Donald Trump feeling ‘no pressure’ from Joe Biden as Americans flock to early polls
Donald Trump has slammed rival Joe Biden saying he wished he had a “good” opponent as early voting in the US election hits a high note, and vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris suspends travel after a staffer tests positive for COVID-19.
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US President Donald Trump has declared during a rally in North Carolina that he feels “no pressure” from presidential rival Joe Biden as Americans voted early in record numbers.
“This is the craziest race,” Mr Trump said speaking about his Democratic opponent Joe Biden.
“I wish he was good, I’d have less pressure,” the US President told the crowd at the Greenville airport.
Mr Trump also had a crack at the state’s governor as it reels amid coronavirus lockdowns.
“North Carolina, tell your governor to open up your state, open up your schools,” Mr Trump said about the lockdowns that have closed schools and businesses.
Early voting in the swing state where Mr Trump was speaking drew crowds and long lines.
More than 500,000 people in North Carolina have already cast mail-in absentee ballots amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
It comes as more than 17.8 million Americans have already cast their vote in the presidential decider, a significantly higher figure than those that had at the same time in 2016. Polls have Mr Biden leading Mr Trump.
Mr Trump and Mr Biden will compete for TV audiences in duelling town halls at 8pm local time (11am AEDT) instead of meeting face-to-face for their second debate as originally planned.
The two will take questions in different cities on different US networks: Mr Trump on NBC from Miami, Biden on ABC from Philadelphia.
Mr Trump backed out of plans for the presidential face-off originally scheduled for the evening after debate organisers said it would be held virtually following Mr Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis.
HARRIS SUSPENDS TRAVEL AS STAFFER TESTS POSITIVE
It comes as Mr Biden’s vice presidential running mate Kamala Harris froze her travel after her communications director tested positive for COVID-19.
Nearly two weeks after the president himself contracted the virus, Harris staffer Liz Allen and a flight crew member were diagnosed late Wednesday, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.
Ms Harris did not need to quarantine, O’Malley Dillon added, but “out of an abundance of caution” would cancel travel and campaign virtually before hitting the road again October 19.
Both individuals flew with Harris on October 8. The campaign said they wore masks and were not within two metres of Harris for more than 15 minutes.
“I wasn’t in close contact — as defined by the CDC — with either during the 2 days prior to their positive tests,” tweeted vice presidential hopeful Ms Harris.
“I’ve had 2 negative tests this week & am not showing symptoms.”
Mr Biden has reported multiple negative coronavirus tests since Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis on October 1 but the campaign has not said whether he has been tested since the Harris staffer tested positive.
Doctors gave Mr Trump the green light to head back onto the campaign trail at the weekend without providing proof of a negative PCR test — the industry standard for giving patients the all-clear — instead relying on less accurate rapid tests and other health metrics.
He has returned with a vengeance to the campaign trail, holding four mass rallies in four days this week.
But even as Mr Trump sought to mount a closing argument against Mr Biden at a boisterous rally Wednesday in Iowa, promising an “incredible” third quarter for the struggling economy, the pandemic remained front and centre.
Mr Trump’s teenage son Barron contracted the virus, First Lady Melania Trump revealed in news that startled in part because it had been kept from the public.
She said the 14-year-old did not experience symptoms and has since tested negative.
“He had it such a short period of time I don’t even think he knew he had it,” the president said in Des Moines.
While team Trump might be relieved that he regains an opportunity to draw a contrast with his opponent, NBC faced criticism for placing Mr Trump in the same 8pm timeslot as Mr Biden.
HUNTER BIDEN PURSUED CHINESE BUSINESS DEALS
Meanwhile, Mr Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, pursued lucrative deals involving China’s largest private energy company — including one that he said would be “interesting for me and my family,” according to emails obtained by the New York Post.
One email sent to Biden on May 13, 2017, with the subject line “Expectations,” included details of “remuneration packages” for six people involved in an unspecified business venture.
