Barack Obama called game.
The former President showed he can still get buckets, swishing a corner three-pointer at a local Michigan gym while on the campaign trail for Joe Biden, his former vice president.
“That’s what I do,” Obama yells after nailing the three, before lowering his “VOTE” mask and yelling again, “That’s what I do!”
The video was tweeted by Olivia Raisner, the Biden campaign’s traveling digital director. Aides in the gym seem stunned that Obama nailed the three, with one yelling, “Walk off!”
“Whoa,” a masked Biden says as the duo leaves the gym.
Obama, who played JV and varsity basketball at Hawaii’s Punahou School, regularly played basketball during his rise to political prominence, including as a United States senator, where he hit a three in front of troops in Kuwait.
Obama continued to play basketball during his time in the White House, including a game in 2010 where the President caught an “errant elbow” that forced him to get stitches. Obama has recently joked that his basketball game was getting worse as he got older.
The video of Obama’s shot in Detroit has garnered over 3 million views in over an hour.
Just three days before Election Day, President Donald Trump has issued a memo instructing his administration to “assess the potential consequences of fracking bans,” a move that he hopes will resonate with voters in Pennsylvania, where he is spending the day campaigning.
The memo was released just before Trump delivers remarks at a campaign rally outside of Pittsburgh, where fracking is a big part of the Western Pennsylvania economy.
While the memo does not mention Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by name, it does say certain “powerful voices in the United States” are calling “to ban, or sharply restrict” fracking.
“Now that we have achieved a dominant position in energy production, powerful voices in the United States, echoed by countries such as China and Russia, are clamoring for policies that would undermine that position, forgetting the very real costs and risks of energy dependence. Some of these voices call for using legislative or regulatory mechanisms to ban, or sharply restrict, the use of fracking and other technologies,” the memo reads in part.
The memo calls for a report to be submitted to the President within 70 days assessing the economic and national security impacts of potential fracking bans or restrictions.
Fracking has been a focus of both the Trump and Biden campaigns recently, especially since the final presidential debate, and Trump has repeatedly claimed, misleadingly, that Biden plans to “end fracking” if elected.
The President also tweeted about the memo, which he calls an “order to protect fracking and the oil and gas industry.” The tweet also misleadingly claims Biden wants to “BAN fracking.”
Biden’s climate plan proposes “banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters,” not ending all new fracking anywhere or ending all existing fracking on public lands and waters.
Brayden Harrington, the 13-year-old New Hampshire boy who bonded with Joe Biden over their mutual struggle with stuttering, recorded a new video promoting the Democratic nominee in the final days before the election.
The Biden campaign is running the spot on digital platforms in the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, a campaign aide said, with the goal of targeting young people.
“Joe Biden has always believed anyone can do great things,” Harrington says in the video. “So when they count you out because you don’t come from the right place, or when they don’t tell you the truth because they think you’re gonna panic, just know Joe’s in your corner. Mine too.”
“He’ll never underestimate you. He’ll never underestimate a teacher, never underestimate a nurse, never underestimate a solider, never underestimate a generation, a justice seeker, or a different voice, and never underestimate the power of a voter,” Harrington says. “Never underestimate an American.”
Harrington first met Biden, who stuttered as a child, at a campaign event in New Hampshire in February. After the event, Biden offered to spend extra time with Harrington to talk about how to cope with stuttering.
Harrington also recorded a powerful video talking about their connection over stuttering that aired at the Democratic National Convention in August.
“He told me that we were members of the same club: We stutter. It was really amazing to hear that someone like me became vice president,” Harrington said.
Former Vice President Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19 on Saturday.
The Biden campaign said the Democratic presidential nominee underwent PCR testing Saturday, and “COVID-19 was not detected.”
Biden is regularly tested prior to traveling.
Joe Biden will spend election night in Wilmington, Delaware, where his campaign said he “will address the nation.”
He will be joined by his wife Jill, running mate Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff.
On her second solo day of campaigning for her husband this year, first lady Melania Trump defended the President’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and went after the Democratic ticket by name.
At a campaign event in West Bend, Wisconsin, the first lady again attacked Democrats for making the virus a “partisan issue.”
Trump called out Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, saying his warning that there would be a “dark winter” ahead is “not the statement of a leader.”
“He wants to make us hide in fear in our basements rather than work bravely within our communities to find lasting solutions. His solution is to move backwards and to shut things down,” she said, before touting the administration’s pandemic response.
