The Latest: Trump plans to vote early in Florida on Saturday
Columbia Basin Herald | UPDATED 4 years, 3 months AGO
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the presidential campaign (all times local):
2:45 p.m.
President Donald Trump plans to cast his ballot in person on Saturday, taking advantage of Florida’s early voting period.
The White House says the president will vote in West Palm Beach, a short drive from his Mar-a-Lago private club and, as of 2019, his official residence. The club is located in the town of Palm Beach, which doesn’t have any early voting locations.
Trump moved his residence to Florida a year ago from New York, citing his frustration with New York’s political leadership. He also hoped it would give him a boost in the critical battleground state. His path to another term in the White House is virtually nonexistent without a repeat victory in Florida.
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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE:
After last month's chaotic debate, President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, will take the stage Thursday in Nashville, Tennessee, to give it another go.
Read more:
— Face to face: Trump and Biden to meet for final debate
— Viewers’ Guide: After chaotic 1st debate, Trump, Biden try again
— Trump posts unedited ’60 Minutes’ interview before it airs
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
1:25 p.m.
President Donald Trump says “it will be so good” if the Supreme Court puts an end to the Obama-era health law when the justices hear challenges to the Affordable Care Act next month.
Trump made the comment in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that’s set to air Sunday night. The president posted the full, unedited interview on Facebook on Thursday.
Democrats argue that Republicans are counting on the Senate confirmation of Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court to be the death knell of the law, which is also called “Obamacare.”
Republicans have bristled at the Democrats’ claim about what could happen if the appeals court judge joins the high court.
With Barrett on the path to confirmation in the coming days, Trump is signaling that he’s confident that court’s expected swing to the right portends the demise of the health law.
Trump says in the interview: “I think it’ll end” and “I hope that they’ll end it.”
The interview taped earlier this week. The White House posted it on social media after Trump complained he hadn’t been treated fairly by CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl.
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11:50 a.m.
President Donald Trump has posted his full, unedited interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Facebook ahead of the show’s Sunday air date.
The footage shows Trump growing increasingly prickly as anchor Lesley Stahl presses him on the coronavirus pandemic, his slipping support with suburban women and other issues.
Trump tweeted with the Facebook link: “Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS.” And he again preemptively criticized the moderator of Thursday’s final presidential debate.
The “60 Minutes” interview starts on a tense footing as Stahl asks the Republican president, “Are you ready for some tough questions?” It only grows more testy.
Trump complains, “That’s no way to talk.” He later comments, “You’re so negative.”
Trump faces Democrat Joe Biden in the debate on Thursday night in Nashville, Tennessee.
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11:20 a.m.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says he has tested negative for COVID-19 ahead of his debate with President Donald Trump.
Biden made the comments to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday before flying to Nashville, Tennessee, where he’s scheduled to participate in the second debate with the Republican president, the final scheduled meeting of the two candidates before the Nov. 3 election. Biden says he underwent the coronavirus testing on Thursday.
Last week during a town hall-style interview on MSNBC, Trump did not specify when he was asked when he had been tested before the Sept. 29 debate. The White House announced two days later Trump had tested positive. Trump spent three nights at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center before returning to the White House.
The White House was asked Thursday morning whether Trump had been tested, as Biden was, in preparation for the debate. It has not released an update.
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8:35 a.m.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden won’t rule out studying the addition of members to the U.S. Supreme Court as part of a commission he plans to name to look at court reforms if he’s elected.
During an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” recorded Monday but not yet aired, Biden was asked by anchor Norah O’Donnell if the commission would study whether to pack the court. Biden says the commission’s charge would “go well beyond packing.”
Biden said last week he was “not a fan” of the idea of adding justices to the court to balance it ideologically. He said he would answer the question of whether he planned to support it before the final presidential debate, scheduled for Thursday in Nashville, Tennessee.
Questions of whether Biden would support court-packing have emerged since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on Sept. 18 and the Republican-controlled Senate’s move forward with Judiciary Committee hearings on President Donald Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, before the Nov. 3 election.