Election 2020: Dueling realities about COVID-19 at Biden, Trump rallies
The images they present reinforce sharply different views of the danger.
With five days until Election Day, and President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden racing toward Nov. 3, nearly 80 million Americans have already cast their ballots -- an early voting record.
Thursday brought both Trump and Biden to Tampa, Florida, revealing how crucial the swing state is to both campaigns, with the contest overshadowed by coronavirus cases rising there and in every battleground state.
The president's aggressive, defensive strategy comes as polls show him trailing nationally and in battleground states key to his reelection hopes. First lady Melania Trump joined him for the first time. A Trump rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, this evening was postponed due to bad weather. Vice President Mike Pence is in Iowa and Nevada.
At his Tampa rally, Biden was expected to again brand the race as a "battle for the soul of the nation" at a drive-in event, after an earlier event in Broward County. Running mate California Sen. Kamala Harris was holding a virtual voter mobilization event with the "Divine Nine" -- historically Black fraternities and sororities-- then an evening virtual rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Top headlines:
- Biden rally cut short abruptly by pouring rain
- At Iowa rally, Pence acknowledges COVID-19 cases are rising
- Biden points to diversity in Latino community for scattered polling on his support
- Melania Trump joins Trump at a rally for the first time of the 2020 cycle
- Trump campaign postpones North Carolina rally due to Zeta
- At dueling Trump and Biden rallies, dueling realities about COVID-19
Trump campaign postpones North Carolina rally due to Zeta
The Trump campaign said it has postponed Trump’s Fayetteville, North Carolina, rally set for this evening due to "50 miles per hour winds and other weather conditions” related to tropical storm Zeta.
The rally was set to start at 6:30 p.m.
The campaign said it will reschedule the rally for Monday.
-ABC News' Will Steakin
At dueling Trump and Biden rallies, dueling realities about COVID-19
At a crowded rally in Tampa this afternoon, Trump painted Biden as a candidate who will "destroy the Florida tourism industry and lock down our entire country" -- though Biden argued the opposite campaigning at a drive-in rally down the I-4 corridor in Florida, a state where COVID-19 cases are rising.
After touting the latest GDP economic growth report and once again insisting the country is "rounding the turn," Trump dug into the crowd sizes Biden attracts at his events.
"They say the fact that he has nobody at all show up is because COVID? No, it's because nobody shows up. And I think that's the ultimate poll and based on the numbers we are getting, we're going to do really well on Tuesday," Trump said, touting the size of the crowds at his events.
Without giving specifics, Trump said that he would win a record share of the Latino vote and claimed “Biden's agenda will devastate the Hispanic-American community.”
Speaking to voters in Broward County at a drive-in rally, Biden continued to differentiate his campaign from Trump’s mostly maskless, packed rallies, kicking off his remarks by thanking supporters for wearing masks and social distancing, before slamming Trump’s rallies -- like his dueling one in Tampa -- as "superspreader events."
"Millions of people out there are out of work, on the edge, can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, and Donald Trump has given up," Biden said, pitching himself as the unity candidate. “He’s spreading more virus around the country and here in Florida today. He's spreading division, in addition, division and discord."
While Trump argued the future of American holidays is uncertain under Biden, the former vice president repeated what’s become a new mantra: that he will not shut down the economy or the country, even as he says, "I am going to shut down the virus."
As both campaigns vie for the Latino vote, Biden appealed to Cuban voters specifically, arguing that the country needs a new Cuba policy and that Trump has "embraced so many autocrats around the world."
There were 201 cars at Biden’s drive-in rally outside Broward College, while Trump’s rally outside Raymond James Stadium saw thousands of supporters packed shoulder-to-shoulder.
-ABC News' Adia Robinson contributed to this report.
COVID-19 election battleground state tracker
As the country enters what many scientists are calling a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic and the presidential candidates make their final pitches to voters in battleground states, here’s today’s update of the COVID-19 situation in 13 states ABC News rates as competitive for the presidential election (either toss-ups, leaning Democrat or leaning Republican).
Eight battleground states -- Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin -- are experiencing a rise in all three metrics: cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Rate of positivity
Current hospitalizations
Daily deaths
-ABC News' Soorin Kim, Arielle Mitropoulos, Ben Bell and Brian Hartman
Election officials warn Trump's Tampa rally may cause traffic delays for early voters
Trump's rally in Tampa on Thursday may cause traffic delays which could lead to longer wait times for potential early voters, Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office warned in a statement.
The president's rally is set to be held in a parking lot at Raymond James Stadium, which is also being used as an early voting site in Hillsborough County.
The Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections office said the event "could cause traffic delays" on Thursday for those looking to vote and the office reminded voters that there are 26 early voting sites available around the county.
The elections office also pointed out that while "electioneering" is not allowed within 150 feet of an early voting site, they say the "rally and campaigners will be outside of this zone" and that the Supervisor of Elections Office "cannot prohibit campaign activities outside this '"no solicitation zone.'"
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
-ABC News' Will Steakin
Contrasting images match competing themes in final election stretch
This time next week -- give or take a few days, perhaps -- the images of the closing days of this election will be held out as evidence that of course things would turn out the way they did.
Thursday will bring both Trump and Biden to Tampa, Florida, for rallies just five days before Election Day.
Trump will draw an enormous crowd. He will almost certainly mock Biden for not doing the same -- hoping his ability to draw a crowd inspires enthusiasm among his supporters.
Biden will hold a "drive-in rally" where honks will be more prevalent than chants. He will almost certainly attack Trump for holding a massive public gathering in the midst of the pandemic -- hoping his choices match better with how voters are living their lives.
On one level, Trump and Biden have adapted their campaigns to the extraordinary circumstances of the moment. Considered another way, they are using images to say something more about themselves as leaders -- in how they view the severity of the crisis, and how a leader should act.
The numbers -- polling, early vote and even COVID-19 spikes -- point toward a favorable environment for Biden and his view of the race. Trump's political career, though, has been built on a sense that he knows better than any numbers might suggest. If nothing else, as the campaign ends, he will act like he has from the start.
-ABC News’ Political Director Rick Klein