A deeply divided Senate Judiciary Committee kicked off four days of contentious confirmation hearings on Monday for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, drawing battle lines that could reverberate through the election.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the committee’s chairman, left little doubt about where the proceedings were heading, gaveling open “the hearing to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court,” rather than saying it was a hearing to consider her nomination.
“This is probably not about persuading each other unless something really dramatic happens,” Mr. Graham added a short time later. “All the Republicans will vote yes, all the Democrats will vote no.”
Few masks are in sight as Trump returns to the campaign trail and downplays the virus.
“The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself can,” the president told supporters in Sanford, Fla. “If you want to get out there, get out." The president dubiously claimed he is now “immune," though none of his doctors have said that. “I feel so powerful,” Trump said. “I’ll walk into that audience, I’ll walk in there, I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women. … Everybody! I’ll just give you a fat kiss.”
”His return to the campaign trail, with back-to-back-to-back rallies at least through Wednesday, is being driven by Trump himself, according to aides, and his schedule so far reflects the frenetic energy of a man trying to outrun both a deadly illness and an electoral defeat,” Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Sean Sullivan and Toluse Olorunnipa report. "After rallies the first half of the week in Florida, Pennsylvania and Iowa, Trump is expected to return to Florida on Thursday and Friday, as well as hold more rallies over the weekend, probably in Ohio and Wisconsin. … The president also plans to travel soon to North Carolina.
"Biden campaigned Monday in Ohio, a state Trump won easily four years ago, and will travel Tuesday to Florida … ‘His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis has been unconscionable,’ Biden said [in Toledo]. … Biden tested negative Monday for the coronavirus, his campaign said. It was the seventh known test he has taken since Oct. 2, the day Trump announced his diagnosis.” White House physician Sean Conley said Monday the president recently tested negative for the coronavirus on “consecutive days,” although he did not specify which days.
Long lines mark the first day of early voting in Georgia.
“Voters waited for as long as 10 hours across Atlanta and surrounding suburbs to cast their ballots on Georgia’s first day of early voting Monday, leading some to give up and raising questions about whether election officials were prepared for what is shaping up to be a historic early-voting season,” Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Haisten Willis and Amy Gardner report. “The scenes were reminiscent of Georgia’s problem-plagued June primary, when limited polling locations and a rocky rollout of new machines caused voting backups around the state. But on Monday, huge turnout appeared to be the major force in driving the long lines, along with scattered reports of technical problems. … While the lines were longest in the state’s heavily Democratic strongholds in and around Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah and Macon, hours-long waits were also reported in smaller, more conservative counties, including Lowndes and Floyd … By the evening, at least 120,000 voters had cast their ballots."
New research explores the authoritarian mind-set of Trump’s core supporters.
“A new book by a psychology professor and a former lawyer in the Nixon White House argues that Trump has tapped into a current of authoritarianism in the American electorate, one that’s bubbled just below the surface for years. In ‘Authoritarian Nightmare,’ Bob Altemeyer and John W. Dean marshal data from a previously unpublished nationwide survey showing a striking desire for strong authoritarian leadership among Republican voters,” Christopher Ingraham reports. “They also find shockingly high levels of anti-democratic beliefs and prejudicial attitudes among Trump backers, especially those who support the president strongly. And regardless of what happens in 2020, the authors say, Trump supporters will be a potent pro-authoritarian voting bloc in the years to come."
“Federal payments to farmers are projected to hit a record $46 billion this year as the White House funnels money to Mr. Trump’s rural base in the South and Midwest ahead of Election Day,” the Times reports. “According to the American Farm Bureau, debt in the farm sector is projected to increase by 4 percent to a record $434 billion this year and farm bankruptcies have continued to rise across the country.”