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WSJ:
Trump Makes Push for Seniors as Coronavirus Crisis Erodes Support
President trails Joe Biden in polls among older voters, who are paying close attention to his handling of the pandemic—and watching his press briefings
Mr. Trump has trailed presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden nationally among voters 65 years and older in the four Wall Street Journal/NBC News polls this year, at times by double digits. Mr. Trump won 52% of that demographic against Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to exit polls.
America’s older voters have been trending toward Republicans for the past two decades. But Democrats said the former vice president could narrow that gap. He consistently performed well in his primary race among voters ages 65 and older, even in states such as Iowa where he struggled. Exit polls taken Super Tuesday on March 3, when he built a formidable delegate lead against the multicandidate field, showed Mr. Biden won about half of older voters in multiple states.
The mistakes we make in opening today
Won’t be seen until end of May
~ Burma Shave
34 days of pandemic: Inside Trump’s desperate attempts to reopen America
One of the polls, an internal RNC survey of voters in 17 battleground states, had former vice president Joe Biden leading Trump 48 to 45 percent, according to an adviser briefed on the 20-page polling memo. The coronavirus ranked as the most important issue to voters, and 54 percent of those surveyed said Trump was too slow to respond to the crisis, while 52 percent said they believed the government should be doing more.
Worse still were the matchups with Biden on a range of core characteristics. Just 36 percent said they considered Trump more honest and trustworthy; 35 percent said he was more compassionate and empathetic; 44 percent said he was more competent; 43 percent said they believed he fights more for people like them; and 36 percent said he was more calm, steady and relatable.
Trump did outperform Biden in some areas, such as being better at getting things done and better in handling a crisis. Still, on a question that historically has helped determine whether incumbents win reelection — whether the country is headed in the right direction — just 37 percent said they believed it was.
Fearing Political Peril, Republicans Edge Away From Trump on Pandemic Response
Moderate Republicans in competitive districts are navigating a careful balance in addressing the coronavirus crisis, eager to put some distance between themselves and a president whose response has been criticized.
In an attempt to ensure their contests become referendums on their own responses to the virus, rather than the president’s, vulnerable House Republicans are instead brandishing their own independent streaks, playing up their work with Democrats, doubling down on constituent service and hosting town-hall-style events — avoiding mention of Mr. Trump whenever possible.
It is an approach that looks familiar to former Representative Carlos Curbelo, Republican of Florida, who tried to distance himself from Mr. Trump on immigration and other issues in 2018 as he fought to hang onto his seat in a diverse South Florida district, but was swept out in a midterm debacle that handed Democrats control of the House.
David Ewing Duncan/Vanity Fair:
“Prepare, Prepare, Prepare”: Why Didn’t the World Listen to the Coronavirus Cassandras?
People (Larry Brilliant, Bill and Melinda Gates, the World Health Organization) have been shouting about the current pandemic—“Disease X”—near constantly for a couple of decades. But talk and action are different planets.
Would-be prophets professing to know the future are continuing to pop up as the pandemic rages. For instance, Larry Brilliant says the duration of the contagion depends on how quickly we can test everyone and stop the spread. One expert says it could last up to 24 months if the virus follows the usual pattern of receding and returning in waves. Trump this week said that the lockdown measures taken to stem the spread of the virus could be over in three weeks, by Easter, give or take. This comes as his own Department of Health and Human Services forecasts in an unreleased report on the COVID-19 response plan that a pandemic might last 18 months.
As predictions pile up, we now know that over the past decade and a half we failed to listen to numerous warnings. Which raises another question: Who are the Cassandras of this moment—and what would it take for us to listen to them?
TESTING
TRUMP, responding to a Harvard University study that 5 million tests would be needed to safely reopen the country: “It will increase, and it’ll increase by much more than that in the very near future. We’re way ahead of everyone on testing. … We’re going to be there very soon. If you look at the numbers, it could be that we’re getting very close.” — remarks Tuesday on aid for small businesses.
THE FACTS: Actually, Trump is nowhere close in his prediction of providing 5 million tests a day, according to his own federal “testing czar.”
“There is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even 5 million tests a day,” Dr. Brett Giroir, the federal health official overseeing U.S. testing, told Time magazine the same day.
Want to learn more about those epidemiology models? Sure you do.
- FiveThirtyEight: Where The Latest COVID-19 Models Think We’re Headed — And Why They Disagree
- Vox: This coronavirus model keeps being wrong. Why are we still listening to it?
- New York magazine: What the Coronavirus Models Can’t See
