After town halls, Trump, Biden hit swing states

At separate town hall events Thursday, the two people vying for the presidency answered questions from voters, though not in the intended debate format. Donald Trump and Joe Biden were in different states, in front of different crowds and on competing television channels  Trump refused to condemn QAnon and didn’t deny having $400 million in debt during his NBC event while Biden gave a vague answer on court packing and was pressed by an African American voter on how he would turn out the Black vote live on ABC. With just 18 days to before Election Day, the two campaigns are waging ferocious advertising campaigns in a half-dozen battleground states with Florida, Arizona and Pennsylvania the crown jewels that could decide the race.☕ The latest: Town halls: Missed Thursday’s dueling town halls?: Here are our takeaways. Compare/contrast: You saw how Trump and Biden stacked up on the town hall stage, what about the international stage? Sasse slams Trump: Republican Sen. Ben Sasse slammed President Donald Trump during a call with constituents this week, saying he “kisses dictators’ butts” and has “flirted with white supremacists.”Where are the candidates?: President Donald Trump campaigns in Florida and Georgia today, while Democrat Joe Biden speaks with voters in Michigan. Vice President Mike Pence is in North Carolina while Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, takes part in a virtual fundraiser. 📆 18 days until Election Day, six days until the final presidential debate, 96 days until Inauguration Day, 78 days left in 2020.🗳️ Voting: See USA TODAY’s Voter Guide for information on registering to vote, when your state begins voting and what the candidates think about the issues. We will update this article throughout the day. You can follow all of USA TODAY’s politics reporters on Twitter or subscribe to our daily On Politics newsletter. Early Nielsen ratings numbers show Biden beat TrumpEarly Nielsen ratings estimates declare Joe Biden the victor over Donald Trump.The ratings service says 12.2 million viewers tuned into the former vice president and Democratic nominee’s 8-10 p.m. EDT town hall on ABC Thursday night, while 10.4 million watched Trump on NBC from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. EDT.Head to head from 8 to 9 p.m., Biden had 12.7 million to Trump’s 10.4 million. But these early estimates are not adjusted for time zones, so they don’t measure town hall viewership on the West coast; nor do they include ratings for MSNBC and CNBC, which simulcasted the Trump town hall. – Gary LevinTown hall ratings:Biden beats Trump, at least in early Nielsen ratingsUSPS employee who discarded 112 ballots in Kentucky may face federal chargesClarification: This item has been updated to reflect that the employee is no longer employed by the U.S. Postal Service. The circumstances of the employees departure are unknown.The United States Postal Service employee who allegedly discarded more than 100 absentee ballots in a dumpster Thursday no longer works for the Postal Service and could face federal prosecution.Special agents of the Postal Service Office of Inspector General discovered 112 absentee ballots intended for the 40299 zip code of the Jeffersontown area after responding to a report of undelivered mail being found by a citizen in Louisville on Thursday morning, special agent Scott Balfour said in a statement. On Friday, Balfour said the individual is no longer employed by the Postal Service. The case has been accepted for federal prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, according to Balfour, who added that it will decide “what charges are appropriate after a review of all the facts gathered by USPS OIG Special Agents.”– Ben Tobin (Louisville Courier Journal)Magic Johnson to campaign for Biden and Harris in MichiganRetired basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson will campaign Saturday in Michigan for the Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the campaign announced.Johnson will visit Detroit for a “shop talk” with Black men. Then he’ll participate at an event in Lansing to encourage voters to cast ballots early at their clerk’s office or satellite voting location.Johnson’s Michigan State basketball team beat Indiana State for the NCAA title in 1979. The Spartan went on to win five NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers.– Bart JansenTrump retweets story from satirical news sitePresident Donald Trump, who likes to denounce alleged “fake news,” retweeted a piece of satire Friday about Twitter shutting down over reporting on Joe Biden.Retweeting a link entitled “Twitter Shuts Down Entire Network To Slow Spread Of Negative Biden News” – which never happened –Trump said: “Wow, this has never been done in history. This includes his really bad interview last night. Why is Twitter doing this. Bringing more attention to Sleepy Joe & Big T.”Twitter did not do that.The story was the from the Babylon Bee, a satirical news site. The motto on the Bee’s Twitter page says it all: “Fake news you can trust.”– David Jackson Biden again says he doesn’t want to ban frackingDemocratic presidential nominee and former vice president Joe Biden again said he does not want to ban fracking during an ABC town hall Thursday night, adding, though, that “it has to be managed very, very well.”Biden was responding to a question from Pittsburgh resident Michele Ellison, identified as a Republican who has voted for Democrats, who asked him about fracking and said that the method for drilling for natural gas has sickened residents and killed wildlife in southwestern Pennsylvania.Biden, who came to Pittsburgh in late August and said he did not want to ban fracking, reiterated that stance, but said methane emissions and water pollution must be controlled. He then transitioned to arguing that “the future rests in renewable energy,” such as wind and solar.– J.D. Prose

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