- US President Donald Trump is scheduled to hold five rallies in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on the final day of campaigning.
- His Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, is expected in Pennsylvania – including for a drive-in rally with pop star Lady Gaga – as well as in Cleveland, Ohio.
- With just one day until election day, more than 93 million US citizens have already voted, far outpacing early voting in any past elections and accounting for 67 percent of all votes counted in 2016.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the US elections. This is Farah Najjar.
Trump says FBI should not investigate caravan
Donald Trump isn’t happy that the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced they are investigating a caravan of pro-Trump vehicles that surrounded a Joe Biden campaign bus on a highway in Texas last week.
“In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!” Trump tweeted late Sunday.
Biden wasn’t in the bus at the time, but his campaign cancelled events in Texas on Friday citing “safety concerns.”
Brexit ‘godfather’ Farage says Trump will win US election
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said that he felt Trump would win the US presidential election as his support base was so enthusiastic and he had gathered momentum in the final days of the campaign.
“He’s not just the president of the USA, he is a human dynamo,” Farage, whom Trump calls a friend, told Talk Radio from Pennsylvania. “I have never seen a support base as enthusiastic as they are for this man. These crowds chant ‘we love you’.”
“You can, if you want to, look at the opinion polls, look at the betting markets, look at the lead editorials of the global press and they will all tell you that its a slam dunk for Joe Biden. I do not believe it,” Farage said.
What is the Electoral College?
In the US, the president and vice president are not decided by which candidate receives the most votes overall in the country, even though US voters do directly select a preferred choice on their ballots.
Instead, it all comes down to Electoral College voters.
Under this state-based system, every state has a group of “electors” who are chosen in most cases by political parties in that state.
These electors actually cast the deciding votes for the presidential and vice presidential candidates. They are expected to vote on December 14.
Learn more about the system here.
A recap of Donald Trump’s closest 2016 victories
Among this year’s presidential battleground states are four that Trump won by extremely slim margins in 2016.
Here are the states he won by a slim margin four years ago.
Trump threatens to fire Fauci in rift with disease expert
Trump is suggesting that he will fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after Tuesday’s election, as his rift with the nation’s top infectious disease expert widens while the nation sees its most alarming outbreak of the coronavirus since the spring.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Opa-locka, Florida, Trump expressed frustration that the surging cases of the virus that has killed more than 230,000 Americans so far this year remains prominent in the news, sparking chants of “Fire Fauci” from his supporters.
“Don’t tell anybody but let me wait until a little bit after the election,” Trump replied to thousands of supporters just after midnight Monday, adding he appreciated their “advice”.
Trump’s comments come after Fauci leveled his sharpest criticism yet of the White House’s response to the coronavirus and Trump’s public assertion that the nation is “rounding the turn” on the virus.
On last day, Trump and Biden scour battleground states
Trump will hunt for support in four battleground states on Monday: North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, where he will hold two rallies.
His Democratic rival Joe Biden will focus on Pennsylvania and Ohio during the final day of campaigning in their long and bitter race for the White House.
Trump trails Biden in national opinion polls ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day. But the race is seen as close in enough swing states that Trump could still piece together the 270 votes needed to prevail in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner.
Trump will wrap up his campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the same place he concluded his 2016 presidential run with a post-midnight rally on Election Day.
Biden, running mate Kamala Harris and their spouses will spend most of Monday in Pennsylvania, splitting up to hit all four corners of a state that has become vital to the former vice president’s hopes.
Biden will rally union members and members of the Black community in the Pittsburgh area before being joined for an evening drive-in rally by singer Lady Gaga.
Biden also will make a detour to bordering Ohio, spending time on his final campaign day in a state that was once considered a lock for Trump, who won it in 2016, but where polls now show a close contest.
US campaign enters final day with country on edge
The US presidential campaign enters its final day with a last-minute scramble for votes by Donald Trump and Joe Biden, drawing to a close a race that has put a pandemic-stricken country on the edge.
A record of more than 93 million people have cast early ballots, including in-person and mailed votes, according to the nonpartisan US Elections Project.
As the hours count down on Monday and with polls showing him behind, Trump will repeat his marathon performance from the previous day with another set of rallies in key states.
