Kamala Harris urges Texas Democrats to keep their foot on the pedal - The Texas Tribune

FORT WORTH — As soon as Kamala Harris took the stage outside a bustling church here on her first stop of a Texas campaign trip, she made her intentions for the audience clear.

“So listen, today is the last day of early voting in Texas and you all have been doing your thing,” she said after taking off the face mask she wore on stage, nodding to the state’s record-breaking early turnout so far this year and polls suggesting that the state is in play.

“Now we know this is no time to let up on the pedal though, right?”

Harris spoke for about half an hour in at First Saint John Cathedral in Fort Worth to a predominately Black, socially distanced and seated crowd during the first stop of a daylong tour of Texas just four days before Election Day. Her presence itself was remarkable for a state that has long been considered noncompetitive in presidential races. Her message: The Democratic presidential ticket isn’t ceding Texas to the GOP this year. For the first time in decades, Republican dominance here could be at risk.

“There is a clear choice in this election,” she told voters standing outside a Fort Worth church who greeted her with raucous applause and Biden-Harris campaign signs.

“On the one hand you have Joe Biden, who, together with Barack Obama, created Obamacare which brought health care to 20 million people and protected people with pre-existing conditions,” Harris said, standing in front of a Texas flag as she spoke. “[They] understood that health care and access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.

“On the other hand, you have [President] Donald Trump,” Harris continued, “who, together with his boy Bill Barr, are in the United States Supreme Court right now trying to sue to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.”

Harris was referring to a Texas-led lawsuit to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Trump has expressed support for the suit.

After visiting Fort Worth, she flew to McAllen, with plans to go to Houston after that.

Despite pleas from various Texas Democrats, Joe Biden hasn’t visited the state since the March primary. Before Harris' trip, the state was visited by her husband, Doug Emhoff, and Biden's wife, Jill Biden.

Asked why Joe Biden has not visited Texas in the general election, Harris told reporters in Houston that the campaign is "putting a lot of resources into Texas."

"We understand that first of all, the people of Texas — Texas has so much at stake in this election and they deserve to be heard, they deserve to be engaged by us because we intend to earn every vote," Harris said, according to a pool report. "That’s why I’ve been here, that’s why Jill has been here, and Doug has been here, and we’re gonna keep putting recources into Texas, because it’s a very important state for a number of reasons.”

Harris' swing through Texas, which awards 38 Electoral College votes, seemed designed to reach out to voters in Texas’ growing communities of color. The Biden-Harris ticket is largely relying on suburban, Black and Hispanic communities to offset President Donald Trump’s advantage in more rural swaths of the state.

In Fort Worth, she attracted a crowd of 300, including influential area Democrats like U.S. Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, and U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth. She gave a shout out to U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, while on stage. Prior to Harris’ speech, Bishop Marvin Sapp gave a musical performance.

In a statement Friday morning, Trump Victory spokesperson Samantha Cotten rebuffed the notion that Harris’ visit meant that the state is in pay.

“Texans aren’t fooled by phony politicians like Kamala Harris who is making a last ditch effort in the Lone Star State and come November, voters will reject the Democrats’ radical agenda of eliminating the oil and gas industry, hiking our taxes and taking away our 2nd Amendment rights in favor of four more years of President Trump,” Cotten said.

Tarrant County is Texas’ third-most populous county, and Democrats believe the former vice president’s path to victory in Texas includes turning the county blue. Though largely seen until recently as the last urban GOP stronghold in the state, Democrats see reasons for optimism after former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke carried the county with a margin of victory of 0.62% in his bid against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018.

It is also home to a number of competitive state House seats and Congressional District 24, where Democrat Candace Valenzuela and Republican Beth Van Duyne are running to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Coppell.

Friday wasn’t the first time the California senator made a campaign stop in Fort Worth. In March 2019, Harris was one of the first then-Democratic presidential candidates to visit Texas during the packed primary, making back-to-back stops in Tarrant and Harris counties. She never accrued enough support in the polls for her run and ended her campaign in December.

Now, as Biden’s running mate, Harris is the highest-profile representative of the Biden campaign to visit Texas in person during the general election. Later Friday, Harris held a similar get-out-the-vote event in McAllen with O’Rourke and Julián Castro, former secretary of housing and urban development and San Antonio mayor.

​When asked by a reporter in McAllen why she was visiting the border city, Harris said, it was “because there are people here who matter, people who are working hard, people who love their country and we need to be here and be responsive to that.”

During her speech at the Edinburg campus of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Harris, who stood behind a podium that read “Todos Con Biden Harris,” reiterated the importance of Texas voters on Nov. 3.

“You are going to make the difference. The election is about you,” Harris said before a backdrop that said Vota Texas. “We’re gonna do this. We’re gonna do this. We’re gonna do this.”

Harris’ tour through the state comes as polls project a tight presidential race in Texas. A handful of surveys in recent days give Trump a narrow lead or show him mired in a tie with the former vice president. In a few cases, Biden maintains a small lead over Trump.

Though Texas isn’t essential to a Biden victory, Democrats have asked Biden to be more aggressive here. In addition to Harris’ visit, the campaign planned a multicity surrogate bus tour across Texas. In addition, national super PACs and billionaire Michael Bloomberg have poured money into the state at the 11th hour, supporting not only Biden’s presidential bid but down-ballot efforts to flip the congressional districts and gain control of the state House.

“They know when we vote, things change,” Harris said in closing. “They know when we vote, we win.”

Patrick Svitek contributed reporting.

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Kamala Harris urges Texas Democrats to keep their foot on the pedal - The Texas Tribune
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Cruise Ships Can Sail Again, With Strict Rules. Here’s What to Know. - The New York Times

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday lifted its “no sail” order on U.S. cruise ships and set out a framework for how cruising could restart.

Under the new structure, cruise companies must demonstrate adherence to stringent health and safety protocols including extensive testing, quarantine measures and social distancing. If they meet these C.D.C. standards, first on a series of crew-only test sailings, they will eventually be allowed to resume passenger excursions.

The “no sail” order was originally issued on March 14 for all American cruises after it emerged that cruise ships played a major role in the initial outbreak of the coronavirus. The ships were remarkably efficient at spreading the virus: On board the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan in February, each case of Covid-19 was transmitted to approximately 15 other people. In Wuhan, China — the original epicenter of the virus — one person transmitted the disease to about four other people, a recent study published in the Journal of Travel Medicine found.

In September, the C.D.C. recommended an extension to the policy until February amid reports of outbreaks on ships in other countries, but that advice was overruled by a White House coronavirus task force.

The restrictions on sailings have ravaged the cruise industry with companies reporting billions of dollars in losses as their fleets have remained idled in open waters or in ports. In recent months, cruise executives have been scrambling to put together teams of scientists and health experts to devise comprehensive safety protocols that will allow cruising to return, and they gave a lengthy list of suggestions to the C.D.C.

On Friday, the C.D.C. said the benefits of the new framework outweigh the costs of not allowing cruise ships to sail, providing flexibility for companies that have taken necessary precautions to mitigate risk, while continuing to prohibit operations for those that fail to implement the necessary measures.

Here’s how the decision will likely impact cruises in the coming months.

How soon will I be able to get on a cruise?

In short, not soon.

The first ships to sail in U.S. waters will be simulated voyages designed to test a vessel’s capabilities to implement health and safety protocols and prove the cruise line’s ability to mitigate the risks of Covid-19 onboard.

Cruise lines will not be allowed to commence passenger operations until they meet all the requirements and are granted a conditional Covid-19 sailing certificate issued by the C.D.C.

Most major cruise lines have announced that they will not resume operations until 2021.

The largest cruise companies, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean and MSC have canceled their sailings through the end of November. Last month, Carnival canceled all its 2020 cruises, except for those between Miami and Port Canaveral, Fla., which are scheduled to restart in December.

What safety measures can I expect?

