58% of respondents and 9% of those who identified as Republicans, have no confidence in Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus pandemic. Read more here.

NOW THAT THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS GOT CAUGHT COLD IN THE (NON) FRIENDLY TRANSFER OF GOVERNMENT, IN FACT, THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN AND WENT FOR A COUP, WE ARE ENTITLED TO ASK THE VOTERS FOR FOUR MORE YEARS. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU VOTE! https://t.co/gsFSghkmdM

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020

Respected poll analyzer Nate Silver, founder of FiveThirtyEight, tweeted Wednesday morning that polling data point to the 2020 presidential race being “the biggest landslide since 1984.”

Donald Trump is getting absolutely, completely crushed in the polls right now. They point toward the biggest landslide since 1984. Despite that, he has about a 17% chance of winning, which isn't bad. Why? The polls might be wrong! https://t.co/ajG88SznSA

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 7, 2020

Bettors on the PredictIt site are continuing to widen the gap between Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden and incumbent republican Donald Trump, giving Biden his largest margin on the wagering site.

PredictIt bettors now have shares for Biden selling at 68¢, an all-time high, giving him a 32¢ margin over Trump, whose shares are selling at 36¢, his all-time low.

While PredictIt is not a scientific poll, it provides a snapshot in time of enthusiasm for the candidates. 

NY Magazine: “The debate on a distanced and plexiglassed stage on Wednesday night will bear little resemblance to the one Kamala Harris and Mike Pence started preparing for earlier this fall. When they began studying up for their Salt Lake City showdown, no one was speaking openly about presidential succession. But with the 74-year-old Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis and hospitalization upending the political universe late last week, it’s safe to bet that the question of preparedness for the top job is now inescapable.”

“If the ex-VP and California senator do prevail in November, though, it’s looking more and more like — even under normal circumstances — Harris is poised to wield a whole new kind of influence as second-in-command. That’s not just because of the virus, or even because Biden seems intent on modeling the shape of her vice-presidency after his own unusually powerful tenure: As a condition of accepting the veep role, the Delaware senator had demanded he serve as Barack Obama’s senior-most adviser. (Biden ran point on Obama’s economic recovery legislation, the U.S. presence in Iraq, and their relationship with Congress — and he has still never tired of reminding anyone who will listen that he was always ‘the last guy in the room’ for Obama’s big decisions.)”

Trump’s legal team took another loss in its quest to hide his tax returns from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance today, as a three-judge panel rejected Trump’s latest objection, the New York Times reports.

Trump will likely appeal this decision to the Supreme Court once again.

The panel rejected Team Trump’s argument that the subpoena was too broad and amounted to political harassment.  Vance has been seeking eight years of Trump’s tax returns and financial records as part of a grand jury investigation into financial impropriety by Trump and his company, the Trump Organization.

Business Insider: “Etsy, the digital e-commerce marketplace, is removing all merchandise linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory, a spokesperson told Insider on Wednesday. QAnon, a baseless far-right conspiracy theory that claims President Donald Trump is secretly fighting a ‘deep state’ cabal of human traffickers, has held a huge presence on Etsy, where independent users can sell apparel. Etsy’s QAnon content, which appears to already be absent from or unsearchable on the website on Wednesday, included shirts, bumper stickers, and jewelry.”

Wow, what does this grim picture remind you of? I am the only thing in the Radical Left’s way! VOTE https://t.co/gnlvm4swFv

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020

Washington Post: “President Trump called on Congress to approve federal economic relief late Tuesday night mere hours after publicly terminating negotiations with Democrats, posting tweets that appeared to contradict his own declarations from earlier the same day. He continued pushing for more stimulus on Wednesday as aides scrambled to adjust to his ever-changing directives.”

“Trump had instructed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday afternoon to abandon bipartisan talks over a stimulus package, complaining that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was making unreasonable demands in negotiations. ‘I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election,’ the president said. About seven hours later, Trump appeared to reverse himself in a new string of tweets. After canceling talks, he publicly urged members of his own administration to work with congressional Dems to approve additional federal stimulus measures.”

Politico: “Is it over? Here is what everyone in Washington is thinking but does not want to say out loud: President Donald Trump is going to lose this election in 28 days, probably by a large margin. A growing number of insiders, including many Republicans, are starting to venture — privately — that this outcome is likely to be clear on Election Night, not days or weeks later. And Trump’s collapse is likely to take Republican control of the Senate with him.”

“This is the conventional wisdom, though it is rarely said publicly. It’s been expressed by a number of glum Republicans we’ve talked to since the debate and the subsequent news of the White House becoming a Covid hot spot. ‘Today feels like the election’s over,’ a veteran Republican strategist said Sunday. But again, we all remember 2016. So there is a quiet conspiracy to emphasize the uncertainty and stress to readers and viewers that anything could still happen.”

