Trump predicts he’ll ‘so easily’ win Michigan

Kathmandu : The Latest on the presidential campaign (all times local): 12:20 a.m. President Donald Trump declared he would win Michigan “so easily” as he rallied supporters in a midnight gathering that wraps up his reelection campaign and heralds the beginning of Election Day.

Thousands turned out in Grand Rapids in low 40s weather to cheer Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. While polling in several key states shows Trump trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden, the president assured his Michigan supporters that “I think we’re doing well all over” and predicted a “red wave.” Grand Rapids was the final stop of the Trump campaign in 2016, which turned into a surprise victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. As Monday became Tuesday, Trump told supporters, “We made history four years ago and tomorrow we’re going to make history once again.” Officials say Trump plans to spend election night at the White House.

9:45 p.m. Joe Biden is predicting a victory in Pennsylvania on the eve of the election. Speaking at a drive-in rally in Pittsburgh, Biden encouraged the audience to vote and said, “I have a feeling we’re coming together for a big win tomorrow!” The crowd, about 250 cars gathered in the parking lot of Heinz Field, honked their horns and cheered as he spoke. Biden was the headliner at a star-studded pair of rallies Monday night.

Before he spoke in Pittsburgh, running mate Kamala Harris delivered a call to action at a rally in Philadelphia that was live-streamed on a large screen at the Pittsburgh rally. John Legend played in Philadelphia, while Lady Gaga performed in Pittsburgh and exhorted the crowd to “vote like your lives depend on it!” Biden delivered a speech focused on the need to expand health care, address income inequality and racial injustice. After four events across Ohio and Pennsylvania Monday, Biden’s voice grew hoarse, but he was still energetic, at times pounding the podium for emphasis. Biden’s campaign insists the Democrat has multiple paths to victory, but his easiest route is through Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

He’ll be campaigning in Scranton and Philadelphia on Election Day, and told the crowd Monday night, “The power is in your hands, Pennsylvania!” __ 9:35 p.m. President Donald Trump is campaigning in Kenosha, Wisconsin, emphasizing “peace and order” as he tries to win the critical battleground state. Trump has returned to Kenosha, where a police officer responding to a domestic dispute call shot Jacob Blake in the back at close range, setting off waves of protests, some of which turned destructive. Buildings and cars were set on fire and stores looted. The violence spiked Aug. 25, when two protesters were shot and killed and another was injured. Kyle Rittenhouse, a white 17-year-old who came to Kenosha that day with a semiautomatic rifle, is charged in the shootings.

The crowd chanted ”back the blue” as Trump claimed that Democrats were “waging war on the police.” Trump seemed to acknowledge he’s in a tough race when he mocked his challenger, Democratic nominee Joe Biden. He asked the crowd: “Could he really win? Are we serious about this? What the hell is going on?” __ HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE: President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden have one last chance to make their case to voters in critical battleground states on Monday. The Republican president’s final day has him sprinting through five rallies, from North Carolina to Wisconsin. Biden is devoting most of his time to Pennsylvania.

Read more: — Trump threatens to fire Fauci in rift with disease expert — Trump promises court fight over Pennsylvania absentee votes — 2020 Watch: Will loser of the election accept the result? — Expect a lot more of the same if Trump wins a 2nd term — Biden looks to restore, expand Obama administration policies — AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s errant final pitches on virus, energy — 6 questions going into the presidential election

— AP Explains: The election result may be delayed. That’s OK. ___ HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON: 9 p.m. Sen. Kamala Harris is delivering an urgent message for people to vote to repair the nation’s divides and protect its democracy on an election eve rally in battleground Pennsylvania. Harris told the crowd that justice, equality, opportunity, decency and character are among the values on the ballot in Tuesday’s contest. “Let’s vote, and vote with conviction and confidence and hope,” she said. Some of the loudest honks from supporters at the drive-in rally came as Harris spoke of the need for better health care, women’s rights and a criminal justice system that embraces a person’s dignity.

To acclaimed chef Michael Solomonov, whose two young sons were wrapped in blankets near the stage, the election involves more than politics, more than fixing an economy shattered in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is a moral question, and a moral decision,” said Solomonov, 42, the executive chef of Zahav in Philadelphia. ”(It’s) really just a question of right and wrong.”

6:55 p.m. In Philadelphia, Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney kicked off a stadium car rally set to feature vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris on a brisk Election Day eve.

Kenney told people listening from their cars outside Citizen Bank Park on Monday that the country needs “a strong, sound and sane president in the White House.” Anastasia Austin, a Philadelphia educator, wore a sweatshirt to the Harris event boasting of her affiliation with Zeta Phi Beta, one of the Divine Nine sororities to which Harris also belongs. Austin and her husband took their 3-year-old daughter with them when they voted early in Delaware County. “As an African American woman raising a daughter … for my daughter to see somebody that looks like her in leadership, creating change,” Austin said, “it brings me to tears.” Austin, like Harris, has Jamaican heritage, and said she looks forward to leaders who embrace people from different backgrounds, not ostracize them.

6:35 p.m. Former President Barack Obama is criticizing President Donald Trump for casting doubt on the results of Tuesday’s upcoming election, likening him to strongmen elsewhere in the world. Addressing a Monday evening drive-in rally in Miami on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s behalf, Obama said his successor has suggested he may “declare victory before all the votes are counted tomorrow.” “That’s something a two-bit dictator does,” Obama said. “If you believe in democracy, you want every vote counted.” Obama said if a Democrat was acting like Trump, “I couldn’t support him.” The former president said that, unlike Trump, “With Joe and Kamala you’re not going to have to think about them every single day.” “You’re not going to have to argue about some crazy tweet that the president sent out this morning,” Obama said. “It won’t be so exhausting. You’ll be able to about your lives know that the president’s doing his job instead of suggesting we inject bleach.”

6:30 p.m. President Donald Trump is stressing issues important to Michigan at the first of two campaign rallies he’s holding in the state on the eve of Tuesday’s election. Trump tells a large crowd of supporters at the airport in Traverse City that a vote for Democrat Joe Biden “is a vote to extinguish and eradicate” the state’s auto industry. Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama, who helped revive U.S. automakers. Trump is also criticizing Biden’s position on trade, another issue important to Michigan. The president is promising that things will change “if you just give us another four years.” Trump is closing Monday’s final day of campaigning at a rally — his fifth of the day — in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s where he ended his 2016 run.