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MOSTLY SUNNY 63 • 40 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020 | theworldlink.com
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Biden, Trump have final debate tonight NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, are set to square off in their final debate Thursday, one of the last high-profile opportunities for the trailing incumbent to change the trajectory of an increasingly contentious campaign. Worried about losing the White House, some advisers are urging Trump to trade his aggressive demeanor from the first debate for a lower-key style that puts Biden more squarely in the spotlight. But it’s unclear whether the president will listen. Biden, who has stepped off the campaign trail in favor of debate prep, expects Trump to get intensely personal. The former vice president and his inner circle see the president’s approach chiefly as an effort to distract from the
Senate panel advances Barrett
coronavirus, its economic fallout and other crises. With less than two weeks until Election Day, Biden is leading most national polls and has a narrower advantage in the battleground states that could decide the race. More than 42 million people have already cast their ballots. The debate, moderated by NBC’s Kristen Welker, is a final chance for both men to make their case to a television audience of tens of millions of voters. “The rule is that last debates before the election have a big impact,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss, who made clear the legacy of the candidates’ first faceoff: “That was the most out-of-control presidential debate we have seen.” Trump, who staged a remarkable comeback in the closing
days of the 2016 campaign, believes he can do it again by using the power of the presidency to attack his rival. Trump on Tuesday called on Attorney General William Barr to immediately launch an investigation into unverified claims about Biden and his son Hunter, effectively demanding that the Justice Department muddy his political opponent and abandon its historic resistance to getting involved in elections. The president has promoted an unconfirmed New York Post report published last week that cites an email in which an official from Ukrainian gas company Burisma thanked Hunter Biden, who served on the company’s board, for arranging for him to meet Joe Biden during a 2015 visit to Washington. The Biden campaign has rejected Trump’s
assertion of wrongdoing and noted that Biden’s schedule did not show a meeting with the Burisma official. Some former national security officials and other experts said the episode raised multiple red flags of a possible foreign disinformation effort, especially given the involvement of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, and Giuliani’s active role in promoting an anti-Biden narrative on Ukraine. But John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, dismissed that disinformation theory. And the FBI appeared to endorse Ratcliffe’s position in a letter to a Senate committee that had requested information on a laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden. Trump’s attacks on the Biden family have been relentless,
including his efforts to get Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, which led to Trump’s impeachment. It’s part of a determined, yet so-far-unsuccessful effort to drive up his opponent’s negatives, as he did with Hillary Clinton four years ago. Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said, “Trump is still the political outsider, while Biden is the ultimate insider. We now know that Biden allowed his son to sell access to him while he was vice president.” While Biden will defend his own record and his son, aides have said, he hopes to focus on making the case that Trump is unfit for office and let the nation down during a confluence of crises. Please see Debate, Page 2
Vote on Supreme Court nominee held despite boycott from Democrats
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans powered past a Democratic boycott Thursday to advance Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate, keeping President Donald Trump’s pick on track for confirmation before Election Day. Democratic senators refused to show up in protest of the GOP’s rush to install Trump’s nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Never has the Senate confirmed a Supreme Court nominee so close to a presidential election. The Republicans, who hold the majority, voted unanimously in favor of Barrett, a conservative judge. Instead of attending, the Democrats displayed posters at their desks of Americans they say have benefited from the Affordable Care Act now being challenged in court. Senators plan to convene a rare weekend session ahead of a final confirmation vote expected Monday. “This is a groundbreaking, historic moment,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the committee chairman. “We did it.” The 48-year-old federal judge’s ascent to the high court would lock a 6-3 conservative majority on the court for the foreseeable future. Trump’s Republican allies in the Senate are counting on Barrett’s ascent to improve their standing with voters. The court could open a new era of rulings on the Affordable Care Act, abortion access and even the results of the presidential election. “We should not be moving forward on this nomination,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday in announcing the boycott. He called Barrett’s views “so far out of the mainstream.” Unable stop the confirmation, Democrats have been trying unsuccessfully to stall the process until after the Nov. 3 election, so the winner of the presidency could name the new nominee. “These are all such violations of American norms, values, decency and honor,” Schumer said. With Republicans holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate, Trump’s pick for the court is almost certain to be confirmed. Please see Nominee, Page 3
Zack Demars photos, The World
Robbyn Repp hands a neighbor a free bouquet of flowers as part of the annual Petal it Forward event.
Flower shop’s message: ‘Petal it Forward’ ZACK DEMARS The World
NORTH BEND — Drivers on U.S. Highway 101 and Virginia Avenue got a sweet surprise Wednesday morning. Buckets of colorful flowers lined the sidewalk as staff from the Petal to the Metal flower shop prepared bouquets to hand to passing drivers as part of the Society of American Florists’ annual “Petal it Forward” event. “That person, you make their day,” said Robbyn Repp, the store’s owner. Repp and Mary Sue Blankenship, another shop staff member, have done the event for the past few years — but this year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they had to take it drive-thru only. Each time the light turned red, one of the mask-clad pair raced out into the street, passing flowers to drivers before they departed down the highway. The bouquets — one for the
Mary Sue Blankenship reaches to hand a stopped truck driver a bouquet of flowers. recipient, and another for them to give to someone else — were free. All Blankenship and Repp asked was that recipients pay (or petal) it forward to someone else with the flowers. “You just need to go make someone’s day,” Blankenship said. For Repp, the chance to bring
a smile to someone’s face is all the more important this year with the stress of the pandemic. “Everybody’s been so closed up and so afraid of everybody,” Repp said. “Right now, we really need it.” Repp’s store has had a challenging time, too. School dances, weddings, funerals and banquets
have all been cancelled or moved online, meaning many of the store’s usual orders “plummeted,” Repp said. Much of the store’s business has moved online, with staff members video calling customers to show them around the store or texting them photos of completed orders to make them feel like they’re there. Repp had to completely revamp the store’s website to make it accessible to people who don’t usually go online. Still, in spite of the lost revenue, Repp said it was worth the store’s time to continue the Petal it Forward event. Since it was coordinated through a national organization, the flowers came free from growers, and the store just had to pay for shipping and build the 200 bouquets Tuesday evening. “It’s a way of giving back to the community,” Repp said. “I couldn’t have my (store) door open if it weren’t for the community.”
US officials link Iran to emails meant to intimidate voters WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials have accused Iran of being behind a flurry of threatening but fake emails sent to Democratic voters in multiple battleground states in a late-stage efforts to sway public opinion and interfere in the presidential election. Purportedly from far-right, pro-Trump groups like the Proud Boys, the fake emails were apparently aimed at intimidating voters. John Ratcliffe, the government’s national intelligence director, said the aim was to hurt President Donald Trump in the
contest against Democrat Joe Biden, though he did not elaborate on how. One possibility is the messages may have been intended to align Trump in the minds of voters with the Proud Boys after he was criticized for failing to unequivocally denounce the group during the first presidential debate. The threatening emails officials did not lay out specific evidence for how they came to pinpoint Iran, but the activities attributed to Tehran would mark a signif-
icant escalation for a country some cybersecurity experts regard as a second-rate player in online espionage. The announcement was made late Wednesday at a hastily called news conference 13 days before the election. The allegations underscored the U.S. government’s concern about efforts by foreign countries to influence the election by spreading false information meant to suppress voter turnout and undermine American confidence in the vote. Such direct attempts to sway public opinion
are more commonly associated with Moscow, which conducted a covert social media campaign in 2016 aimed at sowing discord and is again interfering this year, but the idea that Iran could be responsible suggested that those tactics have been adopted by other nations, too. “These actions are desperate attempts by desperate adversaries,” said Ratcliffe, who, along with FBI Director Christopher Wray, insisted that the U.S. would Please see Iran, Page 3