A day after the nation hit a new high for coronavirus cases, President Trump returned to the campaign trail for a series of rallies and again sought to minimise the surging pandemic, mocking his rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., for following the social distancing recommendations of public health officials.
In the face of spiking numbers, Trump on Saturday continued to lean into the idea that the news media and his critics were obsessing about the virus, even as polls show widespread public concern. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll found that a slim majority of voters — including half of independents — believed the worst of the pandemic was yet to come.
“That’s all I hear about now. That’s all I hear, turn on television,” Trump said at a campaign event in Lumberton, North Carolina. “Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid,” he added, a refrain he recited as well on Wednesday.
Hours later, Vice-President Mike Pence’s office confirmed his chief of staff had tested positive for the virus. Three other aides and an outside adviser to Pence have also tested positive in recent days.
With 10 days left until the election and hundreds of thousands of voters expected to cast their ballots as long lines marked the first weekend of early in-person voting in Florida, New York, Wisconsin and other states, Trump and Biden presented sharply divergent cases, both in words and actions, for how they would handle the virus crisis still gripping the country.
Making two stops in the key battleground of Pennsylvania on Saturday, Biden cited the milestone in cases and criticised Trump for asserting that the country was “rounding the corner” as cases spike.
“You’re asking us to learn how to die with it, and it’s wrong,” Biden said at a drive-in rally in the Philadelphia suburbs, recalling his exchange with Trump on the subject at the debate on Thursday. He added that there was “going to be a dark winter ahead unless we change our ways”.
The beeping of car horns punctuated his remarks, a familiar soundtrack at his socially distanced drive-in events in the weeks before Election Day. “I wish I could go car to car and meet you all,” Biden said at a community college in Bucks County.
New York Times News Service
