The latest on the 2020 election

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday lambasted President Trump for his administration's mishandling of the response to the coronavirus pandemic, as the United States surpassed 223,000 deaths from the virus. 

Biden said Trump “can't erase his own words or deeds.” He pointed to the reporting by journalist Bob Woodward that shows Trump admitted he knew weeks before the first confirmed US coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous and repeatedly played it down publicly. 

“Covid-19 dwarfs anything we've faced in recent history and isn't showing any signs of slowing down,” Biden said. “The virus is surging in almost every state.” 

Biden on Thursday during the presidential debate accused Trump of denying responsibility for the virus’ spread in the United States, and predicted that a “dark winter” is coming.

Watch:

With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, the stakes at Thursday night's debate could not have been higher. President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden faced off in a more cordial debate, discussing a range of issues from the coronavirus pandemic to health care and the economy.

Here's what some of our viewers around the country thought about the debate:

Michael, Columbus, Ohio

Abigail DiMatteo, Stamford, Connecticut

Deb Bergeson-Graham, Greendale, Wisconsin

Jaye King, Antioch, Tennessee

Liam, Indiana

Keep reading here.

More than 55 million people watched Thursday night's debate, according to preliminary Nielsen TV ratings.

The debate between President Trump and Joe Biden averaged 55.2 million viewers across the six biggest broadcast and cable channels on American television.

For comparison's sake, 62 million people watched the first Trump-Biden debate on those same six channels, which means the second and final debate of the season was down just about 11% from the first.

Frequently the first debate of an election cycle is the most-watched, so this year's results follow a familiar pattern. Thursday's high ratings reflect intense interest in the election.

These numbers are preliminary. The official total, to be released by Nielsen later in the day on Friday, will be even higher because it will count additional channels.

The finalized total for the first debate of the season was 73.1 million.

The Nielsen ratings only include Americans who watched on television sets. An unknown number of people live-streamed the debate on various devices, listened on the radio, or watched in other ways.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, brushing aside Democratic concerns over the expedited timeframe for confirming President Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, moved on Friday to cut off debate and set up a final confirmation vote eight days before the election.

McConnell's move sets up a Sunday afternoon procedural vote to break a Democratic filibuster and then a final confirmation vote, likely on Monday evening.

All Democrats are expected to vote against the nomination and two Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins — are expected to vote against the nomination as well due to their concerns that it's too close to the election to consider a nominee. 

But Republicans have enough votes to get Barrett confirmed. 

Some background: On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the nomination of Barrett to the Supreme Court. Though the vote was 12-0, the 10 Democratic senators on the panel boycotted the vote, and filled their seats with pictures of people who rely upon the Affordable Care Act, drawing attention to an upcoming case on the health care law's constitutionality.

Barrett, 48, will give conservatives a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, influencing a range of issues that could come before it, including Americans' personal privacy rights, campaign finance regulation, affirmative action in higher education, public aid for religious schools, environmental and labor regulations, the ACA and any potential disputes regarding the 2020 election.

If Barrett is confirmed and serves as long as her predecessor, the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she will sit on the court for nearly four decades.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided unanimously that county elections officials can’t throw out absentee ballots with signatures that they deem don’t match versions on file.

The ruling is among a few remaining legal challenges over voter practices in the battleground state.

As with the ruling Friday, Republicans have lost several bids to make vote by mail practices in Pennsylvania stricter.

Here's what the court ruled:

More than 2.27 million New Jersey residents have already voted in the 2020 election, Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted Friday.

That makes New Jersey among six states that have exceeded half of the turnout in 2016 so far, according to the governor.

More on this: Over 50 million Americans have already cast their general election ballots with a week and a half until Nov. 3, according to a survey of election officials by CNN, Edison Research, and Catalist. 

Voters in the 48 states and DC with pre-election vote data available are already setting records as they seek to cast their ballots either by mail or in-person where available. 

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott told reporters Friday that even though last night’s debate was better than the first, he is still not planning to vote for President Trump.  

"I want to again reinforce the fact that I am not voting for President Trump," said Scott, a Republican. "Who I am going to vote for, who I am going to write in, or vote for has yet to be determined."  

Scott said he hasn't decided whether he will vote in person or drop off his ballot early.  

He said he watched some of Thursday's night debate and was "appreciative that it was much better than the first one, although that was a fairly low bar." 

CNN previously reported that Scott announced in August he wouldn’t be voting for Trump.

President Trump commented on his calm performance at the final presidential debate, saying he “wanted to play by the rules.”

At one point during Thursday's debate, the President said he “took responsibility” for his handling of the pandemic, before immediately saying it wasn’t his fault.

Asked Friday if he still took responsibility, Trump responded, “I always take responsibility and I've done a great job and the people around me have done a great job.” 

He added that governors “had nothing on their shelves, and we stocked them. And those governors, if they're honest they’ll tell you it was the best job they've ever seen. I've had governance say it’s one of the best jobs they’ve ever seen anybody doing anything."

CNN's Randi Kaye spoke to three undecided voters to get their reaction to last night's debate.

The voters are from the key swing states of Ohio, Michigan and Florida, states that could be crucial for either candidate's victory.

Watch their reactions below: