US election round: Trump claims he has “ended” pandemic as cases increase | US News

The deluge of early votes in the US presidential election on Tuesday exceeded 70 million – equivalent to more than half of all votes cast in 2016 – as well as Donald Trump He brazenly listed one of the most remarkable events of his presidency as “ending the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Trump’s claim, in a White House press release, came in a week that saw days of record new infections, the number of daily deaths nearly 1,000 per day, and a 23% increase in cases.

As the US president prepares to return to the main battlefield state of Florida for a rally in Tampa on Thursday, Trump and his campaign continued to pursue his tactic of minimizing the pandemic that has killed at least 226,000 people and is still raging in many parts of the country. Country.

While it was a democracy Joe Biden Entering the final week of the campaign trail by nine percentage points in national opinion polls, the margin in the major battle states – including Florida and Pennsylvania – remained closer.

In some highly contested states, early voting turnout was higher than the national figure, including Florida, where nearly two-thirds of those who voted in 2016 voted.

In Texas – which Cook’s influencing policy report on Wednesday went from “lean Republican” to “slander” between Biden and Trump – the figure was 87%.

Prominent Democrats in the state, such as former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, have been begging Biden to pay a visit there in recent days. Instead, the campaign features Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris, who will visit Fort Worth, Houston and the border city of McAllen on Friday.

But it is the coronavirus pandemic that has continued to dominate the agenda. In response to a question about Trump’s claim that he had “finished it,” even the White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah, Struggle to defend the assertion.

“I think that was poorly worded,” Farah told Fox News. “The intention was to say that our goal is to eradicate the virus. But what I would like to say is this, because of the leadership of the president, we are approaching the corner on the virus.”

Trump has repeatedly claimed that coverage of the Coronavirus has been weaponized and inflated by the media to damage his chances of re-election. Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday: “Covid, Covid, Covid is the standard cheering for fake media.”

“They will not talk about anything else until November 4, when the elections are over (hopefully!). Then they will talk about how low the death rate is, so many hospital rooms, and how many tests on young people.

Trump was apparently disappointed by A. Sarcasm Barack Obama delivered it in Florida on Tuesday, after a similar vent on Covid coverage from the president at a rally last weekend.

“What is his closing argument? People focus too much on Covid.” He said this at one of his rallies: “Covid, Covid, Covid,” he is complaining. He said.

Biden sought a more realistic tone in a speech he gave in Wilmington, Delaware. “Even if I win, it will take a lot of hard work to end this epidemic,” he said. “I am not working on false promises that I will be able to end this epidemic by turning a key. But I promise you this: On day one we will start doing the right things.”

He said Trump’s stance on the pandemic was an “insult” to struggling families across America.

Biden said he would listen to the science and the first person to contact if elected would be Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief public health expert on the White House coronavirus task force, who has served presidents since 1984 but was called by Trump recently as an idiot.

On Wednesday Fauci warned In a hypothetical interview with the University of Melbourne that although he is confident that a successful vaccine will be here in a few months’ time, normal life for Americans may not be restored until late 2021 or even 2022.

In the final week of the campaign, the Electoral College dynamics – which Trump won in 2016 despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton – seemed to define the campaign schedules for the candidates.

With Trump focusing on the Midwestern states he needs to keep to stay in office, Biden was planning to visit Iowa later in the week – a state that Trump earned by ten points in 2016.

Polling in Pennsylvania was of particular concern, with Biden currently running in a state considered essential for both candidates. 5.1 points – This has led some to suggest that if the poll errors seen in 2016 are repeated, the state may be close to a tie

Commenting on the tightening of the Pennsylvania race, Nate Silver of polling site FiveThirtyEight emphasized its importance.

It’s close to being a must-win for Trump, who has only a 2% chance of winning electoral college if he loses Pennsylvania. Biden, however, has a slightly greater margin of error. “

Meanwhile, the Biden campaign announced that the candidate and Obama will campaign together on the weekend for the first time, on the Michigan battlefield.

Also late in the day, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a recent Republican bid to stop vote counting by mail in Pennsylvania after Election Day.

And the identity of Anonymous, the Trump official who claimed that there is “quiet resistance” within the administration is working to save America 2018 New York Times editorial, It was I showed Like Republican Miles Taylor, former Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security.

The writing of the article, and a subsequent book on the same topic, sparked a slew of media coverage and wild Washington speculation about the author’s identity. Also angered Donald Trump And several of his top officials, who have launched a frantic and unsuccessful hunt for the White House staff and beyond.

As expected, Trump attacked him on Twitter.