The latest on the 2020 election and SCOTUS battle

Audio technician Dan McNeil participates in a sound check during a rehearsal for the first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio,

Democratic nominee Joe Biden and President Trump are set to square off for the first time on stage tomorrow.

All debates are scheduled to take place from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. ET on their respective dates without commercial breaks.

Here’s what we know about the first debate:

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said “the President has done enough preparation” ahead of the first presidential debate Tuesday night, in her third television appearance on Monday.

McEnany said in an interview with Fox News that Trump is “ready to go,” pointing to a “few sessions” with personal attorney and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, as well as his experience daily taking “the most hostile of questions” from White House reporters.

“As he noted yesterday it was with Gov. Chris Christie, Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others so he has had some sessions to prep but really and we lean very hard on this, you can’t have better preparation than taking the most hostile of questions from the White House press corps each and every day, multiple cases, and oftentimes on the way to the plane, the back from the plane in the press briefing room, but he has done some additional prep and he is ready to go for tomorrow,” McEnany said.

Asked to react to Democratic party candidate Joe Biden saying he anticipates the debate to be a “straight attack” and that Trump “doesn’t know how to debate the facts because he’s not that smart,” McEnany called it a “ridiculous statement.”

She said tomorrow’s debate will be a “comparison.”

Ahead of the first presidential debate Tuesday night, White House communications director Alyssa Farah told Fox Business that President Trump is “excited” and reiterated that “every day is prep for him.”

Farah said Monday the White House is “not at all” concerned that the New York Times report on Trump’s tax returns will sway voters.

She also touted how Trump donates his “full salary back to the American taxpayer,” he is “working as the President for free, which is incredible – and not something that his opponent can say.” 

She slammed the report as fake and a “partisan hit job.”

Pressed on how specifically the Times report is not accurate, she claimed it “paints a snapshot” and only points to a “handful of properties.”

“But the point being this: he has followed the law,” she argued. 

On Trump asking Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to take a drug test ahead of their first debate, Farah said Trump is “absolutely willing” to take a drug test and “the President has been very transparent about his health records.”

On the eve of Tuesday’s presidential debate, the Trump campaign is warning Republican members of Congress not to underestimate Joe Biden’s debate performance.

“Yes, Biden’s alertness may be suspect but do not underestimate his abilities in a debate. This may be where he shines,” the campaign said in an email sent to GOP staff, obtained by CNN, Monday afternoon.

The directive is another example of the Trump campaign seeking to set expectations for Biden’s performance.

The campaign cites Biden’s “47 years of practice,” including this year’s primary debates, his vice presidential debates, his three runs for president, and his 43 years in the Senate. The email also said that Biden is “very well rested and prepared,” again calling attention to his light schedule over the past several days.

“As your members preview and/or react to the debate, please consider incorporating these points,” the email encouraged staffers.

The email was first reported by The Hill.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris arrives at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris framed the looming fight to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a nomination whose implications will reverberate far beyond this election in remarks on the court in Raleigh, North Carolina.

She also broke down the threat Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation poses on the Affordable Care Act with an emphasis on women’s choice, voting rights and the ability for families to make a living wage. 

Harris said President Trump and Republicans in ignoring Ginsburg’s dying wish for the next elected president to choose her replacement, are not listening to her or the will of American voters. The senator made sure to tie the President’s party in with his decision nearly every mention.

Using her name directly, Harris said Barrett’s confirmation would be undoing Ginsburg’s life’s work—both on ACA and Roe v. Wade, an effort to mobilize women voters. But she did not say whether or not she would meet with the judge.

“But now President Trump has nominated judge Amy Coney Barrett, and we know where Judge Barrett stands on the on the Affordable Care Act,” she said.

“If nothing else, the voters should be very clear about one thing— President Trump and his party and Judge Barrett will overturn the Affordable Care Act, and they won’t stop there. They have made clear that they want to overturn Roe vs. Wade and restrict reproductive rights and freedoms. Judge Barrett has a long record of opposing abortion and reproductive rights. There is no other issue that’s so disrespects and dishonors the work of Justice Ginsburg’s life, then undoing the seminal decision in the courts history that made it clear, a woman has a right to make decisions about her own body.” 

