Axios

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday he would let the state's moratorium on evictions and foreclosures expire Thursday, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Why it matters: The governor's office said it is allowing the moratorium to expire because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order that temporarily halts some residential evictions through the end of the year to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

More than 73.1 million people watched the first presidential debate on television on Tuesday night, according to Nielsen ratings.

Why it matters: While that's a sizable audience for any American TV program, it's down more than 13% from the record number of TV viewers who tuned in for the first debate of the 2016 election. The chaotic nature of the debate and the overall uncertainty around this year's election may have pushed some viewers away.

Joe Biden's campaign netted $3.8 million in fundraising in one hour as the first debate with President Trump aired Tuesday night, a campaign official told Axios.

Why it matters: The amount raised on the Democratic donation-processing site ActBlue from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. is the campaign's biggest fundraising total in a single hour on record. The money poured in during a fiery debate punctuated by interruptions and hallmarked by name-calling.

The Senate on Wednesday passed legislation to fund the federal government through Dec. 11, by a vote of 84-10.

Where it stands: The legislation will avert a government shutdown before funding expires Wednesday night and before the Nov. 3 election. The House passed the same measure last week by a vote of 359-57 after House Democrats and the Trump administration agreed on the resolution.

• Both sides agreed early in negotiations that the bill should be a "clean" continuing resolution — meaning each party would only make small changes to existing funding levels so the measure would pass through both chambers quickly, Axios' Alayna Treene reported last week. The bill now goes to President Trump for his signature.

Joe Biden's presidential transition office will allow lobbyists to help shape his potential administration, but it will require them to receive a waiver to participate if they registered as lobbyists or engaged in lobbying activity in the last 12 months.

Why it matters: Presidential transition teams are instrumental in establishing a new administration, and the rules that govern them are often a template for the ethics guidelines that the new administration imposes after the inauguration.

President Trump's advisers feel the president needs to outright condemn far-right extremists and white supremacy during his rally tonight in Minnesota.

Why it matters: Trump sent shockwaves during the debate for telling the far-right Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by."

Fox News host Chris Wallace called Tuesday night's presidential debate between President Trump and Joe Biden "a missed opportunity" in an interview with the New York Times Wednesday.

Why it matters: Much of the national discussion after the hectic debate has centered on whether Wallace failed to control the candidates, especially President Trump, whose interruptions set the tone for the night. "I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did," Wallace told the Times Wednesday.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) told reporters on Wednesday that he believes President Trump "misspoke" when he told the far-right "Proud Boys" group to "stand back and stand by" in response to a question about condemning white supremacy at the first presidential debate.

Catch up quick: Moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump on Tuesday, "Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down?" Trump asked who specifically he should condemn, and then responded, "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left."

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Wednesday that it plans to implement changes to rules for the remaining debates, after Tuesday night's head-to-head between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was practically incoherent for most of the night.

What they are saying: "Last night's debate made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues," the CPD said in a statement.

President Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he doesn't know who the Proud Boys are, after saying at the presidential debate last night that the far-right group should "stand back and stand by" in response to a question asking him to condemn white supremacists.

Why it matters: The comments set off outrage and calls for clarification from a number of Republican senators. After being asked several times on Wednesday whether he will condemn white supremacy, Trump responded, "I have always denounced any form — any form of any of that, you have to denounce. But I also — Joe Biden has to say something about antifa."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is tied 48%-48% with Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison in the South Carolina Senate race, according to a Quinnipiac poll out Wednesday.

Why it matters: The race could be pivotal in deciding which party controls the Senate. Harrison was once thought to be a long shot against Graham, who won his last Senate race by a 10-point margin.

Joe Biden told reporters on Wednesday that his message to all white supremacist groups is to "cease and desist. That’s not who we are. This is not who we are as Americans."

Driving the news: President Trump was asked specifically about the far-right group Proud Boys at the debate Tuesday night, and rather than condemning them, the president said, "Proud Boys: Stand back and standby."

Even before the recent New York Times bombshell on Trump's taxes, the president's financial entanglements raised the specter of foreign influence.

The big picture: Although Trump has said he turned over day-to-day management of the Trump Organization to his two sons, he hasn't divested from any of his businesses. Revelations from the Times report add to concerns that this state of affairs is shaping elements of Trump's foreign policy.

The blockbuster New York Times report on President Trump’s taxes reveals that the president is $421 million in debt, with more than $300 million coming due during Trump’s potential second term — and the identities of the president’s creditors remain unknown.

Why it matters: If some, or all, of this debt is held by foreign actors, it raises serious national security implications.

The debate was a mess as moderator Chris Wallace struggled with President Trump's interruptions. But let's analyze the climate parts anyway without normalizing the whole thing.

Why it matters: The contest provided a collision over the topic between Trump and Joe Biden, and underscored the two candidates' immense differences.

One of the few groups in America with anything to celebrate after last night's loud, ugly, rowdy presidential "debate" was the violent, far-right Proud Boys, after President Trump pointedly refused to condemn white supremacist groups.

Why it matters: This was a for-the-history-books moment in a debate that was mostly headache-inducing noise. Trump failed to condemn racist groups after four months when millions marched for racial justice in the country's largest wave of activism in half a century.

The most-talked about videos from Sept. 30's first presidential debate between President Trump and Joe Biden:

• Biden hits back at Trump interruptions: "Will you shut up, man?"
• Biden: "I am the Democratic Party right now"
• Trump and Biden clash over COVID: "It is what it is because you are who you are"
• Trump to far-right Proud Boys: "Stand back and stand by"
• Biden rebukes Trump for attacking Hunter Biden's drug problem
• Pundits react to a chaotic debate: "What a dark event we just witnessed"

This debate was like the country: Everybody’s talking. Nobody’s listening. Nothing is learned. It’s a mess.

