A day after the nation hit a new high for coronavirus cases, President Trump returned to the campaign for a series of rallies, once again attempting to minimize the growing pandemic. He mocked his rival Joseph R. Biden Jr. for following social distancing recommendations from public health officials.
With the numbers rising, Mr Trump continued to lean on the idea on Saturday that the news media and its critics are obsessed with the virus, despite polls showing widespread public concern. A recent New York Times / Siena College poll found that a slim majority of voters (including half of the independents) believe that the worst pandemic is yet to come.
“That’s all I hear about now. That’s all I hear, turn on the TV, “Trump said at a campaign rally in Lumberton, NC,” Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, “a refrain he also did in the state on Wednesday .
10 days to go and hundreds of thousands of voters expected to cast their ballots as long lines were the first weekend of the early personal voting in Florida, New York, Wisconsin and other states, Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden faces widely divergent cases, both in words and deeds, of how they would deal with the pandemic that is still gripping the country.
Mr. Biden made two stops on Pennsylvania’s main battlefield and cited the milestone in cases at a drive-in rally in the suburbs of Philadelphia on Saturday and criticized Mr. Trump for claiming the country was “around the corner”, as the falls rose.
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“They are asking us to learn how to die with it and it is wrong,” said Mr Biden in Bucks County, recalling his exchange with Mr Trump on the matter at Thursday’s debate. He added that “a dark winter is ahead if we don’t change our ways”.
The beeping of the car horns underlined his remarks, a familiar soundtrack to his socially distant drive-in events in the weeks leading up to election day. “I wish I could drive from car to car and meet you all,” said Mr. Biden at a community college speaking from a stage decorated with pumpkins and hay bales. “I don’t like the idea of all that distance, but it’s necessary. I appreciate that you are safe. What we don’t want is to become a super spreader. “
In North Carolina, it appeared that Mr. Trump had watched his rival’s event and mocked Mr. Biden for his careful crowd. “You know, people in cars. I don’t get it, ”said Mr. Trump.
“You heard a few horns,” he added. “The strangest thing.”
From there, Mr. Trump drove to Circleville, Ohio, outside of Columbus, and then to Waukesha, Wisconsin. On Sunday, he’s flying to New Hampshire, the only state on his weekend trip that he didn’t take with him in 2016 and part of a hop plan reminiscent of his last intense thrust four years ago.
But the surge in the virus has ensured that even Mr Trump’s well-attended rallies can be a political strain, a reminder to voters fearful of the pandemic of his regular disregard for expert and health advice. Mr Trump used his own contagion with the disease, weekend hospitalization and subsequent recovery as a pitch to help minimize the severity of a pandemic that has cost more than 220,000 lives in more than eight million cases in the United States.
“By the way, I had it, here I am,” he said.
Mr Trump started his day in Florida where he joined the more than 56 million Americans who have already voted. He personally cast his vote at the Palm Beach County Main Library and declared, “I voted for a man named Trump.”
After that, he continued to question the integrity of the elections and, in particular, the postal vote in an unfounded manner. “This is the only way we can lose,” said Trump, referring to the crowd at his rallies. Most polls show that Mr Trump is well behind nationally and in many of the critical battlefield states.
Mr. Biden’s entire day in Pennsylvania was a sign of the vital importance of the state in its calculations for the electoral college. After his rally in Bucks County, which Hillary Clinton won by less than a percentage point in 2016, he flew to Luzerne County in the northeastern part of the state, where he held a drive-in rally that featured singer Jon Bon Jovi. Lucerne County is near Mr. Biden’s hometown of Scranton, and it’s a historically democratic county that turned Mr. Trump around by a wide margin in 2016.
Along with Mr. Biden’s appearances this weekend, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was in western Pennsylvania on Saturday, hosting an election rally in Pittsburgh and a drive-in rally with Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. And in yet another sign of Pennsylvania’s potential as a turning point for 2020, the Biden campaign sent former President Barack Obama there for his first in-person general election event last week. Mr Obama fought in Florida on Saturday.
“It can come to Pennsylvania,” said Mr. Biden in Bucks County. “And I believe in you. I believe in my state. “
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