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Trump back on campaign trail.

President Donald Trump has returned to the campaign trail less than two weeks after testing positive for coronavirus.

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The president and rival Joe Biden are scrambling to secure votes with three weeks until the 3 November election.

On Monday Mr Biden spoke in Ohio, another swing state.Polling suggests Mr Biden has a 10-point lead over Mr Trump nationally. However his lead in some key states is narrower – as is the case in Florida, where he is 3.7 points ahead, according to an average of polls collated by Real Clear Politics.

Battlegrounds like the “Sunshine State” are crucial for gathering the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House, which is not determined by a simple popular ballot count.

Mr Trump tested positive for Covid-19 some 11 days ago, and was admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center a day later.

But on Sunday his personal doctor said he was no longer a Covid transmission risk to others and disclosed on Monday that his most recent tests were negative over consecutive days, although he did not give the dates.

Vice President Pence also campaigned in Ohio on Monday, while Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), remained in Washington to participate in a confirmation hearing for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court.

Onstage at a hangar at the Orlando Sanford International Airport, Mr. Trump, whose voice sounded hoarse and strained as he began, claimed he was fully recovered and therefore immune to the coronavirus — a claim for which there is no conclusive scientific backing.

“I feel so powerful,” said Mr. Trump, who did not wear a mask while boarding Air Force One. “I’ll walk in there, I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women. Just give you a big fat kiss.”

Mr. Trump, whose response to a pandemic that has killed more than 214,000 Americans remains the biggest threat to his re-election, claimed without any evidence that his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., would delay the vaccine and “prolong the pandemic.” He made fun of the small and socially distanced campaign events that Mr. Biden has been hosting, and commended his own campaign for the massive crowds it has been turning out at rallies, calling them “the real polls.”

Mr. Trump’s arrival in Florida took place only hours after the White House physician, Dr. Sean P. Conley, said the president had tested negative “on consecutive days” using a rapid antigen coronavirus test not intended for that purpose. Experts cautioned that the test’s accuracy has not yet been investigated enough to be sure that the president is virus-free or, as his doctor claimed, “not infectious to others.”

Many supporters in the crowd did not wear masks, including some of those chosen to stand behind the president’s podium, and within the television camera shot.

Onstage, Mr. Trump also made fun of questions about whether he would agree to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses. He claimed, falsely, that President Barack Obama spied on his 2016 campaign and noted, “We’ll take care of it after the election,” adding, “gives you another reason to go out and vote.”

For the most part, however, the president was back to delivering his regular, factually challenged campaign stump speech, in which he brags about killing terrorists and building a wall along the southern border, and accuses the news media of being “frauds.” On Monday night, he boasted about being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, even though the prize this year went to the U.N. World Food Program, and blamed the media for not giving him enough credit for a nomination when news outlets had covered Mr. Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

Sorce: www.nytimes.com www.bbc.com www.washingtonpost.com

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