US election live updates: Biden to lay out pandemic response plan

• Democratic candidate Joe Biden set to give a speech on the coronavirus on Wednesday from Delaware.

• President Donald Trump holds call with Jewish leaders day after UAE, Bahrain, Israel deal signings.

• Vice President Mike Pence goes to Ohio, where polls show close race, despite Trump’s eight-point 2016 victory.

• Biden ramps up healthcare ads day after Trump confronted on Obamacare at town hall.

• Jill Biden heads to New Hampshire and Ivanka Trump goes to Arizona, with 48 days until November 3.

Here are the latest updates:

Wednesday, September 16

15:15 ET – Donor says some Trump allies fear he is ‘overconfident’ on debate

A prominent Republican donor who supports Trump has said some in Trump’s orbit are worried he’s “overconfident” on the upcoming debates against Democrat Joe Biden.

Dan Eberhart says Trump came off as a “little coarse” when confronted by undecided voters at Tuesday’s town hall in Philadelphia, according to the Associated Press news agency. 

Eberhart said: “Frankly, I expected President Trump to be better prepared to cajole undecided voters over to his side of the fence at the town hall.”

He added: “President Trump seemed unaware that he needed to downshift his rhetoric to something more moderate being as how his audience was undecided voters and not attendees of one of his rallies”.

14:45 ET – The Take podcast: How will Black women voters affect the election?

Biden kept his vow of choosing a woman as his running mate, selecting Senator Kamala Harris.

Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, is the first Black woman on a major party ticket in US history. 

This episode of Al Jazeera’s The Take podcast explores the power of Black women voters – one of the most important slices of the American electorate in deciding who takes the White House.

14:30 ET – Romney says Senate Biden probe ‘not legitimate role of government’

Senator Mitt Romney has sharply criticised a Republican investigation Biden’s son, saying it’s “not the legitimate role of government” to try and damage political opponents. 

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson has said the panel will issue a report on Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine before the November election. Johnson, a close ally of President Donald Trump, is leading the investigation into Burisma, a gas company in Ukraine that paid Hunter Biden to serve as a board member while Joe Biden was vice president. 

Johnson insists that the investigation is not designed to hurt Biden. Democrats on Wednesday introduced a resolution to end the probe. 

Romney, the former 2012 Republican presidential candidate, has repeatedly criticised the probe, saying at a committee meeting on Wednesday that the probe from the “outset had the earmarks of a political exercise”.

14:15 ET – White House sees decision ‘in short order’ on TikTok

The Trump administration will make a decision soon on a proposed deal for Oracle to become a “trusted technology provider” for the US operations of China’s social media platform TikTok, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has said.

“We’ll have a decision here in short order,” McEnany said. “I don’t want to get ahead of the president but obviously we care deeply about protecting the data and security of American citizens.”

Marco Rubio and five other Republican senators have called on the Trump administration to reject the deal if ties to Chinese owner Bytedance remain.

14:00 ET – Top Trump health officials say they are not aware of new health plan

Three top Trump administration health officials have said they are not aware of a Trump health care plan that would replace the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, as the president and his aides have said a new plan would soon be announced. 

Trump has sought to overturn the Affordable Care Act, but has not introduced a plan that would replace it.

Testifying before a senate committee, Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response said they were not aware of the new health plan the president has referenced. The officials all said developing such a plan was not part of their primary responsibilities. 

Kayleigh McEnany just told @kaitlancollins to “come work at the White House” in response to her questioning on who’s working on the Trump health care plan.

Isn’t the entire purpose of the WH briefing to find out more about what’s going with WH policy?

— Chris Johnson (@chrisjohnson82) September 16, 2020

When asked who was working on the new plan, if the top health officials in the administration are not, White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany said “We have a wide array of people working on it”. 

When pushed, she responded: “I’m not going to give you a readout of what our health care plan looks like and who’s working on it. If you want to know come work here at the White House”.

13:30 ET – Biden receives virtual coronavirus briefing

Joe Biden is receiving a virtual briefing from a former US surgeon general and a collection of health experts on how best to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Biden’s campaign created a virtual studio that connected the former vice president via video with former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and six other experts at a theater in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. Biden will give a speech on the topic later in the day.

David Kessler, board chairman and director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, stressed for Biden the important of requirements increasing “universal masking” but also increased testing and contact tracing. He suggested doing so could save thousands of lives and ultimately be more effective between now and early next year as vaccines are being developed.

13:00 ET – CDC director denies agency altered publications on coronavirus

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told Senate lawmakers that his agency has not altered its scientific publications on the coronavirus.

That comes despite pressure from Trump officials who allege the agency has worked against the re-election of Trump.

Dr Robert Redfield testified that the CDC’s “scientific integrity … has not been compromised and it will not be compromised under my watch.”

Last week news outlets reported that Michael Caputo, a Health and Human Services Department political appointee, tried to gain editorial control over CDC’s weekly scientific report. In a separate online video last week, Caputo reportedly said some CDC scientists constituted a “resistance unit” conspiring against the Trump administration.

12:30 ET – Report: Group pays teenagers to pump out pro-Trump disinformation on social media

An affiliate of a prominent conservative youth organisation based in Arizona is paying teenagers, including minors, to pump out pro-Trump disinformation on social media, according to a Washington Post report. 

The operation is similar to those used by bots to send out spam-like messages, but is carried out by people paid to use their own accounts, according to the newspaper. It is being bankrolled by Turning Point Action, which is an affiliate of Turning Point USA, a prominent conservative youth organisation. The posts to do not reveal any connection to the group.

