florida too, as per RCP.

North Carolina

The state went with Trump last time but only with a margin of three points and both parties are wary of this. &nbsp;

It has a popular Democrat as the governor who has garnered a lot of praise for his balanced approach to the crisis.&nbsp;

Republicans held their convention here, though the event was majorly online.

According to RCP, Biden is ahead in North Carolina by 2.7 points.&nbsp;

Arizona

The state has been a Republican bastion for decades, but as the number of Latino community rose and with the arrival of liberals from California, the state's electorate can go either way.

Conservative voters praise Trump's efforts to control immigration and promise to build a wall at the Mexican border.&nbsp;

However, by heavily criticising state's late senator John McCain, who still is admired a lot in Arizona, Trump has hurt his prospects.

Cindy McCain, the late senator's widow, has also endorsed Biden for the presidency.&nbsp;

Biden leads Trump by 4 points in the state, says RCP.&nbsp;

Iowa

With a lead of almost 10 points, Trump won Iowa comfortably four years ago, but the race looks tighter this time around.&nbsp;

Currently, Biden is leading with 1.2 points in Iowa, as per RCP.&nbsp;

Georgia

Since 1992, no Democratic candidate has been able to win Georgia in the presidential race, but a lot has changed in recent years with a rise in Democratic support.

As per RCP, Biden is leading the race with 1.2 points.&nbsp;

US Election 2020 Key States:&nbsp;Ohio

Ohio has 18 electoral college voters, which is a major attraction for both the parties.&nbsp;

Trump beat Clinton by 8.1 points in the 2016 election, but polls show a tighter race this year.&nbsp;

With a narrow margin of 0.6, Biden is ahead in Ohio, says RCP.&nbsp;

US Election 2020 Key States : Whenever there is any presidential election in the United States, battleground or swing states come into fore as these states cannot be termed as Democratic or Republican.

US Election 2020 Key States : Whenever there is any presidential election in the United States, battleground or swing states come into fore as these states cannot be termed as Democratic or Republican. In the 2016 US Election, Donald Trump won six of these states, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Arizona. Also read | If he doesn't win, Donald Trump will be back in 2024: Steve Bannon However, polls suggest that Trump is trailing in all these states, even though margins are narrow in some. Also read | Biden and Trump say they’re fighting for America’s ‘soul.’ What does that mean? Let's look at US election 2020 key states that will decide the fate of Trump and Democratic contender Joe Biden. US Election 2020 Key States Pennsylvania It is a state where Biden was born, and a region that has seen decades of industrial decline. Trump supporters are campaigning heavily in this state, with campaign team even going door-to-door in the suburbs to lure the voters. Biden's big support will be big cities of the states, while Trump is expecting support from the state's rural west and conservative central areas. Pennsylvania's suburbs and northeast will be crucial to decide which way the state is leading. According to an average of state polls by the website RealClearPolitics (RCP), Biden leads Trump by 5.6 percentage points in the state. US Election 2020 Key States: Michigan Trump managed to narrowly win this state in 2016. Michigan, also known as the Great Lakes states, is concerned about the state of the economy due to coronavirus pandemic and Trump's response to the crisis. Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has continually clashed with Trump over issues related to coronavirus and the strict lockdowns in the state have angered conservatives. Recently, a group of right-wing members was also arrested by the FBI for plotting to kidnap Whitmer. RCP says Biden is ahead in Michigan with 7.2 percentage points. US Election 2020 Key States: Wisconsin The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton paid the price for not campaigning in the state in the last election. To not repeat such a mistake this time, Democrats held their national convention in Wisconsin though the event was made online due to coronavirus crisis. Both Trump and Biden and their Vice Presidential candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris have campaigned in the state. Biden is leading in Wisconsin by 6.3 percentage points, according to RCP. Florida It is largest of all the swing states and a large number of retired individuals reside here. The state's massive Latino voters will be crucial and polls suggest the support for Democrats has declined from the 2016 levels. However, Florida's senior citizen voters are also moving away from Trump because of his handling of the pandemic. Many experts say Florida is a Trump firewall; if he loses here, he will lose the presidency. With a margin of 1.4 percentage points, Biden is leading in Florida too, as per RCP. North Carolina The state went with Trump last time but only with a margin of three points and both parties are wary of this. It has a popular Democrat as the governor who has garnered a lot of praise for his balanced approach to the crisis. Republicans held their convention here, though the event was majorly online. According to RCP, Biden is ahead in North Carolina by 2.7 points. Arizona The state has been a Republican bastion for decades, but as the number of Latino community rose and with the arrival of liberals from California, the state's electorate can go either way. Conservative voters praise Trump's efforts to control immigration and promise to build a wall at the Mexican border. However, by heavily criticising state's late senator John McCain, who still is admired a lot in Arizona, Trump has hurt his prospects. Cindy McCain, the late senator's widow, has also endorsed Biden for the presidency. Biden leads Trump by 4 points in the state, says RCP. Iowa With a lead of almost 10 points, Trump won Iowa comfortably four years ago, but the race looks tighter this time around. Currently, Biden is leading with 1.2 points in Iowa, as per RCP. Georgia Since 1992, no Democratic candidate has been able to win Georgia in the presidential race, but a lot has changed in recent years with a rise in Democratic support. As per RCP, Biden is leading the race with 1.2 points. US Election 2020 Key States: Ohio Ohio has 18 electoral college voters, which is a major attraction for both the parties. Trump beat Clinton by 8.1 points in the 2016 election, but polls show a tighter race this year. With a narrow margin of 0.6, Biden is ahead in Ohio, says RCP.

US election 2020: Key states that will likely decide fate of Donald Trump and Joe Biden

Former <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/the-white-house">White House</a> Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, is back in the news a few weeks before the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/us-election">US election</a> and has made claims regarding the President <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> and the former Vice President <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>.

Bannon's first claim was that everything found on Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden's hard drive/laptop is true and he accused Biden of being a "stone cold liar".

"Joe Biden has lied about this for years," Bannon told Sky News in an interview Sunday.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-and-trump-say-theyre-fighting-for-americas-soul-what-does-that-mean-336269">Also read|&nbsp;Biden and Trump say they’re fighting for America’s ‘soul.’ What does that mean?</a>

Detailing further, he said, "What Fox did, which was very interesting on that issue but also on the Chinese – they actually went to the people on the emails and contacted them. What was so stunning is that they reported last night that one, the guys on the emails said absolutely the meetings happened. This is not off of some Russia intelligence operation. That emails correct, the meanings correct and, by the way, that 10 per cent of the equity is Joe Biden's."

He also offered proof about the hard drive being Hunter Biden's, and claimed that the Biden's lawyers have tried contacting Bannon and the repair shop&nbsp;multiple times. "We have the emails from the Lawyer, if we need to release them, we'll release them," he said.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/i-may-have-to-leave-country-donald-trump-says-about-losing-to-biden-in-us-election-336195">Also read|&nbsp;'I may have to leave country': Donald Trump says about losing to Biden in US election</a>

"The stunning thing about these emails… is that Biden has basically said to the American people, 'I knew nothing about it.' Now we actually see they had meetings set up.

"That sets the predicate that Joe Biden has lied consistently over the last couple years to the American people. He lied on the debate stage with President Trump," he said.

Trump&nbsp;immediately took to Twitter to criticise his opponent, calling him a corrupt politician. "Joe Biden is a corrupt politician, and everybody knows it. Now you have the proof, perhaps like never was had before on a major politician. Laptop plus. This is the second biggest political scandal in our history!," he tweeted.

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Joe Biden is a corrupt politician, and everybody knows it. Now you have the proof, perhaps like never was had before on a major politician. Laptop plus. This is the second biggest political scandal in our history!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1317852810302558208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Bannon also made the prediction of&nbsp;the upcoming&nbsp;US elections&nbsp;claiming that "Trump will win on election day".

'I'll make this prediction right now: if for any reason the election is stolen from or in some sort of way Joe Biden is declared the winner, Trump will announce he's going to run for re-election in 2024," Bannon said.

He also predicted that the election result may go to Supreme Court or may&nbsp;be conferred to the House of Representative in January, adding a warning that the results will not be "settled any time soon".

Former White House Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, is back in the news a few weeks before the US election and has made claims regarding the President Donald Trump and the former Vice President Joe Biden.

Former White House Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, is back in the news a few weeks before the US election and has made claims regarding the President Donald Trump and the former Vice President Joe Biden. Bannon's first claim was that everything found on Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden's hard drive/laptop is true and he accused Biden of being a "stone cold liar". "Joe Biden has lied about this for years," Bannon told Sky News in an interview Sunday. Also read| Biden and Trump say they’re fighting for America’s ‘soul.’ What does that mean? Detailing further, he said, "What Fox did, which was very interesting on that issue but also on the Chinese – they actually went to the people on the emails and contacted them. What was so stunning is that they reported last night that one, the guys on the emails said absolutely the meetings happened. This is not off of some Russia intelligence operation. That emails correct, the meanings correct and, by the way, that 10 per cent of the equity is Joe Biden's." He also offered proof about the hard drive being Hunter Biden's, and claimed that the Biden's lawyers have tried contacting Bannon and the repair shop multiple times. "We have the emails from the Lawyer, if we need to release them, we'll release them," he said. Also read| 'I may have to leave country': Donald Trump says about losing to Biden in US election "The stunning thing about these emails… is that Biden has basically said to the American people, 'I knew nothing about it.' Now we actually see they had meetings set up. "That sets the predicate that Joe Biden has lied consistently over the last couple years to the American people. He lied on the debate stage with President Trump," he said. Trump immediately took to Twitter to criticise his opponent, calling him a corrupt politician. "Joe Biden is a corrupt politician, and everybody knows it. Now you have the proof, perhaps like never was had before on a major politician. Laptop plus. This is the second biggest political scandal in our history!," he tweeted. Joe Biden is a corrupt politician, and everybody knows it. Now you have the proof, perhaps like never was had before on a major politician. Laptop plus. This is the second biggest political scandal in our history! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2020 × Bannon also made the prediction of the upcoming US elections claiming that "Trump will win on election day". 'I'll make this prediction right now: if for any reason the election is stolen from or in some sort of way Joe Biden is declared the winner, Trump will announce he's going to run for re-election in 2024," Bannon said. He also predicted that the election result may go to Supreme Court or may be conferred to the House of Representative in January, adding a warning that the results will not be "settled any time soon".

If he doesn't win, Donald Trump will be back in 2024: Steve Bannon

US Election 2020: During an <a href="https://www.wionews.com/us-election">election</a> rally in Georgia, the US President <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;said his Democratic opponent and former Vice President Joe Biden is the 'worst candidate' in the history of the United States.

Donald Trump has usually indulged in passing comments about and on Joe&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;and has often doubted&nbsp;Joe&nbsp;Biden's&nbsp;skills and capability to run a nation. Often calling him 'Sleepy Joe', he has also gone to the limit of accusing&nbsp;Joe&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;of taking 'performance enhancement drugs' and has passed indirect comments hinting that&nbsp;Joe&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;may not be mentally stable.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-sets-fundraising-record-with-383-mn-in-september-336026">Also read:&nbsp;Biden sets fundraising record with $383 mn in September</a>

However, what was different in this election rally was that&nbsp;Donald Trump&nbsp;talked about losing the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/us-election">US election</a> — a fear he has talked about probably for the second time.

Talking to his supporters,&nbsp;Donald Trump&nbsp;said that&nbsp;Joe&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;is the worst candidate in the history of the US elections, and it would be a shame to lose to him. He also said that contesting against the former Vice President puts a lot of pressure on him as he is now running against&nbsp;the "worst candidate in the history of politics" and will not even know what to do with himself if he lost to&nbsp;Joe&nbsp;Biden.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/new-trump-golf-course-in-scotland-gets-go-ahead-despite-environmental-fears-336118">Also read:&nbsp;New Trump golf course in Scotland gets go ahead despite environmental fears&nbsp;</a>

So much so,&nbsp;Donald Trump&nbsp;also said that he would be so embarrassed of losing to Joe&nbsp;Biden, that he may have to leave the country.

However, the comment was laughed about on social media as majority of the opinion polls have shown that&nbsp;Donald Trump&nbsp;is trailing behind the "worst candidate" in majority of the states.s states joked about not coming back.

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Promise? <a href="https://t.co/Wbl86i8uYo">pic.twitter.com/Wbl86i8uYo</a>
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1317554725596942336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Biden,&nbsp;meanwhile, posted a video on his Twitter mocking&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;by compiling several clips from his election rallies where&nbsp;Trump&nbsp;had at variou

The elections are scheduled for November 03, but some of the states have already started early voting with more than 20 million Americans having already locked their votes.&nbsp;

US Election 2020: During an election rally in Georgia, the US President Donald Trump said his Democratic opponent and former Vice President Joe Biden is the 'worst candidate' in the history of the United States.

US Election 2020: During an election rally in Georgia, the US President Donald Trump said his Democratic opponent and former Vice President Joe Biden is the 'worst candidate' in the history of the United States. Donald Trump has usually indulged in passing comments about and on Joe Biden and has often doubted Joe Biden's skills and capability to run a nation. Often calling him 'Sleepy Joe', he has also gone to the limit of accusing Joe Biden of taking 'performance enhancement drugs' and has passed indirect comments hinting that Joe Biden may not be mentally stable. Also read: Biden sets fundraising record with $383 mn in September However, what was different in this election rally was that Donald Trump talked about losing the US election — a fear he has talked about probably for the second time. Talking to his supporters, Donald Trump said that Joe Biden is the worst candidate in the history of the US elections, and it would be a shame to lose to him. He also said that contesting against the former Vice President puts a lot of pressure on him as he is now running against the "worst candidate in the history of politics" and will not even know what to do with himself if he lost to Joe Biden. Also read: New Trump golf course in Scotland gets go ahead despite environmental fears So much so, Donald Trump also said that he would be so embarrassed of losing to Joe Biden, that he may have to leave the country. However, the comment was laughed about on social media as majority of the opinion polls have shown that Donald Trump is trailing behind the "worst candidate" in majority of the states.s states joked about not coming back. Promise? pic.twitter.com/Wbl86i8uYo — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 17, 2020 × Biden, meanwhile, posted a video on his Twitter mocking Trump by compiling several clips from his election rallies where Trump had at variou The elections are scheduled for November 03, but some of the states have already started early voting with more than 20 million Americans having already locked their votes.

'I may have to leave country': Donald Trump says about losing to Biden in US election

It is a phrase that has been constantly invoked by Democratic and Republican leaders. It has become the clearest symbol of the mood of the country, and what people feel is at stake in <a href="https://www.wionews.com/us-election?page=1">November</a>. Everyone, it seems, is fighting for it.

“This campaign isn’t just about winning votes. It’s about winning the heart and, yes, the soul of America,” Joe Biden said in August at the Democratic National Convention, not long after the phrase “battle for the soul of America” appeared at the top of his campaign website, right next to his name.

Picking up on this, a recent Trump campaign ad spliced videos of Democrats invoking “the soul” of America, followed by images of clashes between protesters and police and the words “Save America’s Soul,” with a request to text “SOUL” to make a campaign contribution.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/i-may-have-to-leave-country-donald-trump-says-about-losing-to-biden-in-us-election-336195">Also read|&nbsp;'I may have to leave country': Donald Trump says about losing to Biden in US election</a>

That the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/us-election?page=1">election</a> has become a referendum on the soul of the nation, suggests that in an increasingly secular country, voting has become a reflection of one’s individual morality — and that the outcome hinges in part on spiritual and philosophical questions that transcend politics: What, exactly, is the soul of the nation? What is the state of it? And what would it mean to save it?

The answers go beyond a campaign slogan, beyond politics and November, to the identity and future of the American experiment itself, especially now, with a pandemic that has wearied the country’s spirit.

“When I think of soul of the nation,” Joy Harjo, the U.S. poet laureate and a Muscogee (Creek) Nation member, said, “I think of the process of becoming, and what it is we want to become. That is where it gets tricky, and that is where I think we have reached a stalemate right now. What do people want to become?”

Harjo said the country’s soul was “at a crucial point.”

“It is like everything is broken at once,” she said. “We are at a point of great wounding, where everyone is standing and looking within themselves and each other.”

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-sets-fundraising-record-with-383-mn-in-september-336026">Also read|&nbsp;Biden sets fundraising record with $383 mn in September</a>

In Carlsbad, California, Marlo Tucker, the state director for Concerned Women for America, has been meeting regularly to pray with a group of a dozen or so women about the future of the country. The group has been working with other conservative Christian women to register voters.

“It really comes down to what do you stand for, and what do you not stand for,” she said.

“I know this is a Christian nation, the Founding Fathers were influenced by the biblical values,” she said. “People are confused, they are influenced by this sensationalism, they are angry, they are frustrated. They are searching for hope again in government, they are searching for leaders who actually care for their problems.”

Framing an entire campaign explicitly around a moral imperative — with language so rooted in Christianity — has been a standard part of the Republican playbook for decades. But it is a more unusual move for Democrats, who typically attract a more religiously diverse coalition.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/new-trump-golf-course-in-scotland-gets-go-ahead-despite-environmental-fears-336118">Also read|&nbsp;New Trump golf course in Scotland gets go ahead despite environmental fears&nbsp;</a>

The soul, and the soul of the body politic, is an ancient philosophical and theological concept, one of the deepest ways humans have understood their individual identity, and their life together.

In biblical Hebrew the words translated as soul, nefesh and neshama, come from a root meaning “to breathe.” The Genesis story describes God breathing into the nostrils of man, making him human.

The meaning echoes through today, in a pandemic that attacks the respiratory system and in police violence against Black people crying out, “I can’t breathe.”

Homeric poets saw the soul as the thing humans risk in battle, or the thing that distinguishes life from death. Plato wrote of Socrates exploring the connection between the soul and the republic in creating the virtue of justice. For St. Augustine, who wrote “The City of God,” the city could be judged by what it loves.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/opinions-blogs/why-trumps-supporters-loved-him-336262">Also read|&nbsp;Why Trump’s supporters loved him</a>

The soul of the nation is “a very ancient trope that is revived when all sorts of cultural ideas are in flux,” Eric Gregory, professor of religion at Princeton University, said. “It reveals something about the current political conversation, in times of crisis and change, a corruption of sickness.”

Often we stress systems and institutions, he said, but in the Trump era there has been a return to ancient concepts about the welfare of the city, where politics is about right relationships. “In ancient politics the health of society had a lot to do with the virtue of the ruler,” Gregory said.

In the United States, the question of who could define the soul of the nation was fraught from the start, from the forced displacement of native people to the enslavement of Africans.

And the state of the soul of the nation has often been tied to the country’s oppression of Black people. Abolitionists like Frederick Douglass fought for an “invincible abhorrence of the whole system of slaveholding” to be “fixed in the soul of the nation.” Lyndon B. Johnson said the country found its “soul of honor” on the fields of Gettysburg. When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders formed what is now the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, they made their founding motto “to save the soul of America.”

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-and-biden-to-court-early-voters-as-us-campaign-gathers-steam-336224">Also read|&nbsp;Trump and Biden to court early voters as US campaign gathers steam</a>

This year President Donald Trump has positioned himself as the defender of a threatened Christian America under siege. “In America, we don’t turn to government to restore our souls, we put our faith in Almighty God,” he said at the Republican National Convention. Franklin Graham, one of his evangelical supporters, wrote last year that this age is “a battle for the soul of the nation,” as the original “moral and spiritual framework, which has held our nation together for 243 years, is now unraveling.”

For Biden, the soul of the nation came into focus after the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, three years ago. “We have to show the world America is still a beacon of light,” he wrote at the time.

From the start, his campaign message has been one of broader morality, versus specific policy or ideology. When Biden says this is a battle for the soul of the nation, he is not using it religiously but as a synonym for character, said presidential historian Jon Meacham, who has spoken often with Biden about the soul.

“People hear it as light versus dark, service versus selfishness, Trump versus the rest of the world,” he said.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/avengers-team-to-reunite-for-joe-biden-virtual-campaign-hosted-by-russo-brothers-336208">Also read|&nbsp;'Avengers' team to reunite for Joe Biden virtual campaign hosted by Russo Brothers</a>

“My sense is, it is much less about an Elizabeth Warren 10-point plan, or a Bernie Sanders revolution than it is a restoration of a politics that is more familiar and not so agitating,” he said. Voters “just want somebody to run the damn thing with a modicum of efficiency and sanity.”

But even amid the lofty questions of the soul, voters have problems they want solved, and systems they want changed.

North of Boston, Andrew DeFranza, executive director of Harborlight Community Partners, an organization that develops affordable housing, reflected on the disastrous impact of the coronavirus pandemic for many people, from essential workers to people with disabilities. The country’s soul is disoriented, adversarial and tired, he said.

“I don’t think Group A is going to beat Group B and everything is going to be fine,” he said of the election. “We are eager to see political leaders at every level regardless of party demonstrate concrete, actionable plans to address these issues of inequity around health and race, and to do so in a way that is concrete and has outcomes to which they can be accountable.”

In East Harlem, Dorlimar Lebrón Malavé leads First Spanish United Methodist Church, a congregation that serves many immigrants and Puerto Rican families.

“Does this country even have a soul?” she asked. “For me, I think the soul of this country has been lost for a long time.”

Though the current moment seems so dystopian, she said, it felt like a new spirit was emerging. She remembered the creation story in Genesis.

“From a religious standpoint, God created out of chaos. There wasn’t something that was existing before and was reformed,” she said. “When people talk about reforming police, there is no reforming police, there is an opportunity to abolish it and to create something new, from scratch.”

Lebrón Malavé sighed when she thought of Biden’s emphasis on restoring the soul with little concrete discussion of policies.

“People want to hear that there is something left to fight for because it is so hard for us to imagine what it would have to be like to dismantle the whole thing,” she said. “He is appealing to a particular mindset of people who were not taught to fathom a possibility of a new world outside of what we already know.”

For others, the soul is where it all begins.

In Kenosha, Wisconsin, not long after a police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, leaving him paralyzed, a group of interfaith clergy held a prayer service in a parking lot, under a clear blue sky.

“The soul of Kenosha is at stake,” Patrick Roberts of First Baptist Church said to the gathering.

He shared his rare experience of being a Black pastor of a majority-white congregation. Sunday morning remains one of the most segregated hours in the country, he said, and healing the soul of the community would require more than simply a social program or a jobs program for the unemployed.

You would know the soul was healed, he said, when a person of any race could walk anywhere in Kenosha and feel safe.

Later, in an interview, he reflected on Biden’s campaign promise.

“We don’t know the policies he will come up with,” he said. “I think he is just talking on basic terms, getting back to terms of human decency, interaction that is respectable, regardless of your income, your ideology, your color.”

“For me,” he said, “that is good enough.”

It is a phrase that has been constantly invoked by Democratic and Republican leaders. It has become the clearest symbol of the mood of the country, and what people feel is at stake in November.

