This Day in History | 1871

Flames engulf in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary. The result is a devastating two-day fire that kills more than 200 people.  The blaze also destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves 100,000 homeless and causes roughly $4 billion (in 2020 dollar$) in damages.

Good Morning Middle Americans, 

VP Mike Pence showed why he’s the ultimate wing man and may be the key to Trump’s victory. 

None of the polls look particularly good for the president right now. I’m not talking about the national polls, I’m talking about specific battleground state polls. See here. A recent report in the Atlantic says “polls that ask respondents about their interest in the election—often a predictor of turnout—show that Republicans are matching Democrats in intensity, but the stark divide between when and how the parties’ supporters plan to vote is creating uncertainty about turnout, and the outcome.”

Meanwhile, The well-respected Cook-Political Report says that ”new data from the past few months shows Republicans have swamped Democrats in adding new voters to the rolls, a dramatic GOP improvement over 2016, even if new registrations have lagged 2016 rates across the board.” Trump might be losing right now but he’s winning with voter registration. And that’s huge. 

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it has asked federal regulators to authorize its antibody treatment for Covid-19 for emergency use.  In Alaska’s annual battle of heavyweights, a salmon-chomping bruin named 747 – like the jetliner – has emerged as the most fabulously fat.

Pence, Harris Spar Over COVID-19 in Vice Presidential Debate

(AP) — Trading barbs through plexiglass shields, Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Kamala Harris turned the only vice presidential debate of 2020 into a dissection of the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with Harris labeling it “the greatest failure of any presidential administration.”

Pence, who leads the president’s coronavirus task force, acknowledged that “our nation’s gone through a very challenging time this year,” yet vigorously defended the administration’s overall response to a pandemic that has killed more than 210,000 Americans.

The meeting, which was far more civil than last week’s chaotic faceoff between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, unfolded against an outbreak of coronavirus now hitting the highest levels of the U.S. government. Trump spent three days at the hospital before returning to the White House on Monday, and more than a dozen White House and Pentagon officials are also infected, forcing even more into quarantine.

With less than four weeks before Election Day, the debate was one of the final opportunities for Trump and Pence to reset a contest that could be slipping away. They’re hoping to move the campaign’s focus away from the virus, but the president’s infection — and his downplaying of the consequences — are making that challenging.

Read more here

Trump Edges Back Into Campaign Spotlight

(Reuters) – President Donald Trump, still confined to the White House where he is being treated for COVID-19, planned more steps on Thursday to try to reinvigorate a re-election campaign hit hard by his handling of the pandemic.

Trump is scheduled to appear in his first TV interview since revealing last Friday he had contracted COVID-19. Fox Business Network said the interview would air on Thursday after 8 a.m. (1200 GMT).

Itching to get back out on the campaign trail since leaving a military hospital on Monday, Trump has called off negotiations with Congress for a fresh round of stimulus for the ailing economy and declared in a video that his illness was “a blessing from God.”

National opinion polls show Trump trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden ahead of the November election, with Biden also showing an advantage in battleground states critical to winning the Electoral College.

Trump has faced criticism for underestimating the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 210,000 Americans and thrown millions out of work. Even since revealing his own illness on Friday, Trump has downplayed the respiratory disease’s dangers and been censured by social media platforms for spreading misinformation about it.

Find out more here

Regeneron Seeks FDA Emergency Clearance for Covid-19 Therapy

(Bloomberg) – Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it has asked federal regulators to authorize its antibody treatment for Covid-19 for emergency use.

President Donald Trump received the antibody cocktail last Friday under a compassionate use program after becoming sick with the coronavirus. Trump hailed Regeneron’s treatment in a video posted on Twitter Wednesday, saying he would authorize its emergency use and make it available to Americans for free.

Regeneron shares gained 3.5% in late trading in New York after the Trump video was posted.

Get the latest here

Meet “747”: America’s Fattest Bear

(New York Post) –  ANCHORAGE – In Alaska’s annual battle of heavyweights, a salmon-chomping bruin named 747 – like the jetliner – has emerged as the most fabulously fat.

The bear, one of more than 2,200 brown bears roaming Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, was victorious on Tuesday after a week of frenzied online voting in what has become an international sensation: Fat Bear Week.

Winner 747 was a worthy champion, the park said in a statement. “This year he really packed on the pounds, looking like he was fat enough to hibernate in July and yet continuing to eat until his belly seemed to drag along the ground by late September,” the park said.

See “747” Here