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Recap and Fact Checks: The First Presidential Debate of 2020 | NBC New York

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Here are some of the quotes from last night's first US 2020 presidential debate between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden ahead of the 3 November election.
Supreme Court nomination
Mr Trump, asked by moderator Chris Wallace about whether US appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett should be nominated to the Supreme Court before the election, said: "We won the (2016) election. Elections have consequences.

Biden: "We should wait, we should wait and see what the outcome of this election is."

Trump: "As far as a say is concerned, the American people have already had their say. ... I'm not elected for (just) 3-1/2years."

Biden: "He's elected until the next election...The election's already started."

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Healthcare
Biden: "Everybody here knows he's a liar... You picked the wrong guy on the wrong night at the wrong time... Folks, do you have any idea what this clown's doing? I tell you what, he is not for anybody needing healthcare."

After Mr Trump explained his healthcare proposal, Mr Biden said: "He has no plan for healthcare... The fact is this man has no idea what he's talking about."
Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic
Biden: "You should get out of your bunker and get out of the sand trap and... the golf course and go in the Oval Office and (put) together Democrats and Republicans, and fund what needs to be done now to save lives."

Trump: "You didn't think we should've closed our country (to China) because you thought it was terrible... We've done a great job. But I tell you, Joe, you could never have done the job we've done. You don't have it in your blood."

Biden: "He panicked or he looked at the stock market... A lot of people died, and a lot more (are) going to die unless he gets a lot smarter a lot quicker."

Trump: "There's nothing smart about you, Joe."

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Race relations
Biden: "This is a president who has used everything as a dog whistle to try to generate racist hatred, racist division."

Trump, citing the then-senator's support for the1994 crime bill: "You've treated the Black community about as bad as anybody in this country."

Biden: "Yes, there's a systemic injustice in this country in education and work and in law enforcement, and the way in which it is enforced."
Law enforcement and urban unrest
Trump: "The top 10 cities and just about the top 40 cities are run by Democrats in many cases, radical left, and they've got you wrapped around their finger, Joe, to a point where you don't want to say anything about law and order. And I'll tell you what the people of this country want and demand law and order, and you're afraid to even say it."

Biden: "He just pours gasoline on the fire... Under this president, we've become weaker, sicker, more divided and more violent."

"If we get the votes, he's going to go. He can't stay in power." - Joe Biden to Donald Trump

White supremacists
Wallace: "Are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence or the number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha, and as we've seen in Portland?"

Trump: "I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right... I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace."

Wallace: "Then do it, sir."

Biden: "Do it, do it. Say it."

Trump: "You want to call them. What do you want to call them? Give me a name."

Biden, referring to a right-wing group: "Proud Boys."

Trump: "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by."
Climate change and the environment
Trump: "I believe that we have to do everything we can to have immaculate air, immaculate water, and do whatever else we can that's good."

Biden: "The first thing I will do, I will rejoin the Paris Climate Accord."
Election integrity
Biden: "He cannot stop you from being able to determine the outcome of that election... If I win, that will be accepted. If I lose, that will be accepted... If we get the votes, he's going to go. He can't stay in power."

Trump: "Don't tell me about a free transition. This is going to be a fraud like you've never seen. This is not going to end well."

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Biden: "If you're able to vote in person, vote in person - whatever way is the best way for you. Because he cannot stop you from being able to determine the outcome of this election."

Trump: "I'm urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully... If I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can't go along with it. They cheat."
Interruptions
At one point when Mr Trump was interrupting him, Mr Biden said: "Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential.

Wallace to Trump: "I think the country would be better served if we allowed both people to speak with fewer interruptions. I'm appealing to you, sir, to do that."

Mr Trump, referring to Mr Biden, responded: "And him, too."

Mr Wallace: "Well, frankly you've been doing more interrupting."

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Key quotes from the first Trump-Biden debate

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Here are some of the quotes from last night's first US 2020 presidential debate between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden ahead of the 3 November election. Supreme Court nomination Mr Trump, asked by moderator Chris Wallace about whether US appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett should be nominated to the Supreme Court before the election, said: "We won the (2016) election.

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Who won the presidential debate? Here's a recap: Trump gets personal, Biden hits on COVID | ABC7

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Joe Biden and Donald Trump will go head to head one last time as the US election campaign reaches its final stretch.

The President's repeated rulebreaking and interrupting of both his rival and the moderator turned the first TV into a chaotic 90 minutes.

And polls suggest Trump's behaviour did him no favours with the public - and Biden's already chunky lead over the incumbent increased yet further.

Since then, Trump has been struck down with Covid-19 - and returned to the campaign trail claiming to have come through the other side of the virus feeling like "Superman."

And when his diagnosis prompted debate organisers to make the second debate virtual, the President declared it a waste of time and pulled out.

Instead, he and Biden held rival town hall debates on opposite TV channels at the same time.

But for the third debate, they'll be back in the same room - albeit with a few changes to the procedure.

Here's everything you need to know about the final TV debate of the 2020 Presidential election - and how you can watch.

What format will the final debate take?

The final debate will take place in Nashville on the 22nd of October, hosted by NBC's Kristen Walker, and follow the first format as the first.

It will consist of six fifteen minute sections on a different topic chosen by Walker.

Each section will start with a question and the candidates will each have two uninterrupted minutes to respond.

In response to Trump's behaviour in the first debate, the opposing candidate will have their microphone muted during this initial two minutes.

After each has had a two minute run at the question, it will be a free-for-all for the remaining time in each segment.

What are the topics for the debate?

In previous elections the final debate has been foreign policy focused - but perhaps in response to the second debate being cancelled, this will not be the case.

The topics for discussion will be:

Fighting COVID-19

American families

Race in America

Climate change

National security

Leadership

Read More

Related Articles

What time is the debate?

The debate will take place on Thursday 22 October, and will start at 9pm Eastern Time - which is 2am in the UK.

