Chris Wallace Calls Debate ‘a Terrible Missed Opportunity’ - The New York Times

Chris Wallace Calls Debate ‘a Terrible Missed Opportunity’



By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUMnytimes.com4 min



The veteran anchor conceded he was initially “reluctant” to step in during the Trump-Biden matchup. “I’ve never been through anything like this,” he said.



“I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did,” Chris Wallace, the moderator of the first presidential debate, said on Wednesday.

“I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did,” Chris Wallace, the moderator of the first presidential debate, said on Wednesday.



“I’m just sad with the way last night turned out.”



Chris Wallace, the “Fox News Sunday” anchor and moderator of Tuesday’s melee of a debate between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr., was on the phone Wednesday from his home in Annapolis, Md., reflecting on — his words — “a terrible missed opportunity.”



“I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did,” he said.



In his first interview since the chaotic and often incoherent spectacle — in which a pugilistic Mr. Trump relentlessly interrupted opponent and moderator alike — Mr. Wallace conceded that he had been slow to recognize that the president was not going to cease flouting the debate’s rules.



“I’ve read some of the reviews. I know people think, well, gee, I didn’t jump in soon enough,” Mr. Wallace said, his voice betraying some hoarseness from the previous night’s proceedings. “I guess I didn’t realize — and there was no way you could, hindsight being 20/20 — that this was going to be the president’s strategy, not just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate.”



Recalling his thoughts as he sat onstage in the Cleveland hall, with tens of millions of Americans watching live, Mr. Wallace said: “I’m a pro. I’ve never been through anything like this.”



Mr. Trump’s bullying behavior had no obvious precedent in presidential debates, even the one that Mr. Wallace previously moderated, to acclaim, in 2016. In the interview, the anchor said that when Mr. Trump initially engaged directly with Mr. Biden, “I thought this was great — this is a debate!”



But as the president gave no sign of backing off, Mr. Wallace said, he grew more alarmed. “If I didn’t try to seize control of the debate — which I don’t know that I ever really did — then it was going to just go completely off the tracks,” he said.



Asked what he was feeling when he called the debate to a temporary halt — instructing the candidates that “the country would be better served if we allowed both people to speak with fewer interruptions” — Mr. Wallace said, “The answer to that question is easy: Desperation.”



Asked directly if Mr. Trump had derailed the debate, Mr. Wallace replied, “Well, he certainly didn’t help.”



Care to elaborate? “No,” Mr. Wallace said. “To quote the president, ‘It is what it is.’”



In the spotlight, Mr. Wallace was keenly aware of the complexity of his task: ensuring an evenhanded debate, avoiding taking sides, allowing candidates to express themselves while keeping the discussion substantive.



“You’re reluctant — as somebody who has said from the very beginning that I wanted to be as invisible as possible, and to enable them to talk — to rise to the point at which you begin to interject more and more,” Mr. Wallace said. “First to say, ‘Please don’t interrupt,’ then ‘Please obey the rules,’ and third, ‘This isn’t serving the country well.’ Those are all tough steps at real time, at that moment, on that stage.”



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Sept. 30, 2020, 6:39 p.m. ET

The Commission on Presidential Debates said on Wednesday that it would examine changes to the format of this year’s remaining encounters between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, a clear sign of its frustration with the results of Tuesday evening. The commission also took pains to praise Mr. Wallace for his “professionalism and skill.”



The suggestion that moderators be given the power to mute the candidates’ microphones — popular on social media in the hours after the event — did not sit well with Mr. Wallace.



“As a practical matter, even if the president’s microphone had been shut, he still could have continued to interrupt, and it might well have been picked up on Biden’s microphone, and it still would have disrupted the proceedings in the hall,” he said.



And he noted that cutting off the audio feed of a presidential candidate is a more consequential act than some pundits give it credit for. “People have to remember, and too many people forget, both of these candidates have the support of tens of millions of Americans,” he said.



Steve Scully of C-SPAN is set to moderate the next debate, in a town-hall format where Florida voters will ask many of the questions. Kristen Welker of NBC News is the moderator for the final debate. Mr. Wallace’s advice: “If either man goes down this road, I hope you’ll be quicker to realize what’s going on than I was. I didn’t have that advance warning.”



