Hours before polls close, Biden calls for unity — and Trump stokes divisions

In a bid for what many pollsters have predicted will be the most crucial state in determining the winner of the 2020 election, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden returned to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, this week, were he gave neighbors of his childhood home a rousing speech decrying hate and calling for unity.

“I want to restore the soul of the country. When I saw those folks come out of those fields down in Charlottesville carrying those torches, and you close your eyes and remember what you saw, veins bulging, screaming hate, they were carrying Nazi flags … Well, that’s when I decided I had to run,” Biden said on Tuesday.

He proceeded to sign the wall of his old house, writing, “From this House to the White House with the Grace of God”.

In sharp contrast to Biden’s message decrying hate, on Monday night, Donald Trump rallied his base with the usual fear-mongering, even going so far as threatening Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.

“Governor, open up your state and please don’t cheat, governor, we’re all watching you, governor. We have a lot of eyes on the governor and his friends. A couple of other governors out there, too,” Trump said Monday night.

Throat scratchy after over a dozen rallies in the past three days, Trump’s bluster seemed to fade overnight when he appeared on Fox News this morning and lambasted the network for “having changed a lot in the last four years.”

In one of his final speeches of the day in Pennsylvania, Biden countered, “We choose hope over fear. We choose truth over lies. We choose science over fiction. We can take this.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.