How can I watch it in the UK?

The debate will be broadcast live on all major news channels, including BBC News and Sky News, and on CNN which is available on Sky TV in the UK.

You can also follow it live right here on Mirror.co.uk, as well as watching live streams on the Daily Mirror and Mirror Politics Facebook pages from 2am.

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How and what time to watch the final US election debate in the UK

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Joe Biden and Donald Trump will go head to head one last time as the US election campaign reaches its final stretch. The President's repeated rulebreaking and interrupting of both his rival and the moderator turned the first TV into a chaotic 90 minutes.

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Donald Trump has vowed not to take part in next week's TV debate with former Vice-President Joe Biden after organisers said it will take place virtually because of the president's diagnosis of COVID-19.

His refusal came just moments after the Commission on Presidential Debates announced the change from the original plan, which was for both candidates to face off in Miami on October 15.

Instead it said the event would go ahead next Thursday, but with the two candidates participating "from separate remote locations" while the moderator remained in the city.

However, the president quickly rejected the idea. "I'm not going to do a virtual debate" with Biden, Trump told Fox News on Thursday morning.

This casts serious doubts over next week's planned event. The Democratic campaign had said that its candidate would participate. "Vice President Biden looks forward to speaking directly to the American people," deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said in a statement.

It is more evidence that the race remains defined by the virus, even as Trump has attempted to underplay it.

Trump was diagnosed with the coronavirus a week ago. However, on Tuesday he said he looked forward to debating Biden on stage in Miami. "It will be great!" he tweeted.

Biden, for his part, said he and Trump "shouldn't have a debate" as long as the president remains COVID-positive.

Biden told reporters in Pennsylvania that he was "looking forward to being able to debate him" but said "we're going to have to follow very strict guidelines."

Trump was pronounced ill with the virus just 48 hours after debating Biden in person for the first time in Cleveland.

While the two candidates remained a few metres apart during the debate, Trump's infection sparked health concerns for Biden and sent him to undergo multiple COVID-19 tests before returning to the campaign trail.

Trump was still contagious with the virus when he was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday but his doctors have not provided any detailed update on his status.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 can be contagious for as many as 10 days - and should isolate for at least as long.

The first debate between the two candidates last week was an ugly affair, marked by insults and constant interruptions. Trump in particular repeatedly talked over his rival, leading Biden to comment that it was hard to keep up with the president's ranting.

It's not the first debate in which the candidates are not in the same room. In 1960, the third presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy was broadcast with the two candidates on opposite coasts.

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US election: Trump refuses to take part in virtual debate with Biden

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Donald Trump has vowed not to take part in next week's TV debate with former Vice-President Joe Biden after organisers said it will take place virtually because of the president's diagnosis of COVID-19. His refusal came just moments after the Commission on Presidential Debates announced the change from the original plan, which was for both candidates to face off in Miami on October 15.

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US President Donald Trump and his White House challenger Joe Biden are feuding over plans for their final TV debate.

The Republican president's campaign accused organisers of Thursday's showdown of helping the Democrat by leaving out foreign policy as a topic.

The Biden camp shot back that Mr Trump was trying to avoid questions about his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

With two weeks to go until the election, Mr Biden has a commanding lead nationally in opinion polls.

However, he has a smaller lead in the handful of key US states that will ultimately decide the outcome.

What did the Trump campaign say?

On Monday, the president's camp sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates calling for topics to be adjusted for the final primetime duel this Thursday.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said in the letter that the campaigns had already agreed foreign policy would be the focus of the third debate.

The topics were announced by moderator and NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker last week: American families, race in America, climate change, national security, and leadership.

During a campaign rally on Monday afternoon in Prescott, Arizona, Mr Trump described Ms Welker as a "radical Democrat" and said she would be "no good".

Mr Stepien accused Mr Biden of being "desperate to avoid conversations about his own foreign policy record" and the commission of trying to "insulate Biden from his own history".

"The Commission's pro-Biden antics have turned the entire debate season into a fiasco and it is little wonder why the public has lost faith in its objectivity," he wrote.

He also accused Mr Biden of trying to avoid questions over reports about purported emails from his son, Hunter, and alleged conflicts of interest.

How did the Biden campaign respond?

The Democrat's camp hit back that it was actually Mr Trump who was trying to duck questions.

"The campaigns and the Commission agreed months ago that the debate moderator would choose the topics," said national press secretary TJ Ducklo.

"The Trump campaign is lying about that now because Donald Trump is afraid to face more questions about his disastrous Covid response.

"As usual, the president is more concerned with the rules of a debate than he is getting a nation in crisis the help it needs."

What are the debate rules?

Following public criticism over the handling of the first debate, the commission has adopted a new rule to mute microphones in the final event.

The 90-minute debate structure will be divided into 15-minute segments. At the start of each new topic, each candidate will have two minutes of uninterrupted time - during which his opponent's microphone will be off.

The rest of the time will be open discussion - and the microphones will not be muted.

In a statement announcing the decision, the Commission on Presidential Debates said it determined it was "appropriate to adopt measures intended to promote adherence to agreed-upon rules".

The commission noted that "one [campaign] may think they go too far, and one may think they do not go far enough", but that these actions provided the right balance in the interests of the public.

What happened with the last two debates?

The Trump campaign chief noted on Monday that the moderator of the cancelled second debate on 15 October, Steve Scully, had been suspended after tweeting to a prominent Trump critic, then lying that his account had been hacked.

Mr Stepien also accused the moderator of the first debate, Fox News' Chris Wallace, of having acted as "a third combatant" against Mr Trump.

The first Trump-Biden duel on 29 September descended into an exchange of insults, with the president interrupting many more times than his challenger, according to post-debate statistics from US media outlets.

The second debate was called off after Mr Trump refused to take part. The commission had ruled it would have to take place with the candidates in different locations because the president had tested positive for coronavirus.

