Joe Biden vows not to make ‘false promises’ about pandemic
Image via AP.

Joe Biden
Virus cases are spiking across the country.

Joe Biden said Wednesday he’s “not running on the false promises of being able to end this pandemic by flipping a switch” but would prioritize science, while President Donald Trump used the race’s final days to keep up a whirlwind campaign schedule aimed at focusing on anything but the coronavirus.

The Democratic presidential nominee tried to keep the focus on health care, arguing that a Supreme Court conservative majority stretched to 6-3 by newly confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett could dismantle the Barack Obama administration’s signature health law and leave millions of Americans with preexisting conditions devoid of insurance coverage.

Biden kept most of his focus on the virus, saying Trump’s handling of the pandemic was an “insult” to its victims, especially as cases rise dramatically around the country.

“Even if I win, it’s going to take a lot of hard work to end this pandemic,” Biden said during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, where he lives. “I’m not running on the false promises of being able to end this pandemic by flipping a switch. But I do promise this: We will start on day one doing the right things.”

Trump began the day in Las Vegas but was set to hold two rallies in Arizona, including one just across the Colorado River from Nevada that he hoped to use to appeal to voters in that state, hoping to flip it from blue to red.

The President was under pressure to avoid one negative result of a September rally in Nevada that attracted thousands of people: The airport that hosted that event was fined more than $5,500 for violating crowd restrictions aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

Rather than curb the crowds as virus cases spike across the U.S., Trump is simply shifting his event across the banks of the Colorado River to Bullhead City, Arizona. It’s the latest example of Trump’s efforts to downplay the virus and criticize Democratic leaders in states such as Nevada who have imposed limits on gatherings to combat the worst public health crisis in more than a century.

Trump held an outdoor rally in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday night. After he left, police took some attendees to the hospital, worried about exposure to the cold. The Trump campaign said it sent it a series of shuttlebuses to help the crowd disperse, but Biden said Trump “gets his photo op and then gets out.”

With less than a week until Election Day, Trump is trailing Biden in most national polls. Biden also has an advantage, though narrower, in the key swing states that could decide the election.

Biden voted early in Delaware on Wednesday and also received a virtual briefing from public health experts. One, Dr. David Kessler, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, warned, “We are in the midst of the third wave, and I don’t think anyone can tell you how high this is going to get.”

In the U.S., more than 71,000 people a day are testing positive for the virus on average, up from 51,000 two weeks ago. Cases are rising in all but two states, Hawaii and Delaware, and deaths are climbing in 39, with an average of 805 people dying in the U.S. per day, up from 714 two weeks ago.

Overall, about 227,000 Americans have now been killed by the virus.

Trump views Nevada, a state that hasn’t backed a Republican for President since 2004, as one option for success. Hillary Clinton won it by less than 2.5 percentage points in 2016.

The President is also aiming to keep Arizona in his column. The state hasn’t backed a Democratic presidential candidate since 1996, but it is competitive this year for both the presidency and the Senate. Democrat Mark Kelly is in a close race against GOP Sen. Martha McSally.

Democrats aren’t ceding either Nevada or Arizona to Trump in the final days of the campaign. Biden’s running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, hit Nevada in an effort to prevent the state from flipping to Trump.

“A path to the White House runs right through this field,” Harris said in a Las Vegas park Tuesday evening.

She was also traveling to Arizona, meeting with Latina business leaders in Tucson and African American community leaders in Phoenix, as well as holding drive-in, voter mobilization rallies both places Wednesday. On Friday, Harris will visit Fort Worth, Houston and the U.S.-Mexico border town of McAllen in Texas — a state that hasn’t backed a Democrat for President since 1976 or even elected one to statewide office since 1994.

Texas has long been so solidly red that top national Democrats visited only to hold fundraisers, then spent their hauls in places thought to be more competitive. The state has remained fiercely conservative, despite a booming Latino population.

“I am really grateful for the attention that they have given Texas because it has been so long since a presidential campaign gave this state a look,” said Beto O’Rourke a former Texas congressman and one of Biden’s former presidential primary rivals.

But O’Rourke declined to predict that Biden would win the state next week.

Democrats point to a larger number of their party members returning absentee ballots in pivotal states like Pennsylvania — results that could be decisive since more people are likely to vote by mail during the pandemic. Trump’s team argues that enough of its supporters will vote on Election Day to overwhelm any Biden advantage.

