Kim Gray Wants to Bring Transparency and Community Back to Richmond’s Government

Mayoral candidate Kim Gray is running to increase transparency in Richmond’s government, return to a community-based planning model, and improve Richmond’s schools. Her resume includes jobs for two former governors, eight years as a school board member, and four years as council member of Richmond’s Second District. Her political roots run to her childhood.

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Commentary: Pelosi Holds Millions of Small Businesses Hostage While Working Families Struggle

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when a lot less was known about the virus and how to counter it, and while the nation was still ramping up production of testing and hospital resources including ventilators needed, 25 million jobs were lost across the country, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Since labor markets bottomed in April, 13.8 million jobs have been recovered, as states have begun steadily reopening in the months since.

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Outbreak in the NFL: Three Tennessee Titans Players, Five Personnel Test Positive for COVID-19

The Tennessee Titans suspended in-person activities through Friday after the NFL says three Titans players and five personnel tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the first COVID-19 outbreak of the NFL season in Week 4.

The outbreak threatened to jeopardize the Titans’ game this weekend against the Pittsburgh Steelers and posed the first significant in-season test to the league’s coronavirus protocols.

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U.S. Intel Flagged Alleged Clinton Campaign Plan to Link Trump to Russian Hacking, Intel Chief Says

U.S. intelligence officials submitted an investigative referral to the FBI in September 2016 regarding an alleged plan by Hillary Clinton to link Donald Trump to Russia’s election interference efforts, according to John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence.

Ratcliffe noted in the letter, which he sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, that U.S. intelligence is not certain whether the allegation underlying the referral was based on fabrications from Russian intelligence agencies.

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Commentary: Implicit Bias Training Is a Total Waste of Taxpayer Dollars

Police officers in a majority of states are now mandated to receive “implicit bias training,” where they are informed they are subconsciously racist and must admit to and deliberately overcome their racism.

The trainings, which exploded in popularity following the Ferguson riots in 2014, directly respond to accusations that racist police officers are shooting unarmed African Americans. Following the death of George Floyd, multiple states, including Michigan, New Jersey, and Texas, joined the list of states mandating the training for all their officers.

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FBI Source’s Claim About Michael Flynn Was Inaccurate, Special Agent Said

The FBI’s lead agent on its investigation of Michael Flynn told prosecutors that a confidential source’s allegation about an incident involving the former national security adviser in 2014 was likely false, according to a government document.

Special Agent William Barnett said in an interview with a federal prosecutor on Sept. 17 that the Crossfire Hurricane team obtained the information about Flynn from a confidential human source (CHS) who provided information regarding Carter Page.

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Poll: Support for School Choice Increases by 10 Percentage Points in Four Months

A RealClear Opinion Research poll of 2,020 registered voters in August saw a 10-point increase in support of school choice policies since its last poll in April, from 67 percent to 77 percent.

The American Federation for Children describes school choice as the right for parents to use the tax dollars designated for their child’s education in a school of their choice. The tax dollars would follow the child, not be tied to a nearby school system. Funding could be used for public, private, charter, or homeschool education, whichever method the parents believes provides the best learning environment for their child.

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Christian Group Raises $500K+ for Kenosha Shooter Kyle Rittenhouse

A Christian crowdfunding site has raised over half a million dollars to help 17 year-old Kenosha, Wisconsin, shooter Kyle Rittenhouse with legal fees, New York Post reports.

The GiveSendGo site, created shortly after Rittenhouse shot three Black Lives Matter protesters, and left two dead during a violent night of unrest in Kenosha on Aug. 25. Sponsored by a group called “Friends of the Rittenhouse family,” based in Atlanta, Georgia, set an initial goal of $500,00 but had surpassed that by Monday, with nearly $523,000 in contributions.

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Court Pick Barrett Visits Senate Ahead of Confirmation Fight

President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a day of meetings with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other pivotal Republican senators in preparation for her fast-track confirmation before the Nov. 3 election.

