MILWAUKEE (Wisconsin) • US President Donald Trump and his challenger Joe Biden traded tough blows as the White House race entered its final stretch, with the Republican leader branding his opponent "stupid" - and the Democrat firing back that the President lacked the "guts" to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.
As Mr Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris took their campaign message to must-win swing states Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Mr Trump convened a surprise news conference at the White House on Monday.
In a freewheeling and grievance-laden performance, Mr Trump once more dangled the possibility of a Covid-19 inoculation by election day on Nov 3 - something experts say remains unlikely - and accused his opponents of playing politics with a vaccine after Ms Harris said she would not take his word alone on its safety.
Touting an upswing in job creation - after tens of millions lost their jobs - and claiming the United States is turning the corner on the pandemic, he called Mr Biden "stupid", saying the latter "wants to surrender our country to the virus, he wants to surrender our families to the violent left-wing mob, and he wants to surrender our jobs to China".
Labour Day in the US, the first Monday of September, traditionally kicks off the final sprint of the race - but the rival campaigns have been knocked off stride by multiple layers of turmoil, from the pandemic to the struggling economy and deep racial unrest.
Candidates who normally would be skipping daily from state to state to speak before big crowds are limiting their movements and doing much more virtually. And the sometimes violent anti-racism protests and counter-protests have lent an explosive element to the campaign.
Mr Biden headed on Monday to the swing state of Pennsylvania, where he held a socially-distant meeting with union leaders before taking questions from members of the huge AFL-CIO union at its headquarters. Addressing the event, he hit back at Mr Trump, charging that "he didn't have the guts to take on Covid".
"We know he's been great for his rich friends, but he hasn't been so great for the rest of us," charged Mr Biden, who went on to assail Mr Trump over a report in The Atlantic magazine that the President has disparaged the military and its veterans.
"He's downright un-American," Mr Biden fumed.
Though Mr Trump has dismissed the report as a hoax, it appears to have hit a nerve following a poll showing his support below that for Mr Biden among active duty personnel.
"I'm not saying the military (leadership) is in love with me - the soldiers are," Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.
BATTLING FOR WISCONSIN
At 77, Mr Biden last week picked up the pace of campaigning but, citing the Covid-19 threat, has been far more cautious than Mr Trump who, at 74, has appeared before hundreds of supporters.
Still, polls show Mr Biden maintaining a persistent lead over Mr Trump, with both increasingly focusing on key upper Midwest states like Wisconsin, where polling is closer - and where Mrs Hillary Clinton narrowly lost to Mr Trump in a 2016 shocker.
Ms Harris, in her highest-profile campaign sortie yet, headed to the state, where she followed in Mr Biden's footsteps by meeting the family of Mr Jacob Blake, the African American whose shooting by police touched off widespread protests last month.
The senator - the first woman of colour on a major-party presidential ticket - spoke by phone to Mr Blake himself as he was recovering in hospital. She later met union members and black members of the business community. Participation by black voters in Wisconsin fell in 2016, and could prove pivotal this year.
Vice-President Mike Pence also headed to the state the same day to deliver remarks to an energy cooperative in the western city of La Crosse.
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