As the campaigns of President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden enter the final weekend before Election Day, both candidates are focusing heavily on battleground states, with Trump holding multiple rallies in Pennsylvania on Saturday, while Biden has several events in Michigan.
Trump has four rallies scheduled in Pennsylvania on Saturday, in Bucks County, Reading, Butler, and Montoursville. Biden will campaign with former President Barack Obama, holding drive-in rallies in Flint and Detroit.
In Bucks County, Trump began his rally to chants of “four more years!” before touting the importance of Pennsylvania in his bid for reelection.
“This is the state where the story of American independence began. It’s the state where the American Constitution was signed, think of that, and three days from now, this is the state that will save the American Dream,” Trump said.
Trump expressed confidence in winning over voters in the Keystone state, saying, “a great red wave is forming.”
“This is the fundamental question facing every voter in America. Do you want to be a nation ruled by the corrupt political class or do you want to be governed by the American people?” Trump said, claiming the “corrupt Washington class” had waged an economic war against Pennsylvania.
“For decades, they targeted your steel mills, shut down your plants, and sent millions of your jobs overseas, all while lining their pockets with special interest cash, and no-one embodies this betrayal and treachery more than Joe Biden,” Trump continued.
Biden, ahead of Trump’s visit to Pennsylvania, released a statement, saying, “President Trump’s refusal to take COVID-19 seriously or be honest with the American people about the reality of the virus, has cost Pennsylvania thousands of lives and hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
“Over four years in office, all President Trump has delivered to working families in Pennsylvania are broken promises,” Biden continued. “Pennsylvanians see these failures every day in the factories that have closed down in their town, in the empty chair at their kitchen table, and in the stack of medical bills that they are unable to pay,” he added.
The president will return to Pennsylvania on Monday for an event near Scranton, and will hold rallies in North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
The challenger is scheduled to speak at a campaign event in Philadelphia on Sunday, and on Monday, Biden and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) plan multiple events in Pennsylvania.
Trump won Pennsylvania and Michigan by narrow margins in 2016, with both states a key focus in the final days of campaigning. Michigan went for the Obama-Biden ticket in both 2008 and 2012, but Trump managed to flip the state in 2016.
Analysts expect record turnout in the election. At least 90 million Americans have already cast ballots in person or through the mail, according to the University of Florida’s Elections Project, or 65.3 percent of the total 2016 turnout.
