President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden covered much of the same ground as they crisscrossed Midwestern battleground states on Friday, but they brought diametrically opposite messages on the coronavirus crisis.
At a rally in Michigan, Trump brushed off the deadliness of the virus, made fun of Fox News host Laura Ingraham for wearing a mask, and suggested hospitals were falsely inflating the number of Covid-19 deaths in the country in order to make more money.
Biden focused his remarks in Iowa on what he said was Trump’s “surrender” to the virus that has infected more than 9 million people and killed over 230,000 across the country, and urged Americans to mask up in order to save lives.
With just four days to Election Day, the candidates made their remarks in the first of three rallies each around the Midwest on Friday. Trump started in Michigan and was scheduled to hold rallies later in the day in Wisconsin and Minnesota, while Biden was holding rallies in Iowa first, and then Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Trump, speaking at an airport tarmac in Waterford Township, Mich., repeatedly downplayed the severity of the virus and the measures needed to stop it, even though the state has been reporting a record number of cases in recent weeks. His remarks came just one day after almost 1,000 people across the country died from the virus and a record 90,000 new infections were reported.
“If you get it, you are going to get better and then you’re going to be immune, and it’s a whole thing and it goes away, but the vaccines will help,” Trump said. At one point, he spotted and mocked his longtime booster Ingraham in the crowd for wearing a mask. “No way! Are you wearing a mask? I’ve never seen her in a mask, look at you. Wow, she’s being very politically correct. Wow,” he said.
The president also suggested the country’s high death toll compared to other countries is the result of a scam being carried out by doctors who are padding the numbers to pocket money from the insurance agencies.
“I mean our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say, I’m sorry, but everybody dies with Covid,” Trump said. “But in Germany and other places, if you have a heart attack or if you have cancer, you’re terminally ill, you catch Covid, they say you died of cancer, he died of heart attack.”
“When in doubt, choose Covid. … [I]t’s like $2,000 more. So you get more money,” he added.
Physicians’ groups have denied the allegations, and doctors have noted that the death rate this year compared to last year suggests the number of coronavirus deaths is actually being undercounted.
Trump also mocked Biden’s dire assessment at their final debate last week that the country was in for a dark winter because of the virus.
“Oh that’s great, that’s wonderful. That’s just what our country needs is a long dark winter, and a leader that talks about it,” Trump said.
At the Iowa State Fairgrounds, Biden’s different approach was made clear before he even took the stage. He was introduced by health care activist Ross Daniels, who lost his father to Covid-19 and spoke about the pain of not being able to be with his father when he died.
“Joe Biden understands this,” Daniels said at the drive-in rally. “Joe Biden was made for this moment.”
Biden told him “My heart goes out to you,” and “the best way to get through it is to find purpose, and you’ve done that.”
The Democratic nominee then launched into an angry takedown of the president’s handling of the coronavirus, saying he’s “waving the white flag” while allowing the virus to claim American lives and wallop Iowa’s economy.
“Donald Trump refuses to listen to science,” Biden said in urging all Americans to do their “patriotic duty” by wearing masks. He noted the Trump administration’s own scientists have said that wearing masks and socially distancing “will save a 100,000 lives this year.”
The former vice president also pushed back on Trump’s claim that as president, Biden would lock down the country.
“I’m not going to shut down the economy. I’m going to shut down the virus,” Biden said.
