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Biden vows to unify and save country; Trump hits Midwest

Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden greets Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., left, as he arrives with his granddaughter Finnegan Biden, center, and sister Valerie Biden, right, at Columbus Airport in Columbus, Ga., on Oct. 27, 2020, to travel to Warm Springs, Ga. for a rally. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WARM SPRINGS, Ga. (AP) — Joe Biden traveled Tuesday to the hot
springs town where Franklin Delano Roosevelt coped with polio to declare
the U.S. 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.”

The Democratic presidential nominee
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 he said that
“anger and suspicion is growing and our wounds are getting deeper.”

“Has the heart of this nation turned to stone? I don’t think so,” Biden said. “I refuse to believe it.”

While
Biden worked to expand the electoral map in the South, President Donald
Trump focused on the Democrats’ “blue wall” states that he flipped in
2016 — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — and maintained a far
busier travel schedule taking him to much more of the country.

At
a cold, rain-soaked rally in the Michigan capital of Lansing, Trump
said Biden supported the North American Free Trade Agreement and China’s
entry into the World Trade Organization, both of which he said hurt the
auto industry and other manufacturing in the state.

“This
election is a matter of economic survival for Michigan,” the president
said, arguing that the state’s economy was strong before the coronavirus
pandemic hit. “Look what I’ve done.”

Trump also cheered Senate
candidate John James — who may ultimately have a better chance of
winning the state than the president — while attacking Michigan Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer for moving aggressively to shut down much of the
state’s economy to slow the virus’ spread. He even seemed to cast doubt
on federal authorities breaking up what they said was a plot to kidnap
her, which Whitmer has argued Trump’s “violent rhetoric” helped spark.

“It
was our people that helped her out with her problem. And we’ll have to
see if it’s a problem. Right?” Trump said. “People are entitled to say
‘maybe it was a problem. Maybe it wasn’t.’”

Biden, even as he
predicted the country could rise above politics, went after his election
rival, accusing Trump anew of bungling the federal response to the
pandemic that has seen new cases surging in many areas, and failing to
manage the economic fallout or combat institutional racism and police
brutality that have sparked widespread demonstrations.

“The
tragic truth of our time is that COVID has left a deep and lasting wound
in this country,” Biden said, scoffing at Trump’s pronouncements that
the nation is turning a corner on the virus. He charged that the
president has “shrugged. He’s swaggered. And he’s surrendered.”

Venturing
into Georgia was a sign of confidence by the Biden team, which is
trying to stretch the electoral map and open up more paths to the needed
270 Electoral College votes. The former vice president plans to travel
to Iowa, which Trump took by 10 points in 2016, later in the week. And
his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, is hitting Arizona and deep red Texas.

Besides
Lansing, Trump traveled to West Salem, Wisconsin. First lady Melania
Trump was on the road, too, making her first solo campaign trip of the
year in Pennsylvania. And Vice President Mike Pence was in South
Carolina, maintaining his campaign schedule despite several close aides
testing positive for the coronavirus last weekend. There, Republican
Sen. Lindsey Graham is in a potentially tight reelection race.

Hillary
Clinton flirted with GOP territory in 2016, only to lose traditional
Democratic Midwestern strongholds. But 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 paid advertising in
Georgia and visits by Harris and the candidate’s wife, Jill Biden.

In
the coming days, Biden will also visit Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida,
where former President Barack Obama gave a speech in Orlando on
Tuesday, blistering Trump with the theory that he was only worrying
about the virus because it was dominating news coverage.

“He’s
jealous of COVID’s media coverage,” Obama said. “If he had been focused
on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs
across the country this week.”

Trump expressed his displeasure
that Fox News carried his Democratic predecessor’s speech live,
complaining to reporters about it and tweeting the network was “playing
Obama’s no crowd, fake speech for Biden.”

In Atglen, Pennsylvania,
Melania Trump said she was feeling “so much better now,” just weeks
after being diagnosed with the virus. She slammed Biden’s “socialist
agenda,” praised her husband as “a fighter” and commented on his use of
social media.

“I don’t always agree the way he says things,” she
said, drawing laughter from the crowd, “but it is important to him that
he speaks directly to the people he serves.”

The 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 also visited 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.

“We have to
win both Nebraskas,” Trump told the big crowd that gathered at the
city’s Eppley Airfield, presumably referring to Omaha and the state’s
more rural districts.

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 is planning a dizzying 11 rallies in the final 48 hours before polls close.

His latest swing is also something of a victory lap after the Senate on Monday approved the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to give 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
lo animate conservative evangelical and Catholic voters, though the
high court fight has been overshadowed by concerns over the coronavirus
with cases surging.

Biden,
meanwhile, is hoping to lift Democrats running for Senate in Georgia
and Iowa. He visited Atlanta after his address in Warm Springs, where
Roosevelt sought treatment while governing a nation weathering the Great
Depression and World War II.

“This place, Warm Springs, is a
reminder that though broken, each of us can be healed,” Biden said.
“That as a people and a country, we can overcome a devastating virus.
That we can heal a suffering world. That, yes, we can restore our soul
and save our country.”

His appearance was meant to 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 putting
country ahead of party. On Tuesday, he evoked Roosevelt’s New Deal
sensitivities to say he could harness the power of the government to
move the country forward.

“If you give me the honor of serving as your president, clear the decks for action,” he said. “For we will act.”

Weissert reported from Washington, Madhani from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press Writers Michael Rubinkam in Atglen, Pennsylvania, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed.