San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Trump casts his ballot as Biden faults him on virus
LUMBERTON, N. C. — President Trump on Saturday mocked Democrat Joe Biden as “an inspiring guy” for raising alarm about the pandemic even as the president attracted sizable campaign crowds with coronavirus cases surging across the country in the closing days of the race.
Biden, pressing the case that Trump doesn’t deserve a second term because of his handling of the pandemic, said at his own smaller drivein rally outside Philadelphia that he didn’t “like the idea of all this distance but it’s necessary” for public health.
“We don’t want to become superspreaders,” he said, using a term that has been used to described a Rose Garden event in late September where Trump announced his Supreme Court nominee. More than two dozen people linked to the White House have contracted COVID19 since that gathering.
Biden, with some help from rock star Jon Bon Jovi, courted voters in hotly contested pockets of Pennsylvania that could prove key to deciding the outcome of the race in the state.
Trump criticized Biden for saying during Thursday’s debate that the country is headed for a “dark winter” because of the pandemic — the scenario that health experts have warned about for months. The president jabbed at television news outlets for covering the pandemic, which has killed more than 224,000 people in the United States. The nation’s coronavirus tally reached record heights with more than 83,000 infections reported on Friday.
“We’re rounding the turn … our numbers are incredible,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Lumberton, N. C., that drew hundreds of people who stood shoulder to shoulder.
The president was holding rallies later in Circleville, Ohio, and Waukesha, Wis. Trump, who spent the night at his MaraLago resort after campaigning Friday in Florida, started his day by stopping at an early voting polling site at a public library to cast his own ballot. The president last year switched his official residence from New York to his private Florida club, complaining that New York politicians had treated him badly.
Greeted at the polling site by a crowd of cheering supporters, Trump could have mailed in his ballot, but opted to vote in person. He wore a mask inside, following local rules in place to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. He told reporters that he voted for “a guy named Trump” after casting his ballot.
Biden hasn’t voted and is likely do so in person on election day, Nov. 3., as Delaware doesn’t offer early voting. Trump, who has made unsubstantiated claims of massive fraud about mailin voting, gave another plug to inperson voting.
“When you send in your ballot it could never be like that. It could never be secure like that,” Trump said.
The rise in coronavirus cases are an ominous sign the disease still has a firm grip on the nation that has more confirmed virusrelated deaths and infections than any other in the world. Many states are reporting a surge of cases and say hospitals are running out of space.
More than 54 million votes have already have been cast in the election, with an additional 100 million or so expected before a winner is declared.