Mr Trump dismissed the idea as a waste of time. He contracted coronavirus at the beginning of October but says he has since fully recovered.

How is early voting going?

Nearly 30 million early voters have already cast their ballots, compared with just six million at this point before the last presidential election in 2016.

Experts say the pandemic has spurred many to cast their ballot ahead of time to avoid crowding at polling stations on 3 November, though some early voters have faced long queues.

On Monday, Republicans were dealt a defeat by the US Supreme Court as it declined to take up a case on postal ballots in the critical swing-voting state of Pennsylvania.

Republicans had argued only ballots received by election day should be counted, and were contesting a state Supreme Court decision to allow late ballots to count.

Now that America's highest court has refused to hear the case, any ballots received within three days of 3 November will be counted, even if they do not have a clear postmark.

Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court's three liberal justices in the case.

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US election 2020: Trump and Biden feud over debate topics

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US President Donald Trump and his White House challenger Joe Biden are feuding over plans for their final TV debate. The Republican president's campaign accused organisers of Thursday's showdown of helping the Democrat by leaving out foreign policy as a topic.

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Microphones will be muted during the final US presidential debate to avoid Donald Trump and Joe Biden interrupting one another, it has been confirmed.

The new rules will mean Mr Trump and Mr Biden get two minutes to answer each question uninterrupted, the debate commission said on Monday.

Moderators were already considering changing debate protocol after chaotic exchanges in the first TV debate saw Mr Biden shout at Mr Trump: "Will you shut up, man?"

The Trump campaign said the "last minute rule changes" had been made by a "biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favoured candidate".

The president also hit out at the moderator for the next debate, NBC's Kristen Welker.

Mr Biden's team have not yet commented.

The third and final TV debate will take place in Nashville, Tennessee on 22 October.

During a visit to Arizona for his fifth rally in three days on Monday, Mr Trump accused his Democratic rival of being a "criminal".

Speaking to reporters beforehand he said: "Joe Biden is a criminal and he's been a criminal for a long time."

His comments are part of an ongoing bid by the Trump campaign to cast doubt over Mr Biden's son Hunter's business interests in Ukraine, which Trump claims have broken the law.

At the rally in Tucson, Mr Trump also launched another scathing attack on his top infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci.

He said: "People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots...these people that have got it wrong."

Describing Dr Fauci as a "disaster", he said that "if we listened to him we'd have 700 to 800,000 deaths right now".

Also using the opportunity to hit out at his rival, the president appeared to mock Mr Biden for "listening to the scientists".

Responding on Twitter, the Democratic candidate said late on Monday: "@realDonaldTrump - if you had listened to the scientists it wouldn't be this bad."

Coronavirus has killed nearly 220,000 Americans so far, with Mr Trump widely criticised for his approach to the disease.

Dr Fauci said he was not surprised the president contracted the virus after he "saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded, no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask".
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Mr Biden, who is currently ahead in the polls, was not out on the campaign trail on Monday, but chose to stay in Delaware to prepare for Thursday's debate.

His vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris returned to campaigning after seven days self-isolating following a positive COVID-19 result of a close adviser.

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US election 2020: Microphones to be muted during final TV debate to stop Trump and Biden interrupting each other

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Microphones will be muted during the final US presidential debate to avoid Donald Trump and Joe Biden interrupting one another, it has been confirmed. The new rules will mean Mr Trump and Mr Biden get two minutes to answer each question uninterrupted, the debate commission said on Monday.

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Presidential debate 2020: live updates from Trump and Biden's final clash before the US election

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Tonight, Donald Trump and Joe Biden go head-to-head in the final presidential debate before the election on November 3. The coronavirus has radically transformed this election, with millions of Americans casting ballots early by post. Despite that, tonight's debate could be a monumental moment that persuades undecided voters and those heading to the polls in less than two weeks.

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Social media plays an extremely big and important role in this whole mess. It brings attention to the whole election. Everybody is encouraging people to vote, to make a difference. More and more people are voting. If social media didn´t talk so much about the election, we would probably only know half of the stuff that we know now. Social media is a great platform to inform and educate.

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It didn't take long for pundits to recognize how much had changed in manipulative electioneering with the rise of social media. Quickly after the results were announced, it became clear that the 2016 election was a watershed moment in how targeted propaganda can be disseminated using advanced comput...

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Anyone can ask tough, intricate, confrontational questions. But all that ever does is start an argument, and it gets people nowhere. On the other hand, these are...well, easy. These are friendly questions. These are questions that allow another person to actually explain their thoughts, and explain fully. And to do so in as comfortable, as simple a way as possible. Without feeling attacked. Without feeling pressure. Without feeling no one cares what they have to say. Friendly. Easy.

Print them out, carry them around in your pocket, and the next time someone begins quoting from a Republican talking points memo, take the list out and ask.

1. What are the Top Seven best things that the Bush Administration has done?

2. Is the Iraq War is going well?

3. After three years thus far, when do you think Iraq might be able to "stand up" so that America can "stand down"?

4. For his part in the event, how would you rate the job the President did protecting New Orleans from devastation?

5. How do you think the rebuilding of New Orleans is going?

6. When Dick Cheney and the oil company and energy executives met in private to plan America's energy policy, how much of their goal was to benefit consumers?

7. Do you believe in the President's call for an Era of Personal Responsibility?

8. Since Republicans control the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, how personally responsible are they for conditions in America today?

9. Why do you think they haven't been able to find anyone who can verify that George Bush ever showed up for National Guard duty in Alabama?

10. Would you want Donald Rumsfeld to plan your daughter's wedding?

11. Are you aware that no government in the history of civilization, other than the Bush Administration, has lowered taxes during a war?

