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Election 2020 live updates: Clarence Thomas to swear in ACB; Biden says he won't change SCOTUS lifetime terms

President Donald Trump is back in Pennsylvania on Monday as his campaign tries to chip away at former Vice President Joe Biden's polling lead in the Keystone State.

Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016, but Biden is now leading Trump by 5.4 points there, according to USA TODAY's polling average.

Both campaigns have their eyes on Pennsylvania. Trump gave a rally there last week, former President Barack Obama was in Philadelphia on Wednesday and Biden and wife Dr. Jill Biden were there on Saturday. Biden returned today to Chester, Pa.

The Supreme Court could get its ninth justice today, when the Senate is expected to take its final confirmation vote on Amy Coney Barrett. Vice President Mike Pence, who campaigns in Minnesota on Monday, had planned to preside over the Senate vote, but those plans are "in flux" after a recent outbreak of COVID-19 among his staff.

The latest:

📊 What the polls are saying: Biden is leading Trump in Florida and Pennsylvania, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released Saturday.

📆 Eight days until Election Day, 86 days until Inauguration Day, 67 days left in 2020.

🗳️ Voting: See USA TODAY's Voter Guide for information on registering to vote, when your state begins voting and what the candidates think about the issues.

We will update this article throughout the day. You can follow all of USA TODAY's politics reporters on Twitter or subscribe to our daily On Politics newsletter.

Biden: No change in lifetime terms on Supreme Court

Biden said Monday he wouldn’t try to limit the terms of Supreme Court justices, who serve lifetime appointments.

Biden’s comments came the same day the Senate was expected to confirm federal appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the high court. Biden and other Democrats have argued that the seat should have remained open until after the election, to give voters a voice in the decision.

Trump has accused Biden of wanting to expand the high court to dilute the power of conservative justices. Biden has said if elected, he would appoint a bipartisan commission to study the federal courts for six months and make recommendations about possible changes in filling vacancies.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to speak with supporters outside a voter service center, Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, in Chester, Pa.
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to speak with supporters outside a voter service center, Monday, Oct. 26, 2020, in Chester, Pa.

But at a campaign stop in Chester, Pennsylvania, he told reporters he wouldn’t change the length of terms.

“It’s a lifetime appointment,” Biden said. “I’m not going to attempt to change that at all.”

--Bart Jansen

Jared Kushner: Black people don't want to succeed enough

Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner says the president wants to help Black people succeed but that they have to want to be successful.

“But he can’t want them to be successful more than they want to be successful,” Kushner said on “Fox & Friends” on Monday.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at the official launch of the Trump 2020 campaign in Orlando on June 18, 2019.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at the official launch of the Trump 2020 campaign in Orlando on June 18, 2019.

Kushner also criticized people who protested after George Floyd's killing.

“You saw a lot of people who were just virtue signaling – they go on Instagram and cry, or they would, you know, put a slogan on their jersey or write something on a basketball court,” Kushner said. “Quite frankly, that was doing more to polarize the country than it was to bring people forward. You solve problems with solutions.”

Kushner's implication that Black Americans lack a drive to succeed drew criticisms of racism and that he is blind to his own privilege from his family's wealth.

"Born on third base, thinks he hit a triple," said Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va.

--William Cummings

Clarence Thomas to swear in Amy Coney Barrett at Trump ceremony

Justice Clarence Thomas is scheduled to swear in new Supreme Court member Amy Coney Barrett at a White House ceremony Monday night following the Senate confirmation vote, an official said.

The White House is planning to hold the event on the South Lawn, with social distancing and masks for guests as precautions against COVID-19, said an official familiar with the planning, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Senate has not yet confirmed Barrett.

After spending the day campaigning in Pennsylvania, Trump is scheduled to return to the White House around 7:40 p.m., right around the time of the Senate vote.

Trump, who took criticism when the nomination ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett became a superspreader of COVID-19, told reporters he wants a more low-key event.

graphic of positive people at Rose Garden Event as Oct2
graphic of positive people at Rose Garden Event as Oct2

“Not a large event, just a very nice event," Trump said.

More than a dozen people tested positive for COVID-19 – including Trump himself – in the days after the Barrett nomination ceremony on Sept. 26, in large part because guests were packed together in chairs set up in the Rose Garden and many did not wear masks.

"We'll be doing the best we can to encourage as much social distancing as possible," Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said of Monday's event.

A ceremony is not required for Barrett to become a member of the high-court.

– David Jackson

Melania's first major campaign appearance: Pennsylvania

First Lady Melania Trump will make her first major campaign appearance Tuesday in Pennsylvania.

The first lady will speak at an event moderated by former White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway in Atglen, Pennsylvania, as the campaign looks to shore up support among suburban women, a key voting bloc crucial to the president's reelection chances. Last week she scrapped plans to appear with her husband at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, citing a "lingering cough" from her COVID-19 diagnosis earlier this month.

