President Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are making their closing arguments to voters on the final weekend of the campaign, with Trump hammering away at renewed economic growth, while Biden emphasizes the line that the president has blown the response to the coronavirus.
Trump has seized on new numbers showing an economic rebound, with a 33.1% increase in GDP over the third quarter while also trying to drive up his opponent’s negatives.
“Did you see the number today? 33.1 GDP. The biggest in the history of our country by almost triple,” Trump boasted in Florida, a crucial swing state, on the day the data was released.
“Listen, his closing message is going to be the economic message. Coming out of the pandemic, who’s the best person positioned to rebuild this economy?” White House communications director Alyssa Farah told reporters on Friday. “So, you’re going to hear a lot of that. These other issues matter, but our closing message is, we’re going to defeat the virus, we’re going to defeat the economy.”
“My judgment is, tax cuts and deregulation and energy independence have worked before the pandemic, they’re now really continuing to work as we reopen the economy,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters in a Trump campaign conference call. “I would not change courses midstream. I would stay with the policies that brought us here and are bringing us into a strong recovery, which can last into 2021 and beyond.”
The economy was supposed to be the centerpiece of Trump’s case for reelection until the pandemic interrupted months of solid growth and 3.5% unemployment. It still remains the issue on which the president receives the highest marks in most polls. But there are concerns that he is talking too much about Hunter Biden instead.
“I think the president should talk more about how he has kept his promises and will keep fighting for the forgotten middle class and talk less about Joe Biden,” said Republican strategist John Feehery.
“The president’s closing message has been incredibly strong, if Hunter Biden were the Democratic nominee and the country was not in the middle of a global pandemic,” said Christian Ferry, a Republican strategist who is supporting Biden. “Vice President Biden is doing a better job talking about the issues that matter to what few, if any, persuadable voters remain.”
Trump has acknowledged receiving this feedback himself. “I got a call from all the experts, right? Guys that ran for president six, seven, eight times, never got past the first round, but they’re calling up, ‘Sir, you shouldn’t be speaking about Hunter,’” he said at a rally. “They say, ‘Talk about your economic success. Talk about 33.1%, the greatest in history.’ Look, if I do, how many times can I say it?”
Biden, by contrast, has tried to make the case that Trump’s COVID-19 response has been a deadly failure, that he is not temperamentally suited for the presidency, and that the recent economic gains do not compensate for the GDP the country has lost during the pandemic. But the former vice president’s relatively light campaign schedule has been panned.
“Biden is stumbling home and, of course, he wants to make this a referendum on Trump and COVID,” Feehery said. “If Biden wins, this will be the first campaign in the modern era where a candidate did his level best to not campaign. It’s weird.”
Yet Trump has planned 14 more battleground state campaign rallies as he rushes to close the gap before Election Day. He is going to inveigh against lockdowns in states with Democratic governors and contend that Biden’s policies will stop the economic recovery in its tracks.
The polling in the race has been surprisingly durable, with Biden in the lead, although there are some signs of tightening in the states most likely to decide the Electoral College outcome. Trump is within striking distance if he can hold Pennsylvania and the Sun Belt states, while Biden is confident he can push as deep into Trump territory as Texas for a possible landslide win.
Record early voting and fairly stable public opinion about the candidates raises the question of whether the final message will even be heard very much.
“With so many ballots already cast and feelings as strong as they are, I think it’s questionable if anything can really change the outcome at this point,” Ferry said.
