Biden to mark Labor Day with union event as U.S. campaign enters homestretch

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is headed on Monday to the crucial electoral state of Pennsylvania, where he plans to mark the U.S. Labor Day holiday by speaking with union workers as the presidential campaign enters its homestretch.

The trip kicks off another flurry of travel to battleground states this week by both Biden and President Donald Trump as some opinion polls show the race tightening with fewer than 60 days until the Nov. 3 election.

With the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest over racism and police brutality gripping the country’s attention in recent months, Biden is seeking to maintain his edge by painting the Republican incumbent as an ineffectual leader who thrives on chaos and has left the working class behind.

Trump has struggled to change the contours of the campaign despite highly charged rhetoric on racial polarization and “law and order” intended to motivate his base and draw new supporters in suburban parts of key swing states, such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

He has also faced a new controversy after The Atlantic magazine, citing four unnamed people, reported last week that he had referred to Marines buried in an American cemetery near Paris as “losers” and declined to visit their graves during a 2018 trip to France. Trump vehemently denied the report.