As election day (November 3rd) rapidly approaches, President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden are doing all they can to sway the remaining voters in their favour.
On Monday, President Trump zig-zigged his away across the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania – which was one of the most pivotal places of victory en route to his triumph in 2016.
The 74-year-old, who has fallen way behind Biden in the U.S election odds, made three MAGA-frenzied stops in the extremely busy one-day trip, addressing a number of issues along the way. That said, let’s take a look at some of the key talking points from all three of the rallies.
Fracking
Fracking was at the top of President Trump’s agenda on his journey around Pennsylvania. He said it was an issue of ‘existential importance’ for the state, and he mentioned it again-and-again throughout the day and was often spluttering misleading information. The incentive for Trump to focus on fracking came from last week’s final presidential debate, when Biden claimed he would look to move away from the oil industry.
However, the President claimed Biden was planning some extreme measures, incorrectly saying: “Biden confirmed his plan to abolish the entire U.S. oil industry,” before adding even more misleading information: “That means no fracking, no jobs, no energy for Pennsylvania families. He wants to go wind.”
Biden was instead referring to turning the countries attention to renewable energy sources over the course of 30 years, and in return, helping slow down climate change, not to ‘abolish’ fracking altogether. In fact, Trump’s all guns blazing approach to fracking might not even have helped him win over the state. In a CBS poll, that was carried out in August, a slight majority of Pennsylvania’s registered voters actually opposed the process and supported the banning of fracking!
Coronavirus
“COVID, COVID, COVID. It’s all they talk about, the ‘fake news’”. It’ll come as no surprise that the President played down the coronavirus pandemic throughout his three rallies. Speaking to a largely unmasked crowd in Allentown, he said: “It’s ending anyway. We are rounding the turn. It’s ending anyway. Normal life. That’s what we want, right? Normal life. Normal life. We just want normal life. It’s happening, very quickly.”
This was once again ‘fake news’ from the President. According to the latest data from John Hopkins University, the United States has actually witnessed a 20% increased in new cases of the virus in the last seven days, whilst hospital admissions have also grown by 13%, as well as a 11% jump in the daily death rate.
Lockdown
President Trump was full of sympathy for his supporters, that he claimed were having to deal with a state-wide lockdown, telling the audience that ‘it really is terrible’ that the Pennsylvanian government closed their churches and restaurants. However, the churches and restaurants aren’t in fact closed, as Pennsylvania is not currently in lockdown! It’s not the first time Trump has taken aim at Democratic-run states either. In the final presidential debate, the 74-year-old claimed that Michigan’s restrictions were ‘like a prison.’
Obama
In his second rally of the day, Trump gave his bizarre reasoning on why the media (apparently) favour his predecessor Barack Obama – citing the 44th Presidents good looks. “They say, ‘Oh … he’s so rhetorically good.’ I never thought he was a good speaker, personally. I really never did. And they say, ‘He’s so handsome, he’s so handsome,’” Trump said.
