WASHINGTON – White House officials are divided over the role President Donald Trump should have in responding to record numbers of new coronavirus cases, with some advisers urging him to stay on the sidelines while others warn that he is doing so low. your own political risk.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has been arguing that Trump should be more visible on the subject, saying his approval numbers have decreased since he cut his daily briefings on the coronavirus. Conway said he is not advocating the return of Trump’s two-hour daily press conferences in the spring, but believes he should be talking more about the issue and promoting the administration’s response.
“His pandemic approval rating was highest when he was on the podium, it was 51 percent in March, and I think people want to listen to the President of the United States,” Conway said Friday in response to a question from NBC. News. .
But other White House aides have lobbied to keep Trump out of the response, hoping that by keeping him out of the everyday public narrative, the administration may “depoliticize” the pandemic, a senior administration official said earlier of this month. Trump’s comments on everything from the masks to taking the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine have sparked controversy, resulting in public battles with Democrats and public health experts.
Lately, Trump has only discussed the pandemic in passing during speeches or when journalists specifically asked about it. Instead, Vice President Mike Pence has become the public face of the response, traveling to the worst-affected states, updating the press, and meeting with governors.
The White House intentionally held several press briefings on the coronavirus outside the White House last month to try to distance Trump events and make them feel less political, a senior administration official said.
Trump does not regularly attend coronavirus task force meetings, although he is briefed daily on case numbers and progress with a vaccine and therapy, authorities said.
Public opinion about Trump’s handling of the coronavirus has decreased dramatically since May, according to several recent polls. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Friday found that only 38 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s response to the pandemic, up from 46 percent in May and 51 percent in March. More than half of those surveyed said they “strongly” disapprove of their handling of the crisis.
Trump’s overall job approval numbers have also fallen in the past two months, from 49 percent on May 13 to 38 percent at the end of June, according to Gallup.
“It is causality, not coincidence, that the president’s handling of the coronavirus was greater among public opinion when he himself was addressing” the pandemic, “Conway said.
But the decline in approval also coincides with concern over the president’s response to the protests following the murder of George Floyd, and with a record number of COVID-19 cases in some of the nation’s largest states.
When Trump addressed the pandemic in recent weeks, he painted a more optimistic picture than the one millions of Americans are witnessing in their daily lives, and he seems to deny that there is widespread community outreach and lobby for schools to fully function. . reopen next month.
Mixed messages from federal health agencies and the president on the topic of wearing masks continued on Friday when he said he disagreed with the director of his administration from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about how effective they would be. to stop COVID-19.
In an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, to be broadcast on Sunday, Wallace referred to recent comments by CDC Director Robert Redfield that if everyone wore masks, the virus could be under control in a matter of weeks.
“No. I want people to have some freedom, and I don’t believe in that, no,” Trump said.
So far, those inside the White House pushing to keep Trump focused on other issues appear to have been successful. This week, Trump held events in the White House on law enforcement and the repeal of regulations during which he used his public comments to claim that a Biden presidency would lead to mass crime and the destruction of America’s suburbs. .
Trump also traveled to Atlanta, where the mayor tries to require the public to wear masks as the state sees an increase in new cases. But the event focused on infrastructure, and Trump only made a brief mention of the pandemic.
“It was a terrible thing and it could have stopped and should have stopped right where it started, in China. Together we will defeat this virus and come out stronger than ever before, ”Trump told the crowd before moving on to promote the regulations his administration has repealed, make unsubstantiated allegations about the security of mail ballots, and attack Joe Biden.
Still, even while avoiding coronavirus-themed events, Trump got into the debate over whether schools should reopen in the fall despite the pandemic, dismissing concerns about the potential health risks of that move as motivated. politically.
“We have to open schools,” Trump said Monday at a police event. “We have to open them, and I think there is a lot of politics going on. I think [Democrats] They think they will do better if they can keep schools closed in elections. “
Still, the debate over whether or not the president should relay more messages from the White House on the coronavirus raises the question of whether voters want to hear the president’s coronavirus messages, and there is growing evidence that he doesn’t: a poll From Quinnipiac University released this week, only 30 percent of registered voters say they trust the information Trump provides on the subject.
“Donald Trump ignored the warning signs,” Biden said of the COVID-19 virus, explaining that he ignored the pillars of the country’s “moral and economic strength” in the process.
“Now he’s hiding,” he said of Trump. “What have you done?”
“He literally waved the white flag, he walked away,” Biden said.
