With the Debates Over, Biden Assails Trump’s Coronavirus Response

[Live 2020 Elections coverage.]

Slamming Trump’s coronavirus response, Biden asks: ‘If this is a success, what’s a failure look like?’

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‘He’s Quit on America’: Biden Assails Trump’s Handling of Pandemic

Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee for president, criticized President Trump’s handling of the pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans and his characterization that it’s “going away.”

Last night, we saw the President of the United States lie to the American people, and repeatedly lie about the state of this pandemic. We saw him refuse to take responsibility for the crisis that should have been met with real presidential leadership. Instead, it has cost hundreds of thousands of Americans’ lives and pushed millions into poverty. We saw him diminish the pain felt by so many Americans. President Trump said we’re “rounding the corner,” “it’s going away.” “We’re learning to live with it.” They are quotes. But as I told him last night, we’re not learning to live with it. We’re learning to die with it. This is a dark winter ahead. Already more than 220,000 people in the United States of America have lost their lives to this virus — 220,000 empty chairs and dinner tables, all across this country. Worse yet, a new study from Columbia University suggests that anywhere between 130,000 and 210,000 of those deaths were avoidable. Covid-19 dwarfs anything we’ve faced in recent history, and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. The virus is surging in almost every state. We passed 4.8 million cases. When Trump was asked this week, “What he’d do differently to get the pandemic response right from the start?” His answer was, and I quote, “Not much.” “Not much” — as many as 210,000 avoidable deaths, but there’s “not much” he would do differently. We’re more than eight months into this crisis, and the president still doesn’t have a plan. He’s given up. He’s quit on you. He’s quit on your family. He’s quit on America. He just wants us to grow numb and resigned to the horrors of this death toll, and the pain it’s causing so many Americans.

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Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee for president, criticized President Trump’s handling of the pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans and his characterization that it’s “going away.”CreditCredit...Hilary Swift for The New York Times

With the presidential race hurtling into its final stretch, Joseph R. Biden Jr. sought Friday to amplify the closing argument he delivered on the debate stage a night earlier, accusing President Trump of failing to stem the ballooning coronavirus crisis and vowing more aggressive federal action for the “dark winter ahead.”

In a speech near his home in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Biden denounced Mr. Trump’s familiar assertion that the pandemic was “rounding the corner” and “going away” even as cases surge across the country, placing the blame for the rising death toll squarely at the president’s feet.

“As I told him last night, we’re not learning to live with it. We’re learning to die with it,” Mr. Biden said, while noting the more than 220,000 people who have already died from the virus.

Arguing that the coronavirus “isn’t showing any signs of slowing down,” Mr. Biden repeated with a tone of incredulity Mr. Trump's comments earlier in the week that he would do “not much” differently if he were given the opportunity for a do-over.

“As many as 210,000 avoidable deaths, and there’s not much he would do differently?” Mr. Biden said, citing figures from a recent study out of Columbia University. “If this is a success, what’s a failure look like?”

Mr. Biden’s remarks came one day after he and Mr. Trump met on stage for the second and final time. Coming out of the debate, both men sought on Friday to build momentum heading into the last days of the campaign.

While Mr. Biden was delivering his speech in Delaware, Mr. Trump was preparing to host two rallies in Florida. Both men have campaign stops scheduled for the weekend in key battleground states.

During his address, Mr. Biden laid out the immediate steps he would take to rein in the coronavirus if elected. He also said he would ask Congress to put a bill on his desk by the end of January outlining the resources needed for the country’s public health and economic response to the virus.

Mr. Biden said he would ask every governor to institute mask mandates; if they refused, he said, he would work with local officials to get local mandates in place nationwide. And he said he would require masks in federal buildings and on interstate transportation.

Once again connecting the future of the Affordable Care Act to the Supreme Court battle, Mr. Biden warned that overturning the health law would mean people would have to pay for a potential coronavirus vaccine and vowed to make it free for everyone.

A day after a disciplined debate performance, Trump returns to form in Florida.

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President Trump at a rally in The Villages, Fla., on Friday.Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times

President Trump used his first campaign rally after his final debate against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., where he turned in a relatively disciplined performance, to try to highlight his opponent’s missteps the night before, but also to return to some of his favorite themes: mocking the media and complaining he’s not treated fairly.

At two separate rallies in Florida on Friday — one near The Villages, a senior community in the center of the state, and one in Pensacola, on the Panhandle — Mr. Trump tried to home in on Mr. Biden’s comment at the end of the debate that he would “transition” from the oil industry.

Mr. Trump’s advisers believe the statement could be politically damaging to Mr. Biden in states like Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground, and Texas, where Democrats have made significant gains in polling.

