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The revelation this week by U.S. intelligence officials that Iran and Russia are trying to interfere in our election underscores the importance of foreign policy.

The revelation this week by U.S. intelligence officials that Iran and Russia are trying to interfere in our election underscores the importance of foreign policy.

Before this revelation, Doug Petcash did wide-ranging interviews with the candidates in Idaho's race for U.S. Senate. He asked them what they believe is the greatest international threat to the United States.

Incumbent Republican Senator Jim Risch, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it is China.

His challenger, Democrat Paulette Jordan, said it's a lack of American leadership.

Sen. Jim Risch: "We are drafting this legislation to set forth a policy that tries and does its best to convince China that they can't continue to do things like they have. Vicki and I had the opportunity to travel in China in 1983. I walked out there thinking we're never going to have to worry about this. There's a billion and a half people here, but they have no toilets, they have no water, they no electricity, no telephones. They're never going to be a problem. But look at what's happened in the decades since then. They've come centuries, and they did it by stealing everything we have except our freedoms and our democratic form of government. We have got to convince them that they have got to do two things. They have to adopt a rule of law and enforce it and they have to embrace international norms when it comes to trade and dealing with other countries. All the rest of us that are first world countries have decades in that. We have, in some cases, centuries of experience in that. We do really, really well if we all embrace international norms and have a rule of law that is enforced in individual countries. China does not have that. If we don't get this right it's going to be a long 21st Century not only for America, but for every other first world country."

Jordan has a different take on the biggest international threat.

Paulette Jordan:"The fact that we lack leadership. We have leadership that doesn't have any foresight. We lack leadership on the international level because we've taken ourselves out of the World Health Organization. We've taken ourselves out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Anytime we're not stepping up to the table working with national leaders we are leaving ourselves out of those conversations and therefore not even on the bus to help shift the conversation globally. Our poor foreign trade relationships under Risch, has really impacted the ag economy here in Idaho. We've also seen impacts when we take ourselves out of the World Health Organization and not preparing our local businesses and not preparing our local communities when it comes to this Covid pandemic. So leadership matters very heavily, especially when we have someone who is the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a lot more could have been done there."

On Viewpoint Sunday morning at 6:30 Risch and Jordan also lay out their stances on racial injustice and policing, public lands and the Second Amendment.

See every episode in our YouTube playlist:

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Idaho's U.S. Senate candidates lay out what they believe is America's greatest international threat - KTVB.com

Voters are generally asked to leave political attire at home before they vote wearing a Joe Biden shirt or a MAGA hat could cause minor issues at polling places. But poll workers cannot turn voters away for any other political messaging, from Black Lives Matter banners to Second Amendment pins. If its not on the ballot, youre free to wear what you want.

State election law states that electioneering is not allowed inside polling places, or within a 100-foot radius. That means that no political banner, button, poster or placard shall be allowed in or upon the polling place. While the law is really meant to prevent campaigns from harassing voters trying to cast their ballots, it also applies to individual voters who wear merchandise from the candidate or political party of their choice.

In theory, electioneering can lead to a misdemeanor charge if someone does not comply with poll workers directives. But in a 2016 Gannett Albany story, a spokesperson for the state Board of Elections said that poll workers dont make a big deal out of someone showing up in candidate attire and that they just ask that person to turn a shirt inside out or remove any buttons before going inside to vote.

The BOE did not return a request for comment about this story.

However, the law also seems overly broad as to what exactly counts as a political banner, button, poster or placard. Does this apply to someone desiring to wear pro-choice pins, or perhaps even a shirt with Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on it? There are plenty who would argue that by wearing such attire, youre making a political statement.

In reality, any long-established political message is not considered electioneering, and so poll workers cannot ask anyone to change or remove something like a Black Lives Matter shirt before being allowed to vote. In fact, the 2018 Supreme Court case Minnesota Voters Alliance v Mansky found that a law preventing political apparel of any kind at or around polling places violated voters First Amendment rights.

In response to the ruling, the state Board of Elections issued bipartisan guidance obtained by City & State. The board said the ruling did not impact the state law on electioneering at polling places. The guidance narrowly defined electioneering as statements for, or against, a candidate or referendum on the ballot, and applied that narrow interpretation to acceptable apparel as well.

Persons wearing clothing or donning buttons that include political viewpoints i.e. support of the Second Amendment, Marriage Equality, Environmental Sustainability, Immigration Reform, Support for Voter ID Laws do not violate New Yorks electioneering prohibition unless the issue itself is unambiguously on the ballot in the form of a ballot proposal, the guidance reads.

