Trump to battleground Pennsylvania, Pence to Minnesota
Trump and Pence are ramping up their already aggressive campaign schedules -- traveling through nearly a dozen battleground states over the next week -- in a final effort to boost their standing in the polls ahead of Nov. 3, doing so as coronavirus cases surge across the country, during an election that has largely become a referendum on the Trump administration's handling of it.
Trump departed the White House this morning for Allentown, Pennsylvania, where his campaign says he'll deliver “victory remarks” on the American worker before two back-to-back afternoon rallies in the Keystone State -- key to his pathway to keeping the White House. Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016, and polls show Biden with a big boost from suburban women there.
Still, some Trump supporters in Pennsylvania were seen waiting in the rain for hours ahead of the president's arrival.
Pence, too, is maintaining his aggressive campaign schedule despite an outbreak of coronavirus among his aides with five reporting testing positive over the weekend including his chief of staff Marc Short. Due to the close nature of Pence’s working relationship with Short, the Centers for Disease Control guidelines require him to quarantine to reduce the risk of asymptomatic spread -- despite testing negative again Monday morning, according to his office.
Pence’s press secretary Dan O’Malley said over the weekend that the vice president would keep to his commitments “in accordance with the CDC guidelines for essential personnel.”
Pence, head of the coronavirus task force, is scheduled to travel to Hibbing, Minnesota, Monday for an afternoon rally.
The White House has not confirmed whether the vice president will preside over the Supreme Court confirmation vote of Judge Amy Coney Barrett in the Senate this evening in the wake of the outbreak, but Pence indicated at a Florida rally on Saturday that he would be in attendance.