Trump - the “Access Hollywood” tape, the “very fine people” on both sides of a white supremacist rally, insulting John McCain’s service as a prisoner of war - is longer than most voters’ memories. The list of episodes that were supposed to end Mr. This history, of course, is the argument for Democratic caution. Trump’s toxic virus idea was “the craziest thing he ever said.” Curbelo said a friend had suggested recently that Mr. “At the very least, that advantage was completely erased.” “Given Joe Biden’s gaffes and mistakes, I think the Trump campaign had a strong narrative there,” he said. Trump and did not vote for him, said the president’s comments on disinfectants were likely to resonate precisely because he was running a race premised largely on Mr. Ducklo, a Biden spokesman, called this approach “a distraction tactic - as if anything could erase the memory of the president suggesting people drink disinfectant on national television.”Ĭarlos Curbelo, a Republican former Florida congressman who clashed at times with Mr. “Joe Biden is often lost,” said Tim Murtaugh, a Trump campaign spokesman, “losing his train of thought during friendly interviews, even when he relies on written notes in front of him.” On Sunday, the Trump campaign made clear that the disinfectant affair would not disrupt its plans. Biden’s 2020 bid by highlighting all that he had “forgotten” as a candidate, with corresponding video clips of momentary flubs and verbal stumbles: “Joe Biden forgot the name of the coronavirus.” “Joe Biden forgot the G7 was not the G8.” “Joe Biden forgot Super Tuesday was on a Tuesday.”
Biden: presenting him as a doddering 77-year-old not up to the rigors of the office - and setting off on the kind of whisper campaign that does not bother with whispers.Ī Trump campaign Twitter account on Saturday celebrated the anniversary of Mr. Still, for weeks, the president’s political team has been strikingly explicit about its intended messaging against Mr. Hogan said, “You know, I can’t really explain it.” Trump’s virus leadership, said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that it “does send a wrong message” when misinformation spreads from a public official or “you just say something that pops in your head.” Asked to explain the president’s words, Mr. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican who has been willing to speak skeptically about Mr. Deborah Birx, the coronavirus response coordinator, told CNN on Sunday, adding, “I worry that we don’t get the information to the American people that they need, when we continue to bring up something that was from Thursday night.” “It bothers me that this is still in the news cycle,” Dr. Some at the White House have expressed frustration that the issue has lingered. The reaction has so rattled the president’s allies and advisers that he was compelled over the weekend to remove himself from the pandemic briefings entirely, at least temporarily accepting two fates he loathes: giving in to advice (from Republicans who said the appearances did far more harm than good to his political standing) and surrendering the mass viewership he relishes. It is more difficult to insist that the man floating disinfectant injection knows what he’s doing. Trump’s typical name-calling can be recast to receptive audiences as mere “counterpunching.” His impeachment was explained away as the dastardly opus of overreaching Democrats.