| RNC chairwoman says Republicans who distance themselves from Trump are 'hurting themselves in the long run' Posted: 18 Oct 2020 11:05 AM PDT  Her comments came after Trump lashed out at Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse for leaked audio from a constituent town hall where he criticized the president.
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| Ron Johnson Asks FBI to Clarify if It Possesses ‘Material from Hunter Biden’s Laptop’ Posted: 18 Oct 2020 08:58 AM PDT  Senator Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) has sent a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray asking him to clarify whether the agency possesses documents from the laptop of Hunter Biden, Fox News reported on Sunday.The request comes after the New York Post revealed various emails written by or sent to Hunter Biden, who from 2014 to 2019 served on the board of Ukrainian natural-gas firm Burisma Holdings. In an email sent in 2015, a senior Burisma adviser thanks the vice president's son for providing the "opportunity" to meet with Joe Biden.The Post stated that the documents were found on a computer deposited at a Delaware repair shop. The the store owner turned over the computer to the FBI in December 2019, but made a copy of the documents on a separate hard drive.Johnson, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated in his letter that a whistleblower had contacted the committee on September 24, 2020, claiming that he had turned over a computer belonging to Hunter Biden to the FBI. Johnson wrote that staffers immediately asked the FBI to confirm some details in the whistleblower's claim, however the FBI responded that they could not confirm or deny the information.It was not immediately clear if the whistleblower who contacted the Senate Intelligence Committee is the Delaware shop owner mentioned by the Post."I have a responsibility to validate and verify the contents of any information produced to my committee," Johnson wrote. "The committee must know if it receives information that could be fraudulent or not accurate."The senator added, "The committee must know whether the FBI has assessed the validity of materials the whistleblower has provided, and what, if any, actions the FBI has taken since obtaining this information." Johnson asked the FBI to confirm if it does "possess material from Hunter Biden's laptop."Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), another member of the Intelligence Committee, also weighed in on the email controversy on Sunday.> It appears the FBI had contents of hunter Bidens laptop since at least December 2019. What did they do to verify the info & take action? why has it taken so long to learn about it? If vp Biden lied about his interactions w hunters foreign business partners, Americans deserve 2kno> > -- ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 18, 2020"It appears the FBI had contents of hunter Biden's laptop since at least December 2019," Grassley wrote on Twitter. "What did they do to verify the info [and] take action? Why has it taken so long to learn about it?"Neither Hunter Biden nor the Joe Biden campaign have denied the veracity of the emails and documents uncovered by the Post. An attorney for Hunter Biden told the Washington Post that he was "certain" that a meeting between the Burisma adviser and Joe Biden "never happened."
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| Rapper charged with coronavirus benefit fraud after boasting in song about benefit fraud Posted: 18 Oct 2020 09:31 AM PDT  Nuke Bizzle bragged about fraudulently claiming unemployment benefits in a music video on YouTube prior to his arrest.
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| Archbishop of San Francisco performs exorcism ceremony at site of vandalized Saint Junipero Serra statue Posted: 18 Oct 2020 07:49 AM PDT  The archbishop of San Francisco performed an exorcism ceremony on Saturday outside the Saint Raphael Catholic Church in downtown San Rafael, at the spot where protesters had toppled a statue of Saint Junipero Serra earlier in the week.Armed with holy water and Latin prayers, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone performed the ritual to "drive out evil and defend the image of Serra," the Los Angeles Times reports. As Cordileone explained to the crowd of 150 who'd assembled for the ceremony, "the experts in the field tell me that Latin tends to be more effective against the devil because he doesn't like the language of the church."For those whose Latin was a little rusty, a translation of the proceedings was provided, and included prayers calling for Satan's "proud head" to be "crushed." "Be gone, Satan, inventor and master of all fallacy, enemy of the salvation of men. Place yourself before Jesus Christ," Cordileone ordered.As the San Francisco Chronicle notes, despite the popular representation in The Exorcist, exorcisms are "more commonly a solemn ceremony like Saturday's, a religious ritual to evict the devil or evil spirits from an area or person."Meanwhile, in the more earthly sphere, five people have been arrested on vandalism charges for knocking over the statue on Monday, which was both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day. Critics say Serra, a Spanish missionary priest, was a "brutal colonialist" who helped "to erase and destroy" the culture of native Californians, Vox writes. Cordileone defended Serra in the Saturday ceremony, saying the missions were "not to dominate and annihilate" but to save native Californians "from domination and annihilation" with the teachings of Catholicism.The statue will be repaired, according to a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. More stories from theweek.com Why this libertarian is voting for Biden The town halls weren't a debate — but Trump still won Is America ready for a boring president?
