Trump, Biden barrel through key states on final weekend before vote

With Tuesday's US presidential election only days away, Donald Trump, Joe Biden and their top surrogates were barreling through crucial states in the industrial Midwest and the coastal southeast on Saturday, in a frantic sprint to mobilize voters as they pressed their closing arguments.

Underscoring the high stakes -- and the disruptive impact of the coronavirus pandemic -- a record 90 million early votes have already been cast, as the bruising contest heads toward the biggest turnout in at least a century.

Trump and Biden were focusing on the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, where the president continued a frenetic pace with four campaign stops, and Michigan, where Biden and his former boss Barack Obama -- appearing together for the first time in this campaign -- were to appear twice.

Vice President Mike Pence, meantime, was campaigning in North Carolina -- where Trump and Biden are running neck-and-neck - while Biden running mate Kamala Harris was in Florida to promote turnout in another hard-fought swing state.

Pennsylvania, where Trump squeaked out a narrow victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, has emerged as one of the top prizes this year.

In his motorcade en route to rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Trump passed hundreds of supporters holding up a forest of pro-Trump signs. The crowd then booed reporters in trailing vehicles.

In remarks at an event there, Trump lashed out at Biden while describing his own avowedly disruptive approach to politics as being in the service of voters.

"If I don't always play by the rules of Washington and the Washington establishment, it's because I was elected to fight for you, and I fought harder for you than any president in the history of our country," he said.

But the race has been overshadowed by the surging pandemic. More than 94,000 new infections were recorded Friday -- another new high -- and total cases passed nine million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

In stark contrast to Trump -- whose son Donald Trump Jr. told Fox on Thursday that Covid-19 deaths had fallen to "almost nothing" -- Biden has scrupulously followed the guidance of public health experts.

He and Obama were appearing Saturday before socially distanced drive-in rallies in the cities of Flint and Detroit with one of that city's most famous sons, superstar singer Stevie Wonder, as a musical guest.

Trump, 74, won the industrial state by a mere 0.2 points in 2016 -- but this year Biden leads by nearly seven points, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls.

The state's 16 electoral votes could provide a sizable leap towards the 270 needed to win the White House.

In 2016, Trump took advantage of low turnout rates among Michigan Blacks to eke out victory there. As Biden campaigns with the nation's first Black president, he hopes to mobilize African American voters.

For the past week Obama has hosted several rallies at which he repeatedly slammed Trump's response to the pandemic, including in Pennsylvania.

Trump won Pennsylvania, where Biden was born, by a razor-thin margin in 2016.

Biden will appear there both Sunday and Monday in a clear sign of the state's importance.

The election takes place in a deeply divided country, with feelings so raw that gun sales have surged in some areas. Businesses in some cities are protectively boarding their windows, while law enforcement agencies are bracing for possible violence.

On Friday the two candidates carried their battle to the American Midwest. They barnstormed three heartland states each -- in one of the regions hardest hit by the coronavirus -- as they chased every last vote.

Trump, who has long said the virus will "disappear," remained defiant at rallies in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

He again downplayed the threat of the coronavirus, saying, "If you get it, you're going to get better, and then you're going to be immune."

But the Biden campaign issued a statement Sunday citing a Stanford University study saying Trump's mass rallies -- with little respect for mask-wearing or distancing -- could have led to thousands of additional cases and up to 700 deaths.

The virus has killed nearly 230,000 Americans and ravaged the economy. Despite signs of recovery, millions remain jobless.

Trump has continued to tout the economic successes of his presidency, including recent signs of improvement, but fears of a shaky recovery linger.

After a campaign largely muted by the pandemic, Biden has taken the offensive, pushing Trump onto the back foot in unexpected battlegrounds like Texas, a large, traditionally conservative bastion now seen as a toss-up.

On Friday, the state reported that a staggering nine million residents had already voted, surpassing its 2016 total.

Harris visited Texas Friday in a bid to turn the state Democratic for the first time since 1976.

Biden also stumped Friday in Wisconsin and in Minnesota, where he sharpened his attacks on the president on everything from Trump seeking to dismantle Obama-era health care protections to climate change and trade policy with China.

"We cannot afford four more years of Donald Trump," the Democrat said in St. Paul, Minnesota.

"So honk your horn if you want America to lead again!" he said, embracing the awkward pandemic-era campaign trend of rallying supporters in their vehicles.