Democracy Now!

In the second day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, the federal judge's refusal to answer basic questions on voter intimidation and whether a president can delay elections did her "no favors" and was part of an aim to "present herself as neutral; she's an open book; whatever she was before, whatever she ruled on the bench before, is immaterial," says Dahlia Lithwick, senior legal correspondent and Supreme Court reporter for Slate.com. "There are some issues that don't need to be approached with an open mind. … She could have allayed a lot of fears."

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett faced 11 hours of questioning in the Senate Tuesday but refused to provide clarity about her views on the Affordable Care Act, Roe v. Wade, voting rights and even if President Trump could delay the election. Republicans are racing to confirm the 48-year-old federal judge before Election Day, which would give conservatives a commanding 6-3 majority on the high court. We air highlights from the marathon session.

White House Pursuing "Herd Immunity" Strategy Condemned by WHO as "Unethical", Trump Holds Packed Campaign Rallies in Defiance of Social Distancing Orders, "Potential Safety Concern" Halts Clinical Trial of Eli Lilly Antibody Treatment, Amy Coney Barrett Won't Commit to Recusing Herself If 2020 Election Is Decided by SCOTUS, FBI Says Far-Right Anti-Government Group Plotted to Kidnap Virginia Governor, More Witnesses Corroborate Claims of Extrajudicial Killing by U.S. Marshals, Trailing in Polls, Trump Appeals to White Suburban Women and Farmers, Supreme Court Will Allow Trump Admin to Halt Census Count a Month Early, Virginia Voter Registration Website Crashes on Last Day to Register for November Election, Federal Judge Will Allow Texas to Restrict Ballot Drop Box Sites to One Per County, 100+ Cameroonian Asylum Seekers Deported Despite Fear of Being Killed, Mexican Government ID's 2 Women It Says Had Nonconsensual Surgeries in ICE Custody, U.S. Border Agents in Guatemala Deported Honduran Asylum Seekers in Unauthorized Operation, DOJ Ends Probe of Alleged "Unmasking" Conspiracy with No Charges and No Public Report, Belarus Officials Threaten to Kill Anti-Government Protesters

Amy Coney Barrett's involvement in the court fight over the 2000 presidential election, when she was a member of George W. Bush's legal team, shows she is willing to bend the law to benefit Republican candidates, says Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman. "That's what's so disturbing about Amy Coney Barrett, because that's exactly what President Trump wants to do right now," says Berman. "He wants a justice who will rule his way on the vote count, no matter what the facts or the law actually says." Berman also looks at challenges voters are facing nationwide as early voting is underway from Georgia to Arizona, where the Pascua Yaqui Tribe filed a lawsuit Monday to reinstate the only early in-person voting site on the reservation, which was shut down in 2018.

Amid Senate confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, we look at how conservatives have used dark money to push to seat her on the Supreme Court before the November 3 election, following a decades-long project by conservatives to install right-wing judges across the federal judiciary. "There's no doubt that what we're facing is, increasingly, rule by a minority," says former Senate Judiciary Committee staffer Lisa Graves, executive director of True North Research. "When people say that the court needs to be packed, it really needs to be unpacked."

Hundreds protested outside the Senate Monday against the confirmation hearing for President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett. At least 21 were arrested after staging a sit-in to oppose the Senate pushing through Barrett's nomination in the middle of the presidential election. Senate Democrats warn the federal judge's record suggests she would overturn the Affordable Care Act and threaten reproductive rights if she takes the seat left vacant by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "Trump and the Republicans are trying to execute a power grab," says Ana María Archila, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy, who joins us from the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of another day of protests. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, she says lawmakers should instead focus on doing "everything they can to provide urgent relief to millions of people."