13. Do you personally feel threatened by gay marriage?

14. Since getting elected, do you think the President has been more a uniter or a divider?

15. How do you explain the President's approval rating going from a high of 90% to the current mid-30%?

16. Do you like the government collecting personal data on you without a warrant?

17. How much money do you have in your bank account, stocks and investments?

18. What's your partner's favorite sex position?

19. If you have nothing to hide, why aren't you answering?

20. Should we build a wall along the Mexican border?

21. Why isn't anyone building a wall along the Canadian border?

22. Does that terrorist gang arrested in Canada count as a threat?

23. If you shot someone in the face while drinking, how fast would the police show up to arrest you?

24. If Donald Rumsfeld had planned your daughter's wedding three years ago, would the guests still be there?

25. Even if no laws are broken, do you think it's okay to reveal the name of a covert agent?

26. During your lifetime, approximately how often have you changed your mind?

27. Why shouldn't people dismiss you as a flip-flopper?

28. Where do you think the Weapons of Mass Destruction might be?

29. Where do you think Osama bin Laden might be?

30. Is it fiscally responsible to cut taxes, increase spending and create a $9 trillion federal debt?

31. Are you glad liberals passed such programs as Social Security, Medicare, the Civil Rights Act, women's suffrage, federal deposit insurance, unemployment compensation, rural electrification, child labor laws, minimum wages and the 40-hour work week?

32. What are the Top Ten best things that conservatives have given to America?

33. If you were on life support, would you want a doctor you'd never met making a diagnosis about you via remote television?

34. Do you think man-made greenhouse gases have anything at all to do with depleting the ozone layer?

35. If Donald Rumsfeld had planned your daughter's wedding three years ago, and guests were still there, how many factions would they now be split into?

36. How good is it that the terrorist Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi was killed?

37. Are you aware that in 2002 the Pentagon knew where al-Zarqawi was and presented three separate plans to kill him, but the Administration refused to act each time?

38. Is George W. Bush the kind of guy you'd want to sit down and have a beer with?

39. When he started talking about being a Born Again Christian, would you want to stay or leave?

40. Is Ray Romano the kind of guy you'd want to sit down and have a beer with?

41. Would you want him to be President?

42. Does the Administration have an environmental policy that benefits the environment?

43. Since George Bush campaigned for President strongly against nation building, in what ways are our actions in Iraq not nation building?

44. What's the maximum amount of time you'd want to spend alone with Dick Cheney?

45. After dismissing Saddam Hussein's old Iraqi army, was it a good idea to let them keep their rifles?

46. Would a policy that allows torture be something that makes you proud as an American?

47. Has the Mission been Accomplished?

48. Do you feel comforted that Dick Cheney is a heartbeat away from being President?

49. If Donald Rumsfeld had planned your daughter's wedding, and guests started fighting and were killed, would you expect to be allowed to view the caskets when they were returned home?

50. How glad do you think George Bush is that he's no longer active in the National Guard?

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Anyone can ask tough, intricate, confrontational questions. But all that ever does is start an argument, and it gets people nowhere. On the other hand, these are...well, easy. These are friendly questions. These are questions that allow another person to actually explain their thoughts, and explain fully.

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Twitter is a great way to share something important. a lot of big names use Twitter

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Introduction: Why should we care about electoral politics?

Lasting change can only be assured through electoral wins. This guide will give you the background on campaigns and elections you need to get involved in electoral politics for the first time.

Ch 1: Why Do We Hold Elections?

Elections let us determine who makes our decisions for us. Different decisions are made at different levels of government, and knowing who the final decisionmaker is on the issues that matter to you, will make you a more effective electoral advocate.

Ch 2: How Do Elections Work?

Understanding campaigns is critical before diving into the electoral process. Campaigns and elections come with a lot of jargon. How do primaries, general elections, and independent expenditures work? Who's who on a campaign staff, and what's up with outside campaign consultants? This chapter helps demystify some campaign buzzwords.

Ch 3: How Do Governments Shape Elections?

Governments can have a huge impact on election accessibility. Our country has a long history of intentional voter suppression. State governments typically control elections, and can make it easier or harder for people to cast a ballot.

Ch 4: How Can Your Group Take Action?

Your group can make a real impact on electoral politics. Through volunteering, generating earned media, and endorsing, your group can be a real player in electoral politics.

Conclusion: How Do We Get Started?

Election Day 2018 is a year away, and groups are excited to hit the ground running. Once you've finished reading through the guide, here are some immediate steps you can take to put your knowledge to action.
PLEASE NOTE: How you engage in elections depends a lot on your group's organizational status. This guide is intended for unincorporated local groups and those spending money under 501(c)(4) tax rules--independently, or through fundraising tools we plan to offer as a 501(c)(4) organization ourselves. We do not recommend you incorporate as a 501(c)(3), as these organizations have serious limitations on their ability to participate in elections.
Why should Indivisible groups care about electoral politics?

Over the last year, we've demonstrated the power of standing Indivisible. Indivisible groups helped save the Affordable Care Act from repeal. We flocked to airports nationwide after the first Muslim ban was announced. We demonstrated solidarity in the wake of horrific white supremacist attacks in Charlottesville. And we are fighting to defeat the Trump Tax Scam and ensure permanent protections for DACA recipients and their families. We've proven that, together, we can resist this authoritarian administration and its agenda to hurt our families and neighbors-so why should we turn our attention to the messy business of electoral politics?

When people talk about hating politics, they often mean that they hate campaigns. Campaigns can be frustrating. It can seem like the industries and candidates with the most money drown out the rest of us in a flood of meaningless or negative campaign ads. Talking heads on cable news treat campaigns like horse races, and trivialize issues that matter to our families.

But elections and campaigns don't have to be so painful! Once you cut past the jargon and the spin, elections are another way of exerting constituent power. Exercising that power by participating in electoral politics can be thrilling -- not to mention a great way to make lasting friends, and feel stronger in solidarity in the fights to come.
And there are lots of reasons for groups to get involved in electoral politics:

To secure our wins long-term, we need to elect people who see them as wins. The current leadership in Washington continues to push a harmful agenda that hurts our families, weakens our democracy, and endangers our environment. If we want to actually create lasting change on the issues that matter to us, we need to win electoral victories first.

