Democratic presidential
nominee will be joined by his former boss Barack Obama in Michigan on Saturday
as President Donald Trump will attempt to woo the battleground state of
Pennsylvania as both candidates ramp up their campaigns with the titanic
November 3 election just days away.

This will
mark the first-time former president Obama will join his erstwhile number two
on stage in a campaign event as the two will hold drive-in rallies in the
cities of Flint and Detroit in Michigan, AFP reported. They will be joined by
Stevie Wonder.

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Trump edged
his opponent Hillary Clinton in the industrial state by a hairline margin of
0.2 points in 2016, although Biden currently has a seven-point lead in the
state. That makes him favourite to grab the state’s 16 electoral votes, a considerable
addition towards the 270 needed to clinch the White House.

Obama has
been campaigning for Biden through the past week, hosting a number of rallies,
including in the crucial states of Florida and Pennsylvania, where he slammed
Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Although
Trump, who has hot back at Obama and dismissed his rallies as being much smaller
than his own, will host three rallies in Pennsylvania itself on Saturday, an
indicator of how valuable that state is to his ambitions of holding on to the
White House.

Similar to
Michigan, he won the state in 2016 by a narrow margin against Hillary Clinton
and every vote will be important if he hopes to seize the 20 electoral votes on
offer.

Biden will
hold rallies in the Keystone State on Sunday and Monday, a sign that his party also
sees the state as crucial for victory.

Both candidates
campaigned on Friday in the American Midwest, a region that propelled the
Republican to victory in 2016, hosting events in three heartland states chasing
every last vote.

However, their
heightened campaign events were overshadowed by the spike in coronavirus cases,
as the pandemic surges across the nation once more. Over 94,000 cases were recorded
on Friday, a record number for the second consecutive day, as total cases
crossed the nine million mark.

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Regardless,
Trump, who has claimed the virus will “disappear” and “go away”, maintained his
defiant stance against the pandemic during his rallies in Michigan, Wisconsin
and Minnesota.

“We just
want normal,” he told supporters, a large number of who were not wearing masks,
at an outdoor rally in Detroit, as he urged states to relax health-safety
protocols and pave the way for resumption of normal life.

Once again,
Trump overlooked the advice of health experts from his own administration as he
downplayed the threat of the pandemic, saying, “if you get it, you’re going to
get better, and then you’re going to be immune”.

The virus
has claimed the lives of almost 230,000 Americans, and hospitals brace for a
surge in infections in nearly every state, with the winter flu season also looming.

The
outbreak has ravaged the economy, and while there have been signs of recovery,
millions remain jobless. Trump has touted the economic successes of his
presidency, including record GDP figures released on Thursday.

But US
stocks closed out their worst week since March, highlighting concerns about a
shaky recovery.

And with
voters concerned about the health hazards of crowded polling stations on
November 3, a record 86 million have already cast early ballots by mail or in
person.

After a
campaign largely muted by the pandemic, Biden is on the offensive, pushing
Trump onto the back foot in unexpected battlegrounds like Texas, a large,
traditionally conservative bastion now rated a toss-up by multiple analysts.

On Friday,
the state reported that a staggering nine million residents had already voted,
surpassing its 2016 total.

Biden’s
running mate Kamala Harris visited Texas Friday in a bid to turn the state
Democratic for the first time since president Jimmy Carter in 1976.

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Biden
winning there would be a major blow to Trump, but the president dismissed the
notion, saying, “Texas, we’re doing very well.”

Biden also
stumped Friday in Wisconsin and in Minnesota, where he sharpened his attacks on
the president on everything from Trump seeking to dismantle Obama-era health
care protections and keeping his taxes secret to climate change and trade
policy with China.

“We cannot
afford four more years of Donald Trump,” the Democrat said at a socially
distanced drive-in rally in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“So
honk your horn if you want America to lead again!” he said, embracing the
awkward pandemic-era campaign trend of rallying supporters in their vehicles.

In Iowa, he
attacked Trump over his handling of the pandemic, telling another drive-in
rally in Des Moines that Trump has “given up (and) waved the white
flag.”