Mr. Wallace flew home from Cleveland on Tuesday night. At an airport there, he accepted a glass of champagne from Lachlan Murdoch, whose family controls the Fox Corporation, and Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News, both of whom had been on hand for the debate. (“I didn’t feel much like celebrating,” Mr. Wallace admitted.)



Back in Annapolis, “I’ve been involved in a certain amount of soul-searching.”



“Generally speaking, I did as well as I could, so I don’t have any second thoughts there,” Mr. Wallace said, in conclusion. “I’m just disappointed with the results. For me, but much more importantly, I’m disappointed for the country, because it could have been a much more useful evening than it turned out to be.”



Chris Wallace Calls Debate ‘a Terrible Missed Opportunity’ - The New York Times

Black residents nearly four times as likely to be cited by Los Angeles police, report finds

Police officers arrest a man in Los Angeles. Photograph: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

The Los Angeles police department (LAPD) gave 63% of its citations for “loitering while standing” to Black residents in recent years, despite African Americans making up just 7% of the city’s population, a new analysis of public records has revealed.

A report released on Wednesday by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights analyzed low-level infractions in California between 2017 and 2019 and found that LAPD and police agencies across the state disproportionately target Black residents. The advocacy group collected data on the most minor municipal offenses and tickets (outside of traffic citations) – including standing or sleeping outside, owning a dog without a proper license, jaywalking and entering a park after dark – and found a pattern of severe racial disparities in major cities and regions throughout the state.

Key findings include:

• Overall, Black residents in California are 9.7 times more likely to receive a citation for local infractions than white residents in their jurisdictions, and Latinx residents were 5.8 times more likely to be cited than their white neighbors.
• Black residents in LA were 3.8 times more likely to be cited for minor infractions compared with white residents, accounting for 30% of all low-level infractions.
• Despite being only 7% of the adult population, Black Angelenos accounted for 27% of “drinking in public infractions”, 33% of “sleeping or sitting” loitering tickets; and 63% of “loitering while standing” citations.
• There were similar patterns of disparate treatment of Black residents in liberal and more conservative regions of the state, including in the Bay Area, the Central Valley, Kern county, San Diego and other municipalities.

The report comes amid growing scrutiny of police violence and harassment, with advocates arguing that the enforcement of these offenses can lead to brutal and even deadly interactions with officers. The citations also disproportionately target unhoused people, and can lead to devastating fines and debts that can escalate to warrants, arrests and jail time.

The analysis suggests that in some neighborhoods and communities, “it’s illegal to be Black in public”, said Elisa Della-Piana, legal director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR) of the San Francisco Bay area, and co-author of the report. “It causes lasting trauma, especially to be stopped repeatedly by police when you were doing nothing wrong, as is the case with ‘loitering’ and ‘sleeping’.”

People are regularly fined between $250 and $500 for these types of offenses, and the state currently has more than $10bn in uncollected infraction debts, meaning thousands of people could face arrest due to these minor violations, LCCR said. While some jurisdictions use these laws to target homeless residents, other municipalities enforce these ordinances as a way to collect revenue, according to the report.

“What started as, ‘I’m here in a public space minding my own business not harming anyone’, can quickly become a trap that causes financial and physical harm,” Della-Piana said, adding that she was struck by the comparable trends in different parts of California: “There are similarities across the state in how banal the behaviors are that we’re punishing with very serious consequences.”

In Long Beach, south of LA, Black residents face significantly higher rates of citations for jaywalking, riding a bike on a sidewalk, and smoking at a bus stop, for example. (A spokesperson for the department said “racial profiling is unacceptable and against the law and our policies”, and noted that the city was reviewing enforcement trends as part of a racial equity initiative.)

In Modesto in the Central Valley, a majority of dog-related citations appeared to go to Latinx residents, even though they are a minority in the city.

Between 2017 and 2019 in Hayward, east of San Francisco, every single citation for marijuana possession was to a person of color, the majority of them Black, despite the fact that white people comprise 34% of the population and Black residents 11.9%. (Marijuana possession is legal in California, but not for people under 21, which is probably why these citations are still happening.)

