tonight on kqed newsroom, we analyze president trump and vice president joe biden about the guest starkly different conversation in their dueling town halls and we read the senate confirmation hearings of supreme court nominee amy coney barrett one in 10 eligible voters are part of generation c. her about the issues that matter most to our youngest voters. welcome to kqed newsroom, i'm priya david clemens. now for kqed newsroom's election 2020 coverage. since president trump was unwilling to debate vice resident biden virtually, this week but to be as planned presidential debate turned into separate televised town halls.

trump spoke to booters in miami at the same time biden was speaking to booters in philadelphia. amy coney barrett took center stage as she was grilled by senators during her multi-day confirmation hearing. she sidestepped answers to specific questions by senators and, including dianne feinstein and, harris. >> joined me now by skype from san francisco is kqed senior editor scott shaver. also joining by skype is kqed politics and government correspondent marie sub august >> let's talk withe president is back providing relief money on california wildfires. what's going on here. >> there was an emergency declaration request sent to the white house and fema by governor gavin newsom and we found out on thursday that the application had been rejected by fema, which is kind of a

surprise because these applications have been approved, so that created a bit of a stir. suddenly we had house minority leader on the phone and within a few hours the president overruled the original objection and the governor announced on friday afternoon that in fact his declaration was approved by the white house. it just goes to show you there is a lot of politics, especially in an election year when it comes to disaster declarations. >> let's turn to the town halls last night. president trump' is townhall felt very combative. the moderator pushed him for answers on his tax payment, his debt, what supremacy, his willingness to accept the results of the elections amongst several other topics. to the president hurt or help himself with undecided voters last night? >> it's so hard to tell at this point, priya. it falls -- feels -- i think that honestly he did better

rapidly for undecideds than he did during that townhall or initial debate with joe biden where obviously he was speaking over biden and was sort of nasty, i think, while he was combative with the moderator last night it did not feel quite as aggressive as we have seen him in some situations. it is probably a draw. i can't see either of the town halls moving the needle on this race that far, but certainly a better showing for the president than a couple of weeks ago. >> it was also a better night for vice resident biden. he was calm and measured in his responses. sometimes maybe a few too detailed. 1 million people tuned in to watch him and then president trump, which probably does not go down well with president trump, who loves to have the ratings on tv. what do you think about joe biden' is performance last night? do you think it energized

voters to come out for him? >> i don't know if energized is the right word. it was a calm almost dull performance. in some ways i think that's what voters want. a lot of voters, a lot of americans are just exhausted by the drama and the chaos that they feel has been coming out of this administration. so while joe biden may not be the most exciting candidate, maybe that is a plus for him in this particular year. i think that is motivating democrats is trump himself and their extreme dislike for him. so i think he has that going for him. on the president's side 32% of his base who love him no matter what. they are going to be there for him. i think there's probably a few people that are maybe leaning toward biden. maybe that's why more people tuned in to watch biden is they want to confirm may be that they have a safe choice if they vote for biden. >> it does seem like it is in line with the poles we are

seeing both of the state level and national level to have died in ahead. the coronavirus is declining slightly here in california. on the nation it is on the rise and across the world it is still rising in places like europe where they havesome curfews it has gotten bad. how has president trump's handling of the coronavirus really impacted the vote? it is a piece that the democrats keep hammering over and over again. does it resonate in terms of president trump did not handle this well? >> that is what we are seeing that people felt like it made sense to some extent the people -- trump got covid-19 because he hasn't been that careful. i do think that is one of those areas where you could see a real movement on these independent voters, undecided voters. this is something that is in our lives every day. this is not some abstract

notion in washington that may or may not affect us. i think that is a reason that trump wanted to come out so quickly and say he has recovered from this virus. why his office was so cagey about his medical status throughout this entire thing. i think that when you add that up with what it's done to the economy, it's a real problem to the president, and is one he is really trying hard to pivot from. he said last night repeatedly that we are turning on this, which i don't think is the case in the majority of this country. >> scott, what do you see as the key issue for the democrats and republicans in this final three weeks of the election cycle? >> you are seeing people who have never voted before or skipped 2016. people who have never registered to vote, first time voters, and they are voting early. we are seeing in california over 2 million people have cast their ballots. the motivation clearly is a fear of having the president

