Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage accused Democrat Joe Biden of peddling pessimism and fear about the Chinese coronavirus, and said that the election will ultimately come down to “whether hope trumps fear”.
Mr Farage said that when the ageing former vice president emerges from his “bunker, where he has spent most of the last six months”, his tone is “deeply pessimistic” and that the main topics of his press conference on Wednesday were centred around the coronavirus and death.
“He has repeatedly accused Trump and his administration of being reckless when it comes to COVID-19 and has claimed that, under a Biden administration, America would take a much more cautious approach in dealing with the pandemic,” Farage wrote in Newsweek.
“In doing so, he is peddling fear and appealing to voters who would be happy to spend the next 6 to 12 months at home. Would he be so cynical and calculating?” he questioned.
Mr Farage granted that the personal tragedies experienced by Mr Biden may have contributed to his worldview on matters of life and death, but said that the voting public expects “leaders to gee them up, not bring them down.”
“I know that, to date, 229,000 people in America have sadly died with or as a result of COVID-19, yet focusing on this fact did not strike me as the uplifting message that men and women need to hear if they are to be encouraged to go out and vote between now and next Tuesday,” Farage mused.
In contrast to Biden, Farage said that President Trump “radiates optimism” and that the message his message of a strong economic comeback and of opening up the economy “is the sort of thing that people want to hear”.
Mr Farage pointed to the economic figures that were released earlier this week, that showed the United States economy grew by a “stunning” 33 per cent, saying that the record-breaking economic comeback “in many ways validates Trump’s upbeat tone.”
“When it comes to COVID-19, Trump’s attitude is that if he wins next week, American families can look forward to a return to normality. I am beginning to think that, after more than six months of rules, restrictions and a variety of lockdowns, people have grown tired of the whole thing and desperately want to move on,” he wrote.
The arch Brexiteer said that while he is sceptical of President Trump’s certainty that a coronavirus vaccine was imminent, Trump is absolutely correct to tout the effectiveness of therapeutics.
“It is clear that when people get this disease now, their prospects are better than they were six months ago,” he said.
“Donald Trump believes that when it comes to lockdowns, the treatment can be worse than the disease. He is absolutely right, and I sense that this view resonates with most people. We will find out in the early hours of Wednesday morning whether hope trumps fear,” Farage conlcuded.
Earlier this week the veteran Brexit campaigner and longtime Trump ally joined the president on the campaign trail in Arizona. Farage said that the enthusiasm at Trump rallies is a signal that the momentum is firmly on the side of the president to secure re-election.
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