Donald Trump asks: ‘What if I lose?’ amid poor polling and chaotic campaign
19 October, 2020
It could have already been President Donald Trump’s irony or a rare admission of his flagging election campaign when he asked supporters on Friday night: imagine if I lose to the worst applicant in history?
His comments received a cheer from the crowds, whipped up with what are actually staples of Mr Trump’s rallies - the size of Democratic rival Joe Biden’s nose and mouth mask, or accusing him to be "Sleepy" Joe.
Then there will be the new attack lines - “Lock the Bidens up”, adding to his infamous 2016 slogan, “lock her up”, referring to then-rival Hillary Clinton.
But Mr Trump appeared to acknowledge that things may not go his way even as Democrats played down polls showing double-digit national leads.
"Running against the worst prospect in the history of presidential politics puts pressure on me. Would you imagine if I lose?" Mr Trump mused with a straight face.
"What am I gonna do? I'm not gonna feel so excellent. Maybe I'll have to leave the united states. I have no idea."
The president fought on Friday to recover from sinking polls by campaigning with a hardline pitch to America's right-wing, claiming at rallies in Florida and Georgia that Mr Biden would deliver communism and a "flood" of criminal immigrants.
While Mr Trump placed on a brave face, the actual fact that he was fighting for the two southern states he won four years back illustrated just how much ground he must make up against the Democrats in the 18 days left prior to the election.
Along with his polls sliding and US Covid-19 infections surging, Mr Trump is focusing totally on his core Republican base, hoping that highly energized supporters will come out in huge numbers.
In Ocala, Florida, the coronavirus was an afterthought.
Mr Trump tossed the large, loudly cheering crowd red meat on immigration, race and his conspiracy theory that Mr Biden is steeped in corruption.
Spicing his speech with lurid exaggerations, Mr Trump claimed that the "Biden family is a criminal enterprise".
He said Democrats "have only disdain for your values" and "want to carefully turn America right into a communist country" - a reprise of his successful 2016 message tapping into white, working-class resentment.
While Mr Trump placed on a brave face, the actual fact that he was fighting for both southern states he won four years back illustrated how much ground he must constitute against the Democrats in the 18 days left prior to the election.
Along with his polls sliding and US Covid-19 infections surging, Mr Trump is focusing entirely on his core Republican base, hoping that highly energized supporters will come out in huge numbers.
In Ocala, Florida, the coronavirus was an afterthought.
Mr Trump tossed the large, loudly cheering crowd red meat on immigration, race and his conspiracy theory that Mr Biden is steeped in corruption.
Spicing his speech with lurid exaggerations, Mr Trump claimed that the "Biden family is a criminal enterprise".
He said Democrats "have only disdain for your values" and "want to turn America into a communist country" - a reprise of his successful 2016 message experiencing white, working-class resentment.
U.S. President Donald Trump throws a nose and mouth mask from the stage throughout a campaign rally, his first since being treated for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Orlando Sanford AIRPORT TERMINAL in Sanford, Florida, U.S. REUTERS
"It's time we sent a note to these wealthy liberal hypocrites," he told the cheering crowd in Macon, Georgia, on Friday night.
Mr Trump also delivered racially charged comments on Latin American migrants, saying Democrats will "flood your communities with illegitimate aliens, drugs, crime".
And he lashed out at one of is own most outspoken critics, Somalian-American Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar, saying "she hates our country" and "comes from a place it doesn't have even a government".
Mr Trump had still more venom for journalists, who he called "the enemy of the people".
Mr Biden, meanwhile, was campaigning in Michigan where he ripped into Trump's handling of the coronavirus, the strongest issue of his campaign.
"He keeps telling us that virus will probably disappear like a miracle," he said in Southfield.
"My lord. It isn't disappearing, in fact it's on the rise again, it's getting worse, as predicted."
Mr Biden also homed in on another area where Mr Trump has come across regular controversy: his often lackluster responses when asked to condemn extreme right-wing groups and white supremacists.
He said Mr Trump's comments were a "dog whistle" to such groups.
"Look. Everyone knows who Donald Trump is. Let's show them who we are," Mr Biden said at an automobile rally in Detroit.
"We choose hope over fear, unity over division, science over fiction and, yes, truth over lies."
But Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon sounded an email of caution for Democrats, saying national polls were misleading.
"We are not ahead by double digits," Ms O'Malley Dillon said. "Those are inflated national public polling numbers."
Mr Biden will be getting help from former president Barack Obama on Wednesday in a few days when the person who had Mr Biden as his vice president campaigns in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
But whether or not Democrats aren't banking on the polls, key members of Mr Trump’s Republican party are sounding the alarm.
Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, in a call with constituents this week, said a defeat for Mr Trump looks "likely" and Republicans could also lose the Senate, The Washington Examiner reported.
Mr Sasse also had harsh words for Mr Trump, saying he is "TV-obsessed," "narcissistic" and allowed his family to take care of "the presidency just like a business opportunity".
But Senator Lindsey Graham, an integral Republican ally for Mr Trump, told AFP that voters were needs to weigh the professionals and cons of both parties, rather than focusing on Mr Trump's bruising personality.
"I think it's improving for us each day," he said.
Mr Trump and Biden are to carry your final debate next Thursday.
That they had been scheduled to carry one last Thursday but Mr Trump backed out after it had been changed to a virtual debate following his Covid-19 diagnosis.
They held rival town-hall forums instead.
Mr Trump, a former reality television star, will never be happy about their ratings: 14.1 million tuned in to Mr Biden's event, while 13.5 million watched Mr Trump, Nielsen ratings data shows.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com