Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - October 14, 2020

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October 14, 2020

Biden says he is “not a fan of court packing”   October 14th, 2020: Welcome to today's Daily Presidential News Briefing. In today's edition, we check up on Facebook spending by the presidential candidates, discuss ad spending as we move into the last few weeks before the election, and provide you a selection of what we're reading.   Share the latest from the campaign trail.         Notable Quote of the Day “It was late summer 2019 and Mr. Biden’s online fund-raising had slowed to such a trickle that his team basically had to shut down its digital advertising program. They knew the choice was self-defeating: No more online ads meant no more finding new donors. The campaign bottomed out in early September 2019 when Mr. Biden raised just $24,124.17 online in a day. Now? On one recent day, Mr. Biden was raising more than that every two minutes. The unlikely transformation of Mr. Biden, a 77-year-old whose seemingly limited appeal to small donors left him financially outflanked in the primaries, into perhaps the greatest magnet for online money in American political history is a testament to the ferocity of Democratic opposition to President Trump.” – Shane Goldmacher and Rachel Shorey, The New York Times Election Updates Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and their respective allied groups have spent more than $1 billion on television ads in 13 battleground states. Six states have received the bulk of spending—almost $9 for every $10 spent—Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Arizona. Biden is spending more than $24 million on ads in 16 states this week, while Trump is spending more than $17 million in 11 states. Biden’s ads focus on Trump’s COVID-19 response, seniors, and criminal justice. Trump’s ads include law and order messaging and criticism of what Trump called the radical left. Biden’s ad buy includes Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas. Biden said he was “not a fan of court packing” when asked if he would try to add more justices to the Supreme Court. Trump is holding his third rally of the week in Des Moines, Iowa.  NBC News announced it will host a town hall with Trump in Miami on Thursday moderated by Savannah Guthrie. America First Action launched a $10 million ad campaign in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin criticizing Biden’s tax plan. What We're Reading Fortune: The polls are wrong. The U.S. presidential race is a near dead heat, this A.I. ‘sentiment analysis’ tool says Pew Research Center: White Christians continue to favor Trump over Biden, but support has slipped Politico: How the White House will be won: The 8 states that will decide the election   Flashback: October 14, 2016 Republican pollster Whit Ayres said Donald Trump was “at a point where he's trying to draw an inside straight now by campaigning primarily in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina.”