Trump sets hectic campaign pace
Published on: Monday, October 19, 2020
By: AFP
US President Donald Trump gestures during a rally at Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport in Janesville, Wisconsin. – AFP
JANESVILLE: President Donald Trump campaigned at a frenetic pace in a three-state trip that started with a Michigan rally where he called opponent Joe Biden a “criminal” and pounded his claim that the Democrats are anti-American.Addressing a rally in Muskegon, Michigan, Trump focused on US culture war themes, telling a large cheering crowd that the Democrats wanted to “erase American history, purge American values and destroy the American way of life.”
ADVERTISEMENT
And he ramped up his increasingly intense attempt to paint Biden as corrupt, pushing the same conspiracy theory that led to his impeachment last year and a new, murky report in the New York Post that purports to reveal evidence of corruption by Biden’s son Hunter.
“Joe Biden is a corrupt politician and the Biden family is a criminal enterprise,” Trump said to more cheers.
“He’s a criminal, he’s committed crimes,” he said. “He’s a national security risk.”
Trump, who was impeached for allegedly abusing his office in an attempt to find dirt on Biden, and later acquitted, had the campaign trail all to himself just 17 days before the election.
ADVERTISEMENT
He flew on to Wisconsin, a state in the bull’s eye of a resurgent US coronavirus spread, where he told jubilant supporters in Janesville: “I did this for us, not for me, believe me.”
Trump was ending the day in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will hold another rally in Carson City on Sunday.
ADVERTISEMENT
“President Trump’s strategy is to work for the vote of the American people,” his spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News.
“It’s why he’ll be in two states today, he’ll have two rallies tomorrow, two more in Arizona on Monday, and he’s going all in.”
Biden, who has run a strikingly low-key campaign yet leads in strings of polls, stayed home in Delaware with no public events. He was due to campaign in North Carolina on Sunday.
The Republican incumbent, who only got out of the hospital two weeks ago after falling ill with Covid-19, is planning to keep up the pace throughout the final stretch of the campaign, with almost daily rallies, in hope that his hardcore base will turn out in huge numbers.
The enthusiasm was evident on Saturday. The crowd shouted “we love you” and, with Trump’s encouragement, chanted “lock her up” in reference to Michigan’s Democratic governor, the recent target of a right-wing kidnap plot.
Closing after 90 minutes, Trump remained on stage briefly to dance to the sounds of Village People’s “YMCA.”
Conspicuously absent in his stump speech is any real discussion of the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 219,000 Americans, with more than eight million infected, and is spreading again at rates not seen for months.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
