President Donald Trump cast his vote in person in his adopted state of Florida on Saturday before addressing three rallies in battle states, seeking to build momentum for the final 10 days left of the vote ending Nov. 3.
Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee who on Friday promised free Covid-19 vaccines to all once they became available, will address two rallies in Pennsylvania, the battlefield state that has been described as the tipping point for the race of the 2020 White House. He will be joined by musician Jon Bon Jovi in one of them.
“I voted for a guy named Trump,” the president jokingly told reporters when asked who he voted for, at one of the first polling stations in West Palm Beach. “We are going to make three stops today, big, big rallies, three big … I don’t think there has ever been something like this, tremendous spirit.”
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More than 54 million Americans have already cast their votes, either by early voting in person or by mail, out of an estimated 240 million total eligible voters.
President Trump’s first rally of the day was in Fayetteville in North Carolina, a battleground state he won in 2016 but where he is now behind Biden by a slim 1.5 percentage point margin in the RealClearPolitics poll average.
His next stops were Columbus, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, also declaring that he won in 2016. But now he is behind Biden in Wisconsin by 4.6 points and Ohio, which won by 8.1% then, leads only by 0.6 points.
At his rallies, Trump has tried to build momentum by using talking points from the latest presidential debate to play on what he believes to be Biden’s vulnerabilities: changing positions on fossil fuels and fracking, for example, and financing of social security.
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“That could be one of the biggest mistakes made in the history of the presidential debate,” Trump said of Biden’s comments in the oil transition debate. “The oil industry pollutes significantly. … It has to be replaced by renewable energy over time, ”Biden had said.
The former vice president kept his focus on his key case against the president: his handling of the Covid-19 epidemic. “Last night, we saw the president of the United States lie to the American people, repeatedly, about the status of this pandemic,” Biden said in a speech from Wilmington, Delaware, referring to Thursday night’s debate.
After reiterating his criticism of Trump’s response to the epidemic, which has killed more than 224,000 Americans and infected nearly 8.5 million, Biden spoke at length about his own plan if elected and included increased production and availability of kits. test kit and protective equipment for medical care. professional, a mask mandate in federal buildings and free vaccinations.
“Once we have a safe and effective vaccine, it has to be free to everyone, insured or not,” he said, “Let me repeat it. This vaccine should be free and freely available to everyone. “
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