Harris said Trump’s desire to overturn ACA is out of rage towards former President Barack Obama.  

The California senator urged viewers to vote like their life and right to vote depends on it, because she said it does. And she again called Trump weak and accused him of trying to suppress votes. 

“We will not let the infection that President Trump has injected into the presidency and into Congress, that has paralyzed our politics and pitted Americans against each other, spread to the United States Supreme Court,” she said.

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Pennsylvania Republicans filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court Monday, asking the justices to block a lower court opinion that allowed the counting of absentee ballots up to three days after the election, amid the pandemic.

In court papers, the lawyers argued that the decision by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania “forces officials to count ballots received up to three days after Election Day, even if they lack a legible postmark or any postmark at all.”

They said the ruling is an “open invitation” to voters to cast their ballots after Election Day, which would inject “chaos and the potential for gamesmanship into what was an orderly and secure schedule of clear, bright-line deadlines.”

Read more about the case here.

Andrew Oros takes photos of notes left at a mural for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in downtown Washington, DC

The Democratic money just keeps flowing.

Small-dollar contributors have given more than $300 million to Democratic candidates and causes since Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, an ActBlue spokesperson said Monday. 

Liberal donors already had broken ActBlue records for dollars raised in a single day in the immediate aftermath of Ginsburg’s death. And Democratic strategists say the money that keeps coming is fueling campaigns up and down the ballot.

Catherine Vaughan, co-executive director of Swing Left, a Democratic group focused on flipping control of the US Senate to Democrats and shaping state legislative contests, said donations typically rise closer to Election Day. But Ginsburg’s death “caused everyone to jolt to attention and really get involved,” Vaughan told CNN.

In the six days immediately following Ginsburg’s passing, Swing Left directed $2 million in new donations to US Senate races and more than $1 million to state legislative contests, much of it to flip seats in Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas and Iowa. 

In addition to focusing on key US Senate battlegrounds, Swing Left also is helping send money to Democratic challengers in traditionally red states — South Carolina, Kansas and Alaska — that it now views as “expansion targets.” 

In South Carolina — a state President Trump won by 14 percentage points in 2016 — Democrat Jaime Harrison has consistently outraised Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham – prompting Graham to make urgent appeals for donations on Fox News in recent days. (On Monday, the main super PAC supporting the election of Democrats to the Senate announced that it would spend $6.5 million in South Carolina — another sign that Democrats view the seat as winnable.)

Another liberal fundraising effort, GiveGreen, said it has collected more than $37 million to support its favored candidates as of Monday morning — more than four times the $8 million it raised during the 2016 election, official say.

A little more than $18 million of GiveGreen’s haul to date will aid Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign for the White House. More than $12 million is going to US House and Senate campaigns.

Voters concerned about climate issues “are increasingly energized and motivated,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. 

GiveGreen is a project of the LCV’s Victory Fund, a political action committee linked to the National Resource Defense Council and NextGen America, a group created by Democratic billionaire and former presidential candidate Tom Steyer.

Ivanka Trump speaks from the White House South Lawn during the Republican National Convention on August 27.

The Washington Post’s piece previewing Rick Gates’ upcoming book includes reporting that says President Trump wanted his own daughter, Ivanka Trump, to be on his 2016 ticket as Vice President. Gates indicates Trump was so insistent on Ivanka as his running mate, “his team polled the idea twice,” writes the Post. 

Asked for comment, the White House referred CNN to the Trump campaign. “This is not true and there was never any such poll,” Trump 2020 communications director Tim Murtaugh tells CNN.

CNN also asked the White House about the many references to Ivanka Trump in the New York Times report regarding Trump’s taxes. The White House also referred CNN to Murtaugh on this matter.

