WIN FLA., OR SEE YA LATER, ALLIGATOR
Joe & Don stump in state key to elex victory
All eyes are on the Sunshine State. President Trump and Joe Biden told supporters at competing rallies in Florida on Thursday that their state plays an outsized role in this year’s election and urged them to turn out in droves at the polls next week.
A Biden victory in Florida, which awards 29 Electoral College votes, would spell instant defeat for Trump, the Democratic challenger said during a socially distanced drive-in rally in Broward County north of Miami.
“The heart and soul of this country’s at stake right here in Florida,” Biden said. “You hold the key. If Florida goes blue, it’s over.”
By contrast, Trump sought to convince his Florida supporters that he’s their man by throwing red meat about Biden’s supposed COVID-19 plan to “lock down” the country if he wins.
“We’re never going to lock down again,” Trump told a large crowd in Tampa. “We locked down, we understood the disease and now we’re open for business, and that’s what it is.”
Despite Trump’s claims, Biden has not said he plans a large-scale shutdown. Rather, he has called for a national mask mandate and an extension of COVID-19 restrictions recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nationwide, more than 73 million Americans have already voted early by mail or in-person — a record buoyed by a massive turnout among registered Democrats — but Biden told his Florida supporters that Election Day voting is crucial as well, especially considering Republicans traditionally hold an edge in that tally.
There’s also cause for concern for Biden in that registered Florida Republicans appear to be narrowing the gap in early voting as Nov. 3 draws closer, with the Democratic edge dipping below 200,000 for the first time Thursday as ballots flooded in from deep-red rural and Gulf Coast counties.
But Biden stressed that Floridians should be adamant about wearing face masks if they vote in person on Tuesday, as COVID-19 continues to crush the nation, with the state seeing especially sharp upticks in hospitalization and infection rates.
The U.S. coronavirus death toll now tops 228,000 and resurgences are hampering more than 40 states, including Florida.
Nonetheless, very few people at Trump’s Tampa rally wore masks, and the president continued to dismiss the importance of social distancing.
“They’re doing it for political reasons,” Trump said of business restrictions in “Democrat-run states” like New York.
Biden focused a large chunk of his rally on painting Trump as “the worst standard-bearer for democracy” in an apparent bid to reach Florida’s increasingly influential Hispanic population.
“Trump can’t advance democracy and human rights for the Cuban people, for the Venezuelan people … when he has embraced so many autocrats around the
world,” Biden said, referencing Trump’s frequent praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Later in the evening, Biden held a rally in Tampa and responded directly to the president’s potshots.
“Donald Trump had a super-spreader event here again,” Biden said, speaking just miles from Trump’s event earlier in the day. “I’m not going to shut down the economy. I’m not going to shut down the country. I’m going to shut down the virus.”
Florida is a virtual must-win state for Trump, especially since polls show him unlikely to capture all the Rust Belt battleground states that he grabbed in the 2016 election.
Polls released Thursday did not bring Trump any comfort.
A Monmouth University survey had Trump 4%-6% behind Biden in Florida, the gap growing and shrinking depending on turnout projections. An NBC News poll offered a similar assessment, putting Biden in front of Trump by 5%, a lead forged by a boost of support among senior citizens who backed the president in 2016.
As Trump spoke in Tampa, several supporters in the crowd required medical attention after fainting from the scorching Florida heat, according to reports.
As organizers started blasting a water cannon into the crowd to cool people off, Trump at first thought he had come under attack.
“Are they friend or foe?” Trump mused to the crowd, as the stream of water shimmered over the audience. “Let’s find out if they’re friend or foe, and if they’re foe, let’s take care of those son of a b——-s.”
Later in the evening the president was supposed to rally supporters in North Carolina, another critical battleground state, but canceled because of inclement weather caused by Hurricane Zeta.
The North Carolina cancellation came as it was revealed that two attendants of a rally Trump held in the state last week tested positive for COVID-19.