The ships will be required to provide rapid laboratory testing of all passengers and crew on the day of embarkation and the day of disembarkation. Onboard testing capabilities will be developed in coordination with the C.D.C. to test all symptomatic travelers, including crew members and future passengers.

Under the new order, cruise ship operators must meet standards for hand hygiene, face coverings and social distancing for passengers and crew as well as ship sanitation. Meal services and entertainment venues will be modified to ensure that physical distancing can be implemented.

Does that mean I’ll have to wear a mask?

For the test cruises, the C.D.C. said that masks are one of the measures that “may be required by C.D.C. technical instructions or orders,” but it does not lay out where and when they might be mandated. Mask use was included among the suggestions from the industry executives to the C.D.C.

What happens if I test positive for the coronavirus?

Passengers who test positive for Covid-19 before boarding a cruise ship will not be permitted to board. Those who test positive onboard a ship will be isolated and then transferred to a dedicated facility on shore. All remaining passengers and nonessential crew will also be required to go into quarantine. In the spring, some passengers spent weeks confined to their staterooms after cases broke out on board their cruises.

Cruise operators are expected to have the proper medical equipment, expertise and training to treat severely ill passengers who contract Covid-19 while on board until they can be safety transferred to onshore medical facilities.

Will passengers be allowed to go on shore excursions?

Initially shore excursions will be closely controlled and limited to private and domestic destinations. Cruise operators are devising protocols to vet vendors for onshore excursions to ensure that they comply with health and safety protocols that are applied on board ships. The measures include physical distancing, sanitation, personal protective equipment, personnel screening and training.

On a recent sailing by the Costa Diadema, a ship belonging to the Carnival Corporation’s Italian cruise operation, cases cropped up despite testing after passengers took shore excursions on the Greek Islands. The guests were asymptomatic and tested positive upon re-entry into Italy.

Under the C. D.C.’s new requirements, cruise ships will not be permitted to sail with an itinerary that lasts longer than seven days. This period may be shortened or lengthened based on public health considerations.

The health agency’s framework applies to cruise ships that intend to operate in U.S. waters.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation.

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Obama had a coalition. Biden built a new one and here's how it's different. - NBC News

WASHINGTON — The first time Joe Biden was on a ticket that won the White House, he and Barack Obama prevailed in Biden's hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and surrounding Lackawanna County by a comfortable 28,000 votes.

This year, even as Biden plays up his hardscrabble roots and says the contest with President Donald Trump is about "Scranton vs. Park Avenue," the former vice president will be lucky to win his home county by half that, even if he sweeps Pennsylvania and the nation.

The types of voters powering Biden look different than the ones who made up the vaunted Obama coalition, revealing an America changing in some unexpected ways.

In the dozen years separating Biden's first win as vice president and his now potential win at the top of the ticket, Democrats have traded away white working-class voters in places like Scranton for educated ones in suburbs from Philadelphia to Phoenix, widened the gender gap, and possibly gained some older voters while losing some Black and Hispanic ones.

Oct. 30, 202002:34

The result may be an electorate riven more along class and gender lines than the racial and generational ones that defined Obama's 2008 landslide.

"Democrats are going to have one of the whitest coalitions, and Republicans are going to have one of their most nonwhite coalitions in years," said Patrick Ruffini, a Republican pollster and strategist. "These were changes in motion for decades that were suddenly and dramatically accelerated in 2016."

Blue-collar whites

The Obama coalition came to signify the young and diverse. But white working-class voters were an underappreciated foundation, helping Obama win the entire upper Midwest, from Iowa to Indiana to Ohio to Pennsylvania.

He carried Pennsylvania by 10 percentage points in 2008, despite being a Black Harvard grad with the middle name Hussein who gaffed by saying small-town Pennsylvanians "cling to guns or religion."

But Obama was enjoying the tail end of white working-class voters' multigenerational affiliation with the Democratic Party, which began to fray in the 1990s before Trump severed much of the remaining ties.

Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat who was born and raised in Scranton and still lives there, is confident Biden will get more votes than Trump in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, but he doesn't think any Democrat, even "middle-class Joe," can win by 10 percentage points like Obama did.

"This started a long time ago. Democrats have not done a very good job at connecting, communicating — and the better word, frankly, is listening — to workers," said Casey. "We've got to do a better job of that."

Still, Casey said Biden will do better than Clinton did — especially in parts of the state where Democratic support cratered in 2016 — and cut into Trump's margins, depriving him of the votes he needs to run up in rural places to counter Democratic strongholds in the cities and suburbs.

Suburban revolt

In 2008, Obama won in a landslide while narrowly losing white college graduates and white suburbanites, according to exit polls. But educated white voters' long-standing preference for the GOP flipped under Trump and Biden is now doing better with whites overall than past Democrats.

"One of the biggest areas of stratification in the country is between college and non-college-educated voters," said Guy Cecil, the chairman of Priorities USA, Democrats' flagship super PAC. "Joe Biden will probably yield a higher number of college-educated white voters than 2008 and Donald Trump will certainly yield a higher number of non-college-educated white voters than in 2008," when the GOP nominee was Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Democrats won college-educated whites by 8 percentage points in the 2018 midterms, and those voters appear to have further soured on the president as the coronavirus pandemic wore on over the course of 2020, according to Gallup.

The suburban backlash to Trump that powered the blue wave two years ago has now helped make red, but relatively urbanized, states like Arizona, Georgia and Texas competitive for Biden as residents of metro areas break from the president.

The influx of affluent voters to the Democratic coalition has had the knock-on effect of flooding the party with cash and depriving Republicans of some of their own. Democrats now routinely out-spend Republicans up and down the ballot, and wealthy zip codes were the source of much of Biden’s financial advantage over Trump, according to a recent analysis.

Mind the gender gap

In 2008, Obama won women but split men with McCain, 49-48 percent. In Obama's re-election in 2012, the gap began to widen as he won women by 11 points and Republican Mitt Romney won men by 7.

By 2016, Clinton won women by 13 percentage points and Trump won men by 11. And the gulf has only continued growing since.

Democrats won women by 19 percentage points in 2018, and the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed Biden ahead with women by a whopping 26 percentage points.

Nonwhite voters

Obama supercharged turnout among people of color in a diversifying America.

But people of color have been affected by the same forces that are enlarging the gender and education gaps and young Black and Hispanic men appear to be a weak spot for Biden, while Trump has made modest gains among nonwhite voters.

"We are seeing some gaps in young Black voter turnout," said Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of Black PAC, a liberal group that works to turn out Black voters. "There's a lot of work to do in terms of engaging and making sure those voters are turning out."

Oct. 29, 202002:51

While polling these subgroups is difficult, Biden had a meager 7-point lead among Hispanic men (compared with a 37 point lead among Hispanic women) in New York Times/Siena College polling. Obama won 95 percent of Black men, but Biden is carrying a relatively small 78 percent of them in the Times' polls, with 11 percent going to Trump.

Democrats have also passed around a Public Religion Research Institute survey that showed just 36 percent of Black men said nominating a Black woman as vice president was a good idea, compared to 64 percent of Black women.

"It's much more illuminating to describe any modest Trump gains among (people of color) as gains among some men with melanin, and, looked at that way, we all know a few brothers who make us shake our heads," said Steve Phillips, the founder of the group Democracy in Color, said on Twitter. "But, let's not get it twisted. Black men are the second most progressive demographic in the country (after Black women)."

Older and younger

Young voters were key to Obama's success and so far have come out in droves to vote early, though total turnout is impossible to know until all votes are counted.

The surprise for many observers this year has been older voters, who were crucial to Trump's and other Republicans' victory, but appear to be turning away from the president.

"I've written a lot about what I call the cultural generation gap, and it's all about how these young, LGBT, Black and brown, single women were going to be countering the Baby Boomers and the older, mostly white generations," said William Frey, a demographer at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution.

