US Presidential Elections 2020 HIGHLIGHTS: Kamala Harris will never be president, says Donald Trump

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump spent Monday diminishing each other's credentials on the economy and understanding of the American worker as the presidential campaign entered its final, post-Labor Day stretch. While workers live by an "American code", Biden said Trump "lives by a code of lies, greed and selfishness" as he met with labour leaders in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a key swing state.

Trump, meanwhile, tried to put the halting economic recovery under the best light in a White House press conference where he said Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, would "destroy this country and would destroy this economy". Labor Day typically marks the unofficial start to the fall campaign season as candidates accelerate their activity for the final sprint to Election Day.

President Donald Trump says he's open to an investigation of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy following published reports that former employees of DeJoy, a major donor to Trump and other Republicans, said they felt pressured to make campaign contributions to GOP candidates. The president also said Monday that DeJoy should lose his job if campaign finance irregularities are uncovered while describing the GOP fundraiser as a very honest guy.

Trump replied "sure, sure" when asked at a news conference whether he would support an investigation into DeJoy. DeJoy already faces unrelated scrutiny from Congress for U.S. Postal Service changes that some fear will slow delivery of mail-in ballots for the November 3 elections.

Asked if DeJoy should lose his job if a campaign finance scheme is uncovered, Trump replied: "Yeah, if something could be proven that he did something wrong, always. Always. The Washington Post reported online Sunday that several ex-employees of DeJoy's former business, New Breed Logistics, said DeJoy or his aides urged them to make political contributions.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris met the family of a Wisconsin man shot by police last month to kick off her Labor Day visit to a critical swing state, while President Donald Trump assailed the Democratic ticket and tried to put the halting economic recovery under the best light. Harris gathered with Jacob Blake's father, two sisters and members of his legal team at the airport in Milwaukee while Blake's mother and attorney Ben Crump joined by phone. Blake joined the conversation by phone from his hospital bed, and Harris told him she was proud of him for how he was working through his pain, his attorneys said in a statement. Harris also spoke individually to each member of the family and discussed Biden's police reform agenda, they said. Joe Biden met with the family last week in Milwaukee before visiting Kenosha, the city where police shot Blake.

President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden took rhetorical swipes at each other on Monday as the presidential campaign entered its traditional homestretch on the U.S. Labor Day holiday. Trump described Biden, whom he trails in national polls, as a threat to the economy and "stupid," while Biden took aim at Trump's reported disparaging of fallen troops. At a White House news conference, Trump said: "Biden and his very liberal running mate (Kamala Harris), the most liberal person in Congress by the way - is not a competent person in my opinion, would destroy this country and would destroy this economy." He also called Biden "stupid." Trump has frequently referred to the former vice president as "Sleepy Joe."

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have called for the immediate suspension of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy as they launch an investigation into his testimony to lawmakers, the Washington Post newspaper said on Monday. The paper quoted Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chairwoman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, as saying the committee would start an investigation, adding that DeJoy may have lied to it under oath. The move follows accusations that DeJoy reimbursed former employees for campaign contributions to his preferred Republican politicians, an arrangement that would be illegal. Maloney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would support an investigation into campaign contributions involving DeJoy.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris met the family of a Wisconsin man shot by police last month to kick off her Labor Day visit to a critical swing state, while President Donald Trump assailed the Democratic ticket and tried to put the halting economic recovery under the best light. Harris gathered with Jacob Blake's father, two sisters and members of his legal team at the airport in Milwaukee while Blake's mother and attorney Ben Crump joined by phone. Blake joined the conversation by phone from his hospital bed, and Harris told him she was proud of him for how he was working through his pain, his attorneys said in a statement. Harris also spoke individually to each member of the family and discussed Biden's police reform agenda, they said.