Hunter Biden was identified as “Chair/Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC,” an apparent reference to the former Shanghai-based conglomerate CEFC China Energy Co.
His pay was pegged at “850” and the email also noted that “Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate.”
In addition, the email outlined a “provisional agreement” under which 80 per cent of the “equity,” or shares in the new company, would be split equally among four people whose initials correspond to the sender and three recipients, with “H” apparently referring to Biden.
The deal also listed “10 Jim” and “10 held by H for the big guy?”
According to the New York Post, neither Jim nor the “big guy” was identified further.
The email’s author, James Gilliar of the international consulting firm J2cR, also noted, “I am happy to raise any detail with Zang if there is [sic] shortfalls?”
“Zang” is an apparent reference to Zang Jian Jun, the former executive director of CEFC China.
The email is contained in a trove of data that the owner of a computer repair shop in Delaware said was recovered from a MacBook Pro laptop that was dropped off in April 2019 and never retrieved.
The computer was seized by the FBI, and a copy of its contents made by the shop owner reportedly shared with The New York Post this week by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Another email — sent by Hunter Biden as part of an August 2, 2017, chain — involved a deal he struck with the since-vanished chairman of CEFC, Ye Jianming, for half-ownership of a holding company that was expected to provide Biden with more than US$10 million ($A14 million) a year.
Ye, who had ties to the Chinese military and intelligence service, hasn’t been seen since being taken into custody by Chinese authorities in early 2018, and CEFC went bankrupt earlier this year, according to reports.
Biden wrote that Ye had sweetened the terms of an earlier, three-year consulting contract with CEFC that was to pay him US$10 million ($A14 million) annually “for introductions alone.”
“The chairman changed that deal after we me[t] in MIAMI TO A MUCH MORE LASTING AND LUCRATIVE ARRANGEMENT to create a holding company 50% [sic] owned by ME and 50% owned by him,” Hunter Biden wrote.
According to a report on Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings released last month by Republican Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley, a company called Hudson West III opened a line of credit in September 2017.
Credit cards issued against the account were used by Hunter, his uncle James Biden and James’ wife, Sara Biden, to purchase more than $100,000 “worth of extravagant items, including airline tickets and multiple items at Apple Inc. stores, pharmacies, hotels and restaurants,” the report said.
TRUMP BLASTS CENSORSHIP OF BIDEN STORY
It comes as US President Donald Trump has blasted the censorship of a bombshell report about Joe Biden as “terrible” and “corrupt”.
His comments came after Facebook and Twitter reportedly censored an American newspaper report that alleges Mr Biden did meet with Ukrainian business associates of his son, Hunter, despite denying for years he had any connection to his son’s controversial professional dealings.
The story, which was published by the New York Post, could have implications for Mr Biden’s presidential campaign.
But Facebook and Twitter are reportedly limiting the article’s spread online, prompting the New York Post to accuse the social media giants of bias towards Mr Biden’s campaign.
Speaking at a “Make America Great Again” campaign rally in Iowa, Mr Trump said the report showed that Biden was “blatantly lying”, describing him as a “corrupt politician”.
So terrible that Facebook and Twitter took down the story of “Smoking Gun†emails related to Sleepy Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in the @NYPost. It is only the beginning for them. There is nothing worse than a corrupt politician. REPEAL SECTION 230!!! https://t.co/g1RJFpIVUZ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2020
On Twitter, Mr Trump said: “So terrible that Facebook and Twitter took down the story of ‘Smoking Gun’ emails related to Sleepy Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in the @NYPost”.
“It is only the beginning for them,” he tweeted. “There is nothing worse than a corrupt politician. REPEAL SECTION 230!!!”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said it was “unacceptable” that the social media giant blocked users from sharing a Post exposé about Hunter Biden’s emails without providing a clear message as to why it was taking the action.