Following a speech from former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden shared words of adoration for his former boss during a campaign stop in Flint, Michigan, Saturday afternoon.
Biden went on to say that it’s time for President Trump “to pack his bags and go home.”
“We’re done with the chaos, the tweets, the anger, the hate, the failure, the refusal to take any responsibility. We’ve got a lot of work to do, got a lot of work to do and if I’m elected your president, we’re going to do it. We’re going to act, and we’re going to need your help in doing it as well,” Biden added.
President Trump wrapped his first of four stops in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday, speaking for 85 minutes in Newtown.
The President predicted he would win the commonwealth, which he won by less than 50,000 votes in 2016. Trump also repeated his baseless claim that there would be issues with the ballots in Philadelphia.
Trump also again falsely claimed that the US was “rounding the turn” when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. His comments come one day after the US set a global record for cases reported on Friday.
He praised his administration’s response to the pandemic, claiming a vaccine would “end the pandemic once and for all,” and that the country is “now just weeks away from the mass distributing of a safe vaccine.” Throughout the summer, he often predicted a vaccine would be available by Election Day.
The President’s next event is a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania.
President Trump railed against some recent decisions from the US Supreme Court that allows some states to receive mail-in ballots after election day, and predicted there could be bedlam in the country if a winner isn’t declared on Nov. 3.
Per a CNN fact check, there is no requirement that the result of the election is announced on the night of Election Day.
When the media calls the winner that night, it is not because complete results have been tabulated by election authorities; it is because media outlets have used the available data to make a projection.
Vote tallies always change after Election Day as absentee ballots and provisional ballots get counted; results that are publicly reported on election night are always “unofficial” and “preliminary.” The official, final count is typically certified weeks later.
Some context: The Supreme Court has made a string of decisions recently on how long states can receive mail-in ballots after election day, including leaving in place, for now, a Pennsylvania state Supreme Court decision that allowed the counting of ballots received up to three days after the election, even if there is no legible postmark.
The windows of Macy’s on 34th street in New York City are being boarded-up over fears of Election Day protests, according to video taken by CNN.
The iconic retail store said it was boarding-up its widows to take “additional security measures.”
CNN has reached out to Macy’s to ask if the security measures are being put in place because of elections this week and if the stores being boarding up were only NYC locations.
On Friday, businesses in Washington, DC, were also spotted placing boards over its windows.
“We do not have any intel on planned activity to suggest the need to board up; however, we remain vigilant and understand the difficult position building owners and operating businesses are in. We call upon all who participate in First Amendment activities to denounce violence and report it immediately should it occur,” deputy mayor for planning and economic development John Falcicchio said.
Former President Barack Obama spoke to residents of Flint, Michigan, today during a campaign stop for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Obama, as he’s done along the campaign trail this cycle, implored Americans to vote.
The processing score for ballots, both inbound and outbound, is showing mixed results according to data submitted by the USPS to a federal court as part of a new preliminary injunction.
USPS defines processing scores as, “the time between its first and last processing operations.” A higher score means that a higher percentage of ballots are travelling through the system on-time, as expected.
According to the data, outbound ballots — heading to voters — are seeing a drop in their on-time processing nationwide. On Tuesday, USPS reported the processing score is at 88.95%, down from 95.20% on Monday and 94.07% on Friday.
Inbound ballots — heading to election officials — have seen an uptick in its nationwide on-time processing score. On Tuesday, USPS reported they were at 95.05%, up from 93.39% on Monday and 94.73% from Friday.
Although the dataset is the most precise indicator available for tracking the movement of ballots within the USPS system, the Postal Service cautions in its court filing that the data doesn’t provide the full picture. That’s because not all ballots use the intelligent mail barcodes that helps track ballots.
More data: The on-time processing score for first-class mail, which election mail is shipped at, dropped significantly — 18.75% — on Tuesday. The processing score was at 88.56% on Monday and 86.17% on Friday.
The USPS argued that the data is not an indicative of its on-time delivery performance though, saying, “does not produce accurate, reliable information, as it is incomplete, subject to change, and overall, is not an accurate representation of the Postal Service’s performance.”
Sen. Kamala Harris made a quick stop in Miami Gardens this afternoon, paying a visit to Rep. Frederica Wilson and members of the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project.