The US has two systems of justice for Black and White Americans, Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris has said, as the Indian-origin Senator rebuked President Donald Trump and his Attorney General for denying there is systemic racism in the country's justice system. The strong criticism from Harris, the first Black and Indian-American woman on a major party vice presidential ticket came less than two months before the US presidential election.

Democratic Party's presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Harris are challenging incumbent President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence of the Republican Party in the November 3 election.

Harris, 55, strongly criticised President Trump and Attorney General William Barr for denying there is systemic racism in the US justice system, saying they are "spending full time in a different reality."

Kamala Harris in an interview alleged that there are classic voter suppression at play in this election coming up, , where, after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act with Shelby v. Holder in 2013, dozens of states passed laws that were designed to suppress the black vote, to suppress students from voting, to suppress indigenous people from voting.

So, we have classic voter suppression. We have what happened in 2016, which is foreign interference. We have a president who is trying to convince the American people not to believe in the integrity of our election system and compromise their belief that their vote might actually count, Harris said.

Russian interference could theoretically cost Democrats the presidential elections, party's vice-presidential candidate Indian-American Senator Kamala Harris said on Sunday.Harris, 55, is a Senator from California. She is the first ever black, African American and a person of Indian descent to be nominated as a vice presidential nominee by a major political party in the United States.

"I am clear that Russia interfered in the election of president of the United States in 2016, Harris told CNN in an interview."I serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee. We have published detailed reports about exactly what we believe happened. And I do believe that there will be foreign interference in the 2020 election, and that Russia will be at the front of the line, she said responding to a question on the allegations of Russian interference in the presidential elections."Could it cost you the White House? she was asked. Theoretically, of course, yes, Harris said. (PTI)

According to The Washington Post The book  alleges that Donald Trump made numerous racist remarks, according to the Washington Post, including saying that Barack Obama only got into Columbia University and Harvard Law School because of “f*****g affirmative action”. Trump had “hatred and contempt” for Obama, the book says.

Trump began his political career by promoting the “birther” conspiracy theory that falsely claimed Obama was not born in the US. CNN also reports that Cohen’s book claims that before he became president “Trump hired a ‘Faux-Bama’ to participate in a video in which Trump ‘ritualistically belittled the first black president and then fired him’.” CNN included a picture it said was from the book of Trump in an office facing a black man across a desk.  According to the Post, Cohen alleges that the US president has a “low opinion of all black folks”

In Washington, Trump and his campaign affiliates hired lawyers to assist members of his staff and family — including a onetime bodyguard, his oldest son and his son-in-law — as they were pulled into investigations related to Russia and Ukraine. The Republican National Committee has paid at least $2.5 million in legal bills to the firms that did this and other legal work. (Read Full Report here)

A boat rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign on Lake Travis in Texas ended in tragedy on Saturday after at least four boats sank, according to local authorities. While several participants were pulled out of the water and rescued, none of them were seriously injured, the New York Times reported.

Kristen Dark, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, told Agence France-Presse that there was no evidence of foul play. Describing the dire situation at the lake on Saturday, she said, “Some (boats) were taking on water, some were stalled, some were capsizing, it was all types of different things.”

While the exact number of boats and participants is still not clear, at least 2,500 people had earlier confirmed that they would be attending on a Facebook page created to promote the event.(Read More)

Democratic US vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris said she would not take President Donald Trump's word alone on any potential coronavirus vaccine.

"I would not trust Donald Trump," Harris said, saying she would be convinced of the efficacy of a vaccine only if someone credible were vouching for it as well."I will not take his word for it." (AP)

Kamala Harris told a friendly crowd of Hollywood donors on Thursday they'd be surprised by how many states she's visiting daily, if only virtually.

Earlier in the week, she'd campaigned before supporters in Minnesota, California and Connecticut, and she was greeting Missouri donors next. Harris hasn't been on a plane in more than a month. Three weeks after joining Joe Biden as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, the California senator is still campaigning largely in front of a computer screen to relatively small audiences.

That's about to change.