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| Oracle founder Larry Ellison donated $250,000 to pro-Lindsey Graham super PAC the day the TikTok deal was announced Posted: 17 Oct 2020 12:50 PM PDT  Ellison made the $250,000 donation just hours after it was announced that Oracle had beat out Microsoft, The Verge first reported Saturday.
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| Ankara-backed nationalist ousts president in Turkish Cypriot poll Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:56 AM PDT  Right-wing nationalist Ersin Tatar, backed by Ankara, scored a surprise victory in a run-off presidential election Sunday in breakaway northern Cyprus, ousting pro-reunification incumbent Mustafa Akinci.
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| Healthcare workers, high-risk people will get priority for COVID-19 vaccine in New York: governor Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:19 AM PDT  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that healthcare workers and high-risk populations, including some long-term care residents, would get priority in his state to receive a COVID-19 vaccine when one is approved and available. According to the five-phase preliminary plan for New York's vaccine administration program, some details of which Cuomo announced at a news briefing, healthcare workers in patient-care settings, long-term care facility workers and some long-term care residents would be among the first to receive a vaccine. In the second phase of vaccine rollout, first responders, school staff, other public-facing frontline workers and people whose health conditions put them at extreme risk would get priority for the vaccine.
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| Merkel's old rival Merz says Germany has become 'sluggish' under the Chancellor in first CDU husting Posted: 18 Oct 2020 09:20 AM PDT  Angela Merkel's old foe Friedrich Merz said that Germany had become "too sluggish" under its veteran leader, as the three candidates for the Christian Democratic Union party leadership met in Berlin for the first hustings on Saturday evening. Mr Merz, a pro-business millionaire who has been out of frontline politics for the best part of two decades, argued that the government has dropped the ball on issues such as digitalisation and clean energy technologies. "This country has become too slow, we have become too sluggish," he said, complaining that a lack of digitalisation in schools had been exposed during the pandemic. The 64-year-old is up against the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, and foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen. Mr Röttgen is only seen as having an outside chance of winning the vote among party delegates at the party convention on December 4th. Mr Laschet, a centrist and close confidant of Ms Merkel, told the meeting that he was the man to continue the success that she had brought Germany. The leadership race takes place just two years after the last contest to take over the dominant party of German post-war politics. The woman who won on that occasion, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, beat Mr Merz in a closely fought contest. But she stood down at the beginning of this year after failing to reverse slumping polling figures. It was just a few weeks after her resignation that the party's fortunes were turned around because of strong public approval for how Berlin managed the coronavirus pandemic. Unusually, the public's favourite to take over from Ms Merkel is not a member of the CDU. Instead Markus Söder, leader of the Bavarian CSU, a sister party to the CDU, is enjoying strong polling figures thanks to his safety-first approach to the pandemic. Mr Söder, state premier in Bavaria, has however signalled that he does not intend to run for the top job.
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| Cruise ship rescues 24 people from boat off Florida coast Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:53 AM PDT  A Carnival Cruise Line ship rescued two dozen people, including two children, from a sinking boat 37 miles off the Florida coast, the cruise line reported Saturday.
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| Ahead of 3rd debate, Trump again goes after moderator. This time it's NBC's Kristen Welker he calls 'unfair.' Posted: 18 Oct 2020 03:07 PM PDT  Trump praised Welker in the past, complementing her in January for landing a gig on NBC's "Today" show. "They made a very wise decision," Trump said.
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| Not enough or double the prejudice: On being Black and Asian American in 2020 Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT  12 multiracial people discuss the messy, complicated conversations they're having about identity in this political moment.
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| 'Home Improvement’ star Zachery Ty Bryan arrested for allegedly choking girlfriend Posted: 17 Oct 2020 03:00 PM PDT  Bryan was arrested at an Eugene, Oregon apartment complex late Friday night.
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| Pete Buttigieg says his 'marriage might depend on what is about to happen' in Amy Coney Barrett's SCOTUS confirmation Posted: 18 Oct 2020 09:15 AM PDT  Buttigieg emphasized on Fox News the different policies at risk in Barrett's nomination, which he said was "wrong" for being held before Election Day.
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| Gottlieb says "biggest wave" of coronavirus infections still to come Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:08 AM PDT  Hospitalizations are rising in 42 states, and 45 have expanding epidemics, Gottlieb said.
