Biden urges unity in Georgia as Trump targets Midwest

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has travelled to the hot springs town where past president Franklin Delano Roosevelt coped with polio to declare the US is not too politically diseased to overcome its health and economic crises, pledging to be the unifying force who can "restore our soul and save this country".

Biden offered his closing argument with Election Day just one week away while attempting to go on the political offensive in Georgia, which hasn’t backed a Democrat for the White House since 1992. 

He promised to be a president for all Americans regardless of party, even as "anger and suspicion is growing and our wounds are getting deeper".

Biden is planning to travel to Iowa, which Trump took by 10 points in 2016, later in the week. His running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, is hitting Arizona and Texas, where Republicans haven't lost any statewide office since 1994 – the nation’s longest political winning streak.

The aggressive schedule is a sign of confidence by the Biden team, which is trying to stretch the electoral map and open up more paths to 270 electoral college votes. 

Vows to tackle virus

Biden flayed Trump with accusations the US president has surrendered to a surging pandemic.

Biden, buoyed by poll numbers that show him leading the incumbent, drilled in on Trump's coronavirus response, reminding voters that Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows conceded at the weekend that "we're not going to control the pandemic."

He branded the response "a capitulation" by a White House that "never really tried" to halt a pandemic which has now killed more than 226,000 Americans.

Instead of acting as a wartime president to battle Covid-19 as he promised, Trump "shrugged, he swaggered and he surrendered", Biden said.

"I'm here to tell you: we can and we will control this virus," he added.

"I've got to say I'm working my ass off here!" Trump boomed in Lansing, Michigan, eliciting a huge cheer.

Trump also said his pandemic policies and economic chops would serve the nation better than Biden.

"This election is a choice between a Trump super-recovery or Biden depression," he said.

But with Covid-19 cases rising in several states and no agreement yet on a pandemic rescue package in Congress, US stocks mostly slid on Tuesday for a third straight session.

Later in Wisconsin, Trump warned Americans that they should not "let this radical socialist group take over" with Biden as president.

"You're going to see a giant red wave on Tuesday," he said.

READ MORE: US early vote total already exceeds 2016 levels

A battleground state 

President Trump questioned the integrity of the election again on Tuesday, saying it would be "inappropriate" to take extra time to count the tens of millions of ballots cast by mail in his race against Biden.

Early voting, both by mail and in person, has surged to record highs as Americans have rushed to cast ballots in the election while looking to avoid exposure to the coronavirus.

The huge volume of mail ballots – more than 46 million have already been cast – could take days or weeks to tally, experts say, meaning that a winner might not be declared on election night, November 3.

"It would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on November 3, instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate and I don't believe that that's by our laws," Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for a trip to Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska. "We'll see what happens."

Trump was travelling to the Michigan capital of Lansing and visiting West Salem, Wisconsin, just three days after holding a rally in the state. 

First lady Melania Trump was on the road, too, making her first solo campaign trip of the year.

"If this was the Georgia of 2008, 2012, I think there's no way we would have seen a Biden come this late," said Nse Ufot, chief executive officer of the New Georgia Project, which aims to increase voter registration, especially among young people and minorities. 

"It's a loud signal and acknowledgment of Georgia as a battleground state."

READ MORE: Trump, Biden woo voters in pivotal Pennsylvania

Democrats wooing young, non-white voters

After Hillary Clinton flirted with GOP territory in 2016, only to lose those states as well as traditional Democratic Midwestern strongholds, Biden’s campaign is mindful of overreaching. 

Still, a top Biden adviser rejected the notion that the campaign is spreading itself too thin, noting that the former vice president's visit follows weeks of a paid advertising in Georgia and visits by Harris and Jill Biden.

The state, the adviser said, has the right mix of young voters, non-white voters whose ranks are increasing, and anti-Trump suburban voters to build a winning Biden coalition. 

Biden will also visit in the coming days Wisconsin, Michigan, and Florida, where former President Barack Obama gave a speech in Orlando.

"We’ve got to outhustle the other side," Obama said, noting that Florida, the nation’s largest consistent swing state, could help Biden run up the electoral college score.

Trump targets Fox News

Trump expressed his displeasure that Fox News carried his Democratic predecessor's speech live, tweeting the network was "playing Obama’s no crowd, fake speech for Biden."