Dems Warn of Threat to ACA, Roe v. Wade, as Hearing Begins for Trump SCOTUS Nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Trump Returns to Campaigning as COVID Status Remains Unclear, COVID-19 Cases Soaring in Europe, Russia, as India Becomes Second Country to Hit 7 Million Cases, Johnson & Johnson Halts Vaccine Trials; More Evidence of Reinfection Revealed, GA Early Voters Face Long Lines; CA Officials Warn GOP over Illegal Drop Sites, Pascua Yaqui Tribe Sues in Arizona over Voter Suppression Efforts, WH Moves Forward with Taiwan Weapons Sales as U.S. Officials Tell Taiwan to Ramp Up Defense, Bangladeshi Government Approves Death Penalty for Convicted Rapists, Trump Children Cost Taxpayers $238,000+ for Secret Service Room Rentals at Trump Properties, O'odham Land Defenders Arrested After Blocking Traffic to Protest Border Wall, New Mexico Protesters Topple Civil War-Era Monument on Indigenous Peoples' Day, Head of Energy Transfer, a Major Trump Donor, Steps Down as CEO, "The Ice Is Dying": Researchers Warn Climate Crisis Is Irrevocably Changing Arctic Landscape, Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Awarded to U.S. Researchers for Auction Theory, Princeton to Back Pay $1 Million in Wages After Federal Gender Discrimination Probe, Mother of Black Teen Killed by Police in Wauwatosa, WI, Arrested During Protests, Jim Dwyer, Pulitzer-Winning Reporter Who Chronicled Injustice & the Lives of New Yorkers, Dies at 63

As 14 states and more than 130 cities across the U.S. celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day in place of Columbus Day, we go to Arizona, where Indigenous communities are leading resistance against the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall near a sacred spring inside the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. People's "lives have been so severely impacted by not only this border wall, but the complete militarization of our homelands due to this irrational fear of folks on the other side, which are our relatives," says Nellie Jo David, an O'odham water and land defender. This campaign of nonviolent protests comes as a federal appeals court issued an order Friday to halt the border wall construction in some areas of Arizona, along with Texas, New Mexico and California.

Charles Allen, whose father Eugene Allen worked as a butler at the White House for 34 years, says President Trump's reckless actions following his COVID-19 hospitalization are threatening the health of the domestic staff at the White House. "As my dad used to say, they were the little people that made it possible for the big people to do what they did," he says. Eugene Allen, who served eight presidents, from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, died in 2010, but his life story became the basis of the 2013 film "The Butler," starring Forest Whitaker.

President Trump's return to the White House and defiant mask removal despite still being treated for COVID-19 has threatened the health of the mostly older, Black and Brown household staff, says domestic worker advocate Ai-jen Poo, senior adviser to Care in Action. "These are essential workers who have been keeping him and his family safe and caring for them, and he showed a complete and utter disregard for their health and safety," she says. At least three White House housekeepers and one other member of the residence staff were recently infected, according to The New York Times. Meanwhile, thousands of domestic workers face dire consequences from the failure to pass a new coronavirus stimulus bill, and have organized to support each other in the meantime.

Trump Resumes Rallies, Declares He Is "Immune" as WH Doctors Refuse to Say If He Tested Negative, Fauci Says His Words Taken Out of Context in New Trump Ad, WH Blocks CDC Order on Face Masks on Public Transportation as U.S. COVID-19 Cases Continue to Rise, Stimulus Talks Still at Impasse After Dems and GOP Reject Latest WH Offer, SCOTUS Hearings Kick Off in Senate as Amy Coney Barrett's Anti-Abortion Beliefs in Spotlight, Trump-Biden Debate Canceled After Trump Refuses to Participate in Virtual Format, SC Senate Debate Turns into Candidate Forum After Lindsey Graham Refuses Coronavirus Test, Judge Rejects Trump Effort to Remove PA Ballot Boxes; TX Court Stays Reversal of Gov. Abbott Drop Box Order, Ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh Breaks Down as Civilian Casualties Mount in Disputed Area, Mass Protests Lead to Dismantling of Nigerian Police Squad Accused of Violence, Robberies, Armed Groups in Iraq Agree to Conditional Ceasefire, NYT: Trump Tax Records Reveal Cash Windfall in Lead-up to 2016 Election, Federal Court Rules Trump's Diversion of Military Funds to Build Border Wall Is Illegal, 2 Cameroonian Asylum Seekers Who May Have Been Forcibly Sterilized Are Set to Be Deported, Hurricane Delta Batters Louisiana as Residents Still Reeling from Hurricane Laura, Killer Mike Launches Black-Owned Online Bank, Named After Greenwood, Site of Racist Massacre in 1921

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan are in Moscow for talks following two weeks of fighting over the disputed territory Nagorno-Karabakh. At least 300 people have already died in what could turn into a wider regional conflagration, with Turkey openly supporting Azerbaijan and Russia backing Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians. "Turkey's intervention on the side of Azerbaijan is very destabilizing," says Anna Ohanyan, professor of political science and international relations at Stonehill College. "It creates the conditions of transforming this conflict into a proxy war."

