President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Orlando Sanford International Airport, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020, in Sanford, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Here’s what’s happening Tuesday in Election 2020, 21 days until Election Day:
HOW TO VOTE: AP’s state-by-state interactive has details on how to vote in this election.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES:
BARRETT HEARINGS: Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is set to face senators’ questions during a second day of confirmation hearings. The mood is likely to shift to a more confrontational tone as the appellate court judge is grilled in 30-minute segments by Democrats opposed to President Donald Trump’s nominee. Barrett’s approach to health care, legal precedent and even the presidential election are expected topics.
HARRIS IN FOCUS: Trump and his Republican allies are increasingly raising baseless questions about rival Joe Biden’s health and alleging that his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, will really be in charge if Democrats win the White House. The effort is laced with sexist and racist undertones and is aimed at winning back Republicans and independents who are comfortable with Biden’s more moderate record but may associate Harris with Democrats’ left flank, despite her own more centrist positions on some major issues.
‘I FEEL SO POWERFUL’: Defiant as ever about the coronavirus, Trump turned his first campaign rally since contracting COVID-19 into a full-throated defense of his handling of the pandemic, which has killed 215,000 people in the United States, joking that he was healthy enough to plunge into the crowd and give voters “a big fat kiss.” There was no social distancing, and mask-wearing was spotty among the thousands who went to see Trump’s return to Florida.
BIDEN’S PUSH: Biden is campaigning in Ohio as he attempts to expand the battleground map and keep Trump on the defensive in a state thought to be out of reach after veering right in the presidential race four years ago. The Democratic presidential nominee stressed an economic message and promoted his own record while casting Trump as having abandoned working-class voters who helped him win Rust Belt states that put him in the White House in 2016.
VISION 2020: How soon will we know the results of the U.S. election? A shift to mail voting given the coronavirus pandemic is increasing the chances Americans won’t know the winner of the 2020 presidential race on election night, Nov. 3. But that doesn’t mean the results will be flawed or fraudulent. Election officials in some battleground states have warned it might take days to count the votes given what they expect will be a surge of ballots sent by mail. Read more in Vision 2020, a series of stories answering questions from our audience about the election.
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