The Senate will hold two votes next week on a Payroll Protection Program bill and $500 billion coronavirus relief package, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Saturday.
Why it matters: Hopes for a broader stimulus deal before November's election are fading as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary remain deadlocked in negotiations on a potential package that McConnell has said his caucus has no appetite for.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) took a COVID-19 test on Saturday and the virus was not detected, according to a campaign aide.
Driving the news: The Democratic vice presidential nominee paused her campaign travel through Sunday after her communications director tested positive for the coronavirus.
Thousands rallied in cities across the U.S. on Saturday in a Women's March meant "to send an unmistakable message about the fierce opposition to [President] Trump and his agenda, including his attempt to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat."
Driving the news: Many attending Saturday's marches — from Washington, D.C., to Mobile, Alabama and Boise, Idaho — held signs depicting the late Supreme Court justice, who, before dying last month, reportedly told her granddaughter that her "most fervent wish" was that she would "not be replaced until a new president is installed."
President Trump's cabinet is rushing to "enact regulatory changes affecting millions" in case he loses his re-election bid, the N.Y. Times' Eric Lipton reports.
Driving the news: "In the bid to lock in new rules before Jan. 20, Mr. Trump’s team is limiting or sidestepping requirements for public comment on some of the changes and swatting aside critics who say the administration has failed to carry out sufficiently rigorous analysis," Lipton writes.
A spokesperson for Ben Sasse, the Republican senator who this week unloaded on President Trump, said Saturday that the Nebraska politician was "not going to waste a single minute" on the president's most recent Twitter attack.
Driving the news: Trump, in a series of tweets Saturday morning, called Sasse a "liability" to the GOP and an "embarrassment to the Great State of Nebraska."
At a rally in Friday night in Macon, Georgia, President Trump mocked Joe Biden, saying, "The mask is always so large!" — and suggested that he would leave the U.S. out of embarrassment if he lost to the former vice president.
What he's saying: "I shouldn’t joke because you know what? Running against the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics puts pressure on me," Trump said. "Could you imagine if I lose? My whole life, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna say: 'I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics.' I'm not gonna feel so good. Maybe I'll have to leave the country — I don't know."
Legal barriers have contributed to limiting voter turnout among people of color. But if people of color voted at the rate of white voters, it would immediately alter who gets elected and what policies they pursue.
Why it matters: In the 2018 midterm elections, all major racial and ethnic groups saw a double-digit increase in their voter participation compared to the 2014 midterms, per the Pew Research Center.
Americans believe that all citizens have equal access to our fundamental democratic right: voting. But the fact is racial politics still suppress votes.
Joe Biden not only crushed President Trump in ratings for their head-to-head town halls, Biden was a bigger draw for an earlier pairing of network town halls.
By the numbers: Biden had a bigger combined audience for town halls on ABC + NBC than Trump did for his ABC and NBC town halls. Biden drew 20.8 million for the two town halls combined, while Trump had 17.3 million.
