Today in one sentence: The United States coronavirus cases set new a daily record; Trump almost took responsibility for his administration's failure on COVID-19 during the second and final debate; and the Trump administration pressured the CDC to support the use of hotels to hold migrant children before deporting them.

1/ The United States coronavirus cases set new a daily record, topping more than 82,600 cases and breaking the July 16 single-day record. The current surge is already more widespread than the waves this summer and spring. COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased in 38 states over the past week and continue to rise so quickly that some hospitals in the West and Midwest are already running out of hospital beds. A new study forecast that more than 511,000 Americans could die from COVID-19 by February – that’s more than all the lives lost by the U.S. in World War II. Biden warned that America was headed for a “dark winter” with no COVID-19 vaccine expected to be available for most of people until the middle of next year. Trump, meanwhile, declared that the U.S. is “rounding the corner” and that the pandemic “will soon be gone.” [Editor’s note: Please continue to watch your distance, wear your mask, and wash your damn hands.]. (New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News / Washington Post / CNBC / The Guardian / Bloomberg)

  • 😷 Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”

  • Global: Total confirmed cases: ~42,071,000; deaths: ~1,142,000

  • U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~8,480,000; deaths: ~224,000

  • Source: Johns Hopkins University

  • 💻 COVID-19 Live Blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / CNBC / CNN

  • The World Health Organization warned that some countries are on “a dangerous track” with hospitals beginning to reach capacity. (CNBC)

  • Still no coronavirus stimulus deal. The nearly $2 trillion package under discussion between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin faces resistance in the GOP-controlled Senate. (Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / CNBC)

  • The FDA approved remdesivir as a treatment for the coronavirus – the first and only fully FDA-approved drug in the U.S. for treating the coronavirus. In May, the FDA granted the antiviral drug for emergency use authorization, allowing doctors to use it on patients hospitalized with COVID-19 even though the medication had not been formally approved. (CNBC / Axios)

2/ Trump almost took responsibility for his administration’s failure on COVID-19 during the second and final debate, saying “I take full responsibility,” followed immediately by “It’s not my fault that it came here.” The coronavirus has killed more than 220,000 people in the United States. At one point during the debate, Trump said Americans were “learning to live with it.” To which Biden replied: “We’re learning to die with it.” (New York Times / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / The Guardian / CNN / Axios)

3/ The Trump administration pressured the CDC to support the use of hotels to hold migrant children before deporting them. A federal judge halted the practice last month, saying the Trump administration had failed to provide a public health reason for keeping minors in hotel rooms, instead of the licensed shelters overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services. CDC officials, however, have declined to affirm the declaration from the HHS that detaining migrant children in hotels is the best way to protect them from the coronavirus. Trump campaign’s communications director, meanwhile, asserted that the reason 545 migrant children have not been reunited with their families – who were separated by the administration – is that “the parents do not want the children returned. During the debate, Trump suggested that the separated children were in facilities that “were so clean” and were well “taken care of.” Biden, however, called the policy of separating families and the inability to track down the parents of the children “criminal.” (Washington Post / Politico / BuzzFeed News)

✏️ Notables.

  1. Trump faces payment deadlines for more than $400 million in loans in the next four years on his Chicago hotel, his D.C. hotel, and his Doral resort. (Washington Post)

  2. A federal judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service to restore high-speed mail sorting machines at facilities that cannot process First Class election mail efficiently because of the coronavirus pandemic. (The Hill)

  3. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s former company was awarded a $5 million contract last month with the United States Postal Service. (CBS News)

  4. Sudan and Israel agreed to normalize relations, according to a joint statement released by the White House. (Washington Post / CNN / Bloomberg)

  5. A member of the “Boogaloo Bois” was arrested and charged with opening fire on Minneapolis Police Third Precinct with an AK-47-style gun and screaming “Justice for Floyd” as he ran away during the protests following the May 25 killing of George Floyd. The boogaloo bois are an unorganized, far-right, anti-government, and extremist movement. (The Star Tribune)

  6. White supremacists and far-right extremists are responsible for 67% of domestic terror attacks and plots this year – at least half of that violence targeting protesters. (The Guardian)

Two years ago today: Day 642: Cover-up.