Trump denies he's an underdog to Joe Biden, confident of victory as 'thousands of boats, bikers' rally for him
President Donald J. Trump has rebuffed claims that he's the underdog in the race for the White House against his Democratic challenger Joe Biden. "No, I don't," Trump told a reporter at the White House Rose Garden, on Tuesday, after being asked if he thought he was losing in November. "I think we have really good poll numbers." The president cited a series of boat and bike rallies that his supporters organized to prove his point.
"You look at the intercoastal in Florida, you look at the lakes you see thousands of boats and bikers with Trump signs, American signs, you've got the Trump-Pence sign all over," Trump said. "You look at bikers for miles and miles riding up highways proudly with their signs."
The president was asked the question after he announced an unscheduled 5 pm press conference at 1:44 pm just moments before Biden was about to roll out a $2 trillion plan aimed at fighting climate change while also building up the nation's clean energy infrastructure.
The former vice president, who was speaking at a Wilmington event, also started by attacking the Trump administration's Covid-19 response. "It's gotten bad enough that even Donald Trump finally decided to wear a mask in public," Biden quipped, before poking fun at some of the statements the president has made about clean energy sources. "When Donald Trump thinks about renewable energy he sees windmills somehow causing cancer," Biden said. "When I think about these windmills, I see American manufacturing, American workers racing to dominate the global market."
"When Donald Trump talks about improving efficiency by retro-fitting lighting systems with LED bulbs - remember what he said? He said he doesn't like LED because quote- 'the light's no good, I always look orange,'" he added.
Meanwhile, Trump took the Rose Garden podium to criticize China and Biden, who the president said was in cahoots with the Chinese communist party. "Joe Biden's entire career has been a gift to the Chinese communist party and to the calamity of, of errors that they've made, they've made so many errors," Trump said, before insisting that his 2020 prospects looked a lot like 2016.
The president mentioned his June trip to Maine and pointed to the crowds he attracted, reaffirming that the silent majority was "stronger than ever."
"We went up there recently there were crowds, thousands of people lined up going over to a factory where we were opening up for making swabs, a beautiful big new factory making swabs," Trump said.
It's true that thousands had lined the streets for the president's motorcade, and a number of 'Black Lives Matter' protesters also came out at the event. "I think a lot of people don't want to talk about it. I think they're not going to say hey I'm for Trump, I'm for Trump, they don't want to go through the process," he added.
According to Trump, his supporters didn't want to admit to their allegiance with him in public because of "unfair media treatment." "The media doesn't treat us fairly, they never have and perhaps they never will," he complained. "But maybe they will when we turn this around for a second time and it's going to happen very quickly," he said, referencing the economy.
The president also reiterated his concerns about mail-in voting, but said he believed his supporters made up the majority of American voters. "I think you have a silent majority the likes of which this country has never seen before," Trump declared.