It is a phrase that has been constantly invoked by Democratic and Republican leaders. It has become the clearest symbol of the mood of the country, and what people feel is at stake in November. Everyone, it seems, is fighting for it. “This campaign isn’t just about winning votes. It’s about winning the heart and, yes, the soul of America,” Joe Biden said in August at the Democratic National Convention, not long after the phrase “battle for the soul of America” appeared at the top of his campaign website, right next to his name. Picking up on this, a recent Trump campaign ad spliced videos of Democrats invoking “the soul” of America, followed by images of clashes between protesters and police and the words “Save America’s Soul,” with a request to text “SOUL” to make a campaign contribution. Also read| 'I may have to leave country': Donald Trump says about losing to Biden in US election That the election has become a referendum on the soul of the nation, suggests that in an increasingly secular country, voting has become a reflection of one’s individual morality — and that the outcome hinges in part on spiritual and philosophical questions that transcend politics: What, exactly, is the soul of the nation? What is the state of it? And what would it mean to save it? The answers go beyond a campaign slogan, beyond politics and November, to the identity and future of the American experiment itself, especially now, with a pandemic that has wearied the country’s spirit. “When I think of soul of the nation,” Joy Harjo, the U.S. poet laureate and a Muscogee (Creek) Nation member, said, “I think of the process of becoming, and what it is we want to become. That is where it gets tricky, and that is where I think we have reached a stalemate right now. What do people want to become?” Harjo said the country’s soul was “at a crucial point.” “It is like everything is broken at once,” she said. “We are at a point of great wounding, where everyone is standing and looking within themselves and each other.” Also read| Biden sets fundraising record with $383 mn in September In Carlsbad, California, Marlo Tucker, the state director for Concerned Women for America, has been meeting regularly to pray with a group of a dozen or so women about the future of the country. The group has been working with other conservative Christian women to register voters. “It really comes down to what do you stand for, and what do you not stand for,” she said. “I know this is a Christian nation, the Founding Fathers were influenced by the biblical values,” she said. “People are confused, they are influenced by this sensationalism, they are angry, they are frustrated. They are searching for hope again in government, they are searching for leaders who actually care for their problems.” Framing an entire campaign explicitly around a moral imperative — with language so rooted in Christianity — has been a standard part of the Republican playbook for decades. But it is a more unusual move for Democrats, who typically attract a more religiously diverse coalition. Also read| New Trump golf course in Scotland gets go ahead despite environmental fears The soul, and the soul of the body politic, is an ancient philosophical and theological concept, one of the deepest ways humans have understood their individual identity, and their life together. In biblical Hebrew the words translated as soul, nefesh and neshama, come from a root meaning “to breathe.” The Genesis story describes God breathing into the nostrils of man, making him human. The meaning echoes through today, in a pandemic that attacks the respiratory system and in police violence against Black people crying out, “I can’t breathe.” Homeric poets saw the soul as the thing humans risk in battle, or the thing that distinguishes life from death. Plato wrote of Socrates exploring the connection between the soul and the republic in creating the virtue of justice. For St. Augustine, who wrote “The City of God,” the city could be judged by what it loves. Also read| Why Trump’s supporters loved him The soul of the nation is “a very ancient trope that is revived when all sorts of cultural ideas are in flux,” Eric Gregory, professor of religion at Princeton University, said. “It reveals something about the current political conversation, in times of crisis and change, a corruption of sickness.” Often we stress systems and institutions, he said, but in the Trump era there has been a return to ancient concepts about the welfare of the city, where politics is about right relationships. “In ancient politics the health of society had a lot to do with the virtue of the ruler,” Gregory said. In the United States, the question of who could define the soul of the nation was fraught from the start, from the forced displacement of native people to the enslavement of Africans. And the state of the soul of the nation has often been tied to the country’s oppression of Black people. Abolitionists like Frederick Douglass fought for an “invincible abhorrence of the whole system of slaveholding” to be “fixed in the soul of the nation.” Lyndon B. Johnson said the country found its “soul of honor” on the fields of Gettysburg. When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders formed what is now the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, they made their founding motto “to save the soul of America.” Also read| Trump and Biden to court early voters as US campaign gathers steam This year President Donald Trump has positioned himself as the defender of a threatened Christian America under siege. “In America, we don’t turn to government to restore our souls, we put our faith in Almighty God,” he said at the Republican National Convention. Franklin Graham, one of his evangelical supporters, wrote last year that this age is “a battle for the soul of the nation,” as the original “moral and spiritual framework, which has held our nation together for 243 years, is now unraveling.” For Biden, the soul of the nation came into focus after the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, three years ago. “We have to show the world America is still a beacon of light,” he wrote at the time. From the start, his campaign message has been one of broader morality, versus specific policy or ideology. When Biden says this is a battle for the soul of the nation, he is not using it religiously but as a synonym for character, said presidential historian Jon Meacham, who has spoken often with Biden about the soul. “People hear it as light versus dark, service versus selfishness, Trump versus the rest of the world,” he said. Also read| 'Avengers' team to reunite for Joe Biden virtual campaign hosted by Russo Brothers “My sense is, it is much less about an Elizabeth Warren 10-point plan, or a Bernie Sanders revolution than it is a restoration of a politics that is more familiar and not so agitating,” he said. Voters “just want somebody to run the damn thing with a modicum of efficiency and sanity.” But even amid the lofty questions of the soul, voters have problems they want solved, and systems they want changed. North of Boston, Andrew DeFranza, executive director of Harborlight Community Partners, an organization that develops affordable housing, reflected on the disastrous impact of the coronavirus pandemic for many people, from essential workers to people with disabilities. The country’s soul is disoriented, adversarial and tired, he said. “I don’t think Group A is going to beat Group B and everything is going to be fine,” he said of the election. “We are eager to see political leaders at every level regardless of party demonstrate concrete, actionable plans to address these issues of inequity around health and race, and to do so in a way that is concrete and has outcomes to which they can be accountable.” In East Harlem, Dorlimar Lebrón Malavé leads First Spanish United Methodist Church, a congregation that serves many immigrants and Puerto Rican families. “Does this country even have a soul?” she asked. “For me, I think the soul of this country has been lost for a long time.” Though the current moment seems so dystopian, she said, it felt like a new spirit was emerging. She remembered the creation story in Genesis. “From a religious standpoint, God created out of chaos. There wasn’t something that was existing before and was reformed,” she said. “When people talk about reforming police, there is no reforming police, there is an opportunity to abolish it and to create something new, from scratch.” Lebrón Malavé sighed when she thought of Biden’s emphasis on restoring the soul with little concrete discussion of policies. “People want to hear that there is something left to fight for because it is so hard for us to imagine what it would have to be like to dismantle the whole thing,” she said. “He is appealing to a particular mindset of people who were not taught to fathom a possibility of a new world outside of what we already know.” For others, the soul is where it all begins. In Kenosha, Wisconsin, not long after a police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, leaving him paralyzed, a group of interfaith clergy held a prayer service in a parking lot, under a clear blue sky. “The soul of Kenosha is at stake,” Patrick Roberts of First Baptist Church said to the gathering. He shared his rare experience of being a Black pastor of a majority-white congregation. Sunday morning remains one of the most segregated hours in the country, he said, and healing the soul of the community would require more than simply a social program or a jobs program for the unemployed. You would know the soul was healed, he said, when a person of any race could walk anywhere in Kenosha and feel safe. Later, in an interview, he reflected on Biden’s campaign promise. “We don’t know the policies he will come up with,” he said. “I think he is just talking on basic terms, getting back to terms of human decency, interaction that is respectable, regardless of your income, your ideology, your color.” “For me,” he said, “that is good enough.”

Biden and Trump say they’re fighting for America’s ‘soul.’ What does that mean?

Russo Brothers are together bringing again the Avengers cast including Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo in support of presidential candidate Joe Biden. 
 
On Tuesday, October 20, the stars will make their contribution for a fundraiser campaign,'Voters Assemble'. The virtual fundraiser event which will be hosted by the Russo Brothers will include a Q&amp;A and a trivia game. The event which will also feature Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd and Zoe Saldana. 
 
Chris Evans, Russo Brother&nbsp;are vocal about voting and are using their social media platform to encourage people to register and make a plan to vote.

In pics:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/photos/donald-trump-vs-joe-biden-which-celebrity-is-backing-whom-in-the-us-presidential-elections-333505" hreflang="en">Donald Trump Vs Joe Biden: Which celebrity is backing whom in the US presidential elections</a> 
 
A few days back, Celebrities from the South Asian community come together for a <a href="http://13.235.153.162/entertainment/mindy-kaling-kumail-nanjiani-and-others-to-have-south-asian-block-party-fundraiser-for-joe-biden-334987">virtual block party</a> to support Joe Biden/Kamala Harris for the US Presidential elections 2020. The campaign featured Hollywood figures like Mindy Kaling, Lilly Singh, Aparna Nancherla and Liza Koshy as part of its informative and entertaining program. 
 
Several high-profile Hollywood entertainers including, Dwayne Johnson, Cardi B, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez and&nbsp;many other celebs are supporting Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris and are publicly endorsing for them through their social media.&nbsp; 
 
The 2020 United States presidential election is scheduled for November 3. It will be the 59th quadrennial presidential election.&nbsp;

Russo Brothers are together bringing again the Avengers cast including Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo in support of presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Russo Brothers are together bringing again the Avengers cast including Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo in support of presidential candidate Joe Biden. On Tuesday, October 20, the stars will make their contribution for a fundraiser campaign,'Voters Assemble'. The virtual fundraiser event which will be hosted by the Russo Brothers will include a Q&A and a trivia game. The event which will also feature Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd and Zoe Saldana. Chris Evans, Russo Brother are vocal about voting and are using their social media platform to encourage people to register and make a plan to vote. In pics: Donald Trump Vs Joe Biden: Which celebrity is backing whom in the US presidential elections A few days back, Celebrities from the South Asian community come together for a virtual block party to support Joe Biden/Kamala Harris for the US Presidential elections 2020. The campaign featured Hollywood figures like Mindy Kaling, Lilly Singh, Aparna Nancherla and Liza Koshy as part of its informative and entertaining program. Several high-profile Hollywood entertainers including, Dwayne Johnson, Cardi B, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez and many other celebs are supporting Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris and are publicly endorsing for them through their social media. The 2020 United States presidential election is scheduled for November 3. It will be the 59th quadrennial presidential election.

'Avengers' team to reunite for Joe Biden virtual campaign hosted by Russo Brothers

Months before the US election, the Democratic President elect Joe Biden's election campaign was targeted by a group of Chinese hackers in&nbsp;a phishing attack.

A Google report by the Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has now claimed that the attack coordinated by a group of Chinese hackers are faking&nbsp;antivirus software McAfee to target the suspects.

This group of hackers appears to be the same group that had earlier targeted the US President Donald Trump in an&nbsp;unsuccessful attack.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/twitter-changes-policy-on-hacking-after-biden-censorship-expose-fiasco-335713">Also read|&nbsp;Twitter changes policy on hacking after Biden censorship expose fiasco</a>

As per the report, the hackers&nbsp;from the Iranian attacker group (APT35) and the Chinese attacker group (APT31) send a prompt asking victims to install the antivirus software and then let the virus silently creep into their systems.

Explaining how the group attacks the victims, Google's report stated, "The targets would be prompted to install a legitimate version of McAfee anti-virus software from GitHub, while malware was simultaneously silently installed to the system."

The tech giant claims that there has been an increase in such attacks in the pandemic, especially with the US elections being a few weeks away.

However, Google also assured that as soon as these attacks are identified, the victim is informed on a priority basis. "When we detect that a user is the target of a government-backed attack, we send them a prominent warning. In these cases, we also shared our findings with the campaigns and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This targeting is consistent with what others have subsequently reported."

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/russia-behind-cyberattack-on-parliament-norway-335097">Also read:&nbsp;Russia behind cyberattack on parliament: Norway</a>

The report also cautioned users to rethink their YouTube activity, explaining that their&nbsp;Trust and Safety teams terminated more than 3,000 YouTube channels. TAG claimed that they have tracked a large spam network — linked to China — that runs an influence operation, especially on YouTube, that targets existing accounts by&nbsp;"posting spammy content in Mandarin such as videos of animals, music, food, plants, sports, and games."

