Most Americans Do Not Approve Of Trump’s Response To Pandemic: Survey

ABC News: Trump In Trouble As Nearly Two-Thirds Of Americans Disapprove Of His Handling Of COVID-19, Protests, Russia: POLL 
Nearly two-thirds of Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump's handling of three major challenges facing the country -- the coronavirus pandemic, nationwide unrest over racial inequality and relations with Russia -- in a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, a sign of the obstacles that his reelection bid faces just three months before Election Day. With the White House confronting the most significant reckoning on race since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the worst public health crisis in a century, and a hostile Russia reminiscent of the Cold War, Americans have little confidence in the job Trump is doing in all three of these major areas. (Karson, 7/31)

NBC News: Biden Slams Trump, McConnell For 'Political Games' With Further Coronavirus Aid
Joe Biden on Thursday accused President Donald Trump and top Senate Republicans of “playing political games” with a new round of coronavirus pandemic aid to Americans. Speaking to the American Federation of Teachers’ virtual convention Thursday, the former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee slammed the White House and other Republicans for not doing enough to provide financial relief to workers in frontline fields, like teachers. (Edelman, 7/30)

AP: Trump Vs. Biden: Where They Stand On Health, Economy, More
President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, both promise sweeping progress over the next four years –- via starkly different paths. Trump, like many fellow Republicans, holds out tax reductions and regulatory cuts as economic cure-alls and frames himself as a conservative champion in seemingly endless culture wars. But the president, still trying to fashion himself as an outsider, offers little detail about how he’d pull the levers of government in a second term. Biden, for his part, sounds every bit the Democratic standard-bearer as he frames the federal government as the collective force to combat the coronavirus, rebuild the economy and address centuries of institutional racism and systemic inequalities. A veteran of national politics, Biden also loves framing his deal-making past as proof he can do it again from the Oval Office. (Barrow and Madhani, 7/30)

In other election news —

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Again Splits On Coronavirus-Related Election Issue 
The Supreme Court on Thursday shut down a lower court’s decision that cited the coronavirus pandemic as reason to ease the rules on gathering signatures for a citizens ballot initiative. The case from Idaho was the latest example of the high court deferring to state officials, rather than lower-court judges, in how to deal with election-related issues caused by the outbreak of covid-19. The justices put on hold a lower-court order that Idaho officials either put on the ballot an education initiative promoted by a group called Reform Idaho or allow the group to gather signatures electronically, although the deadline had passed. (Barnes, 7/30)

NPR: Trump Keeps Criticizing Universal Vote By Mail. But The Nation Isn't Doing That
President Trump's claims about why November's election could be marred and illegitimate shifted again Thursday, after he walked back his desire to potentially delay voting. Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. is sending out "hundreds of millions of universal mail-in ballots" and also repeated a conspiracy theory about foreign countries counterfeiting ballots. (Parks, 7/31)

AP: Detroit Plans To Keep Poll Workers, Voters Safe From Virus
Elections officials in Detroit are preparing for the challenges that come with voting during a national health crisis that has killed more than 150,000 Americans.All of Detroit’s 503 voting precincts will be open and equipped with sanitizing stations and face masks to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus, City Clerk Janice Winfrey told reporters Thursday. “We know there are some people who don’t want to wear a mask,” she said. “If you don’t want to wear a mask, you don’t have to, and you can still vote a regular ballot.” (Williams, 7/30)