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President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden gave starkly contrasting messages on Saturday (local time) about the coronavirus pandemic, taking their campaigns for the White House on the road as COVID-19 cases resurfaced.
Trump addressed a few thousand supporters at a well-attended, in-person, open-air rally in North Carolina, one of the battlefield states in the Nov.3 election. He again said that the United States was turning the corner in the fight against COVID-19 and mocked Biden’s more cautious campaign style.
Biden, a former vice president, addressed supporters in about 130 vehicles at a rally in the changing state of Pennsylvania and warned of a bleak winter ahead unless the Trump administration did a better job of stopping the disease, which has killed 224,000 Americans. .
Opinion polls show Biden leading Trump nationally, but the race is much closer in the battlefield states that will decide the election. Trump was targeting large rallies in two more of those states, Ohio and Wisconsin, later Saturday.
In Lumberton, North Carolina, he told supporters he was offering a quick recovery from the economic damage caused by virus shutdowns, which have devastated small businesses and put millions out of work.
“It’s a choice between a Trump super boom and a Biden blockade,” the Republican president said. “We are rounding out the turn,” he said, repeating a claim he has been making for months that the United States is close to making the best of the virus.
On the contrary, Biden warned that the coming cold months could be even harsher due to the resurgence of the virus, which has killed more people in the US than anywhere else and is increasing in various battle states.
“It’s going to be a dark winter ahead unless we change our ways,” he said of Trump’s attempts to contain the coronavirus.
Biden was addressing supporters in the city of Bristol who had gathered in vans or cars, many with their windows or sunroofs down, to avoid a possible coronavirus infection. The Biden campaign limited each vehicle to a maximum of four passengers.
At one point, Biden called out a group of Trump supporters who were yelling into nearby microphones.
“We don’t do things like those fools with the mic. The Trump guys. It’s about decency,” Biden said.
At his Lumberton event, Trump mocked Biden’s rally, which he said he saw on television.
“There were so few cars. I’ve never seen an audience like this,” he said. “It was a tiny, tiny crowd. You could hear the cars: honk.”