Joined by Vice President Mike Pence, McConnell said he was glad to welcome Barrett and “get the process started” on her confirmation. But the Republican leader declined to answer questions about whether the judge should recuse herself if legal challenges to the election between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden land at the high court.

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Debate Takeaways: Pugilist Trump Runs Rings Around Debate Opponents Biden and Wallace

After more than a year of circling each other, Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden met on the debate stage Tuesday night in Ohio.

The 74-year-old president and the 77-year-old former vice president are similar in age, and they share a mutual dislike. But they differ starkly in style and substance. All of that was evident from the outset on the Cleveland stage.

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Joe Biden Staffer Suggests Orthodox Catholics, Jews and Muslims Shouldn’t Be on Supreme Court

One of Joe Biden’s staffers suggested Monday that Orthodox Catholics, Jews, and Muslims should be disqualified from serving on the Supreme Court due to their “intolerant” views.

Biden campaign Deputy Data Director Nikitha Rai criticized Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s religious views in a Twitter conversation Monday night with Brookings Institute Senior Fellow Shadi Hamid.

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Kuwait Ruler, Longtime Diplomat Sheikh Sabah, Dies at Age 91

Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the ruler of Kuwait who drew on his decades as the oil-rich nation’s top diplomat to push for closer ties to Iraq after the 1990 Gulf War and solutions to other regional crises, died Tuesday. He was 91.

In a Middle East replete with elderly rulers, Sheikh Sabah stood out for his efforts at pushing for diplomacy to resolve a bitter dispute between Qatar and other Arab nations that continues to this day.

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Biden’s Texas Political Director Implicated in Massive Mail-In Ballot Harvesting Scheme in Harris County

A Biden Campaign operative in Texas is attempting to rig the 2020 election with the help of others in a massive ballot harvesting scheme, according to two private investigators who testified under oath that they have “video evidence, documentation and witnesses” to prove it. With the help of mass mail-in ballots, the illegal ballot harvesting operation could harvest 700,000 ballots, one Harris County Democrat operative allegedly bragged.

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Biden Doesn’t Name Single Law Enforcement Group That Supports Him

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden didn’t name a single law enforcement group or agency that has endorsed him during the presidential debate Tuesday night.

Biden chose not to respond to the question posed by President Donald Trump during a discussion on law and order. Trump noted that several law enforcement groups have endorsed his reelection campaign.

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TRUMPDATE: Latest From the Trump Team Virginia Campaign for September 30

Welcome to the Wednesday edition of our daily Virginia Trump campaign update! We will provide our readers with daily updates on the Trump Virginia campaign from today to November 3 (and after…if need be!).

It’s officially 34 days until the election on November 3 – and 31 days until early voting in Virginia closes. The deadline to register to vote in time for the 2020 election is October 13.

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VCU Faculty Are Considering Requiring Courses on Racism

Faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) are currently considering making a change to the university’s general education requirements by adding a courses on racism.

The classes would be required for all freshman and grouped under the subject diversities of human experiences, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

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Virginia Department of Health Launches New Pandemic Metrics Dashboard

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) on Monday launched a new pandemic metrics dashboard with more specific, aggregated data to show where COVID-19 is spreading in Virginia’s different regions and any changes occurring over time. 

The new dashboard will be updated weekly and features three different tabs: About the Data, Daily Region Metrics, Weekly Transmission Extent. Additionally, School Metrics from the CDC are included within the dashboard.  

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President of Preserve America Chris LaCivita Talks About His Super PAC and Defining Joe Biden

Tuesday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed political consultant Chris LaCivita to the show to discuss his super PAC Preserve America and their focus on moving the needle for President Trump in the upcoming election.

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Blue Steal: Steve Bannon Focuses on Pennsylvania and Florida and Urges the Trump Campaign to Get on the Offensive

Tuesday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed political figure and strategist Steve Bannon to the show to discuss the Trump campaign’s response to the Trump tax hit pieces and that his focus was now on the election in Pennsylvania and Florida.