Around 71.5 million people nationwide have now voted in advance, either by casting early, in-person ballots or voting by mail, according to an Associated Press analysis. That already represents far more than the advance ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump’s campaign is facing a cash crunch, meanwhile, which has pinched his advertising budget at a time when Biden is using his funding advantage to flood the airwaves with ads in battleground states. That’s forced Trump to do more of his signature rallies as a substitute, despite a worsening pandemic.

In Arizona, Biden is nearly doubling the spending of Trump and the Republican National Committee, which has more cash on hand than the President and has been tapped to help pay for ads in the closing weeks.

In Nevada, the gulf is even more dramatic, with Trump and the RNC’s minimal $500,000 ad buy for the week getting drowned out by $3.3 million in advertising from Biden and his allies, according to data from the ad tracking firm CMAG/Kantar.

___

Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

Associated Press


3 comments

  • LINDIESUE

    October 28, 2020 at 3:42 pm

    Therapeutic Trump was given when at Walter Reed did not exist prior to COVID. It exists as a result of the President’s efforts to expedite (Operation Warp Speed) therapeutics, vaccines, ventilators, masks, tests and on (there were none as a result of the Obama/Biden Administration who let the stockpile dwindle.) Under Obama/Biden, over 60,000,000 Americans were infected with H1N1. Per Biden’s Chief of Staff: The snafu was the first of many scrambles and setbacks by the Obama administration in its initial response to the swine flu. POLITICO interviewed almost two dozen people, including administration officials, members of Congress and outsiders who contended with the administration’s response, and they described a litany of sadly familiar obstacles: vaccine shortfalls, fights over funding and sometimes contradictory messaging.”
    “It is purely a fortuity that this isn’t one of the great mass casualty events in American history,” Ron Klain, who was Biden’s chief of staff at the time, said of H1N1 in 2019. “It had nothing to do with us doing anything right. It just had to do with luck.”
    The same therapeutic that helped Trump he is now working on expediting its availability to the public.
    In his February 4th State of the Union address, President Trump pledged to “take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from the virus.” Nancy Pelosi then ripped up the Address in front of the world. The President: Took early action to cut off travel from China and eventually Europe, which saved millions of lives; Built the world’s leading testing system from nothing (more than 65 million); Enacted mitigation measures to slow the spread; Mobilized public and private sectors to secure needed supplies; Took action to protect vulnerable Americans; Launched effort to deliver a vaccine and therapeutics in record time; Provided support to workers and businesses; Paved way for reopening to get America working again; Surged resources to hot spots as they arose.
    In order to secure the supplies (PPE/ Masks/ventilators/handsanitizer/testing supplies urging private companies to produce them) needed to confront the surge in coronavirus we faced, President Trump led the largest mobilization of public and private sector resources since WWII.President Trump has acted under the Defense Production Act more than 30 times to ensure we have the supplies we need. When we faced a potentially catastrophic shortage of ventilators, President Trump took action to produce 100,000 ventilators and ensure no patient who needs one goes without a ventilator. President Trump moved swiftly to protect vulnerable communities.The Administration is investing approximately $2 billion in community health centers, helping their 28 million patients in medically underserved areas receive the care and testing they need.
    Early in the fight against the virus, President Trump launched a historic effort to develop a vaccine and therapeutics in record time.
    President Trump responded to the devastating toll the virus took on our businesses and workers and secured unprecedented financial support – through PPP, stimulus payments, tax relief to workers, unemployment benefits, student debt relief, prevented evictions or foreclosure.The President has provided support to states facing new emergences of the virus, including surging testing sites, deploying medical personnel, and advising on mitigation strategies.

  • Sonja Fitch

    October 28, 2020 at 5:34 pm

    Empathy and facts are guaranteed with Biden! We in America can control the trumpvirus with only 3 BEHAVIORS. Wear a mask ! Social distance ! Wash your hands! Those 3 BEHAVIORS will save lives! Those 3 BEHAVIORS will prevent health systems from being overwhelmed! Vote Democrat up and down ballot for the common good!

  • James Robert Miles

    October 29, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    You mean Biden won’t say that “the virus is going to disappear” like Trump? Gee, what a concept! We need truth not an ego-maniac who does NOTHING but spew lies, tweets B.S. and plays golf! That will be a switch. VOTE HIM OUT, LOCK HIM UP. THROW AWAY THE KEY!! DUMP TRUMP 2020!! We need to know the truth, not a bunch of made up garbage!

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories