Trump news live: Latest Twitter and 2020 election updates as president suggests

Trump engaging in Fox News diplomacy

The president is hearing that Iran will execute wrestling star Navid Afkarai for demonstrating the government’s economic policies in 2018.

And by hearing, he means seeing on Fox News. 

‘They’ll shoot me’ – says Biden in awkward joke in Kenosha

Well this is uncomfortable.

During his community meeting in Kenosha today, Joe Biden make an unfortunately awkward joke about being shot. In Kenosha. After traveling there to discuss the city rebuilding. After a shooting.

It came when talking about his tax plan, saying he won’t lay it out now because they’ll… well, you get the idea.

“Nineteen corporations making a billion dollars apiece don’t pay a single penny in taxes. I’m not going to punish anybody, but everybody should pay a fair share,” he began before cutting himself short.

“I’m not going lay it out for you. I won’t now because they’ll shoot me.”

Antitrust charges against Google to be filed within weeks, reports say

Attorney General William Barr is planning to file an antitrust suit against Google in the coming weeks, according to The New York Times.

The Justice Department will bring the cases as soon as this month after Barr reportedly overruled career lawyers who said they needed more time to build the case, but that it was to be announced in September for the Trump administration to claim the credit.

Citing interviews with 15 lawyers who worked on the case or were briefed on the strategy, NYT reported their concerns that the timing could weaken the case.

In September last year, a coalition of 50 states and territories announced the investigation of practices used by Google to dominate online advertising.

White House faces skepticism over prospects for a vaccine

Could the U.S. really see a coronavirus vaccine before Election Day?

A letter from federal health officials instructing states to be ready to begin distributing a vaccine by Nov. 1 — two days before the election — has been met, not with exhilaration, but with suspicion among some public health experts, who wonder whether the Trump administration is hyping the possibility or intends to rush approval for political gain.

The skepticism comes amid growing questions about the scientific credibility of the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and their vulnerability to political pressure from President Donald Trump.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert and a member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, told CNN on Thursday that it is unlikely but “not impossible” that a vaccine could win approval in October, instead of November or December, as many experts believe.

“And I would assume, and I’m pretty sure, it’s going to be the case that a vaccine would not be approved for the American public unless it was indeed both safe and effective,” he said.

Similarly, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, the administration’s project to hasten the development of a vaccine, told NPR that it is possible but “extremely unlikely” a vaccine will be ready before the election.

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany, meanwhile, gave assurances that Trump “will not in any way sacrifice safety” when it comes to a vaccine. And executives of five top pharmaceutical companies pledged that no COVID-19 vaccines or treatments will be approved, even for emergency use, without proof they are safe and effective.

The concerns were set off by a letter dated Aug. 27 in which CDC Director Robert Redfield asked the nation’s governors to help government contractor McKesson Corp. set up vaccine distribution facilities so that they are up and running by Nov. 1. Redfield did not say a vaccine would be ready by then.

It is, indeed, illegal to vote twice in North Carolina, according to the state board of elections

In-case anyone was in doubt over Trump’s…