The White House and the Democratic-majority U.S. House of Representatives “are serious about finding a compromise” on a second massive round of coronavirus aid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday. 

Pelosi said she and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke by telephone Tuesday afternoon, and that she hoped they could continue talks Wednesday after he returns from an overseas trip. 

“Our conversation provided more clarity and common ground as we move closer to an agreement. Today’s deadline enabled us to see that decisions could be reached and language could be exchanged,” Pelosi said in a letter to her Democratic colleagues. 

The two sides called on the heads of congressional committees “to resolve differences about funding levels and language,” Pelosi said. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell committed Tuesday to bring any Trump-approved legislation that results from such a deal to the Senate floor for a vote.  

“If such a deal were to clear the House, obviously, with the presidential signature or promise, we would put it on the floor of the Senate,” McConnell told reporters.     

If negotiations between the White House and the Democratic-majority House of Representatives fail, the next opportunity for negotiations on aid will come during a lame-duck session of Congress in November and December.  

“Nancy Pelosi isn’t serious,” McConnell said Tuesday on the timing of negotiations. “That’s because she doesn’t want anything to pass, she and [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer have made a calculated decision. It’s a political decision that nothing is going to pass until after Election Day because they believe that they have better chances of success on Election Day.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks to reporters after casting his vote in the 2020 general election at the Kentucky Exhibition Center in Louisville, Ky., Oct. 15, 2020.

The president also raised the timing of the deal in relation to the election during a campaign stop in Arizona Monday, saying Pelosi “at this moment, does not want to do anything that’s going to affect the election.”  

U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly failed to reach an agreement on a second round of economic aid to millions of Americans impacted by the pandemic. In September, Senate Republicans failed to pass a slimmed-down $500 billion aid proposal. The House passed the $2.2 trillion Heroes Act in June and has so far rebuffed the administration’s offer of $1.8 trillion for a new round of aid.     

The Senate voted Tuesday on another $500 billion proposal. That bill would provide funding for a new round of unemployment benefits and the popular Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).     

McConnell said Senate Republicans did not feel there was a need for a second round of the $1,200 stimulus payments many Americans received as part of the CARES Act earlier this year.     

“We thought about $500 billion was appropriate at this juncture,” he told reporters. “No one would argue the economy’s in good shape but it’s noteworthy that [un]employment is at about 8.4% which is what it was in several years during the Obama first term.”   

He said the Republican proposal did provide funding for enhanced unemployment benefits.     

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Senate votes this week a stunt.  

“Democrats want to get a big bold bill that will meet the American people’s needs as soon as we can,” he said. “Nancy Pelosi is fighting to get one now. And as you know we’ve been met just with intransigence by the Republican Senate. We will try to get one in the lame duck and we will try to get one should we win the presidency and win the senate after that, the sooner the better,” Schumer told reporters Tuesday.     

President Donald Trump announced an end to negotiations on a new round of aid earlier this month before reversing course and tweeting, “Go big or go home!” His expression of support for a larger topline number closer to House Democrats’ asks for close to $2 trillion and has caused discomfort among many Senate Republicans.  

The $2 trillion CARES Act, passed by bipartisan agreement in March, was one of the largest aid packages in U.S. history, providing $600 in weekly enhanced unemployment benefits for millions of out of work Americans. The weekly benefits expired on July 31.     

The U.S. economy is showing some signs of recovery from the lockdowns instituted earlier this year to contain the spread of the virus. More than 11.4 million jobs have been recovered, and there are signs of increased hiring in hard-hit industries such as tourism.     

New unemployment claims jumped last week to more than 890,000, the highest level since mid-August, although continuing unemployment claims dropped to 10 million.  

The U.S. leads the world with just over 220,000 COVID-19 deaths, as well as infections, with more than 8 million cases total, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

Negotiations between the White House and the Democratic-majority U.S. House of Representatives on a second massive round of coronavirus aid have “come a long way,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday. 

In a Bloomberg News interview ahead of an afternoon phone call with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Pelosi said the two sides were resolving disagreements over language, setting out a national testing strategy for detecting the coronavirus as well as addressing the impact of the pandemic on communities of color. The two sides are still negotiating language for emergency funding for cash-strapped state and local governments. 

Pelosi had set Tuesday as the final day to reach a deal with the Trump administration before the presidential and congressional elections, which are just two weeks away on November 3. 

But she downplayed that self-imposed deadline, saying Tuesday morning, “It isn’t that this day was a day that we would have a deal, it was a day that we would have our terms on the table to be able to go to the next step.” 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell committed Tuesday to bring any Trump-approved legislation that results from such a deal to the Senate floor for a vote. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell holds a face mask while participating in a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, October 20, 2020.

“If such a deal were to clear the House, obviously, with the presidential signature or promise, we would put it on the floor of the Senate,” McConnell told reporters. 

If negotiations between the White House and the Democratic-majority House of Representatives fail, the next opportunity for negotiations on aid will come during a lame-duck session of Congress in November and December. 

“Nancy Pelosi isn’t serious,” McConnell said Tuesday on the timing of negotiations. “That’s because she doesn’t want anything to pass, she and [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer have made a calculated decision. It’s a political decision that nothing is going to pass until after Election Day because they believe that they have better chances of success on Election Day.” 

The president also raised the timing of the deal in relation to the election during a campaign stop Monday in Arizona, saying Pelosi “at this moment, does not want to do anything that’s going to affect the election.” 

President Donald Trump works the crowd after speaking at a campaign rally, October 19, 2020, in Tucson, Arizona.

U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly failed to reach an agreement on a second round of economic aid to millions of Americans affected by the pandemic. In September, Senate Republicans failed to pass a slimmed-down $500 billion aid proposal. The House passed the $2.2 trillion Heroes Act in June and has so far rebuffed the administration’s offer of $1.8 trillion for a new round of aid. 

The Senate voted Tuesday on another $500 billion proposal. That bill would provide funding for a new round of unemployment benefits and the popular Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). 

McConnell said Senate Republicans did not feel there was a need for a second round of the $1,200 stimulus payments many Americans received as part of the CARES Act earlier this year. 

“We thought about $500 billion was appropriate at this juncture,” he told reporters. “No one would argue the economy’s in good shape, but it’s noteworthy that [un]employment is at about 8.4% which is what it was in several years during the Obama first term.” 

He said the Republican proposal did provide funding for enhanced unemployment benefits. 

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., left, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a news conference, September 9, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Senate votes this week a stunt. 

“Democrats want to get a big bold bill that will meet the American people’s needs as soon as we can,” he said. “Nancy Pelosi is fighting to get one now. And as you know we’ve been met just with intransigence by the Republican Senate. We will try to get one in the lame duck and we will try to get one should we win the presidency and win the senate after that, the sooner the better,” Schumer told reporters Tuesday. 

President Donald Trump announced an end to negotiations on a new round of aid earlier this month before reversing course and tweeting, “Go big or go home!” His expression of support for a larger topline number closer to House Democrats’ asks for close to $2 trillion has caused discomfort among many Senate Republicans. 

The $2 trillion CARES Act, passed by bipartisan agreement in March, was one of the largest aid packages in U.S. history, providing $600 in weekly enhanced unemployment benefits for millions of out-of-work Americans. The weekly benefits expired on July 31. 

The U.S. economy is showing some signs of recovery from the lockdowns instituted earlier this year to contain the spread of the virus. More than 11.4 million jobs have been recovered, and there are signs of increased hiring in hard-hit industries such as tourism. 

New unemployment claims jumped last week to more than 890,000, the highest level since mid-August, although continuing unemployment claims dropped to 10 million. 

The U.S. leads the world with just over 220,000 COVID-19 deaths, as well as infections, with more than 8 million cases total, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Justice Department along with the attorneys general of 11 states on Tuesday brought a massive anti-trust lawsuit against Google, accusing the tech giant of maintaining illegal monopolies over search and search advertising on the internet.

The widely expected lawsuit, the most significant anti-trust case since the Justice Department sued Microsoft for its monopoly of the software market in 1998, stemmed from a yearlong investigation into Google and three other tech giants — Apple, Amazon and Facebook.

Attorney General William Barr called the lawsuit a monumental case “both for the Department of Justice and for the American people.”

“This lawsuit strikes at the heart of Google’s grip over the internet for millions of American consumers, advertisers, small businesses and entrepreneurs beholden to an unlawful monopolist,” Barr said.

Barr said the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., is not tied to conservative concern over content moderation and censorship by online platforms.

In recent years, President Donald Trump and Republicans have accused Google and other online platforms of silencing conservative viewpoints. In May, Trump signed an executive order targeting a law that shields social media companies from liability lawsuits. Last month, the Justice Department proposed legislation to reform the law.

In a statement, Google chief legal officer Kent Walker called the lawsuit “deeply flawed.”

“People use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced to, or because they can’t find alternatives,” Walker wrote in a blog post. “This lawsuit would do nothing to help consumers. To the contrary, it would artificially prop up lower-quality search alternatives, raise phone prices, and make it harder for people to get the search services they want to use.”

Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc, is a trillion-dollar company based in California, with revenues of $162 billion last year. Google accounts for nearly 90 percent of all search queries in the United States, making it by far the largest internet search engine.

For years, the 64-page lawsuit alleges, Google “has used anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising—the cornerstones of its empire.”

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Google pays manufacturers like Apple and U.S. wireless carriers, such as AT&T, billions of dollars each year to secure default status for its search engine on billions of devices and computers around the world. Users rarely change the default, effectively blocking rival search engines, the lawsuit alleges.

“Google has foreclosed any meaningful search competitor from gaining vital distribution and scale, eliminating competition for a majority of search queries in the United States,” the complaint says.

U.S. lawmakers and consumer advocates have long accused Google of exploiting its market clout to suppress competition, increase profits and hurt consumers. 

A recent House Judiciary subcommittee report concluded after a yearlong investigation into Silicon Valley’s market dominance that Google has monopolized the search market. The report said Google established its dominant position through acquisition in several markets, buying about 260 companies that other businesses had developed over a 20-year span.

The state attorneys general participating in the lawsuit represent Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas. All are Republican. A separate group of states is expected to file a lawsuit against Google later this year.

In recent years, Google has faced hefty fines over its business practices in Europe. The European Union fined Google $1.7 billion in 2019 for stopping websites from using Google’s rivals to find advertisers, $2.6 billion in 2017 for favoring its own shopping business in search, and $4.9 billion in 2018 for blocking rivals on its wireless Android operating system, the Reuters news agency reported.

The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google for allegedly violating federal law by using its dominant market position to stifle competition.

The agency alleged in its long-awaited lawsuit Tuesday that Google abused its dominant market position to maintain monopolies in online search and search advertising.

Google did not immediately comment on the lawsuit, the most significant legal challenge to the U.S. technology sector in more than two decades.

Consumer advocates and legislators have long accused Google of abusing its dominant market position to suppress competition, increase profits and hurt consumers. 

The suit, filed in federal court in Washington, could be the first of many other significant government antitrust actions against Silicon Valley. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission also are currently investigating Apple, Amazon and Facebook.

A senior economic adviser to President Donald Trump said two years ago that the administration was considering whether Google searches should be regulated by the government. 

Trump has frequently criticized Google and promoted unsubstantiated claims by conservatives that the company suppresses conservative viewpoints, meddles in U.S. elections and favors collaborating with the Chinese military over the U.S. Defense Department.

Google has captured about 90% of the world’s internet search market, the result of offering a product that is preferred by billions of users daily, the company has said.

The California-based corporation has been preparing for the lawsuit and is expected to aggressively oppose any efforts to force it to spin off its services into individual businesses. 

A recent House Judiciary subcommittee report concluded after a yearlong investigation into Silicon Valley’s market dominance that Google has monopolized the search market. The report said Google established its dominant position through acquisition in several markets, buying about 260 companies that other businesses had developed over a 20-year span. 

Google was fined $1.7 billion by the European Union in 2019 for preventing websites from using the tech giant’s rivals from locating advertisers. The EU also fined Google $2.6 billion in 2017 for favoring its own online shopping venues over its rivals, and $4.9 billion in 2018 for blocking competitors from its Android operating system.

As Republicans rush to confirm Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s pick to replace the late-Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court before Election Day, some liberal Democrats are floating the idea of adding more seats to the court — beyond the current nine.  

The number of justices has changed over time, from six to as many as 10, but the number has remained steady at nine since 1869. In the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to pack the court to preserve his New Deal legislation, which kept getting struck down by the high court. He failed. 

If Democrats capture the White House and Senate, while retaining majority control of the House of Representatives, there is no constitutional impediment to following through on the idea.  

“There’s nothing in the Constitution that says that the Supreme Court has to have one or two or five or 10 members,” says Calvin Schermerhorn, professor of history at Arizona State University. “It’s silent on how many members there are on the Supreme Court. It only says that there shall be a chief justice, and Congress will have the power to shape the court and configure them in the best interest of justice.” 

Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, meets with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the Capitol, September 29, 2020 in Washington.

Democrats would have to change filibuster rules in the Senate to lower the threshold for passing legislation from 60 votes to a simple majority of the 100-member chamber to change the number of justices on the high court.  

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has declined to say whether he would support an expansion of the Supreme Court if he wins election and the Democrats take back control of the Senate, but has promised to reveal his position before Election Day. 

Expanding the court for political reasons could damage the integrity of the Supreme Court, says Nicole Huberfeld, professor of law at Boston University.  

“People worry already about whether the Supreme Court is a political actor, rather than apolitical. I do think that adding justices so that one president can appoint a whole bunch of justices could affect the institutional integrity, or at least the perception of institutional integrity,” she says.  

“The authority of the court largely comes from respecting the decisions of the justices, and the court of itself doesn’t actually have any way to ensure that its decisions are implemented,” Huberfeld adds. “If people stop thinking that’s the law of the land, then the court has an institutional integrity problem.”

Associate Justice David Souter signs documents of office at the Supreme Court after being sworn in as the newest member of the high court in Washington, Oct. 9, 1990.

Most Americans trust the U.S. Supreme Court to act in the best interests of the nation, according to public surveys, but an increasing number of people do worry justices are becoming too mixed up with politics.  

Although a politicized Supreme Court might be alarming to some today, the scenario would be familiar to the nation’s Founding Fathers, because the court was viewed as an extension of party politics in the 19th century. 

“The first generation of American leaders, by the so-called founders, used the courts as a creature of the legislature. And so, the federal judiciary, especially, was supposed to be subordinate to the will of democratically elected representatives,” Schermerhorn says. 

The Republican effort to fast-track Barrett’s confirmation is particularly galling to Democrats still steaming because Republicans successfully blocked the 2016 confirmation of Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s pick to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, early in an election year. Now, the Republicans are rushing to confirm Barrett just days before another presidential election, which would create a solid 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court.  

FILE – In this May 10, 2016 photo, President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland meets with Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

But again, Schermerhorn says, none of that would have fazed the nation’s founders.  

“They would have understood this is as partisan combat and not as a matter of constitutional principle,” he says. “There would have been no hesitation for the party in power in doing exactly what Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has done in his tenure as leader of the Republican-controlled Senate. That’s not to say that this is a model that ought to be followed, that just because the founders thought or did something means that it’s worthy of emulation.” 

Huberfeld says it is important to remember that there is more to the high court’s work than the few cases that draw the most attention and controversy, such as those dealing with health care, abortion or LGBTQ rights..  

“The way that the court decides cases is much more than the handful of cases that people tend to talk about in political conversation. There are many cases the court hears that are just basic statutory interpretation. There are many cases the court hears that are criminal procedure cases,” she says. “Typically, at least in the modern era, once people are appointed, they tend to take that appointment quite seriously and to sort of put politics behind them.” 

She points out that justices don’t always rule as expected. For example, conservative Scalia’s interpretation of the Constitution led him to be protective of the rights of criminal defendants. While Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion that gay and transgender workers are protected by the Civil Rights Act.  

“So, I think the question before the court isn’t always a matter of this political ideology that people ascribe to the justices. It’s much more a matter of what the question is before the court and how the judges interpret it,” Huberfeld says. 

The second and final debate before the U.S. presidential election appears set to go forward with new rules in place meant to prevent the candidates from talking over each other. 

President Donald Trump expressed his displeasure with the overall setup, telling reporters Monday that while he thinks “it is very unfair,” he will be a part of Thursday’s event in Nashville, Tennessee. 

