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Trump, Biden scrap on oil, virus with just over a week to go

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during his campaign event at The Villages Polo Club on October 23, 2020 in The Villages, Florida. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks about his plans for combatting the coronavirus pandemic at The Queen theater on October 23, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Getty Photos)

PENSACOLA,
Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump and his allies fought for support in
pivotal battleground states Friday after a debate performance that gave
new hope to anxious Republicans. Democrat Joe Biden, campaigning close
to home, tried to clean up a debate misstep while urging voters to stay
focused on the president’s inability to control the worsening pandemic.

The
surge of activity with just 11 days remaining in the 2020 contest
highlighted the candidates’ divergent strategies, styles and policy
prescriptions that are shaping the campaign’s closing days. More than 52
million votes have already been cast, with an additional 100 million or
so expected before a winner is declared.

The coronavirus pandemic
has pushed Trump onto the defensive for much of the fall, but for the
moment it is Biden’s team that has been forced to explain itself. In the
final minutes of Thursday night’s debate, the former vice president
said he supports a “transition” away from oil in the U.S. in favor of
renewable energy. The campaign released a statement hours later
declaring that he would phase out taxpayer subsidies for fossil fuel
companies, not the industry altogether.

But Trump, campaigning in Florida, repeatedly seized on the issue.

“That
could be one of the biggest mistakes made in presidential debate
history,” he gloated at a rally at The Villages, a sprawling retirement
community in Florida, where thousands of people gathered outdoors on a
polo field. Most did not wear masks.

Later, in Pensacola, Trump recounted the moment with glee.

“It
looked like he made it, it looked like it was going to be OK. He got
off the stage, going back to his basement, and then they hit him with
the energy question. They hit him with a thing called oil,” he told a
sprawling crowd that appeared to be one of the largest of his campaign
to date.

While Florida is still logging thousands of new COVID-19
cases daily, audience members stood and sat shoulder-to-shoulder and
Make America Great Again hats far outnumbered face coverings. In-person
voting in the state began Monday.

As part of his damage control,
Biden dispatched running mate Kamala Harris to help clarify his position
as she campaigned in swing state Georgia.

“Let’s be really clear
about this: Joe Biden is not going to ban fracking,” Harris said,
referring to a technique that uses pressurized liquid to extract oil or
natural gas. “He is going to deal with the oil subsidies. You know, the
president likes to take everything out of context. But let’s be clear,
what Joe was talking about was banning subsidies, but he will not ban
fracking in America.”

As he campaigned in The Villages, Trump fired an insult at Harris that pointed to her gender, quickly stirring criticism.

“Kamala
will not be your first female president,” Trump declared. “Look, we’re
not going to be a socialist nation. We’re not going to have a socialist
president, especially any female socialist president.”

As for
Biden and oil, while ending the nation’s reliance on fossil fuel is
popular among many liberals, the idea could hurt him among working-class
voters in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas who depend
on the industry, and fracking in particular, to make a living.

Trump’s
allies immediately began running new attack ads seizing on the
Democrats’ inconsistent answers on energy. And Trump played a video at
his Pensacola rally that included past comments from Biden and Harris
about fracking, which Harris supported banning during her primary
campaign.

As part of his plan to fight climate change, Biden has
said he would ban new gas and oil permits — including fracking — on
federal lands only. The vast majority of oil and gas does not come from
federal lands.

With 29 Electoral College votes, Florida is widely
seen as a must-win state for Trump if he wants to win a second term in
the White House. While polling here in early October showed Biden with a
slight advantage, a more recent poll has the two candidates neck and
neck.

Trump’s fate in the state is closely tied to his handling
of the pandemic, especially among older voters, whose support for him
has faded. He and his campaign have spent the last weeks trying to win
them back, including Friday, when Trump pledged to protect Social
Security and tried to paint Biden in hyperbolic terms.

A Biden
election, Trump claimed at one point, “would mean that America’s seniors
have no air conditioning during the summer, no heat during the winter
and no electricity during peak hours.” Biden has not endorsed anything
of the sort.

The pandemic was a major focus of Thursday’s debate
and it was the sole focus of Biden’s only public appearance Friday close
to his home in Delaware, which is hardly a swing state.

During
the debate, Trump rosily predicted that the pandemic, which is
escalating in several states, will “go away.” Biden countered that the
nation was headed toward “a dark winter.” The former vice president
reiterated that theme Friday in Wilmington as he outlined his plans.

Biden
vowed to work with Congress to enact a new economic relief package for
hard-pressed individuals, businesses and states by the end of January
after seeking input from Republican and Democratic governors. He also
promised to encourage state leaders to implement mask mandates. Should
they refuse, Biden said he would lean on municipal leaders to require
universal mask wearing in their communities.

“We’re more than
eight months into this crisis, the president still doesn’t have a plan.
He’s given up,” Biden charged. “I’m not going to shut down the country.
I’m going to shut down the virus.”

Though U.S. cases are soaring and deaths are nearing 224,000, Trump insisted that Biden was being too pessimistic.

“We’re
not entering a dark winter,” he insisted. “We’re entering the final
turn and approaching the light at the end of the tunnel. That’s how I
look at it.”

In fact, infections, hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise across the United States.

The
seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in the U.S. rose over the
past two weeks from 44,647 on Oct. 8 to 61,141.9 on Oct. 22, and the
rolling average for daily new deaths rose over the same period from
710.3 to 762.9, according to data through Thursday from Johns Hopkins
University.

Even in the closing days of the race, Biden has maintained a cautious campaign schedule, citing the pandemic, while Trump has been a much more aggressive traveler. And he said he would be campaigning nonstop until Election Day, with as many as five or six rallies in the race’s final day.

Weissert reported from Wilmington, Delaware. AP writers Kevin Freking and Zeke Miller in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed.