CNN hosts Scranton town hall with Biden

By

Emily Aubert
Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing

September 17, 2020: CNN is hosting a town hall with Joe Biden on Thursday night. Donald Trump is holding a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, on Thursday night.

DPNB campaign ad comparison feature, 2020 ("Red Handed" – Democratic National Committee)

DPNB campaign ad comparison feature, 2020 ("Joe Biden Has Done Absolutely Nothing for America" – Donald Trump)

Notable Quote of the Day

“But with Florida’s registered Democrats for the first time requesting hundreds of thousands more mail-in ballots than Republicans, overseas ballots going out on Sept. 19 and polls showing a tight contest in the nation’s most populous swing state, a Trump loss is being considered as a possibility. The Trump campaign is considering pathways to the White House that do not include Florida.

A defeat in Florida would trigger a set of circumstances that just one Republican nominee in the last 100 years has been able to emerge from victoriously. Former President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 lost Florida but won the national election.

Without Florida’s 29 electoral college votes, Trump would be completely reliant on a trio of Upper-Midwest battleground states he narrowly won in 2016 — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — and would need the electoral votes of at least one additional battleground state he previously lost, such as New Hampshire or Minnesota, in order to win a second term.”

– Francesca Chambers and David Smiley, McClatchy DC

Election Updates

  • CNN is hosting a town hall with Joe Biden on Thursday night in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Anderson Cooper will moderate the event.
  • The National Postal Mail Handlers Union endorsed Biden on Wednesday.
  • The Donald Trump campaign requested a federal judge prevent mail-in ballots in New Jersey from being counted 10 days prior to the election while a lawsuit is pending. It also requested that mail-in ballots without a postmark should not be accepted up to two days prior to the election.
  • Trump is holding a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, on Thursday night. The event was previously scheduled for Friday.
  • An Idaho court ruled on Wednesday that Kanye West could remain on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate despite being registered to vote in Wyoming as a Republican.

What We’re Reading

Flashback: September 17, 2016

Bernie Sanders campaigned at Kent State University in Ohio on behalf of Hillary Clinton.

Click here to learn more.