Election 2020 updates: Obama and Biden take the stage in Michigan as Trump campaigns in Pennsylvania

President Donald Trump now leads former Vice President Joe Biden by 7 points in Iowa, according to a new Des Moines Register poll.

That's a significant shift from September when the candidates were tied at 47%. Trump has won back support from independents as Biden has lost ground among women in the state, according to the Des Moines Register. The poll is based on a sample of 814 likely voters with a margin of error of 3.4%.

Senate GOP incumbent Joni Ernst also leads her Democrat challenger Theresa Greenfield by 4 points, according to the Des Moines Register.

— Spencer Kimball

Businesses in Midtown Manhattan are boarding up their windows in preparation for possible social unrest after Election Day, as the city prepares for large protests.

Plywood covered the windows of Macy's flagship location, which was ransacked during the looting that occurred in the wake of protests back in June over the police killing of George Floyd.

"Our windows at Macy's Herald Square were previously scheduled to be dark next week in set-up for our annual holiday displays. Out of an abundance of caution, we are implementing additional security measures at several of our stores," a Macy's spokesperson told NBC New York.

Businesses were also being boarded up at Times Square.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has said New York City is preparing for the possibility of prolonged protests in which opposing groups confront each other.

— Spencer Kimball

President Donald Trump on Saturday predicted that Americans will be "waiting for weeks" on the result of Tuesday's presidential election and claimed that "bad things" could happen while states count ballots in the days following the election.

"We're going to be waiting, November 3rd is going to come and go, and we're not going to know," Trump said at a campaign rally in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. "And you're going to have bedlam in our country."

The Trump campaign has tried to block Pennsylvania and other states from extending the deadline for counting absentee ballots. However, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will not fast-track Pennsylvania Republicans' challenge to an extended deadline.

The Court ruled this week that Pennsylvania and North Carolina can receive mail ballots for several days after the election.

"This is a horrible thing that the United States Supreme Court has done to our country," Trump said.

There's been an increase in mail-in voting across the country because of health concerns over in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic.

— Emma Newburger

The American Nurses Association condemned President Donald Trump's claim that health-care workers are inflating coronavirus case and death numbers, saying his comments are "dangerous" and "a slap in the face to the nation's 4.2 million nurses who are risking their lives to respond to COVID-19."

"Nurses, physicians, and other frontline health care workers have endured brutally long shifts covered in stifling personal protective equipment," ANA President Ernest Grant said in a statement. "Others have faced long days and weeks caring for COVID-19 patients, working without sufficient PPE, or forced to reuse PPE multiple times, increasing their risk of infection, or bringing the virus home to those they love, illness and even death."

Trump made the comment Friday while at a rally in Waterford Township, Michigan. Trump has repeatedly downplayed the virus even as the United States has the worst outbreak in the world with more than 9 million cases and at least 230,019 deaths.

—Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden rallied supporters at a drive-in rally in Flint, Michigan on Saturday, marking the first time they've campaigned together during the 2020 election.

"Joe Biden is my brother," Obama said. "I love Joe Biden and he will be a great president."

The former president said health care, the coronavirus pandemic and the future of the economy are all on the line on election day. Obama also slammed President Trump's response to the pandemic and mocked the president for his preoccupation with crowd size at campaign rallies.

"Trump cares about feeding his ego. Joe cares about keeping you and your families safe," Obama said. "And he's less interested in feeding his ego with having big crowds than making sure he's not going around making more and more people sick. That's what you should expect from a president."

Biden, appearing on stage after Obama, urged Michigan residents to vote and addressed the president's attempts to cast doubt on the outcome of the election.

"There's nothing that he can do to stop the people of this nation from voting in overwhelming numbers and taking back our democracy," Biden said.

Biden is leading in Michigan by 8%, according to a Wednesday poll from The New York Times and Siena College. Trump won the state in 2016.

— Emma Newburger

Democrats canceled a campaign event in Texas after supporters of President Donald Trump allegedly harassed a Joe Biden-Kamala Harris bus tour, NBC-affiliate KXAN-TV reported.

Videos on Twitter show a line of vehicles with Trump flags following the Biden-Harris bus.

Katie Naranjo, chair of the Travis County Democratic Party, said the apparent Trump supporters "ran into a person's car, yelling curse words and threats."

Texas state Rep. Sheryl Cole said in a Facebook post that a joint campaign event in Pflugerville was cancelled because "pro-Trump protestors have escalated things well beyond safe limits."

—Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

More than 90 million votes have already been cast for the 2020 presidential election, according to the U.S. Elections Project.

Early in-person voting ends in four states today,  just three days before election day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Here's when early voting ends (all times local):

• New Mexico, additional information here
• North Carolina, 3:00 pm
• Oklahoma, 2:00 pm
• Virginia, 5:00 pm

— Emma Newburger

Barack Obama will travel to Florida and Georgia on Monday to campaign for Joe Biden and down ballot Democratic candidates before election day, the Biden campaign announced on Saturday.

The former president will campaign on behalf of Biden and Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in Atlanta, Georgia, which has become a battleground state for Democrats. Obama will also head to South Florida, a key swing state, to support Biden's presidential bid.

General election polling shows Biden with a narrow lead in Georgia, where more than 3.8 million residents have already cast ballots as of Friday. Biden also takes a slight lead in Florida, according to the final NBC News-Marist poll released on Thursday and the FiveThirtyEight polling average.

— Emma Newburger

President Donald Trump's campaign rallies resulted in more than 30,000 coronavirus cases and likely led to 700 deaths, according to a new Stanford paper, which has not undergone peer-review yet.

The researchers looked at 18 Trump rallies held between June 20 and Sept. 22 and analyzed Covid-19 data the weeks following each event. They compared the counties where the events were held to other counties that had a similar trajectory of confirmed Covid-19 cases prior to the rally date.

The new research comes as the coronavirus continues to rapidly spread across the United States. Trump, who tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this month, has often been criticized for holding in-person rallies amid a pandemic. The rallies sometimes have tens of thousands of people, many without masks.

In response to the paper, Trump campaign spokesperson Courtney Parella said, "Americans have the right to gather under the First Amendment to hear from the President of the United States."

"We take strong precautions for our campaign events, requiring every attendee to have their temperature checked, providing masks they're instructed to wear, and ensuring access to plenty of hand sanitizer. We also have signs at our events instructing attendees to wear their masks," she added.

A spokesperson for Joe Biden's campaign issued a statement after the paper posted, saying, Trump is "costing hundreds of lives and sparking thousands of cases with super spreader rallies that only serve his own ego."

"The worst part is that this doesn't even capture Trump's many superspreader events on White House grounds or the last five weeks of events across the country. How many more lives have been upended in that time? How many more empty seats are there at kitchen tables across America because of Donald Trump's ego?" spokesperson Andrew Bates said.

—Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Coronavirus cases are surging in key battleground states that could determine the outcome of the election.

In Michigan, Covid-19 cases are up more than 63% compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The state is reporting a record high of 3,038 new Covid-19 cases daily — based on a seven-day average to smooth out the reporting — as of Friday.

Wisconsin is averaging roughly 4,230 cases daily, up about 22% compared with a week ago, according to Hopkins data. Wisconsin is also reporting a record-high weekly average in hospitalizations, growing nearly 19% over the week, according to Covid Tracking Project data.

In Pennsylvania, where former vice president Joe Biden holds a narrow lead over President Donald Trump in some polls, cases are up 30% compared with a week ago, reaching a record-high average of 2,133 new cases per day, according to Hopkins.

There are now more than 9 million reported Covid-19 cases in the United States, which added an additional 1 million cases in only two weeks, according to Hopkins.

— Noah Higgins-Dunn

As election day approaches, President Trump and former Vice President Biden have touted broadly different agendas on issues that affect the personal finances of Americans, including taxes.

The Trump campaign has said it will "cut taxes to boost take-home pay and keep jobs in America." Experts believe the president would try to build on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The law cut taxes for Americans across all income groups and the richest Americans received most of the benefit.

Biden, however, has proposed raising taxes for wealthy Americans and would attempt to reduce taxes for lower earners. The campaign has floated a top income-tax rate of 39.6% (up from 37%) for those earning more than $400,000 and would raise their payroll taxes as well.

Read the full report here.

— Emma Newburger

Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teen charged with killing two demonstrators in Wisconsin in August, was extradited to Wisconsin on Friday after an Illinois judge rejected his legal challenge.

Rittenhouse, 17, is at the Kenosha County Jail, according to NBC News. Rittenhouse was charged with shooting three people at a protest against police brutality and racial injustice following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha.

President Trump has defended the teen and suggested he was acting in self defense. Earlier in October, Department of Homeland Security documents showed that federal law enforcement officials were directed to make comments sympathetic to Rittenhouse.

The president is set to host a rally in Kenosha on Monday, one day before the election.

— Emma Newburger

Yes, the impeachment trial started only nine months ago.

For President Donald Trump, the year leading to Election Day was even more turbulent than the first three years of his tenure. In addition to surviving the Democrats' impeachment bid, Trump had to confront racial unrest following police killings of Black people.

And then there was the coronavirus — the killer microbe that claimed more than 225,000 lives in the United States and crushed the economy. It also sickened the 74-year-old president himself, his wife and teen-age son, and turned the White House into a hot spot.

Here's a look at tumultuous 2020 and how the nation's 45th president dealt with — and contributed to — the crises.

— Marty Steinberg

More than 87 million Americans have already voted with three days left until Election Day, according to the U.S. Elections Project. The current early vote count represents 63% of the entire turnout during the 2016 presidential election.

Americans have cast more than 30.7 million in-person votes and more than 57 million mail-in ballots have been returned so far. There are 34 million mail-in ballots still outstanding.

Democrats represent 46% of the early turnout while Republicans make up 30% and voters with no affiliation represent 23% of the total, according to the 20 states that break the data down by party.

So far, Democrats appear to favor voting by mail, while Republicans favor voting in person.

— Spencer Kimball

President Donald Trump has jam-packed schedule in Pennsylvania, while Vice President Mike Pence is covering ground in North Carolina.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama will hit the campaign trail together for the first time with drive-in events in Michigan. Sen. Kamala Harris has a full schedule in Florida.

President Donald Trump

• Bucks County, Pennsylvania — Noon ET
• Reading, Pennsylvania — 2:30 p.m.
• Butler, Pennsylvania — 5:30 p.m. ET
• Montoursville, Pennsylvania — 8:00 p.m. ET

Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama

• Flint, Michigan drive-in event — 1:45 p.m. ET
• Detroit, Michigan drive-in event — 5:30 p.m. ET

Vice President Mike Pence

• Elm City, North Carolina — 11:30 a.m. ET
• Elizabeth City, North Carolina — 1:30 p.m. ET

Sen. Kamala Harris

• Miami, Florida drive-in event — 11:45 ET
• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida — 2:25 ET
• Lake Worth, Florida — 4:50 p.m. ET

— Spencer Kimball