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Election 2020: Melania Trump delivers pointed political attack on trail

She took aim at Democrats on issues from the pandemic to impeachment.

Last Updated: October 28, 2020, 10:31 AM EDT

With one week until Election Day, and President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden racing toward Nov. 3, nearly 65 million have voted early so far -- a record.

The president continues an aggressive, defensive campaign as polls show him trailing nationally and in several battleground states key to his reelection hopes. He holds rallies in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Vice President Mike Pence is in the Carolinas.

Biden is on offense, spending the day in Georgia to deliver a "closing argument" on national unity. While some Democrats argue the usually red state's electoral votes are in play, others warn against losing focus on key swing states like Wisconsin. His running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., is in Nevada.

Oct 27, 2020, 1:08 PM EDT

Obama blasts Trump in Orlando, urges Biden supporters to vote 'right now'

As Biden campaigned in Georgia, his top campaign surrogate former President Barack Obama returned to the battleground state of Florida for another drive-in rally, urging Floridians to vote "right now" and warning them not to be complacent. 

Greeted by blaring horns from supporters outside Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Obama opened his speech by pointing out the last time Florida’s Tampa Bay Rays were in the World Series, as they enter Game 7 tonight, was in 2008 -- when Florida helped send Obama to the White House.

"The Rays fell just a bit short then, but here in Florida, Democrats fell a little bit short in 2016 also," Obama said. "Over the next couple of weeks, Florida, you've got the chance to fix two mistakes. You've got the chance to set two things right. You can bring a World Series championship to the Sunshine State. And you can send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House."

“Don't take any chances. Just get it done,” Obama said.

Trump’s predecessor ripped into him for what he deemed his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, excoriating him for the outbreaks at the White House, noting he lived there for eight years and that it's a "controlled environment."

"He's turned the White House into a hot zone. Some of the places he holds rallies have seen new spikes right after he leaves town," Obama said. "We cannot afford this kind of incompetence and disinterest."

He also made his pitch specific to Florida, citing the loss of tourism and a spring training season the state experienced as cases spiked and noting how Trump has said he wouldn’t do anything differently looking back on his response. 

“You can't think of anything that you might be doing differently? Like maybe you shouldn't have gotten on TV and suggested we might inject bleach to cure COVID," Obama said. "Think about how hard the tourism industry has been hit right here in Orlando, right here in Florida. You lost one spring training season already, and he can't think of doing anything differently?”

Obama also slammed Trump for promoting baseless conspiracy theories and what he deemed his "bizarre" behavior saying, "even Florida man wouldn’t be doing some of this stuff."

"Sometimes it's almost too easy to make fun of it, but it's serious. There are consequences to his actions. If he was just on Jerry Springer or something, you know, you'd say, ‘Well’ -- But this is the most powerful office on earth. And when people see the president doing things like that, it emboldens other people to be mean and cruel and divisive and racist. And it frays the fabric of our lives," Obama said. 

Most attendees were standing outside their cars or sitting on top of them to get a better look -- still socially distanced and wearing masks. Almost every car has at least one "Biden/Harris" sign on it.

The trip comes after Obama held a drive-in rally for Biden in North Miami on Saturday in which he urged Florida voters to cast their ballots early. In the past two weeks, Trump has held rallies in Sanford, Ocala, The Villages and Pensacola and cast his own ballot in West Palm Beach Saturday.

Florida, which Trump narrowly won in 2016, is considered a critical state in the 2020 election with polls indicating the race will be decided by the thinnest of margins.

Oct 27, 2020, 11:22 AM EDT

Background on Biden's trip to traditionally red Georgia

Georgia, a state Trump won in 2016 by 5 points, has not delivered its electoral votes for a Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1992 -- but Biden is hoping to change as he heads to the traditionally red state for a day trip.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to board his campaign plane at New Castle Airport in New Castle, Oct. 27, 2020, to travel to Georgia for rallies.
Andrew Harnik/AP

ABC News rates Georgia's presidential race a toss-up, and a poll out Monday from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed Biden and Trump in a tied race. Recent election data shows the state has been trending toward purple, indicated by Biden's visit in the homestretch.

The first of two stops for Biden is to Warm Springs, a tiny, but historically significant, town in Meriwether County where Democratic hero FDR -- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt --- visited for polio treatments in the warm mineral spring water and where he died during World War II. The county went for Trump in 2016 by 15 points, but only 1,418 votes separated Trump and Clinton. 

