President Donald Trump and Amy Coney Barrett stand on the Blue Room Balcony after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administered her the Constitutional Oath on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Here’s what’s happening Tuesday in Election 2020, one week until Election Day:
ON THE TRAIL: President Donald Trump will be in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska; Democratic challenger Joe Biden will be in Georgia; Vice President Mike Pence will be in North Carolina and South Carolina; and Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, will be in Nevada.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES:
BIDEN HITS ROAD: Joe Biden intends to use the final week before Election Day to go on offense, heading to Georgia and planning travel that may put President Donald Trump on defense in other states he won four years ago. The Democratic presidential nominee plans to hit Florida, Iowa and Wisconsin after a pair of stops in Georgia. The Republican president returns to Wisconsin, sandwiched by stops in Michigan and Nebraska. While Biden rarely travels to more than one state per day, the president has maintained a whirlwind schedule.
VIRUS SURGE: The coronavirus is getting worse in states that Trump needs the most. The upper Midwest is bearing much of the brunt of new infections surging across the U.S. That includes Wisconsin, where Trump is fighting to catch Biden in a state Trump narrowly won in 2016. Also seeing a surge is Iowa, where Trump is now in a toss-up race with Biden after carrying the state by 9.4 percentage points four years ago. Both states are in the top 10 of those with the fastest-growing number of cases per capita over the past two weeks.
WHAT AWAITS BARRETT: Newly confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s first votes on the Supreme Court could include two big topics affecting the man who nominated her. The court is weighing a plea from Trump to prevent the Manhattan district attorney from acquiring his tax returns as well as appeals from the Trump campaign and Republicans to shorten the deadline for receiving and counting absentee ballots in the battleground states of North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
WISCONSIN RULING: The Supreme Court is siding with Republicans to prevent Wisconsin from counting mailed ballots that are received after Election Day. In a 5-3 order, the justices refused to reinstate a lower court order that called for mailed ballots to be counted if they are received up to six days after the election. The three liberal justices dissented from the order. Democrats argued that the flood of absentee ballots and other challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic makes it necessary to extend the deadline.
QUOTABLE: “I will do my job without any fear or favor.” — Barrett after she was confirmed to the Supreme Court by a deeply divided Senate.
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