Often the disparities are a result of officers overpolicing Black and immigrant communities, Della-Piana said. In LA in particular, there have been numerous recent examples of the potential deadly consequences. Last month, two deputies with the Los Angeles sheriff’s department fatally shot a bicyclist, 29-year-old Dijon Kizzee, who was fleeing after officers tried to stop him for allegedly riding in the wrong direction.

LAPD and other police agencies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report. In the face of data analyses last year showing significant disparities in stops and searches, LA police and city leaders argued that aggregated data does “not define or describe the circumstances of each stop or search” or “prove” racial profiling, and pointed to reform efforts, such as implicit bias training.

Activists, however, say these ordinances for minor violations are rooted in racist laws and anti-homeless policies passed with the explicit purpose of targeting certain demographics.

As calls to “defund police” have continued to spread since George Floyd’s death, Della-Piana said she hoped local legislators would look at this category of citations as a starting point. “This is a really straightforward place to say there should not be police contact, and we should not risk police violence over this kind of everyday behavior. We can repeal these laws.”

Black residents nearly four times as likely to be cited by Los Angeles police, report finds

'Fox & Friends' hosts and guests offer President Trump debate advice - The Washington Post

'Fox & Friends' hosts and guests offer President Trump debate advice - The Washington Post

Stephen Colbert's LIVE Monologue After The First Trump-Biden Presidentia...

O'Donnell: Trump must be asked about white supremacy at each debate

Interruptions, accusations, chaos: Trump trolled the debate stage

Robin Givhan

“Donald Trump came to heckle. He came to interrupt and to pontificate and to flail his arms, batting away questions and facts in a chaotic fury. He was a boor and a troll, holding up his stubby mitts in an angry pantomime as he tried to halt the words coming from former vice president Joe Biden’s mouth. Trump seemed to believe that with a single rude hand gesture, one that he regularly uses to assert his dominance, he could hold back the truth so he could be free to spin and hype and vent.

It was an exhausting mess that spun beyond moderator Chris Wallace’s control and outside the bounds of anything that could reasonably be called a debate. It was a 90-minute display of a president’s testosterone-fueled, unmanaged rage and insecurity.

First Trump-Biden meeting marked by constant interruptions by Trump

Biden came to debate, God bless him. Trump arrived seemingly hopped up on grievance and indignation, determined to just bellow his way through the evening without ever having to answer a question or speak with clarity and sincerity to the home audience. He raised issues with Biden about his son Hunter’s foreign business dealings and then refused to let his political rival answer. He yammered about fake news and Hillary Clinton. He talked over both Biden and Wallace. He talked so much that it became impossible to even understand what he was talking about. He talked ceaselessly, and yet he said very little. He talked so much it was as though he was trying to pummel the viewer into submission with his words.

“Will you shut up, man?" Biden said in a moment of dismay and exasperation. It was a plea that surely channeled the desires of a significant percentage of the viewing audience.

It was awful. It was miserable. And one wished desperately that there were commercials during the grotesque spectacle if only to give someone a chance to throw cold water on the president. But there were no breaks. It was an endless display, and it was frustrating to hear Wallace calling the president “sir” as he pleaded with him to adhere to the rules to which he had agreed. Sir. Trump did not deserve that nicety because he did not come to the debate bearing the mantle of the presidency. He came with the demeanor of a thug.

Surely no one thought the evening would be dignified and civil. That’s not the way in which Trump gins up ratings and attracts attention. Bellicosity is his rule. But Tuesday evening, Trump was exquisitely inexhaustible. He stepped to his lectern with a scowl and a jutting jaw. Biden walked out with an expression of geniality. Because of coronavirus precautions, the audience was limited to only about 80 people sitting socially distanced in wooden chairs.

It was a rare sight to see the entire Trump clan wearing masks as they entered the Samson Pavilion, which is owned by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic. They removed them upon sitting. Jill Biden wore a mask as well. She left hers on as she took her seat in the audience. The stage was set with the trappings of democracy. The carpet was blue with a ring of white stars. A large eagle with a banner reading “The Union and the Constitution Forever” was draped overhead.

