2020 US Election Cost Approaching Record $11 Billion

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The 2020 U.S. election is likely to cost nearly $11 billion, making it by far the most expensive election in U.S. history, according to projections by a leading campaign finance watchdog.In a report released Thursday, the Center for Responsive Politics projected the cost of the 2020 presidential and congressional races at $10.8 billion, or more than 50% costlier than the 2016 election when adjusted for inflation.The CRP’s projection is based on spending so far this campaign cycle and additional spending that is likely to occur in the final month leading up to the November 3 election. Thus far, Democrats holdmore

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Trump Administration Proposes Limiting Refugee Admissions to 15,000

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The Trump administration said late Wednesday it wants to cut the number of refugees admitting into the United States to 15,000 in fiscal year 2021, which begins Thursday.The figure represents the latest in a series of annual cuts since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.In 2020, the administration put the cap at 18,000, and the United States allowed 10,892 refugees into the country before putting the program on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.That was the fewest since the modern refugee program was approved by Congress in 1980.  The annual cap during the administration of President Barack Obama wasmore

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Democrats Say Republicans Rushing Barrett Supreme Court Nomination

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Democrats on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said Republicans are rushing the Supreme Court confirmation process for Judge Amy Coney Barrett and reiterated calls for postponing the review of her nomination until after the presidential inauguration in January.In a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham released late Wednesday, Democrats said the timeline Graham has set does not allow for a thorough FBI background investigation, review of her entire judicial record or for Barrett to answer senators’ questions.“This timeline is a sharp departure from past practice,” the Democrats wrote. “Even more, it undercuts the Senate’s ability to fulfill its advicemore

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Notorious Hate Group Proud Boys Celebrates Trump’s Debate Comments

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The Proud Boys are fired up.The notorious hate group has been celebrating since President Donald Trump refused to directly disavow them and other white supremacists during Tuesday night’s presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio.Trump, who has been criticized for never explicitly denouncing right-wing extremism, was asked by debate moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News if he would condemn white supremacy.“Who would you like me to condemn?” Trump asked before Democratic challenger Joe Biden mentioned the Proud Boys, a pro-Trump right-wing group. “The Proud Boys? Stand back and stand by,” Trump responded cryptically.“But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what,” Trumpmore

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Republican Lawmakers Grill Comey on Leadership of Russia Probe

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Republican lawmakers on Wednesday confronted former FBI Director James Comey about his oversight of the Trump-Russia investigation during a politically charged hearing that focused attention on problems with the probe that have become a rallying cry for President Donald Trump’s supporters.Comey, making his first appearance before Congress since a harshly critical inspector general report on the investigation, acknowledged under questioning that the FBI’s process for conducting surveillance on a former Trump campaign adviser was “sloppy” and “embarrassing.” He said he would not have certified the surveillance had he known then what he knows now about applications the FBI submitted inmore

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Mnuchin, Pelosi Make New Effort on Coronavirus Aid

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried again Wednesday to agree on a long-stalled coronavirus relief package before Congress adjourns so lawmakers can campaign ahead of the November 3 election.Mnuchin and Pelosi discussed details of the aid plan that could send more money to American families and businesses, restore unemployment aid to millions of workers laid off from jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic, provide assistance to state and local governments, and offer liability protection to businesses.The sticking point in the discussions was the extent of the aid. The Democrat-controlled House is preparing to vote onmore

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US Debate Commission Promises More ‘Structure’ for Next Trump-Biden Encounters

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The independent U.S. presidential election debate agency said Wednesday that it would move soon to tighten the format of the encounters after critics panned Tuesday’s first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden as the worst in American political history.The two candidates frequently interrupted each other or talked at the same time, with debate moderator Chris Wallace, a Fox News journalist, rebuking Trump for failing to adhere to the rules of the debate to allow both candidates to finish answering questions unimpeded.The Commission on Presidential Debates said the debate debacle showed the need for “additional structure” tomore

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Ski Resorts Struggle to Hire Amid Trump’s Student Visa Ban