On Monday, Harris will travel to Milwaukee on her first traditional campaign trip. Biden's campaign hasn't yet said what she plans to do in the critical swing state. Her trip to Wisconsin comes after Biden visited Kenosha this past week to meet with the family of Jacob Blake, who was shot by police, and talk to the community about racial justice and protests in the city. The coronavirus pandemic has radically altered campaigning for Democrats, who, unlike Republicans, are largely avoiding in-person gatherings and organising digitally. (AP)

Showcasing Black Americans at the Republican National Convention to allay white voters' fears that President Donald Trump is a racist.

Sharing touching stories about the president's concern for the military. Painting Democrat Joe Biden as an unacceptable alternative who threatens the American way of life.

It's all part of the Trump campaign's effort to construct a "permission structure" - a clunky catchphrase for creating an emotional and psychological gateway to help disenchanted voters feel comfortable voting for the president again despite their reservations about him personally.

Both the GOP convention and the president's recent "law and order" mantra have been aimed squarely at former Trump supporters who've grown unhappy with his inflammatory rhetoric and handling of the coronavirus pandemic. (AP)

As President Donald Trump sows doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, he's found a powerful partner in Attorney General William Barr.

Like Trump, Barr has repeatedly sounded alarms about the November vote despite a lack of evidence pointing to pervasive problems with the process. That's important - and worrisome to Democrats - because Barr is no ordinary Cabinet member.

As head of the Justice Department, he can shape investigations into election interference and voting fraud. Though the department doesn't oversee elections, it could inject itself into court fights over disputed contests. And any statements from America's top law enforcement officer questioning election results could further shake public confidence in the vote at a time of widespread disinformation and rumors.

"Those who think that Barr is watching over the interests of Trump rather than the interests of the country have reason to be concerned that he would weaponise the Justice Department's investigative authority to help Trump at least politically, if not legally, in any post-election challenge," said Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine. (AP)

China, Iran and Russia are the three countries that are seeking to undermine US elections, US National Security Adviser (NSA) Robert O’Brien has alleged noting that some of them prefer Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as the next White House occupant.

When it comes to elections and what the intelligence community has made very clear is that first you have China, which has most massive programme to influence the United States politically. You have Iran and you have Russia. These are all three adversary countries that are seeking to disrupt our elections, O’Brien told reporters at the White House. (Read More)

Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden has said that under his watch, America is going to stand up for the dissidents and defenders of human rights in China.

“Under my watch America is going to stand up for the dissidents and defenders of human rights in China,”Biden said.“We have to lead not just by the example of our power, but (by) the power of our example,” Biden said in response to a question during a virtual fundraiser. (Read More)

Showcasing Black Americans at the Republican National Convention to allay white voters fears that President Donald Trump is a racist, sharing touching stories about the presidents concern for the military,  painting Democrat Joe Biden as an unacceptable alternative who threatens the American way of life. 

Its all part of the Trump campaigns effort to construct a permission structure _ a clunky catchphrase for creating an emotional and psychological gateway to help disenchanted voters feel comfortable voting for the president again despite their reservations about him personally. (AP)

The First Family of the United States is in love with India, US President Donald Trump indicated as he noted that both his daughter Ivanka and son Donald Trump Jr along with Kimberly Guilfoyle think a lot about India and so does he.“I know India and I understood those young people (Kimberly, Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka) that you mentioned. They’re very good young people. And I know their relationship to India is very good and so is mine,” Trump told reporters at the White House. (AP)

Highlighting the great relationship that he has developed with Indian Americans and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump said that he would think that Indian Americans would vote for him in the November 3 presidential election. “We have great support from India. We have great support from Prime Minister Modi. I would think that the Indian (American) people would be voting for Trump,” the president told reporters at a White House news conference. 

Joe Biden said Friday that he’s been tested at least once for the COVID-19 virus and promised he will be tested regularly during his general election campaign against President Donald Trump.

