Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump has said at a public meeting that he may have to “leave the country” if Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wins next month’s election.
“Could you imagine if I lose?” Trump told supporters gathered at an airport in Macon, Georgia. “I’m not going to feel so good. Maybe I’ll have to leave the country, I don’t know,” he said. “My whole life what am I going to do? I’m going to say I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics.”
Trump repeatedly mocked Biden’s candidacy and suggested that it would be embarrassing to lose to the former vice president.
The New York Times reported that Trump is trailing behind Biden in polls as well as in campaign contributions.
Biden has raised a record $383 million compared to Trump’s $247 million last month. Trump said he wasn’t planning to raise any more money.
“I could raise more money,” he said. “I would be the world’s greatest fund-raiser, but I just don’t want to do it.”
In the past few weeks leading up to the election, Trump has come under sharp criticism for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a New York Times bombshell report about his tax returns, which showed he only paid $750 in taxes in 2016 and 2017, as well as a myriad of other legal battles.
Trump didn’t deny New York Times report that claims he’s $400 million in debt when pressed during town hall.
Earlier, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden attacked President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, as the two candidates held dueling televised town halls after their second planned debate was canceled.
The prime-time split-screen showdown offered a stark reminder of how deeply unusual this year’s campaign has been amid a coronavirus pandemic that has infected nearly 8 million Americans, including the president himself. Millions have already voted early ahead of Election Day on Nov 3.
Biden, speaking to voters in Philadelphia on ABC, sought to put Trump’s handling of the pandemic front and center, blaming the Republican president for downplaying the virus that has killed more than 216,000 people in the United States.
“He said he didn’t tell anybody because he was afraid Americans would panic,” Biden said in Philadelphia on ABC. “Americans don’t panic. He panicked.”
Trump defended both his response to the pandemic as well as his own personal conduct, including staging a Rose Garden event at the White House where few wore masks or practiced social distancing, which resulted in numerous attendees contracting the disease.
“Hey, I’m president – I have to see people, I can’t be in a basement,” Trump said on NBC in front of an outdoor audience of voters in Miami, implicitly criticizing Biden for spending months off the campaign trail as the pandemic raged. Trump, who aggressively interrupted Biden during a chaotic debate two weeks ago, showed little interest in altering his belligerent tone.
He said he “heard different stories” about the efficacy of masks, even though his own administration’s public health experts have said wearing them is key to stopping the spread of the virus.
The second presidential debate had originally been scheduled for Thursday, but Trump pulled out of the event after organizers decided to turn it into a virtual affair following his diagnosis two weeks ago. A final debate is still scheduled for Oct 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Trump, who spent three days in a military hospital but has since returned to the campaign trail, is trying to alter the dynamics of the race. Reuters/Ipsos polls show Biden has a significant national lead, although his advantage in battleground states is less pronounced.
North Carolina, a highly competitive state, saw huge lines as it began more than two weeks of in-person early voting on Thursday, following record turnout in Georgia and Texas earlier in the week.
