…and welcome to another day on the campaign trail, nine days out from election day now, with Joe Biden holding his polling leads, Donald Trump campaigning hard at rallies which do not adhere to Covid-19 mitigation measures and Mike Pence… seeing multiple members of his team, including chief of staff Marc Short, test positive for the coronavirus. The VP is not altering his schedule:
This while Covid case numbers are shooting to record levels nationally and in many states, and as one study predicts a death toll of 500,000 by February.
As the AP reports, “Oklahoma, Illinois, New Mexico and Michigan were among states announcing new record highs in daily confirmed cases on Saturday, a day after a nationwide daily record of more than 83,000 reported infections, according to Johns Hopkins University.
“Dr Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan’s chief medical executive, said it’s ‘now more important than ever that people take this seriously.’ The 3,338 new Covid-19 cases in her state topped the old record by more than 1,300. Michigan is of course a swing state, fought over by Trump and Biden – who is more than seven points up there. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, will be in the state today.
The same Johns Hopkins count now puts the caseload at 8.5m and the death toll at more than 224,000.
Trump had a four-state campaign day on Saturday, voting in Florida before staging rallies in North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin. Today he’s speaking in New Hampshire – where the fivethirtyeight.com average puts Biden more than 11 points ahead. Trump has a habit of speaking in places where it might not seem worth the bother – he is also having to campaign in states, such as Georgia, where no Republican president would usually have to tread.
More to come, of course. In the meantime, here’s David Smith with hopeful news for Democrats:
