Charlie Baker, the Republican governor of Massachusetts, said he will not support President Trump’s reelection bid, his communications director Lizzy Guyton told CNN affiliate WCVB in an email Wednesday.
“The governor cannot support Donald Trump for president and is focused on seeing Massachusetts through the pandemic,” Guyton writes in the email. “He’ll leave the election analysis to the pundits.”
At a news conference earlier on Wednesday, the governor said he would "take a pass" when asked who he was supporting for President. Baker’s office later clarified to say he was taking a pass on the question, not on voting in this year’s election, according to WCVB.
Baker has publicly sparred with Trump in the past, slamming the President’s "bitterness, combativeness and self-interest" in the wake of nationwide protests following the murder of George Floyd, and characterizing Trump’s refusal to accept a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the election as “appalling and outrageous.”
CNN has reached out to Baker’s office for further comment.
In the 30-second spot titled “Change,” Bridgett Floyd recalls how Biden reached out to her family after her brother died in late May at the hands of a Minneapolis officer who knelt on his neck for nearly eight minutes..
“He was there to listen, he was very sincere,” Floyd said of Biden.
She then addresses the importance of voting saying, “Your vote does matter — that one vote makes a difference.”
George Floyd’s death – which was captured on video — sparked national outrage and led to protests calling for racial justice nationwide and across the world.
The ad, which is part of a larger effort from the Biden campaign to court Black voters, comes on what would have been George Floyd’s 47th birthday.
“I made a promise to his family that I won’t let him become just another hashtag — and I’ll work every day as president to keep that promise,” the tweet read.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, confirmed Wednesday that President Trump is not a Covid-19 transmission risk, but said he cannot vouch for the people around him.
“People were asking, ‘Is the President putting other people in danger because he had been infected?’ and the answer to that is no. He is not,” Fauci told CBS on Wednesday.
The National Institutes of Health released a statement Wednesday confirming that Trump is not infectious.
“I was asked by the White House to take a look at all of the totality of the Covid related tests that he undertook, as well as to do one of the tests at the NIH in our own laboratories,” said Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
When asked about the potential that aides or Secret Service agents who travel with Trump may pose a transmission risk to others, Fauci said, “I can't vouch for anybody else that's there – whether they've been tested or whether they've been careful in their interactions with people.”
CNN spoke to seven Trump supporters ahead of the rally and none had any concerns about Covid-19, with one woman saying, "If I’m gonna get sick and die I guess it's my turn."
"I put myself at risk every time I go to the grocery store. I go to McDonald's. I go to work. I do anything. I’m not gonna stop living," she added.
When asked about the President's coronavirus diagnosis, one person said, "You know you can't tell people, you gotta show 'em, you gotta show 'em. I think it's to his benefit because now he’s experienced it and he's shown the rest of us that you know, what don’t live in fear because the left wants you to live in fear. We’re not having it. People are sick of it."
Directly across from tonight's rally at the Des Moines Airport, a large billboard reads "TRUMP COVID SUPER SPREADER EVENT" with an arrow pointing to the event.
The billboard was paid for by the Iowa Rural America 2020 Steering Committee campaign, according to a news release obtained by CNN.
California has received 10 times as many ballots than it did at this time in the 2016 general election, with 1.5 million ballots returned so far, according to the secretary of state.
There are more than 21 million registered voters in the state.
The huge numbers are a sign of both tremendous voter enthusiasm and voters heeding the call to vote early.
"More Californians voting early will mean a safer Election Day for everyone—voters, poll workers, and elections officials alike. By voting early, you help preserve in-person voting for those who need it—including our neighbors with disabilities, those who need language assistance, or those who need access to Same Day Voter Registration," Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a statement.
President Trump told reporters on Wednesday that his son, Barron, is doing “fine” after testing positive for coronavirus.
“Barron’s fine,” Trump said when he was asked about how his son was doing.
He offered no other comments about Barron before boarding Marine One and heading to a campaign rally in Iowa.
Shortly before the President’s departure, first lady Melania Trump revealed in an essay posted by the White House that Barron, 14, tested positive for the virus. She said in the essay that her son had "no symptoms," and has now tested negative.
Harris County, Texas, has broken a record for the highest number of votes cast in the second day of early voting, according to a tweet from the county clerk's office.
The tweet says that more than 76,000 votes have been cast on Wednesday in Harris County, which includes the Houston-metro area.
The previous record was in 2016, when 73,542 people voted on the second day.
Maps on the voting website show that wait times range from a few minutes to 40 or more at the 122 locations in the county.
Polls are open in Harris County through 7 p.m. local time today.
“Naturally, my mind went immediately to our son,” she writes after she and President Trump’s diagnosis. Barron initially tested negative, but was tested again and turned up positive. She said Barron had “no symptoms,” and has now tested negative.
As for her symptoms, she said they were “minimal, though they hit me all at once and it seemed to be a roller coaster of symptoms in the days after.” The first lady said she had body aches, cough, headaches and was extremely tired.
She also described her treatment plan, saying:
"I chose to go a more natural route in terms of medicine, opting more for vitamins and healthy food. We had wonderful caretakers around us and we will be forever grateful for the medical care and professional discretion we received from Dr. Conley and his team. It was an unfamiliar feeling for me to be the patient instead of a person trying to encourage our nation to stay healthy and safe. It was me being taken care of now, and getting first-hand experience with all that COVID-19 can do. As the patient, and the person benefitting from so much medical support, I found myself even more grateful and in awe of caretakers and first responders everywhere. To the medical staff and the residence staff who have been taking care of our family—thank you doesn’t say enough."
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says some voting places are seeing longer lines due to some precincts being "more favored by voters" as well as pandemic guidelines.
"Well, some of the longest lines, for example, we saw in Fulton County so far that I’ve heard of actually have been in North Fulton County, and so that’s not I would say that’s probably 50/50 Republican, Democrat area. It’s not really any demographic group, obviously. And then down to State Farm, you know, it’s 10-15 minutes. Our Implementation Director, Gabriel Sterling, voted there Monday, I believe it was, and I think it took him 17 minutes," Raffensperger said.
"It’s just something that some precincts are more favored by voters and they just have longer lines. Everyone will have the opportunity to vote. We’re just expecting a record turnout. You have a pandemic, and that’s the other thing that we tend to forget. If you look at those lines, they look like they’re long, but everyone is spaced six feet out on center and that just makes your lines look a whole lot longer. It also takes longer to actually vote through the process because the machines have to be cleaned down, wiped, and so it’s just a slower more cumbersome process just due to the pandemic," Raffensperger added.
Regarding a bandwidth issue affecting voting locations, Raffensperger said it's a capacity problem.
"The amount of information that’s just flowing. It’s like everyone jumping on 285 in the morning, and sometimes you have to stagger out the rush hour," added Raffensperger.