In many ways, the setting was one that should have inspired a sense of calm and a more conversational tone. There was even a certain sobriety to the location, which at one point had temporarily been turned into a covid-19 hospital. There was no need to yell with such a small audience. There were no bursts of applause, laughter or cheers to fuel a candidate’s energy. One might have thought it was the perfect occasion for a reasonable back-and-forth.

Even the lack of the usual greeting, an opening handshake, was a reminder that these are trying times. Human connections, at their most fundamental level, have been frayed. One might have thought that these would have served as reminders or encouragement to speak seriously, to speak compassionately.

But the night had only the accoutrements of decorum. The yelling began forthwith. The president was asked about the racial upheaval with which the country has been struggling. He talked about law and order instead. He was asked to denounce white supremacy. He hedged. He was asked about his long-promised health plan. He didn’t have a coherent answer.

He bragged about having created the greatest economy in the world. Everything that had gone wrong on his watch was someone else’s fault: Democratic governors, China, anyone who disagreed with him.

Biden often spoke directly into the camera so that he was, in effect, speaking directly to citizens. He aimed for empathy. The president regularly interrupted him — not so that he could address the nation but so he could yell at Biden. At one point it seemed as though the president was content to simply debate Wallace over the very premise of the moderator’s questions. The president smirked and rolled his eyes and did everything but snort and spit. He reveled in his display. He fed off it.”

And when Wallace finally, blissfully announced that the debate had ended, Biden looked relieved. And Trump was still talking.

Trump Interrupts To Point Of Chaos In First Debate | FiveThirtyEight Pol...

With Cross Talk, Lies and Mockery, Trump Tramples Decorum in Debate With Biden Interrupting Joe Biden nearly every time he spoke, President Trump made little attempt to reassure swing voters about his leadership. Mr. Biden hit back: “This is so unpresidential.”

With Cross Talk, Lies and Mockery, Trump Tramples Decorum in Debate With Biden

Interrupting Joe Biden nearly every time he spoke, President Trump made little attempt to reassure swing voters about his leadership. Mr. Biden hit back: “This is so unpresidential.”

By Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns

Published Sept. 29, 2020Updated Sept. 30, 2020, 5:41 a.m. ET

“The last four years, you have promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, but you have never in these four years come up with a plan, a comprehensive plan —” “Yes, I have.” “— to replace Obamacare.” “Of course I have.” “Well, I’ll give you —” “We got rid of the individual mandate.” “I’m going to give you an opportunity —” ”Excuse me. I got rid of the individual mandate.” “I’m not here to call out his lies — everybody knows he’s a liar.” “But you agreed — Joe, you’re the liar.” “I want to make sure —” “You graduated last in your class, not first in your class.” “I — [laughs] — God. I want to make sure —” “Mr. President, could you let him finish, sir?” “The question is, the question is —” “A lot of new Supreme Court justices, radical left —” “Will you shut up, man?” “One of the big debates we had with 23 of my colleagues trying to win the nomination that I won were saying that Biden wanted to allow people to have private insurance still. They can, they do, they will, under my proposal.” “That’s not what you’ve said, and it’s not what your party has said.” “That is simply a lie.” “Your party doesn’t say it — your party wants to go socialist medicine.” “My party is me. Right now, I am the Democratic Party.” “And they’re going to dominate you, Joe, you know that.” “I am the Democratic Party right now. The platform of the Democratic Party —” “Not according to Harris.” “— is what I, in fact, approved of.” “Is it true that you paid $750 in federal income taxes each of those two years?” “I’ve paid millions of dollars in taxes, millions of dollars of income tax. Let me just say something, that it was the tax laws. I don’t want to pay tax. Before I came here, I was a private developer, I was a private business people. Like every other private person, unless they’re stupid, they go through the laws, and that’s what it is.” “I’m going to eliminate the Trump tax cuts.” “Good.” “And we’re going to, I’m going to eliminate those tax cuts —” “OK.” “— and make sure that we invest in the people who in fact need the help. People out there need help.” “But why didn’t you do it over 20, the last 25 years?” “Because you weren’t — because you weren’t president screwing things up.” “You were a senator —” “You’re the worst president America has ever had. Come on.” “You have repeatedly criticized the vice president for not specifically calling out antifa and other left-wing —” “That’s right.” “— extremist groups. But are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups —” “Sure.” “— and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland.” “Sure, I’m willing to do that, but —” “Then do it.” “Go ahead, sir.” “I would say, I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing.” “So what are you, what are you saying —” “I’m willing to do anything — I want to see peace.” “Well, then do it, sir.” “Say it. Do it. Say it.” “You want to call them — what do you want to call them? Give me a name, give me a name.” “White supremacists and —” “Go ahead, who would you like me to condemn?” “Proud Boys.” “Who?” “White supremacists and right-wing militia.” Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what. Somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing —” “His own F.B.I. director said the threat is —” Are you questioning —” “No, I think masks are OK. You have to understand, if you look, I mean, I have a mask right here. I put a mask on, you know, when I think I need it. Tonight as an example, everybody’s had a test, and you’ve had social distancing and all of the things that you have to — but I wear masks when needed. When needed, I wear masks.” “OK, let me ask —” “I don’t wear masks like him — every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from — he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.” “Masks make a big difference. His own head of the C.D.C. said if we just wore masks between now — if everybody wore masks in social distance between now and January, we’d probably save up to 100,000 lives. It matters.” “And they’ve also said the opposite. They’ve also said —” “No serious person said the opposite.” “The fact is that there are going to be millions of people because of Covid that are going to be voting by mail-in ballots, like he does by the way. And this is all about trying to dissuade people from voting, because he’s trying to scare people into thinking that it’s not going to be legitimate.” “As far as the ballots are concerned, it’s a disaster. A solicited ballot, OK? Solicited is OK. You’re soliciting, you’re asking. They send it back. You send it back. I did that. This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen. The other thing: It’s nice, on Nov. 3, you’re watching and you see who won the election. And I think we’re going to do well, because people are really happy with the job we’ve done. But you know what? We won’t know, we might not know for months — because these ballots are going to be all over.” “Now that millions of mail-in ballots have gone out, what are you going to do about it? And are you counting on the Supreme Court, including a Justice Barrett, to settle any dispute?” “Yeah, I think I’m counting on them to look at the ballots, definitely. I don’t think we’ll — I hope we don’t need them in terms of the election itself, but for the ballots, I think so. I am urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully because that’s what has to happen. I am urging them to do it. I am urging my people — I hope it’s going to be a fair election. If it’s a fair election —” “You’re urging them what?” “— I am 100 percent on board. But if I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can’t go along with that.” “Here’s the deal: They count the ballots. As you’ve pointed out, some of these ballots in some states can’t even be opened until Election Day. And if there’s thousands of ballots, it’s going to take time to do it. No one has established at all that there is fraud related to mail-in ballots, that somehow it’s a fraudulent process.” “It’s already been established.” “He has no idea what he’s talking about. Here’s the deal. The fact is, I will accept it, and he will too. You know why? Because once the winner is declared, after all the ballots are counted, all the votes are counted, that will be the end of it.”

Trump on Biden's late son: "I don't know Beau"

New York City to fine people who refuse to wear masks as Covid rates rise. Common sense, I wish the Georgia governor was smart enough to do this. Sadly Brian Kemp is no Andrew Cuomo.

New York City to fine people who refuse to wear masks as Covid rates rise

Vote like your life depends on it. It may!

Biden and Harris release 2019 tax returns ahead of first presidential debate

Biden and Harris release 2019 tax returns ahead of first presidential debate

Biden campaign slams Facebook for ‘regression’ on false Trump claims

"Biden campaign slams Facebook for ‘regression’ on false Trump claims

Facebook’s promises are ‘nothing more than an excuse for inaction’

Adi RobertsonSep 29, 2020, 11:06am EDT

Joe Biden’s campaign has denounced Facebook for allowing President Donald Trump to spread false information about voting, calling Facebook’s moderation a “regression” from promises it made earlier this month. Biden’s letter, first reported by Axios and obtained by The Verge, pushes CEO Mark Zuckerberg to remove posts where Trump baselessly cast doubt on mail-in ballots and encouraged citizens to vote twice.

“We were told then that Facebook was working to determine how best to apply its new, more aggressive approach” to fighting voting misinformation, reads the letter from campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon. “Rather than seeing progress, we have seen regression. Facebook’s continued promise of future action is serving as nothing more than an excuse for inaction.”