Melania Trump was making her first solo rally appearance of the campaign, in Pennsylvania, weeks after she tested positive for the coronavirus. 

She tweeted about her husband before her arrival, "The people of that great state know President @realDonaldTrump will always fight to keep Americans safe, secure, & prosperous."

Both Trumps left for their campaign trips at the same time, and the president gave the first lady a quick peck on the cheek before they boarded separate planes.

The president will also visit Omaha, Nebraska, after a Sunday stop in Maine. 

That anticipates a razor-thin electoral college margin since both areas offer one electoral vote by congressional district. He said of Nebraska's second congressional district, which includes Omaha, "I’d like to get it."

READ MORE: Mute button brings civility to final US presidential debate

Barrett approval helps Trump 

While Biden rarely travels to more than one state per day, the Republican president has maintained a whirlwind schedule, focusing on his argument that he built a booming economy before the coronavirus pandemic upended it. 

Trump will overnight on Tuesday in Las Vegas but is staying equally aggressive after that, planning to hold a dizzying 11 rallies in the final 48 hours before polls close.

His latest swing is also a victory lap after the Senate on Monday approved the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett and gave conservatives a commanding 6-3 advantage on the Supreme Court. 

Trump has sought to use the vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month to animate conservative evangelical and Catholic voters to his candidacy, but the high court fight has been overshadowed by concerns over the coronavirus with cases surging.

READ MORE: What to expect after the death of Justice Ginsburg?

Biden makes call for bipartisanship

Biden, meanwhile, is hoping to lift Democrats running for Senate in Georgia and Iowa. 

He planned to visit Atlanta after unveiling his closing message during a speech in Warm Springs, Georgia, where natural hot springs offered President Franklin Delano Roosevelt comfort as he battled polio and governed a nation weathering the Great Depression and World War II.

The former vice president’s campaign says his appearance will bookend his visit earlier this month to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania when Biden used the site of the bloody Civil War battle to issue a call for bipartisanship and putting country ahead of party. 

On Tuesday, he will try to evoke Roosevelt’s New Deal sensitivities.

"This is our opportunity to leave the dark, angry politics of the past four years behind us," Biden declared in a 60-second closing ad airing on national cable channels, and 16 states that his campaign considers battlegrounds.

With more than a third of the expected ballots in the election already cast, it is increasingly challenging for Trump and Biden to reshape the race. Biden is leading in most national polls and has an advantage, though narrower, in many key battlegrounds.

Coronavirus crisis

The campaign’s final week is colliding with deepening concerns about the coronavirus crisis. Trump is anxious for voters to focus on other issues such as the economy. Biden, meanwhile, has repeatedly hit Trump on the virus while presenting himself as a safer, more stable alternative.

Several close aides to Vice President Mike Pence tested positive for the virus last weekend, including his chief of staff, Marc Short. 

Pence, though, has maintained a packed travel schedule. On Tuesday he was to be in South Carolina, where Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is in a potentially tight reelection race. Graham is expecting to get a boost from conservatives for helping to speed Barrett’s nomination through the Senate.

Biden has accused Trump of "waving the white flag" in his response to the virus, while Trump says that the former vice president "waved a white flag on life."

Democrats have been heartened by their lead in the record numbers of early votes that have been cast across a number of battleground states. 

An important caveat, though, is Republicans are more likely to turn out on Election Day.

READ MORE: Trump links Biden to China via son Hunter’s ex-business partner

Trump election website defaced, campaign working with law enforcement

Trump's presidential election campaign said its official website was defaced earlier on Tuesday and that it is working with law enforcement to investigate the source of the attack.

The campaign said in an emailed statement there was "no exposure to sensitive data because none of it is actually stored on the site."

The FBI declined to comment.

The Trump website seemed to be fully functional Tuesday. Screenshots circulating online appeared to show that the site had briefly displayed a bogus message spoofing a law enforcement announcement.

The message then sought cryptocurrency donations from visitors in exchange for access to purported "internal and secret conversations" from Trump's family and associates.

The hackers provided no evidence to back their statements.

Past boasts by hackers to have inside access to Trump-related correspondence, notably by a group that claimed to have penetrated an entertainment law firm earlier this year, have come to nothing.