President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden will campaign in three U.S. states today, after the two faced-off last night at the first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, leading up to the November election.
Trump, 74, will spend the day in Minnesota with a fundraiser in the afternoon before a rally in Duluth. Biden, 77, and his wife, Jill, will embark on an all-day train tour through a half-dozen cities in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, areas that Trump won four years ago. Pennsylvania, which narrowly voted for Trump in 2016, is seen by many strategists as the most crucial of the six most competitive states that will likely decide the election outcome, which also include Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Ohio, which Trump carried in his 2016 defeat of Hillary Clinton, is among the Republican-leaning states that Biden hopes to put into play in November.
Tuesday’s debate, marred by interruptions, insults and anger, appeared unlikely to sway or significantly alter the campaign’s dynamics. During a segment on race relations, moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump whether he would denounce white supremacists and call on them not to add to the violence that has occurred amid protests in some U.S. cities. Rather than denounce those groups, Trump pivoted to attack left-wing agitators known as antifa, drawing criticism from some social justice leaders. Trump also declined to say he would accept the election results, repeating his unfounded assertion that widespread voting by mail would lead to fraud.
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