Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden may be gaining ground on President Donald Trump’s preferred platform — Twitter.
New data from online video analytics company Conviva shows Biden had more Twitter engagements — which include comments, likes, and retweets — than Trump. The presidential hopeful averaged 148,6000 engagements per post during the Sept. 14 to Oct. 13 period, while the tweeter-in-chief only reached 136,100 engagements per post.
While Trump has almost eight times as many followers on Twitter than Biden, the Democrat has been gaining followers at a faster rate over the last 2.5 months. And while Trump still gets more retweets, Biden is getting more likes.
Trump also still maintains a heavier presence on Instagram and Facebook, but Biden has gained more followers on Instagram than Trump over the last two months. Still, Facebook seems likely to remain more of Trump’s domain both in terms of engagements and followers.
Social media can be a way to reach younger voters, and while traditionally not the largest voting demographic, 63 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds surveyed said they will "definitely be voting" in the upcoming election according to a Harvard Kennedy School poll. About 47 percent of the demographic had the same response when they were surveyed around the same time in 2016.
Trump’s use of social media political advertising had also been widely credited for helping him win the presidency in 2016. However, Biden seems to be matching Trump dollar for dollar on Google and Facebook recently with Advertising Analytics estimating both candidates spending $50 million over the last month on digital ads for their respective campaigns, the New York Times reported.
A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track. A handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the bill after what's become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services. But hurdles remain. Senators are hopeful they can pass the package as soon as Monday and send it to the House. What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal has drawn criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation includes funding for SNAP food aid and other programs while ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers. But it fails to fund expiring health care subsidies Democrats have been fighting for, pushing that debate off for a vote next month.
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
