Trump news: President plays down record Covid spike as Obama mocks him for ending 60 Minutes interview
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The campaign heated up on Saturday with multiple events scheduled for both the Trump and Biden campaign, as Election Day draws closer with just 10 days left.
Mr Trump started his day by voting early in West Palm Beach, Florida. After he voted, the president claimed going to the polls was “much more secure” than mail-in voting. He’s used this rhetoric in the last couple of months to discourage Americans from choosing mail-in voting over going to the polls in person amid the coronavirus pandemic, claiming the method encourages fraud.
Then Mr Trump stopped in the battleground state of North Carolina for an afternoon rally in Lumberton. During the rally, the president claimed he won the last presidential debate by 91 per cent to 9 per cent without citing a specific pollster. Polls by CNN, Politico, and YouGov all have Democratic challenger Joe Biden as the winner of the debate.
After North Carolina, Mr Trump continued his tour of battleground states by stopping in Circleville, Ohio. He is scheduled to also speak in Wisconsin later this evening.
All three of these states are currently hotspot locations for the coronavirus with cases and hospitalisations increasing.
On Friday, the US hit the grim milestone of the most new coronavirus cases in a single day since the start of the pandemic. Mr Trump belittled the milestone by claiming both at his rallies and in tweets that only cases were increasing, but hospitalisations are also on the rise in at least 33 states. Experts warn the mortality rate could soon follow.
Mr Biden was also on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania on Saturday. He held two rallies, and they involved him accusing the president of lying about the severity of the novel virus.
The former vice president’s campaign got an added boost with President Barack Obama campaigning for him in Miami, Florida, and singer Jon Bon Jovi campaigning for him in Pennsylvania.
Trump to hold second rally of the day in Ohio
Donald Trump has landed in Ohio and is headed for Circleville for his second of three campaign rallies for Saturday.
The president was in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday morning to cast his vote before he held a rally in Lumberton, North Carolina.
Following the second rally, which was scheduled originally for 4pm EST, the president will head to Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Biden hits Trump on coronavirus at second Pennsylvania rally
Clearly banking on the pandemic being one of voters’ prime concerns, along with the economic recovery, Biden again accused Trump of fumbling his response.
Appearing at his second rally of the day in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, where both candidates have spent an increasing amount of time, Biden referenced Friday’s record spike in cases – 83,000 compared to previous high of 77,000 all the way back in July – as he accused the president of turning a blind eye.
Timing is everything
Trump is often late for his rallies, usually between about 15 and 30 minutes. But for the second of his third appearances today – this one in Circleville, Ohio – he was an uncharacteristic 52 minutes late. It may be a coincidence that his entrance happened about a minute after Biden tied up his speech, meaning broadcasters could focus their full attention on the incumbent. But given Trump’s background in television and obsession with ratings, that seems unlikely.
“It’s amazing the way God works,” he muses, as he returns to the subject of laptops that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden and complains that the media is treating the story with suspicion. Mr Trump appears to have some divine support as he speaks – a group of MAGA-masked nuns standing in the crowd behind him.
Christmas comes early
As he did in his first rally of the day in North Carolina, Trump has returned to an old but recently neglected favourite – how he once again allowed people to say “Merry Christmas”.
In 2018 he reassured people that under his presidency it would be safe to use the phrase again, something that puzzled millions who hadn’t realised they weren’t meant to be saying it. Many took it as a repudiation of political correctness and the idea of saying the more inclusive “Happy Holidays” to take in those marking Hannukah or Kwanzaa.
However, as The Guardian pointed out last year, even the Trump Store was still offering a Holiday Gift Guide last December rather than a Christmas one. Perhaps a second Trump term will help make progress on the issue.
If Trump ran an airline …
An interesting take on Trump’s attitude towards coronavirus from Josh Jordan of Chicago, Illinois:
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