Have warned that if the current rate of hospital admissions continues, the 2,000 intensive care beds in belgian hospitals could be full by midnovember. Woodruff and, its friday, mark shields and david brooks weigh in on the barrett confirmation hearings, the dueling town halls, and the approaching election. All that and more, on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by movingur economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Fidelity wealth management. Consumer cellular. Financial Services Firm raymond james. Johnson johnson. The john s. And james l. Knight foundation. Fostering informed and engaged communities. More at kf. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. This program was made poible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff the president ial candidates were back out on the campaign trail today, just hours after their primetime town halls. They set their sights on battleground states, hoping to drum up more support in the final weeks of the race. Lisa desjardins begins our coverage. Desjardins 18 days until the election, and the president ial candidates are both on the road in pivotal swing states today. President trump in florida. I will protect you, i will defend you, and i will fight for you with every ounce of energy and conviction that i have. Desjardins . And former Vice President biden in michigan. He doesnt have any plan im going to rebuild a resilient infrastructure, creating good paying jobs. Desjardins this, after a night originally scheduled for a facetoface debate. Instead, americans saw competing tv town halls. Mr. Trump got an hour of primetime at his event in miami, hosted by nbc news. He had refused to debate biden in a virtual format, following his covid19 diagnosis. But, its unclear just how much better this was for him he spent much of the night on the defense. Oh, you always do this. No, you always do this. My question to you is desjardins Nbcs Savannah Guthrie confronted him with questions about his health. When was your last negative test . Did you test the day of the debate . I dont know, i dont even remember. Desjardins even after his own bout with the coronavirus, mr. Trump wavered on his position on masks falsely claiming that 85 of people who wear them catch the virus. I was okay with the masks. I was good with it. But ive heard many different stories on masks. Desjardins and, when pressed, he refused to disavow the farright conspiracy group, qanon. I just dont know about q anon. You do know. I dont know. No, i dont know. I donknow. Desjardins a Remote Control click away, quite a contrast. The words of a president matter. Desjardins instead of combative exchanges, longer answers, and more time for voter questions. Besides you aint black, what do you have to say to young black voters who see voting for you as further participation in a system that continually fails to protect them . Well, id said, first of all, as my buddy john lewis said, its a sacred opportunity, the right to vote. You can make a difference. Desjardins early ratings indicated the biden town hall, moderated by abc news George Stephanopolous in philadelphia, brought in more viewers than did the president s. Biden eagerly dived into policy, substance, and his opponents track record. You have iran closer to having enough Nuclear Material to build a bomb. North korea has more bombs and missiles available to it. We find ourselves where our nato allies are publicly saying they cant count on us. Desjardins . With no interruptions, compared to last time the two candidates shared the stage. Biden addressed voters concerns directly. Well, theres a lot more if you want to if youre going to hang out afterwards, ill tell you more. Desjardins the issues making the biggest headlines this week marked moments in both events. I would not have appointed her. Desjardins biden declined to answer whether hes open to expanding the Supreme Court, following republicans push to confirm judge Amy Coney Barrett to the bench. It depends on how much they rush this. Desjardins but he promised voters a definitive stance by the election. Meanwhile, mr. Trump also dodged other matters potentially hinging on that confirmation. He said he never told barrett how to vote if the landmark abortion rights case roe versus wade ever got challenged on the court. He refused to commit to whether hed like to see roe v. Wade overturned. I dont want to do anything to influence anything right now. Desjardins a stark contrast from his stance in 2016. If we put another two or perhaps three justices on, thats really whats going to that will happen, and thatll happen automatically, in my opinion, because i am putting prolife justices on the court. Desjardins the two candidates are next set to appear together thursday for their final debate. For the pbs newshour, im lisa desjardins. Woodruff while the candidates continue to make their cases, more than 22 million americans have already voted, including 2. 5 million ballots in texas, where early voting began this week. Our daniel bush has been reporting in the state, and joins me from houston. So, dan, hello. We know earlier this week you were in georgia reporting on early voting there during the pandemic. Youve spent now, what, a couple of days in the houston area, Harris County. What are you seeing in terms of voting there . Judy, texas is one of only five states where the pandemic itself is not an excuse to cast a mailin balt so the only people who can vote through mailin absentee are 65 and older or disabled or meet other criteria. A lot of voters are handing in the ballots, they dont trust the mailxd system. But Governor Abbott has made it harder butnrxd limiting the drop boxes by one per county. Here in Harris County, the single location sot side a football stadium. You can see the stadium. Its not accessible for people without a car or on foot. Democrats argue this is blatant suppression in a county thats 40 africanamerican and latino. There are other ways voting has been expanded through a larger early voting window and new, for the first time in texas, drivethrough voting. Woodruff so interesting because Harris Countyni 2. 4 million residents, only one dropoff voting blatt place. What are voters telling you about how they sense what their options are for voting . Do they know how much how concerned are they . Well, there are a range of views, certainly a lot of concern. Other people who said it was a fairly easy process, lets take a look at two voters and what they had to say about how they voted. I feel like hes trying to suppress the voters by only having one drop boxes special for Harris County, for the fourth largest city in the u. S. , hes trying to suppress the voters especially because hes republican, hes trying to suppress the poor people by making it harder for them to vote. I have some Underlying Health issues and with the covid virus, i thought, you know, might be a little less crowded or just being in my car, being around less people in thisni setting, d being in texas it gets warm, and being out in the sun for maybe an hour or hour and a half waiting in line, it just wasnt going to work for me. So with the drivethrough, it just lets people versus the more traditional polling place. And there you saw that drivethrough voter, judy. That was a part of an effort by the Harris County clerk, the official in charge of voting in hillary clinton, a democrat to expand voting. He gave me a tour of the processing ballots and preparing for the election in november. Woodruff so dan with the issues swirling and how people will vote, what are the expectations there for turnout ultimately . Judy you noted the numbers in the beginning, the first three days of early voting in texas saw record hearnout, they expect it to continue. Hundreds of thousands of increased early voters from 2016, double the number of additional or extra absente ballots requested and epect to be cast,ni so turnout right nowp in texas. Woodruff dan bush, reporting for us from houston, Harris County, texas. Thank you, dan. Woodruff over the last few days, President Trump has highlighted a report by the New York Post about hunter biden, joe bidens son. There are major questions about the origins and the accuracy of that story. And today, we learned more about concerns expressed by the president s most senior advisors that the president s personal attorney was peddling russian disinformation. To talk about all of this, we turn to Nick Schifrin. Take us back to last year, and concerns expressed about rudy giuliani. Schifrin judy, we all remember how impeachment began. The crux of the democrats accusation was that President Trump sought favors from the ukrainian president , volodymyr zelensky, to get dirt on joe biden. At the time, the source of the president s information about biden was rudy giuliani, the president s personal attorney, who was looking into joe and hunter biden. Joe biden at the time ran the obama administrations ukraine policy, and hunter was on the board of a Ukrainian EnergyCompany Called burisma, widely considered corrupt. Well talk about those details in a second. But the Intelligence Community was monitoring ukrainians it believed to be russian spies, and realized giuliani was talking to at least one of them. In fact, one of giulianis main sources had been dubbed by the Treasury Department an active russian agent for the last decade. A former Senior Intelligence official tells me that President Trump was warned that giulianis information was actually russian disinformation by his entire National Security team National Security advisor obrien, c. I. A. Director gina haspel, thendirector of National Intelligence joe maguire, white House Counsel pat cipollone, attorney general bill barr. All told President Trump not to trust what giuliani was telling him. This was first reported last night by the washington post. Woodruff how did the president respond . Schifrin the former Senior Intelligence official tells me the president shrugged it off, and that whenever intelligence officials warned the president russia might be helping him, he would push back, becausee thought that called into question his 2016 victory. A statement, the president always streets such briefings with utmost seriousness. The characterization of the meeting is not accurate. Woodruff lets switch to the New York Post story. Whats the context for a story about the bidens and ukraine in 2016 . Schifrin so at the end of the obama administration, Vice President biden and the International Community were pushing ukraine to crack down on corruption. And part of that effort was to oust the chief prosecutor, considered particularly ineffective. And when it came to burisma, u. S. Diplomats considered the prosecutor ineffective, in part because he had not pursued corruption allegations against burisma. So by pushing to get the prosecutor fired, Vice President biden was actually making it more