Murtaugh called the story “bogus,” and said Trump has paid “tens of millions of dollars in taxes,” speculated about the legality of providing the documents to the Times and attacked the media and the Bidens.

More on the report: According to the New York Times, Trump owes hundreds of millions of dollars in debt for which he is personally responsible in the next four years.

The Times report also said that Trump paid only $750 dollars in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, that he paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years before he became President, and that he’s embroiled in a years-battle with the IRS over the legitimacy of a roughly $73 million tax refund he claimed.

The Times also specifically notes all of the information its reporters obtained was “provided by sources with legal access to it.”

Cindy McCain, the widow of the late Republican Sen. John McCain, is joining the Biden transition team as a member of its advisory board following her endorsement of Joe Biden, a source familiar confirms to CNN. 

McCain endorsed Biden in a tweet last week after Biden told donors that she was endorsing him.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report this development.

In a court decision Monday, Judge Gerald McHugh of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania says the Postal Service can't restrict extra or late trips for mail delivery and can't prohibit overtime so its workers can deliver mail.

Another federal judge, this time in Pennsylvania, has decided the US Postal Service can’t change mail delivery policy before the election. 

This is the fourth time a judge has rebuked USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the Trump administration and stepped in, after several Democratic-led states and others sued. 

In this latest court decision Monday, Judge Gerald McHugh of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania says the Postal Service can’t restrict extra or late trips for mail delivery and can’t prohibit overtime so its workers can deliver mail.

The judge also notes that the Trump administration’s approach to the lawsuit hurt their case, making it difficult for him to determine how involved USPS’ top leaders were in making policy changes.

“I am troubled by, and draw negative inferences from, what appears to be a strategic effort by Defendants to limit the Court’s understanding of the significant degree to which some top officials of the Postal Service were directly involved in the operational changes that went into effect in July. My concern on that score weighs strongly in favor of injunctive relief, to assure that the necessary steps are taken to cure these critical deficits,” McHugh wrote.

A ransomware attack targeting one of America’s leading software providers has again raised concerns over the security of state and local governments’ IT systems, just weeks before those officials are set to run a pivotal national election.  

Tyler Technologies, a Texas-based firm that supplies data visualization software to some US election officials, acknowledged last week it had been hit by hackers. The attack, which the company confirmed was ransomware, targeted the firm’s internal corporate network and phone systems.   

Though hardly a household name, Tyler Technologies underpins many critical public sector functions. It sells what it calls “back-office” software to 9-1-1 dispatchers, county and state courts, property appraisers and public accounting officials. Last year, it booked more than $1 billion in revenues, according to its financial filings.  

It also offers software that can format and display election results, campaign finance data and information about polling places drawn from third-party sources.  

In a statement on its website, Tyler Technologies said those customer-facing systems are separate from the internal corporate systems affected by the ransomware attack. The software capable of displaying election information runs on Amazon servers, it said, and “very few Tyler clients enlist the application for this use.” The company is investigating the incident with the FBI. The company declined to comment for this story. 

Some background: Ransomware is a type of malicious software that locks up a victim’s computer and holds it hostage for payment, often in bitcoin or other cryptocurrency.  

The attack on Tyler Technologies is one of hundreds that have prompted growing alarm among security experts, law enforcement and government officials, who point to the growing boldness and sophistication of ransomware hackers as a cause for concern. The range of targets — from hospital systems to first-responders to government contractors — highlights the disruption that ransomware could cause at a national scale.   

“Ransomware is probably — globally — maybe between a $50 billion and $100 billion industry,” said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.   

Tyler Technologies is merely the latest victim in a string of attacks against public sector institutions. In June, the University of California – San Francisco paid more than $1 million to ransomware hackers. Earlier this month, public school administrators in Fairfax County, Va. disclosed that some of its systems had been compromised by ransomware, and after Emsisoft, a cybersecurity firm, noted that some of the school district’s data had been posted to a hacker website.  

Emsisoft, which has been tracking incidents of ransomware, said 113 governments or agencies were hit last year alone, and 75 this year.  