Melania Trump has shied away from the campaign trail with her last appearance at a rally in June 2019, when the president announced his reelection bid. But the first lady supported her husband's campaign through a keynote speech from the White House Rose Garden at the Republican National Convention in August.

Trump was speaking in Allentown, Lititz and Martinsburg, Pennsylvania on Monday.

– Courtney Subramanian

Obama addresses H1N1, race in memoir excerpt

In the first excerpt released Monday in The New Yorker from his upcoming presidential memoir, "A Promised Land," due Nov. 17, President Barack Obama, 59, recalled his early days in the White House, dealing with the H1N1 pandemic and experiencing resentment and racist comments from fellow politicians and other Americans.

"My instructions to the public-health team were simple: decisions would be made based on the best available science, and we were going to explain to the public each step of our response—including detailing what we did and didn’t know," he wrote.

Fact check: H1N1 spread quickly but COVID-19 more deadly

Obama said that he didn't call out attacks labeling him an animal or Hitler because "I didn’t believe a President should ever publicly whine about criticism from voters—it’s what you signed up for in taking the job—and I was quick to remind both reporters and friends that my white predecessors had all endured their share of vicious personal attacks and obstructionism."

--Hannah Yasharoff

Pompeo faces Hatch Act probe

A government ethics office is investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for possible violations of the Hatch Act, a federal law that bars Executive Branch employees from engaging in partisan political activities, according to two House Democrats.

The probe centers on Pompeo’s controversial decision to deliver remarks to the Republican National Convention – even though it was a break in diplomatic protocol and appeared to violate the State Department's own policy barring partisan political activity.

“Our offices have confirmed that the Office of Special Counsel has launched a probe into potential Hatch Act violations tied to Secretary Pompeo’s speech to the Republican National Convention,” Reps. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Nita Lowey, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a joint statement Monday.

"It was lawful.': Pompeo defends controversial RNC speech

The Hatch Act is intended to prevent public officials from using their taxpayer-funded office to conduct partisan politics.

“I can confirm that OSC has opened a case file, but am unable to comment beyond that,” said Zachary Kurz, a spokesman for the OSC.

The State Department’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The State Department previously dismissed questions about the ethics of Pompeo’s remarks by saying he was addressing the RNC in his "personal capacity." The agency said no official federal resources were used for the event. But Pompeo made his speech in the middle of an official State Department trip to the Middle East. His speech was recorded and piped in from Israel.

– Deirdre Shesgreen

Pence's plans to preside over Amy Coney Barrett vote 'in flux'

Pence’s plans to preside over the Senate’s confirmation vote of Barrett were up in the air Monday, following the recent outbreak of coronavirus among his inner circle.

"I think that is in flux,” Meadows told reporters.

Pence’s vote, as president of the Senate, isn’t expected to be needed to break a tie. But Pence has been heavily involved in Trump’s three Supreme Court nominations and presided over the confirmation votes of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

“I’m gonna be in the chair because I wouldn’t miss that vote for the world,” Pence said during a campaign rally in Florida Saturday.

But that was before his office revealed that Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, had tested positive for COVID-19. Other close aides have also contracted the virus.

'Totally irresponsible': Dems criticize Pence presiding over Amy Coney Barrett vote after aides contract COVID-19

Pence has not curtailed his public schedule – which includes a campaign trip to Minnesota Monday – because the White House says he is an “essential worker.”

Pence and second lady Karen Pence again tested negative for COVID-19, the vice president's office said Monday morning.

Senate Democrats, however, scoffed at the notion and said his presence in the Senate would be a clear violation of guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It would also be a violation of common decency and courtesy,” Democratic leaders wrote in a letter to Pence. “Nothing about your presence in the Senate [Monday] can be considered essential.”

– Maureen Groppe

Nancy Pelosi says she will seek another speaker term if Democrats keep House

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that she will run for another term as speaker should Democrats keep control of the lower chamber.

When asked whether she would seek reelection in 2021, Pelosi told CNN "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper, "Yes, I am. But let me also say, we have to win the Senate."

The statement is in line with an agreement Pelosi made when she was elected to the office, which limits her speakership to four years.

– Matthew Brown

Sen. Susan Collins says she'll vote against Barrett

Sen. Susan Collins said Sunday that she would vote against Barrett’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, making the Maine Republican the only member of the GOP expected to oppose the federal appeals judge’s appointment to the high court.

Collins, who is facing a tough reelection battle, had said for weeks that she opposed the Senate taking up Barrett’s nomination before voters have their say on Election Day. She reiterated her stance on Sunday.

"Because this vote is occurring prior to the election, I will vote against the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett," Collins said in a statement.

She added that her "vote does not reflect any conclusion that I have reached about Judge Barrett’s qualifications to serve on the Supreme Court" but rather, was about fairness after the Republican majority refused to take up Merrick Garland’s nomination by President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court months ahead of the 2016 election.

– Christal Hayes

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Election 2020 updates: Biden, Trump in Pa.; Amy Coney Barrett vote