Participating in elections helps highlight progressive values and policies. When we get out in front on important policy issues, and fight for our values through electoral participation, we can win a coveted place at the agenda-setting table. Flexing our movement's electoral muscle sets the stage for progressive candidates and electeds to serve with political courage.

It's past time we recognize that progressives exist in every state and district. For too long, the political left has overlooked or taken for granted vast swaths of the American electorate. In many parts of the country, there is no progressive bench -- because progressives haven't contested key races in generations. You've all proven that there are progressives in every Congressional district in the country. Engaging in electoral politics is a way to build local power and grow capacity so that our movement endures beyond this moment of resistance.

Getting involved in elections reminds us that we're not alone in this fight. The health care fight became a flashpoint: a key political moment that united people across the county, allowing local groups to take meaningful action, recruit new members and grow existing members' leadership and skills. Electoral campaigns provide the same opportunity. Campaigns can be a great way to meet other local activists and forge new connections for the fight ahead.

What's this guide for?

Just as you've taken back constituent power, you can take back electoral power. This guide is meant as a long-term resource, rather than a quick how-to. We want you to have the background you need to engage effectively in electoral politics. This guide is a 101 on elections in America, from what elections actually determine, to specifics on how campaigns work, to why your vote matters.

Make this guide work for you. You don't have to read this guide in a single sitting. Feel free to refer back to it over the coming months whenever you have questions on campaign specifics. And always feel free to get in touch with your Indivisible Organizer via their email or via field@indivisible.org if you have any questions that aren't covered in here.

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Electoral Politics 101: Why Elections and Voting Matter

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Lasting change can only be assured through electoral wins. This guide will give you the background on campaigns and elections you need to get involved in electoral politics for the first time. Elections let us determine who makes our decisions for us.

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The field of Democratic presidential candidates has been historically large, but all have dropped out except Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge President Trump.

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With more than 1.5 million votes already cast in California state Republican Party leaders on Wednesday said they will not comply with an order from the state's chief elections official to remove unofficial ballot drop boxes from counties with competitive U.S. House races.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Attorney General Xavier Becerra, both Democrats say these unofficial ballot drop boxes are illegal and have ordered Republicans to remove them by Thursday. They worry voters will confuse these Republican boxes with the official ballot drop boxes put in place and monitored by county election officials.

Party leaders have said they put these boxes in Orange, Fresno and Los Angeles counties. Wednesday, party leaders would not say where else they have put these boxes or how many ballots they have collected from them.

But Tom Hiltachk, the party's general counsel, said these boxes comply with California's "ballot harvesting" law, which lets people collect ballots from voters and return them to county election offices to be counted.

Hiltachk said all of the party's drop boxes are indoors either at county party headquarters, churches or retailers that have agreed to participate. He says the boxes are locked and monitored by people.

"The fact that it is a box does not make it illegal," Hiltachk said. "If we have to use a bag, then we'll use a bag."

Once a voter fills out a ballot, anyone can return it. Most people mail them in prepaid envelopes provided by their county election offices. But others place them in official ballot drop boxes spread throughout the county.

State law defines a "vote by mail ballot drop box" as a "secure receptacle established by a county or city and county elections official." The Secretary of State has rules about the boxes' design, how they should be labeled and how often ballots should be retrieved. But county election officials decide how many boxes to have and where to put them.

Political parties will collect ballots from supporters and return them to county election offices, a practice known as "ballot harvesting." Some states have banned this practice, but it's legal in California.

Most of the time ballot harvesting is done by volunteers who go door to door to collect ballots from supporters. But this year, Republicans have set up boxes for people to drop off their ballots. Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have decried these boxes as an attempt to confuse voters. A cease and desist order from the Secretary of State's office noted some of these boxes were put in public places and labeled as official drop boxes.

Wednesday, Hiltachk blamed "perhaps an overzealous volunteer" for mislabeling some drop boxes as "official." He said none of the boxes now carry those labels. Hiltachk said a photo distributed by the Secretary of State's Office of a drop box on a public sidewalk was just a pastor photographing the box as it was being delivered. He said the box is actually inside the church.

"The letter from the Democrat Secretary of State is a voter suppression effort, aimed at intimidating California Republican Party officials and volunteers from gathering and delivering ballots," said Harmeet Dilon, an attorney and member of the Republican National Committee.

Padilla and Becerra's offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

State law requires ballot harvesters to also sign the ballot they are delivering, but there is no penalty for not doing this. Jessica Levinson, an election law professor at Loyola Law School, said that means voters who put ballots in these Republican drop boxes will still have their votes counted. But that doesn't mean the party couldn't be held accountable, she said.

"California is not going to discard all those ballots," she said. "Could you use that lack of penalty and essentially exploit it to your benefit? I guess my response is, it is still not what the law provides you should do."

The Secretary of State's Office reported Wednesday that more than 1.5 million vote-by-mail ballots have already been returned. In 2016, just 150,000 people had returned their vote-by-mail ballots at this point in the election cycle.

But this year, the coronavirus has changed how people vote. For the first time, California has mailed a ballot to every active registered voter before the election to encourage people to cast ballots remotely instead of in person during a pandemic.

"Californians are voting early in historic numbers," Padilla said in a news release. "We knew the COVID-19 pandemic would pose significant challenges, but elections officials have prepared and voters have responded."

Taxin reported from Orange County, California.

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California Republicans refuse to move fake ballot drop boxes

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With more than 1.5 million votes already cast in California state Republican Party leaders on Wednesday said they will not comply with an order from the state's chief elections official to remove unofficial ballot drop boxes from counties with competitive U.S. House races.

