Washington: Republican incumbent President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday ended their most divisive and bitter election campaign with fervent appeals on social media to the undecided Americans to vote for them, as they pledged to take the country out of the woods.
The November 3 presidential election has been billed as one of the most divisive in recent American history. The election is already setting records for turnout, and perhaps no two candidates are more at odds over the future of the country and the direction they want to take it in.
Trump, 74, toured the key voting battlegrounds of Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania on Monday while his 77-year-old rival campaigned in Pennsylvania and Ohio, urging Americans to back them in the race for the White House.
“To all of our supporters: thank you from the bottom of my heart. You have been there from the beginning, and I will never let you down. Your hopes are my hopes, your dreams are my dreams, and your future is what I am fighting for every single day!” Trump tweeted past mid-night.
“A vote for Sleepy Joe Biden is a vote to give control of government over to Globalists, Communists, Socialists, and Wealthy Liberal Hypocrites who want to silence, censor, cancel, and punish you. Get out and VOTE #MAGA tomorrow!,” the president wrote in another tweet, attacking Biden.
The Republican Party in a tweet said, “Let’s Make America Great Again and re-elect our fantastic president!”
“We made history together four years ago, and tomorrow we’re going to make history once again,” the ruling party said.
Biden, the former US vice president, said he was “running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president.”
“I will work with Democrats and Republicans, and I’ll work as hard for those who don’t support me as for those who do.
“Because that’s the job of a president,” he wrote.
He pointed out that under President Trump, over “230,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, 30 million people have lost hours, paychecks, or jobs and nearly one in five small businesses have closed.”
“Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Biden asked the voters.
If elected as president, Bien said he will rebuild the infrastructure, combat climate change and create millions of good-paying and union jobs.
“It’s time to build back better –– together,” Biden said.
National polls suggest a firm lead for Mr Biden in Tuesday’s election.
But his lead is narrower in the handful of states that could decide the result.
Nearly 99 million people have already cast their ballots in early voting, putting the country on course for its highest turnout in a century.
To be elected president, a candidate must win at least 270 votes in what is called the Electoral College. Each US state gets a certain number of votes partly based on its population and there are a total of 538 up for grabs on Tuesday.
The election comes amid the raging coronavirus pandemic. The US has recorded more cases and more deaths than any other country worldwide, reporting more than 81,000 new infections on Sunday alone.
The US has reported over 231,500 deaths and more than 9,292,000 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracker, making the country the worst-hit nation from the deadly virus.
The US economy saw record-breaking 33 per cent growth in the third financial quarter of this year, following a record 31 per cent contraction in the second quarter due to the huge damage inflicted by the pandemic.