At The Villages event, Mr. Trump called Mr. Biden’s comment the “biggest” misstep at a debate in political history.

In Pensacola, he played two videos of his opponent. One featured Mr. Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, talking about imposing limits on “fracking.” The other showed a debate from the Democratic primary season in which Senator Bernie Sanders challenged Mr. Biden’s claim that he had never proposed freezing Social Security and Medicare while he was in the Senate.

On a day that the United States saw a record number of new coronavirus cases, Mr. Trump repeatedly mocked Mr. Biden for focusing on “Covid, Covid, Covid,” and insisted Democrats are discussing restrictions related to the virus simply to harm him politically. He falsely insisted that the country is “rounding the corner” on the pandemic.

Mr. Trump also sounded an ominous tone as he warned that he was worried about what could be happening in Philadelphia in terms of voting, protesting a judge’s ruling against his campaign’s poll-watching plan.

The president’s advisers, who were thrilled with his debate performance Thursday night, had hoped that Mr. Trump would be able to sustain something approximating discipline in the remaining days before the election. They conceded that even with a newfound rigor, there may simply not be enough time for Mr. Trump to change his fortunes.

It didn’t take long to undo their hopes. During an Oval Office event announcing a peace deal between Israel and Sudan — with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on the phone — the president asked Mr. Netanyahu if he thought “Sleepy Joe” could have accomplished such a goal.

Mr. Netanyahu, moving cautiously in order not to risk insulting Mr. Biden, paused before saying that his country welcomes help from any American.

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An order allowing multiple drop boxes per county in Texas is upheld, but an appeal is likely.

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Voters at a drive-through voting station in Houston dropping off their ballots last week.Credit...Go Nakamura for The New York Times

A state appeals court in Texas blocked Gov. Greg Abbott from limiting ballot drop boxes to one per county, upholding a lower-court ruling and setting up a likely showdown at the Texas Supreme Court.

The expected appeal by Mr. Abbott, a Republican, to the state’s highest court means the existing additional drop boxes in other counties are unlikely to be in operation immediately, if at all.

Earlier this month, Mr. Abbott issued an executive order that limited drop boxes in Texas to one per county, regardless of the county’s population. As a result, major population centers like Harris County, home to 4.7 million people and the second-most populous county in the country, had to consolidate from 12 ballot drop-off locations to one.

The decision led to a long line of snaking cars around Houston’s NRG Arena, the lone drop box location for Harris County, and an outcry from voting rights activists, who said that limiting the number of boxes amounted to voter suppression.

But though the edict from Mr. Abbott lessened the options to drop off ballots, voters in Harris County have been turning out in record numbers. According to state records, 6.4 million ballots have already been cast in Texas, and nearly 90 percent of those have been cast in person. More than one million people have voted in Harris County alone.

Kamala Harris urges Georgia’s Black voters to reject racism with their ballots.

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‘We’ve Seen That Pattern’: Harris Slams Trump as Racist

Senator Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, said, while addressing voters at Morehouse College, a historically Black institution in Atlanta, that President Trump has shown a pattern of racism.

On the one hand, you have Joe Biden, who has the knowledge and the courage enough to use the term and speak those words Black Lives Matter. On the other hand, you have Donald Trump, who refuses and will never say Black Lives Matter, and then have the gall to stand on that debate stage at the last debate in front of 70 million Americans, and would not condemn white supremacists. And you know, people have asked me, they say, “Well, Senator Harris” — by the way, Senator is not on my birth certificate, it’s Kamala — and they say, “well, do you, are you saying, do you think he’s a racist?” Yes. Yes. Because you see, it’s not like it’s some random one-off. We’ve seen that pattern. Going back to him questioning the legitimacy of Barack Obama. Going back to Charlottesville, when people were peacefully protesting racial injustice in America — a woman was killed. And on the other side, you had a bunch of neo-Nazis, wearing swastikas, carrying tiki torches, slurring and throwing out anti-Semitic and racist slurs, and Donald Trump said, “Well, there are fine people on both sides.” This is not reflective of who we believe we are as a nation. We need a president who acknowledges systemic racism, who acknowledges the history of America, and uses that bully pulpit and that microphone in a way that speaks truth with an intention to address the inequities and bring our country together.

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Senator Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, said, while addressing voters at Morehouse College, a historically Black institution in Atlanta, that President Trump has shown a pattern of racism.CreditCredit...Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times

With only 11 days left until Election Day, Senator Kamala Harris of California, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, took her party’s case to Black voters in Atlanta, where she once again called President Donald Trump a racist.

“People have asked me,” Ms. Harris told the crowd at an outdoor rally at Morehouse College, an historically Black institution, “Do you think he’s a racist?”

“Yeah. Yeah,” she said, answering the question.

“Because you see, it’s not like it’s some random one-off,” she said. “We’ve seen that pattern. Going back to him questioning the legitimacy of Barack Obama. Going back to Charlottesville.”

And, she added, “Donald Trump said there are fine people on both sides.”

With Mr. Trump aggressively courting Black voters, Ms. Harris addressed those in the crowd who might be considering voting for the president’s re-election.

“We need a president who acknowledges systemic racism, who acknowledges the history of America and uses that bully pulpit and that microphone in a way that speaks truth with an intention to address the inequities and bring our country together,” she said.

With polls showing Mr. Biden tied with Mr. Trump in Georgia, Ms. Harris urged the crowd to honor civil rights leaders by voting.

“It has to do with those men and women who shed blood on Edmund Pettus Bridge and so many other places,” she said. “We’re not going to let anyone mess with our right to vote.”

Ms. Harris, a graduate of Howard University, another historically Black institution, met earlier in the day with student leaders from historically Black colleges and universities and other Black voters from various walks of life.

After leaving Morehouse, Ms. Harris stopped at a mural honoring Representative John Lewis of Georgia, who was among civil rights activists who were attacked on the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965.

Saturday in Georgia is known as “Mandatory Saturday” voting, because polling locations will be open in all of the state’s 159 counties. Already 2.3 million people in Georgia have cast early ballots.

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In a blow to the Trump campaign, a Pennsylvania court makes it harder to reject mail-in ballots.

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A voter depositing a ballot on Saturday at a drop box in Philadelphia.Credit...Mark Makela/Getty Images

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Friday that county elections boards in the state may not reject absentee or mail-in ballots based on signature comparisons, removing a major avenue for challenging votes after the election.

The ruling was a blow to President Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee, which had argued that signatures on mail-in and absentee ballots should be compared to those on file to prevent voter fraud.

“The law does not impose a duty on county boards to compare signatures,” the court ruled, adding that a 2019 law expanding absentee voting adopted by the Pennsylvania Legislature envisioned a streamlined canvassing process.

The ruling also requires that any challenges to absentee-ballot applications must be filed the Friday before the election, eliminating another avenue for challenging votes during the postelection canvassing period.

It was the second major elections-related court ruling this week benefiting Democrats in the battleground state, where Joseph R. Biden Jr. is ahead of Mr. Trump by seven points, according to a New York Times/Siena poll.

In a split decision, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that will allow the state to count absentee ballots received up to three days after Election Day.

Republicans had challenged Pennsylvania officials’ plan to count ballots after Nov. 3 as long as they were mailed by that date, but the state court upheld it.

As their governor resists a mask mandate, Iowans sour on the G.O.P.

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Gov. Kim Reynolds, Republican of Iowa, has called mask mandates “feel-good” measures.Credit...Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

NEWTON, Iowa — As Iowa set a record for patients hospitalized with Covid-19, Gov. Kim Reynolds appeared at an indoor fund-raiser for the Republican Party this week, just days after joining President Trump at one of his huge rallies in Des Moines, where she tossed hats to the clamorous crowd.

At neither event were social distancing or face masks high priorities. The rally last week defied guidelines by the White House’s own health experts that crowds in central Iowa be limited to 25.

Iowa’s governor is not on the ballot next month. But her defiant attitude toward the advice of health experts on how to fight the coronavirus outbreak, as her state sees a grim tide of new cases and deaths, may be dragging down fellow Republicans who are running, including Mr. Trump and Senator Joni Ernst.

Ms. Reynolds, the first woman to lead Iowa, is an avatar of the president’s approach to the pandemic, refusing to issue mandates and flouting the guidance of infectious disease experts, who say that universal masking and social distancing are essential to limiting the virus’s spread. Defying that advice has eroded support for both Mr. Trump and Ms. Reynolds in Iowa, especially among voters over 65, normally a solid Republican constituency, according to public and private polls.

A Monmouth University poll on Thursday showed Democrats are leading in three of Iowa’s four congressional races, with even the fourth, in deeply conservative Northwest Iowa, unexpectedly tight.

Rick Flanagan, a 61-year-old voter from Newton who had planned to vote for Ms. Ernst in the Senate race, recalled the moment he changed his mind in favor of her Democratic opponent.

It was “when Ernst said she didn’t believe the deaths and the science from Covid,” Mr. Flanagan said, referring to remarks by Ms. Ernst echoing a conspiracy theory that coronavirus deaths were being inflated and that medical professionals had a financial incentive to do so.

“That sealed it for me, and honestly, it soured me on Republicans,” Mr. Flanagan said. Ms. Ernst walked back her remarks and apologized to health care workers.

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Biden’s vow to ‘transition away from the oil industry’ is a double-edged political sword.

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A pump jack stands amid wind turbines at Invenergy’s Stanton Wind Energy Center, near Stanton, Tex.Credit...Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s pledge at Thursday night’s debate to “transition away from the oil industry” in order to address climate change put the issue at center stage, in the final stretch of a campaign in which the warming planet has played a larger role than ever before.

His statement gave President Trump what his campaign saw as an enormous opportunity to blunt his opponent’s appeal to working-class voters. Mr. Biden’s campaign tried to downplay it, saying he was merely stating that he would phase out longstanding tax subsidies for the oil industry.

But transitioning away from fossil fuels is the inevitable end game of Mr. Biden’s promise to end net carbon pollution by 2050.

That policy has energized some young voters and helped unite the Democrats’ left and moderate wings, but has always carried risks for Mr. Biden.

“Basically what he is saying is, he is going to destroy the oil industry,” Mr. Trump charged, adding, straight to the camera, “Will you remember that, Texas? Will you remember that, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma?”

The line was reminiscent of the Republican response in 2016 to Hillary Clinton’s acknowledgment that “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” as the nation moves to clean energy. Those comments resonated in coal states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wyoming.

Mr. Biden’s comments may focus attention on a different set of battlegrounds, such as Texas and New Mexico. (An earlier version of the article this briefing item is based on misattributed a statement about fossil fuel to M.J. Hegar, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas; the error was repeated in the briefing item and has since been removed.)

Representative Xochitl Torres Small, an endangered freshman Democrat in New Mexico, said on Twitter, “We need to work together to promote responsible energy production and stop climate change, not demonize a single industry.”

While more alluded to than stated outright, transitioning from fossil fuels will be necessary to meet Mr. Biden’s goals of eliminating emissions from the power sector by 2035 and reaching net-zero emissions across the economy by 2050.

Yet Mr. Biden has walked a fine line throughout the campaign, insisting that natural gas production — and the jobs it creates — will remain a core part of the United States energy composition for several years to come, even as he envisions a future powered more by wind, solar and other renewable sources.

Some energy experts said the Trump campaign’s attacks on Mr. Biden may not have the same resonance as those on Mrs. Clinton four years ago, in large part because public understanding of climate change has grown and the major oil companies of the world have, to varying degrees, pledged to reduce their emissions.

“This is a playbook that they keep coming back to, and it’s less and less effective,” said Joshua Freed, who leads the climate and energy program at Third Way, a center-left think tank. “The economy is moving on and the public is moving on.”

TV ratings for the final Trump-Biden debate fell short of the first.

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The McClean County Republican Party hosted a debate watch party at Corn Crib Stadium in Normal, Ill., on Thursday.Credit...Daniel Acker for The New York Times

More than 63 million people watched the second and final presidential debate between President Trump and his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., according to Nielsen, a much smaller total than the one for last month’s raucous duel.

That first debate, which was notable for Mr. Trump’s repeated interruptions, notched 73.1 million viewers, making it the third most-viewed general-election matchup since Nielsen started keeping records in 1976.

The matchup in Nashville, which featured a relatively subdued president trying to revive a flagging candidacy, ranked 17th on the debate ratings chart. It narrowly beat the 62.7 million who watched the final debate between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford in 1976, 44 years ago to the day from Thursday’s debate.

The ratings drop on Thursday could stem from a number of causes: viewer backlash to the raucous first Biden-Trump debate, competition from an N.F.L. game or attrition because a marathon-length presidential race is nearing the finish line. (The first debate of the Democratic primary took place in June 2019.)

Fox News drew the largest audience of any network on Thursday, with 15.4 million viewers; the cable channel won the ratings race for the first Biden-Trump debate, as well. ABC and NBC — which aired prime-time coverage before the debate’s 9 p.m. Eastern start time — came in second and third among the networks, with 11.2 million and 10.6 million viewers, respectively.

The Nielsen data released on Friday included people who streamed the debate on their television screens, but not those who watched it solely on digital devices. There are still no widely accepted rating measures for the full digital audience.

With the second debate called off after Mr. Trump objected to its virtual format, Thursday’s event in Nashville amounted to the president’s final chance to make his case for re-election to a mass audience.

The two candidates participated in televised town halls last week, events that attracted only about 28 million viewers in total, a fraction of the audience for a debate airing simultaneously on more than a dozen networks. Mr. Biden’s town hall attracted more viewers than Mr. Trump’s.

Over the years, ratings for the final presidential debate have bounced around in different directions. Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton’s final debate attracted more viewers than their second, but fewer than their first. Former President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney’s third debate in 2012 was the least viewed of the cycle.

In 1984 and 1988 — when only two presidential debates were held in each election cycle — the final debates attracted more viewers.