likely thekrainian government would investigate the company where his son was on the board. So the New York Post alleges that hunter biden introduced his father to a burisma executive in 2015. This would go against joe and Hunter Bidens claims that they ver discussed hunters overseas work. The president brought it up again this morning, in florida hes like a vacuucleaner. He follows his father along, collecting what a disgrace. Its a crime family. Schifrin the Biden Campaign released a statement saying the meeting never took place, and pointing out that two Republicanled Senate committees concluded that biden carried out official u. S. Policy in ukraine, and engaged in no wrongdoing. Woodruff so, nick, what was the origin of the New York Post story . A Computer Shop owner in delaware says the proof of the meeting was an email on a computer that hunter biden dropped off at the store, but never retrieved. The owner has changed his story, but suggested to reporters he gave a copy of the hard drive to rudy giuliani. On the hard drive, there are photos of hunter biden that are apparently legitimate. But there is also this email, which was published in such a way that its impossible to prove its legitimacy. Bottom line . We cant confirm the story. But to go back to where we started, judy,isinformation experts tell me prorussian actors have already packaged disinformation next to apparentlylegitimate information, and they fear that russian and other actors will do so even more in these final weeks before the election. Woodruff thank you. Woodruff in the days other news, twitter has now changed its policy on hacked content amid the uproar over its handling of an unverified story about hunter biden. Now it will no longer remove hacked material unless its been shared by hackers and their associates. It will also label tweets that might contain hacked content, instead of blocking links from being shared. The Pharmaceutical Company pfizer says that it will likely have a Coronavirus Vaccine ready for emgency approval by midnovember. That comes as u. S. Infections topped eight million, and global cases surpassed 39 million. We will take a closer look at the surge of covid19 infections in europe after the news summary. The pandemic has also inflicted a devastating tolln the u. S. Government budget deficit. The Treasury Department reported that the deficit hit a record 3. 1 trillion during the 2020 fiscal year that ended september 30, amid massive Coronavirus Relief funding. That is three times the size of last years deficit. Firefighters in colorado are battling the largest fire in the states history. It has already scorched some 167,000 acres over the last two months. Cell phone video showed the cameron peak fires smoke bellowing over northern colorados suburbs. Mandatory evacuations were in place for much of the arapaho and Roosevelt National forest areas. The Trump Administration reversed course today and approved californias request for wildfire disaster aid, after initially rejecting it. The state is recovering from six recent wildfires, the latest in a string of devastating fires that have burned a record four million acres across the state this year. A sweeping new reuters investigation has found an alarming increase in inmate deaths across more than 500 of americas largest jails. It found that 7,571 inmates died between 2008 and 2019. The mortality rate in those jails climbed 8 in the last three years, and 35 in the last decade. At least twothirds of the dead were awaiting trial, and never convicted of the charges on which they were being held. The Supreme Court agreed today to take up a Trump Administration policthat excludes from the census count People Living illegally in the u. S. If permitted, the policy would mark the first time in American History that immigrants would be left out of the population count that determines seats in the u. S. House of representatives. Arguments are set for next month. U. S. Authorities have accused a former Mexican Defense minister of smuggling thousands of kilograms of Illegal Drugs across the border, in exchange for brib. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda was taken into custody yesterday in los angeles. He was a Senior Leader in mexicos war on drugs under former president enrique pena neito. Today, mexicos current president vowed to root out corruption. translated all those involved in this matter, and who are acting in the government, in the ministry of defense, will be suspended, withdrawn. And if it is the case,hey will be put before the relevant authorities. We wont cover up for anyone. Woodruff zepeda is the first top mexican military official to be taken into u. S. Custody in connection with drugrelated corruption. And on wall street today, stocks were mostly higher due to strong u. S. Retail sales data. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 112 points to close at 28,606. The nasdaq fell 42 points, and the s p 500 added half a point. Still to come on the newshour europe sees a major surge in covid cases, prompting travel restrictions. Mark shields and david brooks break down a major week in political news. We remember some of the many lives lost to the coronavirus. Plus, much more. Woodruff worldwide coronavirus cases have climbed to an alltime high of more than 330,000 per day. Europe is facing unprecedented cases, with spikes in germany, the czech republic, italy, and poland. We look at conditions on the continent, in the