Dorsey released his statement in a tweet hours after a number of high-profile Republicans, including Sen. Josh Hawley, blasted the social media giant for blocking the stories from being shared on the platform.
“Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable,” Dorsey wrote in the tweet.
Andy Stone, Facebook’s social media company’s policy communications manager, tweeted that the tech giant would not share the news outlet’s story on the growing scandal.
“While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post, I want be clear that this story is eligible to be fact-checked by Facebook’s third-party fact-checking partners,” Mr Stone tweeted on Wednesday (local time).
“In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform.”
The New York Post’s story centres on emails that show Hunter Biden introduced an executive of Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas firm on whose board he sat, to his dad while was vice president.
Joe Biden has insisted he had “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” a statement at odds with the massive trove of data recovered from a laptop at a Delaware repair shop.
While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post, I want be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by Facebook's third-party fact checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) October 14, 2020
According to the New York Post, Hunter Biden’s lawyer wouldn’t comment on the reporting, simply attacking the messenger. The Biden campaign did the same, dismissing it all as “discredited,” while saying that no meeting showed up on Joe Biden’s official schedule on those dates.
BIDEN EMAIL BOMBSHELL
It comes as a US Senate committee confirmed it is investigating the bombshell documents about Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings acquired by a Delaware computer repairman that was exposed on Wednesday (local time) by the New York Post.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmed it is working with the repairman to verify the documents.
According to the New York Post, an email from the cache indicates Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden met with Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, while it employed his son. At the time, Biden led the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.
Mr Biden said last year, “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” including his reported US$83,000 ($A115,000) monthly pay on Burisma’s board.
House Democrats impeached US President Donald Trump in December for asking Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden’s employment.
The repairman contacted the committee in late September — one day after it released a report on Joe Biden’s apparent conflicts of interest in his son’s international business dealings — including a claim he received US$3.5 million ($A4.9 million) from the wife of Moscow’s former mayor.
The repairman reportedly provided correspondence to the New York Post documenting his outreach to the committee.
He spoke on October 5 with three members of the committee’s staff.
A spokesman for the committee’s chairman, Republican Senator Ron Johnson, reportedly confirmed to the New York Post that the committee is investigating.
“We regularly speak with individuals who email the committee’s whistleblower account to determine whether we can validate their claims,” the Johnson spokesman said.
“Although we consider those communications to be confidential, because the individual in this instance spoke with the media about his contact with the committee, we can confirm receipt of his email complaint. We have been in contact with the whistleblower and are in the process of attempting to validate the information he provided.”
In addition to denying that’s he’s spoken to Hunter Biden about his overseas business dealings, Joe Biden has repeatedly denied any conflict of interest or wrongdoing by either of them involving Burisma.
Last February, he got testy during an appearance US TV when he was questioned whether it was “wrong for [Hunter] to take that position, knowing that it was really because that company wanted access to you.”
“Well, that’s not true. You’re saying things you do not know what you’re talking about,” the elder Biden responded.
‘MY FEAR CAME TRUE’: BARRON’S DIAGNOSIS
First Lady Melania Trump has revealed that her 14-year-old son Barron Trump tested positive for COVID-19, saying it was a “fear” that became reality.
“It was two weeks ago when I received the diagnosis that so many Americans across our country and the world had already received — I tested positive for COVID-19,” Mrs Trump said in a statement.
“To make matters worse, my husband, and our nation’s Commander-in-Chief, received the same news.”
She continued: “Naturally my mind went immediately to our son. To our great relief he tested negative, but again, as so many parents have thought over the past several months, I couldn’t help but think “what about tomorrow or the next day?”
“My fear came true when he was tested again and it came up positive,” she wrote.
“Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms. In one way I was glad the three of us went through this at the same time so we could take care of one another and spend time together.
“He has since tested negative.”
Mrs Trump’s chief of staff Stephanie Grisham said on October 2 that Barron “has tested negative, and all precautions are being taken to ensure he’s kept safe and healthy”.
However the news, which had been kept under wraps despite global attention on Mr Trump’s own health, thrust public attention firmly back on the pandemic and in particular on an outbreak within the supposedly highly secure White House over the last two weeks.
Mr Trump, who spent three nights in hospital but returned to a punishing schedule of pre-election rallies this week, has been trying to move voters away from the subject in the closing 20 days of his campaign against Democratic candidate Mr Biden.
“Barron’s fine,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House, as he left for Iowa.
RIVALS TO ENGAGE IN DUELLING CAMPAIGN EVENTS
It comes as Mr Trump will feature in a televised town hall on Thursday, setting up a direct scheduling clash with rival Mr Biden who had already planned his own version.
The two were originally meant to have been meeting for their second debate on Thursday night (local time). Instead, they will be simultaneously, but separately, talking to American voters on different US TV networks.
Mr Trump will be in Miami, the network said, while Mr Biden, who had already booked his appearance last week, will be in Philadelphia.
Their scheduled debate had also been designed as a town hall where the two candidates would have fielded questions from voters, but this was up-ended after Mr Trump contracted the coronavirus.
Debate organisers said they wanted to switch the format to a virtual appearance, for safety reasons, and Trump refused, forcing cancellation of the event.
NBC News in the US said on Wednesday (local time) it had received a statement from the clinical director at the National Institutes of Health and lead infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci that they had “a high degree of confidence” that Mr Trump is now “not shedding infectious virus.”
Mr Trump and the host will be socially distanced at the outdoor venue and the audience will wear safety masks, NBC said.
Mr Biden has been frequently testing for coronavirus and reporting negative results since Mr Trump’s illness.
TRUMP NOMINEE FENDS OFF HARD QUESTIONS
US Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has insisted that she has no fixed views on hot-button legal issues as Democrats painted her as US President Donald Trump’s vehicle to end abortion rights and kill the popular Obamacare health program.
Ms Barrett, who if approved will tilt the high court decisively to the right, told politicians she would put personal and religious beliefs aside when deciding landmark cases.
But the 48-year-old judge and devout Catholic could not escape accusations from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee that she was chosen to achieve Mr Trump’s dream to nullify the Affordable Care Act of predecessor Barack Obama, which extended cheap health care to millions of uninsured Americans.
Likewise, Democrats said she was also picked to lead the court to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which guarantees abortion rights.
But after more than nine hours of questioning, Ms Barrett held her ground. “I made no promises to anyone. I don’t have any agenda,” she insisted.
“Judges can’t just wake up one day and say ‘I have an agenda. I like guns, I hate guns, I like abortion, I hate abortion,’ and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world,” she said.
“It’s not the law of Amy, it’s the law of the American people.”
After left-leaning icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death last month left the nine-member court with a vacancy, Mr Trump has rushed to fill it at the height of his presidential election battle against Democrat Joe Biden.
As some of her seven children sat in the hearing room beside her, Ms Barrett was willing to slightly distance herself from Trump, condemning extremism and saying racism is widespread.
She also defended LGBTQ rights amid concerns she could also tilt the court toward reversing its earlier endorsement of same-sex marriage.
In a poignant moment, when asked about the video of the police murder of African American George Floyd in May which shocked the nation, she referred to her children adopted from Haiti.
“Given that I have two black children, that was very, very personal for my family,” she said.
‘I FELT LIKE SUPERMAN’: TRUMP’S BIZARRE COVID RESPONSE
Meanwhile, there was no dancing or offers of a kiss for the audience but the newly reinvigorated Mr Trump’s second night back on the election trail was still action packed.
A crowd of close to 10,000 gathered outdoors at a rural Pennsylvania airport to hear Mr Trump decry Democrat plans to cut back on fossil fuels, the economic lifeblood of the battleground state.
He also drew cheers when he labelled his opponent a “dummy” and slammed the law and order record of Democrat run cities and states.
