Biden news: Former VP talks about losing son Beau with 9/11 families and arm bumps Pence after rearranging schedule to sidestep Trump

Biden pledges to maintain US presence in Middle East

The Democratic presidential nominee pledged to end “forever wars”in an interview with Stars and Stripes on Thursday, whilst committing to maintain a small presence in the Middle East to prevent extremists from posing a threat to the United States and its allies, if he becomes president. 

“These ‘forever wars’ have to end. I support drawing down the troops. But here’s the problem, we still have to worry about terrorism and [the Islamic State],” Mr Biden told the military news outlet. 

“I don’t think [budget cuts] are inevitable, but we need priorities in the budget,” he added, in an apparent commitment to maintain current levels of military spending. 

Those comments follow Trump administration plans to withdraw a third of US troops from Iraq, with some 3,000 soldiers and personnel expected to remain at the end of the month.

Mr Biden told Stars and Stripes that he would expect to have a ground force of “1,500 to 2,000”. 

Foreign hackers target Biden and Trump campaigns

Hackers linked to Russia, China, and Iran are trying to spy on people tied to both US president Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, Microsoft Corp said on Thursday.

The report came as Reuters revealed how one of the main campaign advisory firms used by Mr Biden had been warned by the software giant that it was being targeted by the same Russian hackers who intervened in the 2016 US election.

In an announcement, Microsoft's vice president for customer security, Tom Burt, said the group accused of breaching Hillary Clinton's campaign emails in 2016 - a Russian military intelligence-linked unit widely known as Fancy Bear - had spent the past year trying to break into accounts belonging to political consultants serving both Republicans and Democrats as well as advocacy organizations and think tanks.

At the same time, Chinese hackers were said to have targeted people "closely associated with US presidential campaigns and candidates" - including an unnamed ally of Mr Biden who was targeted through a personal email address and "at least one prominent individual formerly associated with the Trump Administration."

Microsoft's announcement was planned before Reuters broke the news that Fancy Bear was suspected of targeting Washington-based SKDKnickerbocker, a campaign strategy and communications firm working with the Democratic presidential nominee and other prominent Democrats.

Officials in Russia, China and Iran have denied the allegations. 

Reuters

‘Flag-burners win’ if Biden wins, claims Trump

Donald Trump, who said this week that he downplayed how dangerous coronavirus could be because he didn’t want “people to be frightened”, warned on Thursday that “rioters, anarchists, rioters and flag-burners win” if Joe Biden wins on 3 November.

The US president, who was making a campaign outing to Michigan, repeated attack lines on his Democratic opponent, calling Mr Biden a “globalist sellout” who, if elected, would “surrender your jobs to China and now surrender to … the violent, left-wing mob,”.

And that’s not all…

According to Mr Trump, the Democrat would terminate coronavirus travel bans and overwhelm the state "with poorly vetted migrants from jihadist regions" and refugees "from terrorist hot spots around the world."

In a speech that was - at times - racially charged, the president claimed his rival would “eliminate your jobs, eliminate your borders” and increase refugee flows into the US by "700 per cent".

Reminder: Those claims have no basis in truth.

John T Bennett reports:

Trump has ‘no conception’ of national security, says Biden

Donald Trump was interviewed some 18 times by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward for an upcoming book on the White House, in which the US president made some - quite literally - explosive revelations.

Among the details provided to Mr Woodward, were what Mr Trump dubbed a  new weapons system developed by the United States, as he boasted: “We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before,” referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping. “There’s nobody — what we have is incredible.”

Those claims, which Mr Woodward reportedly confirmed with unnamed US security officials who expressed surprise at Mr Trump’s apparent leak, showed that the president could not be trusted to handle national security, said Joe Biden on Thursday.

In an interview with CNN, the Democratic presidential nominee argued it was “no surprise” that Mr Trump had disclosed details of a new weapons system, saying "He seems to have no conception of what constitutes national security, no conception of anything other than, what can he do to promote himself?"

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. 

Rhode Island to send mail-in ballot requests to all voters

Rhode Island will send applications for mail-in ballots to every registered voter in the state in advance of the Nov. 3 general election, officials announced Friday.

Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea said she’s taking the action to make it easy to vote from home and to avoid crowding polling places during the coronavirus pandemic. Voters should begin receiving applications at home starting Saturday, she said.

“It’s going to ensure that voters don’t have to choose between their health and their constitutional right to vote,” Gorbea said.

Joined at a press conference by a member of the state’s Board of Elections, Gorbea said she has the authority to send mail-in ballot applications without any specific approval by the state Legislature.

State officials are expecting record turnout for the general election, Gorbea said. Members of the Rhode Island National Guard are being called upon to sort mail-in ballots, she said, but they will not process any ballots.

Rhode Islanders will also be able to vote at in-person polling locations, and drop-boxes will be provided to submit ballots.

Associated Press