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The oldest party

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Last December, and other news outlets reported that Donald Trump planned to serve as an executive producer for "The Celebrity Apprentice" while he was President. Kellyanne Conway, appearing on CNN, defended the President-elect's prerogatives, but the next day Trump tweeted that the story was "fake news." Since then, he has tweeted about fake news more than a hundred and fifty times; on a single day in September, he did so eight times, in apparent frustration over coverage of his Administration's response to Hurricane Maria's devastation of Puerto Rico. And, of course, Trump regularly invokes "the fake-news Russian-collusion story," as he named it last summer. He has attacked coverage of the Russia investigation more than a dozen times on Twitter alone.

"One of the greatest of all terms I've come up with is 'fake,' " Trump said on Mike Huckabee's talk show, in October. (In fact, the phrase "fake news" has been around for more than a century.) The President's strategy has been successful, however, in at least one respect: he has appropriated a term that had often been used to describe the propaganda and the lies masquerading as news, emanating from Russia and elsewhere, which proliferated on Facebook, YouTube, and other social-media platforms during the 2016 election campaign. These manufactured stories-" POPE FRANCIS SHOCKS WORLD, ENDORSES DONALD TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT," among them-poisoned the news ecosystem and may have contributed to Trump's victory.

Judging from the President's tweets, his definition of "fake news" is credible reporting that he doesn't like. But he complicates the matter by issuing demonstrably false statements of his own, which, inevitably, make news. Trump has brought to the White House bully pulpit a disorienting habit of telling lies, big and small, without evident shame. Since 2015, Politifact has counted three hundred and twenty-nine public statements by Trump that it judges to be mostly or entirely false. (In comparison, its count of such misstatements by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is thirteen.)

The President also publicizes calumnies that vilify minorities. Last Wednesday morning, he outdid himself by retweeting unverified, incendiary anti-Muslim videos posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, a far-right group. Through a spokesman, Prime Minister Theresa May responded that Trump was "wrong" to promote the agenda of a group that spreads " hateful narratives which peddle lies." The following day, members of Parliament denounced the President, using such epithets as "fascist" and "stupid." It was a scene without precedent in the century-old military alliance between the United States and Britain.

Trump's tactics echo those of previous nativist-populist politicians, but his tweets also draw on the contemporary idioms of the alt-right. This is a loose movement, as the researchers Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis have written, best understood as "an amalgam of conspiracy theorists, techno-libertarians, white nationalists, Men's Rights advocates, trolls, anti-feminists, anti-immigration activists, and bored young people" who express "a self-referential culture in which anti-Semitism, occult ties, and Nazi imagery can be explained either as entirely sincere or completely tongue-in-cheek." Trump is no alt-right digital-news geek, yet his Twitter feed is similarly ambiguous. He seems to provoke his opponents for the pleasure of offending them, but when he is called to account he often claims that he was just joking. Sometimes he promotes conspiracy theories to insult personal nemeses, as he did last week when he tweeted baseless speculation about the MSNBC host Joe Scarborough's connection to the "unsolved mystery" of an intern's death.

The President's tweets slamming CNN, the Times, NBC News, and other media organizations can be comical and weird, but they do serious harm. Last week, a Libyan broadcaster cited one of Trump's tweets about CNN in an attempt to discredit a report by the network on the persistence of slavery in that country. And, when the leader of a nation previously devoted to the promulgation of press freedom worldwide seeks so colorfully to delegitimize journalism, he inevitably gives cover to foreign despots who threaten reporters in order to protect their own power.

At home, the Trump effect is more subtle, but corrosive. The First Amendment does not appear to be in existential danger; on the Supreme Court, Justices appointed by both Republican and Democratic Presidents endorse expansive ideas about free speech, even as they debate interpretations. Yet many of the rights that working journalists enjoy stem from state laws and from the case-by-case decisions of local judges. The climate that Trump has helped create may undermine some of these protections-for example, by prompting state legislatures to overturn shield laws that encode the rights of reporters to protect confidential sources.

Trump's alignment with right-wing publishers, such as Infowars and Breitbart, some of which see Fox News as the old-school communications arm of an obsolete Republican establishment, reflects a broader fragmentation of the media. Amid the cacophony of the digital era, publishers and advertisers prize readers who are deeply engaged, not just clicking around sites. News organizations as distinct as the Times and Breitbart now think of their audiences as communities in formation, bound by common values. A more openly factional, political journalism need not portend the death of fact-driven, truth-seeking, fair-minded reporting. Yet excellent journalism typically follows a form of the scientific method, prioritizing evidence, transparency, and the replicability of findings; journalism grounded in an ideology can be discredited by the practitioner's preëmptive assumptions.

Fortunately, in attacking the media Trump has in many ways strengthened it. This year, the Times, the Washington Post, and many other independent, professional enterprises have reminded the country why the Founders enshrined a free press as a defense against abusive power. Among other achievements, the media's coverage of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation has made transparent the seriousness of its findings so far, and constrained the President's transparent desire to interfere.

Last Friday, Mueller dropped his latest bombshell, a plea agreement with Michael Flynn, the former national-security adviser, who admitted that, in January, he lied to the F.B.I. about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia's Ambassador to the United States. The court papers filed with Flynn's plea lay out a story of how senior members of the Trump transition team asked Flynn to communicate with Russian officials on matters of U.S. foreign policy. The papers also contain a reference to a discussion that Flynn had with "a very senior member" of the transition team, a characterization that suggests that the list of names of who that may be is a short one. The chances that history will remember Mueller's investigation of Trump and his closest advisers as fake news grow slimmer by the day. ♦

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Last December, and other news outlets reported that Donald Trump planned to serve as an executive producer for "The Celebrity Apprentice" while he was President. Kellyanne Conway, appearing on CNN, defended the President-elect's prerogatives, but the next day Trump tweeted that the story was "fake news."

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By Jack Goodman and Flora Carmichael
BBC Reality Check

In the final weeks of the US election campaign all manner of false and misleading things are being shared on social media.

Here are some of the most recent - and false - claims.

