Trump news – live: Rudy Giuliani caught up in anti-MAGA protests, as president warns of 'crooked dishonest' election

Hello, and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the 2020 US election.

Biden leads as suburban women and elderly voters appear to dump Trump

Just nine days remain until Election Day and polling figures seem to suggest that Joe Biden is beating Donald Trump in two major demographics: suburban women and elderly people. 

In the past, Republicans have led among elderly voters by around 10 points. But about four in five Americans killed by the coronavirus were older than 65 and a majority of Americans say Mr Trump has mishandled the pandemic.

The president trails among elderly voters by more than 20 points, according to recent CNN and Wall Street Journal/NBC News polls. The swing could prove critical in states such as Arizona and Florida, which have a high number of retirees.

The suburban revolt against Mr Trump was clear in the 2018 midterm elections when Democrats gained 41 seats in the House of Representatives and won the popular vote by 8.6 per cent.

The two groups join a coalition of anti-Trump voters which includes African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, the LGBT+ community and young people. It is thought the president is more reliant than ever on white men.

Biden and Trump take their campaigns to key swing states

Opinion polls suggest Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump nationally, but the race is much closer in the battleground states that will ultimately decide the election.

In Lumberton, North Carolina, Mr Trump spoke to supporters on Saturday to say he was offering a fast recovery from the economic damage wrought by virus lockdowns, which have devastated small businesses and put millions out of work.

"It's a choice between a Trump super boom and a Biden lockdown," the president said. "We are rounding the turn," he added.

By contrast, Mr Biden warned that the cold months ahead could be even harsher due to a resurgence of the virus, which has killed 225,000 Americans and is on the rise once more in several battleground states.

Mike Pence’s chief of staff tests positive for coronavirus

A White House coronavirus outbreak has infected two of Mike Pence's top advisers and a third person who is on his staff, officials revealed last night, though Mr Pence reportedly tested negative and plans to continue his campaign trail.

Marc Short, the vice president's chief of staff, who is a known skeptic of Covid-19 restrictions, tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Saturday, has experienced symptoms and has begun isolation, according to officials.

Marty Obst, one of Mr Pence's top political advisers who was seen travelling with the vice president in recent days, tested positive for the virus earlier this week.

A third person in Mr Pence's team, has also tested positive, according to an official. The White House has not released that person’s name.

Both Mr Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, tested negative for the coronavirus on Saturday, and the vice president is continuing his travel schedule of campaign events, according to Devin O'Malley, a spokesman for Mr Pence. 

Danielle Zoellner has the full story:

Trump to speak in New Hampshire today - a state he lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016 

Donald Trump will make an appearance in New Hampshire later today, a state he narrowly lost in 2016 but is trying to reclaim in this year's presidential race.

The president is visiting top battleground states in a last bid attempt to make up ground against Joe Biden, who is pushing ahead in national opinion polls. 

New Hampshire, which Mr Trump lost to Ms Clinton by about 3,000 votes in 2016, is not considered a top-tier battleground - and most polls show Mr Biden with a comfortable edge in the state.

But Mr Trump is running out of time to change minds and shift the race in his favour. After voting early in his home state of Florida on Saturday, Mr Trump raced through rallies in three states - North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin - where he promised the end of the coronavirus pandemic was in sight and said Mr Biden would threaten jobs by pushing for more Covid-19 restrictions.

In Ohio, Mr Trump said his campaign was doing well and he was not worried about the public opinion polls. “We have 10 days, and nothing worries me,” he said.

On his visit to New Hampshire, Mr Trump will hold a rally in Manchester. He has suggested he might hold five rallies a day down the final stretch before the election.

Majority of Americans will accept result of US election - even if they dislike the winner, new poll finds

As the 2020 presidential election enters its final week, a majority of Americans appear ready to accept the result of an exhausting campaign even if their preferred candidate loses, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

Its latest survey, conducted from 13-20 October, shows that 79 per cent of all Americans, including 59 per cent of those who want to re-elect Donald Trump, will accept a win by Democratic challenger Joe Biden even if they may not support a Biden presidency.

Among those Trump supporters who said they would not accept a Biden victory, 16 per cent said they would do something to challenge a Democratic win such as protesting in public or resorting to violence.

The poll also found that 73 per cent of Americans, including 57 per cent of Biden supporters, would similarly accept a Trump victory. Among those who said they would not accept a Trump win, 22 per cent said they would take action to challenge the result.

US election officials are dealing with a series of challenges this year that have raised concerns about the public's confidence in the result.

Top national security officials warned last week that Russia and Iran have been hacking into US voting systems and looking for ways to undermine the election.

Mr Trump also has repeatedly questioned the integrity of US elections, arguing that the process is "rigged" against him and repeatedly asserting without evidence that the surge in mail-in voting this year will increase the likelihood of voter fraud. He has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if the vote count indicates he has lost.

So far, at least, a majority of the US public appears ready to accept the result.

Donald Green, a political scientist at Columbia University, said the poll results ease his concerns about post-election violence. But he warned that if the election is close, or one candidate can make a credible accusation of voter fraud, it could spark wider discontent and protests than the poll suggests.