“I will participate but it’s very unfair that they changed the topics and it’s very unfair that again we have an anchor who is totally biased,” Trump said. 

Kristen Welker, a respected NBC White House reporter, is moderating the debate and has chosen to ask Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden about fighting COVID-19, American families, race in America, climate change, national security and leadership. 

Trump’s campaign said earlier Monday the debate should focus more on international issues. 

Biden’s campaign said Trump was seeking to avoid discussing how his administration has handled the coronavirus pandemic, and that both sides had agreed to let moderators choose the topics for the debates.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to speak during a campaign event at Riverside High School in Durham, N.C., Oct. 18, 2020.

“As usual, the president is more concerned with the rules of a debate than he is getting a nation in crisis the help it needs,” Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo said. 

The format of Thursday’s debate will be 15-minute segments for different topics, during which each candidate will have two minutes to speak, followed by open discussion. 

In the first presidential debate in late September, Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden, who at one point responded: “Will you shut up, man?” 

The commission pledged to institute reforms to better facilitate a meaningful debate, and on Monday announced that during the two-minute exclusive period, only one candidate will have his microphone turned on. 

“Both campaigns this week reaffirmed their agreement to the two-minute, uninterrupted rule,” it said in a statement. “The Commission is announcing today that in order to enforce this agreed upon rule, the only candidate whose microphone will be open during these two-minute periods is the candidate who has the floor under the rules.” 

The commission said neither campaign may be totally satisfied with the rules, but that it believes the actions “strike the right balance and that they are in the interest of the American people.” 

The presidential candidates first debated in late September and were due to have another earlier this month.  But Trump tested positive for COVID-19 and when the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates decided to have the candidates participate remotely, the president withdrew. 

U.S. President Donald Trump says the United States will remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after the country follows through on an agreement to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to U.S. terror victims and families.      

Trump tweeted Monday: “GREAT news! New government of Sudan, which is making great progress, agreed to pay $335 MILLION to U.S. terror victims and families. Once deposited, I will lift Sudan from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. At long last, JUSTICE for the American people and BIG step for Sudan!”

GREAT news! New government of Sudan, which is making great progress, agreed to pay $335 MILLION to U.S. terror victims and families. Once deposited, I will lift Sudan from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list. At long last, JUSTICE for the American people and BIG step for Sudan!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2020

The move would allow Sudan to once again receive international loans and aid that are needed to boost the country’s economy.       

It could also pave the way for Sudan to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, as the Trump administration seeks to broker deals for Arab countries to recognize Israel. The administration has facilitated such agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.   

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok thanked Trump in a tweet Monday, saying the terrorism-sponsor designation has seriously harmed Sudan.  He added that the Sudanese people have never supported terrorism, and that the U.S. move is a strong support for the country’s transition to democracy.    

The $335 million that Sudan has agreed to pay to Americans is for victims of al-Qaida attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and for the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 in a Yemeni port. U.S. courts have found that Sudan was complicit in those attacks.    

Sudan Terror Victims, an advocacy group for the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing victims, said Monday that the majority of victims issued a statement reiterating their rejection of Sudan’s settlement offer.

FILE – An unidentified man lays flowers at the US Embassy bombing memorial site in Nairobi, Kenya, Aug. 7, 2013.

The group said the proposed settlement payments prioritize American-born victims and give substantially less money to victims who are naturalized U.S. citizens not born in the United States. It says more than 500 of the 700 U.S. Embassy bombing victims have signed a letter rejecting the settlement terms.   

Edith Bartley, spokesperson for the families of the Americans killed in the embassy bombing in Nairobi, thanked the U.S. State Department and the new government in Sudan for securing compensation for the victims. 

A lawyer representing the families of victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania expressed fears that the Sudan agreement, and potential subsequent action by Congress to restore the country’s sovereign immunity, could endanger those families’ ability to seek their own compensation. 

“The 9/11 families are counting on Congress to reject Sudan’s plea that our pending lawsuits be wiped out and they insist it do nothing that would undermine them,” said Jack Quinn, who represents 2,500 families in a lawsuit against Sudan. 

Sudan was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1993 over U.S. allegations that Sudan’s then-leader Omar al-Bashir was supporting Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups. Bashir was removed from power last year.   