Declaring he would “crush the virus” at his second comeback rally since overcoming COVID he also boasted again about how good his “cure” was, saying his world-class team of doctors were so good he could have been back on the campaign trail last week.
“We’re rounding the turn on the pandemic,” he said in Pennsylvania. “I felt like Superman, I said, ‘Let me at ’em.”
Mr Trump also flashed his Achilles heel, appealing to the demographic where polling show his popularity has suffered most since winning their vote in 2016.
“So I ask you to do me a favour. Suburban women: will you please like me?” Mr Trump said.
“Please, please, I saved your damned neighbourhood.”
The Trump 2020 campaign has scheduled rallies for every day this week, the raucous gatherings in stark contrast to those of his Democrat opponent Joe Biden.
In front of a sparse crowd in Florida, Mr Biden said the president had abandoned seniors and made the pandemic worse.
“His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis has been unconscionable,” Mr Biden said.
“The longer Donald Trump becomes president the more reckless he becomes. Three more weeks until we end this madness.”
In another contrast to the mask-adverse Mr Trump, the former vice president also wore two masks as he arrived for campaign stops in Florida.
The contest in Pennsylvania and Florida is firming, with Mr Trump closing in on the lead Mr Biden has held. Mr Trump won both in 2016 and they are seen as almost essential for him being granted a second term.
The latest Real Clear Politics average put Mr Biden ahead seven points in Pennsylvania and 3.7 per cent in Florida.
BIDEN ‘NOT FIT’ FOR WHITE HOUSE
Meanwhile, former White House physician Ronny Jackson, who is running for Congress as a Republican, said Democrat candidate Joe Biden wasn’t fit to serve as president.
“This is not the same Joe Biden that we’ve known,” Dr Jackson said.
“I’ve watched Joe Biden on the campaign trail and I’m concerned that he does not have the mental capacity, the cognitive ability, to serve as our commander-in-chief.
“He routinely gets lost in the middle of a thought and can’t recalibrate.”
Speaking to reporters on a Trump campaign call, Dr Jackson admitted that he had not treated Mr Biden and wasn’t offering a clinical diagnosis.
“We have to have someone who’s at the top of his game cognitively, and he’s not,” he said.
His comments reflect widespread questioning of Mr Biden’s age and fitness.
Donald Trump was the oldest president at 70 in 2016, and should Mr Biden win he will be 77 when elected and 78 when he takes office in January.
Democrats have repeatedly questioned Mr Trump’s mental fitness and have threatened to invoke the 25th amendment of the constitution which allows a president to be replaced if incapacitated.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 80, last week introduced a bill that would increase the power of Congress to remove future presidents if they were unfit.
It wasn’t the first time Dr Jackson has questioned Mr Biden’s acuity, having said two weeks ago he believed the former vice president may be taking some kind of “performance enhancing drug”, a claim Mr Trump has also made.
“I think it’s completely reasonable to ask if he’s taking medications to help him with his alertness and his memory,” Dr Jackson said last month.
IVANKA TAKES A STAND FOR HER DAD
Earlier this week, the world got a rare insight into life inside the First Family when Ivanka Trump spoke of her fears for her father’s wellbeing when he was struck down by the coronavirus.
“I had a taste of that anxiety last week when I saw my own father go to the hospital to be treated for COVID and he beat it back and he did what he does and he fought hard but … “ an emotional Ivanka told a Make America Great Again event in Las Vegas.
“Both him and the First Lady, thank god, are doing very well, and as you may have noticed, the President is rather energetic this week so he’s doing great.
“But it’s been taxing on this country and the world and I feel grateful for his leadership as I know what the loss of life could have been if he had not taken such early action to close our country to travel from first China and then Europe.”
She said it was difficult for the outside world to understand just how brutal the criticism was that her father faced.
