Joe Biden has declared the 2020 election a 'battle for the soul of the country' as he gears up for the final week of the Presidential campaign.
The Democrat frontrunner and incumbent President Donald Trump are criss-crossing the country on Tuesday in an intense day of campaigning, with Biden making a thrust into traditional Republican territory in a show of optimism.
Leading in national polls, Biden landed in Georgia, which has not supported a Democrat in a U.S. presidential election since 1992.
He gave a speech in Warm Springs, at the vacation home of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt - the Democrat who led the nation of the Great Depression and through World War Two.
A banner reading "Battle for the soul of the nation" hung above the stage where Biden was to speak.
Biden said: "I believe this election is about who we are as a nation, what we believe, and maybe most importantly, who we want to be.
"It's about our essence; it's about what makes us Americans. It's that fundamental."
He added: "Time and again throughout our history, we've seen charlatans, the con-men, the phony populists, who sought to play on our fears, appear to our worst appetites, and pick at the oldest scabs we have, for their own political gain.
"They appear when the nation's been hit the hardest; we're at our most vulnerable."
Former President Barack Obama was also back on the trail in Florida on Tuesday to boost Biden, his former vice president.
At a drive-in rally in Orlando, Obama attacked Trump's record on the coronavirus and urged Democrats to vote in large numbers to avoid a repeat of the 2016 election when Trump won the battleground state and defeated Hillary Clinton.
"We have to leave no doubt. We can't be complacent," he said. "We were complacent last time. Folks got a little lazy, folks took things for granted, and look what happened. Not this time, not in this election."
Trump tonight holds rallies in three states key to his re-election hopes: Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska.
The 2020 presidential campaign has been unlike any other as a raging coronavirus pandemic that has so far killed more then 225,000 Americans pushes record early voting.
In another show of confidence in the Biden camp, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Tuesday he will spend around $15 million on television advertising in Texas and Ohio in the coming days.
Texas has long been seen as a bridge too far for Democrats in a presidential election and not worth the expenditure in the last days of a campaign.
Bloomberg, who lost to Biden in a crowded field for the Democratic nomination, decided to make the ad buys after reviewing polling data from multiple states on Monday, a spokesperson said by email.
In Georgia, opinion polls show the race to be tight, and a win by Biden there would likely be a severe blow to Trump's chances. Biden told reporters on Monday he believes he has a "fighting chance" to take Georgia.
He will hold an afternoon event in Warm Springs, Georgia, before capping the day with an evening rally in Atlanta.
The aggressive move also carries risks for Biden, whose trip to Georgia precludes visits to more traditional battleground states that can swing toward either party's candidate.