If Sudan is removed from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism, only three countries would remain – Iran, North Korea and Syria. 

With just hours left before a self-imposed deadline, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she and the Trump administration have made some progress in their negotiations over a second round of financial aid to address the coronavirus pandemic. 

Pelosi said Monday during a television interview that she and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin narrowed their differences during an hour-long phone call earlier in the day.  She said the administration has finally reached the point where they are ready to reach an agreement, and that the two sides will speak again Tuesday to determine where each side stands. 

“Let’s make a judgment,” Pelosi said on the cable news network MSNBC.  “We may not like this, we may not like that, but let’s see on balance if we can go forward.” 

Pelosi has set Tuesday as the final day to reach a deal with the Trump administration before the presidential and congressional elections, which are just two weeks away on  November 3.     

If negotiations between the White House and the Democratic-majority House of Representatives fail, the next opportunity for negotiations on aid will come during a lame-duck session of Congress in November and December.   

Pelosi has said the two sides are far apart on providing emergency funding for cash-strapped state and local governments and language that spells out a COVID-19 tracing and testing strategy.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Oct. 8, 2020.

U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly failed to reach an agreement on a second round of economic aid to millions of Americans impacted by the pandemic. In September, Senate Republicans failed to pass a slimmed-down $500 billion aid proposal. The House passed the $2.2 trillion Heroes Act in June and has so far rebuffed the administration’s offer of $1.8 trillion for a new round of aid.     

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the Senate will vote on another $500 billion proposal Wednesday. That bill would provide funding for a new round of unemployment benefits and the popular Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).   

During remarks on the Senate floor Monday, McConnell criticized Pelosi for taking an “all or nothing approach” to a new coronavirus relief package, and said her “Marie Antoinette act needs to end,” a reference to the 18th century French queen with a reputation for flamboyance.  

McConnell’s Democratic counterpart, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, called the Republican plan “emaciated.”  

President Donald Trump announced an end to negotiations on a new round of aid earlier this month before reversing course and tweeting, “Go big or go home!” His expression of support for a larger topline number closer to House Democrats’ asks for close to $2 trillion and has caused discomfort among many Senate Republicans.  

But the president appeared to dampen hopes of a final deal during a campaign stop in Arizona Monday, saying Pelosi “at this moment, does not want to do anything that’s going to affect the election.”  

The $2 trillion CARES Act, passed by bipartisan agreement in March, was one of the largest aid packages in U.S. history, providing $600 in weekly enhanced unemployment benefits for millions of out of work Americans. The weekly benefits expired on July 31.  

The U.S. economy is showing some signs of recovery from the lockdowns instituted earlier this year to contain the spread of the virus. More than 11.4 million jobs have been recovered, and there are signs of increased hiring in hard-hit industries such as tourism.     

New unemployment claims jumped last week to more than 890,000, the highest level since mid-August, although continuing unemployment claims dropped to 10 million.    

The U.S. leads the world with just over 220,000 COVID-19 deaths, as well as infections, with more than 8 million cases total, according to Johns Hopkins University.  

The second and final debate before the U.S. presidential election appears set to go forward with new rules in place meant to prevent the candidates from talking over each other. 

President Donald Trump expressed his displeasure with the overall setup, telling reporters Monday that while he thinks “it is very unfair,” he will be a part of Thursday’s event in Nashville, Tennessee. 

“I will participate but it’s very unfair that they changed the topics and it’s very unfair that again we have an anchor who is totally biased,” Trump said. 

Kristen Welker, a respected NBC White House reporter, is moderating the debate and has chosen to ask Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden about fighting COVID-19, American families, race in America, climate change, national security and leadership. 

Trump’s campaign said earlier Monday the debate should focus more on international issues. 

Biden’s campaign said Trump was seeking to avoid discussing how his administration has handled the coronavirus pandemic, and that both sides had agreed to let moderators choose the topics for the debates.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to speak during a campaign event at Riverside High School in Durham, N.C., Oct. 18, 2020.

“As usual, the president is more concerned with the rules of a debate than he is getting a nation in crisis the help it needs,” Biden spokesman TJ Ducklo said. 

