CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — With exactly three weeks until the presidential election, Democratic nominee Joe Biden campaigned in Florida a day after President Donald Trump visited the state in his first return to the campaign trail after receiving coronavirus treatment.
Biden was in Broward County, where he delivered remarks on his vision for older Americans, speaking to seniors about the pandemic and the president’s response.
“He’s never been focused on what matters. He’s never been focused on you. His handling of this pandemic has been erratic, just like his presidency has been,” Biden said.
The Democratic presidential nominee was scornful of the president’s insistence at a rally last month, before he himself was infected, that the virus affects virtually nobody.
“Affects virtually nobody – quote – just elderly people with heart and other problems. Nobody. Think about that. Who is he talking about when he said it affects virtually nobody? He’s talking about America’s seniors. He’s talking about you,” Biden said.
Meanwhile, Trump, who had been sidelined up until Monday due to his COVID-19 diagnosis, has held two big rallies so far this visited Pennsylvania. The president’s stop in Johnstown, Pennsylvania is critical to his hopes for re-election because the town and the surrounding region in the state helped carry him to victory four years ago.
In Cambria County, where Johnstown is located, Donald Trump won 67% of the vote in 2016, 76% in nearby Somerset County and 82% in next door Bedford County. The president went on to win the state by just seven tenths of one percentage point.
But our NewsNation poll last week found Trump trailing Biden by five points now in Pennsylvania, so he has to maximize his numbers and his message in the areas that backed him the first time around.
The campaign stops come on the second day of Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Trump’s choice to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, who’s a Judiciary Committee member, participated in the hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
Vice President Mike Pence hosted a campaign event in Wisconsin Tuesday afternoon.