WASHINGTON: The Latest on the presidential campaign (all times local):
12:40 p.m.
With nine days to go until Election Day, Joe Biden is spending a quiet Sunday in Wilmington, Delaware.
The Democratic presidential candidate attended church nearby his home with two of his granddaughters. Its a Sunday constant for Biden, who makes sure to attend most of the time hes home.
Sunday evening, Biden will speak at a star-studded virtual get-out-the-vote concert. Jill Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will also speak at the event, and a handful of celebrities including John Legend, Jon Bon Jovi and Cher will appear and perform. The concert is part of the campaigns push to get voters to head to the polls early. Harris is spending Sunday campaigning in Detroit, a key base of Democratic support in pivotal Michigan for the Biden campaign.
Biden has had a relatively thin schedule in the final stretch of the campaign, visiting just three states in the past seven days, including Tennessee for the final presidential debate. This week, hes slated to deliver his closing message with a speech in Georgia, a traditionally red-leaning state where Democrats feel they have an opening due to President Donald Trumps struggles in the polls.
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HERES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE:
President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, are framing their closing messages in the sprint to the Nov. 3 election. Trump plans stops Sunday in New Hampshire and Maine. Biden has events in Georgia.
Read more:
Eyes turn to Texas as early voting surge surpasses 2016
Four years in, Trump has plenty of unfinished business
Work already underway for presidential inauguration
As Trump casts doubt on election, new agency contradicts him
Reid says Biden should end Senate filibuster after 3 weeks
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HERES WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON:
11:15 a.m.
With COVID-19 cases surging in the United States, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows acknowledged that the Trump administration cant stop the spread and is focusing instead on getting a vaccine.
He told CNNs State of the Union: Were not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics.
President Donald Trump largely shuns wearing a mask and has repeatedly insisted at campaign rallies that the U.S. is rounding the corner when it comes to the coronavirus. But Meadows on Sunday appeared to contradict that assessment. When pressed why the U.S. wont get control of the pandemic, he replied: Because it is a contagious virus just like the flu.
Meadows says the administration is making efforts to contain the virus and predicts were going to defeat it. Meadows says our ability to handle this has improved each and every day. New cases, however, have been on the rise, according to data published by Johns Hopkins University.
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10:15 a.m.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says shes not giving up on passing another coronavirus relief economic package before the Nov. 3 election.
At issue is a huge virus relief bill that would send another $1,200 direct payment to most Americans, restart bonus unemployment benefits, fund additional testing and vaccines, provide aid to schools and allocate money to state and local governments, a Democratic priority.
Pelosi says she sent the administration a list of concerns on Friday and she is told that shell have answers on Monday.
Pelosi says she wants a relief bill that is predicated on steps that science dictates should be taken to deal with the coronavirus, and if we dont, were just giving money to the president to spend any way he wants and that has not been in furtherance of crushing the virus.
Pelosi spoke on CNN. Earlier, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows says the administration has made many offers, but Pelosi continues to move the goalposts.
Meadows says the relief bill being negotiated would cost about $1.9 trillion. He says he has a commitment from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring a bill to the floor if negotiations with Pelosi conclude successfully.
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10 a.m.
The White House chief of staff says that Vice President Mike Pence is continuing to participate in campaign rallies despite his exposure to a top aide who tested positive for COVID-19 because hes not just campaigning, hes working.
Chief of Staff Mark Meadows says that he spoke with Pence overnight and that the vice president told him he is wearing a mask and social distancing, except when he is speaking at a rally. Meadows says hes wearing a mask as it relates to this particular thing because the doctors have advised him to do that.
Meadows spoke on CNN and was also pressed on whether he sought to quash news of an outbreak among close advisers to Pence. Meadows says sharing personal information is not something that we should do, not something that we do actually do, unless its the vice president or the president, or someone thats very close to them where there is people in harms way.
Pence himself tested negative, his office said. Under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria, the vice president is considered a close contact of his chief of staff, Marc Short, but will not quarantine.
Thousands of supporters have been attending President Donald Trumps campaign rallies in the final weeks of the presidential election. Meadows says the campaign offers masks to attendees but does not require them to wear it because we live in a free society.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
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