President Trump held an unexpected event on the South Lawn Monday morning during which he met with workers from Lordstown Motors, and touted the work being done there. Lordstown Motors is a small automotive startup that has drawn national attention for its electric pickup truck, which the President viewed today at the White House. 

“It has a lot of advantages,” Trump said of the electric pickup truck. “This is the first time it’s ever been done.” 

After the brief event, Trump ignored shouted questions about his tax returns but briefly responded when asked about tomorrow’s presidential debate. 

He was joined by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro and Republican Senator Portman of Ohio, both of whom made brief remarks touting the jobs made by the plant in Lordstown, Ohio. 

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign reacted swiftly following a bombshell report from The New York Times that Donald Trump paid no federal income taxes in 10 out of 15 years beginning in 2000, turning around a digital video and putting out merchandise within hours of the report’s release.

In a 30-second video posted to the campaign’s grassroots Twitter account and retweeted by Biden’s official page, the campaign highlights different income taxes paid by teachers, flashing the text on the screen over somber music. “Teachers paid $7,239, Firefighters paid $5,283, Nurses paid $10,216,” the text above the tweet reads. “Donald Trump paid $750.”

The campaign also released stickers on their website late Sunday night with the text, “I paid more income taxes than Donald Trump.”

While Biden himself has yet to respond, his deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last night that the report is yet another example of how the race is “between Park Avenue and Scranton,” the campaign’s latest messaging push that casts the choice between the two candidates as clash between the working class and America’s elite.

“You have in Donald Trump a president who spends his time thinking about how he can work his way out of paying taxes, of meeting the obligation that every other working person in this country meets every year,” Bedingfield said. “You know, with Joe Biden you have somebody who has a completely different perspective on what it means to be a working family in this country.”

Bedingfield continued to blast the president, saying he “looks down on working people.”

Biden unveiled that line of attack in a CNN town hall earlier this month, saying just outside of his hometown of Scranton that “the way we were raised up here in this area, an awful lot of hardworking people busting their neck, all they ask for is a shot.”

He added, “All that President Trump could see from Park Avenue is Wall Street. All he thinks about is the stock market.”

At a White House briefing Sunday, Trump denied The New York Times story and claimed that he pays “a lot” in federal income taxes.

“I pay a lot, and I pay a lot in state income taxes,” he said

A bombshell New York Times investigation has offered the most conclusive proof yet that President Trump’s business empire is nowhere near as successful as he claims.

Trump has for years cited his business acumen as a defining trait, and one that gave him an advantage over others seeking the presidency.

On Sunday, the New York Times published the deepest dive ever into the President’s finances, citing detailed tax records that the newspaper says “portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses.”

Trump on Sunday denied the New York Times story and claimed that he pays “a lot” in federal income taxes.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

Read more here.

President Trump took to Twitter Monday morning to attack the New York Times report on his taxes and repeating his claim that he paid “millions of dollars in taxes.” The President also claimed he has “very little” debt, when compared to his assets. 

“The Fake News Media, just like Election time 2016, is bringing up my Taxes & all sorts of other nonsense with illegally obtained information & only bad intent. I paid many millions of dollars in taxes but was entitled, like everyone else, to depreciation & tax credits…..,” The President wrote on Twitter. 

“Also, if you look at the extraordinary assets owned by me, which the Fake News hasn’t, I am extremely under leveraged - I have very little debt compared to the value of assets,” President Trump continued. 

According to the New York Times, President Trump owes hundreds of millions of dollars in debt for which he is personally responsible in the next four years.

The Times report also said that Trump paid only $750 dollars in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, that he paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years before he became President, and that he’s embroiled in a years-battle with the IRS over the legitimacy of a roughly $73 million tax refund he claimed.

The President also continued to sow doubt and undermine the 2020 presidential election, tweeting “The Ballots being returned to States cannot be accurately counted. Many things are already going very wrong!”

