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AN ANGRY PRESIDENT Donald Trump spoke out yesterday against Dr. Anthony Fauci, the press and polls showing him behind Democrat Joe Biden in key states on the battlefield in a disjointed closing message two weeks into the US election.
On the third day of a campaign change in the west, Trump faced intense pressure to change his campaign, expecting the kind of last-minute raise that gave him a comeback victory four years ago.
But his inconsistent message, another spike in virus cases, and his attacks on experts like Dr. Fauci could undermine his ultimate efforts to attract voters outside of his most loyal base.
“I’m not running scared,” Trump told reporters before leaving for Tucson, Arizona, for his fifth rally in three days.
“I think I’m running mad. I’m running happy and very happy (because) I’ve done a great job. “
His aggressive journey comes as Trump plays defense in states he won four years ago, though the president insisted he was confident while executing a tight schedule despite the pandemic.
“We’re going to win,” he told campaign staff on a morning conference call from Las Vegas.
He went on to acknowledge that “I would not have told him that two or three weeks ago,” referring to the days he was hospitalized with Covid-19.
But he said he felt better now than at any other time in 2016. “We’re in the best shape we’ve ever been,” he said.
Seeking to shore up the morale of his staff amid growing private concerns that he is running out of time to make up lost ground, Trump slammed his administration’s own scientific experts as too negative, even as he handled the pandemic that has killed nearly 220,000 Americans. it remains a central issue for voters.
“People are tired of listening to Fauci and all these idiots,” the president said of the government’s top infectious disease expert.
“Every time it goes on television, there is always a bomb. But there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him. But Fauci is a mess. “
At a rally in Prescott, Arizona, Trump attacked Biden for pledging to follow the advice of scientific experts, dismissively saying that his rival “wants to hear from Dr. Fauci.”
He later seemed to take a step back from these comments, calling Fauci a “very nice man”.
The doctor is respected and popular, and Trump’s rejection of scientific advice on the pandemic has already drawn bipartisan condemnation.
At his rally, Trump also stepped up his attacks on the media, singling out NBC’s Kristen Welker, moderator of the upcoming presidential debate, as well as CNN for aggressively covering a pandemic that now infects tens of thousands of Americans every day.
The confidence professed in yesterday’s victory was in contrast to some of Trump’s other public comments in recent days reflecting on the possibility that he could lose.
“Can you imagine if I lose my whole life? What am I going to do? “He asked a crowd of demonstrations last week in Macon, Georgia.
“I’m not going to feel so good. I may have to leave the country. I do not know.”
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In Janesville, Wisconsin, over the weekend, he said it was “not even conceivable” that he could lose to a man he called “the worst candidate” in the “history of presidential politics.”
Trump has also expressed confusion over poll data showing him lagging behind or very similar to Biden in key states, given the crowd of thousands he has been drawing at each stop.
“How the hell can we be tied up?” he said at a rally in Carson City, Nevada, where polls show Biden is ahead.
“What’s going on? … We have these massive crowds. He doesn’t get anybody. And then they say we’re tied. … It doesn’t make sense.”
Late yesterday, the nonpartisan Presidential Debate Committee announced that Trump and Biden will be cut off the microphone in Thursday’s debate as their rival gives his initial two-minute response to each of the six topics of the debate.
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