The Democratic presidential nominee told reporters of his testing protocol during a wide-ranging news conference in which he blasted Trump for downplaying the coronavirus and thus ensuring that it will continue to kill Americans and ravage the economy. (Read More)

An unexpectedly steep drop in the U.S. unemployment rate last month looks to offer fresh ammunition for President Donald Trump as he stumps for votes contending he is the better choice for the U.S. economy in the run-up to the Nov. 3 presidential election.

But the Labor Department's monthly jobs report also contains tinder for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to make his own case against Trump's economic stewardship, with fewer job gains and widening disparity among racial groups.

Trump was quick off the draw with his take: "Great Jobs Numbers!" he tweeted, adding that the unemployment rate had fallen below 10%, the peak during the Great Recession, sinking "faster and deeper than thought possible."Biden, meanwhile, is scheduled to hammer Trump on the economy in a speech later on Friday.Historically, incumbent presidential candidates are hurt by a weak economy, and the coronavirus pandemic touched off the worst quarter in modern U.S. economic history. (Reuters)

Slamming China's plan to further tighten control over Tibet, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said that if voted to power, his administration will sanction Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses in the remote Himalayan region.

Noting that the Chinese government recently announced plans to further tighten control over Tibet, thereby continuing to erode the human rights, religious freedoms, and dignity of the Tibetan people, the former US vice president said that these are only the latest efforts by Beijing to crush ethnic minorities that seek to preserve their distinct culture, language and beliefs. "My administration will sanction Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses in Tibet, and step up support for the Tibetan people, including by expanding Tibetan language services at Radio Free Asia and Voice of America to get information from the outside world into Tibet," Biden said.

Biden vowed that as president he will meet with the Dalai Lama, appoint a new Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, and insist that the Chinese government restore access to Tibet for US citizens, including American diplomats and journalists. (PTI)

Mail balloting in the presidential election is set to begin Friday as North Carolina starts sending out more than 600,000 ballots to voters - responding to a massive spike in requests that has played out across the country as voters look for a safer way to cast ballots during the pandemic.

The 618,000 ballots requested in the initial wave in North Carolina were more than 16 times the number the state sent out at the same time four years ago. The requests came overwhelmingly from Democratic and independent voters, a reflection of a new partisan divide over mail voting.

The North Carolina numbers were one more bit of evidence backing up what experts have been predicting for months: Worries about the virus are likely to push tens of millions of voters to vote by mail for the first time, transforming the way the election is conducted and the vote is counted. In 2016, just one-quarter of the electorate cast votes through the mail. This time, elections officials expect the majority of voters to do so. Wisconsin has already received nearly 100,000 more requests than it did in the 2016 election. In Florida, 3,347,960 people requested ballots during the 2016 election. The state has already received 4,270,781 requests. (AP)

The US unemployment rate dropped to 8.4 per cent in August with the addition of over 1.4 million new jobs, a latest monthly report said on Friday, reflecting that the world's biggest economy, which was severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, is on its path to recovery.

The report, released by the Department of Labour, also said that in August, the unemployment rate declined by 1.8 percentage points to 8.4 per cent, and the number of unemployed persons fell by 2.8 million to 13.6 million. Both the measures have declined for four consecutive months but are higher than in February, by 4.9 percentage points and 7.8 million, respectively, the Bureau of Labour Statistics said. These improvements in the labour market reflect the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to contain the disease, it said. (PTI)

At a family dining table in tiny Reedsburg, Wisconsin, Arlene Ketchpaw chatted with a half-dozen Sauk County Democrats about how to win over voters, her fellow volunteers staring out from a now familiar Zoom screen. A day later, many Republicans found seats around tables in a strip mall campaign office in nearby Baraboo for training that included an element missing from the Democrats' agenda: knocking on doors.

"Doors win campaigns,' Mickey Shelton, a Wisconsin organizer for President Donald Trump, told GOP volunteers in the county Trump carried by a scant 109 votes.