Since Black Lives Matter protests, gun rights, Supreme Court nominees and abortion rights, among other subjects, are not being voted on directly on the ballot as referendums in New York, wearing political apparel related to these issues is a constitutionally protected right. And a poll worker who asks anyone to remove such attire before voting is violating both state law, and the constitution.

With all that being said, however, voting rights advocates still generally recommend leaving any political messaging at home, regardless of its legality, to avoid any potential complications or disruptions at the polls.

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What not to wear while voting | CSNY - City & State

"As Black folks we have learned that we are running out of resources when it comes to being protected," the organization wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

"Police are killing us. White nationalists are threatening us. The president is supporting the nationalists. We need to learn how to protect ourselves in a way that keeps us safe."

"It's a really volatile time right now," she said. "We need to be armed. We need to be safe. We are citizens here, we have equal rights here," she said. "The Second Amendment is our right too."

The goal of the fundraiser is to raise $2,000. As of Wednesday, the organization had raised $780.

In the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, thousands have made calls for police reform, justice reform and voter action.

See more here:
A California Black Lives Matter chapter is fundraising to get some of its members trained in gun safety - CNN

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump still has a path to the 270 Electoral College votes he needs to win reelection. But it requires everything to break in his direction a second time.

Persuadable voters in battleground states will need to overwhelmingly swing in his favor. Hell have to win back crucial voting blocs. And his turnout operation will need to dramatically outperform Democrat Joe Bidens in an extraordinarily turbulent year.

In 2016, his chances of winning the election were those of drawing an inside straight in poker. The question this year is whether he can draw an inside straight two hands in a row, said Whit Ayres a veteran Republican pollster. It is theoretically possible but practically difficult.

While Trump has multiple roads to victory, his most likely route hinges on winning two crucial battleground states: Florida and Pennsylvania. If he can claim both and hold onto other Sun Belt states he narrowly carried in 2016 North Carolina and Arizona while playing defense in Georgia and Ohio, which he won handily in 2016 but where Biden is now competitive, he will win.

Trumps campaign is also continuing to pour time and money into Wisconsin and Michigan, longtime Democratic strongholds he flipped his way by the slimmest of margins four years ago, while trying to defend Iowa and Maines second congressional district and grab Nevada and Minnesota, two states his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton narrowly won.

Trumps campaign points to other factors pointing in their favor: The campaign and the Republican Party have spent years investing in a powerful voter outreach operation and have 2.5 million volunteers knocking on millions of doors each week. They have seen spikes in GOP voter registration in several keys states. And Trump voters are more enthusiastic about their candidate than Democrats are about Biden. The Democrats are driven more by their hate for Trump.

We feel better about our pathway to victory right now than we have at any point in the campaign this year, Trumps campaign manager, Bill Stepien, told staff on a conference call this week. And this optimism is based on numbers and data, not feel, not sense.

But polling shows Trump trailing or closely matched in nearly every state he needs to win to reach 270 Electoral College votes. Barring some kind of major upset, Trump needs to hold onto at least one of the three rustbelt states he won in 2016: Pennsylvania Wisconsin or Michigan, said Paul Maslin, a longtime Democratic pollster based in Wisconsin.

I dont see any other way for Trump to do this, he said.

Fox News polls released Wednesday show Biden with a clear advantage in Michigan and a slight one in Wisconsin. In Pennsylvania, recent polls show Biden ahead but vary on the size of his lead.

For all of that, though, Trumps team can draw comfort from this historical footnote: In all three states, Clinton led in the polls in the final weeks of 2016.

But Trumps fundamental problem, said Ayres is that a large number of states that he won comfortably last time are currently close.

While Trumps upset win in 2016 still haunts Democrats and has left many voters deeply distrustful of public polls, close watchers of the race stress that 2020 is not 2016.

Biden is better liked than Clinton and polls suggest there are now fewer undecided voters, who broke for Trump in the races final weeks four years ago. And Clinton was hobbled in the final weeks by a series of setbacks including the late reopening of an FBI investigation into her emails. The impact of any additional October surprise this time would be limited by the record number of voters who have already cast their ballots.

Trumps team, for its part, has been working to repair his standing with suburban women and older voters soured by his handling of the pandemic, while trying to boost enthusiasm among targeted groups like Catholic and Second Amendment voters as well as aiming to build support among Black and Latino voters.

Hes again at the thread-the-needle stage, said Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. He noted that because Trump won key states by so few votes last time around, he has very little margin for error.

Still, Miringoff stressed that while many polls may favor Biden, they do not account for cataclysmic events, such as potential voter suppression, election interference, or court challenges that could halt votes from being counted. Democrats are expected to cast far more ballots by mail, which are rejected at higher rates than in-person ballots, even in normal years.

The polls could both be right and wrong at the same time, he said, because they could poll those who think they voted but whose votes end up not counted.

With 29 electoral votes, Florida is arguably the most crucial state for Trump. A loss there would make it nearly impossible for him to retain the White House. But the state, which has sided with the winner of nearly every presidential race for decades, is also known for razor-tight elections most notably in 2000 when Republican George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 537 votes after a recount.

Both sides point to signs of promise in the state, with Republicans saying they see growing support among Hispanics while Democrats focus on seniors. While polling in early October showed Biden with a slight advantage, two recent polls have the two candidates neck and neck.

From everything I can see, its a statistical tie, said Jennifer Krantz, a Tampa native and Republican strategist who has worked on multiple state races. If thats the case, she said, ground game could make the difference.

In 2016, Clinton won more votes in the state than Barack Obama in both his races, with commanding leads in Democratic strongholds like Miami-Dade. But Trump ran up the the score with stunning turnout in smaller counties, including across the Florida Panhandle.

Trumps campaign expects do even better this time thanks to a robust turnout operation. Indeed, Republicans say they have registered 146,000 more voters than Democrats since the pandemic hit in March, leaving Democrats with their smallest lead since the state began tracking.

Democrats, meanwhile, hope to run the table when it comes to early voting and vote by mail though some remain cautious after 2016.

I think were all in this collective PTSD panic, said Democratic strategist Steve Schale, who runs the pro-Biden super PAC Unite The Country.

Its a similar story in Pennsylvania, where two recent polls show Biden maintaining a clear lead and another suggests a narrow one. Trump won the state by just over 44,000 votes last time, powered by an overwhelming showing in rural areas and small towns and cities.

Trumps team is counting on those trends to hold this time around.

Its dj vu all over again, said Robert Gleason, the former chair of Pennsylvanias Republican Party who lives in the city and has been helping Trumps campaign Theres a tremendous amount of enthusiasm.

Just as in Florida, while Democrats hold a substantial voter registration edge, Republicans have narrowed their gap by about 200,000 from four years ago, thanks in part to Democratic party-switchers. Trump campaign aides stress that number is five times Trumps 2016 vote margin.

But Trumps campaign is also facing grimmer prospects in areas like the vote-rich Philadelphia suburbs. And Biden is not Clinton, an historically unpopular candidate who particularly turned off white, working class men. Biden not only comes from the working class bastion of Scranton, but has built his political persona as a champion of those voters and their ideals.

AP writers Emily Swanson and Hannah Fingerhut in Washington, Jonathan Lemire in New York and Marc Levy in Harrisburg contributed to this report.

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Road to 270: Trump's best path to victory hinges on FL, PA - The Republic

AP Photo/Evan VucciPresident Donald Trump waves to the crowd as he walks off stage after speaking at a campaign rally at Gastonia Municipal Airport, Wednesday, Oct. 21, in Gastonia, N.C.

WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump still has a path to the 270 Electoral College votes he needs to win reelection. But it requires everything to break in his direction a second time.

Persuadable voters in battleground states will need to overwhelmingly swing in his favor. Hell have to win back crucial voting blocs. And his turnout operation will need to dramatically outperform Democrat Joe Bidens in an extraordinarily turbulent year.

In 2016, his chances of winning the election were those of drawing an inside straight in poker. The question this year is whether he can draw an inside straight two hands in a row, said Whit Ayres a veteran Republican pollster. It is theoretically possible but practically difficult.

While Trump has multiple roads to victory, his most likely route hinges on winning two crucial battleground states: Florida and Pennsylvania. If he can claim both and hold onto other Sun Belt states he narrowly carried in 2016 North Carolina and Arizona while playing defense in Georgia and Ohio, which he won handily in 2016 but where Biden is now competitive, he will win.

Trumps campaign is also continuing to pour time and money into Wisconsin and Michigan, longtime Democratic strongholds he flipped his way by the slimmest of margins four years ago, while trying to defend Iowa and Maines second congressional district and grab Nevada and Minnesota, two states his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton narrowly won.

Trumps campaign points to other factors pointing in their favor: The campaign and the Republican Party have spent years investing in a powerful voter outreach operation and have 2.5 million volunteers knocking on millions of doors each week. They have seen spikes in GOP voter registration in several keys states. And Trump voters are more enthusiastic about their candidate than Democrats are about Biden. The Democrats are driven more by their hate for Trump.