“Rather than seeing progress, we have seen regression.”

The Biden campaign previously published an open letter to Facebook in June, asking the company to remove false information and enforce its rules against voter suppression. Since then, Facebook has launched a voter information hub and announced that it will stop accepting political ads before the US presidential election. But its attempts to label Trump’s voting-related posts have often stopped at offering generic election information, not actually fact-checking the messages. 

Facebook has pledged to remove content that contains “implicit misrepresentations about voting,” as well as “calls for coordinated interference” in elections. The Biden campaign argues that multiple Trump posts violate these policies, as well as one from Donald Trump Jr., who called for Trump supporters to join an “army” to stop the addition of “millions of fraudulent ballots” to election results. (There is no evidence of plans to submit fraudulent anti-Trump ballots.) “No company that considers itself a force for good in democracy, and that purports to take voter suppression seriously, would allow this dangerous claptrap to be spread to millions of people. Removing this video should have been the easiest of easy calls under your policies, yet it remains up today.”

In a statement given to PBS correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, Facebook appeared noncommittal. “While many Republicans think we should take one course, many Democrats think we should do the exact opposite,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “We have rules in place to protect the integrity of the election and free expression, and we will continue to apply them impartially.” The statement doesn’t note whether Trump’s posts violate Facebook’s rules, and — if they do — why they haven’t been removed."

Biden campaign slams Facebook for ‘regression’ on false Trump claims

Census Update: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Our Moment

Our Moment

Our Moment

Report on Trump’s taxes suggests business failures | Nightline

Publish Post

Global coronavirus deaths pass 1m with no sign rate is slowing | World news | The Guardian

Global coronavirus deaths pass 1m with no sign rate is slowing | World news | The Guardian

Post-ABC poll: Biden leads Trump in battleground Pennsylvania - The Washington Post

Biden runs strong in Philadelphia suburbs and is competitive in western Pennsylvania. Trump leads in central and northeastern parts of the state.By Scott Clement and

Dan Balz

 September 29 at 12:01 AM

"Former vice president Joe Biden leads President Trump in the contested battleground of Pennsylvania, buoyed by strong support in the Philadelphia suburbs and his competitiveness in the state’s western counties that were a Trump stronghold in 2016, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Biden’s support stands at 54 percent to Trump’s 45 percent among the Keystone State’s likely voters and 54 percent to 44 percent among its registered voters. Biden’s current edge among likely voters appears sizable but is not definitive, given the five-point margin of error that applies to each candidate’s support. Other polls of Pennsylvania this month have found Biden leading Trump by an average of eight points.

Washington Post-ABC News Poll

Pennsylvania

Biden has edge over Trump in Pennsylvania

Q: If the presidential election were being held today for whom would you vote? Would you lean toward …

Among likely voters

Biden/Harris 54%

Error margin

Trump/Pence 45%

Note: “Other,” “Neither,” “Would not vote” and “No opinion” not shown.

Source: Sept. 21-26, 2020, Washington Post-ABC News poll of 567 likely voters in Pennsylvania with an error margin of +/- 5 percentage points.

[Read full Post-ABC Pennsylvania poll results]

With five weeks until Election Day, the poll finds that 53 percent of Pennsylvania’s registered voters approve of Trump’s management of the economy, but 57 percent disapprove of his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, and that issue appears to sway more voters than does the economy. Trump’s overall approval rating in the state among registered voters is 43 percent positive and 55 percent negative, with 49 percent saying they disapprove “strongly.”

Pennsylvania is the most populous of three Rust Belt states that proved decisive in the 2016 election. Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania as well as Wisconsin and Michigan by less than one percentage point each. All three states had voted for Democratic presidential nominees in the previous six elections before shifting to Trump.

[The seven political states of Pennsylvania]

Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes make it the most valuable of the three and the Trump and Biden campaigns have focused their resources accordingly in an effort to tip the state in their candidate’s direction. The candidates, too, have repeatedly campaigned in person in the state, which was home to Biden’s headquarters before the pandemic forced it closed.