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Trump and Biden lay out starkly different outlooks at the debate.

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Watch: Highlights From the Final 2020 Presidential Debate

President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. had a more subdued debate, but split over issues such as the pandemic, race relations and immigration.

“If we just wore these masks, the president’s own advisers have told him, we could save 100,000 lives. And we’re in a circumstance where the president, thus far, still has no plan, no comprehensive plan.” “You also said a vaccine will be coming within weeks.” “Yes.” “Is that a guarantee? Is —” “No, it’s not a guarantee, but it will be by the end of the year. But I think it has a good chance — there are two companies — I think within a matter of weeks. And it will be distributed very quickly.” “This is the same fellow who told you this was going to end by Easter last time. This is the same fellow who told you that, don’t worry, we’re going to end this by the summer. We’re about to go into a dark winter, a dark winter. And he has no clear plan, and there’s no prospect that there’s going to be a vaccine available for the majority of the American people before the middle of next year.” “President Trump, your reaction. He says you have no plan.” “I don’t think we’re going to have a dark winter at all. We’re opening up our country. We’ve learned and studied and understand the disease.” “He says that we’re, you know, we’re learning to live with it. People are learning to die with it. You folks home who have an empty chair at the kitchen table this morning. That man or wife going to bed tonight and reaching over to try to touch their — out of habit, where their wife or husband was — is gone. Learning to live with it? Come on. We’re dying with it.” “I take full responsibility. It’s not my fault that it came here. It’s China’s fault. And you know what? It’s not Joe’s fault that it came here either. It’s China’s fault. First of all, I’ve already done something that nobody thought was possible: Through the legislature, I terminated the individual mandate. That is the worst part of Obamacare. He’s talking about socialized medicine, and when he — and health care. When he talks about a public option, he’s talking about destroying your Medicare —” “Wrong.” “Totally destroyed. And destroying your Social Security. And this whole country will come down. You know, Bernie Sanders tried it in his state. He tried it in his state. His governor was a very liberal governor. They wanted to make it work —” “O.K, let’s hear, let’s let Vice President Biden respond —” “It’s impossible to work — it doesn’t work.” “He’s a very confused guy. He thinks he’s running against somebody else. He’s running against Joe Biden. I beat all those other people because I disagreed with them. Joe Biden he’s running against.” “Mr. President, your administration separated children from their parents at the border, at least 4,000 kids. You’ve since reversed your zero-tolerance policy, but the United States can’t locate the parents of more than 500 children. So how will these families ever be reunited?” “Children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels. And they’re brought here, and they used to use them to get into our country. We now have as strong a border as we’ve ever had. We’re over 400 miles of brand-new wall. You see the numbers. And we let people in, but they have to come in legally.” “These 500-plus kids came with parents. They separated them at the border to make it a disincentive to come to begin with. Big, real tough — we’re really strong. And guess what? They cannot — it’s not, coyotes didn’t bring them over. Their parents were with them. They got separated from their parents. And it makes us a laughingstock and violates every notion of who we are as a nation. A black parent, no matter how wealthy or how poor they are, has to teach their child, when you’re walking down the street, don’t have a hoodie on when you go across the street. Making sure that you, in fact, if you get pulled over, ‘Yes, sir,’ ‘No, sir,’ hands on top of the wheel. Because you are, in fact, the victim, whether you’re a person making, child of a $300,000-per-year person or someone who’s on food stamps.” “I got criminal justice reform done and prison reform and opportunity zones. I took care of Black colleges and universities. I don’t know what to say. They can say anything. I mean, they can say anything. It’s a very — it makes me sad because I am, I am the least racist person. I can’t even see the audience because it’s so dark, but I don’t care who’s in the audience: I’m the least racist person in this room.” “He pours fuel on every single racist fire, every single one. He started off his campaign coming down the escalator, saying he’s going to get rid of those Mexican ‘rapists.’ He’s banned Muslims because they’re Muslims. He has moved around and made everything worse across the board.” “I have one final question —” “Would he close down the oil industry? Would you close down the oil industry?” “By the way, I would transition from the oil industry, yes.” “Oh, that’s a big statement!” “I would transition — it is a big statement.” “That’s a big statement!” “Because I would stop —” “Why would you do that?” “Because the oil industry pollutes significantly.” “Oh, I see!” “Here’s the deal.” “That’s a big statement.” “But you can’t do that — well, if you let me finish the statement — because it has to be replaced by renewable energy over time, over time. And I’d stop giving to the oil industry, I’d stop giving them federal subsidies.” “Ooh!” “He won’t give federal subsidies to the gas, excuse me, to the, to solar and wind.” “Yeah.” “Why are we giving it to oil industry?” “Imagine this is your inauguration day. What will you say in your address to America, to Americans who did not vote for you?” “We have to make our country totally successful as it was prior to the plague coming in from China. Success is going to bring us together. We are on the road to success. But I’m cutting taxes, and he wants to raise everybody’s taxes. And he wants to put new regulations on everything.” “What is on the ballot here is the character of this country. Decency, honor, respect, treating people with dignity, making sure that everyone has an even chance. And I’m going to make sure you get that. You haven’t been getting it the last four years.”

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President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. had a more subdued debate, but split over issues such as the pandemic, race relations and immigration.CreditCredit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

President Trump heeded the pleas of his advisers to tone it down during Thursday night’s debate against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., but the two clashed on a series of issues that underscored their vastly different visions for the nation.

Mr. Trump did not reflexively interrupt Mr. Biden or talk over the moderator repeatedly. His voice stayed mostly calm. But Mr. Trump unleashed an unrelenting series of false, misleading and exaggerated statements as he sought to distort Mr. Biden’s record and positions and boost his own re-election hopes.

The president tried to defend his handling of the pandemic, but Mr. Biden eviscerated him for it. The former vice president, who has called for a return to civility, mocked the president’s claim that people were learning to live with the coronavirus.

“We’re dying with it,” Mr. Biden responded after Mr. Trump falsely claimed that spikes in cases in several states had receded.

Mr. Biden made some false or misleading statements at the debate as well. But Mr. Trump relied more on questionable and specious arguments about Mr. Biden’s family, Democratic policy positions and his own record.

Mr. Trump tried to focus attention on the topic that he and his allies have pushed for days: foreign business deals sought by Mr. Biden’s son Hunter. Mr. Biden said that he himself never took money from foreign countries, and then turned attention back to Mr. Trump’s thick web of business entanglements and conflicts.

There was a moment of levity when Mr. Biden, puzzling at a response from Mr. Trump, said, “I don’t know where this guy comes from.” Mr. Trump responded dryly, “Queens.”

Though Mr. Biden performed better than he had in their earlier matchup, he was not perfect. During a discussion of energy, Mr. Biden said he would “transition” away from the oil industry, a statement that Republicans are likely to focus on. (After the debate, Mr. Biden stressed that “we’re not getting rid of fossil fuels for a long time.”)

Still, with 11 days left until the election and more than 50 million Americans having cast ballots already, a draw or even a modest victory for Mr. Trump might not do much to change the trajectory of the race.

And any path to victory for Mr. Trump would likely have to include a win in Florida, where he held two rallies on Friday.

THE EARLY VOTE

Over 50 million Americans have voted, exceeding the early-vote total for 2016.

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Voters lining up outside the Bedford Public Library during early voting in Bedford, Texas, on Wednesday.Credit...Cooper Neill for The New York Times

With 11 days to go until Election Day more than 50 million people have already cast their ballots, according to the U.S. Elections Project — which is more early votes than the project tallied during the entire early-voting period in 2016.

The early-voting turnout, which combines mail-in ballots already received as well as early in-person voting, stood at 52.6 million as of Friday afternoon, according to the U.S. Elections Project, which tracks state-by-state data. That surpassed the number of early votes that the project counted in all of 2016, when it tallied over 47 million.

Voters across the nation have already cast more than 38 percent of all the votes that were counted in the 2016 presidential election.

Campaign officials and elections experts are still trying to understand the extent to which the high early vote totals suggest that the election is on pace to see record turnout this year, or whether they are yet another reflection of how 2020, and the coronavirus pandemic, have reordered so many aspects of life, including voting.

Many early voters hope to avoid the risks of contracting the coronavirus by standing in long lines on Election Day. Fears of widespread postal delays have prompted many to mail in their ballots earlier than usual. Others are opting to vote early in person, including Democrats who distrust the U.S. Postal Service and Trump supporters who are heeding the president’s repeated assertions that mail-in balloting is insecure. (Voter fraud is extremely rare in all forms, including mail-in balloting.)

Not all states report the party registration of those who vote early, but the early vote in the states that do has leaned heavily Democratic so far. Of those who have already voted, 50.3 percent are registered Democrats, 27 percent are Republicans and 22 percent are unaffiliated, according to the U.S. Elections Project.

But it is too early to draw significant conclusions on whether that’s good or bad news for the candidates; analysts widely expect many of Mr. Trump’s voters to turn out in person on Election Day, while Mr. Biden is expected to capture more mail-in votes that might not be counted until following days and weeks.

Some states have already received more than half the votes they counted in 2016. In Texas, 71.1 percent of the total 2016 turnout has already voted. Georgia, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Vermont have passed half their 2016 totals.

Early voting has not yet begun in other states, including New York, which begins on Saturday. Find detailed information about your state here.

