US elections news: Trump promises jobs in Michigan, slams Biden

Embattled president defends his response to coronavirus from attacks by Biden after Woodward book excerpts revealed

President Donald Trump slammed Joe Biden's support of past free trade deals during a campaign event at an airport in Freeland, Michigan, on September 10, 2020. [Jonathan Ernst /Reuters]
  • US President Donald Trump, campaigned in the battleground state of Michigan, as Joe Biden said in new interview he’s ‘in shape’ compared to Trump.
  • Trump, under attack from Biden and Harris, pushed back against criticism in Woodward book.
  • Microsoft said hackers from Russia, Iran and China tried to break into more than 200 political organisations.
  • US Senate rejected $300bn Republican coronavirus relief bill opposed by Democrats.

 

 

Here are the latest updates:

Thursday, September 10

20:45 ET – Trump promises to usher in a broad American renewal if re-elected

At a campaign event in Freeland, Michigan, US President Donald Trump promised to bring the United States back from the coronavirus pandemic and rallied a crowd of mostly mask-less supporters packed into an aircraft hanger.

“We will make America wealthy again, we will make America stong again, we will make America proud again, and we will make America great again,” Trump said.

The enthusiastic crowd chanted “four more years” and “we love you” as Trump spoke.

20:15 ET – Trump in Michigan claims he brought manufacturing jobs back to the US, slams Joe Biden’s pro-trade record

“Biden supported every disastrous globalist sell-out for over a half a century including NAFTA, China, and TPP. You know that Joe Biden surrendered your jobs to China,” Trump told a cheering crowd of supporters in Freeland, Michigan.

Trump repeated exaggerated campaign claims that he pressured Japan Prime Minister Shinzoi Abe and others world leaders into putting new manufacturing plants in Michigan by threatening to impose tariffs.

“I went to Prime Minister Abe of Japan, I say Prime Minister, you have to start doing something,” Trump said.

Independent fact-checkers have found Trump’s auto job claims are largely fabricated.

19:35 ET – Trump: Biden will open Michigan to ‘migrants from jihadist regions’

President Donald Trump declared that Michigan will be overrun with terrorists and migrants if Joe Biden is elected president.

During a campaign rally at Freeland, Michigan airport, he suggested without evidence that Biden “wants to eliminate your borders. He promised to flood your state with refugees … from terrorist hotspots around the world including Syria, Somalia and Yemen”.

“He’s also pledged to terminate all national security travel bans, overwhelming your state with poorly vetted migrants from jihadist regions,” Trump continued. “To make matters worse, he would open the floodgates in the middle of a pandemic.”

Trump cited a document drafted by supporters of Biden and his former presidential rival Senator Bernie Sanders saying that the Biden plan would increase refugee admissions by “700 percent”. Independent fact-checkers point out that Trump’s use of that figure is taken out of context compared to historical refugee admissions caps.

18:45 ET – Trump to campaign in battleground states Minnesota, Wisconsin on Friday

President Donald Trump will attend campaign events in Bemidji, Minnesota, and Mosinee, Wisconsin, on Friday. Both will be held at small airports with live audiences, his campaign announced.

Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 but likely faces an uphill climb there against 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden who also is expected to campaign in Minnesota on Friday.

Biden presently leads Trump by an average 6.4 percentage points in voter surveys in Wisconsin and 5 points in Minnesota, which Democrat Hillary Clinton won in 2016, according to RealClearPolitics.com

18:15 ET – Trump said ‘no extension’ for Chinese owner of TikTok to sell its US operation.

Donald Trump speaks to press 091020
President Donald Trump tells media there will be no TikTok extension before boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base for a trip to a campaign rally in Freeland, Michigan, [Evan Vucci/AP Photo]

“It’ll either be closed up or they’ll sell it,” Trump told reporters at the White House, ramping up his anti-China rhetoric before leaving for a campaign stop in Michigan.

“There will be no extension of the TikTok deadline,” Trump said.

Last month, Trump signed an executive order giving the Chinese company ByteDance until November 12 to sell the popular short-video app TikTok’s US assets.

New Chinese regulations have complicated talks with bidders Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

18:00 ET – Michael Cohen to launch a podcast aimed at debunking Trump’s rhetoric

Michael Cohen, the former attorney and personal fixer for President Donald Trump, is launching a podcast following release of his tell-all book “Disloyal” published on September 8.

The podcast – titled “Mea Culpa: Nothing but the truth” – is aimed at debunking Trump’s rhetoric for former followers of the president like Cohen who is now serving the remainder of a jail term in home confinement.

“Cohen once vowed to take a bullet for Trump”, but that “was before the country was brought to its knees by the president’s own lies and personal madness”, the promotion for the podcast on Apple’s podcast page advertised.

