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Trump Summons Campaign Aides With Polls Showing Biden Lead

Trump Summons Campaign Aides With Polls Showing Biden Lead

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump summoned top political advisers including his re-election campaign manager, Brad Parscale, for a White House meeting on Thursday as his political standing erodes in key battleground states, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, who is the de facto leader of his re-election effort, participated in the meeting, the people said, as did Deputy Campaign Manager Bill Stepien and Trump’s top pollster, Tony Fabrizio.

Trump Summons Campaign Aides With Polls Showing Biden Lead

One of the people said it was expected to be a tense meeting, describing internal polls that show Trump performing poorly in politically competitive states across the country. The people asked not to be identified because the meeting wasn’t on Trump’s public schedule for the day.

Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows and Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel were also in the meeting.

In a subsequent meeting with about 20 communications staff from the campaign and RNC, Trump seemed upbeat and confident, according to one person who was there. The president was especially interested in campaign efforts to draw support from black voters, the person said.

Trump has repeatedly claimed this week, in the wake of nationwide protests against police brutality, that he has done more for African Americans than any president since Abraham Lincoln, citing low unemployment among blacks before the coronavirus outbreak that collapsed the economy and a law he signed overhauling prison sentences for non-violent offenders.

A Fox News poll released Wednesday showed Trump’s presumptive opponent in November, former Vice President Joe Biden, leading the president by 8 points nationally, 48 to 40. Biden holds leads in three states Trump won in 2016, according to the poll: Wisconsin, Ohio and Arizona.

The same survey showed the two men tied at 42 percent just last month.

A Monmouth University poll showed Biden up by a full 11 percentage points nationally, 52 to 41. And a new Quinnipiac University poll shows the race essentially tied in Texas, a reliably Republican state Trump cannot afford to lose.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.