"This is why many people who oppose Trump are holding their breath and hoping for a lopsided outcome that is not up for grabs," Mr Green said.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Mr Biden leads Mr Trump by 8 percentage points nationally: 51 per cent of likely voters say they are backing the Democratic challenger while 43 per cent are voting for the president.

Mr Biden also is ahead in Wisconsin and Michigan, but the race appears to be much closer in other battleground states including Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 2,649 American adults, including 1,039 who said they had voted for Mr Trump or were planning to vote for him, and 1,153 who said they were similarly backing Mr Biden.

The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 4 percentage points.

Reuters

Trump calls Pennsylvania’s Conor Lamb  ‘a weak and ineffective puppet for Pelosi’

As the race to be elected president heats up, Donald Trump has tweeted his support for Sean Parnell, Pennsylvania’s Republican candidate, calling his Democratic opponent Conor Lamb “a weak and ineffective puppet for Pelosi”.  

“@SeanParnellUSA is a bright star for Pennsylvania. Military, Vets, Low Taxes and your 2nd Amendment will be totally protected. His opponent is a weak and ineffective puppet for Pelosi and her new Radical Left friends. Vote for Sean Parnell!” the president shared with this 87.3 million followers on Twitter. 

Mr Trump followed up the tweet with a reminder for his followers to go out and vote, again singling out Nancy Pelosi - this time for her supposed “high taxing”.

“So important to VOTE for Republicans in the House. Break away from Pelosi and her high Taxing new Radical Left friends. Protect your 2nd Amendment, Military, Vets, and sooo much more!” Mr Trump said.

Ms Pelosi is an outspoken critic of Mr Trump - the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives often calls out the president for his unprofessional manner. She has spoken many times about his mishandling of the coronavirus crisis. 

Pennsylvania is a key swing state - both Mr Trump and Joe Biden are currently battling for its majority, along with Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota,  North Carolina and Wisconsin.

The latest polls project that Mr Biden is leading in the state by 48 per cent compared to Mr Trump’s 41 per cent.

'He's a terrified little boy’: Mary Trump, Bob Woodward and others share their thoughts on Donald Trump

Mary Trump, Donald Trump’s niece who released a tell-all book about the Trump family in July, has called her uncle a “terrified little boy” in a series of new interviews about the current president. 

Speaking to The Observer, Ms Trump said: “I’ve always believed that deep down Donald is a terrified little boy. The amount of fear he’s feeling now has got to be unhinging him. Not only did he get sick with the virus, there’s the tax story and his prospects in the election looking really bad right now. He’s got to be absolutely panicked.” 

She went on to say that should Mr Trump be reelected to the White House on 3 November, “democracy is over”.  

Bob Woodward, associate editor of The Washington Post, also spoke to the newspaper about Mr Trump. Mr Woodward said there is a sense of “high anxiety” in Washington at the moment - and made particular reference to the president’s announcement in which he said he would refuse Joe Biden’s victory. 

Mr Woodward said: “There is an atmosphere in Washington of high anxiety. Trump is melting down, to put it charitably. His campaign has been about lashing out, about wanting his former political opponents – President Obama and Joe Biden, who’s now running against him, of course – to be indicted then charged.

“Then there was his announcement that he is not necessarily going to accept the electoral result against him. The idea that the president would put in doubt the basic process of democracy and voting is not only unacceptable, it is a nightmare.”

The newly published interviews come amid Mr Trump’s bid to win the majority of US swing states before Election Day. He will be speaking to supporters in New Hampshire later today, a region he lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

Ten moments that defined the 2020 US presidential campaign

With Donald Trump running for re-election, the 2020 US presidential election was always expected to be a dramatic and eventful ride. But nobody predicted a global pandemic that would upend every facet of the campaign.

Here are 10 pivotal moments from a dizzying election year:

1. TRUMP ACQUITTED, 5 February 2020

At the beginning of the year, things were looking up for the Republican president. Trump’s Senate impeachment trial ended with him cleared on two charges brought by Democrats. The fallout from the Mueller Report was no longer hanging over his head. The economy was roaring – and prospects for his re-election looked relatively strong. After years of strife, the moment offered him a chance for a reset. But even as things looked rosier for the president, cases of COVID-19 were beginning to circulate in California and the Pacific Northwest.

2. BIDEN WINS SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARY, 29 February 2020

After disappointing finishes in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, Joe Biden’s presidential bid looked cooked. But his campaign aides asserted that things would turn around as soon as African Americans began voting in large numbers - and they were right. Biden blew the field away in South Carolina, causing several rivals to immediately drop out and setting the stage for a stunning run that sewed up the Democratic nomination in a matter of weeks. Biden would perhaps prove to be the one Democrat best suited to pull moderate voters in the Midwest and elsewhere away from Trump.

3. TRUMP DELIVERS CORONAVIRUS ADDRESS, 11 March 2020

After weeks of downplaying the coronavirus threat and with cases skyrocketing in the country, Trump delivered a rare national address from the Oval Office in an attempt to reassure a jittery public. Two days later, he would declare a national emergency. The virus would reshape American life, closing schools, businesses and restaurants, trapping millions at home and becoming the dominant issue of the 2020 election. It would also keep Trump - and Biden even more so - off the campaign trail for months.

