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US-VOTE NEWSERIES
Trump sets hectic campaign pace, while frontrunner Biden stays home
JANESVILLE, United States, Oct 18, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – President Donald
Trump campaigned at a frenetic pace Saturday in a three-state trip
that started with a Michigan rally where he called opponent Joe Biden
a “criminal” and pounded his claim that the Democrats are
anti-American.
Addressing a rally in Muskegon, Michigan, Trump focused on US
culture war themes, telling a large cheering crowd that the Democrats
wanted to “erase American history, purge American values and destroy
the American way of life.”
And he ramped up his increasingly intense attempt to paint Biden as
corrupt, pushing the same conspiracy theory that led to his
impeachment last year and a new, murky report in the New York Post
that purports to reveal evidence of corruption by Biden’s son Hunter.
“Joe Biden is a corrupt politician and the Biden family is a
criminal enterprise,” Trump said to more cheers.
“He’s a criminal, he’s committed crimes,” he said. “He’s a national
security risk.”
Trump — who was impeached for allegedly abusing his office in an
attempt to find dirt on Biden, and later acquitted — had the campaign
trail all to himself just 17 days before the election.
– Frantic vs low key –
He flew on to Wisconsin, a state in the bull’s eye of a resurgent
US coronavirus spread, where he told jubilant supporters in
Janesville: “I did this for us, not for me, believe me.”
Trump was ending the day in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will hold
another rally in Carson City on Sunday.
“President Trump’s strategy is to work for the vote of the American
people,” his spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News.
“It’s why he’ll be in two states today, he’ll have two rallies
tomorrow, two more in Arizona on Monday, and he’s going all in.”
Biden, who has run a strikingly low-key campaign yet leads in
strings of polls, stayed home in Delaware with no public events. He
was due to campaign in North Carolina on Sunday.
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The Republican incumbent, who only got out of the hospital two
weeks ago after falling ill with Covid-19, is planning to keep up the
pace throughout the final stretch of the campaign, with almost daily
rallies, in hope that his hardcore base will turn out in huge numbers.
The enthusiasm was evident on Saturday. The crowd shouted “we love
you” and, with Trump’s encouragement, chanted “lock her up” in
reference to Michigan’s Democratic governor — the recent target of a
right-wing kidnap plot.
Closing after 90 minutes, Trump remained on stage briefly to dance
to the sounds of Village People’s “YMCA.”
– Covid, what Covid? –
Conspicuously absent in his stump speech is any real discussion of
the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 219,000 Americans, with more
than eight million infected, and is spreading again at rates not seen
for months.
Polls show that an overwhelming majority does not approve of
Trump’s erratic handling of the pandemic. This has veered from the
record-speed push for a vaccine to the president’s constant claims
that the coronavirus poses little risk and his repeated downplaying of
the need to wear masks.
Biden has made this record the center of his campaign, promising to
bring what he terms more sober, less politicized leadership to the
national crisis.
Biden issued a statement Saturday saying that “President Trump is
knowingly downplaying the severity of the virus.”
“At virtually every turn, he has panicked and tried to wish it
away, rather than doing the hard work to get it under control,” Biden
said.
– Can Trump catch up? –
Trump likes to say that his packed rallies are evidence of strength
not reflected in “fake” election polls. He also points out that in
2016 few believed he could beat the apparently solid frontrunner
Hillary Clinton.
But other than barnstorming the country and hoping that his new
push to smear Biden will stick, he has little leverage to shift the
dynamics of a race that for weeks has shown consistent advantages for
the Democrat.
One chance will be the final televised debate between the
candidates on Thursday. However, more than 21 million Americans have
already cast ballots in unprecedented early voting, meaning that the
election is already in the process of being decided.
And while Biden is running a much quieter campaign, there was
evidence Saturday of popular energy on the Democratic side when
thousands of people protested in Washington and other cities against
the rapid Republican confirmation of Trump’s latest conservative pick
for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett.
Some Republicans, including Trump ally Senator Ted Cruz, have
warned of a major defeat on November 3.
But Biden’s campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley Dillon said in a
Saturday memo reported by The New York Times that the race is far
closer than many realize.
“This race is far closer than some of the punditry we’re seeing on
Twitter and on TV would suggest,” she wrote, the Times reported. “In
the key battleground states where this election will be decided, we
remain neck and neck with Donald Trump.”
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