President Trump’s renomination keynote concludes a tale of two conventions: a Republican confab minimizing the coronavirus as a pandemic in decline and a Democratic gathering that spotlighted the pandemic as a crisis that threatens millions of lives.
Top Republicans have spent the party’s four-day event assuring voters that the economy is roaring back from a pandemic-induced recession because of Trump’s bold leadership to neutralize the coronavirus. On Wednesday evening, Vice President Mike Pence promised as he accepted renomination before a live, outdoor audience that the United States is “on track to have the world’s first safe, effective coronavirus vaccine” within four months.
Nominee Joe Biden warned that Trump’s heralded economic recovery will remain a myth until the president deals with the pandemic, criticizing the Republican incumbent for “waiting for a miracle” rather than leveling with voters and taking the difficult steps needed to defeat the coronavirus. Emphasizing the threat still posed by COVID-19, Biden delivered his acceptance speech to an empty room situated in an empty convention center.
Trump is scheduled Thursday evening to speak before as many as 1,000 people on the South Lawn of the White House.
“The conventions just amplified the dueling approaches to the coronavirus,” said Nathan Gonzales, a nonpartisan political analyst and publisher of Inside Elections. “I think the reality of the coronavirus in the fall will shape voters’ opinions.”
It’s not that the Republican convention didn’t feature plenty of discussion about the coronavirus. In one vignette, Trump met with healthcare workers who have been on the front lines of treating COVID-19 patients. Various Republicans and rank-and-file Trump supporters tapped to deliver speeches mentioned the toll the pandemic has taken on the country — 180,000 dead and tens of millions of jobs lost.
But across the first three nights of the convention, at least, the coronavirus was just one among several issues given top billing by the Trump campaign — and in many instances was treated as a problem that has largely been resolved. “Then came a once-in-100-year pandemic. It was awful,” chief White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said during his convention speech. The Biden campaign has pounded Trump for this approach.
Democratic strategists argue it is a big mistake.
In an Aug. 21-24 national poll of registered voters by a Democratic group tracking public opinion of the coronavirus, Trump’s job approval rating was 42%, 2 percentage points better than his approval rating for handling the pandemic. The survey found that 58% of voters believe Trump is not “doing enough” to respond to the pandemic, with just 33% saying he is. The poll also showed that voters overwhelmingly support wearing masks and view Trump as being against masks.
“It’s clear from this week that President Trump is out of touch with the fear and frustration that Americans are feeling after enduring nearly six months of hardship and frustration from the pandemic,” Democratic pollster Bryan Bennett said in a statement.
Republican insiders have long been concerned about the political implications of the coronavirus. The president’s job approval numbers on the issue have been underwater since the late spring, a vulnerability exacerbated by the summer surge in COVID-19 infections, and party strategists worry the pandemic could sink Trump’s reelection bid and wash down-ticket Republicans away with him.
But Republicans have been pleased with how the convention has unfolded. The portions featuring Trump interacting with voters have been a hit; the litany of speeches validating the president’s character, a major political vulnerability, have been welcomed; and the ethnically diverse array of speakers has been lauded by veteran party officials who worry the GOP is too focused on wooing white voters.
Those good feelings extend to the convention’s handling of the coronavirus, with some rejecting any suggestion that Trump’s renomination celebration failed to put the pandemic front and center. “I don’t think Republicans have put this in the rearview mirror at all,” said GOP pollster David Winston, who advises congressional Republicans.
