President Donald Trump brushed off polls showing him trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden and predicted a ‘red wave like you’ve never seen before’ on Election Day.
‘Well we have ten days, and, you know, nothing worries me,’ he told reporters after he landed in Columbus, Ohio, for his second campaign rally of the day on Saturday.
Trump has taken to the road to make his case for a second term, planning a multiple state campaign swing for the next 10 days.
‘We’re going to take this right up until the end and then I suspect I’ll rest for about two hours but we’ll see what happens,’ he said.
He claimed there was a ‘hidden vote’ out there not being seen. He did not elaborate on what he meant.
‘We’re way ahead than where we were four years ago right? Way ahead where we were four years ago,’ he said. ‘I don’t know if it is a hidden vote. I don’t know what it is.’
President Donald Trump brushed off polls showing him trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden and predicted a ‘red wave like you’ve never seen before’ on Election Day
President Trump told an Ohio rally: ‘I’m fighting for you harder than any politician’
President Trump addresses thousands of supporters in Circleville, Ohio
President Trump told reporters in Ohio there is a ‘hidden’ vote that will come out for him
President Trump is comparing turnout at his rallies to those with Joe Biden’s as part of his argument he will win on Election Day
Saturday began Trump’s final stretch. The president voted in Florida that morning and then had three campaign rallies in three critical battleground states: North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The president will be in New Hampshire on Sunday. He’ll be in Pennsylvania on Monday. On Tuesday he travels to Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska.
A senior administration official also said the president will make another West Coast swing, campaigning in Arizona and Nevada with more stops in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Biden leads Trump by 8 points in the RealClearPolitics voting average on the race but the president and his team are expressing confidence he’ll prevail in the election.
There are multiple factors that make 2020 unlike any other: the coronavirus pandemic, the uptake in mail-in ballots that could lead to post-election day lawsuits from both sides, and the record number of early votes being cast.
More than 56 million Americans ave already cast their ballot and more than 86 million mail-in ballots have been requested, according to the Election Project.
‘If you look at the early vote it is not nearly what they thought it would be. It’s just not what they thought. A great red wave – going to be a red wave like you’ve never seen before,’ he said.
Trump has a slight edge over Biden in Ohio where recent polls have shown the president leading.
During his remarks to the Ohio crowd, he refused to agree to a friendly transition of power should Biden win on November 3.
‘Let me ask you a question, when I won, did they give me a friendly transition? They spied on my campaign, they did all this stuff, that was not a friendly transition, was it,’ he said.
The president showed he knows his audience, beginning his rally in Circleville by congratulating the crowd on the Ohio State University Buckeyes winning their game earlier in the day.
‘I know life is not complete with Ohio State University football,’ he said. ‘I worked hard to bring back the Big Ten.’
Ohio is on track for record levels of early voting and Saturday marked the first day polls were open on the weekend.
More than 1.11 million Ohioans have cast their ballots since October 6, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Kamala Harris was in Cleveland for Team Biden on Saturday.
‘Thank you for voting and voting early. Your vote is your voice, your voice is your vote. There is so much at stake. Don’t let anyone ever take your power. The power of your voice is so important. You are going to make the difference. You are going to make the decision about your future, about your family’s future,’ she told supporters.
Trump won Ohio by 8 points in 2016.
The president uses the size of his rallies to judge his support. He based his claim he is winning, in part, on having bigger rallies than Biden.
‘Is there any place better than a Trump rally,’ he said to thousands of supporters who came out in Ohio.
‘You are so lucky I’m president,’ he told the crowd, where there was little social distancing and few people wore masks.
President Trump campaigned in Circleville, Ohio, on Saturday
Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden attend a drive-in campaign event at Dallas High School in Dallas, Pennsylvania
Supporters at President Trump’s rally in Circleville, Ohio
A woman cheers for President Trump
Trump has had large rallies but the Biden campaign has deliberately limited attendance at their events, citing restrictions in place because of the coronavirus.