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| Letters to the Editor: We've always had white nationalists, but social media amplifies the threat Posted: 17 Oct 2020 03:00 AM PDT  A former official in the Anti-Defamation League recalls dealing with anti-Semitic white nationalists and warns that social media poses a unique threat.
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| More than 1,000 current and former CDC staff hit out at Trump coronavirus response Posted: 18 Oct 2020 01:06 AM PDT  Open letter calls for greater role for CDC in fighting Covid-19
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| Michigan Court Overturns Two-Week Absentee-Ballot Extension Posted: 17 Oct 2020 06:50 AM PDT  A Michigan court ruled Friday that absentee ballots must be received by Election Day in order to be counted, overturning a lower court's two-week extension that was hailed by Democrats in the key swing state.The state's appeals court said that absentee ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, ruling against a lower court's decision to allow votes to be counted up to 14 days after Election Day as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 2. Michigan's Republican-controlled legislature brought the appeal after the ballot deadline was extended."To be sure, the pandemic has caused considerable change in our lives, but election officials have taken considerable steps to alleviate the potential effects by making no-reason absent voting easier for the 2020 election," the three appellate judges wrote in a unanimous decision.Democrats had pushed to ease restrictions on absentee voting amid the coronavirus pandemic, while Republicans argued that the recent Post Office delays combined with the expected increase in mail-in ballots this year are not reason enough to extend voting deadlines."Although those factors may complicate plaintiffs' voting process, they do not automatically amount to a loss of the right to vote absentee," the judges stated.The court's decision also reinstated some restrictions on third-party ballot collection, limiting who voters can designate to deliver their ballot to election officials.The ruling is similar to decisions by higher courts in Indiana and Wisconsin overturning ballot extensions.President Trump won Michigan narrowly in 2016 by less than 11,000 votes.Republicans in the state celebrated the court's decision on Friday, calling it "a great day for the rule of law.""It's important that the rules aren't changed during an election to advantage one party over another," said Laura Cox, chairman of the Michigan Republican party.
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| Illinois Governor says spikes in COVID-19 infections are from 'president's allies' telling people in his state not to follow the rules Posted: 18 Oct 2020 11:23 AM PDT  "The reality is that this virus hasn't gone away, we do need to continue to keep ourselves safe from it," Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said.
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| Forced to undergo genital exams in colonial India Posted: 17 Oct 2020 08:21 PM PDT  Sex workers had to register themselves and get medically examined under British rule, new research shows.
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| Column: A Biden presidency may seem normal, but it won't be boring Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:00 AM PDT  After the wrecking ball of Trump's four years in office, what would President Biden do?
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| Record 'shattering' day for early voter turnout on Saturday Posted: 17 Oct 2020 04:24 PM PDT  Good job, Houston! The Harris County Clerk's Office said more than 50,000 voters cast their ballots on Saturday.
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| San Francisco mayor slams the 'lefty movement' for blocking efforts to address affordable housing crisis Posted: 17 Oct 2020 06:45 AM PDT  San Francisco Mayor London Breed said on the Freakonomics podcast that the city's "lefty" supervisors have stalled her affordable housing plans.
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| White supremacists across the country indicted on drug and firearm charges Posted: 17 Oct 2020 01:27 PM PDT  According to the U.S. Justice Department, 21 Utah-based white supremacists have been indicted for allegedly selling drugs and firearms. In recent days, similar charges were brought against white supremacist gang members in Texas, Kentucky, and Mississippi.
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| Exclusive: Interpol facing Parliamentary inquiry over concerns UAE 'torture' chief may get top job Posted: 17 Oct 2020 05:42 AM PDT  Russia is a "criminal state" which is "abusing" the powers of Interpol, MPs will be told this week, amid concerns that a UAE security chief accused of presiding over 'torture' will become the organisation's new head. The global police and crime organisation is facing a Parliamentary inquiry over concerns that it is vulnerable to manipulation by 'rogue' member states including Russia, China and the UAE. The Foreign Affairs Committee will hear from Bill Browder, the British financier and arch critic of Vladimir Putin, who has been subject to eight interpol arrest notices by Russia on "trumped up" charges over the 'poisoning' of a Kremlin whistleblower - all of which have been refused. Interpol should "suspend access of serial abusers like Russia to its databases," he will say on Tuesday. "Britain should work with its allies – the US, Canada, Australia, the European Union, and others on withholding funds if Interpol refuses to reform," he will add. The organisation has come under increased scrutiny after its president Meng Hongwei was disappeared by Chinese authorities and sentenced to 13 years in prison on bribery charges in 2018. Russia's Alexander Prokopchuk was lined up as a presumptive successor but has been accused of abusing Red Notices. His election was likened to "putting a fox in charge of the henhouse" by US officials who helped block his leadership bid. Earlier this month, the Telegraph revealed that a United Arab Emirates security head accused of presiding over the 'torture' of a British academic is a frontrunner for the role, and could be elected in December. Major General Nasser Ahmed Al-Raisi has been accused of serious human rights violations in the Middle East, including against British citizens Matthew Hedges and Ali Ahmad, and Interpol has been warned it could lose credibility if he is chosen to be its President. He has never responded to claims. American-born Browder has spent more than a decade fighting to uncover Russian money laundering after once being the country's largest foreign investor. His lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in a Moscow jail in 2009, and Mr Browder pushed through the Magnitsky Act in the US which barred a number of officials from entering America, as well as having their assets frozen.
