US election 2020: two weeks to go
US election 2020: two weeks to go
WASHINGTON (AFP) - One candidate for the White House is crisscrossing the United States; the other is at home, preparing for the final debate.
Here is a look at what’s happening on the American campaign trail on Tuesday, two weeks before Election Day on November 3:
Biden calls it a day, at breakfast
The campaign of Joe Biden, the former Democratic vice president who is running against Donald Trump to win the Oval Office, announced early in the day that the 77-year-old had no public events on his schedule.
That raised questions for some about his health and about his strategy going into the home stretch, but he was believed to be preparing for his final debate with the Republican incumbent.
"Has anyone seen Joe Biden?" quipped Trump’s campaign team on Twitter, coining the hashtag #WhereIsJoe.
Trump in Pennsylvania, without Melania
While Biden remained at home, the 74-year-old Trump headed to Pennsylvania, a battleground state he won in 2016 and which is key to his reelection bid.
Trump, who trails Biden in the polls, has ramped up the rhetoric as his campaign enters the home stretch, attacking the Democratic former senator on multiple fronts -- especially hammering away at the allegation that Biden is corrupt.
His attack centers on a conspiracy theory about the Biden family’s business activities. According to Trump, Biden’s son Hunter sold access to his father in Ukraine and China when he was serving as vice president to Barack Obama.
Trump was hoping to have his wife Melania by his side at the event in Erie, Pennsylvania, but the first lady opted not to travel, citing a "lingering cough" that remains since her bout of coronavirus.
The campaign hopes that she can help her husband win some key votes among suburban women.
NYT reveals Trump’s Chinese business pursuits, bank account
In a new report The New York Times revealed Trump spent years cultivating business projects in China where he even has a previously unknown bank account.
The news comes as the US president attempts to portray Biden as soft on Beijing, while himself brandishing an "America First" banner, portraying China as the greatest threat to the United States and global democracy.
The Chinese account, controlled by Trump International Hotels Management, is one of only three the president maintains in foreign nations -- including Britain and Ireland -- according to an analysis of his tax records by the paper.
The records show the company "paid $188,561 in taxes in China while pursuing licensing deals there from 2013 to 2015," the Times reported.
Biden leads in polls, but gap narrowing
According to the latest poll from The New York Times and Siena College published Tuesday, Biden leads Trump 50 percent to 41 percent among likely voters.
Trump does not have an edge over the challenger on any major issues at stake in the election, from his handling of the coronavirus pandemic to the economy, seemingly leaving him little breathing room to make up the difference in time.
But according to another poll by Investor’s Business Daily and the TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics (IBD/TIPP), the gap between the two septuagenarians has narrowed considerably, standing at just 2.3 percentage points -- 48.1 percent for Biden to 45.8 percent for Trump.
The IBD/TIPP poll was one of the few to predict a Trump victory in 2016.
Its latest polling shows Republicans rallying behind Trump, and Biden losing some support among unconvinced Democrats.
