US President Donald Trump returned to campaigning with a speech from the White House on Saturday, saying he was “feeling great” and the Covid-19 pandemic was “disappearing”. He is scheduled to address a rally in Florida on Monday, and in Pennsylvania and Iowa later in the week.
His Democratic challenger Joe Biden was in Pennsylvania for the 11th time, wooing the battleground state that will play a critical role in deciding the election.
Trump was no longer a transmission risk to others, his physician Sean Conley declared in a statement, adding the president had been without fever for 24 hours, all his symptoms had improved and there was no “longer evidence of actively replicating virus” in his body.
“First of all, I’m feeling great. I don’t know about you. How’s everyone feeling? Good?” Trump said from a White House balcony overlooking his supporters who stood around below. He went on to claim the pandemic was disappearing and vaccines and therapeutics were on their way.
Billed as a “peaceful protest in support of law and order,” the event marked the resumption of campaigning by the president a break forced by his illness. “We’re starting very, very big with our rallies…because we cannot allow our country to become a socialist nation,” Trump said.
Trump trails Biden by 9.6 points in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls and by 10.1 points in FiveThirtyEight’s weighted average of national polls. The gap is narrower in battleground states, which eventually determine the outcome in presidential elections because of electoral college.
Biden was in one of them on Saturday, making his case with a promise of jobs and unity in Pennsylvania. “My plan is about making the kinds of investments that will stimulate the economy, to get us back to full employment fast and help us build back better than before,” Biden said in Erie.
He added, with a reference to a campaign event in historic Gettysburg, also in Pennsylvania, recently, “As I said earlier this week on the sacred ground of Gettysburg, I’m running as a proud Democrat, but I’ll govern as an American president.”
