US elections: Step 1 to beat COVID-19 is beating Trump says Biden

Washington, Nov 03: The first step to beating the coronavirus that has had a devastating impact on the US is to ensure President Donald Trump's electoral defeat, his Democratic challenger Joe Biden said on Monday.

Making a passionate plea, Biden, in his closing argument from the city of Pittsburgh, urged his countrymen to defeat Trump as he has failed to deliver in the last four years.

"The first step to beating the virus is defeating Donald Trump," Biden said in his second address of the day. With almost over 10 crore Americans have already voted and millions more to exercise their franchise on Tuesday, the former vice president urged people to get out and vote in large numbers.

"My message is simple. The power to change this country is in your hands. And I do not care how hard Donald Trump tries, there is nothing he can do to stop the people of this nation from voting, no matter how he tries," he said.

"There was a press article last week and it read as follows -- never before in modern presidential history has a candidate been so reliant on widescale efforts to repress the vote as Trump," Biden said.

"Trump does not want you all voting. He does not want Americans voting. He thinks only wealthy folks should vote. And when America votes though, America will be heard.

"When America is heard, the message is going to be out loud and clear. It is time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home. Go home," he said.

"Look, we are done with the chaos. We are done with the racism. We are done with the tweets, the anger, the hate, the irresponsibility. But we have got a lot of work to do, folks. If I am elected president, we are going to act. On day one, we are going to act to get COVID under control," Biden said.

He alleged that Trump has done more to harm black America than any president in modern history. "This is the same man who started the birther movement against my buddy, Barack Obama. This is the man who when -- the first black woman running for vice president -- he looks at her and he calls her monster," the former vice president said.

Biden closed out the day with a drive-in rally in Pittsburgh, the city where he launched his campaign 18 months ago. In his closing message, he said this election is a battle for "the soul of our nation" and that he is the leader the "country needs to recover from the pandemic and build back better than before".

In a tweet later in the night, Biden described this as an election of a lifetime. "In less than 12 hours, voters will head to the polls for the most important election in our lifetimes. It all comes down to this," he wrote.