Coronavirus: How Donald Trump’s daily rants have seen his ratings hit record highs – Henry McLeish

As Donald Trump takes advantage of his daily platform to deride expert advice and attack opponents, Democrat Joe Biden is struggling to find an effective voice on coronavirus, writes Henry McLeish.

Joe Biden, seen elbow-bumping with Bernie Sanders, has struggled to make his voice heard amid the coronavirus crisis (Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Donald Trump informs us daily that the US leads the world in tackling the coronavirus pandemic. It’s not even remotely true. But sadly, and more accurately, he is now able to claim a new first. The US is the new epicentre of the global pandemic with over 150,000 cases and 2,000 deaths. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on CNN that “denial and delays are deadly and are costing American lives”.

The Presidential election, now only 216 days away, will become the “coronavirus” election. Trump’s handling of the pandemic will be uppermost in the minds of 240 million potential voters at a time when his two signature achievements, a booming stock market and a strong economy, are in tatters.

Trump’s likely opponent will be Joe Biden. Although Bernie Sanders is still in the race to become the Democrats’ nominee, pressure is mounting on him to stand down to allow Biden to focus on Trump. Sanders is stubborn, but there is no credible path to the Democratic nomination. And with the virus ruling out any rallies, televised national debates and a country in a state of emergency, his options are limited.

Biden has had a remarkable political career, including 36 years in the Senate and eight years as Vice-President to Barack Obama and experience of US foreign and domestic policy over nearly 50 years. While age, he is now 78, could be an issue, he is up against a President who will be 74 this year.

At the start of February, Biden was being written off. Growing doubts about his energy, enthusiasm, campaign funding, concentration and his hesitancy in debate and limited concentration, captured the headlines. Defeats in the Iowa and New Hampshire caucuses and the Nevada primary suggested his campaign was over. But then a spectacular result in South Carolina transformed his prospects.

Crushing defeats for Sanders in “Super Tuesday” states followed. Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho were also won by Biden.

The near-death experience for Biden’s presidential ambitions is now a distant nightmare. He is now the presumptive Democratic nominee. Exactly why this happened remains a mystery, but mindsets have been transformed.

Sanders was considered too far left to be acceptable to a wider American electorate, and even to Democratic voters.

Biden tries to stay relevant

Important, also, was the view that the ideological debate for the soul of the Democratic party was at best marginal. Instead there was only one issue of significance – getting the best candidate to beat Trump. For many Democrats, the proverbial penny had dropped. GROT – Getting Rid Of Trump – was the moral imperative of the moment. Trump is out of control, destroying cherished institutions, imperilling the health of millions at home and diminishing America’s standing overseas.

For Democrats, Biden has other vote-winning qualities – honesty, humility, humanity and most importantly, decency – that Trump is incapable of even understanding.

With Trump stripped of his apparent omnipotence regarding Wall Street and the US economy and his lamentable handling of the coronavirus, Biden, at a moment of national emergency, could offer leadership and sanity to a crisis-ridden White House.

Since his political resurrection, and not by choice, Biden has largely been out of public view, working from home, trying to stay relevant and looking for a voice on the coronavirus. For good reasons, he has been struggling to achieve visibility with the public.

Despite Trump’s shortcomings, this is not a good time to be attacking the President. He is the Commander-in-Chief. Trump has talked about a war-time approach and most Americans in times of crisis and trouble will support the Office and the Stars and Stripes: patriotism and the pledge of allegiance remain dear to Americans.

Expert advice derided

Biden is slowly ramping up his campaign. In the absence of press conferences, rallies and TV debates he is engaging with the national broadcasters but Sanders exiting the presidential race would help.

In stark contrast, Trump continues to dominate the media and run amok. He was enraged when he was literally forced to give up his ranting rallies and endless trips to Mar-a-Lago, where he held fundraisers and eulogised with his wealthy backers.

Around that time, he set up daily press briefings on the coronavirus and asked Mike Pence, the Vice-President, to front them. However, realising that he was self-isolating himself from his life-blood, Trump dismissed Pence, took personal control and turned the briefings into long, rambling, incoherent and lengthy mini rallies, often taking up to two hours.

Even, for this shameless President, his behaviour is remarkable. His rantings deride expert advice, side-line health specialists, wage war against state Governors such as Andrew Cuomo in New York and Gavin Newsom in California who are facing catastrophic health threats, and constantly describes how well America is doing, under his presidency, when in fact, the world is mocking his behaviour and shocked by the inadequacy of US health coverage. Trump’s disinterest in the pandemic and his growing paranoia about an economic catastrophe ahead of the November election was illustrated by his recent assertion that he would “love to have the country opened up and raring to go by Easter”.

Despite the bipartisan approach to the $2 trillion economic plan agreed in the US Congress, the desperate pleas from many of the states for a collective federal approach, and the call from the G7 countries for international coordination to fight the pandemic, Trump remains steadfastly defiant of conventional political logic. Worryingly, he may understand his base much better than we do.

Viewed through the prism of European progressivism, where our political culture still resembles some normality, it is remarkable that Trump’s personal approval ratings have hit record highs in polling data released last week with Gallup putting him on 49 per cent, Fox 48 per cent and Pew 45 per cent. For his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, rather than for job performance overall, he is averaging 50 per cent.

The scale of the challenge facing Biden and the Democrats in the House, Senate and gubernatorial races in November is daunting and at the same time puzzling.

Biden is struggling to construct a convincing message for the electors and an effective medium through which to talk to the American people. Trump, in sharp contrast, is master of both the message and the medium.

And there are thousands of right-leaning radio stations, Fox News, over 110 million Twitter supporters, and, for the foreseeable future, a daily press briefing, all dedicated to a President who is lying his way to another four years.