As the World Food Programme wins the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger around the world, we speak with Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, who says the United Nations body is doing vital work around the world. "I couldn't be happier that the World Food Programme won the Nobel Prize for peace, because this hunger pandemic is paralyzing perhaps 2.7 billion people," he says.

Just months after President Trump tweeted for his supporters to "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" the FBI has foiled an alleged plot to kidnap and take hostage Democratic Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer. Authorities arrested six men Thursday involved in the kidnapping plot, and seven others who were said to be planning to storm the state Capitol in Lansing with the intent of starting a civil war. "It came as a surprise to many, but not necessarily here in Michigan, because the state has a long history of militia and white nationalist ties," says Russ McNamara, a reporter at WDET, Detroit's NPR affiliate. We also speak with Michigan state Representative Kyra Harris Bolden, who says local Democrats have been warning for months about the threat posed by far-right extremists. "It's very important to note that this could have been prevented," she says.

13 Charged in Far-Right Terror Plot to Kidnap Michigan Governor & Attack State Capitol, Sickened with COVID-19, Trump Rejects Remote Debate and Plans New Rallies, Trump's Erratic Behavior Sparks Fears over His Physical and Mental Health, House Speaker Pelosi Questions Trump's Fitness as Vice President Pence Returns to D.C., North Dakota Hospitals Fill to Capacity as Coronavirus Cases Surge Nationwide, White House Superspreader Event May Have Exposed Thousands to Coronavirus, Whistleblowing Vaccine Specialist Calls Out Trump's "Reckless and Deadly" Misinformation, Trump Received COVID-19 Drugs Developed Using Human Fetal Tissue, World Logs Record One-Day Coronavirus Toll Amid Exponential Rises in Europe, Ohio Federal Judge Blocks Order Limiting Number of Ballot Drop Boxes, Friends of Trump Accuser Amy Dorris Confirm 1997 Sexual Assault , Human Rights Report Condemns Violence Against LGBTQ Central Americans, Guatemalan Feminists Demand Justice for Two Women Recently Murdered, ICE to Allow Arrest & Expedited Deportation of Undocumented People Without Due Process, Hurricane Delta Bringing "Life-Threatening Storm Surge" to Louisiana Gulf Coast, Iran Blasts "Crime Against Humanity" as Latest U.S. Sanctions Threaten Food Supply, World Food Programme Wins 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, Former Trump Fundraiser Elliott Broidy Charged with Acting as Foreign Agent, Pioneering Transgender Activist & Journalist Monica Roberts Dies at 58

During Wednesday's debate, Vice President Mike Pence refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if Biden wins the election. Instead, he referenced the Trump administration's legal efforts to restrict mail-in voting. Rev. William Barber says the Republican Party's voter suppression efforts ahead of the November election, aimed primarily at Black and Brown voters, amount to "surgical racism with surgical precision." The Poor People's Campaign, of which Barber is co-chair, is leading a major voter mobilization effort to combat voter disenfranchisement. "They know they cannot win if everybody votes. They are terribly afraid of poor and low-wealth Black and Brown people voting," he says.

Rev. William Barber says the 2020 election debates have steadfastly ignored the subject of poverty, even though it affected almost half the United States population before the COVID-19 pandemic and millions more people are struggling since then. "We have to stop saying that things were well before COVID," Barber says. "The reality is, Wall Street was well." Barber is co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and president of Repairers of the Breach.

Separated by two plates of plexiglass, Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris met Wednesday in the only vice-presidential debate of the campaign season. Pence, who heads the White House Coronavirus Task Force, repeatedly defended the Trump administration's handling of the crisis as the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 nears 212,000 and millions of people remain out of work. The debate also took place against the backdrop of a White House outbreak that has infected President Trump and dozens of other senior figures. "The White House has had more cases than the country of Yemen recently, than Vietnam, than New Zealand," says Dr. Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. "How can we expect the White House to keep the U.S. safe if it can't keep the White House safe?"