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Portsmouth NAACP Tries Again to File Charges Against Council Members Moody, Psimas

The Portsmouth Magistrate has again rebuffed Portsmouth NAACP leaders in attempts to file charges against Portsmouth council members Bill Moody and Elizabeth Psimas. NAACP branch President James Boyd and Vice President Louie Gibbs went to the magistrate on Friday to present emails that they said showed Moody and Psimas committing a misdemeanor violation of the city charter.

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Richmond Mayor Proposes ‘Racially Equitable’ Affordable Housing Plan

Richmond Mayor Levi Stoney proposed a “racially equitable” affordable housing plan on Tuesday.
The mayor will give a majority of the city-owned land parcels to Maggie Walker Community Land Trust. The organization’s mission statement is “to foster racially equitable communities” within their constructed affordable housing.

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Fredericksburg Slave Auction Block Set to be Displayed in Museum

A 176-year-old stone block that was used for slave auctions in Virginia will go on display at the Fredericksburg Area Museum, with signs explaining the context of recent protests against racial injustice that left it covered in graffiti.

The knee-high stone block sat for nearly two centuries in downtown Fredericksburg until the city removed it recently. Now it’s on loan to the museum, which will put in on display by mid-November, with the graffiti still intact, The Free Lance-Star reported Sunday.

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Commentary: The Hard Left Believes Its Mission is so Critical That Its Noble Ends Can Justify All Means

There was once a tradition of Democratic liberalism. But that wing of the Democratic Party no longer exists and died sometime in the 1990s. Old-style liberalism has been absorbed by Progressivism at best and unapologetic socialism at worst—in a journey on the supposedly predetermined arc of history that bends toward 1984.

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Trump Campaign Sues to Block Mail-in Expansions in North Carolina

President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee on Saturday filed suit to prevent North Carolina officials from adopting measures that would allow a greater number of absentee ballots to be counted in November.

The State Board of Elections said Tuesday that it would allow November ballots with incomplete information to be fixed without requiring the voter to redo their ballot, leading Republicans to file suit arguing that the system would lead to “fraud, coercion, theft, and otherwise illegitimate voting,” the Associated Press reported.

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Loudon County Does The Obama Apology Tour Rendition on Race

Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) issued an apology for operating segregated schools and for resisting efforts to integrate their schools for over a decade after the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education that made segregated schools illegal. The apology is part of the district’s “Action Plans to Combat Systemic Racism.” The apology coincides with the 57th anniversary of the 1963 march where Martin Luther King, Jr. declared, “I have a dream.”

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Amazon to Kick Off Holiday Shopping with October Prime Day

Amazon is aiming to kickstart the holiday shopping season early this year.

The company is holding its annual Prime Day over two days in October this year, after the pandemic forced it to postpone the sales event from July. It’s the first time Prime Day is being held in the fall, and Amazon is positioning it as a way to get people to start their holiday shopping.

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Trump, Biden Prepare to Debate Tuesday as National Tensions Rise

In an election year like no other, the first debate between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, could be a pivotal moment in a race that has remained stubbornly unchanged in the face of historic tumult.

The Tuesday night debate will offer a massive platform for Trump and Biden to outline their starkly different visions for a country facing multiple crises, including racial justice protests and a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans and cost millions of jobs.

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Federal Judge Blocks TikTok Ban, Giving Chinese App an Opening to Settle Deal with Oracle

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to block TikTok Sunday, giving the Chinese social media platform an opportunity to forge a deal with Oracle.

The decision gives TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, more time to approve a deal with Oracle and Walmart, media reports show. Judge Carl Nichols’s decision came hours before President Donald Trump’s ban of the video-streaming app was expected to take place.

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Free Speech Group Warns University After it Allowed Black Lives Matter Protest but Banned Other Gatherings

A free speech advocacy group has sent two letters to East Carolina University after the public college banned gatherings of more than 50 students, but allowed a Black Lives Matter protest on campus.

Southeastern Legal Foundation sent a letter to the North Carolina public university on September 16 seeking information on its enforcement of its coronavirus policies. After receiving no response, the public interest law group sent a follow-up letter on September 24.

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Commentary: The Renewable Fuel Standard is not ‘Pro-Farmer’

With the election around the corner, the D.C. swamp is hard at work.  Various special interests are trying to make their pet issue look like an election asset or liability.  One interest group working overtime is the biofuel lobby.  The federal Renewable Fuel Standard – or RFS – is often falsely labeled as a “pro-farmer” energy policy that helps the Heartland.

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TRUMPDATE: Latest From the Trump Team Virginia Campaign for September 29

Welcome to the Tuesday edition of our daily Virginia Trump campaign update! We will provide our readers with daily updates on the Trump Virginia campaign from today to November 3 (and after…if need be!).

It’s officially 35 days until the election on November 3 – and 33 days until early voting in Virginia closes. The deadline to register to vote in time for the 2020 election is October 13.

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Rep. Ilhan Omar Linked to Cash-for-Ballots Voter Fraud Scheme in Minneapolis

U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has been linked to a massive illegal vote-buying scheme in an elderly community in her heavily Somali district in Minneapolis. The illegal ballot harvesting operation is just the latest in a growing list of federal crimes the self-avowed democratic socialist is alleged to have committed in recent years, including marrying her brother to commit immigration fraud and student loan fraud.

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Former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore on Barrett: Confirm Now!

In an interview with The Virginia Star, Kilgore shared that Barrett’s nomination was a long time coming.

“A lot of us were looking to the President, hoping he would nominate her last time instead of Kavanaugh [in 2018]. She carried herself so well during her 2017 hearing for the 7th Circuit Court, and she was a former clerk for Justice Scalia. She is a favorite justice for many conservatives throughout the nation.”

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Vote Fraud Hits Virginia as Hundreds of Voters Receive Multiple Ballots

Almost 1,400 Virginia voters have recently received duplicate absentee ballots in the mail because of printing errors.

So far, voters in three jurisdictions – Fairfax and Henrico counties as well as the City of Richmond – have reportedly received duplicates ballots as the November 3rd election quickly approaches.

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Pence Stumps Virginia: ‘It’s a Battleground State’

Donald Trump’s Senior Campaign Advisor John Pence, nephew to Vice President Mike Pence, visited Virginia last Saturday for two events encouraging citizens to vote.
The “Get Out and Vote” trail made stops in Amelia County and Fluvanna County, following President Trump’s Friday night rally in Newport News.

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Carol Swain Commentary: Critical Race Theory and the Decline of American Justice

Is racism in the DNA of white people, and is it a permanent part of American society? Critical race theorists argue that American society is structured to give white people undeserved advantages over people of color. They say people who look like me (Black) are victims. We are supposedly powerless to free ourselves from systemic racism, institutional structures, and cultural stereotypes that keep us in bondage. Systemic racism permeates every facet of our lives, including institutions and laws. The only hope is for whites to become “woke,” or conscious, of their racism and commit themselves to becoming antiracist. So, where did we get these ideas that now undergird the diversity, equity, and inclusion industry that rests on top of existing affirmative action programs that have been around since the mid-1960s?

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Virginia Society of Human Life Fights Potential Right-To-Abortion Amendment

Delegate Kathy Byron (R-Lynchburg) gave an insider’s view of Virginia right-to-life politics at a Zoom fundraiser for the Virginia Society of Human Life (VSHL) on Saturday evening. 100 people tuned in to the event, filling it to capacity. The fundraiser is part of a broader effort within the VSHL to motivate voters for the November election and raise awareness of a likely proposed amendment to Virginia’s constitution coming in 2021.

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Commentary: While Trump Surges, Biden Hides

Former Vice President Joe Biden must believe he is safely in the lead against President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, as his campaign took the day off on Sept. 24 with no appearances by either Biden or his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) — the ninth such break this month alone.

Does Biden think he can win without aggressively campaigning?

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Virginians to Decide Gerrymandering Amendment

An anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment that would change the way legislative districts are drawn in Virginia will be decided on the ballot.

The amendment is intended to prevent gerrymandering by establishing a 16-person bipartisan redistricting commission that would propose redistricting plans to the General Assembly. The General Assembly would be allowed to approve or decline the proposals, but would not be allowed to offer any amendments.

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The New York Times Claims It Has Obtained President Trump’s Tax Returns, Trump Organization Attorney Says ‘The Facts Appear to be Inaccurate’

The New York Times published a lengthy report over the weekend based, they say, on tax documents they obtained from “sources.”

Breitbart News reports that The Times “found no evidence of any links to Russia,” as has been consistently claimed by multiple news outlets over the course of the Trump’s term in office. However, they add that the documents do show the extent of the entrepreneur’s Russia connections are limited to the 2001 Miss Universe pageant held in Moscow – which were “the most profitable Miss Universe during Mr. Trump’s time as co-owner, and that it generated a personal payday of $2.3 million.”

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Commentary: Barrett Will Sail Through Confirmation

As I write, President Trump has just confirmed what the rumor mill has been disgorging with increasing confidence over the last few days: Judge Amy Coney Barrett is his pick to replace the feminist icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died at 87 a little over a week ago, as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Commentary: Breaking the Administrative State Key to a Successful Second Term

President Trump, the great red pill for American society, has finally brought to the surface what has been simmering beneath for over a century.

Lost in the shuffle of this week’s breaking news is something Attorney General Bill Barr said last week in a speech calling out the dangers of the bureaucracy, even within his own department.

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More Than 300 People from 29 States Arrested for Crimes During ‘Mostly Peaceful’ Protests

The Daily Caller reports more than 300 people in 29 states and Washington D.C. have been charged with crimes  including civil disorder, damaging federal property and attempted murder in connection with the nationwide demonstrations, the Justice Department said in a Thursday statement.

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Berkeley to Become First City in the Country to Ban Unhealthy Food in Supermarket Check-Out Lanes

Berkeley, California next year will implement a first-in-the-nation ban on junk food in supermarket checkout aisles, per a regulation passed this week by the city council. 

The Healthy Checkout Ordinance seeks to “eliminate the encouragement of unplanned purchases of unhealthy foods and beverages” that proliferate at supermarket checkouts.

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Trump Campaign Senior Advisor Brad Parscale Hospitalized

Police were called to the Florida home of Brad Parscale Sunday after the well-known Trump campaign operative allegedly threatened to harm himself.

Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Karen Dietrich told The Sun Sentinel that the “encounter” was brief and without additional incident.

“We went out and it was very short. We went and got him help,” the police chief said.

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Senator Lindsey Graham Teases Bombshell Regarding FBI’s Trump Probe

Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham provided a slew of updates about the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation into Crossfire Hurricane on Sunday and teased “damning” revelations that he said will soon be made public.

“There’s a day of reckoning,” Graham said in an interview on Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures.”

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Commentary: The Case for ‘Jefferson’ and ‘Greater Idaho’

The U.S. House of Representatives in June passed a bill in favor of statehood for the District of Columbia. In response, historian Nicole Hemmer wrote, “should Joe Biden win the presidency and bring with him majorities in the House and Senate, he should make statehood for D.C.—and for Puerto Rico—a priority for his first 100 days in office.” Also in June, The New Republic published an opinion column stating “D.C. Statehood Is a Test of Biden’s Political Courage.”

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TRUMPDATE: Latest from the Trump Virginia Campaign for September 28

Welcome to the Monday edition of our daily Virginia Trump campaign update! We will provide our readers with daily updates on the Trump Virginia campaign from today to November 3 (and after…if need be!).

It’s officially 36 days until the election on November 3 – and one day until President Trump and Joe Biden square off in the first presidential debate. Chris Wallace of Fox News will be moderating.

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