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Hospitalizations, virus spread and deaths continued at high levels Tuesday in Iowa on the eve of a campaign rally by President Donald Trump, where Gov. Kim Reynolds and thousands of other Trump supporters will likely defy the governor’s own emergency proclamation to keep distance between people in public places. Iowa remains under a public health emergency declared by Reynolds on March 17. It requires that organizers of mass gatherings “must ensure at least six feet of physical distance between each group or individual attending alone.” (Pitt, 10/13)

Minnesota health officials said Monday that they have connected more than two dozen coronavirus cases to Trump and Biden campaign events in the state... Minnesota on Tuesday reported 1,537 new cases, the highest single-day figure since the beginning of the pandemic, according to The New York Times. (Budryk, 10/13)

Joseph R. Biden Jr. turned his attention on Tuesday to older Americans, making a case in South Florida that seniors were paying the price for the president’s poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic. “The only senior that Donald Trump cares about — the only senior — is senior Donald Trump,” Mr. Biden said in a speech at a community center in Pembroke Pines, a city in the vote-rich Democratic stronghold of Broward County. ... He went on to say that Mr. Trump’s “reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis is unconscionable.” (Mazzei and Kaplan, 10/14)

Last week, President Trump tweeted out a video where he makes a direct appeal to seniors, calling them “my favorite people in the world!” That affectionate tone was nowhere to be found in his latest broadside against his Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden. Trump on Tuesday night shared a meme of Biden Photoshopped in a wheelchair inside what appears to be a nursing home, implicitly mocking him as elderly and disabled. (Elfrink, 10/14)

KHN and Politifact: Pence Said Biden Copied Trump’s Pandemic Response Plan. Pants On Fire!

During last week’s vice presidential debate, moderator Susan Page, USA Today’s Washington bureau chief, asked Vice President Mike Pence about the U.S. COVID-19 death toll. Pence replied by touting the Trump administration’s actions to combat the pandemic, such as restrictions on travel from China, steps to expand testing and efforts to accelerate the production of a vaccine. Pence also took a jab at Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, a strong critic of the Trump pandemic response. “The reality is, when you look at the Biden plan, it reads an awful lot like what President Trump and I and our task force have been doing every step of the way,” said Pence. “And, quite frankly, when I look at their plan,” he added, “it looks a little bit like plagiarism, which is something Joe Biden knows a little bit about.” (Knight, 10/14)

Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and his Republican opponent, Daniel Gade, sparred over how best to respond to the coronavirus and other health care issues Tuesday in their third and final debate. The televised event, sponsored by the AARP, focused heavily on the pandemic as well as issues important to seniors, like prescription drug prices and the Affordable Care Act. Warner, a former governor, cast himself as a trusted problem solver. (Suderman, 10/14)

Candidates in two closely contested suburban Atlanta U.S. House districts continued to clash Tuesday over their views on health care, the pandemic response and the size of government. Those disagreements were aired in two debates sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club. One was between 6th Congressional District incumbent Lucy McBath, a Democrat, and Republican Karen Handel, the woman McBath unseated in a narrow 2018 victory. Slightly less sharp was a debate between candidates in the neighboring 7th District, where Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux is trying to claim an open seat after falling just short of beating Republican incumbent Rob Woodall in 2018. With Woodall stepping down, Republican Rich McCormick is trying to hold the seat for his party. (Amy, 10/13)

Running for office as a mom with children under 18 was hard enough before the pandemic. Now it means spending a lot of time at home, but that time is away from their families, trying to look out for their children’s mental health, as well as their own, and feeling that “mom guilt” that they still aren’t doing enough — even while they are running to build a better future for their children. (Thompson, 10/14)