67,000 people registered to vote after Florida restored voting rights to most felons in a 2018 ballot initiative, Politico reports.
Why it matters: Election results in the battleground state — which previously instituted a lifetime voting ban for people with felony convictions — could come down to these 67,000 votes. But the number still falls well short of the 1.4 million people that community organizers hoped to register.
The Biden campaign told Politico on Monday it will remove images of a retired Army general who led anti-ISIS military coalition from a campaign ad after he objected to his inclusion, citing the apolitical nature of the military.
Why it matters: The complaint from retired Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland references a Pentagon policy that does not permit uniformed military service members or federal employees to participate in political campaigns. The Trump campaign has also been criticized for using images of Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley without his permission.
President Trump attacked CNN for continuing to cover the coronavirus pandemic, calling the network "dumb b*stards" at a campaign rally in Prescott, Arizona on Monday.
Why it matters: The president's attacks on the media and Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious-disease expert, come as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are again surging across the country, just two weeks out from Election Day.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) praised NIAID Director Anthony Fauci on Monday, tweeting that the U.S. would have fewer COVID-19 cases if more Americans "paid attention to his advice."
Between the lines: Alexander, who is retiring at the end of this year, did not specifically name Donald Trump, but his comments came less than 30 minutes after the president escalated his attacks on Fauci on Twitter.
Facebook has suspended the account of Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach, an associate of Rudy Giuliani accused by the U.S. of being "an active Russian agent for over a decade," for election interference activity.
Why it matters: The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Derkach in September for "alleged efforts to interfere in the U.S. presidential election," including by releasing edited audio tapes and other unsubstantiated claims to denigrate Joe Biden and other officials.
During a campaign call on Monday, President Trump slammed infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, calling him a "disaster" and claiming that "people are tired of COVID," according to multiple reporters who listened to the call.
Why it matters: Fauci, who considers himself apolitical, is one of the most trusted voices in the country on the coronavirus. Trump's escalating attacks on the government's top infectious-disease expert come as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are again surging across the country, just two weeks out from Election Day.
The presidential race has been dominated by President Trump's handling of the pandemic, but there's been relatively little talk of what Joe Biden would do were he to take office in January.
Axios Re:Cap digs into Biden's pandemic plan — including details on mask mandates, shutdowns, and vaccine distribution — with campaign surrogate Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif).
A federal grand jury has returned a 7-count indictment against six Russian military intelligence officers for major hacking operations targeting foreign elections, the Olympics and computer systems worldwide that resulted in nearly $1 billion in losses, the Justice Department announced Monday.
The big picture: The officers are members of the same GRU unit indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for interference in the 2016 election. It's unlikely that they will ever face trial in the U.S.
The Trump campaign and Republican National Committee plan to spend an additional $55 million on coordinated ad buys in the remaining two weeks of the 2020 election, campaign manager Bill Stepien told reporters on a Monday call.
What to watch: The campaign and the RNC will jointly target Arizona, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Michigan — all considered critical swing states. RNC chair Ronna McDaniel told reporters on a Monday call that one ad would target Joe Biden's health care plan.
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny called on President Trump during an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" broadcast Sunday to condemn his Novichok poisoning that left him critically ill in hospital.
Details: Asked by CBS' Lesley Stahl if it's important for Trump to condemn the attack, which Navalny says Russian President Putin was behind, he replied: "I think it's extremely important that everyone, of course, including and maybe in the first of all, president of United States, to be very against using chemical weapons in the 21st Century."
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Sunday called Trump administration plans to cut food stamp benefits for almost 700,000 jobless Americans "arbitrary and capricious" as she blocked the move, per the Washington Post.
Details: The rule at issue "radically and abruptly alters decades of regulatory practice, leaving states scrambling and exponentially increasing food insecurity for tens of thousands of Americans," said Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell, of D.C., CNN notes.
NIAID director Anthony Fauci told CBS' "60 Minutes" in an interview broadcast Sunday he's "absolutely not" surprised that President Trump contracted Covid-19 after seeing him on TV in a crowded place with "almost nobody wearing a mask."
The big picture: Fauci said after watching the footage, he thought: "'Oh my goodness. Nothing good can come outta that, that's gotta be a problem.' And then sure enough, it turned out to be a superspreader event." Fauci appeared to be referencing the Sept 26. Rose Garden celebration of Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
The Biden campaign slammed President Trump after he said at a Nevada rally Sunday if his Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden were elected there'd be more coronavirus pandemic lockdowns because "he'll listen to the scientists."
What he's saying: "If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression," Trump said.
A 59-year-old man is facing a criminal threat charge over "threatening statements directed toward city of Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple" in Kansas, per a police statement.
Details: Meredith Dowty was arrested Friday. Threats sent to someone who knows the suspect and Whipple showed anger about a city coronavirus mask mandate, the mayor said to CNN.