reelected and a desire to see him replaced by joe biden. for republicans i think that they see they like the president's agenda. they see him as somebody who doesn't talk down to ordinary people who is shaking things up in washington, who is being tough in china, who supports a woman's -- who poses abortion, who is not so strongly in support of lgbt rights. evangelical voters are for the president by and large. both sides have their motivations. it just seems like if the turnout is large, which it seems to be so far, that is going to probably benefit biden. >> let's turn to the senate hearings. supreme court nominee amy coney barrett she sidestepped direct questions, and when she diso she invoked the ginsburg rule. i would like to hear wh justice ginsburg said back in

1993. >> a judgwanted to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints, for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process. >> scott, despite the fact that these justices or nominees are saying they wanted to be impartial, this seat being a supreme court justice is seen as inherently political these days. are democrats right that should amy coney barrett get confirmed, which it seems like she is on a glide path to do, that that would benefit president trump in particular and the republican party in general? >> i think in the long term that certainly is what we are hoping for. president trump is hoping she would be a vote to strike down the affordable care act,

although she insists she has no animosity toward that law. we will have to wait and see. nearly one of the most troubling aspects is she described climate change is still controversial, which is not a position that 99% of scientists would say is the case. republicans may suffer because you've got senators like cory gardner in colorado who are in very tough races and there is a sense overall in the country that this should wait until after the election, and then you got a lot of people concerned. positions that justice barrett might take. so, it could also boost democratic turnout well. still a lot of lingering anger that went nowhere when president obama was president back in 2016 after scalia died. there's motivation on both sides. i think short-term a benefit to the democrats. long-term perhaps republicans.

i want to ask you about both senators who questioned the nominee amy coney barrett on issues such as abortion and healthcare. was there a moment you found particularly effective? >> i would say that dianne feinstein stuck to the script. she did not have any huge moments, but i think kamala harris did an effective job. part of a series where harris basically asked her, do you think that covid is something that is transmissible. i can't remember her second question was around another scientific issue and then led into this climate change issue which barrett refused to answer. i think that and her unwillingness to, you know, wade into the issue of whether a president should accept a peaceful transition of power really took that ginsburg

principal to a whole new level. she was not as combative as we have seen her in previous years. >> scott, this week the california party -- fresno, los angeles, and orange counties. the state attorney general has sent them a cease and desist letter, but they refused saying the state law allows them to collect ballots. what is the latest? >> the latest is that republicans sent a letter back to the attorney general and the secretary of state saying we have mislabeled some of those boxes and that has been fixed, but we are going to continue with this program just as democrats have. they say they are complying with the law which the knowledge could've been done better, but they say, look, the democrats created these rules. they use them in 2018 to great effect. there were a lot of midterm election seats that went to democrats and some republicans blamed that so-called ballot harvesting on the loss of those republican seats. it looks like to me today the

attorney general backing away from his threat of suing the republican party. he said they are continuing to investigate, but i think the temperature has really lowered on this, and i think republicans made a point that this is the law. we didn't like the la but we are going to follow it just as democrats have been doing. >> we are going to be talking out the youth vote and there's actually a california position 18, which is focused specifically on the youth vote. can you talk about this chances of passing? >> if you are 17 but will be 18 by a general election in the same year, you may weigh in and the primary. the idea being that you should have a say on who's going to be in the ballot if you're going to vote on it. this was put on the ballot by democrats in the legislator. it is largely opposed by the republican party and the taxpayer association as well. there were the high schoolers will have undue influence by

teachers who might support things like school bonds or tax increases. the other argument against it is essentially that we have studied as a litmus for a lot of things. that's when you become an adult who should not get a vote earlier. obviously a lot of young people are excited about this and i think it's going to be really interesting to see how it goes. >> both with kqed. thank you for your insight in a time as always . >> visit kqed.org /viewer guide for a comprehensive look including summaries and arguments for and against them. generation z is made up of they are also sometimes referred to as tumors. they are the generation following the millennial's and they represent 10% of all eligible voters this year. they are a racially and ethnically diverse group. 20% are -- surveys indicate the issues they care most about

climate change, racism, and income inequality. joining me now by skype from st. petersburg, florida, is alexa volland, a multimedia reporter and fact checker at media wise that helps teach people how to spot misinformation and fake news online. and running by skype from oakland is samantha iv, a senior at skyline high school. thank you both for joining. sam, you are going to be a first time voter. what issues are most pressing to you? >> the issues that are most pressing to me as a member of generation and c would be economic inequality, racial inequality, and gender inequality, which all kind of lumped together in some sort of way. >> alexa, you do a lot of work, how is this different from what you are hearing across the nation? >> i lead a checked picking network, so i work with a team

ofbout 30 teenagers spread across the u.s. and they help us by combating the spread of misinformation by fact checking claims on their social media feeds. things there also interested in fact checking. we are seeing a lot of claims related to issues related to climate, racial injustice. there are also veryinterested in fact checking claims related to lgbt rights gun control. there also very interested in getting accurate information related to the coronavirus. >> sam, it seems like young people are very energized to vote there was a harvard youthful that came out and said 63% of people ages 18 to 29 are saying they will definitely vote in this election. that's up from 47% in 2016. so, i'm curious for you among your peers, are you getting the

sense, sam, that your peers are energized and looking forward to going out and voting for the first time? >> friends are close to around my age, yeah, they're all politically active, very passionate. i also do learn a lot from them. i am probably one of the oldest trends and my friend group, so i'm going to be the only one who's able to vote in this upcoming election. however, there are other people there seems to be a few deals of thought when it comes to voting around this age. there's left leaning very passionate, but instead of right-leaning theirs nihilism apathy. the two attitudes i typically get from my generation are either very passionate, very ready for change, ready to go out there and vote for this i did there's no point in voting

are all the options are bad anyway. so they don't even bother getting themselves involved in politics because they feel they are above it somehow. >> alexa, i'm curious, do you see that reflected in your work across teens as well? >> that's interesting. the teens that i wo with are very strongly about their quality of news. they care about the selection and my sample size of kids that really care about news and politics, they are very committed voting. while i work with smaller sample size, i hope they are reflective of generation z as a whole. >> alexa, tell us about the ways in which you help teens become more savvy consumers of digital media and how you teach them to separate fact from fiction online. >> we got quite a few tips as well as resources, but the thing we trying to stress the most are these three questions developed by the stanford group, and these are bastions i'm sure you are familiar with.

the first being is who is behind the information. this will tell you a lot. are they biased, are they an expert, do they have something to gain from you sharing this information? the second question is what is the evidence? is there a link to go with it? is there a link to a reputable source? a third question would be, what are other sources saying? we tend to read one article and we read up-and-down and then we leave that page. we reallstress the importance of reading 3 to 4 multiple sources, opening up tabs and reading unilaterally. another term developed by the stanford history group and ensures that you get a full picture and full context of what's happening. >> sam, how often are you using the sorts of tools and what sort of social media platforms do you get your news from? >> when it comes to the tools

specifically, i don't exactly actively employ them. they are just kind of subconscious. when i do remember to use them, but at the same time i get my news from a few different sources i started out by watching late-night talk shows. i watched the daily show with jon stewart. now the daily show with trevor noah like that. i get my news from the app on my phone that shows you the news , but it also depends on who you follow on social media. for example, if i follow a news organization or news anchor i trust on instagram, i'm more likely to believe what they post. or if i follow a politician i'm advocating for, you know, or an economist i follow andrew yang on instagram. i most likely to trust what he posts taste on the economy and other things like that. as far as my friends, i'm not so sure because sometimes we steer stuff with each other we correct each other like, wait,

that's not actually true because xyz. >> alexa, you really encourage that for teens to share with each other what is accurate and not accurate and how to spot misinformation. i would like to play a video that media -wise created on tick-tock that shows these skills in operation. >> this facebook video wrongly claimed that mail-in ballot envelops show what your party affiliation is. >> they put r right here and d. >> reporter: let's fact check this together. to see if this is legit, i did a quick search and see this claim has been heavily fact checked by usa today and the associate press. according to fact check.org, these ballots are from the florida primary. florida has a closed primary meeting voters can only vote in the primary they are registered in. in this general election, all ballots will look the same. we rank this claim not legit.