According to AJC political columnist Jim Galloway's analysis, Republicans rely heavily on getting out the vote in rural counties to win statewide, and if Biden could take some points away from them on that front, he could win Georgia's 16 electoral votes. 

The next stop Biden will make is in Atlanta, for a drive-in rally to encourage early voting as his running mate did there last week. The city of Atlanta area and suburban counties have a large concentration of Democratic voters and Black voters. 

PHOTO: Hundreds of people wait in line for early voting in Marietta, Georgia, Oct. 12, 2020.
Hundreds of people wait in line for early voting in Marietta, Ga., Oct. 12, 2020.
Ron Harris/AP

Early voting has seen record turnout in Georgia. The state is already at 71% of its total turnout in 2016, in terms of number of ballots cast. Just under 3 million have already voted. There are about 7.6 million registered voters in Georgia, and the registration deadline has passed. 

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan

Oct 27, 2020, 10:24 AM EDT

As race enters final week, Biden on offense, Trump on defense

Trump is playing defense in the nation’s heartland, hosting rallies today in three states he won in 2016 -- Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska -- as he struggles to gain ground in 2020 polls.

The president is expected to win the popular vote in Nebraska, but with polls showing Biden having a shot to win a single electoral vote based on the state’s 2nd Congressional District, Trump's heading there may be a sign of how close his campaign expects the election will be.

President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks at a campaign rally at Lancaster Airport, Oct. 26, 2020 in Lititz, Pa.
Jacqueline Larma/AP

Trump’s trip to the Midwest also comes as coronavirus cases there are surging, though Trump insists the country is "rounding the corner beautifully." Biden has attempted to differentiate his events from Trump’s as more responsible, criticizing Trump to reporters on Monday for holding what Biden called "superspreader events."

Biden’s trip to Georgia today, a state Trump took by five points in 2016 and once was expected to easily stay Republican, is a sign of his campaign's confidence in the final days -- but some warn not to repeat what happened in 2016 when Hillary Clinton failed to hang on to states Democrats were expected to win. Former President Barack Obama, Biden’s top campaign surrogate, is in Florida as Democrats aim to take the critical swing state in which Trump cast his vote.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden during a visit to a voter activation center in Chester, Pennsylvania, Oct. 26, 2020.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

First lady Melania Trump will head to Pennsylvania this afternoon her first solo 2020 campaign event, attempting to appeal to crucial suburban women voters, a demographic which Trump is struggling with this cycle.

Vice President Mike Pence is maintaining his aggressive campaign schedule despite a COVID-19 outbreak in his inner circle. Sen. Kamala Harris, meanwhile, is campaigning in Nevada ahead of a rare trip to Texas on Friday -- another sign Democrats are looking to expand the map as Republicans attempt to maintain theirs.

Oct 27, 2020, 10:32 AM EDT

Pence to the Carolinas despite COVID-19 outbreak in inner circle

Pence is committed to spending the final seven days of the 2020 election on the campaign trail, despite the fact that an outbreak of the coronavirus has struck his inner circle.

ABC News confirmed over the weekend that along with Pence's chief of staff Marc Short, at least four others close to the vice president -- including his top political aide, Marty Obst, and his bodyman, Zach Bauer -- tested positive for COVID-19. 

In the last week, Pence has crisscrossed the country to over half a dozen states, holding 12 campaign rallies and two private events. He also cast his early vote in person while back home in Indianapolis, Indiana. Seeing the busy schedule Pence and his team have kept up with, as some of those infected accompanied Pence on his travels, it's possible the virus may have spread well beyond the confines of his office.

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a rally, Oct. 26, 2020, in Hibbing, Minnesota.
Brooklynn Kascel/Getty Images

Still, Pence is not quarantining after coming into close contact with Short and will instead continue his jam-packed campaign schedule -- a move that has worried experts who say Pence "clearly meets the CDC definition" of COVID-19 exposure and should voluntarily be in quarantine.

The vice president has stops planned in North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nevada through Thursday. His campaign has made some adjustments including ending rope line greetings and having Pence speak directly from airport tarmacs to avoid motorcade travel.

Pence did not attend a confirmation ceremony for Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the Rose Garden Monday night, though he had attended her nomination party in the one month earlier, after which nearly a dozen attendees tested positive for COVID-19.

Click here for more on the places Pence has traveled to and the people he's traveled with over the past week.

-ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Olivia Rubin

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