17:30 ET – Biden says he’s ‘in shape’ compared to Trump

Joe Biden
Democratic US presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden says he is mentally and physically ready for the gruelling campaign ahead. [Leah Millis/Reuters]

One of Donald Trump’s constant refrains about his opponent Joe Biden is that he’s ‘slow’ and isn’t physically up to the job of serving as president of the US.

The 77-year-old Biden laughed at that notion during an interview with CNN saying, “When it comes to Donald Trump versus me, just look at us. OK? Just look at us. Who seems to be in shape? Who’s able to move around?”

“Just look at us both, watch us, and determine whether or not you think I’m misleading anyone. Not you personally, but the public,” Biden said.

“You know, look at me. … I know what the job takes. I’ve sat for hundreds of hours in the Situation Room. For eight years I was vice president in every major decision. I know how difficult the job is.”

17:10 ET – Biden: Trump has ‘no conception of… national security’

Joe Biden said Donald Trump “seems to have no conception of what constitutes national security,” criticizing the president for telling Bob Woodward about a previously classified nuclear weapons system.

“You wonder why people in the intelligence community wondered from the very beginning whether you could share data with him, ‘cause they don’t trust him. They don’t trust what he’ll say or do,” Biden told CNN during an interview with Jake Tapper.

“He seems to have no conception of what constitutes national security, no conception of anything other than, what can he do to promote himself?”

16:55 ET – VP candidate Harris says Trump ‘dismissed’ seriousness of COVID-19

Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris addressed the reporting about Trump’s comments to Bob Woodward at a campaign event in Miami.

“So, basically what we are hearing is that on January 28, the president and the vice president were informed about the imminence and the dangers of COVID-19,” Harris said.

“The president of the United States, who has the unique and very important and special responsibility of concerning himself with keeping the American people safe, was in a conversation….said that COVID was deadly stuff, said that it is airborne,” she said, according to a pool report from media covering the event.

“This is the same man. Donald Trump who for days, weeks, if not months thereafter calls it a hoax, dismissed the seriousness of it to the point he suggested people should not wear masks. He knew it was airborne that people would breathe it.”

16:40 ET – Microsoft says state-backed actors targeting US political campaigns and groups

China, Russian and Iranian agents have attempted intrustion into more than 200 organizations, reflecting an increase in targeting of US political campaigns and groups, Microsoft said.

The company said most of the infiltration attempts by Russian, Chinese and Iranian agents were halted by Microsoft security software and the targets notified.

The company would not say if any organization had been successfully hacked.

16:10 ET – Trump says he did the right thing regarding coronavirus

President Donald Trump continued to insist he acted appropriately by deliberately not warning Americans about the potential seriousness of the coronavirus, even after acknowledging to author Bob Woodward in February that it would be “deadly”.

“I didn’t lie,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question, at a White House press conference.

“What I said is we have to be calm, we can’t panic. I want to show a level of confidence and I want to show strength as a leader and I want to show that our country is going to be fine one way or the other,” he added, before saying, “I think we did a great job” handling the pandemic.

15:15 pm ET – McConnell: Control of US Senate at stake in election

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell compared the tough races some of his fellow Republicans are facing in November to “a knife fight” while acknowledging that his party’s control of the Senate is in peril.

“I think it’s a 50-50 proposition. The outcome of the Senate could go either way,” McConnell told US broadcaster Fox News.

“We have very tight races in Montana, Colorado, Arizona, Iowa, North Carolina, Maine and Georgia. It’s like a knife fight in an alley,” McConnell said.

Republicans are defending a 53-47 majority in the US Senate this November, especially in key states where Democrats have mounted tough challengers.

Election analysts generally agree that Democrats have a good chance of defeating at least seven Republican incumbents while only two incumbent Democrats are considered vulnerable.

14:15 ET – US Treasury sanctions Ukrainian legislator for interference in presidential election

The Trump administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Russia-linked Ukrainian legislator and three Russians for interfering in the US presidential election by releasing edited audio recordings designed to denigrate Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

The action by the US Treasury Department is the second time in as many months that the administration has called out Andrii Derkach by name.

“Andrii Derkach and other Russian agents employ manipulation and deceit to attempt to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere around the world,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

President Trump had promoted one of the edited recordings on Twitter on August 17.

Steve Mnuchin
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says Ukrainian legislator Andrii Derkach is promoting “false and unsubstantiated narratives”. [Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP]

13:45 ET – Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris campaigns for Latino, African-American votes in Miami, Florida

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff stopped by a fast-casual Venezuelan restaurant in Doral, Florida, to pick-up some ‘arepas’ en route from Miami airport to a campaign event at Florida Memorial University, an historically Black university.

Harris elbow bumped some of the customers eating inside the restaurant with masks on and chatted with some of them about the importance of voting, according to a pool report from media travelling with the candidate.

A man eating there said, “Welcome to Doralzuela” (Doral + Venezuela). Harris laughed and responded with a “gracias” before getting into the importance of voting.  “There are so many important issues,” she told the man. “There’s so much at stake.”

