Trump and Biden target swing states as US election enters final days

US president Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden will hold competing events across the United States today, as the presidential election enters its final phase.

With just two days to go until election day, the two candidates and their representatives are appearing in key swing states in a bid to shore up last minute support ahead of polling day on Tuesday.

Mr Trump is due to campaign in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Michigan and Iowa, while Mr Biden will hold two events in Pennsylvania. The eastern state is a key battleground state in this election, with Mr Trump holding four rallies in the state yesterday.

Mr Biden was joined by former US president Barack Obama at two campaign events in Michigan yesterday - a swing state that Mr Trump won by just 10,700 votes in 2016.

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In an excoriating attack on Mr Trump at a drive-in event in Flint, Mr Obama said that the current US president's behaviour was "not normal".

“The presidency doesn’t change who you are, it shows who you are. It reveals who you are,” he said. “For eight years Joe was the last one in the room . . . He’s got the character and the experience to make us a better country.”

The former president accused Mr Trump of being obsessed with crowd sizes, particularly the number of people who turned up to his inauguration ceremony in Washington in January 2017.

“Does he have nothing else to worry about? Did no one come to his birthday party when he was a kid? Was he traumatised?” Mr Obama asked.

The former president and former vice-president later appeared together in Detroit, where they were joined by performer Stevie Wonder. Speaking at the event, Mr Biden declared: "Millions of Americans have already voted. Millions more will vote in the days ahead, and my message to you is simple: The power to change this country is in your hands. I don't care how hard Donald Trump tries. There is nothing - nothing - that is going to stop the people of this nation from voting."

Meanwhile, Mr Trump appeared to promote a video on Twitter of a group of vehicles flying Trump flags which surrounded a Biden-Harris bus on a freeway in Texas.

Cancelled

Mr Trump tweeted a video, with the words: “I Love Texas!”

The Biden campaign confirmed that a bus had been surrounded by vehicles on the interstate on Friday. As a result, the campaign cancelled a planned election event.

America, which experienced months of unrest in the wake of the death of African-American man George Floyd, is bracing for possible protests next week amid expectations that a final result will not be known on election night.

Speaking in Pennsylvania yesterday, Mr Trump claimed that there will be “bedlam,” because there may not be a final result from Pennsylvania on Tuesday. “We’re going to be waiting, November 3 is going to come and go, and we’re not going to know,” he said.

However, election officials across the country have been keen to stress that a final result is not expected on election night, particularly in states like Pennsylvania where election officials are permitted to count postal ballots that arrive several days after election day as long as they are post-marked by Tuesday.

Nonetheless, there were some positive signs for Mr Trump, who has been trailing Mr Biden in the polls, this weekend. The Real Clear Politics average of poll put Mr Trump ahead in Arizona, albeit marginally, by 0.6 per cent. Similarly, a much-anticipated poll from the Des Moines Register on Saturday night put Mr Trump seven points ahead of Mr Biden in Iowa, a state that appeared to be slipping into Democratic hands earlier this month. Senator Joni Ernst, the Republican incumbent, is four points ahead of her Democratic challenger in the state according to the polls.

A CNN poll released on Saturday had more encouraging news for Biden. It put the Democratic candidate ahead of Mr Trump in Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Arizona, with the Democratic candidate securing at least 50 per cent support among voters in each poll.

Also on Saturday, first lady Melania Trump campaigned in swing-states, headlining events in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Echoing some of the rhetoric of her husband, Mrs Trump accused Mr Biden of hiding in his basement and wanting to shut down the country. “Joe Biden said it will be a dark winter. That is not the statement of a leader,” she said.

“He wants to make us hide in fear in our basements rather than work bravely in our communities to find solutions.”