What A Day: Donald J. and Silent Bobulowski

While President Trump waits for federal law-enforcement officials to save his struggling campaign, he has perfected his game of six-dimensional chess by leaking footage of himself threatening the health care of millions, hours before a presidential debate. A perfectly executed 12 Day Gambit.
 

• Trump has reportedly discussed firing FBI Director Christopher Wray after the election, out of frustration with his (and Attorney General Bill Barr’s) refusal to pull a Jim Comey and announce a bogus investigation into Joe Biden right before the election. Trump has been very public about his desire for a BS ex machina, brought to you by the federal government, all but begging for one in a Tuesday Fox News interview: “We’ve got to get the attorney general to act.” Apropos of nothing, remember that time Trump got impeached for abusing his power to force a sham investigation of the Bidens, and every GOP senator but one voted to keep him in office? Care to make them sweat?
   
• Bereft of a fake investigation to yell about, today Trump violated an agreement with CBS News to release the next-best thing: A White House recording of his disastrous 60 Minutes interview with Leslie Stahl. It’s not immediately clear why Trump would rush to share footage of himself whining about being asked basic questions and storming out like a baby, but the Biden campaign thanks him for the generous in-kind contribution of a) saying plainly that he hopes the Supreme Court will strike down the Affordable Care Act, and b) admitting the White House does not have a backup plan for the 20 million Americans who would lose their coverage as a result. 
   
• Speaking of that looming catastrophe, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have voted to advance Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, while Democrats boycotted the proceeding. Barrett remains on track to be confirmed before Election Day, and the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the future of the ACA on November 10. Unfun fact: The 12 Republicans who sent Barret’s nomination to the Senate floor represent nine million fewer Americans than the 10 Democrats who protested.

Conveniently enough, Joe Biden will have a prime opportunity to spotlight Trump’s health care comments at tonight’s presidential debate. 
 

• The final 2020 debate (the most beautiful phrase since “cellar door”) will take place in person in Nashville, TN, and center on the topics of fighting coronavirus, American families, race in the United States, climate change, national security, and leadership. Microphones will be muted during portions of the debate in an effort to limit Trump’s interruptions, in a special presidential debate edition of the Cheeto lock meme. 
   
• Rather than prepare for his last opportunity to make a substantive case for re-election to a huge viewership, Trump has been: preemptively blaming moderator Kristen Welker for his terrible performance, plotting to bring up Hunter Biden and China throughout the night (an interesting strategy for someone with a recently exposed secret Chinese bank account), and inviting ~surprise guest~ Tony Bobulinski, a big-time relevant person we have all definitely heard of, to sit in the audience.

You’ve made it this far: Join us for the final 2020 Debate Groupthread at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific. We’ll be streaming the debate along with live commentary, fact checks, and red-hot Tony Bobulinksi content. While you’re in the neighborhood, don’t forget to sign up for a volunteer shift → votesaveamerica.com/volunteer

With two weeks until election night, Alyssa Mastromonaco and Danielle Crutchfield (former Director of Scheduling and Advance for Barack Obama) discuss what goes into planning the colossal event. Check out the latest episode of Let's Break It Down, and smash that subscribe button: youtube.com/crookedmedia

The Supreme Court voted 5-3 to allow Alabama to ban election officials from offering curbside voting on Election Day. The Court’s conservative justices blocked a lower court injunction that would have allowed counties to offer the option to accommodate people with disabilities and those at high risk from coronavirus. That’s especially troubling in Alabama, where voters aren’t required to wear masks at the polls. The Court issued the order with no explanation. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor quoted Howard Porter Jr., a Black man in his 70s who has asthma and Parkinson’s, who testified in a September trial in the case: “[S]o many of my [ancestors] even died to vote. And while I don’t mind dying to vote, I think we’re past that — we’re past that time.”

• Intelligence officials say they’re more concerned with Russian election interference than the Iranian efforts DNI John Ratcliffe announced on Wednesday. Russian groups have recently hacked into state and local computer networks in breaches that could allow them to sow doubt about the integrity of election results, if the race isn’t called on November 3. 
   
• A Hennepin County, MN judge has dismissed the third-degree murder charge against Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who killed George Floyd. Third-degree murder would only apply if Chauvin’s actions hadn't been directed at a particular individual; if he had fired a gun into a crowd, for example. Chauvin still faces the more serious second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. 
   
• Joe Biden said he would convene a bipartisan (why) commission of constitutional scholars to recommend reforms to the court system, if elected. 
   
• Your periodic reminder that a herd-immunity coronavirus strategy would be functionally equivalent to mass murder: A coronavirus outbreak among college students in La Crosse, WI, eventually spread to more vulnerable populations, causing 19 deaths in recent weeks, mostly in nursing homes. 
   
• QAnon swamps have exploded with pizzagate-style rumors about Hunter Biden, helped along by the likes of Donald Trump Jr. 
   
• The Ghislaine Maxwell deposition has dropped. In a 2016 civil suit, Maxwell vigorously denied having recruited underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein, said she had no knowledge of any inappropriate activities. 
   
• Chris Christie has written an op-ed about how masks should not be a partisan symbol, and all it took for him to arrive at this realization was nearly dying. 
   
• NASA has a big moon announcement. Moon endorses Joe Biden? Moon wants a cabinet position? Moon will take over Quibi? While we’re waiting, please enjoy this sped-up footage of Apollo 11 astronauts. 
   
• The Trump Hotel in Chicago got hit by three simultaneous lightning strikes, for anyone who’s had it with polls and moved on to signs from the Great Nate in the Sky.

Most of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the U.S. are now in rural areas that often lack health care resources. About one-in-four deaths from the virus is now reported in a rural county, and per capita case and death rates in rural areas have outpaced those in cities since late summer. Most of the hardest-hit counties now have fewer than 10,000 people. As hospitals in those remote areas reach capacity, some residents are finding that the nearest facility with available beds is hours away. Rural hospitals were already struggling before the pandemic began—as of January 1, 120 rural facilities across the country (around seven percent) had shut down over the past ten years, and 453 more were found to be vulnerable to closure. Hospitals in states that haven't expanded Medicaid were much more likely to close, meaning that many of the southern and plains states now facing the worst outbreaks (thanks to Republican leaders) are the least equipped to address them (thanks, again, to Republican leaders).

Two weeks. That's all we have left until the most consequential Election Day in America's history. And it's the most dangerous time in the 2020 election season because we know that many politicians will stop at nothing to hold on to power – including doing everything they can in these final weeks to callously suppress the vote and force voters to choose between their health and their fundamental right to cast a ballot.

The ACLU has been at the forefront of pushing back against discriminatory voter suppression tactics, but in these final weeks we're all going to have to dig a little deeper to keep up the fight to protect our voting rights and our safety in this crucial election. The stakes could not be higher. Combating voter suppression is an all-hands-on-deck fight – we cannot do this critical work, or any work to defend civil liberties, without action-takers like you with us. Click here to add your name and help ACLU teams across the country as we kick our fight against voter suppression into high gear. Visit the ACLU website to get started today. 

The FDA has fully approved remdesivir to treat hospitalized coronavirus patients. It’s now the first and only fully approved coronavirus treatment in the U.S. 

The Texas Supreme Court has thrown out a Republican effort to block Harris County from operating drive-through voting locations. 

The North Carolina Supreme Court could have a fully Democratic bench after November 3. 

You have helped raise over $1.14 million for state legislative candidates, giving Democrats a real shot at fixing gerrymandered district maps and dismantling voter suppression. Keep it up.