Trump, Biden Trade Personal Attacks in Frantic Campaign

Date: 21 October 2020 - 21:46

News ID: ۸۴۰۸۹

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Former president Barack Obama held his first rally Wednesday in support of U.S. election front runner Joe Biden, while Donald Trump campaigned frantically and accused his opponent, who stayed home in Delaware, of going "into hiding.”
Two weeks before the polls, the contrast in campaign strategies between Trump, 74, and Biden, 77, has never been more pronounced: the Republican president led another rally in the battleground state of Pennsylvania Tuesday, while Democrat Biden stayed mostly out of sight ahead of a pivotal televised debate later in the week.
Polls show Biden ahead and, with the clock running down, he appears confident.
Trump’s message with a fortnight left to go has boiled down to a mix of optimism, telling Americans that the coronavirus pandemic is practically over, and ever more extreme attempts to tar Biden as corrupt -- even saying Tuesday that he wants the attorney general to open an investigation ahead of the election.
But, underlining how hard it is for him to escape the subject of the Covid-19 crisis, Trump’s wife Melania canceled plans to accompany him to Pennsylvania at the last minute, complaining of a "lingering cough” following her own bout with the virus.
This was to have been her first appearance alongside Trump at a rally in more than a year, possibly boosting his dire standing among women voters.
Both candidates will get something of a reality check on Thursday when they meet for their second and final televised debate.
To try and impose some sense of order after a chaotic first clash in September, the moderator will this time switch off each candidate’s microphone when their opponent is speaking, thereby trying to thwart interruptions.
In what could be seen as foreshadowing, Trump’s microphone cut out briefly at his Erie rally Tuesday. When it came back on, he blamed "Crooked Hillary” for the interruption -- a reference to his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton.
At the debate Biden is sure to go after Trump for his record on the pandemic, which has killed around 220,000 Americans and, despite the president’s frequent claims, is surging back rather than going away.
A New York Times report Tuesday was likely to give Biden additional ammunition, revealing how Trump spent years cultivating business projects in China and even maintains a previously unknown bank account in the country.
As for Trump, he has made clear his priority is to pursue his claim that Biden’s son Hunter sold access to his father in Ukraine and China when he was vice president under Obama.
Trump upped his offensive Tuesday by calling on US Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate his "criminal” opponent "before the election.” And he told Fox News that the accusation has sent Biden "into hiding.”
Trump is the subject of multiple allegations of sexual assault, corruption, and also is the first president to run for reelection after being impeached.
However, he won in 2016 in part thanks to the success of a last-minute push to sow doubt about Clinton’s honesty.