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Authorities charge man affiliated with far-right group over Minneapolis violence.

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Protesters gathered on Lake Street in Minneapolis in May.Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

A Texas man linked to a far-right, anti-government group was arrested on charges of participating in the destruction of a police precinct in Minneapolis during the protests that erupted there in May, federal authorities announced on Friday.

In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by the police, a member of the Boogaloo movement opened fire during the protests, according to the F.B.I. The man, Ivan H. Hunter, 26, is accused of firing 13 rounds from a semiautomatic Kalashnikov-style rifle into the Third Precinct building of the Minneapolis Police Department.

After firing the weapon, the complaint said, video footage from the incident shows a man identified as Mr. Hunter high-fiving another person and yelling, “Justice for Floyd!” He also later bragged about fomenting violence on social media, it said.

Having traveled from Texas specifically to participate in the demonstration, he later wrote on Facebook, “I didn’t’ protest peacefully Dude … Want something to change? Start risking felonies for what is good,” according to the complaint from the F.B.I.’s counterterrorism unit in Minneapolis.

He faces a rioting charge, a felony, Erica H. MacDonald, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, announced on Friday.

Mr. Hunter left Minneapolis soon after the May 28 incident to return to Austin, Texas, where, during a traffic stop a few days later, law enforcement officials noticed a distinct magazine on his rifle that was later linked to the shooting, the complaint said. At the time of the incident, police had abandoned the building but looters remained inside, it said.

In addition, Mr. Hunter was in contact on social media with Steven Carrillo, the Air Force sergeant charged in California with the shooting death of two law enforcement officers, a federal officer at the Oakland Court House on May 29 and a sheriff’s deputy during the June 6 shootout that lead to his arrest.

Mr. Carrillo and Mr. Hunter encouraged each other, the complaint said.

Both declared themselves members of the so-called Boogaloo Bois, a loosely-affiliated group opposed to the government and seeking to accelerate a second civil war.

Mr. Hunter told the police that he was in charge of the group’s activities in southern Texas, the complaint said.

President Trump has repeatedly blamed the violence that erupted during the social justice protests in Minneapolis on “radical leftists,” particularly antifa, but that claim is unsubstantiated; antifa is a loose movement, not an organized group.

The arrest comes as both federal and local law enforcement agencies have warned about possible violence surrounding the election from armed, illegal paramilitary groups. Earlier this week, federal authorities announced the arrest of a man on accusations that he made violent threats against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic candidate, and 14 men have been charged for their alleged involvement in a plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan and other anti-government violence.

Ad Watch

‘Hamilton’ star Leslie Odom Jr. borrows a Stevie Wonder hit to remind Pennsylvanians how to vote by mail.

A new radio ad from the Democratic National Committee further amplifies the party’s get-out-the-vote message in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania — with the voice of Leslie Odom Jr., best known for his performance as Aaron Burr in the original cast of the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” singing about secrecy envelopes to the tune of Stevie Wonder’s hit “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours.”

The Message

Mr. Odom is perhaps the only person who can turn instructions about using a secrecy envelope into a catchy jingle. But the lyrics — “Use your secrecy en-ve-looope. Double seal it to protect your voooote.” — are intended to remind Pennsylvanians how to correctly vote by mail.

The radio ad includes a whole suite of instructions: A voter must fill the ballot out and place it inside a small envelope known as a “secrecy envelope,” seal that, and place it into a larger return envelope. That envelope is then signed, sealed, and, yes, delivered once the voter puts it in the mail, drops it off at a local county elections office or puts it in a drop box.

Failure to use the secrecy envelope will leave the ballot “naked,” and the state will disqualify it, a wild card in the election that has Democrats — who are more likely to vote by mail than Republicans — losing sleep.

Fact Check

The ad is more instructive than heavy on facts, but these are indeed the steps Pennsylvania requires for mail ballots.

Where It’s Running

The ad is running in Philadelphia and across the state, on the radio and on digital radio outlets, including Pandora.

The Takeaway

In the closing stretch of the campaign, Democrats have been laser-focused on getting out the vote. The effort has taken on heightened urgency during the pandemic, and the party is spending heavily to reach voters who are heading to polls early or casting their ballots by mail.

In Pennsylvania, Democrats are especially concerned that voters will forget to place their ballots in the secrecy envelopes, resulting in naked ballots that officials have been instructed to toss out.

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Trump’s lead in Montana is down to single digits, a New York Times/Siena College poll finds.

Republicans hold a narrow lead up and down the ballot in Montana, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll Friday, as Democrats remain highly competitive in a state President Trump won by 20 points in 2016.

