Nashville Cats: Maybe the only thing worse for Donald Trump than an unwatchable debate was a watchable one.

  A calmer and less angry Donald Trump appeared at the final presidential debate in Nashville last night, limiting his interruptions and sarcasm. 

  Repeating many of his fictions, Trump claimed that, “We are rounding the turn, we are rounding the corner” on the coronavirus, even as it grows.

  Trump continued to play on fear. In the midst of an economic crisis under his administration, Trump said Biden “wants to raise everybody’s taxes and he wants to put new regulations on everything. He will kill it. If he gets in, you will have a Depression, the likes of which you’ve never seen.” 

  Biden said, “We can grow this economy, we can deal with the systemic racism. At the same time, we can make sure that our economy is being run and moved and motivated by clean energy, creating millions of new jobs. That’s the fact, that’s what we’re going to do.”

   The former vice president is not the best speaker or campaigner, but it’s not hard to make Trump look silly. After Biden spoke of the economic and ecological promise of solar and wind power, Trump said,  “I know more about wind than you do. It’s extremely expensive. Kills all the birds. It’s very intermittent.” 

  Trump was particularly cold on the subject of immigrant children separated from parents who now can’t be found. He answered by bragging about his border wall. “We now have as strong a border as we’ve ever had,” he said. We’re over 400 miles of brand new wall. You see the numbers. And we let people in, but they have to come in legally.”

The Outtakes: President Trump and the White House posted on YouTube the unedited 37-minute interview he abruptly ended this week with “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl. Trump said in a tweet, “Watch her constant interruptions & anger. Compare my full, flowing and ‘magnificently brilliant’ answers to their ‘Q’s’.”

  Here’s one brilliant answer. When asked about the number of pandemic cases and deaths in the US, Trump said, “If we didn’t do testing, cases would be way down.” In other words, what you don’t know doesn’t exist. “We do more testing than any country in the world by far,” Trump told Stahl. “If we did half the testing, we’d have half the cases.”

  CBS issued a statement expressing disappointment that Trump had violated a mutual agreement to videotape the session only for archival purposes, but promised to go ahead with their story.

 Trump said he hopes the Supreme Court will repeal Obamacare, and then he’ll roll out the health care plan he’s been promising. 

  “It is developed. It’s fully developed. It’s going to be announced very soon when we see what happens with Obamacare, which is not good,” Trump said. “And it will be much less expensive than Obamacare, which is a disaster, and it will take care of people with preexisting conditions.”

  “You brought up a lot of questions that were inappropriately brought up, right from the beginning,” Trump says to Stahl. “Don’t you think you should be accountable to the American people?” Stahl replies.

  Trump ended the interview five minutes early, and then Stahl knocked heads with Vice President Mike Pence. Growing frustrated with boilerplate answers, Stahl said, “This was not just a campaign speech to the public.” She said, “This was supposed to be an interview. The same with the president. And I feel that you both have insulted “60 Minutes,” by not answering any of our questions and by giving campaign speeches, that we’ve heard both of you give at rallies, without answering our questions.”

  Pence asked, “What question haven’t I answered?”

  “You didn’t answer any of my questions, you just gave speeches,” Stahl said.

The Early Line: The Trump campaign has been videotaping Philadelphia voters depositing their ballots in drop boxes, leading Pennsylvania’s attorney general to warn that this could amount to illegal voter intimidation.

  They can’t watch everyone. More than 49 million Americans have already voted. Among states that report party affiliation, 51 percent of early voters have been Democrats.

  At the same time, republican voter registrations have spiked in big battleground states like Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. 

Viral News: The FDA has approved the experimental drug Remdesivir for treatment of patients with Covid-19. President Trump got it when he was sick.

  Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wrote for the Wall Street Journal that he regrets not wearing a mask while doing debate preparation at the White House and attending a Rose Garden reception. He said, “Those who deny the scientific realities of the pandemic undermine conditions that allow for rapid and complete reopening. They encourage behavior that invites personal tragedy and social regulation. People need encouragement to do the right thing, not excuses not to.” 

 This morning, cases are up nationally 32 percent over two weeks and 223,059 Americans are dead

The Old Ball Game: The World Series is tied 1-1 between the Los Angeles Dodgers. Game three is tonight in Arlington, Texas.

The Obit Page: James Randi, a magician who went by the name The Amazing Randi and spent much of his career debunking spoon benders, fortune tellers, and quackery of all kinds, has died at age 92.

  Enraged over the popularity of pseudo-science and belief in the paranormal, Randi spent much of his life exposing seers who did not see and healers who could not heal.

The Bulletin Board: In a big win for workers in the gig economy, a California appeals court ruled that Uber and Lyft must treat their drivers as full time employees with benefits and wages under state labor law.  —  Joe Biden says that if he’s elected president he will appoint a commission to examine overhauling the Supreme Court.

Stories We Don’t Have Time For: “All of Demi Lovato’s tattoos and their meanings.”

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