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Trump crowd chants "fire Fauci" at late-night rally while Biden campaigns in Pennsylvania

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Trump blames Biden campaign for clash between campaign bus and caravan of Trump supporters 03:19

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With Election Day starting in less than 36 hours, President Trump wrapped up a marathon day of campaigning with a late-night rally in Miami, where the crowd chanted "fire Fauci." His Democratic rival Joe Biden spent the last Sunday before the election focused on Pennsylvania, where polls have given Biden an edge but Mr. Trump has insisted he will keep. 

Mr. Trump will campaign Monday in Scranton, Biden's hometown. Biden, Jill Biden, Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff will be barnstorming the state on Monday, and the Biden campaign added a trip to Cleveland, Ohio to his Election Eve schedule. Former President Obama will be campaigning Monday for Biden in Georgia and Florida. 

In Miami, Mr. Trump said about Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, "don't tell anybody but let me wait till a little bit after the election." He then added that Fauci has been "wrong a lot." The White House on Sunday took aim at Fauci, who offered a stark warning in a recent interview of what Americans are facing heading into the winter months.

The Miami rally extended past the city's midnight curfew put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19, and the Biden campaign had slammed it as one of Mr. Trump's "potential super-spreader rallies." 

Mr. Trump spent Sunday zigzagging through swing states on the East Coast, holding rallies in  rallies in Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. At a campaign rally in Dubuque, Iowa, Mr. Trump tried to push the idea that the results should be announced on Election Night. 

"We should know the result of the election on November 3," Mr. Trump said. "The evening of November 3. That's the way it's been and that's the way it should be. What's going on in this country? What's going on?"

More than 92 million Americans nationwide have already voted. With so many American voting by mail, there could be delays in counting ballots in some states.

Latest Updates:

 

Trump rally crowd chants "fire Fauci," he says "but let me wait til a little after the election"

The crowd at Mr. Trump's rally in Miami chanted "fire Fauci!" while the president was giving his frequent line that starting on November 4, "you won't hear about" COVID-19.

"Don't tell anybody, but let me wait till a little bit after the election," Mr. Trump said amid the chants. "I appreciate the advice. I appreciate that. No, he's been wrong on a lot—he's a nice man though he's been wrong on a lot. Do not under any circumstances wear a mask he said, do not close up to China he said then he said later on that Trump—President Trump saved tens of thousands of lives because I closed early."

Mr. Trump's rally at the Miami-Opa Locka Airport started shortly before midnight, despite that the area has a midnight curfew under COVID-19 restrictions. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, a Republican Trump supporter, had tweeted earlier that the rally was expected to end before midnight, but the county would be flexible in letting people return home. 

Thousands attended the Miami rally.

Trump rally crowd chants "fire Fauci" 01:02
By Caroline Linton
 

Obama to campaign in Georgia and Florida on Monday

Former President Obama will hold campaign events in Georgia and Florida on Monday, the Biden campaign announced Sunday. Mr. Obama will hold a Get Out the Vote rally in Atlanta and then will have an Election Eve rally in Miami. 

Mr. Obama will be campaigning for Biden-Harris but also for Jon Ossoff, who is only trailing incumbent Senator David Perude by 1 point, according to an October 25 CBS News Battleground Tracker poll. 

Mr. Trump won Georgia by 5 points in 2016, but the CBS News Battleground Tracker has it as a toss up in this election. Mr. Trump campaigned in Rome, Georgia, on Sunday. 

By Caroline Linton
 

Trump scheduled to speak 1 hour before local curfew starts

 President Trump's rally in Opa-locka, Florida, near Miami, is set to start at 9:30 p.m., and Mr. Trump is scheduled to begin speaking at 11 p.m. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, a Republican Trump supporter, tweeted the rally is expected to end before Miami's midnight curfew.

"As we have done with recent late-ending sporting events, the County will be flexible on letting people travel home safely," Gimenez tweeted.

The Biden campaign slammed Mr. Trump's rally, calling it one of his "potential super-spreader rallies."

"This rally isn't for Floridians; it's to fuel his own ego, with no regard for the issues working Floridians face every day," the Biden campaign said in a statement to CBS Miami.

Gimenez's office said "county safety personnel will hand out flyers listing COVID-19 public health safety rules to attendees requiring facial coverings and physical distancing. The RNC campaign also confirmed it will have staff distribute masks and hand sanitizer to those attending."

By Caroline Linton
 

Trump and Biden set their sights on Pennsylvania

Trump and Biden set their sights on Pennsylvania 02:15

On Sunday, President Trump and Joe Biden were both campaigning in Pennsylvania, which could prove to be the decisive state on Election Day. Mr. Trump has tried to paint Biden as anti-fracking, while Biden hopes to flip the state blue again after it went for a Republican president in 2016 for the first time in 28 years.  

 

Trump says election results should come in on November 3

Speaking at a rally in Dubuque, Iowa, President Trump said the results of the election should be known on Election Night.

"We should know the result of the election on November 3," Mr. Trump said. "The evening of November 3. That's the way it's been and that's the way it should be. What's going on in this country? What's going on?"

No state is legally required to report results on Election Night, and there have been past presidential elections where the results were delayed. The influx of mail-in ballots will likely lead to some delays this year.

US-POLITICS-vote
US President Donald Trump leaves after speaking during a Make America Great Again rally at Dubuque Regional Airport on November 1, 2020, in Dubuque, Iowa.  BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

Although Mr. Trump voted early in Florida, he said, "... by the way, I liked Election Day and most of you do too." According to a CBS News Battleground Tracker on Sunday, Trump voters are planning to vote on Election Day.

With Democrats more likely to vote by mail, the party is worried that it may seem like Mr. Trump is ahead in early returns. And Trump senior adviser Jason Miller said on ABC's "This Week" that "we believe that we will be over 290 electoral votes on Election Night."

Mr. Trump also falsely claimed that Democrats had "stolen two elections," referring to the presidential primaries in 2016 and 2020. "I've seen people where an election got stolen — and by the way — we are not going to let that happen to us. You know with these ballots," Mr. Trump said.

By Caroline Linton
 

Biden campaign announces Lady Gaga and John Legend to join Monday events

The Biden campaign announced Sunday that Lady Gaga will join Biden and Harris as they barnstorm Pennsylvania on Monday. Lady Gaga will be in Pittsburgh with Biden and Jill Biden, while John Legend will be with Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, in Philadelphia.

The Trump campaign on Sunday called Lady Gaga an "anti-fracking activist." President Trump has tried to paint Biden as an opponent of fracking, especially in Pennsylvania. 

By Caroline Linton
 

Ex-DHS chief Jeh Johnson warns of ongoing foreign interference ahead of election

Jeh Johnson, former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, warned Sunday that foreign actors are currently taking action to interfere in the 2020 election and urged Americans to ensure they are informed and looking past disconfirmation spread in the run-up to Election Day.

"There is, in fact, foreign interference right now in the 2020 election. We know this from our own government," Johnson said in an interview with "Face the Nation." "The Iranians have attempted to intimidate Democratic voters. We know that there was a large-scale targeting exercise by the Russian government, but our government does not know exactly what their plan is. So there is, in fact, foreign interference."

Johnson said he is "encouraged" the Department of Homeland Security and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are taking the efforts by foreign actors seriously, but stressed "it's up to the voters to be informed and look past the disinformation that is out there."

Read more from Jeh Johnson's interview here or watch the full interview in the player below:

Ex-DHS chief Jeh Johnson warns of ongoing foreign interference ahead of election 05:59


By Melissa Quinn
 

Texas Supreme Court rejects GOP request to toss out drive-thru ballots

The Texas Supreme Court on Sunday denied a request from Republicans in the state to end drive-thru voting in Harris County, the state's most populous county, and toss out more than 120,000 votes cast through the method.

Republicans asked the state's highest court to end the practice, which was implemented by Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, and allow only curb-side voting for certain voters. The GOP lawmakers and voters challenging drive-thru voting argued the scheme violated the Constitution and state election code.

A hearing in federal court in a parallel dispute over the practice is scheduled for Monday.

By Melissa Quinn
 

Biden heading to Ohio on Monday

In addition to making several stops in Pennsylvania, the former vice president will visit Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday where he will "discuss bringing Americans together to address the crises facing the country and winning the battle for the soul of the nation," his campaign announced.

A CBS News Battleground Tracker poll released last month has Biden and Mr. Trump even in Ohio.

Mr. Trump won the state in 2016, but Ohio went for President Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.

By Melissa Quinn
 

Demings says Democrats "taking absolutely nothing for granted" in Florida

Val Demings says Democrats "take nothing for granted" in Florida 05:16

Congresswoman Val Demings, a Democrat representing Orlando, Florida, said the Biden campaign is "excited about what we are seeing on the ground" in the Sunshine State.

"But understand me clearly," she said on "Face the Nation," "we are taking absolutely nothing for granted because we know regardless of what the numbers are, it's going to be a close race."

Demings agreed that many Democratic voters in Florida have decided to vote-by-mail because of the coronavirus pandemic, and said the party is focused in the home stretch of reminding voters of the Trump administration's handling of the public health crisis.

"We'll remind them of the 9 million people who have contracted COVID-19 due to a lack of a unified strategic plan from the White House. We will remind them of the 230,000 people who have lost their lives, who will not be with their families during the holidays because of the lack of a unified plan," she said. "We will remind those young voters that the cost of college education needs to be regulated so that they're not saddled with unbelievable debt. And so we will communicate to the voters until the polls close on election night."

By Melissa Quinn
 

McDaniel sees Election Day boost for Trump

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel predicts Election Day surge for Trump 07:30

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel predicted the GOP will see a surge of voters head to the polls on Election Day, solidifying a lead for the president that secures his second term in the White House.

