Trump holds raucous New Hampshire rally, Biden has quiet Sunday as election nears

With just nine days to go before the election, President Trump presided over a large campaign rally at a New Hampshire on Sunday — while Democratic challenger Joe Biden only went out in public to attend Mass, then spent a quiet afternoon at his Delaware home.

The two differing approaches continued trends from throughout the race, with Biden nursing his polling lead by sticking to nationally-televised debates and virtual rallies, while Trump forges ahead with the raucous rallies that carried him to victory in 2016.

“Nine days from now, we are going to win this state. Can you believe nine days?” Trump asked the crowd at an airfield in Londonderry, NH, about 14 miles southeast of Manchester. “We’re going to win four more great years in the White House. We’re going to keep it going.”

To a consistent chorus of cheers — or boos, whenever he invoked the name of a political rival — Trump led the mostly red-clad audience through his closing arguments for a second term.

“We’ve gotta end it. We’ve gotta end the fight. We’ve gotta put ’em down,” said Trump, casting the election as a battle for the fate of the nation against Biden and more liberal elements of the Democratic Party. “Our country will never be a socialist country.

“We have to end the fight, once and for all.”

That fight, Trump said, is being waged on such fronts as healthcare, voter fraud, illegal immigration and the coronavirus pandemic.

“Even without the vaccines, we are rounding the turn,” said Trump. “It’s going to be over,” he assured the outdoor crowd, where many were mask-less.

His comments came as the US over the weekend logged record positive test numbers for COVID-19, although fatality rates have been declining.

Trump acknowledged that the virus has presented a “setback” late in his first term, but found a way to make lemonade out of it.

“Now we are doing it again,” he said, putting a twist on his 2016 campaign slogan. “Make America great again again.”

“I’m gonna add another ‘again,’ this way I can sell you all an extra hat,” he quipped.

Throughout the 90-minute event, Trump — who later in the day swung north through Maine — repeatedly needled Biden for largely hunkering down through the crucial final months of the race.

“In this world, where you have [Chinese] President Xi, [Russian] President Putin, [North Korean despot] Kim Jong-un and lots of other people, you cannot have a low-energy president,” he said.

“I don’t know what the hell’s wrong with him,” Trump continued of Biden. “He never goes anywhere. And when he does, it’s Delaware. Now, I like Delaware too, but, you know, he just wants to stay right next to that house.”

Biden did leave the house on Sunday, albeit not for very long or to go very far, attending church in Delaware with two of his granddaughters.

And Sunday evening, he was set to speak in a star-studded virtual get-out-the-vote event alongside his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, and their respective spouses.

The online shindig was also scheduled to feature musical performances by acts including John Legend, Cher and Jon Bon Jovi.

Later in the week, Harris will hit the stump in Texas, while Biden will visit Georgia, two longtime Republican strongholds that Democrats believe they can pry loose on Nov. 3.