As US elections near, Donald Trump and Joe Biden put last-gasp effort in key states

With 10 days to go for the US elections, US President Donald Trump and opponent Joe Biden presented their closing arguments in four key states – Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Ohio. With Trump trailing Biden in the polls, Trump plowed through three campaign rallies in one day, targeting separate battleground states as he sought to close the gap with Biden.

Campaigning at a fast pace, Trump, after casting his vote in Florida, travelled from North Carolina to Ohio, and later to Wisconsin, where he reiterated his optimism about the pandemic and repeating claims that the country is “rounding the turn” of the pandemic.

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Pennsylvania.

The US set a daily record for new COVID-19 cases for the second day in a row on Saturday, at nearly 89,000, with a further surge expected as cold weather arrives. Biden, in a Pennsylvania rally, attacked Trump’s poor handling of the crisis.

“That’s Donald Trump’s presidency,” Biden said during a drive-in rally, one of two events in his native Pennsylvania, a critical swing state. “Donald Trump said, and is still saying, we’re rounding the corner. It’s going away. We’re learning how to live with it. We’re not learning how to live with it. You’re asking us to learn how to die with it and it’s wrong,” AFP quoted Biden as saying.

Barack Obama, too, batted for Biden and reiterated how Trump’s administration responded during the COVID-19 situation.

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“We can make things better… That’s what voting is about, not making things perfect, but making things better. If we vote up and down the ticket like never before, we will elect Joe Biden,” Obama said.

Biden has a firm lead in national polls, and narrower leads in many battleground states like Florida that typically decide the winner of US presidential elections.

“I understand why some people voted for Donald Trump, they believe they weren’t seen, or being respected or heard… I get it. But then he got elected, he immediately forgot the Forgotten Man,” he said at the second rally in Dallas, Pennsylvania.

“You know, you’ll be seen and you’re heard and respected by me… if elected president, there’ll be no red states or blue states, only the United States,” he said.

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North Carolina.

Replying to the criticisms, Trump tweeted a series of comments and said that he is “‘better than Joe”. He also shrugged off polls that continue to show his Democratic rival Biden leading the race.

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“They want to depress you,” he said of the political and media outlets reporting the numbers. These polls are much better than four years ago. This election is a choice between a Trump super-recovery and a Biden depression,” he told supporters under a hot sun in North Carolina.

Florida.

Trump’s current grueling travels aim to repeat his 2016 feat. Earlier Saturday, Trump cast his own vote at a public library in Florida, telling reporters with a smile: “I voted for a guy named Trump.”

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He thus became one of nearly 55 million Americans to cast early ballots in a year when the coronavirus has made in-person voting problematic. Referring to earlier comments by Biden warning of a “dark winter” with Covid-19, Trump said he thought his rival was “very dark.”

“They say you sound too optimistic,” he added of himself. “That’s right, because I love this country. We’re optimists… Our country next year will be greater than ever before.”

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Ohio.

 In Ohio, Trump made his stop at Pickaway County, where he won 68.5% of the vote in 2016. He also headed to Waukesha County, Wisconsin, where Trump won in 2016 with an almost 30-point margin.

In Ohio, Trump is ahead 47-46 against Biden and no Republican in modern history has lost Ohio but gained the keys to the Oval Office.