Kamala Harris and Mike Pence Face Off in VP Debate Separated by Plexiglass Barriers, Contagious with COVID-19, President Trump Returns to Oval Office, Trump Calls COVID-19 Diagnosis a "Blessing from God", Top Security Official "Gravely Ill" with COVID-19 as White House Coronavirus Cluster Grows to 34, White House Quietly Told Gold Star Families They May Have Been Exposed to Coronavirus, Wisconsin Restricts Indoor Gatherings Amid Record Spike in Coronavirus Cases, New England Journal of Medicine Calls on Voters to Vote Against Trump in First-Ever Endorsement, Ex-CDC Director Calls on Robert Redfield to Expose "Colossal Failure" of Pandemic Response, Arizona GOP Sen. Martha McSally Refuses to Restate Her Support for Donald Trump, Texas High Court Bars Harris County from Sending Mail-in Ballot Applications to Voters, California Records First "Gigafire" in State History, with Over 1 Million Acres Burned, Last Month Was the Hottest September on Record, Edging Out September 2019, Greek Court Declares Fascist Golden Dawn Party a Criminal Organization, Police Shooting Victim Jacob Blake at Spinal Rehabilitation Center After Leaving Hospital, Minneapolis Officer Who Killed George Floyd Released from Jail on $1 Million Bond, Louise Glück, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier Awarded Nobel Prizes

Nearly 41 years after Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazis shot dead five antiracist activists in the town of Greensboro, North Carolina, the City Council there has passed a resolution apologizing for the attack and the police department's complicity in the killings. We speak with two survivors of the 1979 attack, Reverend Nelson Johnson and Joyce Hobson Johnson, who say the city's apology acknowledges "the police knew and chose to do nothing. In fact, they facilitated what we name now as a North American death squad."

As President Trump compares the deadly COVID-19 outbreak to the flu despite being hospitalized for the virus, we speak to his only niece, Mary Trump, about his increasingly erratic behavior in the final weeks of the election season and how his family views illness as a weakness. "To be treated for something is to admit that you need the treatment, and I don't see him having any self-awareness," she says. "Clearly the people closest to him don't care about his well-being. If they did, he'd still be at Walter Reed." She also warns that the "worst-case scenario" would be for President Trump to overcome his illness relatively quickly, because it would convince him to continue ignoring the pandemic. Mary Trump is a clinical psychologist. In July, she overcame Trump's legal threats and published the now best-selling book, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man."

Stephen Miller Tests Positive for COVID-19 as Top Pentagon Generals Quarantine, Rudy Giuliani Coughs Through TV Interview While Awaiting Coronavirus Test Result, White House Refuses Contact Tracing Help as Trump Puts Residence Staff at Risk of COVID-19, Two Presidential Valets Who Carry Nuclear Launch Codes Test Positive for Coronavirus, Six States Report Record Hospitalizations as U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Nears 211,000, Trump Calls Off Stimulus Talks, Then Reverses Course in Erratic Series of Tweets, Facebook, Twitter Crack Down on Trump's False Claim COVID-19 Is Less Lethal Than Flu, FDA to Require Two Month Safety Review for Vaccines Before Emergency Use, Vaccine Expert Who Blew Whistle on Trump's Coronavirus Response Resigns, Mike Pence and Kamala Harris Vice-Presidential Debate to Feature Plexiglass Barriers, Joe Biden Condemns Racial Injustice, Calls for Fully Funding Police, Amy Coney Barrett Served as "Handmaid" in Secretive Religious Group, Two Supreme Court Justices Mull Reversal of Marriage Equality Ruling, Hurricane Delta Strikes Mexico's Yucatan, Tracks Toward U.S. Gulf Coast, East Africa Flooding Forces 1.5 Million from Homes Amid Historic Rainfall, Kyrgyzstan's Election Commission Invalidates Disputed Vote Amid Mass Protests, Senators Want U.S. Military Aid to Azerbaijan Cut as Nagorno-Karabakh Fighting Escalates, 18 Killed in Truck Bombing in Turkish-Controlled Syrian Town, Grand Jury Indicts Wealthy St. Louis Couple Who Brandished Guns at BLM Protesters, Homeland Security Dept.: White Supremacists Are "Most Persistent and Lethal Threat", House Democrats Accuse Big Tech Companies of Monopolistic Practices, NYT: Jeff Sessions Defended Child Separations, Saying, "We Need to Take Away Children"

As the number of people in President Trump's orbit who test positive for COVID-19 continues to grow, we meet a student journalist who is doing what the White House doesn't want the CDC to do: tracing the contacts of people who may have infected or been infected by President Trump. Benjy Renton, a Middlebury College senior, helped develop a real-time tracking tool to monitor the growing number of people in President Trump's circle who were exposed or infected with COVID-19. The site is called COVID-19 at the White House and lists over 270 contacts and 25 positive cases, so far. It uses "publicly available information to ensure the American public have access and have the transparency that they deserve," says Renton.