“The amount of incoming (criticism) this President takes … would cripple most people. It is quite extraordinary. I think to be really successful in this business you have to think like that. I think a lot of people go to Washington and they lose their compass or they arrive without incredibly solid convictions.
“And that city is tough. There is a lot of vested interest in maintaining the status quo and if you are not willing to plough through it, if you’re not willing to do what’s right, keep your promises … he has such firm beliefs in why he chose to do this and what he wants to get done that he can withstand a lot and I think that’s why he has been so effective.”
She said a good example of how much negativity he faced and how he dealt with it was the delight he took from watching anti-Trump ads funded by major pharmaceutical companies.
“He will laugh, he will get some sort of, Dennis the Menace glint in his eye, and he’ll turn to me and he’ll say, you know, we’ve got to be doing something really right if they’re hitting us this hard, and there’s a lot of truth in that.”
Ivanka Trump said her father needed another term in office to ensure his first-term achievements were not wasted.
“He’s kept more promises than he’s made,” Ivanka Trump said.
“Washington hasn’t changed my father, he has changed Washington. That is extraordinary, that is remarkable.
“He does what’s right because it’s the right thing to do. He has tackled issues that no-one else would dare to take on.
“He’s going to make America great again – again!
Offering kisses to his fans at a rally in Florida, the US President returned to the campaign trail with gusto after the White House declared he was no longer “infectious” with COVID-19 after his recent stay in hospital.
Speaking at Sanford airport in Orlando, the maskless US President said that he felt “so powerful” – at a time when he looks to prove he’s healthy and energetic following his coronavirus hospitalisation.
And the President drew laughs when he offered to give a “big fat kiss” to “the guys and the beautiful women” in the audience to prove his health and thank them for their support.
Ahead of the president’s first in-person rally since contracting the disease, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted out an update from the President’s physician, Dr Sean Conley.
The letter stated the President has “tested NEGATIVE, on consecutive days, using the Abiott BinaxNOW antigen card,” Dr Conley wrote.
With his voice initially sounding hoarse, Mr Trump also claimed he has fully recovered from the coronavirus and is therefore immune – despite there being no conclusive evidence to back such claims.
“I feel so powerful. I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women. Just give you a big fat kiss,” Mr Trump said.
In the crowd, hundreds of “USA”-chanting supporters watched the President, with few wearing face coverings or practising social distancing.
President Trump on Monday ridiculed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for mistakenly saying at a campaign stop he’s running “for the Senate” — and appearing to forget Mitt Romney’s name.
“‘I’m running as a proud Democrat, for the Senate’. Sleepy Joe Biden today,” Mr Trump tweeted. “It’s only going to get worse. It is not sustainable for our County – China will own us!!!!”
In another tweet, Mr Trump wrote, “Biden losing big in Florida. Only Fake Polls show otherwise! Bad for Healthcare. Thinks he’s running for the Senate. Forgot Mitt Romney’s name, and where he was!”
Mr Trump often accuses Biden, 77, of going senile and fired off the tweets as he travelled to Florida for his first campaign trip after recovering from COVID-19.
At the rally, Mr Trump told a roaring crowd, “Sleepy Joe Biden, not a nice guy, by the way … He had a very bad day today.
“If I ever had a day like he had today, they’d say ‘It’s over. It’s over.’ … He forgot Mitt Romney’s name. He didn’t know what state he was in. And he said today he’s a proud Democrat running for the US Senate.
“Could you imagine if I did that? ‘Great to be with you. It’s great to be a wonderful developer from New York.’ They’d say ‘he’s out of here. Get him out.’”
Mr Biden “has got a lot of bad days coming,” Mr Trump said.
“The one thing I know for sure, President Xi of China … President Putin of Russia … Kim Jong-un …. they are 100 per cent sharp. We have someone running who is not 100 per cent, he’s not 80 per cent, he’s not 60 per cent.”
Originally published as Donald Trump feeling ‘no pressure’ from Joe Biden as Americans flock to early polls