Biden lags among Latino voters in Florida where the latest polls show the presidential race is tied.

13:31 ET – US Senate fails to advance Republican virus aid bill

The US Senate killed a Republican bill that would have provided $300bn in new coronavirus aid, as Democrats who seek far more funding prevented it from advancing.

By a vote of 52-47, the Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed in the 100-member chamber to advance the partisan bill toward passage. The vote makes it unlikely a new round of coronavirus relief will be approved by Congress before the election.

Senator Rand Paul, who opposed the deficit spending in the bill, was the lone Republican to vote no with all Democrats and two independents. Senator Kamala Harris was absent campaiging in Florida.

13:15 ET – Twitter to remove or label misleading voting-related claims

As remote and early voting begins in the US, Twitter said Thursday that starting September 17, attempts to raise questions or doubts about the voting process will be subject to a label or removal.

“We will not permit our service to be abused around civic processes, most importantly elections,” Twitter said in a blog post Thursday. “Any attempt to do so — both foreign and domestic — will be met with strict enforcement of our rules, which are applied equally and judiciously for everyone.”

Mail-in ballots are already headed to voters in North Carolina and Alabama. On September 18, Minnesota will be the first state to allow in-person early voting.

12:00 ET – Vice President Mike Pence defends the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus

Vice President Mike Pence defended the Trump administration’s efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic in an appearance on the conservative Fox News television channel on Thursday morning.

“This president put the health of America first from day one, but he also wanted to reassure the American people all along the way,” Pence said.

“There’s that old saying from World War II, in Great Britain, ‘Keep calm, carry on.’ That was the presidential leadership that I saw,” he said.

11:30 ET – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Trump showed ‘contempt’ for the American people in virus response

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference at the US Capitol that President Trump’s remarks to journalist Bob Woodward showed “contempt” for the American people.

“What the President did – in those comments – showed his contempt, contempt for the American people and their health, contempt for science, contempt for any real effort to crush the virus, contempt for his supporters, their children, their parents,” Pelosi told reporters.

“He hid the facts and refused to take the threat seriously, leaving the the entire country exposed and unprepared,” she said.

10:00 ET – What we are watching today

As the fallout from President Donald Trump’s quotes in Bob Woodward’s new book continues, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi will hold a news conference this morning. She will be taking questions about his comments and the impasse in negotiations with the White House and Republicans over a coronavirus aid bill.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet over lunch with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this afternoon before heading to a campaign rally in the battleground state of Michigan, a day after his Democratic challenger Joe Biden campaigned there promoting his proposed economic policies.

Biden is off the campaign trail today and will hold a series of fundraisers virtually. His vice presidential running mate, Senator Kamala Harris and her husband will campaign in Miami, Florida this afternoon. A series of polls released in the past week show Trump and Biden neck-and-neck in Florida, a very important state.

Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to speak to cadets at the Virginia Military Institute this afternoon.

09:30 ET – Republican coronavirus aid bill opposed by Democrats set to fail in US Senate vote

The US Senate was set to vote on Thursday on a proposed Republican bill that would provide $300bn in new coronavirus aid, a fraction of the $3 trillion Democrats insist is needed to stimulate an ailing economy and help people struggling through the pandemic. The legislation is expected to fail to garner the 60 votes needed to advance in the Senate, the Reuters news agency reported.

In what could be the final vote on coronavirus relief in Congress before the November 3 presidential and congressional elections, Republicans and Democrats appear deadlocked over the next steps in responding to a virus that has killed more than 190,000 people in the US and nearly 900,000 globally.

Mitch McConnell doesn't have the votes to pass virus aid in Senate
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, does not have enough votes to pass a $300bn virus aid bill for the US. Democrats have proposed ten times that amount in a $3 trillion bill. [Joshua Roberts/Reuters]

09:00 ET – Trump is pushing back on Woodward book

Trump and the White House are battling to control the damage from journalist Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book, Rage, in which Trump is quoted on downplaying the threat of the coronavirus to the American public.

The president discounted Woodward’s book in remarks to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday night: “He called. I didn’t participate in his last one, and he does hit jobs with everybody,” Trump said.

“He even did it on Obama … So I figured, you know, let’s just give it a little shot. I’ll speak to him. Wasn’t a big deal … I don’t know if the book is good or bad. I have no idea,” Trump continued. “Probably – almost definitely won’t read it because I don’t have time to read it. But I gave it a little bit of a shot. Sounds like it’s not going to be good,” Trump said.

In a 13:02 GMT tweet on Thursday, Trump picked up a new line of criticism of Woodward that the Washington Post columnist should have published the interviews sooner to save lives.

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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the US elections. This is William Roberts.

Read all the updates from yesterday (September 9) here.

 
Source: Al Jazeera