Postal votes

The Trump campaign has often claimed, without evidence, that increased postal voting ("mail-in" is the American term) due to the pandemic will lead to tremendous fraud.

In fact, electoral fraud is incredibly rare.

Last week, President Trump suggested 50,000 people in Ohio getting erroneous absentee ballots was evidence of a "rigged election".

He repeated the example at a town-hall event on Thursday, when the moderator put it to him that the director of the FBI says there is no evidence of widespread fraud.

The elections board in Franklin County, Ohio, said the ballot error was a "serious mistake" but in its response to the president's tweet, it added: "Our board is bipartisan and our elections are fair. And every vote will be counted."

The error came through a technology malfunction - a high-speed scanner stopped working - that meant a chunk of more than 250,000 absentee ballots, for those not voting in person in their state, sent out were inaccurate.

Everyone affected now has the correct voter slip, the elections boards said, and there are various safeguards in place to make sure no one votes twice.

"Dumped" ballots

In September, pictures of ballot envelopes in California were shared thousands of times on Facebook along with further unsubstantiated claims of "vote rigging".

The county's ballots for this year's presidential election had not yet been sent out to voters when the pictures were shared.

Numerous national and state-level studies show that voter fraud is incredibly rare in the US.

There have been isolated cases of postal-ballot fraud and the FBI is currently investigating a case of nine military ballots that were discarded in Pennsylvania.

But Ellen Weintraub, commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, which oversees campaign spending laws, has said: "There's simply no basis for the conspiracy theory that voting by mail causes fraud."

Campaign ads and attack videos

Misleading videos and adverts vilifying opponents, spinning facts and exaggerating the truth are of course common during election campaigns - and this one has been no different.

Donald Trump Jr posted a video featuring an interview with Joe Biden replying affirmatively - using the word "bingo" - when asked about gun control.

But the actual question was not about a wholesale ban on guns, but rather on one specific type - assault weapons. Mr Biden does indeed support a ban on the manufacture and sale of those high-powered weapons, and proposes that owners will either be able to sell them back to the government or register them.

The clip and Mr Trump Jr's tweet dropped any such nuance, however.

A Democratic Party-supporting Twitter account published its own video on the issue. Referring to the president's supporters, it claimed: "Hey MAGA, Trump is coming for your guns". Attached was a clip from a press conference in which the president says: "Take the firearms first and then go to court".

But here the president was referring to a policy of removing weapons from the hands of potentially dangerous people.

Misleadingly edited videos have been a recurring feature of the campaign.

We've also seen campaign adverts on Facebook push inaccurate claims.

A frequent falsehood includes allegations that the president called coronavirus a "hoax". An ad seen a few hundred thousand times on Facebook this week and promoted by "Color Of Change PAC" - a "political action committee" separate from the political parties - includes the false claim.

While he has at times made wildly unscientific statements, President Trump did not directly call coronavirus a hoax. The rumour seems to stem from a speech he gave earlier in the year, in which he called the Democratic Party's reaction to his handling of the pandemic "their new hoax".

Conspiracy theories

Tweets generating thousands of shares in recent days promoted a bizarre conspiracy theory, claiming to reveal secret information about the capture and death of Osama Bin Laden - an idea that was amplified by the president himself.

An article reporting these unfounded claims eventually entered the mainstream conversation after President Trump retweeted it.

The "whistleblower" in the story claims to have information to prove that a "body double" of Osama Bin Laden was killed by American troops in Pakistan, rather than the real Al Qaeda leader.

The article went even further, with the interviewee accusing Joe Biden of orchestrating a cover-up and the shooting down of a US helicopter in Afghanistan in 2011. They provided no evidence to support the claims.

The author of the article retweeted by the president admitted on Twitter: "I have no proof that the Whistleblower's claims are true."

At Thursday's town-hall event the president was asked about his decision to retweet the dubious article, and responded: "I'll put it out there - people can decide for themselves."

One particularly far-fetched theory shared on Facebook and Reddit this week claimed that Mr Trump has been replaced by a clone.

A collage of images entitled "The real Donald Trump never left hospital" contrasted photos of Donald Trump before and after his stay in hospital, labelling him a "new-born clone".

Though some people clearly shared the post as a joke, other comments suggested the idea was taken seriously by some.

The president has been seen in public multiple times since his release from hospital, and there is no evidence to support the wild theory.

This isn't the first time a sitting president has been accused of being replaced by a clone during an election campaign.

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US election 2020: 'Rigged' votes, body doubles and other false claims

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By Jack Goodman and Flora Carmichael BBC Reality Check In the final weeks of the US election campaign all manner of false and misleading things are being shared on social media.

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Independence
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Social media companies are taking steps to curb online disinformation and fake news on their platforms ahead of the U.S. elections in November when the stakes couldn't be higher.

Last week, Facebook said that it will restrict political ads in the week before the election and remove posts with false information about COVID-19 and the 2020 election.

The announcement came after the social network took down a fake news publication believed to be operated by the Russian group which allegedly incited chaos and confusion in the lead-up to the 2016 election, raising new concerns about foreign interference.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company had removed more than 100 networks worldwide engaging in election interference over the last few years. "This election is not going to be business as usual. We all have a responsibility to protect our democracy," Zuckerberg said earlier this month.

"Fake news" became a thing after the last U.S. election. Viral social media posts containing outlandish claims about U.S. presidential candidates, published by hyper-partisan accounts and sketchy click-bait websites weeks before the 2016 election, were believed to have influenced voter sentiment.

It later emerged that the bulk of the fabricated stories had been the work of "content farms," run by young people in the Balkans who were in it for quick ad bucks. Though widely accepted, public evidence for the alleged Russian connection was barely there.

But those allegations became the focus of U.S. political energy in the following two years, while tech giants like Facebook and Twitter landed in the hot seat in Congress for allowing false information to spread on their platforms.

