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U.S. Blames Iran For Threatening Election Emails, Says Russia May Interfere Too Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, seen above during his earlier tenure in the House, delivered a briefing on election threats on Wednesday evening.  Gabriella Demczuk/AP  hide caption toggle caption Gabriella Demczuk/AP Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, seen above during his earlier tenure in the House, delivered a briefing on election threats on Wednesday evening. Gabriella Demczuk/AP Updated at 8:33 p.m. ET Iranian influence specialists are behind threatening emails sent to voters in Alaska and Florida, U.S. officials said on Wednesday evening and suggested that more such interference could be in store from Russia. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said the U.S. intelligence community believes Iranian and Russian operatives obtained voter-record information that enabled them to target some people with intimidating emails based on party registration a...

YouTube cracks down on QAnon conspiracists Conspiracy smackdown — Video platform follows Facebook and Twitter but stops short of full ban. Hannah Murphy and Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, Financial Times  -  10/16/2020, 7:47 AM Enlarge   /  Conspiracy theorist QAnon demonstrators protest child trafficking on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, August 22, 2020. Kyle Grillot | Getty Images reader comments 19   with 14 posters participating Share this story Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Reddit Google-owned YouTube has become the latest social media platform to crack down on the pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon ahead of November’s US election, but stopped short of a full ban on the rapidly spreading movement. In a blog post on Thursday, the video platform said that it would “prohibit content that targets an individual or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence,” citing QAnon and related conspiracy ...

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump rallies: 'unmasked egomania orgies' Late-night hosts criticised the president’s rallies while also looking at a brief and alarming history of US militias Late-night hosts discussed Donald Trump’s latest manic rally antics and looked at a brief history of militias in the US. Jimmy Kimmel On  Jimmy Kimmel  Live, the host spoke about how Covid-19 is set to turn the election into “quite a mess” with problems already being encountered with voting. He mentioned a report that some people have been disinfecting their mail-in ballots, which has led to number of disqualified votes. “If you’re Purelling and microwaving your ballot then I’m OK with you sitting this one out,” he said. There’s also been a problem of fake ballot boxes from the Republicans. “I think what they’ve decided is that the best way to prove voter fraud is to commit voter fraud,” Kimmel said, before adding: “There’s no limit to what these people will do to steal this election” He joked about the ...

Trump and Biden focus on coronavirus in opening stages of dual town halls   (CNN) On a night of dueling town halls for President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the President once again gave confusing answers about whether he was tested for coronavirus on the day of the first debate and did not express any regret for the Rose Garden event that is now widely viewed as a "superspreader" event. Within the opening moments of a presidential town hall with NBC News, Trump  repeated the false statement that masks don't work 85%  of the time: "People with masks are catching it all the time," Trump said. Of whether he had a coronavirus test on the day of the first debate with his opponent Joe Biden, he told NBC's Savannah Guthrie: "Possibly I did, possibly I didn't." And a time when many Americans are looking to him for empathy after more than 217,000 people have died, he boasted about the excess mortality rate in the United States. Me...

Biden says 1994 crime bill was a 'mistake' during ABC town hall © Getty Images Asked during a televised town hall in Philadelphia whether supporting the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was a mistake, Biden said that “yes, it was.” But Biden also said that the worst effects of the crime bill came as a result of decisions made on the part of individual states after its passage.  Biden also noted that the bill had broad support among prominent Black leaders at the time and that things have “changed drastically” since then. Nevertheless, he repeated, “it was a mistake.” Biden’s support for the 1994 crime bill during his tenure as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has drawn criticism over the course of his presidential campaign. He has previously expressed regret for backing the measure,  calling it “a big mistake” last year . read://https_thehill.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fhomenews%2Fcampaign%2F521326-biden-says-1994-crime-bill-was-a-mistake-during...

'A Little Bit Concerned': Trump Looks to Boost Iowa Support President Donald Trump is trying to shore up support from constituencies that not so long ago he thought he had in the bag: big business and voters in the red state of Iowa. 'A Little Bit Concerned': Trump Looks to Boost Iowa Support More By ZEKE MILLER, BILL  BARROW AND AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday sought to shore up support from constituencies that not so long ago he thought he had in the bag: big business and voters in the red state of  Iowa . In a morning address to business leaders, he expressed puzzlement that they would even consider supporting his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, arguing that his own leadership was a better bet for a strong economy. Later, the president held his third campaign rally in three nights, this time in Iowa, a state he won handily in 2016 but where Biden is making a late push. Trump claimed to be leading in the mo...