We feel better about our pathway to victory right now than we have at any point in the campaign this year, Trumps campaign manager, Bill Stepien, told staff on a conference call this week. And this optimism is based on numbers and data, not feel, not sense.

But polling shows Trump trailing or closely matched in nearly every state he needs to win to reach 270 Electoral College votes. Barring some kind of major upset, Trump needs to hold onto at least one of the three rustbelt states he won in 2016: Pennsylvania Wisconsin or Michigan, said Paul Maslin, a longtime Democratic pollster based in Wisconsin.

I dont see any other way for Trump to do this, he said.

Fox News polls released Wednesday show Biden with a clear advantage in Michigan and a slight one in Wisconsin. In Pennsylvania, recent polls show Biden ahead but vary on the size of his lead.

For all of that, though, Trumps team can draw comfort from this historical footnote: In all three states, Clinton led in the polls in the final weeks of 2016.

But Trumps fundamental problem, said Ayres is that a large number of states that he won comfortably last time are currently close.

While Trumps upset win in 2016 still haunts Democrats and has left many voters deeply distrustful of public polls, close watchers of the race stress that 2020 is not 2016.

Biden is better liked than Clinton and polls suggest there are now fewer undecided voters, who broke for Trump in the races final weeks four years ago. And Clinton was hobbled in the final weeks by a series of setbacks including the late reopening of an FBI investigation into her emails. The impact of any additional October surprise this time would be limited by the record number of voters who have already cast their ballots.

Trumps team, for its part, has been working to repair his standing with suburban women and older voters soured by his handling of the pandemic, while trying to boost enthusiasm among targeted groups like Catholic and Second Amendment voters as well as aiming to build support among Black and Latino voters.

Hes again at the thread-the-needle stage, said Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. He noted that because Trump won key states by so few votes last time around, he has very little margin for error.

Still, Miringoff stressed that while many polls may favor Biden, they do not account for cataclysmic events, such as potential voter suppression, election interference, or court challenges that could halt votes from being counted. Democrats are expected to cast far more ballots by mail, which are rejected at higher rates than in-person ballots, even in normal years.

The polls could both be right and wrong at the same time, he said, because they could poll those who think they voted but whose votes end up not counted.

With 29 electoral votes, Florida is arguably the most crucial state for Trump. A loss there would make it nearly impossible for him to retain the White House. But the state, which has sided with the winner of nearly every presidential race for decades, is also known for razor-tight elections most notably in 2000 when Republican George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 537 votes after a recount.

Both sides point to signs of promise in the state, with Republicans saying they see growing support among Hispanics while Democrats focus on seniors. While polling in early October showed Biden with a slight advantage, two recent polls have the two candidates neck and neck.

From everything I can see, its a statistical tie, said Jennifer Krantz, a Tampa native and Republican strategist who has worked on multiple state races. If thats the case, she said, ground game could make the difference.

In 2016, Clinton won more votes in the state than Barack Obama in both his races, with commanding leads in Democratic strongholds like Miami-Dade. But Trump ran up the the score with stunning turnout in smaller counties, including across the Florida Panhandle.

Trumps campaign expects do even better this time thanks to a robust turnout operation. Indeed, Republicans say they have registered 146,000 more voters than Democrats since the pandemic hit in March, leaving Democrats with their smallest lead since the state began tracking.

Democrats, meanwhile, hope to run the table when it comes to early voting and vote by mail though some remain cautious after 2016.

I think were all in this collective PTSD panic, said Democratic strategist Steve Schale, who runs the pro-Biden super PAC Unite The Country.

Its a similar story in Pennsylvania, where two recent polls show Biden maintaining a clear lead and another suggests a narrow one. Trump won the state by just over 44,000 votes last time, powered by an overwhelming showing in rural areas and small towns and cities.

Trumps team is counting on those trends to hold this time around.

Its deja vu all over again, said Robert Gleason, the former chair of Pennsylvanias Republican Party who lives in the city and has been helping Trumps campaign Theres a tremendous amount of enthusiasm.

Just as in Florida, while Democrats hold a substantial voter registration edge, Republicans have narrowed their gap by about 200,000 from four years ago, thanks in part to Democratic party-switchers. Trump campaign aides stress that number is five times Trumps 2016 vote margin.

But Trumps campaign is also facing grimmer prospects in areas like the vote-rich Philadelphia suburbs. And Biden is not Clinton, an historically unpopular candidate who particularly turned off white, working class men. Biden not only comes from the working class bastion of Scranton, but has built his political persona as a champion of those voters and their ideals.

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Trump's best path to victory hinges on Pennsylvania - Lock Haven Express