In just a few years, "fake news" is recognized as a real threat to democracy around the world. Dozens of countries already have their "fake news" laws of varying severity, but neither government nor industry-led measures have sufficiently dealt with this problem without controversy.
The 'infodemic'
In 2020, the global pandemic combined with the most contentious race in decades creates the perfect storm as fearmongers and conspiracy theorists from every corner of the internet come out in force.

In April, the United Nations Secretary-General formally identified a "mis-infodemic," or false news about the COVID-19 pandemic. In a world preoccupied with the coronavirus, conspiracy theories about the origins of the virus, dangerous fake health advice, rampant discrimination and stigma related to the disease have spread like wildfire online.

It got so bad that the World Health Organization (WHO) had to add a "myth busters" section to its website. Major social media sites have been directing users searching for virus-related information to the WHO's website atop their front pages.

But all this didn't stop the pandemic becoming heavily politicized in the U.S., where epidemic prevention and control measures, including sheltering at home and mask-wearing, have turned into points of contention this election season. Far-right conspiracy theorists like "QAnon" are commanding unprecedented attention at this time.

But fake news about the coronavirus is more proof that what is said online doesn't stay online, when believing the virus is a "hoax," drinking bleach and burning down 5G towers have real-life consequences.
More than a platform
Big tech's role in the proliferation of fake news has raised some serious questions about how online information should be regulated. Companies are constantly being accused of not doing enough as well as overstepping, forcing them to toe a delicate line between social responsibility and free speech.

During the George Floyd protests in June, Facebook triggered a revolt from advertisers for allowing an inflammatory post from President Donald Trump to stay online. Then in August, it failed to stop armed militia organizing on the platform before a fatal shooting incident involving one of the members in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Zuckerberg has always maintained that Facebook is a platform, not a media company. But these days, the platform has grown more powerful than most news organizations in distributing information.

Since 2016, a plethora of things, including mainstream news outlets, has been labeled "fake news." When it becomes a norm to call biased media reports or opinions one disagrees with as such - popularized by none other than Trump - it blurs the line between fighting fake news and censorship.

In their efforts to fact-check information and weed out fake news, including those propagated by government officials, the industry continues to face scrutiny over the handling of political speech, especially during election seasons.

After Twitter flagged some of Trump's tweets, the White House threatened to strip internet companies of the protection afforded by a 1996 law which stipulates that online service providers shall not be treated as publishers.
Read more: Algorithm the real culprit? Twitter labels China and Russia 'state-affiliated media' accounts but not BBC, NPR & VOA
A 2018 study by MIT published in Science magazine found that on Twitter, fake news spread six times faster and generate 70 percent more retweets than real stories.

Cindy Otis, a former CIA analyst and author of True or False: A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Fake News, said that the highly charged nature of social media amplifies online disinformation. "It's never really the 'let's step back and pause' kind of takes that go viral. It's the emotionally charged, pithily worded hot takes that go viral," she said.

In addition, social media algorithms have been designed to keep their users glued by creating digital echo chambers that make users victims of their own browsing habits. As a result, people become more prone to believing things that confirm their partisan biases and rejecting everything else outside their bubbles, further polarizing public opinions on everything from face masks to racism.

Once people start believing something, setting the record straight is very difficult, said Hany Farid, a professor from the School of Information at UC Berkeley. When it comes to conspiracy theories, Farid pointed to the phenomenon called the "boomerang effect" - when you tell someone that what they think is wrong, it only entrenches them further.

"This is the world we live in now - where facts have become something other than what they should be," he said.

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Election 2020: Is 'fake news' back for another election?

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Social media companies are taking steps to curb online disinformation and fake news on their platforms ahead of the U.S. elections in November when the stakes couldn't be higher. Last week, Facebook said that it will restrict political ads in the week before the election and remove posts with false information about COVID-19 and the 2020 election.

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Social Media plays a very important role in today’s life, social Media are web-based online tools that enable people… by king3071

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Trump and Clinton are asked to say something nice about each other

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Joe Biden was elected president of the US, winning the battleground state of Pennsylvania to reach the 270 votes needed to secure a majority in the electoral college. Donald Trump rejected the outcome, saying his opponent was "rushing to falsely pose as the winner".

Mr Trump has won North Carolina. Georgia certified its result after a hand recount showed that Mr Biden had carreid the state by just over 12,000 votes.

Mr Biden also won Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona, according to race calls by the Associated Press. Mr Trump carried Florida, Texas, Ohio and Iowa.

Some states' counts have taken long to complete because of the large number of postal votes cast in the election. More than 100m Americans voted early or by post.

Control of the Senate came down to two Georgia elections that were decided in run-offs on January 5. In one of the two races, Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated the Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler. In the other race, Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff has a narrow lead over Republican incumbent David Perdue. If Republicans win either race, they will retain control of the Senate. If Democrats win both races, they will control an evenly-divided Senate through the casting vote of incoming vice-president Kamila Harris.

The Democrats have maintained control of House of Representatives with a reduced majority.

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Joe Biden was elected president of the US, winning the battleground state of Pennsylvania to reach the 270 votes needed to secure a majority in the electoral college. Donald Trump rejected the outcome, saying his opponent was "rushing to falsely pose as the winner". Mr Trump has won North Carolina.

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The Visual and Data Journalism TeamBBC News

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US election 2020 polls: Who is ahead - Trump or Biden?

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An in-depth look at the polls and what they can and can’t tell us about who will win the White House.

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In some cases, elections can undermine institutions, fuel conflict and corruption, and drive political short-termism. However, elections should command attention: not only are they one of the most visible elements of democracy, but are also one of the main areas through which the international community has sought to support emerging democracies. This ongoing initiative seeks to assess the quality of governance in emerging democracies by tracking and responding to electoral themes and processes.

Read our research reports on elections:

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In some cases, elections can undermine institutions, fuel conflict and corruption, and drive political short-termism. However, elections should command attention: not only are they one of the most visible elements of democracy, but are also one of the main areas through which the international community has sought to support emerging democracies.