In an interview with "Face the Nation" on Sunday, McDaniel said the coronavirus pandemic has led many Democratic voters to cast their ballots by mail, while Republican voters are planning to turn out in person on Tuesday, which she predicted would close the gap between Mr. Trump and Biden and eventually lead the president to overtake his Democratic opponent.

"The margins are going to be based on that Election Day turnout, and Republicans will have a surge that day," McDaniel said. "We're going to have that, and that's why we're going to win.".

McDaniel said surveys of GOP voters indicate the majority are eager to vote in person on Election Day, and she heralded the ground operation built by the Republican Party, with more than 2.5 million volunteers and 3,000 staff members continuing to contact voters to ensure they turn out to vote.

"They want to make sure that their vote counts," she said. "They're not completely trusting of the mail-ballot system, and so they've made that clear."

Read more here.

By Melissa Quinn
 

Battleground Tracker: Biden leads, Trump needs Election Day surge to win

vote-choice-method.png

Biden heads into Election Day preferred by voters who have already cast their ballots early. Mr. Trump has a lead among those who plan to show up on November 3. So will Biden's lead hold up? If we trot out the old horserace analogy, Biden has a lead, but we still don't know how long the track is. We need to see how big that Election-Day vote will be.

So we took our baseline state model estimates from our initial polling, which sums to Biden holding an Electoral College lead heading into Election Day, and also estimated what it would take for each candidate to ultimately win. 

We estimate from our polling that Mr. Trump is doing, on average, over 30 percentage points better among likely Election-Day voters than early voters. We know the approximate size of the early vote so far, and we vary the potential size of the Election-Day vote to explore two scenarios.

Read more about the two scenarios here.

Anthony Salvanto, Kabir Khanna and Jennifer De Pinto

 

Where Trump and Biden are speaking on Sunday

Here's where both candidates are speaking on Sunday:

Biden

  • "Souls to the Polls" event in Philadelphia in the afternoon

  • Drive-in event in Philadelphia, timing TBD

  • Biden for President finance event in the evening

Trump

  • Rally at Michigan Sports Stars Park in Washington, Michigan, at 11 a.m. ET

  • Rally at Dubuque Regional Airport in Dubuque, Iowa, at 2:15 p.m. ET

  • Rally at Hickory Regional Airport in Hickory, North Carolina, at 5:45 p.m. ET

  • Rally at Richard B. Russell Airport in Rome, Georgia, at 8:30 p.m. ET

  • Rally at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport in Opa-locka, Florida, at 11 p.m. ET

By Stefan Becket
 

Early vote total tops 66% of 2016 turnout

More than 92 million Americans have already cast their ballots, amounting to more than 66% of 2016's overall turnout of 138 million votes. 

In-person early votes account for 33,141,215 of the total so far, while 58,897,202 mail-in ballots have already been returned. Roughly 32 million mail-in ballots have yet to be returned.

By Cara Korte
 

Trump tells Pennsylvania crowd he signed an executive order protecting fracking

President Trump announced at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that he signed an executive order protecting fracking, calling it "great news" for the state. While Mr. Trump said he signed it on the way to the rally from the airport, the White House has not yet provided any additional details. 

"If one of these maniacs comes along and they say, 'We're going to end fracking, we're going to destroy the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,' you can say, 'Sorry about that,'" Mr. Trump said Saturday. 

Mr. Trump has tried to turn fracking into a campaign issue, falsely claiming his Democratic opponent supports a ban on it. Pennsylvania, 2020's key swing state, has benefited from fracking and the industry surrounding it more than most states. According to the Energy Information Administration, it produces more dry natural gas than every state except Texas. After the 2008 economic crisis, its economy rebounded partially due to an influx of fracking.

By Caroline Linton
 

Des Moines Register poll gives Trump and Ernst solid leads in Iowa

In a Des Moines Register poll released the Saturday night before Election Day, Mr. Trump had opened up a 7 point lead over Joe Biden in the state, 48% to 41%. A poll by the Des Moines Register in September had the two tied.

Mr. Trump won Iowa by nearly 10 points in 2016, but Democrats have been hoping to recapture the state this year. Biden campaigned in Iowa on Friday, while Mr. Trump was there earlier this month and will hold a rally on Sunday in Dubuque. 

According to the Des Moines Register poll, though, Mr. Trump has gained an edge over Biden with independents and Biden has lost some of his edge with women. 

The poll of 814 likely Iowa voters was conducted by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines from October 26 to 29. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. 

The Des Moines Register poll also had incumbent Republican Senator Joni Ernst pulling ahead of Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield 46% to 42%. It's the first Iowa poll that has had Ernst in the lead.

"It's really both a matter of Ernst rising and Greenfield fading a little bit," said J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co. "There's sort of an equilibrium in terms of what's happening."

By Caroline Linton
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