In final pitch, Trump urges NC voters to ignore polling, head to polls

Trump called the polls "crooked stuff," saying television networks are rigging their poll results to discourage his supporters from voting.

"We are really looking good all over in the real polls," he told a crowd at the Fayetteville Regional Airport, noting polls in 2016 also predicted his defeat.

"We have a lot of people that say, 'We don't want to talk to [pollsters],' and then they go vote for Trump," he said. "Some people said they're the 'shy' voters. My people are not shy."

In addition to polls, the president also took aim at the media and technology giants, which he said are working to get Biden elected by promoting favorable news about Biden and negative news about him.

"If I've done one thing, it's to expose the dishonesty in the media," he said. "We don't have freedom of the press. We have suppression by the press."

But Trump predicted he would overcome all of that, as well as Biden, to win North Carolina and re-election.

He alleged that Biden is corrupt and would sell out American business to China while also allowing "radical left" politicians to take over the nation.

"If the radical left gain power, they will collapse our economy and send our nation into a depression," he said. "Every corrupt force in American life that is responsible for cruel betrayals that hurt our families and all the people that we love are supported by Biden."

By contrast, he said, his administration is working to develop a coronavirus vaccine, rebuild the economy, expand manufacturing, improve foreign trade, eliminate terrorism and maintain law and order.

"This election comes down to a simple choice: Do you want to be ruled by the arrogant, corrupt, ruthless and selfish political class, or do you want to be governed by the American people themselves?" he said.

During a drive-in campaign rally in Cleveland, Ohio, Biden mocked Trump's record, saying he has repeatedly broken promises to American workers and will be the first president in 90 years to end his four years in office with fewer U.S. jobs than when he started.

The former vice president also emphasized Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which he said has cost lives and caused economic hardship.

"Imagine where we'd be had this president, from the beginning, just wore a mask instead of mocked wearing a mask," he said. "We wouldn't have 9 million confirmed COVID cases in this nation. We wouldn't have more than 230,000 deaths. We wouldn't be seeing those new records of cases we're seeing every single day right now.

"This president knew last January the virus was deadly, but he hid it from the American people," Biden added. "He knew it was worse than the flu – he lied to the American people. He knew it wasn't going to disappear, but he kept telling us [otherwise]."

The Trump campaign used a giant video board at the Fayetteville rally to play several minutes of Biden gaffes, which had the crowd laughing and Trump shaking his head.

"He's not mentally equipped to be your president," Trump said. "Our country has tremendous potential, and we can't blow it."

Trump did visit Fort Bragg last week to present a citation to a Special Forces unit that killed an ISIS leader, and he noted Monday that he won't allow the Army to strip the Bragg name from the post because of its Confederate connection.

"We won two world wars out of Fort Bragg, and now they say, 'Let's change the name,'" he said. "We have to keep the name. It's our culture. It's our heritage."

People at the rally said they're confident Trump will have a decisive win on Tuesday, and they wanted to be part of the run-up to the election.

The president was scheduled to hold rallies in four other battleground states on Monday: Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Biden also was scheduled to spend time in Pennsylvania, with a canvass kickoff in Beaver County and a drive-thru event in nearby Pittsburgh.