His supporters have been fired up, cheering the president on, yelling ‘we love you,’ ‘four more years’ and ‘lock them up’ to refer to the president’s political enemies.
Whether the love of his loyalists brings swing voters to the president’s side remains to be seen. Tough economies are usually bad predictors for a president’s re-election efforts but the American economy took a hit from the coronavirus, which means voters may not place the blame for the high unemployment and businesses going under on Trump.
The president also has rehashed one of his successful 2016 election arguments – that he is a political outsider. Joe Biden has more than 40 years as an elected official.
He thanked supporters in Ohio for firing ‘depraved’ Democrats in the White House four years ago.
‘In 2016, Ohio voted to fire this depraved political establishment and you elected an outsider as your president who is finally putting America first,’ he said.
‘Nobody told me the swamp was going to be that deep and that vicious,’ he said of Washington D.C.
‘If I don’t sound like a typical Washington politician it’s because I’m not a typical politician,’ he noted. ‘I’m fighting for you harder than any politician.’
And he mocked Biden, saying he was the reason Trump ran for president.
‘I wouldn’t have run, Joe, if you did a good job. I had a very nice life. I wouldn’t have run if you did a good job,’ he said, referring to Biden’s time as vice president.
The president spoke at the Pickaway Agriculture and Event Center on the fairgrounds in Ohio on Saturday, where a county fair was blamed for infecting 22 people with COVID in June.
Coronavirus cases are on the rise in the state. Friday marked the eighth time in nine days new cases have topped 2,000.
Trump downplayed the threat of the disease.
‘I had it. The First Lady had it. And you get better. We got better,’ he told the crowd in Ohio.
Earlier, Trump criticized Biden as a ‘worn out politician’ as he kicked off a series of campaign rallies in critical battleground states on Saturday.
He mocked his Democratic rival for holding drive-in rallies instead of traditional ones during the coronavirus pandemic.
‘People in cars – I don’t get it. I’ve never seen so few cars,’ Trump said at an event in North Carolina. ‘And the cars weren’t in a circle. They were too close together. They weren’t socially distanced.’
‘It was a tiny little crowd. You head a couple of horns – honk, honk,’ he added.
The Biden campaign has been intentionally holding smaller rallies during the coronavirus pandemic and many of them have people stay in their cars. Biden held a drive-in event in Bristol, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
‘I wish I could go car to car to meet you all. I don’t like the idea of all this distance, but it’s necessary,’ Biden told his supporters. ‘What we don’t want to do is become super-spreaders.’
President Trump repeated his attacks on Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, during his event. He claimed Hunter Biden made millions from contacts in Russia, the Ukraine and China because his father was vice president.
‘The son had no job, no nothing. Unfortunately was forced out of the military, and all of a sudden he’s making millions of dollars,’ Trump said.
‘His father is in charge of three,’ Trump said referring to Russia, China and Ukraine.
The crowd roared in response ‘lock him up.’
President Donald Trump criticized Joe Biden as a ‘worn out politician’ as he kicked off a series of campaign rallies in critical battleground states
President Donald Trump talked to the Lumbee Indian tribe in North Carolina
President Trump held an event with a few thousand people in North Carolina
The president also attacked Biden for saying he wouldn’t end fracking. One of Trump’s campaign arguments against Biden is his claim the Democrat would end the practice that involves injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas.
‘He’s either crazy or the worst liar,’ Trump said of Biden’s claims he said he wouldn’t end the practice, which is used in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
Trump was courting the Lumbee Indian Tribe during his event. There were several ‘Lumbees for Trump’ signs in the crowd. Trump said he would sign the Lumbee Recognition Act once he was re-elected.
‘This isn’t a traditional rally. These are short, concentrated remarks that will generally focus on his vision for Native American communities and the forgotten men and women of North Carolina,’ a senior administration official said.
