Trump calls Biden ‘incompetent,’ dismisses polls showing his lead

US President Donald Trump has called his Democratic rival Joe Biden "incompetent," rejecting polls which show the former vice president was leading in the race for the White House.

“I don’t believe the polls,” Trump told Reuters on Wednesday. “I believe the people of this country are smart. And I don’t think that they will put a man in who’s incompetent.”

“And I don’t mean incompetent because of a condition that he’s got now. I mean he’s incompetent for 30 years. Everything he ever did was bad. His foreign policy was a disaster,” he continued.

He also touched on Biden's victory over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, saying the Vermont Senator should have won the race.

Bernie Sanders quits 2020 US Democratic presidential campaign

Leading US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders ended up his presidential campaign on Wednesday.

Trump placed the blame on Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for Sander’s loss, saying she stayed in the race and prevented Sanders from forming a coalition that could defeat Biden.

“He (Biden) should never have won the primary, ever in a million years, because those votes were taken away. They were taken away from Bernie Sanders. And I think I’m going to get a lot of Bernie Sanders voters," Trump said.

Trump to launch nationwide advertising blitz targeting Biden

Trump’s re-election campaign plans to roll out a new advertising blitz targeting Biden’s record on China in must-win states for the 2020 election.

The move is seen as part of a bid by the president to reverse a dangerous slide six months out from the election.

Last week, Trump’s political advisers told him about internal polling which showed the Republican president trailing Biden in battleground states.

The polling also indicated that an initial surge in support for Trump over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic has weakened.

Biden leads Trump in three US states crucial in 2020 election: Poll

Republican President Donald Trump trails Democrat Joe Biden among registered voters in three crucial states, according to a new poll

This comes as Biden and his campaign have been unloading ads accusing Trump of weakness on China, where the coronavirus originally spread. They have also spoken during a series of local television interviews in swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, criticizing the president for his mishandling of the virus crisis.

Speaking with Reuters, TJ Ducklo, Biden’s campaign spokesman, asked, “How does the Trump campaign defend the worst failure of presidential leadership in modern history that costs thousands of Americans their lives?”

The Trump campaign's new video highlights the president’s decisions to ban most travel from China and Europe during the coronavirus outbreak, which has so far affected more than 1,089,000 and killed over 63,500 in the US.

The ad, seen by Reuters ahead of its release, also targets Biden for earlier remarks that travel restrictions were ineffective and for calling Trump “xenophobic” and “fear-mongering.”

Sex assault allegation poses challenge for Biden's presidential campaign

Biden’s presidential campaign is currently grappling with sexual assault allegations against him after his former Senate staffer Tara Reade accused him of assaulting her in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in the 1990s.

Although his campaign has denied the allegation first made more than a month ago, the story attracted fresh attention this week after two of Reade's associates said she had previously told them about elements of her allegations.

The story also has fueled attacks by Republicans, who are concerned about Trump's political standing, but now are taking advantage of the allegation, trying to depict Democrats as hypocrites who only defend women who allege wrongdoing against conservatives.

Meanwhile, top Democrats have come out in support of Biden against allegations, saying that women have the right to be heard but that they do not believe the allegations.

Two powerful Democratic women — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a former rival to Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Stacey Abrams, a top candidate to be Biden’s running mate — have come to Biden’s defense.

“I know Joe Biden, and I think he’s telling the truth and this did not happen,” Abrams said on CNN.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also backed Biden over the allegation, telling reporters that there was never any record of the assault.

“The happiest day for me this week was to support Joe Biden for President of the United States,” she said in her first in-person press conference at the Capitol in weeks.

Ex-US VP Joe Biden accused by 2 more women of inappropriate touching

Two more women have accused former US Vice President Joe Biden of touching them inappropriately at events.

Several other women accused Biden last year of inappropriate touching. Biden apologized to them, saying he would adjust his behavior.

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