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THE VILLAGES / WILMINGTON (REUTERS) – President Donald Trump promised supporters in Florida on Friday (October 23) that the coronavirus pandemic would end soon, and accused Democratic rival Joe Biden of exaggerating the health crisis to scare Americans. to vote for him.
The pandemic, which has killed more than 224,000 people in the United States and cost millions more their jobs, has become the dominant theme of the campaign, with Trump on the defensive over his administration’s handling of the crisis.
Biden said earlier that day that Trump had given up on containing the virus and vowed that if he won the Nov.3 election he would ask Congress to pass a comprehensive Covid-19 bill that he would sign within the first 10 days after taking office. The charge.
“He has given up on America. He just wants us to doze off, ”Biden said during a speech in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
“I am not going to shut down the economy. I will not close the country. I’m going to turn off the virus. “
During two demonstrations in the battlefield state of Florida, Trump mocked Biden for saying in the presidential debate Thursday night that the United States was entering a “dark winter.”
He said the former vice president and his Democratic allies were trying to scare people by exaggerating the threat of the virus.
“We’re going to end this pandemic quickly,” said Trump, who has downplayed the threat since it began, at The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in central Florida.
“Normal life will resume completely.”
Researchers at the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation warned Friday that the virus could kill more than half a million people in the United States by the end of February 2021.
About 130,000 lives could be saved if everyone wore masks, according to the study.
With 11 days to go, more than 52 million Americans have already voted, a record pace.
Michael McDonald of the University of Florida Election Project and other experts predict the election could set a modern turnout record, surpassing the 60 percent turnout rate in recent presidential elections.
INTENSE INTEREST
The rise in early voting points to both intense interest in the race and a population eager to avoid the risk of exposure in the election day crowds to Covid-19. The huge early vote total gives Republican Trump less room to change his mind before the vote is over.
Opinion polls show him behind Biden both domestically and, by a narrower margin, in various battlefield states that will decide who will sit in the White House on January 20, 2021.
Trump said those polls underestimated his support.
“I think we are leading in many states that you do not know,” he told reporters at the White House.
Both candidates have been paying attention to Florida, a must-win state for Trump, where a Reuters / Ipsos poll this week found Biden was moving toward a slight lead after being in a statistical tie a week earlier.
Former President Barack Obama, with whom Biden served as vice president for eight years, will campaign in Florida on Saturday.
Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, said the race was tightening in Minnesota and said the campaign would buy more television advertising there. Opinion polls show that Biden leads the state.
Americans may have to wait days or weeks to find out who won, as election officials count tens of millions of votes sent by mail.
The final debate with Biden on Thursday offered Trump a chance to reverse his fortunes, but analysts said he was unlikely to fundamentally alter the race.
Preliminary estimates showed that fewer people watched the debate than their first debate in September.
Trump, speaking to thousands of people gathered on a grass field at The Villages, said he expected to hold up to five demonstrations a day during the last leg of the race.
Democrats have cast roughly 5 million more votes than Republicans so far, though their margin has narrowed in recent days, according to TargetSmart, a Democratic analytics firm.
Democratic analysts say they are applauded for those numbers, but caution that they expect a belated rise in Republican votes on Election Day. Republican strategists say strong face-to-face turnout in Florida, North Carolina and Iowa gives them hope that Trump can win those battle states again this year.
“It’s very, very difficult to compare this to anything,” Democratic strategist Steve Schale told reporters. “Everything has gone up since 2016.”
In Texas, a traditionally Republican state that has become more competitive, turnout has already reached 71 percent of the 2016 total, according to McDonald. It has reached 50 percent in three dynamic southern states: Georgia, North Carolina and Florida.
Election officials in battlefield states like Pennsylvania are struggling to minimize the possibility of a disputed outcome.
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