Week of first presidential debate begins: US election live news

• President Donald Trump on Monday will give remarks on the coronavirus testing strategy as he and challenger Joe Biden prepare for Tuesday’s debate.
• Senator Kamala Harris, the vice presidential candidate, is in North Carolina to address the Republican push to confirm a new Supreme Court justice.
• A report on Trump’s taxes may tarnish his image as a successful businessman.
• Jill Biden will visit Wisconsin, a battleground state that has received special attention from both candidates, with 36 days until November 3.

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

Here are the latest updates:

Monday, September 28:

10:00 ET – Pelosi prepares Dems for possible House decision on election: Report

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been preparing Democrats for a scenario where neither Biden nor Trump wins an outright Electoral College victory in November, which would send the outcome of the election to the House of Representatives, according to a Politico report.

In the rare event that both candidates receive 269 Electoral College votes, each state delegation in the chamber would cast a single vote to determine the winner. While Democrats have a majority in the House, Republicans control 26 delegations, while Democrats control 22, according to Politico.

In a Sunday letter to House Democrats, Pelosi urged them to consider that the chamber might be pulled into deciding who is president as they determine where to focus resources on winning seats in November, according to the news site.

According to the constitution, the winner of the presidential election is not officially chosen until Congress certifies the Electoral College tally on January 6, after new members are sworn in. That means any changes in seat could affect the balance of state delegations per party.

09:30 ET – Supreme Court nominee Barrett readies on Capitol Hill meetings

Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, will begin meeting with senators this week as Republicans push ahead with a rapid Senate confirmation process ahead of November’s presidential election over the objections of Democrats.

Trump on Saturday announced Barrett, 48, as his selection to replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on September 18 at the age of 87.  Barrett’s confirmation by the Senate would result in a 6-3 conservative majority on the court.

Barrett is set to start meeting with senators ahead of a multi-day confirmation hearing scheduled to begin on October 12, when she will face questions about her judicial philosophy and approach to the law.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who chairs the committee, told Fox News on Sunday the panel will likely vote on the nomination on October 22, setting up a final vote on the Senate floor by the end of the month.

09:00 ET – Trump Jr says tax report paints ‘selective picture’

Trump’s son on Monday accused the New York Times of publishing a “selective picture” of his father’s taxes in its explosive investigative report.

“Of course the New York Times does this, they put out a selective picture of all of these things the day before the debate to try to give someone like Joe Biden an attack line,” Donald Trump Jr told Fox News, referring to the upcoming debate between the president and his Democratic rival on Tuesday.

The New York Times on Sunday reported Trump paid just $750 in federal income tax in both 2016 and 2017, and nothing at all in 10 of the 15 previous years largely because he lost so much more money than he made. The paper said it had acquired more than 20 years’ worth of tax documents.

“It doesn’t include so many of the things that he’s been paying taxes on forever as he’s also putting thousands and thousands of people to work on an annual basis,” Trump Jr said. “People don’t understand what goes into a business.”

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Read all the updates from Friday, (September 24) here.