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Milagros Sotelo was looking forward to traveling from South America to Tennessee to start a job at Ober Gatlinburg ski resort this winter. The 22-year-old student worked the last two ski seasons in the equipment rental shop at the small resort nestled in the Smoky Mountains and was excited to reconnect with friends, practice her English and take a break from law school in Lima, Peru, where she lives. But on June 22, President Trump signed an executive order temporarily barring a wide variety of foreign worker visas, including J-1 visas often issued to South American students who come tomore

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Trump, Biden Clash in Chaotic, Contentious Debate

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Republican U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, clashed in a contentious, chaotic presidential election debate Tuesday night, trying for 90 minutes to convince American voters that the other one was unfit to lead the United States for the next four years. They argued over the world-leading coronavirus death toll of 205,000 in the U.S., the integrity and honesty of the November 3 vote, Trump’s nomination of conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, fractured racial relations in the U.S., environmental policies and more. Trump disputed a New York Times report this week that he only paid $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016, when he first ran formore

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3 Takeaways From Trump-Biden Debate

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President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden met Tuesday for the first presidential debate ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The 90-minute matchup was moderated by Fox News host Chris Wallace and held at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Here are three takeaways from the debate: Interruptions Trump repeatedly talked over both Biden and moderator Wallace during the debate. The result was chaotic, as both men frequently interrupted each other. The prime-time broadcast often showed a side-by-side view of the candidates with each man talking, at times simultaneously. Trump was often rebuked by Wallace, who told the president to “please let the vice president talk.” At one point Biden told Trump, “Will you shut up, man?”President Donald Trumpmore

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US Court Upholds Extended Wisconsin Ballot Deadline

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A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld a ruling allowing Wisconsin’s absentee ballots in the November general election to be counted if they arrive up to six days after Election Day. The panel of three judges, all appointed by Republican presidents, agreed with a September lower court ruling that said if the ballots are postmarked by November 3, they can be accepted for counting as long as they arrive by November 9. The Republican National Committee and Wisconsin Republicans argued against allowing the deadline extension and could appeal Tuesday’s ruling.  They said voters had plenty of time to obtain and return an absentee ballot by Election Day. Wisconsin Democrats welcomed the court’s decisionmore

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Debate Watchers Slam Loud, Chaotic Trump-Biden Debate

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Reaction to Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Republican President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, his Democratic challenger, split along partisan lines but also featured sharp criticism of how the event, often a verbal free-for-all, played out. Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, tweeted after  the debate that “For ninety minutes, @realDonaldTrump made a confident, commanding and compelling case for his re-election and took Joe Biden to task for supporting radical policies that would raise taxes, destroy jobs and make our communities less safe.”For ninety minutes, @realDonaldTrump made a confident, commanding and compelling case for his re-election andmore

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Three Takeaways From Trump, Biden Debate

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President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden met Tuesday for the first presidential debate ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The 90-minute matchup was moderated by Fox News host Chris Wallace and held at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Here are three takeaways from the debate: Interruptions Trump repeatedly talked over both Biden and moderator Wallace during the debate. The result was chaotic, as both men frequently interrupted each other. The prime-time broadcast often showed a side-by-side view of the candidates with each man talking, at times simultaneously. Trump was often rebuked by Wallace, who told the president to “please let the vice president talk.” At one point Biden told Trump, “Will you shut up, man?”President Donald Trumpmore

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Trump, Biden Clash in Chaotic Debate

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Republican U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, clashed in a contentious, chaotic presidential election debate Tuesday night, trying for 90 minutes to convince American voters that the other one was unfit to lead the United States for the next four years. They argued over the world-leading coronavirus death toll of 205,000 in the U.S., the integrity and honesty of the November 3 vote, Trump’s nomination of conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, fractured racial relations in the U.S., environmental policies and more. Trump disputed a New York Times report this week that he only paid $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016, when he first ran formore

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Trump, Biden Facing Off in Tuesday Night Debate

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Republican U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, clashed in a contentious debate Tuesday night, immediately attacking each other over how to combat the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, now with a world-leading death toll of more than 205,000. “The president has no plan,” Biden claimed. “He knew it was deadly and didn’t tell you about it.”Biden, alluding to Trump’s golf game, said the president “should get out of the sand trap” and stop the advance of the pandemic. Trump, seeking a second term after his upset win in 2016, retorted, “We’ve done a great job. We’re weeks away from a vaccine.” The 90-minute encounter on a collegemore

