‘It’s not about you’
Democrats bet Trump’s coronavirus response a 2020 winner for Biden
Joe Biden’s U.S. presidential campaign and his Democratic Party allies have gone on an all-out offensive against President Donald Trump’s coronavirus response, betting it will be a winning issue with American voters in November.
Just weeks ago, Democrats were treading carefully as Trump commanded the spotlight with his daily briefings on the virus, hesitant to avoid looking too partisan as the pandemic took its toll on jobs and health.
Now Democrats believe weeks of Trump’s unfiltered media performances have done more harm than good for the Republican president seeking re-election on Nov. 3, and their aggressive response aims to expose what they see as his faulty handling of the crisis.
Biden’s campaign team talking points accuse Trump of “one of the worst policy mistakes any president has made in our history.”
New campaign ads in battleground states say Trump failed to act on the coronavirus, which has now infected more than 977,500 Americans and killed more than 55,000, and call him overly trusting of China during the pandemic.
“This has given us an issue that is unifying across all walks of life,” said Bradley Beychok, president of American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic group funding some of the ads.
“Trump’s superpower is distraction. You can’t distract from this.”
More registered voters say they would support Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, over Trump, favoring the Democrat 47 per cent to Trump’s 39 per cent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week.
Biden’s lead has widened even as the coronavirus has forced him to isolate himself from the virus in his Delaware home, holding little-noticed briefings.
But voters are more closely split when polled on the health crisis. Reuters/Ipsos polling found that 52 per cent of Americans said Biden was better equipped to steer the coronavirus response, while 48 per cent favored Trump. Trump, however, had an edge of 53 per cent to Biden’s 47 per cent as the better leader to manage the U.S. economy.
Trump saw only a brief uptick in his overall approval rating early in the crisis, and some of his advisers have been alarmed by his undisciplined televised briefings.