President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden will compete for TV audiences in dueling town halls instead of meeting face-to-face for their second debate as originally planned.
The two will take questions in different cities on different networks Thursday night: Trump on NBC from Miami, Biden on ABC from Philadelphia.
Trump backed out of plans for the presidential faceoff originally scheduled for the evening after debate organisers shifted the format to a virtual event following Trump's coronavirus diagnosis.
As the pace of the campaign speeds up in its final weeks, the two candidates first are taking care of other electoral necessities Thursday: Trump has a midday rally in battleground North Carolina, and Biden is raising campaign cash at a virtual event.
Trump has also been trying to shore up support from constituencies that not so long ago he thought he had in the bag: big business and voters in the red state of Iowa.
In a Wednesday morning address to business leaders, he expressed puzzlement that they would even consider supporting Biden, arguing that his own leadership was a better bet for a strong economy.
Later, the president held his third campaign rally in three nights, this time in Iowa, a state he won handily in 2016 but where Biden is making a late push.
Biden, for his part, held a virtual fundraiser from Wilmington, Delaware, and used his appearance to say that Trump was trying to rush through Amy Coney Barrett, his nominee for the Supreme Court, to help his efforts to repeal the Obama health care law, calling that "an abuse of power." Trump used his economic address Wednesday to play up his administration's commitment to lowering taxes and deregulation of industry, and he didn't hide his frustration with signs that some in the business community are tilting to Biden.
Trump's return to Iowa came as he has been forced into playing defense following a widely panned performance in the first debate and his illness.
Republicans have raised alarm that enthusiasm among Trump's base has waned slightly after the one-two punch of those events, casting his reelection into doubt.
PIC: AFP
If voted to power, Biden vows to deal with immigration crisis
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has vowed to provide citizenship to 11 million illegal immigrants if voted to power in the November 3 presidential election.
Biden identified this as one of his priorities in addition to beating the coronavirus pandemic, rebuilding the economy and figuring out how to restore American leadership around the world.
Responding to a question at a virtual fundraiser on Wednesday, Biden said there is a need to deal with what's going on at the border.
"We're going to have to deal with the immigration crisis we have. I'm going to send the House and Senate an immigration bill that's going to provide access to citizenship to 11 million people," he said.
President Donald Trump has been repeatedly calling for the quick deportation of illegal immigrants who "invade" the US and lamented that the current immigration system is "unfair" to those who came legally to America.
Trump has been asserting that building a wall along the Mexico border is the only way to check illegal immigration, and on various occasions said that every day the US border patrol encounters roughly 2,000 illegal immigrants trying to enter the country.
When asked how he would envision his first 30 days in office in terms of both domestic and foreign policy, Biden said: "A lot more can go wrong between now and January 21, and I'm not being facetious. Four more years, we're not going to have the country we have now".
"If the American people elect me, we're going to have an enormous task in repairing the damage he's done," Biden said, referring to the policies of Trump.