Shelton's comment highlights the bright line between Joe Biden's Democratic presidential battleground approach, almost entirely virtual, and that of Trump's campaign, which insists that even during a pandemic, face-to-face voter contact is critical in the final stretch. Democrats acknowledge they wish they could do more in-person campaigning, but say the coronavirus has forced them to take the neighborhood model pioneered by Barack Obama and adapt it to a public health crisis. Republicans are putting their faith in the data about Trump supporters that they have gathered, and believe they need to reinforce the president's appeal in person.(AP)

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder backed Joe Biden for president on Thursday, becoming the latest high-profile Republican to support the Democratic nominee over President Donald Trump.Donald Trump has actually been leading the charge on incivility. The divisiveness in our nation has not been worse in our lifetimes,'' Snyder told The Associated Press.

President Donald Trump is mocking his Democratic rival for letting his mask hang off his ear when he delivers speeches.Speaking to rally-goers in Pennsylvania, Trump says of Joe Biden,  Did you ever see a man who likes a mask as much as him?  Says Trump:  He has it hanging down. Because it gives him a feeling of security. If I were a psychiatrist, right, you know I'd say: 'This guy's got some big issues. Hanging down. Hanging down.' Trump acknowledges that face coverings are particularly important for the nation heading into the Labour Day holiday weekend, as public experts have called for Americans to be particularly diligent to prevent a repeat of the explosion of new coronavirus cases seen after Memorial Day.(AP)

The two million Hindus in the United States are a vital and key voting bloc in several swing states this presidential elections, Indian American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said as he told fellow community members that it was their dharma to exercise their franchise.

In his virtual keynote address at the formal launch of the ‘Hindu Americans for Biden’, Krishnamoorthi, who is the three-time Democratic Congressman from Illinois, urged community members to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his Indian American running mate Kamala Harris on November 3.(Read more)

Joe Biden told residents of Kenosha, Wisconsin, that recent turmoil following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, could help Americans confront centuries of systemic racism.

In his first trip to the battleground state, Biden said, "We're finally now getting to the point where we're going to be addressing the original sin of this country, 400 years old " slavery and all the vestiges of it." (AP)

Mail balloting was set to begin Friday in the presidential election as North Carolina starts sending out more than 600,000 ballots to voters _ responding to a massive spike in requests that has been seen across the country due to the fear of the coronavirus.

The 618,000 ballots requested in the initial wave in North Carolina were more than 16 times the number the state sent out at the same time four years ago.

While ballots go out in two weeks in other battlegrounds like Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all eyes are on North Carolina as it leads off. North Carolina is under the twin stresses of record mail voting and the pandemic this week.(With AP)

President Donald Trump on Thursday honed the law and order message he intends to wield for the next two months against his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, stepping up attacks that his campaign believes are resonating with battleground state voters.

"Biden's plan is to appease the domestic terrorists and my plan is to arrest them and prosecute them, Trump declared at a rally in Pennsylvania a state that flipped in his favour in 2016, helping to pave his road to victory.

The rally comes as Trump's campaign is claiming new signs of momentum, including in the longtime Democratic stronghold that Trump won by less than 45,000 votes in 2016.(AP)

President Donald Trump has urged residents in the critical political battleground of North Carolina to try to vote twice in the Nov. 3 election, once by mail and once in person, igniting a furor for appearing to urge a potential act of voter fraud.

“Let them send it in and let them go vote,” Trump said in an interview on Wednesday with WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina. “And if the system is as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person. At a rally on Thursday night, Trump repeated his call for voters to go the polls even if they have mailed in their ballot, and he suggested Democrats would try to steal the election by manipulating the mail-in vote.(Reuters)

About 68,000 pieces of political mail were delayed for five days upon arriving at a Baltimore mail processing facility ahead of Maryland's June primary, according to a U.S. Postal Service audit. The mail, described as campaign materials from a candidate, was sent May 12 and sat unprocessed for nearly a week before management discovered it, the audit's findings, published Monday, show.

