Bangkok Post

Trump kicks in last-ditch push

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>> PENSACOLA: Donald Trump launched an intense last-ditch re-election push on Friday in Florida, insisting that Covid-19 is disappeari­ng, while frontrunne­r Joe Biden hammered his message that the president had abdicated responsibi­lity for a pandemic that is actually surging.

With 50 million people having already cast early ballots, Mr Biden has a firm lead in national polls, as well as in most of the battlegrou­nd states like Florida that typically decide the winner of US presidenti­al elections.

The drama of the final TrumpBiden televised debate on Thursday was thought unlikely to move the needle significan­tly.

But Mr Trump pulled off a stunning upset when he defeated the favourite Hillary Clinton in 2016 and he will now make a gruelling series of campaign stops through the battlegrou­nds to try and repeat that feat.

Targeting the politicall­y powerful seniors’ vote in Florida, Mr Trump began with a rally in the famous retirement community The Villages, where he told a large crowd that all Mr Biden talks about is “Covid, Covid, Covid” to try and “scare people.”

“We’re going to quickly end this pandemic, this horrible plague,” he said, underlinin­g his consistent message that the virus is on a rapid decline, when in fact case numbers are spiralling upward again, with more than 220,000 Americans already dead. Referring to Mr Biden’s warning of a “dark winter” ahead, Mr Trump countered: “We’re not entering a dark winter. We’re entering the final turn and approachin­g the light at the end of the tunnel.”

He then pivoted to his own scare tactics, claiming that Mr Biden would let in hordes of illegal immigrants that he said were comprised of “criminals and rapists and even murderers.”

“Joe Biden cares more about illegal aliens than he does about senior citizens,” he said.

Mr Trump finished his day with a rally in Pensacola, Florida, where he told the cheering crowd that “11 days from now, we’re going to win my home state of Florida.”

While he is a lifelong New Yorker, Mr Trump changed his residency to Florida during his White House tenure and yesterday he was to cast his own ballot in West Palm Beach.

The rest of the weekend will see Mr Trump, 74, maintainin­g the frenetic pace with rallies in North Carolina and Ohio yesterday, then New Hampshire on today, before a spate of more rallies next week. Mr Trump said that by Nov 3 he’ll be doing “five or six a day.”

Mr Biden, as throughout the coronaviru­s-disrupted 2020 campaign, remained lower key. But even the 77-year-old Democrat is ramping up activity in the final stretch.

In his home state of Delaware, he gave a speech about economic recovery from the pandemic, slamming Mr Trump’s record and vowing — as Trump has — that he would provide a safe coronaviru­s vaccine to all who want it.

“We saw him refuse to take responsibi­lity for a crisis that should have been met with real, presidenti­al leadership,” Mr Biden said. “We saw him diminish the pain felt by so many Americans.”

Today, Mr Biden will travel to Pennsylvan­ia, a battlegrou­nd state.

 ??  ?? TARGETING FLORIDA: United States President Donald Trump waves at the end of an campaign rally at Pensacola Internatio­nal Airport on Friday.
TARGETING FLORIDA: United States President Donald Trump waves at the end of an campaign rally at Pensacola Internatio­nal Airport on Friday.

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