The format of Thursday’s debate will be 15-minute segments for different topics, during which each candidate will have two minutes to speak, followed by open discussion. 

In the first presidential debate in late September, Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden, who at one point responded: “Will you shut up, man?” 

The commission pledged to institute reforms to better facilitate a meaningful debate, and on Monday announced that during the two-minute exclusive period, only one candidate will have his microphone turned on. 

“Both campaigns this week reaffirmed their agreement to the two-minute, uninterrupted rule,” it said in a statement. “The Commission is announcing today that in order to enforce this agreed upon rule, the only candidate whose microphone will be open during these two-minute periods is the candidate who has the floor under the rules.” 

The commission said neither campaign may be totally satisfied with the rules, but that it believes the actions “strike the right balance and that they are in the interest of the American people.” 

The presidential candidates first debated in late September and were due to have another earlier this month.  But Trump tested positive for COVID-19 and when the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates decided to have the candidates participate remotely, the president withdrew. 

LAS VEGAS/DURHAM, N.C. – President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden were courting early voters Sunday in the competitive states of Nevada and North Carolina, as the final presidential debate looms later this week.

At least 27.7 million Americans have cast ballots either by mail or in person ahead of the Nov. 3 election, according to the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida. The record-shattering figure is being driven in part by concerns about crowds at polling sites on Election Day amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In North Carolina, a battleground where 1.4 million, or 20%, of the state’s registered voters had voted as of Sunday morning, Biden urged residents to cast ballots as soon as possible.

“We gotta keep the incredible momentum going; we can’t let up,” he said at a “drive-in rally” in Durham, as attendees sitting in their cars honked in approval. “Don’t wait – go vote today.”

Trump Advisor Signals President Could Be Less Disruptive at Thursday Debate Trump frequently interrupted Biden at first debate in September

Biden also criticized Trump for saying over the weekend that the United States had “turned the corner” in the coronavirus pandemic, noting that the rate of new cases across the country has risen to the highest level in months.

“As my grandfather would say, ‘This guy’s gone around the bend if he thinks we’ve turned the corner,'” Biden said. “Things are getting worse, and he continues to lie to us about circumstances.”

Biden’s pick for vice president, Senator Kamala Harris, canceled in-person events over the weekend as a precaution after an aide tested positive for COVID-19. She will return to the campaign trail on Monday with a visit to Florida to mark that state’s first day of early in-person voting.

Harris tested negative for the coronavirus on Sunday, the campaign said.

Trump, a Republican, was spending his Sunday in Nevada, a state he hopes to wrest from Democrats after narrowly losing it in 2016. Early in-person voting in the state began Saturday.

The president, who rarely goes to church but has remained popular among evangelical Christians for his opposition to abortion and for appointing conservative judges, began his day by attending a service at the International Church of Las Vegas.

Trump, who recently was diagnosed with the coronavirus, did not wear a mask for the indoor service. The coronavirus causes the COVID-19 disease.

One of the church’s pastors, Denise Goulet, said to Trump from the stage that God had told her he would win the 2020 election. Trump put a handful of $20 bills into an offering bucket and bowed his head during a prayer.

Trump will campaign every day leading up to Thursday’s debate in Florida, including stops in Arizona and North Carolina, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.

While Trump lags in opinion polls at a national level and in many battleground states, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said over the weekend that the national figures are misleading because must-win states are close.

“We cannot become complacent because the very searing truth is that Donald Trump can still win this race, and every indication we have shows that this thing is going to come down to the wire,” she wrote in a memo to donors.

U.S. presidential elections are determined by electoral votes, allotted to U.S. states and territories based largely on their populations, rather than by a tally of the popular vote nationwide.

Trump campaigned on Saturday in Michigan and Wisconsin, two battleground states he narrowly won in the 2016 election.

In Muskegon, Mich., he attacked Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, for imposing restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus and made light of a right-wing plot uncovered by the FBI to kidnap her.

“Hopefully you’ll be sending her packing pretty soon,” Trump said, prompting the crowd to yell, “Lock her up!” several times.

Whitmer said on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” on NBC that the president’s rhetoric was “incredibly disturbing” and “dangerous” for her and her family as well as other politicians whom he targets.