4. SANDERS DROPS OUT, 8 April 2020

Trailing Biden badly in delegates and with the coronavirus outbreak paralysing the nation, Bernie Sanders became the final rival for the Democratic nomination to drop out of the race. He would endorse Biden a few days later, ensuring that the party would not be riven by discord as it was four years earlier when Sanders refused to concede to Hillary Clinton until the party’s national convention. Sanders’ move allowed Biden to turn his focus squarely to the general election with nearly seven months to go. Biden worked to make Sanders’ supporters feel welcome, establishing a series of policy working groups that included progressive voices.

5. TRUMP’S ‘BLEACH’ MOMENT, 23 April 2020

With the death toll from the pandemic nearing 50,000, Trump at one of his daily virus briefings spontaneously suggested that injecting disinfectants such as bleach into the human body could eliminate the virus. Public health experts quickly warned the public that doing so would be toxic, and Trump later claimed he was being sarcastic. The resulting furor was a factor in his deciding, days later, to suspend the briefings entirely, even though opinion polls in April had shown an uptick in public approval of his handling of the crisis.

6. PROTESTERS GASSED OUTSIDE WHITE HOUSE, 1 June 2020

Washington was one of several cities convulsed by largely peaceful protests in the wake of the death on May 25 of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police. On June 1, Trump gave an address at the White House invoking the “law and order” theme he would employ during the rest of his campaign. U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops, clad in riot gear, then used pepper spray to clear the park outside the White House of protesters so that Trump could walk to historic St. John’s Church and pose for a photo holding up a Bible. The melee became an image that would haunt Trump, as polls showed Americans largely supportive of the protests for racial justice. His approval rating soon dropped to a seven-month low.

7. HARRIS JOINS BIDEN’S TICKET, 11 August 2020

Biden tapping Senator Kamala Harris of California, a former rival for the nomination, as his running mate didn’t come as a surprise. She had been the favorite all along. But she swiftly proved herself to be everything Biden needed, giving him a practiced and polished campaign partner and energizing the Democratic base. She also brought her own fundraising prowess to bear, with contributions to Biden’s campaign reaching stratospheric levels once she was in the fold.

8. JUSTICE GINSBURG DIES, 18 September 2020

The worst fears of liberals came true as the storied justice finally succumbed to cancer less than two months before the Nov. 3 election. Trump did not hesitate to fill the slot, nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the court and likely ensuring a conservative majority for years to come. The move gave conservatives a reason to cheer in what had been a challenging year for the president. But it also galvanized Democrats, particularly women, while allowing the Biden campaign’s warnings of threats to the Affordable Care Act and abortion rights to be thrown into stark relief.

9. THE FIRST TRUMP-BIDEN DEBATE, 29 September 2020

Needing something to turn his fortunes around, Trump came into his first debate with Biden looking for a fight. But his belligerence worked against him. He repeatedly interrupted Biden and the moderator, Chris Wallace, to the point where the entire event veered out of control. He attacked Biden’s family. Polls and focus groups conducted afterward showed swing voters were repulsed by his behavior. Trump would later drop out of the second debate after it was switched to a virtual format in the wake of his COVID-19 diagnosis. He then adopted a more restrained tone for the final face-off with Biden on Oct. 22.

10. TRUMP GETS COVID-19, 2 October 2020

After weeks of holding in-person rallies in which safety measures against the spread of the coronavirus were largely ignored, Trump and several aides tested positive for the disease. A short illness and quarantine period kept him off the campaign trail for 10 days. The bigger damage, however, may have been to the president’s image. With Trump already faulted by a majority of Americans for his handling of the pandemic, his diagnosis made the White House look bumbling and hypocritical. And it ensured the virus would remain the central issue of the campaign just weeks before Election Day.

Reuters

White House chief of staff: ‘We’re not going to control the pandemic’

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said today that the US government was not focusing on trying to control the coronavirus crisis - confirming what many had been accusing the current administration of failing to do for some time. 

“We’re not going to control the pandemic,” Mr Meadows told Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union. “We are going to control the fact that we get a vaccine, therapeutics and other mitigation.”

When pressed by Mr Tapper to explain why the administration was not going to control the ongoing spread of Covid-19, which is currently affecting a large majority of the US, Mr Meadows replied: “Because it is a contagious virus.”

Mr Tapper also pressed Mr Meadows on why Mike Pence was continuing to campaign when some of his staff have tested positive for coronavirus. Mr Meadows attempted to blame to China as the source of the virus, but Mr Tapper continued to probe him. “Would you agree this is very serious, people need to take precautions?” Mr Tapper asked.

“I agree it is very serious, but we continue to test more and more so the cases will go up,” Mr Meadows replied. 

The comments made by Mr Meadows come at a crucial time as Donald Trump attempts to win votes for the presidential election amid ongoing scrutiny about his mishandling of the virus.