Polls Show Americans’ Mood Is Deteriorating: Campaign Update
Trump Predicts ‘Great Third Quarter’: Campaign Update
(Bloomberg) -- Radio host Charlamagne Tha God criticized Democratic nominee Joe Biden over a recent remark. The Lincoln Project’s latest ad buy seems to be aimed at an audience of one. With little more than three months to the election there’s some disagreement over who will win the swing states.
There are 102 days until the election.
Other Developments:
Polls Show Americans’ Mood Is Deteriorating
The coronavirus is worsening Americans’ mood as they grow more worried they’ll catch the virus and lose hope in an economic rebound, according to polls released this week.
The findings signal rising peril to President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign as well as to the U.S. economy.
For the first time since March, a majority of Americans say stress and worry about the pandemic is harming their mental health, with 53% saying so in a Kaiser Family Foundation survey taken July 14-19.
Half of Americans are now extremely or very worried they or someone in their family will catch Covid-19, up 17 percentage points since mid-June and the highest level since late March, according to an Associated Press-National Opinion Research Center poll taken July 16-20.
In households where someone has been laid off during the pandemic, confidence that those jobs will come back is plunging, with 52% now saying so, down from 78% in April, according to the AP poll. -- Mike Dorning
New York Radio Host Criticizes Biden Over Trump Remark (1:56 p.m.)
New York radio host Charlamagne Tha God criticized Biden for saying that Donald Trump is the “first” racist president.
The host of the “The Breakfast Club,” which airs in 90 markets around the country, said Biden was engaging in “revisionist history” by overlooking past presidents’ beliefs and behaviors. “How the hell can Donald Trump be the first racist president in a country where 12 presidents before him owned slaves?” said the host, who is Black.
Charlamagne, whose real name is Lenard McKelvey, added that Biden should “hurry up and announce your Black woman VP so I can be enthused about voting for her, because I will never be enthused about voting for you.”
Biden called Trump the first “racist” president on Wednesday during a virtual town hall meeting. The comment was widely condemned on social media for minimizing the beliefs and behavior of many former presidents.
Biden drew criticism after a May interview with Charlamagne in which he said “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.” He later apologized.
The Lincoln Project’s Latest Ad Has an Audience of One (12:12 p.m.)
A group of anti-Trump conservatives has placed an ad buy for this weekend that seems targeted at the president himself.
The Lincoln Project is spending $4,572 to air an ad on ESPN, Fox News and the Golf Channel on Saturday and Sunday.
Not coincidentally, President Donald Trump is spending the weekend at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
In a recent interview, Lincoln Project adviser Rick Wilson said the group’s goal is to use advertising and social media to tap into the president’s “psychological weaknesses” and take him “off course.”
The group’s most recent videos have criticized Trump for wishing accused sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell well, his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his dispatch of federal law enforcement officials to Portland, Oregon.
Forecasters Disagree on the Toss-Up States in November (10:57 a.m.)
Political forecasters give Biden the edge in the Electoral College, but they disagree on which states are tossups as the 100-day mark from the election looms on Sunday.
The Biden and Trump campaigns seem to agree that the race will be decided in the Rust Belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with the Sun Belt states of Arizona, Florida and North Carolina also in play.
In initial race ratings released on Friday, ABC News projected that Biden would win back the Rust Belt but it left the Sun Belt in doubt, declaring that Arizona, North Carolina and Florida, as well as Georgia, were tossups.
The Cook Political Report, meantime, gave Biden the edge in the Rust Belt as well as Florida, but listed Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia as tossups.
The Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, run by Larry Sabato, put Michigan and Pennsylvania in Biden’s column but left Wisconsin as a toss-up along with Arizona, Florida and North Carolina.
At the other end of the spectrum, Inside Elections’ Nathan Gonzales listed only North Carolina and Georgia as tossups.
Biden Up in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota (8:05 a.m.)
Biden has similar leads over Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Minnesota, three states that were narrowly decided in 2016, according to a recent Fox News polls.
In Michigan, 49% backed Biden and 40% Trump. In 2016, Trump won the state by .23 percentage points.
In Pennsylvania, 50% of voters backed Biden and 39% backed Trump. In 2016, Trump won the state by just .72 percentage points.
And in Minnesota, 51% supported Biden and 38% supported Trump. In 2016, Trump lost the state by 1.52 percentage points.
The survey of 756 voters in Michigan, 793 voters in Pennsylvania and 776 voters in Minnesota was conducted July 18-20. It has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 percentage points.
Trump Predicts ‘Great Third Quarter’ (6:20 a.m.)
Trump predicted Thursday that the U.S. economy will have a “great third quarter.”
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump said that the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus will end before the November election.
“We’re making America better than it’s ever been -- you will see that. We’re going to have a great year next year, we’re going to have a great third quarter,” he said. “And the nice thing about the third quarter is the results are going to come out before the election.”
The next quarterly economic results, which measure the percentage increase in the gross domestic product, will come out on Oct. 29 -- just five days before the November election, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis schedule.
In May, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said that the third quarter could be “the fastest-growing quarter in U.S. history.”
Biden Gets a Big ‘Veep’ Endorsement (6:20 a.m.)
The nation’s last vice president got a big endorsement from its most famous fictional one Thursday night.
At a virtual fundraiser Thursday night, Biden got the support of emcee Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who played the first female vice president on the series “Veep.”
She began the event by referencing a joke Biden made in an interview with late-night talk show host James Corden that he would pick her as his running mate.
“I was of course flattered,” she said. “But then I realized, this is America. We can’t make a totally unqualified, ill-equipped TV personality vice president. No, no, in this country we make him president.”
Biden later thanked her, and joked about her role as an incompetent and narcissistic vice president.
“I want you to know that I forgive you for giving us veeps a bad name,” he said.
Trump Is ‘Protecting’ a Lot of Things (6:20 a.m.)
The president is protecting America’s suburbs, according to a White House press release Thursday.
Trump is also protecting “our nation’s vulnerable seniors,” according to a White House press release Wednesday.
So far this year, the White House has also announced that Trump is protecting “American monuments, memorials and statues;” protecting “American democracy” by ordering only citizens be counted in the Census; protecting “our communities” from drug traffickers; protecting “the Native American community” from coronavirus; and protecting “the innovations, creations and inventions that power our country” from Chinese intellectual property theft.
In recent remarks, Trump has also said he is protecting “the health of our people,” the “American way of life,” “our seniors,” “our workers, our schools and our families” and “the unborn.”
And on Twitter, Trump has tweeted 192 times this year alone that he is protecting or wants to protect something, including “our National Parks,” “Federal property,” “our Great Second Amendment,” “people with pre-existing conditions,” “our police,” and “our borders,” among other things.
Coming Up:
Trump will deliver remarks and sign executive orders on drug prices at the White House at 3 p.m.
Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Indiana on Friday to meet with higher education officials on reopening schools.
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