there's a lot of misinformation there, just don't share it. be skeptical of posts. check with your board of elections website for specific questions and know that your party is not on your ballot. >> alexa, that's a great example of the sort of work you are doing to get information out. let's turn specifically to this issue about balls and voting. are you seeing concerns from young people about voting by mail? >> sure. voting is already complex, and then add to it that we are seeing so much in this information about voting by mail and these posts are really trying to discourage or incite some sense of doubt in the system, and every year we see a post on social media about how you can voteby tech, which is full. i would say first-time voters are concerned about mail in voting there's been a lot of misinformation surrounding this. a good media literacy tip,

which is in that is the importance of going to the source. in that case if you have any questions related to voting, i would go to your state specific board of elections website, and that's where you can make sure you are getting the most accurate information. not some random person on instagram or twitter. >> sam, he will be turning 18 and a couple of weeks and even though you are gistered to vote, you are having trouble getting her ballots. tell us was happening. >> oh, yeah. my mom's ballot came and mine was supposed to come with hers, but it didn't. she tried to call them but they said that legally i was supposed to be on the call with her. so then she set up a conference call with me, her, alameda registration and they said that it's on our way. we thought we should be getting it in a few days and we wait a whole week, but we still didn't get it. so we call them again and he

told me that it's because i'm under 18 right now, so they didn't send it out because they thought it's not eligible to vote. i explained to them that i'm going to be 18 in a week now and they are very apologetic. they say they are going to send it out but we haven't seen it. we're going to call again today. it is frustrating. i was really excited about and i'm really hoping i will be able to vote i mail because what i have seen on the news it seems like voting by in person voting seems ve much a hassle and really stressful. >> good for you for sticking with it. sam, tell us why you think it's so important for you and other young people to vote. >> because this is my country. this is our country we don't have the choice to be apathetic or nihilistic because we are going to be adults soon.

this is going to be hours. i know this is exactly what we wanted to inherit, but we don't exactly have a choice at this point, and it is your responsibility because even though you don't think it, this election is going to affect you. and if it doesn't, it's going to affect the people around you and the people you love. even if you choose not to vote, you are actually voting with their actions by saying that you are fine with the status quo. you are fine with everything that's happening right now. if things don't go very well and you choose not to vote, i'm afraid that's on you. >> sam, i appreciate your passion. alexa, i'm sure you see that. part of work with media -wise, you run the teen fact checking network. you tell us what that does? >> we have a group of about 30 student journalists and they help us combat the spread of

misinfomation through social media storytelling as you can imagine a 16-year-old instram discovery page looks a lot different than mine. the types of claims you are seeing are very different. they are seeing more claims of if you hold your breath for 10 seconds, that's a refire way to prove you don't have coronavirus, which is not true. and then from there, we really strongly encourage the base pitch their own stories. from there they would write and produce the video fact check. we are not just telling you this is true, this is false. we are both media literacy and fact checking. we teach you along the way how to fact check on your own. these teenagers are teaching crucial skills like reverse image search, reverse image search. they are teaching skills that journalism fact checkers use. >> alexa volland with media wise, a senior and first time voter. thank you so much for joining us.

>> thank you so much. >> and you can visit poynter.org to see daily fact checks for teenagers done by media wise team of jen z fact checkers. you can find more coverage at kqed.org/tran04. you can reach me on twitter, facebook, and instagram. tonight we are heading just south of san jose for our we can look at something beautiful. full of sunshine and smiles this week as people and animals enjoyed the trails and waterways. from all of us here at kqed newsroom, thanks for joining us.

good night.

captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, october 18: the presidential candidates make their appeals to voters in the final weeks of the campaign. ongoing hostilities in the nagorno-karabakh dispute. and we continue our roads to election 2020 series from the state of ohio. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl andhilip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation.