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As Trump and his rival Joe Biden prepared for simultaneous and separate town council meetings on Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham loudly acknowledged what major polls have been showing for months.
US Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the unrest across the country from Philadelphia City Hall on June 2, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Image: AFP
WASHINGTON – A close ally in the US Senate of Republican President Donald Trump warned on Thursday that Democrats have a “good chance” of winning the White House, as another coronavirus diagnosis rocked the election campaign 19 days later.
As Trump and his rival Joe Biden prepared for simultaneous and separate city meetings on Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham loudly acknowledged what major polls have been showing for months.
“Everyone has a very good chance of winning the White House,” Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told his Democratic colleagues at the opening of a hearing on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
The concession will cheer Biden up as he and Trump, whose re-election bid has failed, celebrate their split-screen spectacle rather than go head-to-head in a second debate that would have involved answering questions from voters.
The plan changed when Trump contracted COVID-19 and then backed out of a virtual face-to-face, saying it would be in person or not at all for him.
The coronavirus pandemic, which has killed 217,000 Americans, looms over both city councils as Biden Vice President Kamala Harris froze her trip after her communications director tested positive for COVID-19.
Almost two weeks after the president himself contracted the virus, Harris’ employee Liz Allen and a flight crew member were diagnosed Wednesday night, said Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon. , it’s a statement.
Harris did not need to self-quarantine, O’Malley Dillon added, but “as a precaution” he would cancel the trip and campaign virtually before getting back on the road Oct. 19.
Both individuals flew with Harris on October 8. The campaign said they wore masks and were no closer than six feet from Harris for more than 15 minutes.
TWO NEGATIVE TESTS
“I was not in close contact – as the CDC defines it – with either day prior to his positive tests,” tweeted Harris, a 55-year-old US senator.
“I have had 2 negative tests this week and I am showing no symptoms.”
Biden has reported multiple negative coronavirus tests since Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis on October 1, but the campaign has not said whether he has been tested since the Harris staff member tested positive.
Doctors gave Trump the green light to return to the election campaign over the weekend without providing evidence of a negative PCR test, the industry standard for giving patients the go-ahead, rather than relying on less rapid tests. accurate and other health metrics.
He has returned with a vengeance to the election campaign, staging four mass demonstrations in four days this week, including a rally in North Carolina at noon Thursday.
But even as Trump tried to make a final argument against Biden at a boisterous rally Wednesday in Iowa, promising an “incredible” third quarter for the struggling economy, the pandemic remained front and center.
Trump’s teenage son Barron contracted the virus, first lady Melania Trump revealed in news that came as a surprise in part because it had been hidden from the public.
She said the 14-year-old did not experience symptoms and has since tested negative.
“He had it for such a short period of time that I don’t even think he knew he had it,” the president said in Des Moines.
While the Trump team might be relieved he’s regaining the opportunity to contrast with his opponent, NBC has faced criticism for putting Trump on the same 8:00 p.m. time as Biden.
‘IMPREDICTABILITY’
“Dueling in town halls is bad for democracy,” tweeted Katie Couric, longtime NBC host. Today Show.
“Voters should be able to see both and I don’t think many will,” he said, adding that the confrontation would benefit Trump “because people like to see his unpredictability.”
David Canon, chairman of the political science department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Trump may have made a “tactical error” by withdrawing from a virtual debate.
“He needed the debates more than Biden,” Canon told AFP. “He’s the one who needs to change the momentum in the elections.”
Trump negotiated to go to NBC on an outdoor stage in Miami, where the audience will wear masks, after Biden hosted his own event on ABC in Philadelphia.
In Iowa, the 74-year-old Trump renewed his long-standing narrative that Biden, 77, is too fragile for the presidency.
“Joe got shot, okay?” Trump said.
“If they win, the radical left will rule the country. They are addicted to power, and God help us if they succeed.”
A RealClearPolitics poll average has Biden up 9.2 points nationally and leads in several key states on the battlefield.
A new NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll on Thursday has Biden ahead by 11 points nationally.
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