To be clear, and as CNN’s teams have repeatedly fact checked, there is no evidence to suggest widespread mail-in voting leads to fraud in the U.S. CNN has also fact checked Trump’s claims about specific recent incidents related to voting.

Senate Majority PAC, Senate Democrats’ main super PAC, announced a new $6.5 million investment, including $5 million in television spending and an additional $1.5 million in digital advertising, in South Carolina on Monday.

This is its first investment in the state, per a news release from the group.

What is this about: Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham faces a challenge this year from Democrat Jaime Harrison. Graham has recently been noting his fundraising struggles as money pours into Senate races from Democratic groups in the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett.

On Sunday, he pitched his campaign website to Fox News viewers, telling host Maria Bartiromo, “I hate to keep saying that, but just the money is just overwhelming.”

This also comes after the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also announced a seven-figure investment in the state earlier this month.

Billionaire Mike Bloomberg, a former New York mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, announced $4 million initial funding for canvassing, direct contact and organizing efforts in Florida, according to a news release.

Three groups will each receive a sum of the money:  

What is this about: This is part of Bloomberg’s plan to spend at least $100 million in Florida.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will embark on a campaign trip across eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania via train that focuses on the economy and working families following this week’s first presidential debate in Cleveland.

The plans mark the most robust campaign trip Biden has taken since March, when the coronavirus pandemic forced him to pause in-person campaigning just as the primary season came to a close.

Biden’s campaign stands in stark contrast to President Trump, who has been traveling throughout the pandemic, and holding rallies in states such as Nevada and most recently Pennsylvania.

The former vice president’s intention to travel by train through Pennsylvania is notable for two reasons: Biden has long been known as a train enthusiast, having frequently taken Amtrak trains between Washington, DC, and his home state of Delaware during his nearly 50 years in public office.

Pennsylvania, meanwhile, is where Biden was born, in the deep blue city of Scranton. The commonwealth’s 20 electoral votes went to Trump in 2016, but are in play this year, with Democrats hoping to win them over from the President.

Biden is currently leading Trump in more than a handful of polls taken in Pennsylvania, with the former vice president ahead of Trump by more than eight points in three of them.

Earlier this month, Biden participated in a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania, where he fielded questions on an array of topics, including Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, policing in the US and what his campaign stands for.

“I view this campaign as a campaign between Scranton and Park Avenue,” Biden said at one point during the town hall. “All Trump can see from Park Avenue is Wall Street. All he thinks about is the stock market.”

Follow the latest election news in CNN’s 2020 election center.

Covid-19 has impacted the way President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s first presidential debate will play out tomorrow.

Here’s a look at some of the modifications:

Another sign of Covid-19’s impact on the debate — there will not be a media “spin room” where campaigns typically send supporters and representatives to make the case for their candidates after the debate.

Read more about tomorrow’s debate here.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not respond to substantive assertions in the New York Times’ bombshell reporting on the President’s tax returns Monday, instead dismissing the report as “the same playbook they tried in 2016.” 

As for the debate, McEnany declined to provide many details about President Trump’s preparations. At Sunday’s briefing, Trump suggested to reporters that both Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie were playing the role of Joe Biden. 

“The President went through a number of topics during his preparation yesterday,” McEnany said, also saying that the debate will be “quite easy.” She again suggested that Trump gets his prep on the job taking questions from reporters and lashed out at the “very biased” media, whereas Biden, she said, has been “hiding away.”

She was asked about a statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that said, “We must achieve that majority of delegations or keep the republicans from doing so.” McEnany echoed Trump, calling it “ridiculous” and suggested the only way Pelosi and Democrats can win “is by manipulating the election with these mail in ballots.” 

McEnany also defended Trump on healthcare when asked about his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett and the future of Obamacare, touting Trump’s record on premiums and drug costs.

And she pounced on a tweet from Vanity Fair contributing writer Vanessa Grigoriadis, who questioned how Barrett could raise her children and be a Supreme Court Justice, calling it “disgusting” and an “attack on suburban moms across America.”