Brooklyn, New York; Charleston, W.Va.; Indianapolis; Oklahoma City; Portland, Ore.; and Santa Clarita, Calif., were also included in the Postal Service inspector general's national audit. The audit specified political mail as any mailpiece created by a registered political candidate, a campaign committee or a committee of a political party for political campaign purposes.

Auditors found that no ballots were among the delayed mail in Baltimore, though 200 ballots were found untouched in Oklahoma City and several facilities did not properly verify that all political mail had been processed in the weeks before the primaries. The audit was intended to evaluate the Postal Service's readiness ahead of the November general election, the inspector general said in a statement Monday. (AP)

Progressives trying to shove Congress to the left by competing in this year's Democratic primaries ousted three moderate incumbents, won other victories and established themselves as a force that's not going away. But some challengers lost, and their overall wins were a modest number compared with the 535 House and Senate members. That means it's been a mixed bag of results for progressives in this year's races, leading party centrists to minimize those gains and assert that congressional Democrats' power is really wielded by moderates.

“Centrists won the big enchilada, the presidential race,” said Jim Kessler, an executive vice president at the moderate Third Way, citing Joe Biden's triumph over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for the party's nomination. Kessler wasn't impressed with the three progressive challengers who defeated Democratic incumbents, either.

“If this is what they call a win, they can have this cycle every two years for the next 20,” he said. 'I'd be thrilled.'

As the long parade of House and Senate Democratic state primaries finally nears its end, progressives suffered a high-profile setback Tuesday in western Massachusetts. Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, 31, openly gay and backed by a host of progressive stars, lost an expensive bid to defeat Rep. Richard Neal, a 16-term House veteran who chairs the Ways and Means Committee. (AP)

According to a Reuters report, nearly 100 Republican and independent leaders will endorse Democrat Joe Biden for president on Thursday, including one-time 2020 Republican presidential candidate Bill Weld and the former Republican governors of Michigan and New Jersey. 

The latest Republican-led effort to oppose the re-election of President Donald Trump also includes current and former Republicans in the key battleground state of Michigan that will help decide the outcome of the Nov. 3 election, the group’s members told Reuters.

With just two months left until the US presidential election, Facebook says it is taking more steps to encourage voting, minimise misinformation and reduce the likelihood of post-election civil unrest. The company said Thursday it will restrict new political ads in the week before the election and remove posts that convey misinformation about COVID-19 and voting. It also will attach links to official results to posts from candidates and campaigns declaring premature victories.

"This election is not going to be business as usual. We all have a responsibility to protect our democracy," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on Thursday.  "That means helping people register and vote, clearing up confusion about how this election will work, and taking steps to reduce the chances of violence and unrest."

Facebook and other social media companies are being scrutinized over how they handle misinformation, given issues with President Donald Trump and other candidates posting false information and Russia's interference in the 2016 White House elections and ongoing attempts to interfere in US politics.

Campaigning for more than a year as a calming, unifying figure, Joe Biden and his core pitch for the presidency face the most intense test yet when he travels to Kenosha, Wisconsin, a city wrenched by police and protest violence that makes it a microcosm of the nation's election-year reckoning with systemic racism.

The 77-year-old former vice president, travelling two days after President Donald Trump visited the same city, plans to meet Thursday with family of Jacob Blake, who remains hospitalised after being shot seven times in the back by a white police officer as authorities attempted to arrest him.
Biden also plans a community discussion that he indicated would draw business figures, civic leaders and law enforcement officials.

