President Trump, Joe Biden Enter Final Full Week Of Campaigning

President Donald Trump plans to intensify an already breakneck travel schedule in the final full week of the presidential campaign, overlooking a surge of coronavirus cases in the US and a fresh outbreak in his own White House.

Mr Trump is expected to hit nearly a dozen states in his last-ditch effort to recover ground from Democrat Joe Biden, including Sunday’s trip to Maine and Tuesday’s to Nebraska.

Both states award electoral votes by congressional district and could be crucial in a tight election.

Mr Biden, too, plans to pick up his travel schedule, aiming to hit the six battleground states the campaign sees as key to his chances, some with socially distanced in-person events and others with virtual events.

On Tuesday the former vice president is travelling to Georgia, a state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in more than a quarter-century but where polls show a tight race.

The final week of the campaign is colliding with deepening concerns about a public health crisis in the US.

Mr Trump is eager for voters to focus on almost anything else, worried that he will lose if the election becomes a referendum on his handling of the pandemic.

Mr Biden is working to ensure the race is just that, hitting Mr Trump on the virus and presenting himself as a safer, more stable alternative.

The stakes were clear this weekend as the White House became the locus for a second outbreak of the virus in a month.

Several close aides to Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for the virus, including his chief of staff, Marc Short.

Mike Pence, though, was insistent on maintaining his aggressive political calendar, even though he was deemed a “close contact” of his adviser, claiming the privileges of being an “essential employee”.

(The independent)