As the highest-profile coronavirus patient in the world returns to the White House while still infectious and a danger to others, we speak with activist Kristin Urquiza, whose father died from COVID-19 earlier this year. She says President Trump's minimizing of the disease is a slap in the face to families who have lost loved ones. "I was appalled," says Urquiza. "Every single person out there who's lost a loved one to COVID, who has seen up close and personal what this virus can do, felt the same way." Urquiza, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August about her father, is co-founder of Marked by COVID, a project elevating the stories of Americans who have died in the pandemic.

Shocking medical experts, President Trump has returned to the White House while still infectious with the coronavirus and after more than a dozen people in Trump's orbit have already tested positive for COVID-19. Emergency room physician Dr. Dara Kass says she was "horrified" by President Trump's dismissive attitude toward a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 people in the United States. "I had this virus," says Dr. Kass. "I never left my bedroom without an N95 mask on my face, because I was petrified of giving it to my friends and family."

COVID-Positive Trump Returns to WH, Removes Mask, as Number of Coronavirus Cases Around Him Mount, NYT: WH Officials Blocking FDA from Delaying Approval of Vaccine to Make Sure It's Safe, 10% of World May Have Had COVID-19 as Countries Around the World Report Record Cases and Deaths, New Voting Hurdles Emerge in South Carolina, Florida as Early Voting Gets Underway in More States, Kamala Harris and Mike Pence to Debate Behind Plexiglass; Joe Biden Slams Trump for Eschewing Masks, TX Officer Charged with Murder in Shooting of Beloved Ex-College Football Player Jonathan Price, California Prosecutors to Reopen Investigation into 2009 Killing of Oscar Grant, Survivors of Chemical Attacks in Syria File Complaint as U.N. Blocks Testimony of Former Head of OPCW, Protests Erupt in Kyrgyzstan After Disputed Parliamentary Vote, Scientists Warn of Ecological Disaster in Eastern Russia After Apparent Chemical Spill, Leaked ExxonMobil Documents Reveal Oil Giant Plans to Increase Annual CO2 Emissions by 17%, EPA Strips Tribes in Oklahoma of Environmental Regulatory Rights, L.A. Times Exec. Editor Steps Down After Toxic Workplace Reports and Staff Demands for More Diversity, Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded for Black Holes Discoveries, Medicine Award for Hepatitis C Research

Breonna Taylor's family is calling on Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to appoint a new special prosecutor to reopen the case after they say newly released grand jury tapes confirm the state Attorney General Daniel Cameron "did not serve as an unbiased prosecutor in this case and intentionally did not present charges to the grand jury that would have pursued justice for Ms. Taylor." Cameron complied with a judicial order to release 15 hours of audiotapes just before the judge's noon deadline on Friday. "The recordings that were released were just as we assumed they were, that nobody was presenting evidence on behalf of Breonna Taylor," says Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Taylor's family. We also speak with Democratic Kentucky Representative Attica Scott, who was arrested last month during a protest in Louisville calling for justice in the case and faces charges of first-degree rioting, failure to disperse and unlawful assembly, even as police officers were directly charged in Taylor's killing.

As President Trump and a growing number of prominent Republicans are infected with COVID-19, we speak with Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, who says Trump was reckless in his approach to the coronavirus and continues to flout public health recommendations. "There is an outbreak happening at the White House. It will continue to spread. It will not go away on its own," says Dr. Jha. "The way you stop it is to test, trace and isolate."

As the White House and President Trump's medical team issue conflicting statements on Trump's condition after he was hospitalized for COVID-19, and when he was infected, we speak with Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason. The administration's lack of transparency "certainly raises questions about the decisions that were made to allow him to travel, for him to decide to travel, and to expose what seems like a lot of people," Mason says.

