President Donald Trump said he voted “for a man named Trump” on Saturday and called it a “honour” to cast his own ballot in his adopted home state of Florida before he launched a campaign in three battleground states, where massive crowds were waiting, even as coronavirus cases are on record in the region.
Democrat Joe Biden, insisting that Trump doesn’t deserve a second term due to his handling of the pandemic, told the rally outside Philadelphia that he didn’t “like the idea of all this distance, but it’s important” for public health reasons.
“We don’t want to become super-spreaders,” he said, using a phrase that was used to describe the Rose Garden case at the end of September when Trump revealed his nominee to the Supreme Court. After that meeting, more than two dozen people connected to the White House have contracted COVID-19.
Biden, with some support from the rock legend Jon Bon Jovi, was courting voters in the fiercely contested pockets of Pennsylvania that could prove to be the key to determining the outcome of the election in the state.
Trump, who spent the night at his Mar-a – Lago resort after campaigning Friday in Florida, stopped at an early polling station in the public library. Last year, the president moved his official residence from New York to his private club in Florida, alleging that New York politicians had treated him badly.
Greeted by a crowd of cheering supporters at the polling place, Trump may have mailed his ballot, but preferred to vote in person. He wore a mask inside, following local laws in place to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Biden has not voted and is likely to do so in person on Election Day, Nov. 3, as Delaware does not provide early voting. Trump, who made unsubstantiated allegations of widespread fraud in the field of mail-in voting, gave another plug to in-person voting.
“It will never be like that when you send in your vote. It’s never going to be safe like that, “Trump said before leaving for his campaign.
Rallyes were scheduled for Lumberton, North Carolina, Circleville, Ohio, and Waukesha, Wisconsin, and the President is promising to take full advantage of the final 10 days of the campaign, even as the number of new coronavirus cases continues to increase.
The United States registered daily coronavirus cases of more than 83,000 confirmed infections, thousands more than the previous US high in July. The U.S. death toll has risen to almost 224.00, according to a study released by Johns Hopkins University. The total U.S. caseload reported on Friday was 83,757, up from 77,362 cases reported on July 16.
The numbers are an ominous indication that the disease still has a heavy grip on the nation that has more reported virus-related deaths and infections than any other in the world. Many states register a surge in cases and claim hospitals are running out of room in areas where the pandemic appeared remote just months earlier.
Biden’s first stop was in Bucks County, part of suburban Philadelphia, where Hillary Clinton won a slim margin in the 2016 White House election. He was expected to hold another rally later on Saturday in Luzern County, a blue-collar district that twice voted for Barack Obama but was overwhelmingly on Trump’s side four years ago. Biden’s campaign said that the former vice president will be joined by Bon Jovi, a native of neighbouring New Jersey, who will be singing at the Luzern gathering.
More than 54 million votes have already been cast in the Nov. 3 election, with an additional 100 million or so predicted before the winner is announced.
The pandemic has driven Trump to the defensive for most of the fall, but for the time being it’s the Biden team that has been forced to justify itself. In the final minutes of Thursday night’s debate, the former vice president said he favoured a “transition” away from oil in the US in favour of renewable energy. The campaign issued a statement hours later saying that it would phase out tax incentives for fossil fuel firms, not the industry as a whole.
But Trump, who was campaigning in Florida, repeatedly seized the issue.
“This may be one of the greatest errors made in the history of presidential discourse,” he said at a Friday rally in The Villages, a large-scale retirement community in central Florida. Later, in Pensacola, Trump recalled a moment of glee.
As Florida continues to record thousands of new COVID-19 cases every day, audience members stood and sat shoulder to shoulder, and Make America Great Again hats far outnumbered face covers. In-person voting in the state started on Monday.
As part of his damage control, Biden dispatched running mate Kamala Harris to help explain his stance as she campaigned in the swing state of Georgia on Friday. During his remarks in Bucks County, he also tried to explain his stance.
“Let me be specific, I’m not banning fracturing in PA or anywhere else,” Biden said.
As for Biden and oil, while putting an end to the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels is common among many liberals, the idea could hurt working-class voters in swing states, such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas, who rely on industry, and, in particular, on fracturing, to make a living.
Trump’s allies immediately started to launch fresh assaults on the Democrats’ contradictory energy responses.
As part of his strategy to tackle climate change, Biden said that he would only ban new gas and oil permits — including fracturing — on federal lands. The vast majority of oil and gas does not come from federal property.
