Divided States
After a final day of marathon rallies and rhetoric, it’s time for America to decide
WASHINGTON—Nov. 2 is All Souls’ Day, in some Christian faiths an occasion of prayer and remembrance for the dead. In the U.S. this year, Nov. 2 was also the day before the presidential election — the last day of the campaign, marked by the frenzied barnstorming by the candidates. The coincidence of the two observances may strike many as particularly appropriate in an battle for the soul of the nation.” The U.S. election in 2020 has been a campaign whose contours were marked by death: 231,000 Americans lost to COVID, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor killed by police officers, civil rights heroes John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed instantly into historic memory. “Names we will never know / Voices we have never heard / In lands we may never visit / Yet brothers and sisters all,” as a Catholic All Souls’ prayer says, before asking for blessings for migrants, victims of hunger and infectious disease, “refugees seeking asylum,” and victims of emergencies and calamities.
It reads like a list of suffering customwritten for the political debates of this calamitous American year.
But for candidates and their campaigns, it was hardly a time of reflection — they may have been lucky to stop to breathe — as they spent the day on the wing (if not always in prayer) getting in front of as many voters as possible to make their closing arguments. Their messages were less than solemn. Biden is “a career politician who hates you,” Trump said. Trump is a “disgrace,” Biden said.
Here’s a (highly abbreviated) rundown of how the day went on All Souls’ Day, the final day of 2020 campaign, compiled with the help of the campaign press pool reporters and the familiar livestreaming technology that has defined the year.
10:10 a.m.: Democratic nominee Joe Biden boards a plane in New Castle, Del., giving the press pool a thumbs-up and shouting “One more day!”
11 a.m.: Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris, getting off her plane at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Airport in Pennsylvania, tells a press scrum on the tarmac, “The plan is, for the next I don’t know how many hours we have left, to remind everyone of what’s at stake and to make sure that everyone votes.” As she speaks at the airport, a long line is forming for President Donald Trump’s event to be held there later in the day.
11:53 a.m.: Trump takes the stage in Fayetteville, N.C., in a MAGA hat, overcoat and gloves. “We have five of these today — five. We have some big ones,” he tells the crowd. “You have the power to vote, so go out and vote unless you’re going to vote for somebody other than me, in which case, sit it out.”
12:02 p.m.: Biden addresses a crowd in Cleveland, Ohio. “Last night, Trump says he’s going to fire Dr. Fauci. I’ve got a better idea. Elect me and we’ll hire Dr. Fauci. We’ll fire Donald Trump.”
1 p.m.: Trump finishes his remarks in Fayetteville during which he complained that the media had not been covering the Hunter Biden story as much as he’d like them to. “We don’t have freedom of the press. We probably haven’t had it for a long time,” he said. “We have suppression by the press.”
1:53 p.m.: Harris addresses a drive-in rally of 88 cars in Lehigh Valley, Pa. “Joe knows we are done with a so-called leader who has tried to sow hate and division and get Americans to turn on one another,” she says in her speech. “Joe knows the true measure of strength of any human being is measured not on who you beat down, but who you lift up.”
1:59 p.m.: Biden’s motorcade arrives in Beaver County, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh, where he addresses a campaign canvass kickoff. “Here’s the amazing thing about this moment in history: on the one hand we are facing the biggest threat to who we are and what we believe that we’ve seen in our lifetimes,” he says. “But on the other hand, our future has never been more promising.”
2p.m.: At Vice-President Mike Pence’s rally in Erie, Pa., Olivia Nuzzi of New York magazine reports the event Wi-Fi network is named “FilledTheSeat” and the password is “JusticeBarrett.”
2:15 p.m.: Trump appears at a rally at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Airport, tossing MAGA hats into the crowd. “We win Pennsylvania, we win the whole deal,” he said. He criticized the Supreme Court for its decision to allow all votes cast before election day in Pennsylvania to be counted. “They made a dangerous situation,” he said. “I mean dangerous physically.” During his speech he mocks Lady Gaga for campaigning with Biden, and says of Jon Bon Jovi, who has endorsed Biden, “Every time I see him, he kisses my ass.”
2:30 p.m.: Former president Barack Obama holds a rally for Biden in Atlanta. “He’s going around spreading COVID,” he says of Trump. “Because he cares more about having big crowds than he does about keeping people safe. He told his supporters, ‘Don’t tell anybody,’ but he’s going to fire Dr. Fauci after the election.” Obama said. “So Georgia, if you think they’ve done a bad job at managing COVID so far, basically what they’re telling you now is you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
5:04 p.m.: Biden stops to visit some student organizers in Pittsburgh with Lady Gaga at his side. “You guys can own this election, you can own it. I really mean it. So I’m counting on you,” he said, talking of the potential power of youth turnout. Then he previewed the event he’d be holding later: “Lady Gaga’s gonna be speaking, I’m gonna be singing,” he said.
5:40 p.m.: Biden, wearing a dark overcoat, attends a drive-in rally with Black community leaders. “Pittsburgh, there’s one more day to show who we are once again. Tomorrow, we can end the presidency that has divided this nation,” he said, as attendees honked their horns.
“The power to change this country is in your hands … we’re done with the chaos. We’re done with the racism, we’re done with the tweets. We’re done with the anger, the hate, the failure, the irresponsibility. But we’ve got a lot of work to do, folks.”
5:46 p.m.: Obama takes the stage for a rally in Miami. “What we need is competence and hope, in the most important election of our lifetimes,” he says. “Florida, you delivered for me twice, now I’m asking you to deliver for all of us.”
5:49 p.m.: Trump and Pence hold a rally together in Traverse City, Mich., where there is snow on the ground and the sky is red as the sun sets over the outdoor rally. “The women of the suburbs, they love me I think,” Trump said. “They love their home, they love their house … they like safety and security,” he went on. “Well, I like the women, I think they’re great.”
Later in the rally Trump said, “Biden is the embodiment of the decrepit and depraved political class that bled America dry.” The crowd chanted, “Thank you Trump!” and “Lock them up!” at various points. Trump fantasized about the Washington Post and other “fake news media” reacting to a Biden presidency by meeting and trying to draft Trump to come back. “They’re gonna be saying, ‘Please, please run again.’ ”
The themes were obvious, and repeated: Biden and his allies promising a different approach to COVID and to the nation’s divisions, Trump pumping up those divisions with as much windpower as his marathon rallies could hold. Both sides attacking. And it wasn’t over yet: Trump was scheduled to hold rallies in Kenosha, Wis., and Grand Rapids, Mich.; Harris was appearing with singer John Legend in Philadelphia; Biden was holding a rally with Lady Gaga in Pittsburgh.
The events would not likely wrap up until All Souls’ Day was over. And then, the speeches and rallies and endless appeals for donations at an end, anxious and exhausted voters could end the night gratefully saying the same words Biden used to kick off the morning: One. More. Day.