The Post-ABC poll suggests Biden is challenging Trump for support among key groups and areas that drove the president’s 2016 win, including White voters without four-year college degrees, who account for about half of Pennsylvania’s electorate. In recent weeks, Biden has pressed the notion that as a Scranton native he has more affinity for blue collar voters than Trump, who was born and raised in wealthy circumstances in New York. Trump has countered that he is their biggest defender.

Trump leads Biden by 17 points among this group in the poll, although Trump won them by more than 30 points both nationally and in Pennsylvania four years ago. Biden also boasts a 23-point lead among White college graduates and a 64-point lead among non-White voters, similar to or larger than Clinton’s advantages with these two groups of voters four years ago.

Washington Post-ABC News Poll

Pennsylvania

Biden has wide lead among Pennsylvania women, White college graduates and those who plan to vote early

Among likely voters

Support Biden

Support Trump

46%

53%

Men

61

38

Women

48

51

White

Non-White*

82

18

White,

non-college

41

58

White,

college graduates

61

38

8

92

2016 Trump voters

98

1

2016 Clinton voters

Plan to vote

on Election Day

39

60

87

13

Plan to vote early

*Non-White results among registered voters.

Note: “Other,” “Neither,” “Would Not Vote” and “No opinion” not shown.

Source: Sept. 21-26, 2020, Washington Post-ABC News poll of 567 likely voters in Pennsylvania with an error margin of +/- 5 percentage points. Error margin larger among subgroups.

Trump’s support in western Pennsylvania also appears weaker than in 2016. Excluding Democratic-leaning Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, Trump has 50 percent support to Biden’s 47 percent among registered voters in western counties of the state. In 2016, Trump won these counties by 29 points. In 2012, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney won that region by 16 points on his way to losing the state to then-president Barack Obama.

Trump enjoys sizable leads in central Pennsylvania, where he won decisively in 2016, and has a smaller edge in northeastern Pennsylvania. In the central part of the state, his lead is nearly 30 points, the same as it was in 2016, while in northeast Pennsylvania, the president receives 56 percent support, comparable to four years ago. The Trump campaign has made it a priority to turn out even more voters in these areas than in 2016.

Biden is strongest in southeastern Pennsylvania. The Post-ABC poll finds the former vice president leading Trump by more than 2 to 1 in the Philadelphia area, including its populous suburbs of Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. Clinton won these counties together by a 14-point margin in 2016, but they have grown more Democratic since then.

Statewide, women voters also are core to Biden’s support, favoring him by 23 points, while Trump holds a narrow seven-point edge among men.

[Interactive: How turnout and swing voters could get Trump or Biden to 270]

Whatever his current deficit, Trump has a path to holding the state in November if he can replicate what happened four years ago. A month before the 2016 election, several Pennsylvania polls showed Trump trailing by double digits. Clinton’s lead deteriorated in the final two weeks of that campaign, a time in which her campaign was buffeted by renewed questions about her private email system. Exit polls show that Trump won late-deciding voters by double-digits and carried the state by about 45,000 votes, or seven-tenths of a percent.

Trump maintains an advantage on enthusiasm, with 71 percent of registered voters who support him saying they are “very enthusiastic” about doing so, compared with 51 percent of Biden supporters. A big enthusiasm gap exists between younger and older Biden supporters. Among those ages 65 and older, 79 percent say they are very enthusiastic about their support. That compares with 27 percent among voters under the age of 50. Still, 91 percent of Biden supporters under age 50 rule out voting for Trump.

Washington Post-ABC News Poll

Pennsylvania

Trump supporters in Pennsylvania more likely to say they are “very enthusiastic” than Biden supporters

Among registered voters supporting each candidate

Support Trump

71%

Very enthusiastic

51%

Support Biden

21

Somewhat enthusiastic

37

3

Not so enthusiastic

6

4

Not enthusiastic at all

5

Note: “No opinion” not shown.

Source: Sept. 21-26, 2020, Washington Post-ABC News poll of 310-358 Trump and Biden voters in Pennsylvania with an error margin of +/- 6-6.5 percentage points.

Few voters who cast ballots for Trump or Clinton in 2016 are ready to defect, but among those who are there is a slight advantage for Biden. The poll finds 92 percent of likely voters who supported Trump four years ago currently support him, but 8 percent of them currently support Biden. By contrast, 98 percent of Clinton voters say they support Biden, with 1 percent switching to Trump.

One quarter of Pennsylvania’s registered voters cite the economy as the most important issue in their vote choice — more than any other issue. The coronavirus outbreak is second at 18 percent, with a trio of issues — crime and safety, equal treatment of racial groups, and health care — grouped closely behind. Ranking lowest is “the next appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court,” with 9 percent saying it is their top issue.

Trump and Biden supporters view the issues through competing lenses. Among Trump voters, the economy is by far the most important issue, cited by 47 percent. Crime and safety is next at 22 percent. Just 3 percent highlight the coronavirus outbreak. Among Biden supporters, the pandemic is the top issue, cited by 30 percent, followed by equal treatment of racial groups at 21 percent and health care at 19 percent.

About 6 in 10 Pennsylvanian likely voters rate the national economy as not so good or poor, and they split 85 percent to 15 percent for Biden. The roughly 4 in 10 who say the economy is good or excellent prefer Trump by a comparable margin, 86 percent to 14 percent. Although the president has net positive ratings on his handling of the economy, he enjoys no advantage over Biden on the question of who Pennsylvania voters trust to handle the issue going forward.

Washington Post-ABC News Poll

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania voters trust Biden more to handle the coronavirus outbreak, Supreme Court appointment and health care

Share of registered voters who trust each more to handle ...

Trust Biden

Trust Trump

Equal treatment of

racial groups

57%

37%

Health care

56

39

The coronavirus

outbreak

54

40

The next appointment to

the U.S. Supreme Court

52

43

50

47

Crime and safety

48

49

The economy

Note: “Both,” “Neither” and “No opinion” not shown.

Source: Sept. 21-26, 2020, Washington Post-ABC News poll of 702 registered Pennsylvania voters with an error margin of +/- 4.5 percentage points.

Similarly, views of the coronavirus form a dividing line between the candidates. More than 6 in 10 likely voters in Pennsylvania say they are worried that someone in their immediate family might catch the coronavirus while about a third are not worried — and 3 percent say they or a family member has already caught the virus.

[At least 84% of American voters can cast ballots by mail in the fall]

Those worried about the coronavirus support Biden, 75 percent to 24 percent, while those who are not worried support Trump by a wider 82 percent to 16 percent. In addition to the overall disapproval of the president for his handling of the pandemic, Biden is more trusted to deal with the issue, by 54 percent to 40 percent among registered voters.

The poll finds 54 percent of registered voters support recent protests against police treatment of Black people, yet voters give differing responses when asked which candidate can better handle aspects of the issue. Biden is trusted by a 20-point margin to handle “equal treatment of racial groups,” but registered voters are roughly divided on which candidate can better handle “crime and safety,” with 50 percent choosing Biden and 47 percent choosing Trump.

On other issues, Biden has a narrow advantage on handling a Supreme Court nomination and healthy leads when it comes to health care and equal treatment of racial groups. The president does not have a significant advantage on any issue.

The survey was mostly completed before the president on Saturday nominated federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But a 53 percent majority of Pennsylvania voters say they would prefer that the winner of the election nominate someone to succeed Ginsburg rather than President Trump selecting someone and the Senate going ahead with confirmation proceedings before the outcome of the election is clear. The proceedings are expected to conclude before Election Day.

[How to vote in your state]

Similar to national public opinion, more Pennsylvania voters who support Biden say it is “more important” for their candidate to win because of the court vacancy than Trump supporters say about their candidate, 61 percent to 41 percent.

Most Pennsylvania voters (65 percent) say they will cast their ballots on Election Day while slightly more than 3 in 10 plan to vote early, either by mail or in person at an early voting site. Four years ago, just four percent of voters in the state cast absentee ballots, but at the time, the state required voters to have an excuse to do so. This year, any Pennsylvania voter can request a mail-in ballot.

This Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone Sept. 21-26, 2020, among a random sample of 808 adults, including 702 registered voters and 567 likely voters in Pennsylvania, with 63 percent of all interviews completed on cellphones and the remainder on landlines. The margin of sampling error for results among registered voters is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points, and the error margin is five points among likely voters.

Post-ABC poll: Biden leads Trump in battleground Pennsylvania - The Washington Post