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On Friday, October 16 Axios' Mike Allen and Margaret Talev hosted a conversation to unpack the news of the day, including coverage of Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, featuring Sen. Chris Coons and Trump 2020 senior advisor for strategy Steve Cortes.
Steve Cortes discussed current national and state polls on the November election. According to Axios reporting, Biden maintains a double-digit lead over Trump nationally, but state polls are narrower.
- On the importance of looking at states that will be key to securing Electoral College votes: "It's most important, I think, for us to highlight to our supporters, to everybody, that battleground state polls are what matter most,"
- On Biden's double-digit lead: "In reality, they don't believe that they are up double digits nationally. We [at the Trump campaign] certainly don't believe that. And again, it's not a national election. It's a state by state election."
Sen. Chris Coons discussed the SCOTUS confirmation hearings, and expressed that Judge Amy Coney Barrett will likely to be confirmed by the Senate and appointed to the Supreme Court, barring a significant change from Republicans.
- On the confirmation hearings: "The only thing that could happen to stop that at this point would be a real change of heart on the part of a number of our Republican colleagues."
- Why Sen. Coons isn't voting to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett: "[Because of] her view towards reaching back and reexamining and overturning long-settled precedent...from labor rights and environmental protection, to Native American rights, to the rights of criminal defendants and privacy and health care."
Thank you Bank of America for sponsoring this event.