News: The final presidential debate

Thursday, October 22, 2020

The final presidential debate

The final presidential debate is tonight; protests against police continue in Nigeria.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Benjamin Rosenberg.

TOP NEWS

Trump and Biden take the stage again in final presidential debate

Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

After last week's second debate was canceled when President Donald Trump refused to agree to debate virtually, he and Democratic nominee Joe Biden will go head to head one last time on Thursday night in Nashville, Tennessee. [Vox / Emily Stewart]
NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker will moderate the debate, which will run from 9 to 10:30 pm ET. Welker announced the six topics last Friday: Fighting Covid-19, American Families, Race in America, Climate Change, National Security, and Leadership. [CNN / Dan Merica and Kate Sullivan]
Welker interned with the Today show while she was a student at Harvard University, and has been with NBC full time since 2005. She became a White House correspondent for the network in 2011 and was named co-anchor of Weekend Today this January. [Today / Scott Stump]
Just as with the first debate, the discussion topics have sparked some controversy. The Trump campaign wrote to the Commission on Presidential debates demanding that the debate focus on foreign policy, which Trump sees as a winning issue for him. [BBC News]
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien accused the debate commission of "pro-Biden antics" that have "turned the entire debate season into a fiasco." Biden's national press secretary responded by saying that both campaigns had agreed to let the moderators select the topics. [Bloomberg / Jordan Fabian]
After criticizing Chris Wallace of Fox News, who moderated the first presidential debate, and Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie, who hosted his town hall last Thursday, Trump has already gone on the attack against Welker, calling her a "radical Democrat." [Washington Post / Margaret Sullivan]
The debate commission has made some rule changes for the last debate. Everyone in attendance will be required to keep their masks on throughout the debate after at least 11 Covid-19 cases were linked to the first debate in Cleveland. [ABC News / Benjamin Siegel and Will Steakin]
In another rule change, both Biden and Trump will have two uninterrupted minutes to make their opening remarks for each discussion topic, while the other candidate's microphone will be turned off. After that, they'll be allowed to talk back and forth about the issues. [CNN / Dan Merica]
Trump continues to trail in the polls, both nationally and in key swing states. Polls this month have shown the president behind by 6 percentage points in Michigan, 5 points in Pennsylvania, and 7 in Wisconsin — the three states that pushed him over the top in 2016. [Vox / Dylan Scott]

12 peaceful protesters killed in Nigeria as calls to end SARS continue

According to a report from Amnesty International, 12 peaceful protesters calling for an end to police brutality were killed by Nigerian forces, bringing the total death toll over the past two weeks of demonstrations to at least 56. [AP / Sam Olukoya and Lekan Oyekanmi]
Lagos, the most populous city in Nigeria and on the African continent, was locked down under curfew due to the protests. All public and private schools were closed by the Lagos state commissioner for education. [Nairametrics / Chike Olisah]
The protesters are demanding the termination of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which was set up as an elite police unit for fighting crime, but which critics say developed a reputation for abusing its power. The #EndSARS movement has spread worldwide, with celebrities such as Beyoncé using the hashtag and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden issuing a statement in support of the protesters. [Washington Post / Danielle Paquette]
Nigerians are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to speak to the nation and apologize for the attacks, but so far he has only asked for "understanding and calm," and a statement from his administration on Wednesday did not mention the violence. [CNN / Eoin McSweeney and Stephanie Busari]

MISCELLANEOUS

Iran and Russia are interfering in the 2020 US election, federal officials have said. Iranian operatives posed as the far-right Proud Boys in emails to Democratic voters.

[CNN / Jeremy Herb, Zachary Cohen, Evan Perez, and Paul P. Murphy]

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to advance Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett to the Senate floor as Democrats boycotted the vote. [Washington Post / Seung Min Kim and Paulina Firozi]
In his first stump speech of the 2020 campaign, former President Barack Obama had harsh words for his successor, saying Trump is "incapable of taking the job seriously." [Vox / Jerusalem Demsas]
Spain and France became the first two Western European countries to reach 1 million Covid-19 cases. Spain passed that threshold Wednesday, per data from Johns Hopkins; France followed hours later. [NPR / Reese Oxner]

VERBATIM

"Obviously, I don't want to see my friend criticized in any way, but she's tough and she can take it. We're all in the arena, and we've all faced a lot of criticism. And I think it's inevitable and it comes with the territory. And I think she's ready for it."

[NBC's Andrea Mitchell, on her friend and colleague Kristen Welker, who will moderate the final presidential debate]