Trump and Biden both head to Minnesota as state opens early voting – US politics live | US news

Good morning, and welcome to Friday’s edition of our live blog on US politics. Here’s a catch-up on what happened yesterday and overnight, and a bit on what is slated to happen today:

• There were 849 new coronavirus deaths and 45,391 new cases reported in the US yesterday. The average number of new daily cases is down around 1% on the fortnight before, but yesterday is only the second time since 6 September that the number of new cases has leapt above 40,000. There are now fifteen states which have had a worrying daily average of at least 15 new cases per 100,000 people for the last week.
• Joe Biden told a televised town hall that the president’s pandemic response is “close to criminal”. “I don’t trust the president on vaccines. I trust Dr Fauci” he said.
• It has been reported that guidance about coronavirus testing posted in August on the CDC website was not written by the agency’s scientists, and was posted despite their objections.
• Donald Trump attacked a Pulitzer Prize-winning education project on slavery and announced his own “patriotic education” plan. Critics condemned his rewrite of America’s legacy of racism. Nikole Hannah-Jones, the writer behind the 1619 Project, noted that Trump’s White House Conference on American History has “not a single Black historian on it”.
• Amy Dorris came forward to claim that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in 1997. She’s been praised by some of the 26 other women who have made similar accusations against the president.
• FBI chief Chris Wray warned of Russian interference in the elections, citing a “steady drumbeat of misinformation” that he said he feared could undermine confidence in the result.
• Eric Trump said through his lawyers that he is willing to be interviewed by the New York attorney general’s office for its investigation into the Trump Organization – after the election.
• Wildfires continued to burn across the US west coast, with smoke reaching as far as Europe. Forecast rain for the Pacific north-west prompted hopes of improved fire-fighting conditions in Washington state and Oregon.
• The president will receive his intelligence briefing and then Trump will speak at a Great American Comeback event in Bemidji, Minnesota.
• Biden is also campaiging in Minnesota, traveling to Duluth to tour a union training center and deliver a speech.

I’m Martin Belam and you can get in touch with me via email: martin.belam@hafta-ichi.com