US Election 2020: Donald Trump casts his vote as COVID-19 infections hit record high
US President’s push to catch Joe Biden in the final week of campaigning has been hit by a shocking new daily record.
Donald Trump has cast his vote “for a guy named Trump” as his push to catch Joe Biden in the final week of campaigning was hit by a new daily record in coronavirus infections across the US.
The US on Saturday (AEDT) had a single-day record of 83,757 cases, topping the previous record of 77,362 cases on July 16 as the virus makes its third surge across the nation since March.
It came as the president stepped up his attacks on his Democrat opponent after Mr Biden’s claim in last week’s debate that he would ‘transition’ away from the oil industry in favour of renewable energy.
Mr Trump said Mr Biden’s comments were ‘a massive stumble’ that would ‘put the nail in the coffin’ for the former Vice President in oil-rich swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The Biden campaign has tried to clarify his comments, saying Mr Biden was talking about phasing out taxpayer subsidies for fossil fuel companies, not the industry altogether.
But the Trump campaign sensed its opportunity and used Mr Biden’s words to warn of major job losses in fossil fuel industries in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas.
“That could be one of the biggest mistakes made in presidential debate history,” Mr Trump told a rally in Florida on Saturday (AEDT).
On Sunday (AEDT) he told a rally in North Carolina “He (Biden) is going to wean himself off oil, he said. Texas, Pennsylvania are you listening?’
“We just won Texas, we just won Pennsylvania, we just won a lot of different places, then they spend the next two days trying to convince you he didn’t really mean that.’
Pennsylvania, where the fossil fuel industry is a major employer, is one of the most important swing States with Mr Biden currently leading the president there by 5.1 points. Mr Trump holds narrow leads in Ohio and Texas.
With Mr Biden holding an 8.1 point lead nationally over Mr Trump with just over a week until the November 3 poll, the president has ramped up his campaign schedule.
Mr Trump began Sunday (AEFT) by casting his vote in person in West Palm Beach, using the occasion to again attack postal votes as potentially insecure and ripe for fraud.
“It was a very secure vote, much more secure than when you send in a ballot, I can tell you that,” Mr Trump said. “Everything was perfect, very strict, right by the rules; when you send in your ballot, it could never be like that.”
The president said it was “an honour to be voting” and when asked who he voted for he replied: “I voted for a guy named Trump.”
After casting his vote, Mr Trump flew around the country, conducting three rallies in North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.
His advisers say Mr Trump plans to maintain this frantic schedule for the rest of his campaign as he seeks to mount a come-from-behind victory against Mr Biden.
Mr Biden spent Sunday (AEDT) in Pennsylvania, where he made two speeches, both focusing heavily on Mr Trump’s management of the pandemic.
“Yesterday we saw the highest number of new cases in one day since this pandemic began. That was yesterday — the worst day we’ve ever had,” Mr Biden said.
“Yet at the debate on Thursday night, Donald Trump was still saying, “We’re rounding the corner … It’s going away … We’re learning to live with it.”
But as I told him — we’re not learning to live with it. We’re learning to die with it, and there is a dark winter ahead.’
“Experts say we’ll lose nearly another 200,000 lives nationwide in the next few months. All because this President cares more about the stock market than he does about you,” he said.
Health experts in the US fear the current surge in the virus will get worse as the cooler weather forces people indoors where the virus can spread more easily.
Hospitalisations have increased in the US by 38 per cent in the past week while in the past two weeks, 24 states have broken their records for single-day case highs.
The surge in cases on the eve of the election makes it harder for the Trump campaign to move the focus of the election away from the pandemic and onto issues like the economy, immigration, the Supreme Court and law and order.
By contrast, Mr Biden is determined to try to keep the focus on COVID-19 in the face of polls which show that roughly two in three Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the pandemic which has so far claimed almost 230,000 lives.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
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