The Post reported the operation had generated thousands of posts over summer on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, in what experts said was one of the most ambitious domestic election influence campaigns of this election cycle.

Twitter and Facebook suspended several accounts after being contacted by the newspaper, meanwhile, a field director for Turning Point Action said the comparison to a troll farm was a “gross mischaracterisation”, describing the the operation as “sincere political activism conducted by real people who passionately hold the beliefs they describe online, not an anonymous troll farm in Russia.”

12:00 ET – Billionaire Sheldon Adelson plans to spend up to $50m to support Trump

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is planning a spending spree that could total up to $50 million to help Trump beat Biden, according to CNBC. 

A source told CNBC that Adelson was currently in touch with Republican officials over where to best deploy the money, amid reports that Trump’s war chest is lacking following a free-spending approach early in the campaign.

Billionaire Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, said earlier this week that he would spend $100 million to help Biden win Florida, a state considered essential to any path to victory for Trump.

11:30 ET – Democrat poised to become US highest ranking transgender elected official

Sarah McBride, a transgender rights activist, is set to become the country’s highest ranking openly transgender elected official after winning the primary for a State Senate seat in Delaware , according to the New York Times. 

McBride, 30, is expected to easily win during the general election in November.  

“Right now in America, we are seeing voices that for so long were pushed to the margins and to the shadows finally being heard,” she told the newspaper.  

Biden wrote the forward to McBride’s 2018 book, which detailed her work for transgender rights.

Tonight sends a powerful signal that candidates like me can win.

Everyone deserves to see themselves in government, to follow their dreams, and to be accepted by their community.

I will never take for granted the honor of carrying that mantle. https://t.co/B9ScJXddkF

— Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) September 16, 2020

11:00 ET – Twitter labels Biden video tweeted by Trump ‘manipulated media’

Twitter has labeled a video shared twice by US President Donald Trump of Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden as “manipulated media”.

The video, which appeared to show Biden playing rap group NWA’s song, “F— tha Police,” now displays a warning that links to collated tweets showing the actual event, where Biden pulled out his phone to play Luis Fonsi’s hit “Despacito” at a Hispanic Heritage Month event in Florida after being introduced by Fonsi.

Trump has cast himself as a “law-and-order” president during the campaign, in response to widespread protests, most of them peaceful, following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis. He tweeted with the edited video: “What is this all about?”

A Twitter spokeswoman said the video, which garnered more than 2.8 million views, was labeled based on its synthetic and manipulated media policy. The United Spot, self-described as making satirical videos, posted the original tweet.

10:30 ET – Delaware: Political firebrand wins Republican primary Senate seat

Political newcomer and firebrand Lauren Witzke, who campaigned on halting US immigration for 10 years, has won the Republican US Senate primary in Delaware, defeating the party’s endorsed candidate.

In November, Witzke will challenge incumbent Senator Chris Coons, who easily won the Democratic primary and is expected to win handily in the deeply blue state. 

Witzke, who worked as an Iowa field operator for President Donald Trump last year, defeated attorney James DeMartino, a former marine who has twice run unsuccessfully for the legislative seat held by Delaware’s Democratic state House speaker.

Witzke has tried to distance herself from accusations by some opponents that she supports QAnon. The far-right conspiracy theory centres on an alleged anonymous, high-ranking government official known as “Q”, who shares information about “deep state” enemies of Trump often tied to child sex trafficking.

America First beat the GOP establishment tonight! Lets get ready take it to Chris Coons next!!

Thank you all so much for your support!

Let’s Make America Great Again! 🇺🇲 pic.twitter.com/RqUYjWgfL9

— Lauren Witzke for U.S. Senate (@LaurenWitzkeDE) September 16, 2020

10:00 ET – Biden campaign releases new healthcare advertisements 

The Biden campaign has said it is increasing spending in battleground states, including two new advertisements that focus on healthcare.

Two of the advertisements feature parents, a mother in Texas and a father in Arizona, who recount their experience having a child with a pre-existing condition. 

The advertisements come after Trump was confronted at a Tuesday town hall over the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, which Trump has repeatedly sought to repeal, without presenting an alternative plan. 

https://t.co/J3cxYpbRlZ

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) September 16, 2020

09:30 ET – Biden to deliver speech on COVID-19 vaccine

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will lay out on how he plans to develop and distribute a safe coronavirus vaccine, seeking to draw a contrast with Trump’s approach to combating the pandemic.

Biden will deliver remarks in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, after being briefed by public health experts on the efforts to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Biden has continually attacked what he describes as Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic. While he has said he wants a vaccine as soon as safely possible, he has questioned whether Trump is pressuring drug safety agencies to fast-track an inoculant before the November 3 election. 

At a Philadelphia town hall on Tuesday, Trump again asserted a vaccine could be available within a month, despite health experts saying such a timeline is extremely unlikely.

09:00 ET – White House seeks to clarify Trump ‘herd mentality’ statement

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany has sought to clarify statements made by Trump during a Tuesday town hall in which he said the virus would go away over a period of time as “herd mentality” would develop.

McEnany, in an interview on Fox News, said Trump was referring to “herd immunity”. 

“Well, the term ‘herd immunity’ is a medical term which means that when you have a certain percentage of a population with antibodies, you have herd immunity,” McEnany said. “It can be done via a vaccine or via prior illness that you develop the antibodies.”

“What the president said very clearly there is that a vaccine gets you there quickest,” she said.

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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the US elections. This is Joseph Stepansky.

Read all the updates from yesterday (September 15) here.