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Cleveland Debate: Trump Interrupts Biden, Biden Calls Him a Clown

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The first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden has gotten off to a contentious start in Cleveland, Ohio, breaking down after just a few moments with Trump interrupting Biden on several occasions and Biden calling the president a clown and a liar. As the discussion about the Supreme Court quickly turned to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Trump claimed without evidence that 2 million people would have died if Biden were president. Moderator Chris Wallace pleaded with Trump, stating that COVID-19 would be discussed later in the day. He then asked Trump about whether he had amore

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Trump Supreme Court Nominee Meets with Republican Leadership

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U.S. lawmakers are preparing for an historic confirmation battle over President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, that will play out just weeks before the November 3 presidential election. The process started Tuesday with Barrett, who would be Trump’s third conservative appointee to the nation’s highest court if confirmed, heading to Capitol Hill for a series of key meetings with Republican Senators. “Judge Barrett represents the best of America personally, in terms of her great intellect and her great background,” Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday as he accompanied Barrett on Capitol Hill. “And we have every confidence that asmore

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Flynn Attorney Tells US Court She Discussed Criminal Case With Trump

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The lead attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Tuesday revealed to a federal judge that she has discussed the ongoing criminal case with the president, an extraordinary admission that raises questions about political interference. U.S. Justice Department lawyers denied any corruption or political motives in efforts to get the federal criminal case against Flynn dropped. In May, Attorney General William Barr stunned many in the legal community by ordering prosecutors to have the case dropped, a decision that came after Trump repeatedly complained that Flynn was being treated unfairly. U.S. Attorney General William Barr speaks duringmore

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Students Miss Milestones, But Learn to Adapt

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Yes, it’s a pandemic, and, yes, it certainly is better to be safe than sorry, but nonetheless, college students are lamenting the loss of major milestones — like starting college, moving on campus, celebrating turning 18 or 21 with friends, and graduation — interrupted by COVID, they say. “I couldn’t move into American University, haven’t moved to a new country, haven’t met my friends,” said Lexi Adler of Toronto, an incoming freshman at American University in Washington, D.C., who is waiting it out at home with her parents in Canada for now.Lexi Adler had hoped to attend American University inmore

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Trump, Biden Face Off in Tuesday Night Debate

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Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, are set to debate Tuesday night, five weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 election, in the first of three planned face-to-face encounters over the next month.  The high-stakes event in the midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio, comes as Biden has maintained about a 7-percentage-point advantage over Trump for weeks in national polls, threatening to make Trump the third U.S. president in the past four decades to lose reelection for a second four-year term in the White House.  However, the race is closer in several key battleground states,more

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US Presidential Campaign Focus Shifts to Trump’s Taxes

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Newly reported revelations that President Donald Trump paid little in federal taxes, along with the president’s unsubstantiated allegations of mail-in voting fraud, and the political battle to name a new conservative Supreme Court justice before the November election, have shifted media focus of the U.S. presidential campaign away from the coronavirus pandemic. VOA’s Brian Padden reports on how both Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are reacting to these issues as they prepare for the first of three presidential debates on Tuesday, and how all this might impact the race. …

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Bars Closed, New Orleans Scrambles to Watch Debates in New Ways

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T. Cole Newton began hosting presidential debate watch parties at his New Orleans, Louisiana bar in 2012. “It was a business decision as much as anything else,” Newton told VOA. “I knew my regulars would want to watch as much as I did, so we made an event out of it.” His bar is Twelve Mile Limit, a cross between a neighborhood dive and a cocktail bar, and he said it routinely fills up during their watch parties.   “Even during the primary debates, we’d be packed like a sports bar during a football game! Lots of beer, snacks, and hootin’ and hollerin’. We get way busier for debates than evenmore

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US Supreme Court Nominee Barrett to Meet With Republican Senators

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, meets informally Tuesday with senators on Capitol Hill, kicking off an accelerated confirmation process that Republicans intend to complete before the November 3 presidential election in the face of Democratic opposition.   Barrett, who would be Trump’s third conservative appointee to the nation’s highest court if confirmed by the Senate, meets first with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.     She will also meet with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, Republican committee members Mike Crapo, Chuck Grassley, Mike Lee and other Republican senators.   The informal meetings are partmore

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