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As early voting begins in North Carolina, Joe Biden urged state supporters to cast their votes as soon as possible and criticized his opponent Donald Trump for his response to the coronavirus pandemic and his failure to protect Americans. of its economic consequences.
Infections reached a one-day high in several states on Friday, with a total of confirmed cases reaching nearly 70,000, the highest point since July, amid a third “spike” in infections eight months after the crisis. public health.
The former vice president objected to the president’s claim at a campaign rally in Wisconsin on Saturday that the United States had “turned the corner.”
“My grandfather would say this guy has come around the curve if he thinks we’ve turned the corner,” Biden said from the parking lot at Riverside High School in Durham, one of the socially distant rallies of his drive-thru campaign. with supporters honking their horns in parking lots.
“Did you turn the corner? It’s getting worse, “he said.” He continues to lie to us about the circumstances. “
Supporters could be heard yelling “send him home, Joe.”
The state emerged as a critical battlefield that the Democratic presidential candidate seeks to change: no Democratic presidential candidate has won the state since Barack Obama’s election in 2008.
A recent survey of The New York Times/ Siena College gave Biden the support of 46 percent of likely voters, compared with 42 percent for the president.
At a virtual event on Friday, Biden’s campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley Dillon said that “without North Carolina, it’s very difficult to imagine Donald Trump winning.”
Since early voting began in North Carolina on Thursday, more than 1.7 million votes have been cast, including more than 828,000 in-person ballots. Within days, nearly 20 percent of the state’s voting population had cast their vote.
The candidate urged residents to vote in a series of elections against with the goal of securing key Democratic victories, including a race for the United States Senate between Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democratic opponent Cal Cunningham.
“Don’t vote for me and Senator Harris,” Biden said. “You have a run for governor, a run for the Senate, a record number of black women on the ballot, Congress and lieutenant governor, labor commissioner and the courts.”
Biden stressed that “times are tough” in the United States and North Carolina, particularly among communities of color.
“How do we break that cycle where in good times you fall behind, in bad times you get hit harder and first?” Mr. Biden said, “The answer is about justice.”
Nearly 20,000 people filed for unemployment benefits in the state last week, more than 22 percent more than the previous week, a second straight week of jobless claims on the rise. The peak in jobless claims during the pandemic reached more than 170,000 in March.
He criticized the White House response and the president’s failed efforts to negotiate relief for jobless Americans facing a potential rental crisis and imminent threats to health care.
“The president knows how bad this virus would be since January and has kept it from him,” Biden said. “His excuse is that he didn’t want the Americans to panic. Americans don’t panic. Donald Trump panics. “
In his speech to expand the Affordable Care Act, Biden condemned Republican-led efforts to confirm the president’s nominee for the Supreme Court in the Senate “rather than address the significant economic needs of local communities.” .
“This is about erasing Obamacare from the books,” he said.
Democrats have argued that the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the nation’s highest court could tip the court in favor of the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle the law, potentially eliminating health insurance for millions of Americans without a measure of replacement that the president has stated is imminent.