Overall, Mr. Trump leads Joseph R. Biden Jr. by six points, 49 percent to 43 percent, echoing favorable results for Mr. Biden in Times/Siena surveys of relatively white states across Northern battlegrounds. But in the hotly contested race for U.S. Senate, the Republican senator Steve Daines narrowly leads Gov. Steve Bullock, 49 percent to 46 percent.

The survey was conducted from Oct. 18 to 20, before the final presidential debate on Thursday. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Republicans also hold modest four-point leads in the races for U.S. House and governor. In a reversal from the Times/Siena poll in September, the Republican Matt Rosendale leads the Democrat Kathleen Williams, 50 percent to 46 percent, for Montana’s at-large House seat.

New York Times/Siena College poll of likely voters in Montana

Trump
49%
Biden
43%
Other/Undecided
8%
Based on a New York Times/Siena College poll of 758 likely voters from Oct. 18-20, 2020.

The sitting House representative, Greg Gianforte, leads the Democrat Mike Cooney by four points as well, 48-44, in the state’s race for governor.

The poll results are stronger than expected for Democrats in many respects, except perhaps in the race they care about most: the campaign for Senate. In the close battle for Senate control in Washington, Montana emerged as one of the best Democratic opportunities to flip a seat after the Democrats recruited Mr. Bullock, who won re-election for governor in 2016 even as the same voters backed Mr. Trump. But the poll shows him narrowly trailing Mr. Daines, although the race is still within the margin of error.

New York City billboards featuring Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner draw a threatening letter.

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Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump departing Air Force One in July.Credit...Al Drago for The New York Times

A lawyer for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner threatened Friday to take legal action against the Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump conservatives, unless the group removes a pair of large billboards from Times Square in Manhattan.

One of the billboards shows a smiling Ms. Trump, the president’s eldest daughter, gesturing toward national and statewide tallies of coronavirus deaths.

Another features a smiling picture of her husband, Mr. Kushner, alongside a quote saying that New Yorkers “are going to suffer and that’s their problem.” Below the quote is a series of body bags.

The quote is taken from a Vanity Fair article published in September about Mr. Kushner’s role in the federal coronavirus response. The article claims that Mr. Kushner accused Governor Andrew Cuomo of failing to “pound the phones hard enough” for coronavirus protective equipment for New York, then added, “His people are going to suffer and that’s their problem.”

The threatening letter from Marc E. Kasowitz, a New York lawyer who represents the couple and has worked for President Trump in the past, called the ads malicious and defamatory.

“Of course, Mr. Kushner never made any such statement. Ms. Trump never made any such gesture, and the Lincoln Project’s representation that they did are an outrageous and shameful libel,” Mr. Kasowitz’s letter read. “If these billboards are not immediately removed, we will sue you for what will doubtless be enormous compensatory and punitive damages.”

The Lincoln Project tweeted out the letter on Friday night, along with a statement that promised to leave the billboards in place.

“Jared and Ivanka have always been entitled, out-of-touch bullies who have never given the slightest indication they have any regard for the American people,” the statement read in part. “We plan on showing them the same level of respect.”

The Times Square billboards were erected this week at the corner of 44th Street and Broadway, as part of a series of advertisements that the Lincoln Project has been running across the country.

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The C.D.C. offers tips for voting safely during a pandemic.

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A poll worker setting up a voter kiosk with a plexiglass safety shield at an early voting site in Las Vegas this month.Credit...Ethan Miller/Getty Images

With early voting underway and the election days away, many U.S. cities and states have imposed safety measures to protect voters and poll workers from exposure to the coronavirus.

But polling places could still become “mass gathering events,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in an advisory released on Friday, adding that measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 could be improved.

The C.D.C. based its latest advice on a survey of 522 poll workers in Delaware’s statewide primary in September. That survey did not indicate whether any cases of Covid-19 were linked to the voting centers.

Guidelines issued by the agency in June recommended various ways to minimize crowds at polling locations, including absentee voting, extended voting hours and the use of protective gear by poll workers assisting voters with coronavirus symptoms.

The C.D.C. also recommended putting up physical barriers between voting machines, spacing the machines apart from one another, indicating six-foot distances with signs or floor markings for those waiting in line to vote and allowing curbside voting for people who are ill, among other measures.

The advisory published on Friday said that “a substantial proportion” of poll workers in the Delaware study saw incorrect mask use by voters, and said that “further messaging on proper mask use, including at polling locations, might be needed to strengthen the effectiveness of masks during upcoming elections.”

“Ensuring that ill voters can vote while maintaining poll worker and voter safety will be essential to minimizing transmission without restricting voting rights,” the advisory added.

But in Alabama, where curbside voting had been allowed, the state’s attorney general has ordered that it be stopped. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban.

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