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Trump moves Minn. rally while Biden announces visit

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — President Donald Trump’s campaign has moved a rally that was set for today from Rochester to the southern Minnesota town of Dodge Center in an attempt to avoid a crowd limit over 250 people under the state’s coronavirus safety guidelines.

But the mayor of Rochester said the situation was still in flux as of Thursday afternoon, and that it was possible that the president’s schedule could change yet again.

The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, meanwhile, announced Thursday that the former vice president will travel to St. Paul on Friday, setting up dueling visits that highlight Minnesota’s status as a battleground state. Both Trump and Biden also campaigned in Minnesota on the same day last month, when Trump held a rally in Bemidji and Biden visited the Duluth area.

The Biden campaign said Thursday that the former vice president will attend a drive-in event in St. Paul, tentatively set for 3:45 p.m., but did not announce the location. The campaign will livestream it on its website.

The Trump campaign announced Wednesday that the president would lead a rally at the city-owned Rochester airport Friday evening. The campaign had been in discussions earlier in the week about holding it in Mankato. But the campaign on Thursday moved it to a private company, McNeilus Steel, in Dodge Center, about 25 miles west of Rochester, without making an official announcement. The Trump campaign and the company did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. The Minnesota Department of Health has linked 28 coronavirus cases to other recent Trump campaign events in the state.

Rochester Mayor Kim Norton told the AP that the airport wanted the campaign to “manage the size and scale of the event to stay within the state’s COVID guidelines.

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