After a brief indoors meeting, Harris came outside and spoke about the importance of the Miami Gardens area.
In their first campaign stop today, former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden will speak at a drive-in rally in Flint about what’s at stake in this election and encourage residents to vote early.
This is their first joint in-person appearance this election cycle.
In Detroit, Biden and Obama will hold a drive-in rally encouraging people across Michigan to turn out for the Biden-Harris ticket this cycle.
Biden and Obama will encourage voters to make their plans to vote at iwillvote.com/MI and vote early, and all voters will be able to watch the livestream of the President’s visit. The stop comes three days before Election Day.
Detroit and Flint voters can vote early in person right up until Election Day at multiple satellite offices across the city. The campaign is also making a push for voters with absentee ballots to drop them off at official drop boxes or clerk’s offices across the city.
Some online tools for voters in Minnesota and sections of the statewide voter registration system (SVRS) went down Saturday morning, according to the secretary of state’s office.
The public-facing tools, including the online tracker for mail-in ballots, are now operational, but officials are still working on restoring the SVRS.
It appears that a hardware issue impacted the systems, but no further information is available at this time, said Risikat Adesaogun, press secretary for the secretary of state.
Polling stations are able to administer absentee ballots while SVRS is unavailable, so voters should still be able to cast ballots today, she said.
Some context: The malfunction comes three days before the election and as election officials expect higher voter turnout in the coming days.
In light of a federal appeals court decision that called for the segregation of ballots received after 8 p.m. local time on election night, Secretary of State Steve Simon encouraged voters to use the online tracker for mail-in ballots to make sure they arrived on time. If the ballot tracker doesn’t show the ballot as received, voters are able to go in person to ensure their vote is counted before the deadline.
Former Vice President Joe Biden will hold two events in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, continuing his focus in that critical battleground state.
During his first stop Sunday afternoon, Biden will deliver remarks at a “Souls to the Polls” event aimed at getting out of the vote with faith voters and leaders.
Biden also will deliver remarks at a drive-in event in the evening.
The Guardian Angels New York chapter, a non-profit crime prevention organization, will increase patrols to help prevent unrest around the city following election day results, the organization’s president Curtis Sliwa told media Saturday morning during a brief news conference.
This comes as Sliwa says businesses have already started to board up their windows in anticipation of the unrest.
“More importantly we know that there are thugs, there are looters who have no political identity who may take advantage of the situation and riot and loot again like they did on June 1, June 2. We stood in their way in midtown and Soho if necessary we are prepared to do it again,” Sliwa said.
As of this morning, 4,345,427 ballots have been cast in North Carolina, according to data provided by the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
This means 59.1 % of all currently registered voters in North Carolina have already voted in the 2020 election.
More than 90 million Americans have voted so far with three days left until Election Day, according to a survey of election officials in all 50 states and Washington, DC, by CNN, Edison Research, and Catalist.
These votes represent almost 43% of registered voters nationwide. Fourteen states have seen more than half of their registered voters cast ballots already.
As pre-Election Day voting surges nationwide amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, many states are reporting record turnout compared to last cycle.
As of Friday, Texas and Hawaii surpassed its total turnout from the 2016 general election.
Nationwide, the more than 90 million ballots already cast represents about 66% — almost two-thirds — of the more than 136.5 million ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election.
Some context: So far, 35 states and Washington, DC, have crossed their halfway marks for total 2016 ballots cast, including 13 of CNN’s 16 most competitively-ranked states: Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Wisconsin, Maine, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska.
About half of the votes already cast this cycle comes from those 16 key states, which will play a crucial role in determining who wins the presidency this year.
Some voter information comes from Catalist, a company that provides data, analytics and other services to Democrats, academics and nonprofit issue-advocacy organizations and is giving insights into who is voting before November.
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More than 9.6 million people voted in the key state of Texas during the three-week early voting period that concluded Friday night.
This marks a 7.8% increase in votes compared to the overall 2016 tally, with Election Day remaining and as voters continue to return their mail ballots.
Some context: The high turnout so far accounts for about 57% of registered voters in the state. Total registered voters has grown 12% since 2016, or almost 1.9 million people.
On Friday, 563,017 people voted in person, bringing the total in-person votes to 8,698,233, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s website. Ballots-by-mail, which will continue to come in, account for 971,013 votes so far.
Texas had 8.96 million ballots cast in the 2016 election, or 59% of registered voters at the time.