Green party candidate Howie Hawkins and Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen got 1% each, Kanye West got 0%, thus leaving 6% undecided. For comparison, an Ipsos poll published on October 5th, 2016 showed Clinton 44 – Trump 37, Libertarian 8%, Green 2%, and 10% undecided at this same point in the race. Read the Ipsos poll here.

Jessica Taylor: “There has been no more surprising race on the Senate map than South Carolina. Even early this year, it looked like Sen. Lindsey Graham would cruise to re-election. Instead, the Republican incumbent finds himself in a tied race in both public and private surveys with challenger Jaime Harrison, who has proven to be perhaps Dems’ best recruit and a fundraising behemoth.”

“‘It’s a jump ball at this point,’ said one South Carolina Republican strategist. ‘Jaime is peaking at exactly the right time and he’s got a deluge of money. [Harrison] is blocking every pass there is from Republicans.’ Even Democrats in and outside of the Palmetto State are surprised such a typically red state is truly in play. Many Republicans have privately voiced frustrations that Graham’s campaign didn’t take the challenge from Harrison — a charismatic 44-year-old African-American former state party chairman who tells a compelling story of growing up with a teen mother and being raised by his grandparents in impoverished Orangeburg — seriously enough from the get-go.”

“Netflix has defended the controversial film Cuties after it emerged the streaming giant is facing a criminal charge in Texas over the movie’s allegedly ‘lewd’ depiction of children. Cuties follows an 11-year-old Senegalese girl living in Paris who rebels against her conservative family’s traditions when she becomes fascinated with a ‘free-spirited dance crew’. A grand jury in Tyler County, Texas, has indicted the company on the charge of ‘promotion of lewd visual material depicting a child'”.

“The indictment claims Cuties appeals to the ‘prurient interest in sex’ and the material holds ‘no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value’. A Netflix representative told PA: ‘Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualisation of young children. This charge is without merit and we stand by the film'” – The Guardian.

Axios: “Something wild and unexpected unfolded in the second half of President Trump’s term, and now is accelerating: Elderly Americans, who helped elect him, have swung sharply against him. National and state polls show a total Trump collapse among Americans 65 and older. If this chasm remains, it could help bring the whole Republican power structure down with Trump.”

“In what has been a 50-50ish nation, it’s stunning to see polling gaps this wide: In a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out Sunday, Joe Biden led Trump by 27 points among seniors (62% to 35%). In a CNN/SSRS poll out yesterday, similar story — 21 points (60% to 39%). This is a group Trump won by seven points in 2016.”

Wall Street Journal: “Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for developing a method of genome editing. France’s Emmanuelle Charpentier and American Jennifer A. Doudna shared the prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. They investigated the immune system of a Streptococcus bacterium and discovered a molecular tool that can be used to make precise incisions in genetic material, making it possible to easily change the code of life, the academy said.”

“A Greek court ruled on Wednesday that the far-right Golden Dawn party was operating as a criminal organization, delivering a landmark guilty verdict in a marathon five-year trial. The court ruled seven of the party’s former lawmakers, including party leader Nikos Michaloliakos, were guilty of leading a criminal organization, while the others were guilty of participating in a criminal organization.”

“As the verdict was announced, scuffles broke out in part of an anti-fascist rally attended by more than 15,000 people outside the courthouse. A small group threw projectiles while police responded with tear gas and use of a water cannon. The 68 defendants in the trial include 18 former lawmakers from the party that was founded in the 1980s as a neo-Nazi organization and rose to become Greece’s third largest party in parliament during the country’s decade-long financial crisis. The court has been assessing four cases rolled into one: the fatal stabbing of Greek rap singer Pavlos Fyssas, attacks on migrant fishermen, attacks on left-wing activists and whether Golden Dawn was operating as a criminal organization” – AP.

Daily Beast: “Increasingly convinced that President Donald Trump’s election chances are grim, top Republican donors, lobbyists, and operatives are directing their attention to the Senate in hopes of keeping a majority in the chamber and, with it, a check on a future President Joe Biden. Top GOP money men said that efforts to shift resources to Republicans running for the Senate have been happening for weeks, as Trump’s chances have not improved—indeed, worsened—and as the party’s candidates have been dramatically outraised.”

“‘There is no discussion among donors about giving money to the president,’ said one prominent GOP donor. ‘The discussion among donors, bundlers and check writers is about the Senate seats.’ But among seasoned GOP operatives, the imperative to prioritize down-ballot races has only increased in recent days amid Trump’s shaky debate performance and his infection with COVID-19. The argument is one of political triage: the party must use the specter of uniform Democratic control of Washington to save more viable Republicans, not just in the Senate—where the party very well could retain control—but also the House, where continued minority status seems almost assured.”