[ad_1]
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday asked the US attorney general to investigate his Democratic opponent “criminal” Joe Biden, as he addressed a rally in key Pennsylvania state two weeks before Election Day. .
Polls show Trump is depressed or in tight competition in most of the decisive states that decide presidential races, but he believes a combination of frenzied campaigns and personal scorched-earth attacks on Biden is giving him new impetus.
“Things are changing fast,” Trump told Fox & Friends on Tuesday, stating that his own poll showed Biden is “imploding.”
There is little visible evidence that the Democrat is actually slipping with 14 days before Nov. 3 and before the last televised presidential debate on Thursday.
Yet just over two weeks ago, Trump was in the hospital with Covid-19 and Biden had the field to himself, underscoring his central message that the Republican president has failed the country in handling the coronavirus pandemic. .
This week, it is Biden who has almost disappeared from the election campaign, ostensibly to prepare for the debate, and his team informed reporters at 9.30 a.m. Tuesday that he had no more in-person events scheduled for that day.
In his absence, Trump is flooding the area with an intense search for a murky story describing Biden as corrupt and hosting late-night rallies, including Tuesday night’s event where he will be joined by his wife Melania in Erie, Pennsylvania, a field. crucial battle.
Investigate ‘before the elections’
Trump is the subject of multiple allegations of sexual assault, financial wrongdoing and is also the first president to run for re-election after being indicted.
Yet he won in 2016 in part thanks to the success of a last-minute push to cast doubt on the honesty of his opponent Hillary Clinton and has now dusted off that playbook.
This time, the attack centers on a conspiracy theory about the business activities of the Biden family. Crowds at Trump rallies have even reused the old 2016 anti-Clinton chant for Biden, yelling “lock him up.”
According to Trump, Hunter, Biden’s son with personal problems, sold access to his father in Ukraine and China when he was vice president of Barack Obama.
The narrative has been given new life on the eve of the election with the publication of a Trump-friendly New York Post story, based on information provided by Trump’s allies, about the alleged discovery of incriminating information on a laptop belonging to Hunter. Biden. .
Trump took his tactic a step further Tuesday when he not only called Joe Biden “a criminal” but demanded on Fox News that Attorney General Bill Barr “act and act fast.”
“You have to know before the election,” Trump said.
Pennsylvania Push
According to a new poll from The New York Times / Siena College, Biden has a nine-point lead nationally. Although this reflects the consensus of the polls, there are outliers, including IBD / TIPP, which accurately predicted the 2016 crash result and sees a much tighter race now, with Biden just 2.3 points ahead.
Pennsylvania is one of half a dozen states that Trump more or less has to win to maintain the presidency. Polls show Biden ahead, although a Reuters / Ipsos poll this week showed the gap is narrowing slightly.
Trump’s election of Erie is important because this was long a Democratic stronghold and he won there in 2016, highlighting his ability to turn the white, uneducated vote of the working class into his populist rhetoric.
It is also significant that he will be accompanied by the first lady, who rarely campaigns, but can be seen as helping him with the women’s vote, an area where polls show Trump in serious trouble.
As Biden continues to try to focus on Trump’s handling of the pandemic, depicting him as an irresponsible leader who panicked, the president is capitalizing on frustration in places like Pennsylvania with the economic impact of closures and social distancing.
“We will never close,” Trump promised Tuesday, a message he will likely repeat out loud at the rally.
