Chattanooga Times Free Press

Virus colors White House race in final days

- BY JILL COLVIN, WILL WEISSERT AND AAMER MADHANI

DALLAS, Pa. — President Donald Trump assured supporters packed shoulder to shoulder Saturday that “we’re rounding the turn” on the coronaviru­s — despite spiking cases — and mocked challenger Joe Biden for raising alarms about the pandemic. Meanwhile, Biden bemoaned to a smaller gathering the need to campaign at a distance but said he understood the public health reasons behind it.

With coronaviru­s infections reaching their highest peak of the pandemic just as the election headed into the home stretch, Trump and Biden took starkly different approaches to the public health crisis in appealing for votes in battlegrou­nd states.

“We don’t want to become supersprea­ders,” Biden said at a “drive-in” rally Saturday in Bucks County, Pennsylvan­ia.

The former vice president said Trump was showing dangerous indifferen­ce to the surging virus on a day he looked to boost his candidacy with the star power of rock legend Jon Bon Jovi, who performed before Biden took the stage at a second drive-in rally in Luzerne County, Pennsylvan­ia.

Meanwhile, in Lumberton, North Carolina, Trump said he watched Biden’s Bucks County rally as he flew to North Carolina and sarcastica­lly observed that it appeared attendees, who were in their cars, weren’t properly socially distancing.

Trump criticized the news media for focusing on the virus, which has killed about 224,000 people in the United States.

“It’s always cases, cases, cases. They don’t talk about deaths,” Trump told a crowd of several thousand at an outdoor rally in Circlevill­e, Ohio, where few wore masks as they stood and sat shoulder to shoulder. “They’re trying to scare everybody,” he said.

Earlier, at a rally in North Carolina, Trump questioned the value of testing, taking a stance in opposition to public health experts across the globe.

“You know why we have cases?” said Trump, who was scheduled hold another rally in Wisconsin in the evening. “‘Cause we test so much. And in many ways, it’s good. And in many ways, it’s foolish. In many ways, OK? In many ways it’s very foolish.”

In addition to the spike in cases, hospitaliz­ations are also up in many parts of the country, as is the percentage of people who test positive.

Trump also continued to criticize Biden for saying the country was headed for a “dark winter” because of the pandemic — the scenario of a surge in infections that health experts warned about for months.

“We’re rounding the turn … our numbers are incredible,” Trump claimed. A record of more than 83,000 infections were reported on Friday alone.

The rise in coronaviru­s cases is a sign the disease still has a firm grip on the nation that has more confirmed virus-related deaths and infections than any other in the world. Many states say hospitals are running out of space in areas where the pandemic seemed remote only months ago.

Biden in his stop in Luzerne told supporters that Trump had suggested the COVID-19 mortality rate was lower outside predominan­tly Democratic states.

“Where does this guy come from?” Biden said.

The president has repeatedly accused Biden and other Democrats of pushing measures that are worse than the coronaviru­s itself by advocating for social distancing, limits on gatherings and closing in-person schools and businesses that Trump says wreak havoc on the economy.

Biden, in an interview with Pod Save America that aired Saturday, said his first priority is to “get control of the virus” because the economy can’t move forward without stemming the disease.

“As I said before, I will shut down the virus, not the economy,” Biden said in Bucks County. “We can walk and chew gum at the same time, and build back better than before.”

Trump, who spent Friday night at his private Mar-a-Lago club after campaignin­g in Florida, visited an early voting polling site set up at a public library to cast his own ballot Saturday morning. The president last year switched his official residence from New York to Florida.

 ?? AP PHOTO/ANDREW HARNIK ?? Democratic presidenti­al candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event Saturday at Dallas High School in Dallas, Pa.
AP PHOTO/ANDREW HARNIK Democratic presidenti­al candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event Saturday at Dallas High School in Dallas, Pa.
 ?? AP PHOTO/PHIL LONG ?? President Donald Trump speaks Saturday during a campaign rally at the Pickeringt­on County Fairground­s in Circlevill­e, Ohio.
AP PHOTO/PHIL LONG President Donald Trump speaks Saturday during a campaign rally at the Pickeringt­on County Fairground­s in Circlevill­e, Ohio.

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