"This is about making sure that we move forward," Biden told reporters Wednesday. He added that he's not going to tell Kenosha what they have to do but instead encourage a community talk about what has to be done. Falling exactly two months before Election Day, the trip presents Biden both opportunity and risks as he tests his promise, made again and again for 16 months

As thunderstorms threatened, President Donald Trump sped through a V-J Day speech on Wednesday, trumpeting American strength and managing to squeeze in a swipe at Democratic rival Joe Biden. Trump stood before an iconic World War II-era battleship to declare the port city of Wilmington, North Carolina, a World War II Heritage City. He pointed to a bolt of lightning and said it was God saluting the event.

He honoured war veterans, including 97-year-old Hershel Wood Williams, the sole surviving Marine from the war to receive the Medal of Honour. The West Virginia native fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific. 'He's 100 percent sharp,' Trump said of Williams, who travelled to the key battleground state with the president aboard Air Force One.

'I know a 78-year-old who's not so sharp,' Trump added, a clear allusion to Biden.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had insisted earlier this week that there was no 'political purpose' to Trump's visit to North Carolina. But when the president landed in Wilmington, Trump lost no time in criticising Biden. 'This is the most important election in the history of our country. I really believe that, because we're running against people that have got some big issues,' he told supporters on the airport tarmac. 'They have got some big, big problems. They're stone cold crazy.'

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that voters in the state of North Carolina should vote twice in the November election, once by vote and once by mail, to make sure their vote was counted."So, let them send it in and let them go vote," Trump said in an interview with WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina, when asked about the security of mail-in votes.

"And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won't be able to vote" in person.Voting more than once in an election is illegal.Activists raised concerns over Trump's remarks, saying what he suggested was in violation of law and urging the public not to listen to his suggestion."Casting two ballots is illegal. Don't listen to the president", the American Civil Liberties Union said on Twitter.U.S. Attorney General William Barr said on Wednesday that mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election could be vulnerable to fraud, echoing an argument Trump has made to denounce the use of voting by mail.

As the 2020 presidential race between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden heats up, Attorney General William Barr warned of the potential of substantial fraud in voting by mail, but he omitted necessary context, and states that rely on the process say there is little evidence of such activity. He also suggested that China poses more of a threat to election security than Russia, even though that was not the conclusion of an official intelligence assessment last month. Here's a look at the claims, made in a Wednesday night interview with CNN: BARR on fraud in the vote-by-mail process: "Elections that have been held with mail have found substantial fraud and coercion." Multiple studies have debunked the notion of pervasive voter fraud in general and in the vote-by-mail process.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr said on Wednesday that mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election could be vulnerable to fraud, echoing an argument President Donald Trump has made to denounce the use of voting by mail."People trying to change the rules to this methodology, which, as a matter of logic, is very open to fraud and coercion. It's reckless and dangerous, and people are playing with fire," Barr said in an interview with CNN.Voting by mail is not new in the United States - nearly one in four voters cast presidential ballots in 2016 that way.

Joe Biden is calling the struggle to reopen US schools amid the coronavirus a "national emergency" and accusing President Donald Trump of turning his back to instead stoke passions about unrest in America's cities. The Democratic presidential nominee's broadsides came a day ahead of his own trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Biden said he wants to help "heal" a city reeling from another police shooting of a Black man. The wounding of Jacob Blake and subsequent demonstrations have made the political battleground state a focal point for debate over police and protest violence, as well as the actions of vigilante militias.

A law firm with ties to prominent Democrats has filed a lawsuit attempting to keep rapper Kanye West off presidential ballots in Virginia. Attorneys for Perkins Coie filed a lawsuit in Richmond on Tuesday on behalf of two people who say they were tricked into signing an Elector Oath backing West's candidacy. Under state law, a candidate must have 13 electors pledge their support for a candidate as part of the criteria to appear on the ballot.

The lawsuit alleges that 11 of West's 13 electors may be invalid and asks the court to block West's name from appearing on ballots, which are set to be printed soon. Virginia will begin mailing absentee ballots later this month.

West supported President Donald Trump for reelection until announcing his own presidential bid in July. (AP)

President Donald Trump is recycling a baseless conspiracy theory to claim that recent protests have been orchestrated by powerful people in "dark shadows" intent on undermining his reelection prospects.

The claims first took root on Facebook and Twitter earlier this year after racial justice protests swelled across the country following the deaths of Black Americans in police custody. Thousands of social media users shared posts suggesting a covert network was coordinating the protests and rioters were descending on communities across the country.

Trump appeared to amplify those unfounded conspiracy theories in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham that aired Monday night, suggesting that protests in Washington during the Republican National Convention were orchestrated by unspecified forces. "We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that," said Trump, adding that the matter is under investigation. When asked by reporters Tuesday for additional details on his assertion, Trump said someone else witnessed the activity and he would have to check to see if that person was willing to speak with news media. (AP)

China has taken a "naive" US and its leaders for a ride over the past several decades, according to former top Indian-American diplomat Nikki Haley, who said the Trump administration through its robust Indo-Pacific strategy is now learning who its real friends are.

Speaking at the third India-US Leadership Summit organised virtually by the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF), former US Ambassador to the UN Haley on Tuesday said Americans know that Indians are not a threat to them and as such, it is time for Indians to share their success story.

The US has been pushing for a greater role for India in the strategic Indo-Pacific which is seen by many countries as an effort to contain China's growing clout in the region. "Let's acknowledge how China did it. China was very strategic. This was very planned out and America was very naive. The thought leaders in America thought that if we were nice to China, if we open doors to China, it would become more like the West, that China would become more democratic," Haley said.

President Donald Trump charged into the latest eruption in the nation's reckoning over racial injustice on Tuesday, blaming "domestic terror" that he said fuelled the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and declaring it was enabled by Democratic leaders.

While Trump declared the violence "anti-American," he offered no words for the underlying cause of the anger and protests - accusations of police violence against Black men - and did not mention Jacob Blake, who was badly wounded last week in Kenosha. Soon after arriving in the city, a visit made over the objections of state and local leaders, Trump toured the charred remains of a block besieged by violence and fire.

With the scent of smoke still in the air, he spoke to the owners of a century-old store that had been destroyed and continued to link the violence to the Democrats, blaming those in charge of Kenosha and Wisconsin while raising apocalyptic warnings if their party should capture the White House. (AP)

Facebook said Tuesday that it removed a small network of accounts and pages linked to Russia's Internet Research Agency, the "troll factory" that has used social media accounts to sow political discord in the U.S. since the 2016 presidential election.

The people behind the accounts recruited "unwitting" freelance journalists to post in English and Arabic, mainly targeting left-leaning audiences. Facebook said Tuesday the network's activity focused on the U.S., U.K., Algeria and Egypt and other English-speaking countries and countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

The company said it started investigating the network based on information from the FBI about its off-Facebook activities. The network was in the early stages of development, Facebook added, and saw "nearly no engagement" on Facebook before it was removed. The network consisted of 13 Facebook accounts and two pages. About 14,000 accounts followed one or more of the pages, though the English-language page had a little over 200 followers, Facebook said. (AP)

Massachusetts voters on Tuesday were deciding one of the high profile battles on this year's primary ballot - the contest pitting incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward Markey against U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III.

The 39-year-old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, promising a new generation of leadership, is hoping to become the next Kennedy to take a seat in the U.S. Senate by ousting the 74-year-old Markey. While the two agree on many policies, each has tried to paint the other as out of touch on key issues.

Kennedy has gone after Markey on the issue of racial inequity, criticising his initial opposition to school desegregation efforts in Boston in the 1970s and noting criticism of Markey by the father of Danroy "DJ" Henry, a young Black man from Massachusetts killed by police 10 years ago. Kennedy has also highlighted his family's political legacy, in part in response to Markey, who during one debate told Kennedy he should tell his father - former U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy II - not to help fund a political action committee that was going after Markey. (AP)