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| 'Not going to waste a single minute on tweets': GOP Sen. Sasse pushes back after Trump attacks Posted: 17 Oct 2020 08:40 AM PDT  Trump and GOP Sen. Ben Sasse are publicly feuding as Republicans are working overtime to try keep control of the Senate.
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| Vietnam landslide hits army camp, buries 22 personnel Posted: 17 Oct 2020 10:44 PM PDT  A landslide in central Vietnam on Sunday buried at least 22 army personnel, just a week after another landslide killed 13 as heavy rains continued to pound the region, state media reported. The latest landslide sent rock and earth crushing into an army camp at the foot of a mountain following a week of incessant rain in Quang Tri province, the official Vietnam News Agency reported. On Thursday, rescuers recovered 13 bodies, 11 of them army officers, from a landslide in Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Tri's neighboring province.
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| Fire experts say mismanaged, choked forests need to be cleared out Posted: 18 Oct 2020 08:38 AM PDT  "Forest management is a lot like gardening. You have to keep the forest open and thin," said Mike Rogers, a former Angeles National Forest supervisor.
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| Italy to announce new COVID-19 restrictions as infections spike: PM's office Posted: 17 Oct 2020 07:14 AM PDT  Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will announce on Sunday another set of measures to counter the new wave of COVID-19 cases, his office said, after the country registered a new daily record in infections on Saturday. Conte's office said the government is discussing new restrictions with local and health authorities, aiming to stem contagion while limiting the impact on individuals and businesses. Italy was the first major European country to be hit by COVID-19 and had managed to get the outbreak under control by the summer thanks to a rigid two-month lockdown on business and people's movement.
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| National steelworkers union shines 'Biden Harris' sign on Trump Tower in Chicago Posted: 18 Oct 2020 01:33 PM PDT  The 98-story Chicago skyscraper previously sparked controversy from the public after an enormous, LED "TRUMP" logo was stamped on it.
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| Airlines face tough winter as hoped-for pick-up fails to materialise Posted: 17 Oct 2020 09:19 PM PDT  Airlines face a long, hard winter after a much hoped for rebound from the coronavirus crisis failed to materialise, prompting savage cost cutting programmes and fresh calls for government support.
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| A year after disputed ballot, Bolivians return to polls, and ex-President Evo Morales looms large Posted: 17 Oct 2020 07:17 PM PDT  Bolivians vote Sunday a year after the resignation of President Evo Morales. Morales remains in exile, but his socialist party leads in polls.
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| Republican National Committee chair says QAnon is 'something the voters are not even thinking about' Posted: 18 Oct 2020 08:14 AM PDT  In a recent poll, most voters who said they were familiar with QAnon characterized the movement as "very bad" for the country.
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| US schedules first federal execution of woman since 1953 Posted: 18 Oct 2020 05:34 PM PDT  Lisa Montgomery is due to become the first woman to face federal execution in the US in 67 years.
