Today's Liberal News

Meet the College Senior Who Built a COVID Tracker After CDC Blocked from Tracing Trump’s Contacts

As the number of people in President Trump’s orbit who test positive for COVID-19 continues to grow, we meet a student journalist who is doing what the White House doesn’t want the CDC to do: tracing the contacts of people who may have infected or been infected by President Trump. Benjy Renton, a Middlebury College senior, helped develop a real-time tracking tool to monitor the growing number of people in President Trump’s circle who were exposed or infected with COVID-19.

Activist Who Lost Father to COVID Says Trump’s White House Photo Op Was Like “Sci-Fi Horror Film”

As the highest-profile coronavirus patient in the world returns to the White House while still infectious and a danger to others, we speak with activist Kristin Urquiza, whose father died from COVID-19 earlier this year. She says President Trump’s minimizing of the disease is a slap in the face to families who have lost loved ones. “I was appalled,” says Urquiza.

Without Trump Onstage, There Is No Chaos

In perhaps the most chaotic week of a chaotic presidency, what was most surprising about tonight’s vice-presidential debate was how oddly normal it felt.Five days ago, the president of the United States was hospitalized after contracting a virus that has killed more than 200,000 Americans. There were legitimate questions about whether Donald Trump could execute the powers of his office.

Mike Pence put contempt for truth and his opponent on display, but Kamala Harris was up to the job

Mike Pence sure showed Donald Trump how it’s done during Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate. Pence put on his smug, condescending, holier-than-thou pants and interrupted nonstop. He didn’t yell and spray spittle like Trump. He just calmly, doggedly ignored time limits, ignored moderator Susan Page’s pathetic attempts to hold him to his time, and ignored the question he’d been asked.

Pence takes hard pass on explaining Trump’s nonexistent preexisting conditions ‘plan’

Mike Pence was asked point blank at Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate to explain Donald Trump’s plan to protect health care coverage for people with preexisting conditions. And despite Pence’s earlier claim that such a plan exists, he ran for the hills.

“You mentioned earlier, Vice President Pence, that the president was committed to maintaining protections for people with preexisting conditions,” said moderator Susan Page of USA Today.

One of the unsung heroes of the night: The fly on Mike Pence’s head

Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate came to a close with a lot less heavy breathing and yelling than last week’s presidential showdown. But Mike Pence does retain the sociopathic-seeming ability to just lie through his teeth about virtually anything and everything, and Sen. Kamala Harris had to do a lot of history lessoning and in-debate fact-checking.

The Man Who Pretended Not to Notice

“It’s a visual medium.” So often said the late Roger Ailes about television. He said it to justify hiring women who looked a certain way and requiring them to dress a certain way. Ailes’s abuse of the saying does not make it any less true. The most striking thing about the Pence-Harris debate was nothing that was said. It was what we saw.We saw a vice president with a pale face, his mouth cankered by a cold sore, his eyes pink.

The Atlantic Daily: What’s at Stake in the Pence-Harris Debate

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.DREW ANGERER / MICHAEL A. MCCOY / GETTYThe stakes of tonight’s vice-presidential debate are higher for Senator Kamala Harris than for Vice President Mike Pence, my colleague David A. Graham argues.

Why Kamala Harris Is Still Showing Up Tonight

Watching Kamala Harris take the stage tonight for her debate with Mike Pence, many Democrats may be wondering the same thing: Why would she agree to appear in person, just a few feet away from the vice president, amid a coronavirus outbreak that has ravaged the White House and infected President Donald Trump?