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President Donald Trump kicked off a campaign rally on Tuesday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to accuse the state's governor of using coronavirus restrictions to hurt his re-election chances in November. "Your state should be open," Trump said to a crowd of hundreds that erupted in cheers at the Smith Reynolds Airport. The president, still stung from the loss of the GOP convention that was due to take place in Charlotte last month but was moved to a nearly all-virtual event over COVID-19, said North Carolina and other key battleground states such as Michigan were keeping their states shut for "political reasons." (Fritze, Subramanian and Jackson, 9/8)

President Trump and scores of supporters gathered for a rally in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Tuesday without masks, despite the urging of a local Republican official and a state mandate. Dave Plyler, the GOP chairman of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, told The Winston-Salem Journal that he felt Trump should abide by Gov. Roy Cooper's (D) order for individuals to wear a face covering when unable to socially distance. (Samuels, 9/8)

When the announcer at President Trump's recent rally here urged a packed airplane hangar of supporters to don their masks, a cacophonous round of boos erupted, followed by defiance. No matter that the attendees' chairs were inches apart, their temperatures had not been taken and masks were required by the state. Joe Biden, meanwhile, has barely left his home without a mask for months, and he makes a point of keeping voters — when he encounters any — at a distance from himself and one another. Events at drive-in theaters have been kept under 50 — people, not cars — to respect state guidelines. (Dawsey, Scherer and Linskey, 9/8)

North Carolina caps outdoor gatherings at 50 people to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, but don’t tell that to President Donald Trump. He basked in a largely maskless crowd of several thousand supporters during a Tuesday rally in this critical battleground state. “As far as the eye can see,” Trump said, reveling at the sight of people flouting public health guidelines. “I really believe that these crowds are bigger than they were four years ago.”A day earlier in Pennsylvania, Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, held a socially distanced meeting in a backyard. His team has been so attentive to local regulations that some staffers have left the room if they risked breaking the rules on crowd limits. (Miler and Jaffe, 9/9)

The Biden campaign called on President Trump on Tuesday to answer three specific questions before releasing a coronavirus vaccine, while simultaneously warning that Trump may seek to short-circuit the scientific process for the sake of his re-election.  (Nichols, 9/8)

The race to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus has taken center stage in President Donald Trump's reelection campaign as he persisted in making rosy predictions on Tuesday, claiming one would be available "very soon." With the election less than two months away, and the president’s poll numbers suffering under scrutiny over his handling of the pandemic, Trump has taken to repeatedly hyping the possibility of a vaccine before Election Day, despite top health experts having cautioned that it’s unlikely. (Phelps, 9/8)

Voting will look a little different this November. States are turning to stadiums, drive-thrus and possibly even movie theaters as safe options for in-person polling places amid the coronavirus pandemic and fears about mail-in ballots failing to arrive in time to count. The primary season brought voters to an outdoor wedding-style tent in Vermont and the state fairgrounds in Kentucky. The general election on Nov. 3 is expected to include voting at NBA arenas around the country, part of an agreement owners made with players to combat racial injustice. (Eppolito, 9/5)