She took aim at Democrats on issues from the pandemic to impeachment.
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.
Beginning Wednesday, the Biden-Harris campaign will begin a three-day bus tour.
The tour will include appearances by members of the Texas congressional delegation, elected officials, Democratic candidates and special guests, according to a news release.
Wednesday there are stops planed for Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene, Fort Worth and Dallas.
In her first solo campaign event of 2020, first lady Melania Trump delivered her most political speech to date in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, blasting Democrats for attempting to divide the country, she said, and defending the administration for choosing to move forward -- “not backward”-- in its pandemic response.
Deeming her husband a “fighter,” the first lady began her prepared remarks by defending his social media use and applauding how Americans can hear “directly and instantly” from their president "for the first time in history."
“I don’t always agree the way he says things, but it is important to him that he speaks directly to the people he serves,” she said to an enthusiastic crowd of 300 supporters packed in a barn in Atglen.
Echoing her husband, she then ripped into Democrats, saying they are invoking fear and attempting to divide Americans amid the pandemic that has claimed more than 225,000 Americans lives.
She went on to slam Democrats for what she called a “sham impeachment” while she said Trump took “decisive actions” to slow the spread of the pandemic.
“This sham was led by opposition and their display of hatred is on display to this day,” she said to roaring applause.
Urging Pennsylvanians to get out the vote, she painted Democrats as a looming threat to "traditional values," while pitching her husband as the anti-politician candidate who will keep American families safe.
Although the first lady herself did not model Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines by wearing a mask, she did in closing ask the audience to follow the CDC guidelines to slow the spread. Most attendees were wearing masks -- which were encouraged but not required, according to release on the event -- and had been asked on the loudspeaker to socially distance. However, the crowd bunched up around the stage for the first lady’s remarks.
Former senior counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, who left the administration in August, introduced the first lady for her appearance -- as she did in 2016 when Melania made a campaign stop in the state and Conway was Trump’s campaign manager.
Biden pitched himself as the unity candidate from Warm Springs, Georgia -- a tiny, but historically significant, town in Meriwether County where President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited for polio treatments and where he died. Biden channeled the Democratic hero in his remarks focused on healing the country.
“This place, Warm Springs, is a reminder that, although broken, each of us can be healed,” Biden said.
“We can overcome the suffering virus. And yes, we can restore our soul and save our country.”
The former vice president lamented the fact that on Monday the U.S. had its highest number of new cases since the pandemic began and slammed Trump for once saying of the country’s death toll, “It is what it is.”
“It is what it is because he is who he is,” Biden said. “As a president, I will never waive the white flag of surrender.”
He repeated that he is running to serve all Americans -- not just those in his party -- and ended with a message that he is “ready to act.”
"With our voices and our vote, we must free ourselves from the forces of darkness, from the forces of division, and the forces of yesterday, from the forces that pull us apart, hold us down and hold us back," Biden said. "If we do so, we’ll once more become one nation, under god, indivisible, a nation united, a nation strengthened, a nation healed."
Trump told reporters as he departed the nation’s capital for rallies in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska that he’s expecting a “proper and very nice” election night, portraying himself as a confident candidate as he heads to campaign in states he won in 2016, while sowing doubt in the election process if the race isn't called on Nov. 3.
But certification of the votes and official results have always been determined after election night.
“Look how we’re doing everywhere practically,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn, though he trails Biden in nationwide polls. “We are going to have an exciting night, and it will be very very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on November 3rd instead of counting ballots for two weeks which is totally inappropriate.”
“I don't believe that that is by our laws. I don’t believe that, but we’ll see what happens,” Trump added.
Trump also touted the favorability of his wife, first lady Melania Trump, who is traveling to Pennsylvania to campaign for her first solo event of the 2020 cycle.
“Melania as you know is going to Pennsylvania. That’s very exciting. I’d like to go with her and be with her. She’s gonna make a speech in Pennsylvania. That’s great and she does very well, very popular,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before they departed for their respective states.