Trump Breaks Isolation, Endangers Secret Service as WH Sends Mixed Messages on Trump's Condition, GOP Vows to Push Through SCOTUS Hearings as 3 Senators Test Positive for COVID-19, Coronavirus Cases on the Rise Across the Country as NYC Seeks to Shut Down 9 Neighborhoods, ICE Prisoners in Washington Tested for COVID-19 After Exposure from a Guard, Police in Chile Throw Teenager Off Bridge During Anti-Government Protest, Fighting in Disputed Nagorno-Karabakh Region Escalates, Killing at Least One, Guatemala Deports Thousands of Central American Migrants Headed Toward U.S., ICE Erects Billboards with Faces of Immigrants in Pennsylvania, California Wildfires Burn Over 4 Million Acres as Record-Breaking Fires Devastate South America, Court Overturns Extension on Absentee Ballots in Georgia; Groups Sue Texas over Ballot Drop-Off Order, South Carolina Dem Challenger Jaime Harrison Brings Plexiglass Barrier to Debate Lindsey Graham, Federal Judge Enforces Previous Ruling That Census Collection Must Continue Through October, Breonna Taylor Grand Jury Tapes Released as Second Juror Requests Permission to Speak About Case, Protesters at California Governor's Mansion Demand Justice for Sean Monterrosa, Convicted Rapist Harvey Weinstein to Face New Sex Crimes Charges

President Donald Trump has tested positive for COVID-19, throwing the final month of an already unprecedented election season into disarray. What will this latest news mean for the debates and the Supreme Court? And what will happen if President Trump is unable to lead the country? We speak to journalist John Nichols about the line of succession, campaigning in the critical swing state of Wisconsin, and more. We also speak with Naomi Klein, senior correspondent at The Intercept and a professor at Rutgers University.

How will President Trump's revelation that he tested positive for COVID-19 affect the presidential race? Acclaimed journalist, author and activist Naomi Klein warns that the Trump campaign is likely to exploit the news. "We need to be prepared for the president using the fact that he's having to cancel campaign events for two weeks to try to further delegitimize elections," she says.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for COVID-19. The announcement came early Friday morning, hours after Bloomberg News reported that Trump adviser Hope Hicks became ill during Trump's Wednesday night rally in Duluth, Minnesota, and had to be quarantined aboard Air Force One on the return flight to Washington. Hicks went on to test positive for coronavirus early on Thursday, though the White House did not report her illness. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is also getting tested over fears that Trump may have infected him at Tuesday's debate. We speak with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who says Trump and his inner circle regularly flouted safety precautions leading up to his positive COVID-19 test. "The problem with science is that if you try and mess with science, science always wins." We also speak with infectious disease specialist Dr. Monica Gandhi.

Just days after mocking his presidential rival Joe Biden for regularly wearing masks, President Donald Trump has revealed that he and first lady Melania Trump have both tested positive for COVID-19 and are entering 14 days of isolation. For months, Trump has downplayed the severity of the pandemic, which has killed over 200,000 Americans. President Trump is 74, has elevated blood pressure and is over the threshold for obesity — three factors linked to higher morbidity and mortality among COVID-19 patients. For more on the pandemic and Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, we speak with Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Test Positive for Coronavirus, Joe Biden to Receive Coronavirus Test After Tuesday's Debate with President Trump, Trump Continued Public Events After Adviser Hope Hicks Became Ill and Tested Positive for COVID-19, Trump, 74, Faces Greater COVID-19 Morbidity Risk Due to High Blood Pressure and Obesity, Before Testing Positive, Trump Planned Rallies in Wisconsin's Coronavirus "Red Zones", Coronavirus Outbreak Shutters Queens School on First Full Day of In-Person Classes in NYC, Texas Republican Governor Orders Closure of Absentee Ballot Drop-Off Sites, Far-Right Activists Charged over Robocalls Targeting Black Voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania "Election Integrity" Commission Would Give GOP Power to Disrupt Nov. 3 Election, President Trump Disavows White Supremacists After Telling Proud Boys to "Stand By", Federal Officials Ordered to Defend 17-Year-Old Charged with Murdering Protesters , Texas Police Authorized Use of Deadly Force at George Floyd Burial, Secretive Religious Group Deletes All References of Amy Coney Barrett from Website, House Democrats Pass $2.2 Trillion Coronavirus Stimulus Bill, Face Republican Opposition, Dozens of NY Housing Activists Arrested Demanding Halt to Looming Evictions, Thousands Flee Extreme Poverty & Violence in Honduras as Caravan Hopes to Reach U.S., Melania Trump Recorded Dismissing Criticism of Family Separation at Southern Border, Renowned Colombian Historian Campo Elías Galindo Assassinated in His Apartment , Fox News Paid Kimberly Guilfoyle's Former Assistant $4M After Sexual Harassment Complaints

Two years ago, in a story that shocked the world, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul for marriage documents and was never seen again. It was later revealed that Khashoggi — a Saudi insider turned critic and Washington Post columnist — was murdered and dismembered by a team of Saudi agents at the direct order of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. We speak with a friend of Khashoggi and with the director of a new documentary, "Kingdom of Silence," that tracks not only Khashoggi's brutal murder and the rise of MBS, but also the decades-long alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia. "What drew me into this story is Jamal was one of our own," says director Rick Rowley. "When one of our colleagues is killed, it falls on all of us as journalists to try to do what we can to rescue their story from the forces that would impose silence on it."

As India becomes just the second country to hit 6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, we speak to journalist Rana Ayyub in Mumbai, who was recently hospitalized after testing positive for the disease. India's lead pandemic agency says an antibody study suggests more than 60 million people in the country have already been infected with the coronavirus — 10 times the official count but still a small fraction of its population of 1.3 billion. "It doesn't feel like India is even talking about the pandemic," says Ayyub, a global opinions writer for The Washington Post. "More than the fear of the pandemic, people in this country are fearing the massive unemployment and the fact that they are going without food."

Hate Groups Celebrate Trump's Call for Far-Right Extremists to "Stand By", FBI Warns of Far-Right Terrorism as Trump Boosts Hate Group, Ex-Trump Campaign Manager Quits After Arrest on Spousal Abuse Allegations, Commission on Presidential Debates to Change Rules to "Ensure a More Orderly Discussion", Madrid Back on Lockdown as Coronavirus Infections Surge, Peruvian Medical Workers Strike, Demanding Personal Protective Equipment, Trump Plans Rallies in Wisconsin Even as State Becomes Coronavirus Red Zone, U.S. Economy Shrank at Record-Breaking 31.4% Annualized Rate in Second Quarter, Federal Courts Halt Trump Campaign Efforts to Thwart Mail-In Voting, Release of Grand Jury Recordings in Breonna Taylor's Killing Delayed Until Friday, Native American Activists Continue Fight Against Trump's Border Wall in Arizona, Northern California Under New Red Flag Warnings as Record Fires Continue, House Democrats Grill Pharmaceutical Executives over Skyrocketing Drug Prices, India Erupts in Protest over Gang Rape and Murder of Dalit Teenager, Right Livelihood Awards Go to Iranian Lawyer, Nicaraguan Land Defender, Belarusian Activist & U.S. Civil Rights Lawyer

After massive outcry from activists and young voters, debate moderator Chris Wallace questioned President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden about the climate crisis at the first presidential debate. He did not include it in his initial list of debate topics. Kate Aronoff, author and staff writer at The New Republic, says she didn't expect climate change to come up, but was unsurprised by the responses. "We've known for years that Donald Trump denies the science of climate change," she says. "And we know that Joe Biden doesn't support a Green New Deal."

"It's a rigged election," claimed President Trump when he and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden were asked about election integrity during last night's debate as the two men sparred over mail-in voting. Trump ended the debate by calling for poll watchers. We speak with Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who says Trump is promoting unlawful intimidation and voter suppression, and has vowed to go to court to block any attempt to discourage or block people from freely casting their ballots.

During the first presidential debate, former Vice President Joe Biden repeatedly criticized President Trump over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed over 205,000 people in the United States — the highest death toll in the world. Trump mocked Biden for wearing a mask, while claiming that a vaccine would be available within weeks. "It was very bizarre," says Marc Lamont Hill, author and professor of media studies and urban education at Temple University. "The idea of not erring on the side of caution is representative of the entire Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19 crisis."

Donald Trump and Joe Biden were asked about how to address racism during the first presidential debate held in Cleveland. While Biden expressed sympathy with victims of police brutality, President Trump insisted that most violence came from left-wing groups — a false claim ignoring that the vast majority of political violence in the U.S. comes from right-wing extremists, according to the FBI and others. Trump's refusal to reckon with the issue "poses a real and grave threat to Black and Brown people in particular in our country who are often the victims of racial violence," says Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

President Trump refused to condemn white supremacists during the first of three scheduled presidential debates with Joe Biden. When pressed by moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News to disavow far-right extremism, Trump name-checked the Proud Boys and told them to "stand back and stand by," words widely denounced as a tacit endorsement of the violent, white supremacist organization classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. The Proud Boys almost immediately responded by changing its logo online to include the Trump quote. Christian Picciolini, a former neo-Nazi who now leads the Free Radicals Project, a group focused on helping people disengage from violent extremism, says Trump's words were a clear encouragement for "continued violence" from far-right groups. We also speak with Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill, who says Trump's performance at the debate is a continuation of his white supremacist project. "He wants violence in the streets, he wants chaos at the polls, because he wants Americans to feel a sense of unsafety. It's its own kind of diplomatic terrorism," he says.

Trump Refuses to Condemn White Supremacists or Rule Out Post-Election Violence, New York City Coronavirus Infections Surge for First Time in Months, Indian Health Officials Claim 60 Million Coronavirus Infections Nationwide, House Democrats Unveil Pared-Down $2.2 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Bill, Texas Sheriff and Prosecutor Indicted for Evidence Tampering in Javier Ambler Police Killing, Kentucky AG Didn't Recommend Murder Charges for Breonna Taylor's Killers, Trump Plans Pre-Election ICE Raids in U.S. Sanctuary Cities, More Women Detail Forced Sterilizations, Unnecessary Surgeries at Georgia ICE Jail, World Health Organization Workers Accused of Sexually Exploiting Women in DRC, Amnesty International Shuts Indian Offices Amid "Incessant Witch-Hunt" by Modi Government, Mexico Orders Arrest of Soldiers over Disappeared Ayotzinapa Students

Ahead of the first of three presidential debates between President Trump and Joe Biden, we speak with David Cay Johnston, founder and editor-in-chief of DCReport.org, who says the bombshell New York Times report on Trump's taxes highlights the existence of "two income tax systems, separate and unequal." The Times reports that Trump paid no federal income tax in 10 of the past 15 years and just $750 in 2016 and 2017. In a follow-up report, the Times reveals Trump made $427 million in connection to the hit reality TV show "The Apprentice," providing him a financial lifeline as other investments lost money. "People who own their own businesses, like Donald Trump, are under a different system," says Johnston.

In a historic victory for unhoused people, Philadelphia city officials agreed to hand over 50 vacant homes to a community land trust, following months of organizing and protest encampments. We hear from one of the organizers and speak to Philadelphia-based Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, who has written extensively about housing insecurity and says the direct actions there are applicable across the U.S. "This dynamic exists all over the country where you have both empty housing and houseless people, a completely irrational expression of what American capitalism means," Taylor says. The sustained movement in Philadelphia established "a model for what all tenant organizing and activist groups should be taking up, which is occupy the space, occupy the properties and put political pressure on public housing authorities to do their job and house people that are unhoused."

We speak with Vice News correspondent Roberto Ferdman about new body camera footage he obtained from the police raid that killed Breonna Taylor in Louisville in March, which has raised troubling questions about the integrity of the crime scene, and the investigation that followed. "The public deserves more information to understand what we know for sure and what we don't and why things have been presented the way they have been," Ferdman tells Democracy Now!

President Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court could threaten reproductive rights across the U.S., according to Planned Parenthood president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson. Barrett, who once called abortion "always immoral," would give conservatives a decisive 6-3 advantage on the top court if she is confirmed by the Senate, and President Trump has openly promoted her nomination by suggesting she would help overturn the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion in the U.S. Barrett "would be a huge threat to reproductive rights" on the Supreme Court, says McGill Johnson. "Reproductive healthcare is healthcare. And the most immediate threat that we are facing in the time of a pandemic is the fact that the ACA, which has been one of the biggest advancements for women's health across the board, is also under attack."

As President Trump nominates conservative federal judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat, we look at how an emboldened 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court could dramatically loosen gun laws, hurt immigrant communities and play a possibly central role in deciding a close presidential election. "Her religious conservatism is not what's extreme about her. It's her actual judicial opinions," says Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation. "She does not use her religion to guide her through her decisions; she uses her extremist conservative views."

In a bombshell report a month before November's presidential election, The New York Times reveals Donald Trump paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years, and just $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017. "We don't have to just take his word for the fact that he paid lots of taxes. We can see in the documents that he didn't," says Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation who has written about the legal fight over Trump's tax returns. "If those documents are wrong, Donald Trump can release his taxes and show us what he claims is the real truth."