Obama pitches in for Biden before debate
Iran, Russia reject US intelligence claim of accessing voter data, meddling in election
WASHINGTON: Just a day ahead of the final presidential debate, Barack Obama hit the campaign trail on Wednesday in support of Democratic White House hopeful Joe Biden, launching a blistering attack on US President Donald Trump.
The former US president slammed Trump for his handling of the pandemic, his secret bank account in China, his tweeting, and for “making things up”. Obama urged Democrats to vote like never before to “leave no doubt” about the outcome.
Obama’s drive-in rally in Philadelphia where he canvassed for his former vice-president was the largest turnout yet for a Biden campaign event.
Biden was off the campaign trail on Wednesday to prepare for the debate on Thursday , to be held in Nashville, Tennessee.
President Trump, however, was out campaigning, visiting North Carolina, a key battleground state, keeping up with his one-rally-a-day routine.
Obama said, “Eight months into this pandemic, cases are rising again across this country. Donald Trump isn’t suddenly going to protect all of us. He can’t even take the basic steps to protect himself.” It was a reference to the US president himself contracting Covid-19.
“We left this White House a pandemic playbook... they probably used it to prop up a wobbly table somewhere,” Obama said.
On reports of Trump’s bank account in China, Obama said, “He’s got a secret Chinese bank account. How is that possible?
Can you imagine if I had had a secret Chinese bank account when I was running for re-election? You think Fox News might have been a little concerned about that. They would have called me Beijing Barry.”
Iran summons Swiss envoy in protest
Iran and Russia rejected allegations of having taken actions to influence public opinion ahead of the US election. Washington had accused Iran of sending “spoofed” emails to Americans “designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage” Trump less than two weeks before close of polling.
According to the director of US National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, Iran had distributed a video that implied that people could send in fraudulent ballots, including from outside the US.
Iran summoned the Swiss envoy to protest against what it called “baseless” U.S. claims. US authorities “have put forward a baseless claim,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said. In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Accusations are raining down every day. All of them are absolutely groundless.”
US Senate panel moves to confirm SC judge
The Republican-led US Senate judiciary committee on Thursday advanced judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court for a floor vote, with Democrats boycotting a procedural vote. The full Senate is scheduled to vote on Monday, confirming her as the ninth member of the bench to replace the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “My Democratic Senate colleagues and I boycotted the Supreme Court nominee committee vote today,” Kamala Harris, a member of the committee and the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, said in a tweet.