But instead, Frey's recent analysis found that older white voters could end up being the key to Biden wins in battleground states. And they're especially valuable since they're a large and growing part of the population who tend to vote reliably.

"I would be the last person to predict this," said Frey.

Experts say these trends could be unique to Trump or Biden, who are both unlikely to look like future nominees of their parties.

But Casey is telling Democrats they need to focus on winning back working-class voters even after Trump, whom he said was Republicans' strongest candidate for Pennsylvania since Ronald Reagan.

"The ability for another Republican down the road to capture some of those blue-collar Democrats is still available to them, unless we do our job," Casey said.

And Ruffini is urging Republicans to start thinking about trying to build a multiracial coalition of working-class voters.

"What I'm telling my clients is you should assume these are the new coalitions going forward," he said. "It's not going back."

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Here’s our best look at ray tracing on the Xbox Series X - The Verge

We’ve been waiting months to see what next-gen games and ray tracing will truly look like on the Xbox Series X. Today, we’re getting a first good look at the next-gen Xbox’s ray-tracing capabilities, thanks to Watch Dogs: Legion. Set in London, the game includes drones, self-driving cars, and lots of historical sites to explore.

As it’s often wet and dark in Watch Dogs: Legion, the game also includes a lot of reflective puddles, shadows, and bright neon signs that are perfect for ray tracing. The Xbox Series X enhanced version of Watch Dogs: Legion will include ray-traced reflections, improved shadow quality, and even variable refresh rates.

The Xbox Series X version of the game runs at full 4K resolution and a consistent 30fps with ray tracing enabled. Ubisoft is promising a “smooth, cinematic gameplay experience” as a result. This same ray tracing will be enabled on the Xbox Series S, too, although obviously at a lower resolution.

We’ve been playing Watch Dogs: Legion on an RTX 3090 with ultra settings and maxed out ray tracing at 1440p / 55fps this week. While it’s hard to compare the brief examples of gameplay from Ubisoft today, and our own capture (below), the Xbox Series X appears to offer some decent ray-traced results either way.

The optimized version of Watch Dogs: Legion will be available on November 10th, the same day Microsoft launches its next-gen Xbox Series X and S consoles.

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Apple One subscriptions can save you a bundle — here's how to sign up - CNBC

iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12.

Todd Haselton | CNBC

Apple began rolling out its Apple One subscription bundles on Friday. They package together a bunch of Apple's subscription services, such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and iCloud storage and can save you money over paying for them separately.

Apple One also represents a new way for Apple to boost subscriptions and bolster its services business, which generated $14.55 billion — up 16.5% year over year — during Apple's fiscal fourth quarter. And it could help attract more people to use services they might not have otherwise, such as Apple Arcade.

Three plans are available:

• Individual costs $14.95 per month with Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and 50GB of iCloud storage. That's a savings of $6 a month over buying them separately.
• Family costs $19.95 per month and includes 200GB of iCloud storage and support for up to six people to use the subscriptions. It will save you $8 a month.
• Premier costs $29.95 per month and adds News+ and Fitness+, a set of workout classes for Apple Watch owners, along with 2TB of iCloud storage. It works with up to six people and will save you a whopping $25 a month over buying the services separately.

Here's how to sign up:

• Open Settings on your iPhone.
• Tap your name at the top of the screen.
• Tap Subscriptions.
• Choose "Get Apple One."
• Select the plan. Each comes with a one-month free trial.
• Click "Start Free Trial" at the bottom of the screen.

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. 

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Trump and Biden battle for the Midwest as virus surges - CNN

Trump touched down for his first stop in Waterford Township, Michigan, Friday, tossing red "Make America Great Again" hats to the crowd, hours after the US passed a daily record with more than 88,000 new coronavirus cases Thursday. As he continued to downplay the fall surge, Trump complained that restrictions in Minnesota would curtail his plans for his final rally of the day in Rochester, Minnesota, where Democratic state officials, adhering to state Department of Health rules, have insisted that his crowd must be limited to 250 people.