The Lumbee Tribe, which is the largest tribe in North Carolina, the largest tribe east of the Mississippi River and the ninth largest in the nation.
‘On November 3 we will make sure the forgotten men and women are never forgotten again,’ President Trump said.
‘I’m fighting for every American of every background race, color, and tribe,’ he said to cheers.
He claimed the Obama administration abandoned Native Americans.
‘Under this administration, you will never be abandoned I will always stand proudly with our incredible Native American community,’ he said.
He also said Native Americans were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
‘Indian country has been hit very hard by the China plague,’ he said.
Trump’s first of three campaign rallies on Saturday was billed as ‘Fighting for the Forgotten Men and Women.’
it took place on the Robeson County Fairgrounds on a hot and sunny day. A drum beat played in the background as the president spoke.
‘I love the sound of the drum,’ Trump said.
The president threatened to cut his rally time down because of the heat and joked the sun might make his hair ‘even more blonde.’
‘You mind if I keep this one about one-third because I’m going to be one hell of a burned person,’ the president said. ‘Anyone got some sun protection for your president?’
President Trump and Biden are essentially tied in this critical battleground state. Biden leads by 1.5 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average of North Carolina.
‘I’ve been back here so many times it might as well be my new home state,’ he told the crowd on Saturday.
Trump won the state by 3 points in 2016 and is focused on keeping it in his corner. In addition to his multiple campaign visits, Ivanka Trump campaigned in North Carolina earlier this week.
President Trump mocked the size of the drive-in rallies Joe Biden is holding
Biden supporters at a drive-in rally in Bristol, Pennsylvania, on Saturday
The president was in Gastonia, North Carolina, on Wednesday for a campaign rally where there was little social distancing and mask wearing. At least 23,000 people packed the Gastonia Municipal Airport and state health officials told local media they were concerned the campaign trips could led to a spike in COVID cases.
Coronavirus cases are on the rise in the state.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported on Friday a record high of 2,716 new COVID-19 cases, up from 2,400 the day before.
Trump claimed there wasn’t a vaccine ready because of ‘politics’ and said Biden would delay any vaccine effort.
‘Now we’re bringing her back if Joe Biden and his Democratic socialists gain power. They will delay the vaccine which is happening and we got it coming really soon. In fact, if it weren’t for politics i wouldn’t be surprised it would have been here before,’ he said.
President Trump is on a Saturday campaign spree after casting his ballot in person in Florida Saturday morning. Early voting has started in his home state, which the president needs to win if he wants a second term in the White House.
‘I voted for a guy named Trump,’ he told reporters afterward.
With less than two weeks to go both Trump and Biden are on the campaign trail with their running mates and surrogates spread out across the country to rally voters ahead of November 3.
Trump has sounded confident he will win a second term.
‘Take a look at all how returns coming in. We’re supposed to be behind until the wave, right,’ he told reporters on Air Force One on Friday evening. ‘We’re not way behind. We’re way ahead. We’re way ahead of where we were four years ago. And the wave is going to be much bigger than it was and there’s more enthusiasm now than we ever had four years ago. Four years ago it was amazing.’
The president voted for himself at the Palm Beach County Main Library Saturday morning telling reporters it was a ‘very secure vote’ and warning that when you send in your ballot by mail ‘you cannot have security like this’.
President Trump arrived in North Carolina on Saturday as part of three-state campaign swing
President Donald Trump, who has railed against mail-in voting, cast his ballot in person on Saturday near his Florida home
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said there was no one else in the ballot station room voting at the same time as the president and confirmed he cast a paper ballot.
Several supporters had gathered on the stretch of road just outside Trump’s Palm Beach estate and right around the library cheering ‘four more years’ and waving Trump 2020 signs ahead of his appearance.
Biden spent Saturday at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania – another critical battleground state. Running mate Kamala Harris was in Ohio and former President Barack Obama campaigned for him in Florida. Vice President Mike Pence campaigned for Team Trump in Florida.