"Such videos frequently feature clumsy translations and computer-generated voices. Researchers at Graphika and FireEye have detailed how this network behaves—including its shift from posting content in Mandarin about issues related to Hong Kong and China’s response to COVID-19, to including a small subset of content in English and Mandarin about current events in the U.S. (such as protests around racial justice, the wildfires on the West Coast, and the U.S. response to COVID-19)," the report continued.

Months before the US election, the Democratic President elect Joe Biden's election campaign was targeted by a group of Chinese hackers in a phishing attack. A Google report by the Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has now claimed that the attack coordinated by a group of Chinese hackers are faking antivirus software McAfee to target the suspects.

Months before the US election, the Democratic President elect Joe Biden's election campaign was targeted by a group of Chinese hackers in a phishing attack. A Google report by the Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has now claimed that the attack coordinated by a group of Chinese hackers are faking antivirus software McAfee to target the suspects. This group of hackers appears to be the same group that had earlier targeted the US President Donald Trump in an unsuccessful attack. Also read| Twitter changes policy on hacking after Biden censorship expose fiasco As per the report, the hackers from the Iranian attacker group (APT35) and the Chinese attacker group (APT31) send a prompt asking victims to install the antivirus software and then let the virus silently creep into their systems. Explaining how the group attacks the victims, Google's report stated, "The targets would be prompted to install a legitimate version of McAfee anti-virus software from GitHub, while malware was simultaneously silently installed to the system." The tech giant claims that there has been an increase in such attacks in the pandemic, especially with the US elections being a few weeks away. However, Google also assured that as soon as these attacks are identified, the victim is informed on a priority basis. "When we detect that a user is the target of a government-backed attack, we send them a prominent warning. In these cases, we also shared our findings with the campaigns and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This targeting is consistent with what others have subsequently reported." Also read: Russia behind cyberattack on parliament: Norway The report also cautioned users to rethink their YouTube activity, explaining that their Trust and Safety teams terminated more than 3,000 YouTube channels. TAG claimed that they have tracked a large spam network — linked to China — that runs an influence operation, especially on YouTube, that targets existing accounts by "posting spammy content in Mandarin such as videos of animals, music, food, plants, sports, and games." "Such videos frequently feature clumsy translations and computer-generated voices. Researchers at Graphika and FireEye have detailed how this network behaves—including its shift from posting content in Mandarin about issues related to Hong Kong and China’s response to COVID-19, to including a small subset of content in English and Mandarin about current events in the U.S. (such as protests around racial justice, the wildfires on the West Coast, and the U.S. response to COVID-19)," the report continued.

Chinese hackers targeting Biden and Trump are faking McAfee software: Google

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden will court early voters as their campaigns step up events ahead of their final debate this week.

Concern about crowds at polling stations during the coronavirus pandemic has driven far larger numbers than usual to vote early, ahead of the Nov. 3 Election Day.

Trump will head on Sunday to Nevada, a battleground state where more than 100,000 voters have already cast ballots, according to state data.

The Republican president will campaign every day leading up to Thursday`s debate in Florida, including stops in Arizona and North Carolina, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.

Biden heads on Sunday to North Carolina, where 1.2 million voters have cast their ballots, according to state data. His pick for vice president, Kamala Harris, will return to the campaign trail on Monday with a visit to Florida to mark that state`s first day of early, in-person voting.

So far nearly 26 million people have cast a ballot in the election, shattering records, according to the U.S. Elections Project, run by the University of Florida.

While Trump lags in opinion polls at a national level and in many battleground states, Biden campaign manager Jen O`Malley Dillon said over the weekend that the national figures are misleading because must-win states are close.

"We cannot become complacent because the very searing truth is that Donald Trump can still win this race, and every indication we have shows that this thing is going to come down to the wire," she wrote in a memo to donors.

U.S. presidential elections are determined by electoral votes, allotted to U.S. states and territories based largely on their populations, rather than by a tally of the popular vote nationwide. This makes for a close focus by campaigns on states that could go either way.

Trump campaigned on Saturday in Michigan and Wisconsin, two battleground states he narrowly won in the 2016 election.

In Muskegeon, Mich., he attacked Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, blasting state rules to stop the spread of coronavirus, calling her “dishonest,” and making light of a right-wing plot uncovered by the FBI to kidnap her.

“Hopefully you’ll be sending her packing pretty soon,” Trump said, prompting the crowd to yell back "Lock her up!" several times.

Whitmer responded on Twitter to the chants. "This is exactly the rhetoric that has put me, my family, and other government officials’ lives in danger while we try to save the lives of our fellow Americans," she wrote.

Opinion polls have shown a high level of concern among voters about the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 218,000 people in the United States and hammered the economy.

That includes young people. Among likely voters aged 34 and under surveyed on their top concern in choosing a president, COVID-19 was the top concern for 25%, while jobs and the economy were named by 20%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 13.

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden will court early voters as their campaigns step up events ahead of their final debate this week.

U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden will court early voters as their campaigns step up events ahead of their final debate this week. Concern about crowds at polling stations during the coronavirus pandemic has driven far larger numbers than usual to vote early, ahead of the Nov. 3 Election Day. Trump will head on Sunday to Nevada, a battleground state where more than 100,000 voters have already cast ballots, according to state data. The Republican president will campaign every day leading up to Thursday`s debate in Florida, including stops in Arizona and North Carolina, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said. Biden heads on Sunday to North Carolina, where 1.2 million voters have cast their ballots, according to state data. His pick for vice president, Kamala Harris, will return to the campaign trail on Monday with a visit to Florida to mark that state`s first day of early, in-person voting. So far nearly 26 million people have cast a ballot in the election, shattering records, according to the U.S. Elections Project, run by the University of Florida. While Trump lags in opinion polls at a national level and in many battleground states, Biden campaign manager Jen O`Malley Dillon said over the weekend that the national figures are misleading because must-win states are close. "We cannot become complacent because the very searing truth is that Donald Trump can still win this race, and every indication we have shows that this thing is going to come down to the wire," she wrote in a memo to donors. U.S. presidential elections are determined by electoral votes, allotted to U.S. states and territories based largely on their populations, rather than by a tally of the popular vote nationwide. This makes for a close focus by campaigns on states that could go either way. Trump campaigned on Saturday in Michigan and Wisconsin, two battleground states he narrowly won in the 2016 election. In Muskegeon, Mich., he attacked Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, blasting state rules to stop the spread of coronavirus, calling her “dishonest,” and making light of a right-wing plot uncovered by the FBI to kidnap her. “Hopefully you’ll be sending her packing pretty soon,” Trump said, prompting the crowd to yell back "Lock her up!" several times. Whitmer responded on Twitter to the chants. "This is exactly the rhetoric that has put me, my family, and other government officials’ lives in danger while we try to save the lives of our fellow Americans," she wrote. Opinion polls have shown a high level of concern among voters about the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 218,000 people in the United States and hammered the economy. That includes young people. Among likely voters aged 34 and under surveyed on their top concern in choosing a president, COVID-19 was the top concern for 25%, while jobs and the economy were named by 20%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 13.

Trump and Biden to court early voters as US campaign gathers steam

A record of nearly 15 million Americans have already voted in the #PresidentialElection2020. Should we expect a historic voter turnout on election day? Susan M. Tehrani reports.

Ballots cast at an unprecedented pace | U.S. Election 2020 New York Direct

Early voting began in Louisiana on Friday, following record turnout this week in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, competitive states that could decide the election outcome. Voters in Louisiana's capital city Baton Rouge lined up for more than an hour before polls opened to cast their ballots, according to local media, with no widespread problems reported.

US Election 2020: Unprecedented surge in mail-in votes | WION VOA Co-production

Two simultaneous town halls have managed to clearly lay out the stark differences between US President Donald Trump and his challenger Joe Biden. Palki Sharma Upadhyay tells you what happened.

Gravitas: Biden Vs Trump: The story of dueling town halls

Recently I had the chance to watch an online focus group of seven women from swing states who had voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but who had become disaffected with him. Convened by Sarah Longwell, a founder of Republican Voters Against Trump, the session was in some ways a deeply depressing experience.

Several of the women said that, because they don’t believe what they hear from mainstream media, they have a hard time distinguishing truth from falsehood. One woman, in North Carolina, cited something she’d heard in a Trump ad as a reason she’s unlikely to vote for Joe Biden, and said she wished Ben Carson would step into the race.

Another from the same state said she was “scared” about the election because she doesn’t trust Kamala Harris. A woman from Florida had already voted for Joe Biden, but a few of the others were considering voting third party.

Yet their disgust with the president was palpable. A well-spoken woman with grown children from central Pennsylvania appeared to have mentally rewritten the history of the last election to justify her vote. She’d opted for Trump, she said, thinking that it would be “refreshing” to have a president with a business background. In her recollection, it was only after he won that he revealed his true character.

“His Twitter, his comments, things that he was recorded saying, his misogyny — I was just, like, horrified and embarrassed,” she said. Looking back, she didn’t think she knew about the “Access Hollywood” tape before she voted: “I certainly hope that I didn’t, because it was a disgusting comment. I would think that had I known that might have given me pause.” She’s now considering voting for the Libertarian candidate, Jo Jorgensen.

I strongly suspect she’s remembering wrong — the “Access Hollywood” story would have been very hard to miss in October 2016. But it’s telling that she can no longer quite imagine how she could have supported Trump after hearing him boast about his penchant for sexual assault. It’s another tiny piece of evidence that 2020 could be the year Trump’s misogyny finally catches up with him.

Four years ago, many of us were counting on right-leaning women to deliver a decisive rebuke to Trump. Lots of journalists, myself included, wrote about the group Republican Women for Hillary. After the appearance of the “Access Hollywood” tape, female Republican governors and members of Congress were far more likely than their male peers to withdraw their endorsements. Katie Packer, deputy campaign manager of Mitt Romney’s 2012 bid, imagined a reckoning in her party after Trump’s loss. “There’s going to have to be a denunciation of this guy,” she told me then.

Needless to say, there wasn’t. Most women did indeed vote for Hillary Clinton, but Trump won either a plurality or an outright majority of white women, enough to give him the presidency. There turned out to be far less of a political penalty for vulgar misogyny than some of us realized.

Four years later, it’s hard not to feel an unnerving sense of déjà vu. Once again, the polls show a potentially historic gender gap in the presidential election. Journalists are reporting on all the women Trump has turned off. Last I checked, FiveThirtyEight gave Trump a 13% chance of victory, almost exactly the same odds he had three weeks before the election in 2016. For America to survive as a liberal democracy, this time has to be different. Is it?

Longwell, who has conducted around 50 focus groups over the last three years, most of them with women, believes it is. “I have seen these people moving away in real time,” she says of the participants’ relationship to Trump. And “it dropped off a cliff right around COVID, plus economic downturn, plus George Floyd.”

As Longwell tells it, there were some Trump voters who turned on him almost immediately after the election, but many others who continued to support him despite disliking him personally. “They said he was a narcissist, said he was a bully, but they also don’t like Democrats, don’t like the media, don’t trust anything, and they were hanging in,” she said.

Then Trump’s incompetence came home. “Once the pandemic hit, once there were personal consequences for their lives, there was an absolute shift in how people talked about Donald Trump,” said Longwell.

She started hearing “a ton of pain” in the focus groups. Cancer survivors with suppressed immune systems feared leaving the house because people in their community wouldn’t wear masks. “Or they’ve got young kids that aren’t in school, or somebody in their family is furloughed, or they couldn’t go see their parent who died,” she said.

Women’s job losses due to COVID have been enormously disproportionate; in September alone, around 617,000 women 16 and over left the workforce, nearly eight times the number of men. They’ve borne the brunt of closed schools. As Jessica Grose recently reported in The New York Times, the Pandemic Parenting Study, which is tracking over 100 Indiana mothers, has found growing marital strife over child care.

“Mothers blame themselves for these conflicts and feel responsible for reducing them, including by leaving the workforce, beginning use of antidepressants, or ignoring their own concerns about COVID-19,” said a recent paper drawing on the study’s data. None of this can be separated from the collapse in women’s support for Trump.

If Trump loses, it won’t be just because enough women recognize him as a deranged bigot. It will because he blighted too many of their lives. In the focus group, a Wisconsin woman introduced herself as a full-time mother who, “on top of being at home,” now has to be a full-time teacher. One of her kids is gravely ill, and people who refuse to wear masks infuriate her. “It drives me nuts, people who don’t do it just because they don’t want to,” she said.

She tries to avoid almost all political news, and doesn’t trust what she does come across. Where she lives, she said, she hasn’t seen a single Biden sign, and she knows very little about the former vice president. But she’s planning to vote for him. If women defeat Trump next month, it will be because of everything he’s done to defeat them first.

Recently I had the chance to watch an online focus group of seven women from swing states who had voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but who had become disaffected with him.

Recently I had the chance to watch an online focus group of seven women from swing states who had voted for Donald Trump in 2016 but who had become disaffected with him. Convened by Sarah Longwell, a founder of Republican Voters Against Trump, the session was in some ways a deeply depressing experience. Several of the women said that, because they don’t believe what they hear from mainstream media, they have a hard time distinguishing truth from falsehood. One woman, in North Carolina, cited something she’d heard in a Trump ad as a reason she’s unlikely to vote for Joe Biden, and said she wished Ben Carson would step into the race. Another from the same state said she was “scared” about the election because she doesn’t trust Kamala Harris. A woman from Florida had already voted for Joe Biden, but a few of the others were considering voting third party. Yet their disgust with the president was palpable. A well-spoken woman with grown children from central Pennsylvania appeared to have mentally rewritten the history of the last election to justify her vote. She’d opted for Trump, she said, thinking that it would be “refreshing” to have a president with a business background. In her recollection, it was only after he won that he revealed his true character. “His Twitter, his comments, things that he was recorded saying, his misogyny — I was just, like, horrified and embarrassed,” she said. Looking back, she didn’t think she knew about the “Access Hollywood” tape before she voted: “I certainly hope that I didn’t, because it was a disgusting comment. I would think that had I known that might have given me pause.” She’s now considering voting for the Libertarian candidate, Jo Jorgensen. I strongly suspect she’s remembering wrong — the “Access Hollywood” story would have been very hard to miss in October 2016. But it’s telling that she can no longer quite imagine how she could have supported Trump after hearing him boast about his penchant for sexual assault. It’s another tiny piece of evidence that 2020 could be the year Trump’s misogyny finally catches up with him. Four years ago, many of us were counting on right-leaning women to deliver a decisive rebuke to Trump. Lots of journalists, myself included, wrote about the group Republican Women for Hillary. After the appearance of the “Access Hollywood” tape, female Republican governors and members of Congress were far more likely than their male peers to withdraw their endorsements. Katie Packer, deputy campaign manager of Mitt Romney’s 2012 bid, imagined a reckoning in her party after Trump’s loss. “There’s going to have to be a denunciation of this guy,” she told me then. Needless to say, there wasn’t. Most women did indeed vote for Hillary Clinton, but Trump won either a plurality or an outright majority of white women, enough to give him the presidency. There turned out to be far less of a political penalty for vulgar misogyny than some of us realized. Four years later, it’s hard not to feel an unnerving sense of déjà vu. Once again, the polls show a potentially historic gender gap in the presidential election. Journalists are reporting on all the women Trump has turned off. Last I checked, FiveThirtyEight gave Trump a 13% chance of victory, almost exactly the same odds he had three weeks before the election in 2016. For America to survive as a liberal democracy, this time has to be different. Is it? Longwell, who has conducted around 50 focus groups over the last three years, most of them with women, believes it is. “I have seen these people moving away in real time,” she says of the participants’ relationship to Trump. And “it dropped off a cliff right around COVID, plus economic downturn, plus George Floyd.” As Longwell tells it, there were some Trump voters who turned on him almost immediately after the election, but many others who continued to support him despite disliking him personally. “They said he was a narcissist, said he was a bully, but they also don’t like Democrats, don’t like the media, don’t trust anything, and they were hanging in,” she said. Then Trump’s incompetence came home. “Once the pandemic hit, once there were personal consequences for their lives, there was an absolute shift in how people talked about Donald Trump,” said Longwell. She started hearing “a ton of pain” in the focus groups. Cancer survivors with suppressed immune systems feared leaving the house because people in their community wouldn’t wear masks. “Or they’ve got young kids that aren’t in school, or somebody in their family is furloughed, or they couldn’t go see their parent who died,” she said. Women’s job losses due to COVID have been enormously disproportionate; in September alone, around 617,000 women 16 and over left the workforce, nearly eight times the number of men. They’ve borne the brunt of closed schools. As Jessica Grose recently reported in The New York Times, the Pandemic Parenting Study, which is tracking over 100 Indiana mothers, has found growing marital strife over child care. “Mothers blame themselves for these conflicts and feel responsible for reducing them, including by leaving the workforce, beginning use of antidepressants, or ignoring their own concerns about COVID-19,” said a recent paper drawing on the study’s data. None of this can be separated from the collapse in women’s support for Trump. If Trump loses, it won’t be just because enough women recognize him as a deranged bigot. It will because he blighted too many of their lives. In the focus group, a Wisconsin woman introduced herself as a full-time mother who, “on top of being at home,” now has to be a full-time teacher. One of her kids is gravely ill, and people who refuse to wear masks infuriate her. “It drives me nuts, people who don’t do it just because they don’t want to,” she said. She tries to avoid almost all political news, and doesn’t trust what she does come across. Where she lives, she said, she hasn’t seen a single Biden sign, and she knows very little about the former vice president. But she’s planning to vote for him. If women defeat Trump next month, it will be because of everything he’s done to defeat them first.

Trump’s misogyny might finally catch up with him

US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden held simultaneous and separate televised town halls in lieu of the cancelled second presidential debate.

They took questions from pre-selected individuals at sessions moderated by eminent television journalists.

While Trump's town hall was hosted by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in Miami, Florida, that of Biden was held in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) News.

The second presidential debate had originally been scheduled for Thursday night. However, it was cancelled after Trump refused to participate in a virtual format of the presidential debate as amended by the independent debate commission following the president's COVID-19 diagnosis.

A final debate is still scheduled for October 22 in Nashville, Tennessee. The first debate was held on September 29 in Cleveland, Ohio.

During the town hall, Trump defended his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He also reiterated his stand on tax returns. However, Trump refused to denounce the QAnon conspiracy theory.

When asked by moderator Savannah Guthrie if he would denounce the QAnon theory and "just say it's crazy and not true", Trump said, "I don't know about QAnon."

Biden's during his town hall said he would soon express his position on court packing, an issue that he has avoided so far.

The Democratic presidential nominee said he would come out with a clear position before Election Day about where he stands on expanding the Supreme Court, depending how the rest of the confirmation process of Judge Amy Coney Barrett is handled.

President Trump has selected Judge Barrett to succeed Supreme Court Justice late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The Senate Judiciary Committee finished its confirmation hearings for Barrett earlier on Thursday. Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said that the committee will vote on Barrett's nomination on October 22. If the committee approves her nomination, which is expected, it would be sent to the full Senate floor.

At the town hall with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Biden said he is "not a fan" of court packing. When asked by Stephanopoulos if he was open to increasing the number of judges on the court if Barrett is confirmed before the election, Biden said, "I'm open to considering what happens from that point on".

Republicans have repeatedly criticised Biden for not directly giving his view on court packing.

"They do have a right to know where I'll stand and they'll have a right to know where I stand before they vote," Biden said, when asked whether voters had a right to know where he stands on the issue of expanding the court.

Replying to a question on if he would make his position clear before the Election Day, Biden said, "Yes, depending on how they handle this", referring to the Republicans.

Both Trump and Biden campaigns claimed that their candidates won the shows Thursday night.

"Even though the commission cancelled the in-person debate that could have happened tonight, one occurred anyway, and President Trump soundly defeated NBC's Savannah Guthrie in her role as debate opponent and Joe Biden surrogate," said Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director.

"President Trump masterfully handled Guthrie's attacks and interacted warmly and effectively with the voters in the room," he said.

"Joe Biden gave thoughtful answers to voters' questions about COVID-19, taxes, racial equity, climate change, and more...1,100 miles away, and in a false, alternate reality of his own making, President Trump was combative and lashed out at voters. He refused to denounce QAnon...He lied about the effectiveness of masks," he said.

"Trump has no answers for his failures to contain COVID-19 and manage our economy. And, after nearly four years in office, Trump still has no vision for how he'll make health care more affordable," Bedingfield said.

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Trump has recovered from a brief spell of COVID-19 after he and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for the deadly viral infection on October 1. Trump's doctors have now cleared him for his election campaigns.

US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden held simultaneous and separate televised town halls in lieu of the cancelled second presidential debate.

US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden held simultaneous and separate televised town halls in lieu of the cancelled second presidential debate. They took questions from pre-selected individuals at sessions moderated by eminent television journalists. While Trump's town hall was hosted by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in Miami, Florida, that of Biden was held in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) News. The second presidential debate had originally been scheduled for Thursday night. However, it was cancelled after Trump refused to participate in a virtual format of the presidential debate as amended by the independent debate commission following the president's COVID-19 diagnosis. A final debate is still scheduled for October 22 in Nashville, Tennessee. The first debate was held on September 29 in Cleveland, Ohio. During the town hall, Trump defended his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He also reiterated his stand on tax returns. However, Trump refused to denounce the QAnon conspiracy theory. When asked by moderator Savannah Guthrie if he would denounce the QAnon theory and "just say it's crazy and not true", Trump said, "I don't know about QAnon." Biden's during his town hall said he would soon express his position on court packing, an issue that he has avoided so far. The Democratic presidential nominee said he would come out with a clear position before Election Day about where he stands on expanding the Supreme Court, depending how the rest of the confirmation process of Judge Amy Coney Barrett is handled. President Trump has selected Judge Barrett to succeed Supreme Court Justice late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Senate Judiciary Committee finished its confirmation hearings for Barrett earlier on Thursday. Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said that the committee will vote on Barrett's nomination on October 22. If the committee approves her nomination, which is expected, it would be sent to the full Senate floor. At the town hall with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Biden said he is "not a fan" of court packing. When asked by Stephanopoulos if he was open to increasing the number of judges on the court if Barrett is confirmed before the election, Biden said, "I'm open to considering what happens from that point on". Republicans have repeatedly criticised Biden for not directly giving his view on court packing. "They do have a right to know where I'll stand and they'll have a right to know where I stand before they vote," Biden said, when asked whether voters had a right to know where he stands on the issue of expanding the court. Replying to a question on if he would make his position clear before the Election Day, Biden said, "Yes, depending on how they handle this", referring to the Republicans. Both Trump and Biden campaigns claimed that their candidates won the shows Thursday night. "Even though the commission cancelled the in-person debate that could have happened tonight, one occurred anyway, and President Trump soundly defeated NBC's Savannah Guthrie in her role as debate opponent and Joe Biden surrogate," said Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director. "President Trump masterfully handled Guthrie's attacks and interacted warmly and effectively with the voters in the room," he said. "Joe Biden gave thoughtful answers to voters' questions about COVID-19, taxes, racial equity, climate change, and more...1,100 miles away, and in a false, alternate reality of his own making, President Trump was combative and lashed out at voters. He refused to denounce QAnon...He lied about the effectiveness of masks," he said. "Trump has no answers for his failures to contain COVID-19 and manage our economy. And, after nearly four years in office, Trump still has no vision for how he'll make health care more affordable," Bedingfield said. × Trump has recovered from a brief spell of COVID-19 after he and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for the deadly viral infection on October 1. Trump's doctors have now cleared him for his election campaigns.