"We're having a problem with some people in Minnesota," the President told reporters as he left the White House Friday morning, with the campaign blaming "the free-speech stifling dictates" that won't allow the 25,000 people Trump claims want to attend.

Republicans got a win in Minnesota Thursday night when a federal appeals court ruled that mailed-in ballots in the state must be received by elections officials no later than Election Day. While there has not been as much polling on Minnesota, the Washington Post/ABC News poll last month showed Trump down by double digits.

The two candidates are crisscrossing in the Midwest Friday at a time when Biden is trying to shore up his leads in those states and strengthen his connection to the working class voters that Hillary Clinton neglected in the waning days of her race with Trump four years ago. The former vice president is spending ample time in states that Trump won in 2016, as his team contemplates multiple paths to the 270 electoral votes he needs to win, while Democrats are poised to gain seats in the House and Senate.

If Biden is not able to flip battlegrounds that Trump won like Florida, North Carolina and Georgia, he could potentially carve a path to the White House by rebuilding the Democrats' blue wall in the Rust Belt and capturing Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, while holding Minnesota in the Democratic column.

Trump won those three Midwestern states by less than a percentage point in 2016, and Biden's kinship with the blue collar voters who live in working class towns like Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he lived as a young boy, was one of the major selling points to Democratic primary voters as he cultivated the image of "middle-class Joe."

While Trump has campaigned, both in 2016 and 2020, as a voice for the "forgotten men and women" who live in those communities, Biden has argued that the President ignored their needs while helping his wealthy allies -- attempting to frame the race as Scranton versus Park Avenue. But Trump has argued that Biden favored trade policies that sent jobs overseas and threw open the border to the detriment of working-class voters.

Biden has succeeded in cutting into Trump's margins with White voters who do not hold a college degree -- a trend he hopes to accelerate in the closing days of the campaign as he visits Midwestern states that include Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin.

But Trump rejected Biden's efforts on Friday as he insisted that the Democrat has no enthusiasm at his campaign events and told Michiganders, misleadingly, that "we're still rounding the corner" when it comes to coronavirus.

"Four days from now we are going to win this state and we are going on to win four more years in the White House," Trump said in Michigan. "It's going to be a victory like no other."

Trump touted positive economic numbers this week, promising that he would continue to create "jobs, jobs, jobs" after Election Day. Biden's record on trade, Trump said in Waterford Township, has demonstrated that he doesn't care for "working people."

"At every turn Biden twisted the knife into the back of Michigan's working people," Trump said Friday.

CNN's Road to 270 interactive map

During the final week of ad spending, the joint effort of Biden and the Democratic National Committee is spending more in Florida than any other state ($8.6 million). On the other side of the ledger, Trump and the Republican National Committee are spending more in Michigan ($7.2 million) than any other state.

Biden has maintained a strong fundraising advantage over Trump in the final months of the campaign, and the Democratic effort is on track to outpace the GOP spending effort by nearly $20 million in the final week, according to an analysis of CMAG/Kantar Media data by CNN's David Wright.

Battle for Florida

Few swing states loom larger than Florida, prized for its 29 electoral votes and its role as a national barometer, where the two candidates went head to head Thursday as coronavirus cases surged. Trump's path to reelection is virtually impossible without a win there.

Underscoring the importance of the state, Biden's visit to Florida Thursday was preceded by events in recent days featuring former President Barack Obama, who won the state twice. And vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris will campaign Saturday in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties to try to get voters out to the polls on the final weekend of early voting.

At a time when millions of voters have already cast their ballots in Florida, the Biden campaign dispatched the former vice president to stoke turnout in the reliable Democratic stronghold of Broward County, then rally voters with a bullhorn at a voter activation center in Fort Lauderdale, finishing the day in the critical swing corridor of Tampa, where the President had stopped just hours before.

At the socially distant drive-in rally in South Florida's Broward County -- where Biden thanked attendees for wearing masks and staying six feet apart -- the former vice president called on Floridians to change the course of the pandemic and choose "science over fiction," by using their state to block Trump's path to reelection.

"The heart and soul of this country's at stake right in Florida. It's up to you. You hold the key," Biden told a diverse group of voters. "If Florida goes blue, it's over. It's over."

Trump, who won Florida with just over 100,000 votes in that campaign against Clinton, argued that electing Biden would lead to a national lockdown and subsequent economic collapse because of his more conservative approach to the virus.

He predicted the US would see "the greatest red wave" in history on Tuesday: "Five days from now we are going to win Florida and we are going to win four more years in the White House," Trump said during the Tampa rally where he appeared with his wife, first lady Melania Trump.

Though Biden had to cut his final rally in Tampa short because of a downpour, he tried to push back throughout the day on the President's false claims about rampant voter fraud and what he views as Trump's efforts to suppress the vote, particularly in Black and Brown communities.

"He knows if you vote, he can't win. He knows when America votes, they reject people like him," Biden said in Coconut Creek Thursday morning. "We choose hope over fear. We choose unity over division, and we choose science over fiction. And, yes, we choose truth over lies."

But for all of Trump's optimism about a potential "red wave," CNN's Poll of Polls shows Biden leading Trump in Florida 49% to 46% with no margin of sampling error.

With Trump headed to Green Bay and Biden to Milwaukee on Friday, the picture looks even more grim for the President in Wisconsin, which he won by less than a percentage point in 2016 and where Biden is leading Trump by a 9-point margin in CNN's Poll of Polls.

Trump mocks Biden's coronavirus precautions

One of the perils for Trump in Florida is his sliding support among seniors, which has been driven in part by broad disapproval of his handling of the coronavirus and the fact that older voters have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19.

In spite of that vulnerability, the President downplayed the fall surge in coronavirus cases during his huge rally in Tampa -- where few supporters wore masks and there was no social distancing. At one point, Trump told rallygoers: "We know the disease. We social distance. We do all of the things that you have to do. ... If you get close, wear a mask."

Yet CNN's Maegan Vazquez and Donald Judd reported that most in Trump's Tampa crowd were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, packed so tightly together that several attendees required medical attention due to the heat.

Trump also praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the speed with which he has reopened his state. CNN reported this week that the Republican governor traveled with Dr. Scott Atlas, Trump's controversial pandemic adviser, throughout Florida in late August as Atlas argued for limiting Covid-19 testing mainly to people experiencing symptoms. The push by the two Trump allies to curtail the number of tests coincided with a precipitous drop in testing in Florida, according to CNN reporting, and the state is now grappling with the fall surge.

Trump on Thursday also mocked Biden for following US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and made fun of Biden's events where attendees are separated by circles, as well as his drive-in rallies, where voters are asked to stay by their cars to ensure proper distancing.

While boasting that his own rallies could draw tens of thousands of people -- at a time when all reputable medical experts are asking Americans to avoid mass gatherings -- Trump claimed that the smaller attendance prescribed by the Biden campaign is driven by a lack of enthusiasm.

"Now they try and say it's because of Covid," Trump said. "They say the fact that he has nobody at all show up is because of Covid. No, it's because nobody shows up," Trump said to laughter in Tampa. "And I think that's the ultimate poll. And based on the numbers that we're getting, we're going to do really well on Tuesday."

Biden criticized Trump's flaunting of safety guidelines: "Donald Trump just held a superspreader event here again. He's spreading more than just coronavirus. He's spreading division and discord," he said hours later in Tampa.

Earlier in Broward County, Biden chided Trump for refusing to listen to science and attributed the pain, suffering and loss of more than 225,000 Americans to Trump's "negligence."

"Millions of people out there are out of work, on the edge. Can't see the light at the end of the tunnel and Donald Trump has given up," Biden said. "Donald Trump has waved the white flag, abandoned our families and surrendered to the virus. But the American people don't give up. We don't give in. And we surely don't cower, nor will I under any circumstances."

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New restaurant, café and rooftop bar come to downtown Flint with new Hilton Hotel - MLive.com

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FLINT, MI -- Flint’s new Hilton Hotel is bring more to downtown Flint than just a place to stay. The building also includes a new Italian American restaurant, café and seasonal rooftop bar.

A clock on Sauce Italian American Kitchen’s website is ticking down to its Monday, Nov. 2 opening date.

Hours for Sauce Italian American Kitchen are from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday though Thursday, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, according to the restaurant website. The Federal Coffee House is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Sauce will also serve breakfast from open to 11 a.m. seven days a week, hotel officials said Friday, Nov. 30.

Limited seating capacity, extra sanitation and mask requirements are being implemented in order to keep patrons safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coming in the spring of 2021 is Simmer Rooftop Lounge, which is located on a the top of a five-story wing of the Hilton Garden Inn.

Sauce offers a range of food and craft beverage options for breakfast, lunch and dinner, said Dan Wright, the food and beverage general manager.

Dinner entrees range in price from a $15 pasta dish to $28 ribeye steak. Gourmet pizzas are also on the menu, along with an assortment of drink options, including signature cocktails.

“It’s not just the restaurant in the Hilton,” Wright said. “We knew we wanted to do Italian. Being in Flint, we wanted to make sure we have some American cuisine in the mix and to put a little soul in the Italian kitchen.”

Read more: New hotel opening in downtown Flint is part of city’s rebirth, officials say

The menu, under the direction of Executive Chef Antwain Trimble, incorporates Michigan-made ingredients in its entrees and side dishes.

Trimble, a Flint native, lived in the city until 2000 when he decided to move to Pittsburgh to start his journey as a chef. He moved his family back to Flint in 2015 to be closer to his mom and siblings.

“Culture” is what Trimble says he’s bringing to his role at the restaurant.

“I know what Flint likes food wise," Trimble said. "I know what we’ve been eating for years and I want to infuse that with what we have here.”

Trimble is a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu Institute of Culinary Arts in Pittsburgh. He has 18 years of experience in food service – eight years of which were in hotels. In the past, he has worked in fast food, fine dining, bars, catering, healthcare and as the executive chef of the Flint Institute of Arts.

The restaurant, bar and café are part of the opening of the new Hilton Hotel in Flint. This project transformed the former 1920s Genesee County Savings Bank, 110 West Kearsley St., which also once housed the Flint Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a real estate firm. Plans to redevelop the building began in 2017.

The ground floor of the new Hilton Hotel in Flint was once the grand banking hall, before it was converted into the 2,500 square foot restaurant. The original bank vault will be used as a private dining area, according to prior reporting.

Simmer Rooftop Lounge, is Flint’s “premiere open-air, seasonal rooftop bar at Hilton Garden Inn Flint Downtown with a focus on crafted cocktails and farm-to-table inspired bites,” according to the hotel.

Simmer’s limited menu will offer small plates, or “elegant dishes,” and a separate cocktail menu that features primarily summer drinks, Wright said. With space for a 115 people, about 90 percent of the seating will be outside. There is a small bar area inside. Simmer will also feature live entertainment at least twice a week.

The lounge will be accessible through the hotel lobby and an elevator ride to the sixth floor. The name is derived from Sauce, the first-floor restaurant, as in to allow the sauce to simmer, Wright said.

“Everyone is excited about Simmer,” Wright said. “We didn’t want to call it a bar. The thinking was that it should be a chill place. A lounge.”

The restaurant believes in tradition and making things “the old way with pastas cut by hand and savory sauces simmering all day over a low flame," the restaurant website states.

The inspiration for Sauce comes from our experiences with family, friends and farm restaurants all over Michigan, the description reads. Every dish is rooted from traditional Italian culinary recipes and infused with local flavors and ingredients.

Read more:

Get a look at historic downtown Flint bank being renovated as hotel

New Black-owned barbershop brings ‘new life’ to downtown Flint

Downtown Flint buildings razed for new Hilton hotel project

Get a look at historic downtown Flint bank being renovated as hotel

100-room Hilton hotel, restaurant proposed for downtown Flint

Mott grant will help black-owned businesses in Flint reopen

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