Trump seeks to shore up support in Iowa, other states flirting with Biden

Trump, a Republican who is trailing Biden in national and some key state opinion polls, staged a rally at the Des Moines, Iowa, airport. "Twenty days from today, we’re going to win this state," Trump said on a windy night in Des Moines, many in the crowd were not wearing masks to guard against the novel coronavirus that has killed nearly 216,000 Americans.

Under siege over his handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump swept into Iowa on Wednesday on a mission to shore up support in battleground states that he won in 2016 but is in danger of losing to Democrat Joe Biden barely three weeks before the election. Trump, a Republican who is trailing Biden in national and some key state opinion polls, staged a rally at the Des Moines, Iowa, airport.

"Twenty days from today, we're going to win this state," Trump said on a windy night in Des Moines, many in the crowd were not wearing masks to guard against the novel coronavirus that has killed nearly 216,000 Americans. "We're going to win four more years in the White House."

Trump's Iowa stop is part of a barnstorming tour across states critical to deciding who will win the Nov. 3 election. On Thursday he will be in North Carolina and Florida, on Friday he will campaign in Florida and Georgia and on Saturday he will speak in Michigan and Wisconsin. All of these are states he won in 2016 but are in danger of going to Biden this year, potentially denying Trump a second term.

He is expected to spend Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada, and then launch into a western swing. Trump on Wednesday pulled into a statistical tie with Biden in Florida, a key battleground, at 47% vs 49% with a credibility interval of four points, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll showed, though Biden's lead widened in Arizona and he had a 10 percentage point advantage nationally among likely voters.

On Thursday, Trump and Biden, who had been due to hold a second presidential debate, will instead take part in dueling televised town halls. NBC News said Trump's event in Miami would take place outdoors to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Biden's ABC News event will take place in Philadelphia.

That Trump, who fell ill with the virus earlier this month, is traveling to Iowa so close to Election Day suggests his campaign is concerned about voter support there for his re-election. Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state by almost 10 percentage points in 2016, but opinion polls have shown Iowa to be competitive. Nearly 15 million Americans have cast ballots, setting a record early pace, according to the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida. Many are seeking to avoid the large crowds expected on Election Day.

In the last presidential election, some 1.4 million Americans had cast early votes as of Oct. 16, 2016. About two dozen people showed up more than two hours before polls opened in Memphis, Tennessee, to claim spots in line, local media reported, as voting opened in Kansas, Rhode Island and Tennessee.

In Georgia, where long lines snaked out of polling places and down sidewalks on the first two days of early voting this week, Gwinnett County election officials reported waits of up to three hours to cast early ballots on Wednesday. BIDEN WIDENS LEAD

Trump looks to be spending much of the week aiming to galvanize his white, conservative base rather than seeking to appeal directly to undecided voters, many of whom live in the country's suburbs. On Thursday, he heads to Greenville in rural North Carolina, a closely fought state where early voting will begin that day, then on to rural Georgia and central Florida the next day.

Reuters/Ipsos polling released this week showed Biden widening his lead in the key states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – states Trump won in 2016. Iowa has experienced a spike in COVID-19 cases, with hospitalizations at an all-time high. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds has resisted any statewide containment measures such as a mandate to wear masks and urged Trump supporters on social media to turn out en masse for the president.

Trump's bout with coronavirus has put the focus of the campaign's closing stretch squarely on his response to the pandemic, with Biden repeatedly criticizing Trump's handling of the virus. In Florida on Tuesday, Biden told seniors at a community center that Trump had recklessly dismissed the threat that the virus had posed to their at-risk population. Trump has touted his handling of the crisis.

The Trump campaign said it would conduct temperature checks and hand out masks at his rallies but not require attendees to wear them. (Writing by Steve Holland and James Oliphant; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Peter Cooney, Howard Goller and Cynthia Osterman, Ross Colvin)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)