With two weeks left before the close of voting, President Trump flew to the far northwest corner of Pennsylvania for a large rally where he aired grievances against the news media, complained that the pandemic had damaged his campaign and portrayed Democrats as purveyors of drugs and crime — all as a sea of loyal supporters in red MAGA hats cheered him on.
While Trump on Tuesday appealed in person to his most ardent fans with divisive themes, Joe Biden’s campaign beamed in to the nation’s living rooms during the World Series with a much broader audience in mind. “There is only one America. No Democratic rivers, no Republican mountains,” the actor Sam Elliott intoned as he narrated a commercial for Biden in his signature gravelly voice. Biden, meanwhile, was at home as the ad aired, eschewing public events to prepare for Thursday’s debate.
The split screen underlined the starkly different strategies Trump and Biden have deployed in the final stage of the presidential race. Trump has been spending heaps of cash staging crowded rallies designed to motivate his most fervent fans, despite the advice of public health officials to avoid large gatherings. Biden, who is leading in the polls, has been holding smaller, less expensive events and investing aggressively in television ads and virtual gatherings designed to persuade a wide audience that he can unify a divided country. Continue reading.