Trump, Biden hold separate town halls in lieu of cancelled second presidential debate

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a> marched into adulthood in Bass Weejuns penny loafers.

He was known around the University of Delaware campus as the teetotaling semi-jock with a sweater around his neck — the type who seemed more consumed with date nights than civil rights and expected a certain standard of decorum from his companions, once threatening to break off an evening with a woman who lit a cigarette in his borrowed convertible.

And when Biden and his friends from Syracuse University law school happened upon anti-war protesters at the chancellor’s office — the kind of Vietnam-era demonstration that galvanized so much of their generation — his group stepped past with disdain. They were going for pizza.

More than a half-century later, as Biden seeks the White House with a pledge to soothe the nation’s wounds and lower its collective temperature, he has been left to deflect a curious charge at the center of President Donald Trump’s reelection effort: Biden, the president insists, is eager to do the far-left bidding of violent agitators and other assorted radicals.

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“They’ve got you wrapped around their finger, Joe,” Trump taunted at their first debate.

Biden, a 77-year-old moderate who cites John Wayne movies and long-dead Senate peers, has generally defaulted to a visceral defense: Look at me.

“Ask yourself,” he implored voters in a recent address. “Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters?”

He does not now, friends from his youth say, and he did not then — in spite of, and perhaps partly because of, the decade in which he came of age.

Amid simmering protests, generational division and defining disputes about the course of American life, Biden was a young man keen on bringing a bit of a 1950s sensibility into the 1960s — a nice-house-on-a-cul-de-sac kind of guy who spent his weekends as a 20-something husband scouting available real estate from his Corvette.

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There is a version of these years that Biden prefers to share publicly: how he was captivated by the civil rights movement, coming to understand the racial divide as a teenage lifeguard in a Black neighborhood of Wilmington, Delaware; how he was brokenhearted by the murder of his heroes, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Kennedy brothers; how he was motivated chiefly by an altruistic call to service.

If much of this accounting is plainly true in the abstract, those who knew him say, it also elides some finer points of Biden’s arc: his boundless personal ambition, his canny relationship-building as a political novice and, quite often, his conspicuous psychic distance from the activist fervor of the times as he plotted a path to office.

“He had other priorities,” Gilbert J. Sloan, a longtime supporter who was active in Delaware’s 1960s protest movements, said of Biden’s outlook then. “He was very young and ambitious.”

A review of how Biden navigated this period of national upheaval — drawn from interviews with more than a dozen friends, classmates and others who have known the Democratic nominee across the decades — at once lays bare the implausibility of Trump’s attack and supplies an enduring window into Biden’s own theories of social movements. Incremental progress is still progress, he has long believed, and within-the-system change is still change.

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If today’s activists have at times viewed Biden skeptically through this season of unrest, questioning whether he can connect with the passion in the streets when he has rarely shown passion in the streets himself, his early history would appear to reinforce their doubts.

This is a man whose institutionalist instincts seemed to harden even before he belonged to any political institutions — and who has never shown much patience for protests that turn destructive or unruly.

“That’s the way he views activism,” said Bob Markel, a friend since the 1950s. “Occupying an office of a dean or something like that is not his style.”

It never has been. As the Vietnam War reshaped lives across many less-than-affluent families like his own, with casualties and moral outrage mounting especially among young adults a few years behind him, Biden eluded both the conflict and the attendant anger. He received five student draft deferments during the war and was kept from service after a physical exam in 1968 because he had asthma as a teenager, according to his campaign. (Trump, now 74, received five deferments in all, including a medical deferment for bone spurs.)

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Biden has said he viewed the Vietnam War “in terms of stupidity, not morality,” doubting its wisdom but never feverishly enough to chant about it.

“I’m not big on flak jackets and tie-dye shirts,” he told reporters in 1987, distinguishing himself from some politically minded contemporaries. “Other people marched. I ran for office.”

‘Average Irish Guy’

It can be almost impossible now to imagine Biden as a young man — or, at least, a younger man than he was when he first reached Washington, as a 30-year-old senator shattered by the car crash that killed his first wife, Neilia, and their baby daughter.

But to those who met him before his best-known trials and triumphs, the Joe Biden who wandered campus in a tasteful button-down and chinos remains an indelible character, settling into the identity that would become his self-styled political brand: polished but unpretentious, a natural leader with few obvious preternatural gifts.

“He was an average Irish guy. His father was a car salesman, for God’s sake,” said Fred Sears, a friend from the University of Delaware. “A good-looking guy with a gift of gab.”

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The glad-handing started early.

An aspiring football running back and amiable freshman in 1961, Biden was elected president of his class, moving quickly to flatter his constituents.

“He came up to me, shook my hand,” recalled Brian Barrabee, a football player who lived in the same dorm, “and he said, ‘Brian, I’d like to thank you for not running for class president because if you had, you would have beaten me.’ It was his way of getting people to feel good.”

By his own account, Biden’s most resonant exposure to the dominant political issues of the day came well off campus. He has said he once walked out of a Wilmington restaurant that refused to serve a Black student from his high school, a recollection that Markel corroborated.

And at 19, Biden worked as a lifeguard in a largely Black section of Wilmington in 1962.

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He has said he took the job after absorbing images of the civil rights fight on television and realizing he had few relationships with Black people, suggesting he came to understand injustice most acutely by speaking to swimmers about the prejudices they faced.

“What he learned from us is that we didn’t have what everybody else had,” said Richard Smith, a longtime civil rights activist who met Biden that summer as an adolescent. “He got his schooling at the swimming pool.”

Biden’s formal schooling, friends say, could feel less connected to the wider national tumult.

Barrabee said the campus was not a “hotbed of political activity,” describing much of the student body as “suburban kids from Wilmington, Delaware, southern Delaware area, who just wanted to go to college.”

Biden did not drink — “there are enough alcoholics in my family,” he has said — and he did not smoke. But he had a way of finding trouble.

He has said he was placed on probation for hosing down a resident adviser with a fire extinguisher. He once paid a covert visit to a romantic interest and left a friend, his lookout, to take the fall with the campus police, according to a transcript of Biden’s eulogy for the man in 2004.

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Biden has said his worrisome grades sidelined his football career. Academic struggles kept him from sticking with student government as well, Sears said.

But Biden’s father perhaps inadvertently assisted in his distracting social agenda: Cars were not permitted on campus, Sears said, but the elder Biden’s job allowed his son easy access to loaner vehicles for weekend excursions.

“Every weekend, somehow, Joe ended up with a car,” Sears said of his friend’s advantages in courtship. “It was always a convertible. Besides being very cool and dressing right, showing up in a convertible he had us all beat eight ways from Sunday.”

‘I Wore Sport Coats’

The tilt of Biden’s life changed for good with a last-minute flight to the Bahamas.

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He had driven down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the spring of 1964 for a couple of days with friends when boredom compelled them to consider a more daring beach destination. They booked a round trip to Nassau for about $25.

While there, Biden met Neilia Hunter poolside at an exclusive hotel he had sneaked into by wrapping a guest towel around his waist and walking past the guards with confidence.

“I’ve got the blonde,” he told his friends, beelining to Hunter, an attractive sunbather from a well-to-do family near Syracuse.

She liked him back. And when they returned stateside, the fresh clarity in Biden’s personal life seemed to sharpen his focus on other endeavors, coaxing him to fits of big-picture dreaming.

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He would apply to law school at Syracuse to be near Hunter. He would make sure he was studying enough to get in.

They would get married, have kids (“she wanted five”), buy a house (“a big Tudor-style house with real trees, what the real estate professionals call ‘mature plantings’”). He would work as a trial lawyer, start his own practice, run for office.

“Once I had Neilia with me, it became more of a plan than a daydream,” Biden wrote in his 2007 memoir. “Now I could see the picture whole.”

The early goals in this timeline were accomplished apace: He got into Syracuse. He and Hunter were married in 1966.

Markel, one of Biden’s groomsmen, said Biden’s seriousness extended even to his own bachelor party. The group had rented a motel room around New Castle, Delaware, he recalled, growing rowdier by the hour, with the exception of the non-drinking groom.

“We got kind of sloppy drunk,” Markel said. “Toward the end of the evening, I remember him giving us a lecture: ‘You guys are a disgrace.’”

But Biden was still liable to lose interest in academics quickly, prizing football tailgates or social engagements with Hunter and often copying class notes from a friend. Sometimes, Hunter prepared Biden’s study sheets, inventing mnemonic devices for him to memorize.

In his most damaging bit of carelessness, Biden lifted chunks of a law review article without proper citation — a blemish that damaged his 1988 presidential campaign amid other accusations of plagiarism at the time. Biden has said he did nothing “malevolent” at Syracuse but simply did not understand citation standards because he had not been to class often enough.

“He found out it wasn’t that easy,” said Mike Gelacak, a friend who later worked as a Senate aide to Biden. “His wife explained to him that he had to knuckle down.”

And if the country’s volatility in those years seeped into campus life, classmates say that Biden never much grappled with it in their company.

“I was married,” Biden told reporters during the 1988 campaign, declaring himself “out of sync” with anti-war zeal. “I was in law school. I wore sport coats.”

'The World Had Changed'

His wardrobe remained conservative upon graduation, befitting his new employer: a Wilmington law firm representing insurance companies, railroads and other well-resourced clients.

It was prestigious work, Biden told friends. He was making it. He was on schedule.

In public remarks through the years, Biden has tended to dwell more often on the broader historical record of this period than his own.

During a 2009 speech, he said the violence in Vietnam “pierced America’s consciousness,” recounting a student occupation of the Syracuse chancellor’s office. He did not tell his audience what he thought of those doing the occupying at the time.

In a 2016 address, Biden explained that once he graduated, “the world had changed.”

“Dr. King had been assassinated,” he said. “There were riots throughout America. A significant part of my hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, was burned to the ground.”

This localized distress had perhaps the most lasting effect on Biden. Wilmington was home to a notoriously lengthy National Guard occupation: Troops continued patrolling predominantly Black neighborhoods well after initial unrest following King’s death.

Biden has described the episode, combined with his lifeguard experience, as central to his early understanding of race relations.

He began working as a public defender part time and signed on with another practice that often represented the less prosperous.

“If you’re interested in a political career, you do what he did rather than take a job at a white-shoe law firm,” Markel said.

The less subtle giveaway came during a visit to the Biden residence around this time.

“We sat down in his living room, and two dogs pop out,” Markel remembered. “I said, ‘What are their names?’ He said, ‘Senator and Governor.’”

Steeped in the “Truman Democrat” leanings of his relatives from an early age and repulsed, he has said, by the politics of Richard Nixon, Biden joined a local Democratic group, implicitly (and, often enough, explicitly) announcing himself as a prospective force in the party.

Even then, “he was an institutionalist,” said Sloan, the veteran activist. “He was going to work within the system, which he did.”

When a seat on the New Castle County Council was coming open in 1970, local Democrats assumed that Biden would be eager to claim it.

John Daniello, a party official who would become the Democratic state chairman, approached Biden to feel him out.

“He just had no interest in local government, so county office didn’t turn him on even a little bit,” Daniello said. “I made the pitch that, you know, all politics is local and that you’ve got to start someplace to get name recognition.”

Biden was persuaded in time. He ran and won.

Soon after, he asked Daniello to lunch.

“I thought he wanted to talk about pending issues,” Daniello said.

But Biden had another gambit in mind: What about the U.S. Senate?

Joe Biden marched into adulthood in Bass Weejuns penny loafers. He was known around the University of Delaware campus as the teetotaling semi-jock with a sweater around his neck — the type who seemed more consumed with date nights than civil rights and expected a certain standard of decorum from his companions, once threatening to break off an evening with a woman who lit a cigarette in his borrowed convertible.

Joe Biden marched into adulthood in Bass Weejuns penny loafers. He was known around the University of Delaware campus as the teetotaling semi-jock with a sweater around his neck — the type who seemed more consumed with date nights than civil rights and expected a certain standard of decorum from his companions, once threatening to break off an evening with a woman who lit a cigarette in his borrowed convertible. And when Biden and his friends from Syracuse University law school happened upon anti-war protesters at the chancellor’s office — the kind of Vietnam-era demonstration that galvanized so much of their generation — his group stepped past with disdain. They were going for pizza. More than a half-century later, as Biden seeks the White House with a pledge to soothe the nation’s wounds and lower its collective temperature, he has been left to deflect a curious charge at the center of President Donald Trump’s reelection effort: Biden, the president insists, is eager to do the far-left bidding of violent agitators and other assorted radicals. Also read| Biden, Harris wish Hindu-Americans on the occasion of Navratri “They’ve got you wrapped around their finger, Joe,” Trump taunted at their first debate. Biden, a 77-year-old moderate who cites John Wayne movies and long-dead Senate peers, has generally defaulted to a visceral defense: Look at me. “Ask yourself,” he implored voters in a recent address. “Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters?” He does not now, friends from his youth say, and he did not then — in spite of, and perhaps partly because of, the decade in which he came of age. Amid simmering protests, generational division and defining disputes about the course of American life, Biden was a young man keen on bringing a bit of a 1950s sensibility into the 1960s — a nice-house-on-a-cul-de-sac kind of guy who spent his weekends as a 20-something husband scouting available real estate from his Corvette. Also read| Biden sets fundraising record with $383 mn in September There is a version of these years that Biden prefers to share publicly: how he was captivated by the civil rights movement, coming to understand the racial divide as a teenage lifeguard in a Black neighborhood of Wilmington, Delaware; how he was brokenhearted by the murder of his heroes, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Kennedy brothers; how he was motivated chiefly by an altruistic call to service. If much of this accounting is plainly true in the abstract, those who knew him say, it also elides some finer points of Biden’s arc: his boundless personal ambition, his canny relationship-building as a political novice and, quite often, his conspicuous psychic distance from the activist fervor of the times as he plotted a path to office. “He had other priorities,” Gilbert J. Sloan, a longtime supporter who was active in Delaware’s 1960s protest movements, said of Biden’s outlook then. “He was very young and ambitious.” A review of how Biden navigated this period of national upheaval — drawn from interviews with more than a dozen friends, classmates and others who have known the Democratic nominee across the decades — at once lays bare the implausibility of Trump’s attack and supplies an enduring window into Biden’s own theories of social movements. Incremental progress is still progress, he has long believed, and within-the-system change is still change. Also read| US election 2020: How the States vote for the Presidential elections If today’s activists have at times viewed Biden skeptically through this season of unrest, questioning whether he can connect with the passion in the streets when he has rarely shown passion in the streets himself, his early history would appear to reinforce their doubts. This is a man whose institutionalist instincts seemed to harden even before he belonged to any political institutions — and who has never shown much patience for protests that turn destructive or unruly. “That’s the way he views activism,” said Bob Markel, a friend since the 1950s. “Occupying an office of a dean or something like that is not his style.” It never has been. As the Vietnam War reshaped lives across many less-than-affluent families like his own, with casualties and moral outrage mounting especially among young adults a few years behind him, Biden eluded both the conflict and the attendant anger. He received five student draft deferments during the war and was kept from service after a physical exam in 1968 because he had asthma as a teenager, according to his campaign. (Trump, now 74, received five deferments in all, including a medical deferment for bone spurs.) Also read| Jim Carrey plays Joe Biden in the most anticipated season premiere of 'SNL' Biden has said he viewed the Vietnam War “in terms of stupidity, not morality,” doubting its wisdom but never feverishly enough to chant about it. “I’m not big on flak jackets and tie-dye shirts,” he told reporters in 1987, distinguishing himself from some politically minded contemporaries. “Other people marched. I ran for office.” ‘Average Irish Guy’ It can be almost impossible now to imagine Biden as a young man — or, at least, a younger man than he was when he first reached Washington, as a 30-year-old senator shattered by the car crash that killed his first wife, Neilia, and their baby daughter. But to those who met him before his best-known trials and triumphs, the Joe Biden who wandered campus in a tasteful button-down and chinos remains an indelible character, settling into the identity that would become his self-styled political brand: polished but unpretentious, a natural leader with few obvious preternatural gifts. “He was an average Irish guy. His father was a car salesman, for God’s sake,” said Fred Sears, a friend from the University of Delaware. “A good-looking guy with a gift of gab.” Have a look| US election 2020: Last few Presidents of the United States of America The glad-handing started early. An aspiring football running back and amiable freshman in 1961, Biden was elected president of his class, moving quickly to flatter his constituents. “He came up to me, shook my hand,” recalled Brian Barrabee, a football player who lived in the same dorm, “and he said, ‘Brian, I’d like to thank you for not running for class president because if you had, you would have beaten me.’ It was his way of getting people to feel good.” By his own account, Biden’s most resonant exposure to the dominant political issues of the day came well off campus. He has said he once walked out of a Wilmington restaurant that refused to serve a Black student from his high school, a recollection that Markel corroborated. And at 19, Biden worked as a lifeguard in a largely Black section of Wilmington in 1962. Also read| Democrats have nothing but disdain for your values, says Trump in Florida rally as crowd chants 'Lock up Bidens' He has said he took the job after absorbing images of the civil rights fight on television and realizing he had few relationships with Black people, suggesting he came to understand injustice most acutely by speaking to swimmers about the prejudices they faced. “What he learned from us is that we didn’t have what everybody else had,” said Richard Smith, a longtime civil rights activist who met Biden that summer as an adolescent. “He got his schooling at the swimming pool.” Biden’s formal schooling, friends say, could feel less connected to the wider national tumult. Barrabee said the campus was not a “hotbed of political activity,” describing much of the student body as “suburban kids from Wilmington, Delaware, southern Delaware area, who just wanted to go to college.” Biden did not drink — “there are enough alcoholics in my family,” he has said — and he did not smoke. But he had a way of finding trouble. He has said he was placed on probation for hosing down a resident adviser with a fire extinguisher. He once paid a covert visit to a romantic interest and left a friend, his lookout, to take the fall with the campus police, according to a transcript of Biden’s eulogy for the man in 2004. Also read| US election 2020: How are votes counted in the presidential election? Biden has said his worrisome grades sidelined his football career. Academic struggles kept him from sticking with student government as well, Sears said. But Biden’s father perhaps inadvertently assisted in his distracting social agenda: Cars were not permitted on campus, Sears said, but the elder Biden’s job allowed his son easy access to loaner vehicles for weekend excursions. “Every weekend, somehow, Joe ended up with a car,” Sears said of his friend’s advantages in courtship. “It was always a convertible. Besides being very cool and dressing right, showing up in a convertible he had us all beat eight ways from Sunday.” ‘I Wore Sport Coats’ The tilt of Biden’s life changed for good with a last-minute flight to the Bahamas. Also read| In record turnout, over 16 million Americans vote ahead of election day on November 3 He had driven down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the spring of 1964 for a couple of days with friends when boredom compelled them to consider a more daring beach destination. They booked a round trip to Nassau for about $25. While there, Biden met Neilia Hunter poolside at an exclusive hotel he had sneaked into by wrapping a guest towel around his waist and walking past the guards with confidence. “I’ve got the blonde,” he told his friends, beelining to Hunter, an attractive sunbather from a well-to-do family near Syracuse. She liked him back. And when they returned stateside, the fresh clarity in Biden’s personal life seemed to sharpen his focus on other endeavors, coaxing him to fits of big-picture dreaming. Also read| US election 2020: Indian-Americans overwhelmingly support Joe Biden, new poll shows He would apply to law school at Syracuse to be near Hunter. He would make sure he was studying enough to get in. They would get married, have kids (“she wanted five”), buy a house (“a big Tudor-style house with real trees, what the real estate professionals call ‘mature plantings’”). He would work as a trial lawyer, start his own practice, run for office. “Once I had Neilia with me, it became more of a plan than a daydream,” Biden wrote in his 2007 memoir. “Now I could see the picture whole.” The early goals in this timeline were accomplished apace: He got into Syracuse. He and Hunter were married in 1966. Markel, one of Biden’s groomsmen, said Biden’s seriousness extended even to his own bachelor party. The group had rented a motel room around New Castle, Delaware, he recalled, growing rowdier by the hour, with the exception of the non-drinking groom. “We got kind of sloppy drunk,” Markel said. “Toward the end of the evening, I remember him giving us a lecture: ‘You guys are a disgrace.’” But Biden was still liable to lose interest in academics quickly, prizing football tailgates or social engagements with Hunter and often copying class notes from a friend. Sometimes, Hunter prepared Biden’s study sheets, inventing mnemonic devices for him to memorize. In his most damaging bit of carelessness, Biden lifted chunks of a law review article without proper citation — a blemish that damaged his 1988 presidential campaign amid other accusations of plagiarism at the time. Biden has said he did nothing “malevolent” at Syracuse but simply did not understand citation standards because he had not been to class often enough. “He found out it wasn’t that easy,” said Mike Gelacak, a friend who later worked as a Senate aide to Biden. “His wife explained to him that he had to knuckle down.” And if the country’s volatility in those years seeped into campus life, classmates say that Biden never much grappled with it in their company. “I was married,” Biden told reporters during the 1988 campaign, declaring himself “out of sync” with anti-war zeal. “I was in law school. I wore sport coats.” 'The World Had Changed' His wardrobe remained conservative upon graduation, befitting his new employer: a Wilmington law firm representing insurance companies, railroads and other well-resourced clients. It was prestigious work, Biden told friends. He was making it. He was on schedule. In public remarks through the years, Biden has tended to dwell more often on the broader historical record of this period than his own. During a 2009 speech, he said the violence in Vietnam “pierced America’s consciousness,” recounting a student occupation of the Syracuse chancellor’s office. He did not tell his audience what he thought of those doing the occupying at the time. In a 2016 address, Biden explained that once he graduated, “the world had changed.” “Dr. King had been assassinated,” he said. “There were riots throughout America. A significant part of my hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, was burned to the ground.” This localized distress had perhaps the most lasting effect on Biden. Wilmington was home to a notoriously lengthy National Guard occupation: Troops continued patrolling predominantly Black neighborhoods well after initial unrest following King’s death. Biden has described the episode, combined with his lifeguard experience, as central to his early understanding of race relations. He began working as a public defender part time and signed on with another practice that often represented the less prosperous. “If you’re interested in a political career, you do what he did rather than take a job at a white-shoe law firm,” Markel said. The less subtle giveaway came during a visit to the Biden residence around this time. “We sat down in his living room, and two dogs pop out,” Markel remembered. “I said, ‘What are their names?’ He said, ‘Senator and Governor.’” Steeped in the “Truman Democrat” leanings of his relatives from an early age and repulsed, he has said, by the politics of Richard Nixon, Biden joined a local Democratic group, implicitly (and, often enough, explicitly) announcing himself as a prospective force in the party. Even then, “he was an institutionalist,” said Sloan, the veteran activist. “He was going to work within the system, which he did.” When a seat on the New Castle County Council was coming open in 1970, local Democrats assumed that Biden would be eager to claim it. John Daniello, a party official who would become the Democratic state chairman, approached Biden to feel him out. “He just had no interest in local government, so county office didn’t turn him on even a little bit,” Daniello said. “I made the pitch that, you know, all politics is local and that you’ve got to start someplace to get name recognition.” Biden was persuaded in time. He ran and won. Soon after, he asked Daniello to lunch. “I thought he wanted to talk about pending issues,” Daniello said. But Biden had another gambit in mind: What about the U.S. Senate?

Joe Biden's non-radical 1960s

Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday (local time) weighed emphatically in favour of Affordable Care Act, informally known as 'Obamacare' at an event in Michigan.

Michigan is a swing state, that is, one of the states that are not seen to strongly support either Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Victory in swing states may prove to be instrumental for both candidates after they win their respective traditional strongholds.

“If I have the honor of becoming your president, we'll build on the Affordable Care Act, no matter what they do," Biden said at an event in Michigan.

Affordable Care Act was passed by Barack Obama administration. The act paved way for millions of Americans to afford healthcare. Republican Party has been against the law from the moment it was passed. Democrats allege that striking down the law is high on the priority list of Republicans. Democratic Party has upped the ante to support the Act especially after Judge Amy Coney Barrett was nominated by Donald Trump to the Supreme Court.

In Michigan, Biden lashed out at Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

"He’ll do anything to distract us from focusing on his failures to deal with this virus to protect the nation," Biden said. "It's not disappearing, in fact it's on the rise again. It's getting worse, as predicted."

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/democrats-have-nothing-but-disdain-for-your-values-says-trump-in-florida-rally-as-crowd-chants-lock-up-bidens-335925">Democrats have nothing but disdain for your values, says Trump in Florida rally as crowd chants 'Lock up Bidens'</a>

Biden has shown strength with senior voters, many of whom have faulted Trump for his response to the health crisis.

Biden also homed in on another area where Trump has run into regular controversy -- his often lackluster responses when asked to condemn extreme right-wing groups and white supremacists.

He said Trump's comments were a "dog whistle" to such groups.

"Look. Everybody knows who Donald Trump is, let's show them who we are," Biden said at a car rally in Detroit. 
"We choose hope over fear, unity over division, science over fiction and yes, truth over lies."

(With agency inputs)

Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday (local time) weighed emphatically in favour of Affordable Care Act, informally known as 'Obamacare' at an event in Michigan.

Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday (local time) weighed emphatically in favour of Affordable Care Act, informally known as 'Obamacare' at an event in Michigan. Michigan is a swing state, that is, one of the states that are not seen to strongly support either Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Victory in swing states may prove to be instrumental for both candidates after they win their respective traditional strongholds. “If I have the honor of becoming your president, we'll build on the Affordable Care Act, no matter what they do," Biden said at an event in Michigan. Affordable Care Act was passed by Barack Obama administration. The act paved way for millions of Americans to afford healthcare. Republican Party has been against the law from the moment it was passed. Democrats allege that striking down the law is high on the priority list of Republicans. Democratic Party has upped the ante to support the Act especially after Judge Amy Coney Barrett was nominated by Donald Trump to the Supreme Court. In Michigan, Biden lashed out at Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. "He’ll do anything to distract us from focusing on his failures to deal with this virus to protect the nation," Biden said. "It's not disappearing, in fact it's on the rise again. It's getting worse, as predicted." Also Read | Democrats have nothing but disdain for your values, says Trump in Florida rally as crowd chants 'Lock up Bidens' Biden has shown strength with senior voters, many of whom have faulted Trump for his response to the health crisis. Biden also homed in on another area where Trump has run into regular controversy -- his often lackluster responses when asked to condemn extreme right-wing groups and white supremacists. He said Trump's comments were a "dog whistle" to such groups. "Look. Everybody knows who Donald Trump is, let's show them who we are," Biden said at a car rally in Detroit. "We choose hope over fear, unity over division, science over fiction and yes, truth over lies." (With agency inputs)

We will build on Obamacare, no matter what they do: Joe Biden in Michigan

US President Donald Trump's Democratic rival Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris have wished Hindu Americans on the occasion of the nine-day Navratri festival that began on Saturday.

Hindu festival season begins with Navratri and climaxes in October and November with the popular celebrations of Dussehra and Diwali.

Indian-Americans as a population have always leaned towards the Democratic party in US presidential elections. And the choice of Kamala Harris -- the first-ever person of Indian origin to be featured on major party ticket -- as the vice presidential candidate for the Democrats has made Hindu-Americans a major vote bank for Biden.

Joe Biden tweeted, "As the Hindu festival of Navratri begins, Jill and I send our best wishes to all those celebrating in the U.S. and around the world. May good once again triumph over evil — and usher in new beginnings and opportunity for all."

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As the Hindu festival of Navratri begins, Jill and I send our best wishes to all those celebrating in the U.S. and around the world. May good once again triumph over evil — and usher in new beginnings and opportunity for all.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1317472937159610373?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
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And Kamala Harris tweeted, ".@DouglasEmhoff and I wish our Hindu American friends and family, and all those celebrating, a very Happy Navratri! May this holiday serve as an inspiration to all of us to lift up our communities and build a more inclusive and just America."

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.<a href="https://twitter.com/DouglasEmhoff?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DouglasEmhoff</a> and I wish our Hindu American friends and family, and all those celebrating, a very Happy Navratri! May this holiday serve as an inspiration to all of us to lift up our communities and build a more inclusive and just America.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1317469831176851456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Meanwhile, results from a new survey of Indian Americans provide strong evidence that contradicts an emerging narrative that these voters are shifting their support from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.

A significant 72% of registered Indian American voters plan to vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the presidential elections while 22% plan to vote for the incumbent president.&nbsp;

The study surveyed (online) a nationally representative sample of 936 Indian Americans in September.

(with inputs)

US President Donald Trump's Democratic rival Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris have wished Hindu Americans on the occasion of the nine-day Navratri festival that began on Saturday.

US President Donald Trump's Democratic rival Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris have wished Hindu Americans on the occasion of the nine-day Navratri festival that began on Saturday. Hindu festival season begins with Navratri and climaxes in October and November with the popular celebrations of Dussehra and Diwali. Indian-Americans as a population have always leaned towards the Democratic party in US presidential elections. And the choice of Kamala Harris -- the first-ever person of Indian origin to be featured on major party ticket -- as the vice presidential candidate for the Democrats has made Hindu-Americans a major vote bank for Biden. Joe Biden tweeted, "As the Hindu festival of Navratri begins, Jill and I send our best wishes to all those celebrating in the U.S. and around the world. May good once again triumph over evil — and usher in new beginnings and opportunity for all." As the Hindu festival of Navratri begins, Jill and I send our best wishes to all those celebrating in the U.S. and around the world. May good once again triumph over evil — and usher in new beginnings and opportunity for all. — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 17, 2020 × And Kamala Harris tweeted, ".@DouglasEmhoff and I wish our Hindu American friends and family, and all those celebrating, a very Happy Navratri! May this holiday serve as an inspiration to all of us to lift up our communities and build a more inclusive and just America." .@DouglasEmhoff and I wish our Hindu American friends and family, and all those celebrating, a very Happy Navratri! May this holiday serve as an inspiration to all of us to lift up our communities and build a more inclusive and just America. — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 17, 2020 × Meanwhile, results from a new survey of Indian Americans provide strong evidence that contradicts an emerging narrative that these voters are shifting their support from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. A significant 72% of registered Indian American voters plan to vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the presidential elections while 22% plan to vote for the incumbent president. The study surveyed (online) a nationally representative sample of 936 Indian Americans in September. (with inputs)

Biden, Harris wish Hindu-Americans on the occasion of Navratri

With just 16&nbsp;days left for the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/us-election">US elections</a>, President Donald Trump visited Florida to campaign as he attacked Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Watch:

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"Democrats have nothing but disdain for your values and want to turn America into a Communist country," the US President told a crowd in Macon, Georgia.

"It's time we sent a message to these wealthy liberal hypocrites," the president added.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/us-election-2020-key-moments-of-donald-trumps-presidential-tenure-335800">Also Read:&nbsp;US election 2020: Key moments of Donald Trump's presidential tenure</a>

The rally is President <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/donald-trump">Trump's </a>second in one week in central Florida which was a Republican stronghold in 2016, however, the US president has been trailing in opinion polls to Biden in the state.

"He (Joe Biden) is a servant of the wealthy donors, globalists and special interests who got rich bleeding America dry. And by the way, I could call these guys. Everyone of them would give me millions. I'm president," the President said at the rally.

Trump attacked the media saying: "our media is the enemy of the people".

"I got an emergency call today. They say, ‘Sir, I’m sorry to tell you, but President Obama is going to start campaigning for Sleepy Joe.’ I said, ‘so what’s the problem with that’ … I said, ‘you know, he campaigned harder than Hillary last time, so why do we care?’" Trump said.

The crowd chanted against the Biden family in Macon, Georgia shouting "Lock up the Bidens. Lock up Hillary!" echoing Trump's campaign rally in 2016.

With just 16 days left for the US elections, President Donald Trump visited Florida to campaign as he attacked Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Watch: "Democrats have nothing but disdain for your values and want to turn America into a Communist country," the US President told a crowd in Macon, Georgia.

With just 16 days left for the US elections, President Donald Trump visited Florida to campaign as he attacked Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Watch: "Democrats have nothing but disdain for your values and want to turn America into a Communist country," the US President told a crowd in Macon, Georgia. "It's time we sent a message to these wealthy liberal hypocrites," the president added. Also Read: US election 2020: Key moments of Donald Trump's presidential tenure The rally is President Trump's second in one week in central Florida which was a Republican stronghold in 2016, however, the US president has been trailing in opinion polls to Biden in the state. "He (Joe Biden) is a servant of the wealthy donors, globalists and special interests who got rich bleeding America dry. And by the way, I could call these guys. Everyone of them would give me millions. I'm president," the President said at the rally. Trump attacked the media saying: "our media is the enemy of the people". "I got an emergency call today. They say, ‘Sir, I’m sorry to tell you, but President Obama is going to start campaigning for Sleepy Joe.’ I said, ‘so what’s the problem with that’ … I said, ‘you know, he campaigned harder than Hillary last time, so why do we care?’" Trump said. The crowd chanted against the Biden family in Macon, Georgia shouting "Lock up the Bidens. Lock up Hillary!" echoing Trump's campaign rally in 2016.

Democrats have nothing but disdain for your values, says Trump in Florida rally as crowd chants 'Lock up Bidens'

Joe Biden has broken his own monthly fundraising record by taking in $383 million in September for his presidential campaign. The flood of donations arrived after his first debate with US President Donald Trump.

Trump lagged far behind last month with $248 million.

The first presidential debate was a chaotic clash in which Trump constantly spoke over and interrupted Biden.

Democratic candidate Biden leads Trump nationally by double digits in the frenzied homestretch to the November 3 election.

Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said Wednesday the $383 million figure was a record and included $203 million raised from online donors. The campaign now has $432 million to spend on getting Biden elected.

The Trump campaign released its $248 million figure Thursday night.

After progressive Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, small donors enraged by the idea that she could be replaced by a conservative nominated by Trump donated more than $100 million in one weekend to ActBlue, a platform that raises money for Democratic candidates at the presidential, congressional and local level.

Biden had already set a fundraising record with $364.5 million in August.

His figures are far higher than the record set by Barack Obama with nearly $200 million in September 2008.

(with inputs)

Joe Biden has broken his own monthly fundraising record by taking in $383 million in September for his presidential campaign. The flood of donations arrived after his first debate with US President Donald Trump.

Joe Biden has broken his own monthly fundraising record by taking in $383 million in September for his presidential campaign. The flood of donations arrived after his first debate with US President Donald Trump. Trump lagged far behind last month with $248 million. The first presidential debate was a chaotic clash in which Trump constantly spoke over and interrupted Biden. Democratic candidate Biden leads Trump nationally by double digits in the frenzied homestretch to the November 3 election. Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said Wednesday the $383 million figure was a record and included $203 million raised from online donors. The campaign now has $432 million to spend on getting Biden elected. The Trump campaign released its $248 million figure Thursday night. After progressive Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, small donors enraged by the idea that she could be replaced by a conservative nominated by Trump donated more than $100 million in one weekend to ActBlue, a platform that raises money for Democratic candidates at the presidential, congressional and local level. Biden had already set a fundraising record with $364.5 million in August. His figures are far higher than the record set by Barack Obama with nearly $200 million in September 2008. (with inputs)

Biden sets fundraising record with $383 mn in September

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