Updated: October 17, 2020 7:57:31 pm
The president of the United States, Donald Trump. (Proceedings)
Written by Lisa Lerer
Amid a raging virus, a struggling economy and a racial justice unrest, President Donald Trump focused on his reelection campaign, reframing some of his failures as a candidate as active options during a rally Friday night in Macon, Georgia.
Sounding pleased to be in friendly territory, Trump spoke for about two hours, making sporadic references to the coronavirus pandemic, trade and the US economy. But most of his comments focused on his own personal grievances – the joy he claimed his opponents felt over his virus diagnosis, a news outlet that he continues to argue is against him, tech companies, and of course his. Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, and his family.
At one point, Trump threatened to leave the country if he lost the election.
“Can you imagine if I lose?” he said. “I’m not going to feel so good. I may have to leave the country, I don’t know. “
Lagging behind in the polls and running a significant cash deficit compared to Biden, Trump tried to argue that he was choosing not to raise more money going into the final stretch of the election.
“It could raise more money,” he said. “It would be the best fundraiser in the world, but I just don’t want to.”
The Trump campaign announced this week that it had raised more than $ 247 million last month, well below the record of $ 383 million raised by the Biden campaign and affiliated Democratic committees.
The president also delivered a discursive monologue on what he chose as an option not to be more presidential, an allusion to the chaotic style that has turned off suburban women, a group that helped propel Trump to victory four years ago.
“I used to go and imitate a president who plays for president, it’s so easy compared to what we do,” he said. “I said, ‘I can be more presidential than any president in our history with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln when he wore the hat. That’s hard to beat. ‘
Trump acknowledged his losses in the suburbs, seeming to link his slip with his divisive style. Biden leads by 23 points among suburban women in battle states, according to a recent poll by The New York Times and Siena College. Among suburban men, the race is tied.
“Suburban women,” he said. “I heard that they like my politics, but they don’t like my personality. I said they don’t care about my personality, they want to be safe. “
Georgia, long a Republican stronghold, should be an easy win for Trump, but recent polls indicate it could be closer than some Republicans would like. This week, Biden beat Trump in a variety of poll averages. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the Democratic candidates vying for the two open seats in the state Senate, released similarly competitive poll numbers against their Republican opponents.
A day after refusing to condemn QAnon, the sprawling and bogus community of pro-Trump conspiracy theory, Trump praised Marjorie Taylor Greene, the controversial congressional candidate who has embraced elements of the discredited and jarring theories that have led to some violence in the real world and which the FBI has labeled a potential national terrorist threat.
“I never, never want to have her as my enemy,” Trump said. “She is so amazing.”
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