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Joe Biden has said that Donald Trump views older voters as “expendable” and “forgettable” as the Democratic presidential candidate sought new support in the battlefield state of Florida.
Biden’s visit on Tuesday came a day after the president’s own trip to Florida, the first outside of Washington since his Covid-19 diagnosis.
Speaking to about 50 people at a socially estranged event in South Florida’s Broward County, Biden said Trump had recklessly dismissed the threat the virus had posed to his at-risk population.
“For Donald Trump, you are expendable. You are forgettable. You are practically nobody. This is how you see older people. This is how he sees you, ”Biden said.
He added that he was disappointed that Trump’s fight with the virus had not left him further punished for his approach to the pandemic. “The longer Donald Trump is president, the more reckless he seems to become,” Biden said. “Thank goodness we only have three weeks left.”
A Biden victory in Florida would seriously jeopardize the president’s re-election chances, and the most recent opinion polls show that the Democrat leads with key demographic groups in the state, particularly the elderly. Trump won Florida in 2016 by 1.2 percentage points.
An opinion poll by Opinium Research and Guardian shows that Biden’s lead over Trump increases to a record 17 points. About 57% of likely voters said they intended to vote for Biden, while only 40% say they would vote for the incumbent president. The 17-point gap is even larger than the 57% -41% margin found by CNN earlier this month.
A Reuters / Ipsos poll released on Monday showed Biden leading seven percentage points over Trump in Pennsylvania, and a majority of voters said Biden would do a better job handling the pandemic.
Early voting before Election Day on November 3 is breaking records across the US, with more than 11.8 million votes cast so far, including more than 1.6 million in Florida, according to the Election Project. from the University of Florida.
Biden, 77, accused Trump, 74, of wanting to destroy the social security benefits program for retirees, an accusation the Trump campaign denied again Tuesday, saying that Biden was trying to “scare older people. For political reasons”.
Biden then hosted an outdoor event at a drive-in in nearby Miramar, Florida, attended by dozens of cars, honking the horn along with his speech.
Trump visited Johnstown, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, arguably the most important state on the electoral map, speaking at his second rally since contracting the coronavirus for more than an hour to thousands of people huddled together and mostly without masks.
He told the crowd that he felt additional pressure to win because Biden was the worst presidential candidate of all time. He also tweeted an image that overlays Biden’s face on that of a nursing home resident, in a move that is unlikely to appeal to older voters.
Trump made a local pitch, underscoring the false claim that a Biden administration would limit fracking in areas where the economy is heavily dependent on energy. Biden’s proposal would only prohibit new leases on federal land, a fraction of fracking operations in the US.
In touting his removal of a federal rule that would have brought more low-income housing to the suburbs, Trump focused on groups whose support he has struggled to retain, including voters whom his rhetoric rejects.
“So I ask you to do me a favor. Suburban Women: Could I Like You? Please. Please. I saved your fucking neighborhood, okay? Trump said. “The other thing: I don’t have that much time to be so nice. You know, I can do it, but I have to go fast. “
Trump plans rallies in Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida later this week as he tours crucial states just weeks before the November election.
However, the president’s calendar also sends him to areas that are friendly to him, suggesting that his campaign is concerned with mobilizing its conservative base rather than reaching undecided voters, many of whom live in the country’s suburbs.
The president returned to the election campaign Monday night in Florida for the first time since he revealed he had the coronavirus, throwing protective masks at supporters, but not wearing one as he spoke about his recovery.
“I passed it now. They say I’m immune. I feel so powerful, ”Trump told the crowd, who stood shoulder to shoulder, and most did not wear face covers. “I’ll kiss everyone in that audience, I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women, I’ll give you a big, fat kiss.”
The rally came hours after the White House said Trump had tested negative for Covid-19 on consecutive days and was not contagious to others. In a memo, White House physician Dr. Sean Conley did not say when the tests were performed.
Biden has been critical of Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Trump has worked for months to divert public attention from the coronavirus, which has infected more than 7.8 million people in the United States, killing more than 214,000 people and leaving millions out of work.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
