Trump continues his campaign in Pennsylvania 2:18
(CNN) -
Donald Trump launched a three-week mission to save his presidency on Monday, behaving as if the pandemic that has killed 215,000 Americans was already a memory in front of a packed crowd, even amid chilling new warnings about the resurgence of the virus.
At his first rally since his own battle with COVID-19, Trump painted a deeply dishonest picture of the nation's battle against the disease, mocked former Vice President Joe Biden for enforcing social distancing, and promised victory on November 3 when as he began a frenzied momentum heading to Election Day, marked by multiple rallies a day that could act as wide-spread events of the virus.
ANALYSIS |
Trump Takes His Covid-19 Disinformation Machine Back On The Election Highway
“I feel so powerful that I will enter that audience.
I will go in there, I will kiss everyone in that audience, "said Trump in Sanford, Florida, showing that his illness did not teach him to respect his government's own guidelines on the pandemic.
«I will kiss the boys, the beautiful women and everyone.
I'll give you all a big kiss.
The president's return to the election campaign coincided with growing alarm among Republicans about Trump's declining poll numbers and after CNN reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recently warned that Democrats they are "on fire."
Biden took advantage of the start of confirmation hearings for Trump's Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Monday to warn that the Republican Party was under pressure for the nomination in a latest attempt to destroy the Affordable Care Act.
The intense exchanges between Trump and Biden came on a day when the enthusiasm in the electorate and the impediments that some Americans must overcome to exercise their democratic rights were highlighted by long hours of waiting at the beginning of early voting in person in Georgia, now an undecided state in the presidential election and for the Senate.
Lines snaked around buildings and there were failures at a super voting site in Atlanta.
A total of 126,876 Peach State voters cast their ballots on Monday, a record for the first day of early voting.
The extremely long lines of voters lined up in Suwanee, an Atlanta suburb, went viral on social media, prompting some Democrats to raise charges of "voter suppression."
At his event in Florida, Trump drew on the energy of the large crowd during his hour-long performance and ran through his demagogic list of favorite political attacks, from law and order to his false claims of voting irregularities.
He took the stage hours after the White House doctor said he had negative tests for covid-19 on consecutive days.
"(Biden) may be the worst presidential candidate ever and I have him," Trump said, despite a spate of recent polls showing him below double digits over the former vice president and behind in most undecided states. .
Biden campaigned Monday in Ohio, a state that was once seen as a safe bet for Trump and which Democrats believe is now at stake, and synchronized his message with colleagues on Capitol Hill using Barrett's nomination to push the claims forward. that she would be a vehicle to finally kill Obamacare, which will face its next appointment with destiny in court one week before the elections.
"In the midst of this pandemic, why do Republicans have time to hold a Supreme Court hearing instead of meeting the significant economic need of localities?" Biden asked.
I'll tell you why.
It's about finally getting their wish to end the Affordable Care Act. "
Biden also chided Trump for his "reckless" behavior since his diagnosis, saying, "The longer Donald Trump is president, the more reckless he seems to become."
Trump says his crowds are 'the real polls'
Viewed in isolation, Trump's event resembled any other major campaign event three weeks before Election Day.
While some fans wore masks behind him in the camera shot, many people did not.
And despite presiding over a failed response to a pandemic, Trump claimed that he had saved millions of lives.
After turning his White House into a super-spreading event that caused multiple infections, the president also criticized Biden for holding socially distanced events in which attendees sit in designated circles.
"They only have the circles because that's the only way they can fill the room," the president said, before looking at his own large and raucous crowd that contravened all government recommendations to fight the virus and saying, "These are the real surveys ».
But medical experts expressed desperation over Trump's decision to gather large crowds during a worsening pandemic, ahead of a turnaround that Trump aides said Monday would involve multiple rallies each day for the next several weeks.
"I promise you the virus is there, whether it's at an indoor event or an outdoor event at these big gatherings," said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of health policy and preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University in "OutFront." on CNN, adding that the footage from Trump's rally made him "cry."
“Some of those people will get sick, they will pass it on to others when they get home and they will get sick.
These are accelerating events that promote the spread of the virus, ”Schaffner said.
Trump's mockery of his own administration's recommendations - his rallies are about the only mass turnout events taking place in the world right now - came amid increasingly dark warnings about the months to come.
The government's top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that demonstrations like the one Trump held on Monday night are "looking for trouble."
"Because when you look at what's going on in America, it's really very troublesome," Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper.
Fauci later issued an even more dire warning about a pandemic that is seeing an increase in cases in 31 of the states as a fall rebound, which is being effectively ignored by a negligent White House, begins to accelerate.
"I think we are facing a lot of problems," said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, referring to coronavirus infections that have recently risen back to more than 50,000 a day.
"That's a bad place to be when you go to the coldest fall weather and the coldest winter weather," Fauci said.
The United States is worse than other nations in deaths from the virus
Trump's claim to have saved millions of lives is based on the assumption that there would have been many more deaths had no action been taken against the disease, a scenario that no one seriously advocates.
A new investigation on Monday exposed the president's misinformation and showed with astonishing clarity how the United States has fared far worse than many other industrialized nations in saving lives during the pandemic.
After May 10, the US recorded more deaths per 100,000 people than other high-fatality countries listed in a study published in the medical journal JAMA.
Countries like South Korea, Japan, and Australia had fewer than five deaths per 100,000 people.
If the United States had fatality rates comparable to Australia's since the beginning of the pandemic, it would have had 187,661 fewer deaths, according to the study by Alyssa Bilinski of Harvard University and Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, Vice Chancellor for Global Initiatives. and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
If the United States had fatality rates comparable to Canada, it would have had 117,622 fewer deaths.
And it would have registered 96,763 fewer deaths if it had fatality rates comparable to France.
Republican alarm over Trump's prospects
In Monday's CNN poll poll, Biden outscored Trump by 11 points.
Recent The New York Times / Siena polls in Michigan and Wisconsin released Monday showed the Democrat was up 6 points and 10 points, respectively.
Trump hopes to use his return to the election campaign to present himself as a victor over COVID-19 and to strengthen his assurances to Americans that there is nothing to fear from the disease, despite its growing threat at the national level. .
The president, who has rarely tried to go beyond his political base, has a massive turnout not only from his 2016 supporters, but also from new white working-class voters who identify with him culturally but rarely have voted in previous elections.
Trump's rally on Monday was, for example, peppered with comments about the "Panhandle," the part of northern Florida where it performed especially strongly in 2016.
CNN White House reporter Kevin Liptak reported Monday that Trump is pressuring his advisers to host multiple rallies in the coming weeks as he tries to unleash one last wave of momentum to reform Biden.
The president longs for two or three events a day, which in the circumstances could turn into multiple super-spreading events, to revive the spirit of his drive until his shocking victory over Hillary Clinton four years ago.
But there are signs that the Republican hierarchy in Washington does not see the similarities to 2016, and some see Trump's antics, including a rude performance in the first presidential debate, as a golden opportunity for Democrats to get so much hold of the White House. as well as the Senate.
McConnell issued his warning that Democrats were "on fire" in a recent call with lobbyists, according to someone familiar with the comments.
Senate Republicans who never expected to be seriously challenged - like Lindsey Graham in South Carolina and Joni Ernst in Iowa - are at serious risk.
Graham, who as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee leads Barrett's hearings, faces a challenger, Jaime Harrison, who just broke the single-quarter fundraising record for a Senate race with $ 57 million. Dollars.
And Trump's schedule for later this week also indicates a campaign playing defense as he travels to Iowa, Pennsylvania and North Carolina - all states where he won four years ago and is now in danger of losing.