• We were told President Trump would be savage. Turned out, that was a gross understatement. Even the moderator, Fox News' Chris Wallace, got bulldozed.

Why it matters: Honestly, who the hell knows?

Former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum, a frequent defender of President Trump, said on CNN that Trump declined to explicitly condemn white supremacists when asked to at Tuesday's debate because he doesn't like to "say something bad about people who support him."

Why it matters: Trump has been criticized repeatedly throughout his tenure for his reticence to condemn right-wing violence, instead opting — as he did at the debate — to divert attention to Antifa and left-wing violence. Trump said on Tuesday that the far-right Proud Boys should "stand back and stand by" — a comment that the group is now seizing on as a dog whistle on online message boards.

The first presidential debate between President Trump and Joe Biden in Cleveland on Tuesday night was a shouting match, punctuated by interruptions and hallmarked by name-calling.

Why it matters: If Trump aimed to make the debate as chaotic as possible with a torrent of disruptions, he succeeded. Pundits struggled to make sense of what they saw, and it's tough to imagine that the American people were able to either.

President Trump attacked Joe Biden's son Hunter at the first presidential debate on Tuesday for being discharged from the military after failing a drug test for cocaine. Biden responded by saying that his son had a drug problem like many people and that he's proud of him for overcoming it.

Why it matters: Trump launched several attacks on Hunter Biden as part of a strategy to force the Democratic nominee to lose his cool. Biden largely avoided taking the bait, and at one point turned to the audience and said, "This is not about my family or his family. It's about your family. American people. He doesn't want to talk about what you need."

Faced with constant interruptions and shouting from President Trump, moderator Chris Wallace failed to maintain control over the 2020 campaign's first general election presidential debate.

• At one point, the back and forth between Trump and Wallace got so bad, that Wallace asked Trump, "You know, sir, if you wanna switch seats, we could do that."

Why it matters: The hectic nature of the first debate caused an instant debate over how the remaining debates could be conducted for the 2020 campaign.

Asked to condemn white supremacist violence at the first presidential debate on Tuesday, President Trump said the far-right Proud Boys group should "stand back and stand by," before immediately arguing that violence in the U.S. "is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem."

Why it matters: Trump has repeatedly been accused of failing to condemn white nationalism and right-wing violence, despite the FBI's assessment that it's the most significant domestic terrorism threat that the country faces. The president has frequently associated antifa and the left-wing violence that has afflicted some U.S. cities with Biden, despite his condemnation of violent protests.

Joe Biden attacked President Trump at the presidential debate on Tuesday for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, accusing him of panicking and failing to prepare for the crisis when he was warned about it in February.

The big picture: "It is what it is because you are who you are," Biden said, alluding to an answer Trump gave in an interview with "Axios on HBO" when asked about the 150,000+ death toll from the coronavirus. Trump responded by claiming that Biden would not have shut down travel from China in the early days of the pandemic, and he defended his administration's mass production of ventilators and protective equipment.

• Biden hits back at Trump interruptions: "Will you shut up, man?"
• Biden: "I am the Democratic Party right now"
• Trump to Biden on health care plan: "You just lost the left. You agreed with Bernie Sanders on a plan..."
• Trump and Biden argue over "V" vs. "K"-shaped recovery. Some context on that, from Axios' Dion Rabouin.
• Trump and Biden clash over COVID: "It is what it is because you are who you are," Biden says, alluding to an answer Trump gave in an interview with "Axios on HBO."

Responding to President Trump's insistence that the Democratic Party "wants to go socialist medicine," Joe Biden said at the presidential debate on Tuesday: "I am the Democratic Party."

Why it matters: Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Democratic nominee is not in control of his party and that he will be "dominated" by progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Unlike other candidates who Biden ran against in the Democratic primary, he does not support Medicare for All or abolishing private health insurance.

The first presidential debate got off to a raucous start on Tuesday night, with President Trump repeatedly interrupting Joe Biden to the point that the Democratic nominee told his opponent to "shut up."

Why it matters: About half an hour in, the debate had become increasingly difficult to watch due to the near-constant cross-talk. Some aides had feared that Biden would lose his cool in response to Trump's antics, but the result has mostly been that the debate has centered around each candidate sniping at each other, rather than putting forward a vision for the country.

The House voted 397-5 Tuesday to adopt a resolution in support of a peaceful transfer of power after President Trump last week refused to commit to it if he loses the election to Joe Biden.

The big picture: Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, Steve King, Thomas Massie and Clay Higgins voted against the bipartisan measure, authored by Rep. Eric Swalwell. A similar measure passed unanimously in the Senate last week.

2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told MSNBC Tuesday she's looking forward to watching Joe Biden debate Donald Trump because the president "now has a record."

What she's saying: Clinton, who debated Trump three times in 2016, argued that "everyone has seen what he has done to our country, what he has failed to do. They've watched him totally fumble the response to the coronavirus."

A federal judge on Tuesday indicated she may move forward with contempt proceedings after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross defied court orders to continue the 2020 Census, Talking Points Memo first reported.

Driving the news: Ross instructed the Census to end its field operations Oct. 5, despite Judge Lucy Koh's preliminary injunction in San Jose, California, last week allowing the head count of every U.S. resident to continue through the end of October. Koh said Monday Ross was "doing exactly" what she instructed the Trump administration not to in the order, per Bloomberg.