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| Vets to check microchips to save healthy dogs Posted: 17 Oct 2020 05:33 AM PDT  Vets will be legally required to check dogs' microchips before putting them down, to stop healthy pets being killed "completely unnecessarily", under a change being championed by Boris Johnson. A planned Animal Welfare Bill is expected to include "Tuk's law" - a statutory requirement for vets to check that those seeking to euthanise dogs are the animals' registered keepers. The move is understood to have been ordered by the Prime Minister who, together with his fiancée Carrie Symonds, adopted Dilyn, a rescue dog, shortly after entering Downing Street last year. A No 10 source warned of an "alarming" increase in reports of healthy dogs being put down. It follows a campaign in the name of Tuk, a rescue dog put down at the age of 16 months after being rehomed. Campaigners say that, had the vet who euthanised Tuk scanned his microchip, it would have become apparent that the person asking for him to be put down was not his registered keeper. The chip also contained details of the dog's original rescuers, who could have taken him back. James Daly, the MP for Bury North, who has championed the proposed law in Parliament, said it could prevent neighbours annoyed by barking dogs from taking them to vets to be put down. The campaigners behind Tuk's law say they have received support from Lord Goldsmith, who is now the minister for animal welfare, as well as Ms Symonds, a conservationist and animal rights campaigner. A No 10 source said: "The rising reports of perfectly healthy dogs, particularly from rescue, being put down is alarming. We are a nation of dog lovers and this goes against every grain of that. "When something so simple as checking a microchip can prevent this it is clear we need to take action. Since we introduced compulsory microchipping for dogs in 2016 we have seen a clear drop in the number of stray dogs on our streets and an increase in the number of lost or stolen pets reunited with their owners. "Now we need to put this technology to use again to stop pets being killed completely unnecessarily." The measure is expected to form a part of the Government's Animal Welfare Bill, which will be formally unveiled in the Queen's Speech next year. The legislation will also include tougher sentences for animal cruelty and legislate against trophy hunting.
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| Ireland to impose nationwide COVID-19 curbs on Monday: minister Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:38 AM PDT |
| Boy, 12, finds dinosaur skeleton of 'great significance' while out hiking Posted: 17 Oct 2020 06:14 AM PDT  Bones are from duck-billed Hadrosaur which roamed area 69 million years ago
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| Queen grants rare royal pardon to murderer who fought off a terrorist knife attacker with a 5-foot narwhal tusk on London Bridge Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:55 AM PDT  Steve Gallant was on his day release at a conference set up to help rehabilitate prisoners when the terror attack took place last November.
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| Tens of thousands march in Belarus despite police threat to open fire Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:00 AM PDT  Belarusian police on Sunday detained more than 200 people as tens of thousands marched against strongman Alexander Lukashenko in defiance of police threats to open fire after weeks of demonstrations.
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| CNN's Jake Tapper scolds Lara Trump for seemingly mocking Joe Biden's stutter in heated interview Posted: 18 Oct 2020 09:34 AM PDT  CNN's Jake Tapper cut off Lara Trump during a tense interview on State of the Union on Sunday after she dodged a question about appearing to mock Joe Biden's stutter by claiming the Democratic presidential candidate is in "cognitive decline."Tapper had aired a clip of Trump's daughter-in-law claiming that every time Biden speaks, "I'm like 'Joe, can ya get it out, let's get the words out, Joe.' You kinda feel bad for him." Tapper asked Lara Trump in response, "How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?"Trump said she didn't know Biden had famously overcome a stutter, and pivoted to alleging his speech was evidence of "cognitive decline." Tapper quickly interrupted: "I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline," he told her, pointing out that "I'm sure it offends you" when people do the same to President Trump."I'm not diagnosing him," Trump protested. "I'm saying Joe Biden is struggling at times on stage and it's concerning to a lot of people that this could be the leader of the free world. That is all I'm saying. I genuinely feel sorry for Joe Biden."But Tapper's patience had run out. "I'm sure [your comments] were from a place of concern," he said. "We all believe that." Watch below. > Jake Tapper calls out Lara Trump for openly mocking Joe Biden's stutter. > > Lara says, "First and foremost I had no idea that Joe Biden ever suffered from a stutter. I think what we see on Joe Biden on stage is very clearly a cognitive decline."> > Tapper isn't having it. pic.twitter.com/qGlfOLzd3k> > -- The Recount (@therecount) October 18, 2020More stories from theweek.com Why this libertarian is voting for Biden The town halls weren't a debate — but Trump still won Is America ready for a boring president?
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| Young voter presses Joe Biden on his 'you ain't Black' remark at town hall Posted: 17 Oct 2020 05:11 AM PDT  Rob Smith, Author of 'Always a Soldier,' reacts on 'Fox & Friends.'
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| Ivory Coast election: Pascal Affi Nguessan's home burnt down Posted: 18 Oct 2020 10:39 AM PDT  Pascal Affi Nguessan has called for a boycott of the 31 October election.
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| Elon Musk's SpaceX keeps winning US military contracts — here's why, according to an aerospace expert Posted: 18 Oct 2020 04:30 AM PDT  Steve Nutt, professor at the University of Southern California, says Elon Musk's SpaceX is now the main alternative to traditional contractors.
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