Trump's illness halts campaign just when it needs an October boost
or President Trump’s reelection campaign, October was supposed to be the turnaround month. After trailing Democratic nominee Joe Biden all year, Trump thought this past week would be his slingshot to securing a second term by disqualifying his opponent at their first debate together, expanding his coalition of voters, raising more money and staging bigger rallies.
It has not worked out the way he envisioned.
The past seven days have dealt the incumbent one setback after another — the extraordinary revelation in the New York Times that he had paid little to no federal income taxes in recent years; a belligerent debate performance that risked turning off many voters; the arrest of his recently demoted campaign manager in Florida; and finally the president’s own hospitalization for the coronavirus because of an outbreak in a White House that has made a mockery of public health guidelines and offered contradictory accounts of Trump’s health.
All the while, Biden’s sizable financial advantage has allowed the Democrat to dominate the television airwaves, and some recent polls show his lead over Trump holding steady or even growing.
Despite the rosy prognostications of his physician over the weekend, Trump’s illness has effectively stalled his campaign with just four weeks until Election Day and with voters already casting early ballots in many states.
“This effectively freezes the campaign at a point where the president’s at a deficit,” said pollster Neil Newhouse, who does not work for the Trump campaign but advises many other Republican candidates. “This is the period in time we were hoping to close the gap, and this makes it more of a challenge.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-campaign-coronavirus-october/2020/10/04/333cfd90-065f-11eb-859b-f9c27abe638d_story.html