11/02/2020 10:18
Clarín.com
World
Updated 11/02/2020 10:18
President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden have one last chance to present their case to voters in critical battling states this Monday,
the last full day
of a campaign that has laid bare their
dramatically different
visions
for tackling pressing issues. of the nation.
The candidates seek to lead a country that is at
a crossroads,
prey to a historic pandemic that is raging again in almost every corner of the country and a settling of scores on race.
More than
93 million people
have already voted and each campaign insists they have a path to victory, though Biden's options for the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win
are more abundant.
Trump relies on
a surge of enthusiasm
from his most loyal supporters.
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The Republican president's last day has him running through five rallies, from North Carolina to Wisconsin.
Biden, meanwhile, was spending most of his time in Pennsylvania, where a victory would leave Trump with an
extremely narrow
path
.
Biden also dived into Ohio, a show of confidence in a state where Trump won by 8 percentage points four years ago.
Looking into the past 24 hours, Trump and Biden described the other as unsuitable for the job and described the next four years in
near apocalyptic
terms
if the other won.
"The Biden plan will turn America into a
prison state by
locking you in while letting rioters on the far left roam free to loot and burn," Trump thundered Sunday at a rally in Iowa, one of five he held in battle states. .
"The Biden plan will turn America into a prison state," Trump said.
Biden said the United States was about to end "a presidency that has fanned
the flames of hatred
.
"
"When the United States is listened to, I think the message will be clear: It's time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home," Biden said in Philadelphia, the largest city in a state that could decide the presidency.
"We are tired of the chaos, the tweets, the anger, the hate."
As candidates close out the campaign, the pandemic, which has killed more than 231,000 people in the United States and caused nearly 20 million job losses, reached
a new peak
in infection rates, threatening another blow. to the lives and livelihoods of voters.
The elections cap off
an extraordinary year
that began with Trump's impeachment, the near collapse of Biden's candidacy during the crowded Democratic primaries, and then was
completely reshaped
by the coronavirus outbreak.
Joe Biden on tour in New Hampshire.
Photo: Reuters
A record number of votes have already been cast, by
early voting or by mail,
which could cause delays in the count.
Trump has spent months asserting without evidence that the votes would be ready for fraud while refusing to guarantee that he
will honor
the election
result
.
In the harshest terms yet, Trump threatened litigation Sunday to stop the counting of ballots that arrive after Election Day.
As soon as the polls closed on battlefields like Pennsylvania, Trump said,
"Let's go to our lawyers."
It was unclear exactly what Trump was referring to.
There is already an appeal pending in the Supreme Court regarding the count of absentee ballots in Pennsylvania that are received by mail within
three days
of the election.
The state's highest court
ordered the extension
and the Supreme Court refused to block it, although conservative justices expressed interest in assuming the convenience of the additional three days after the elections.
Those ballots are kept separate in case the litigation progresses.
The issue could assume enormous importance if late ballots could skew the outcome.
AP
ap
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