Trump lashes out against Fauci and falling polls: ‘Disaster,’ he says, ‘doesn’t make sense,’ he says

President Donald Trump came out swinging Monday against Dr. Anthony Fauci and polls that show Trump trailing Democrat Joe Biden in key battleground states, as he tried to buck up his campaign team two weeks from Election Day.

Back on the trail after his COVID-19 infection, Trump was facing intense pressure to turn around his campaign, hoping for the type of last-minute surge that revived his candidacy four years ago and plunging into an aggressive travel schedule despite the pandemic. 

But his lack of a consistent message, newly surging virus cases and his attacks on experts like Fauci could undermine his final efforts to appeal to voters outside his most loyal base.

Trump insisted to supporters that he was still looking to win, allowing that he didn’t have that same sense of confidence two weeks ago when he was hospitalised with COVID-19. 

One week since returning to the campaign trail, where his handling of the pandemic is a central issue to voters, Trump blasted his government’s own scientists for their criticism of his performance.

“People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots,” Trump said of the government’s top infectious disease expert. “Every time he goes on television, there’s always a bomb. but there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him. But Fauci’s a disaster.”

The doctor is both respected and popular, and Trump’s rejection of scientific advice on the pandemic has already drawn bipartisan condemnation.

Fauci, in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, said he was ‘absolutely not’ surprised that Trump contracted the virus after he held large events with few face coverings.

“I was worried that he was going to get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded, no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask.” 

Fauci also objected to the president’s campaign using his words – praise directed towards the ‘gruelling’ efforts of the pandemic task force – to their advantage.

“I do not and nor will I ever, publicly endorse any political candidate,” he stated firmly.

Trump spoke to a Janesville, Wisconsin rally over the weekend, claiming that Biden’s presidency was “not even conceivable.” 

“Running against him, it puts such pressure because I’m running against the worst in the history. … If I lose, I will have lost to the worst candidate, the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics.”

Last week, he asked a crowd in Macon, Georgia: “Could you imagine if I lose my whole life? What am I going to do? I’m going to say I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics, I’m not going to feel so good. Maybe I’ll have to leave the country. I don’t know.”

On Sunday, Trump expressed confusion that he could possibly be tied with Biden in Nevada — where polls actually show Trump trailing.

“How the hell can we be tied?” he said at a rally in Carson City. “What’s going on? … We get these massive crowds. He gets nobody. And then they say we’re tied. … It doesn’t make sense.”

Among the thousands of supporters who sat elbow to elbow at the rally, a vast majority wore no masks, though cases in the state are on the rise, with more than 1,000 new infections reported Saturday. 

The Republican president, as he often does, warned that a Biden election would lead to further lockdowns and appeared to mock Biden for saying he would listen to scientists.

“He’ll listen to the scientists. If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression,” Trump said.

Biden, meanwhile, was in Delaware for several days of preparation ahead of Thursday’s final presidential debate. His running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, was returning to the campaign trail after several days in Washington after a close adviser tested positive for the coronavirus.

In addition to public polling that indicates Biden has an edge, the former vice president enjoys another considerable advantage over Trump: money.

Over the past four months, Biden has raised over $1 billion, a massive amount of money that has eclipsed Trump’s once-overwhelming cash advantage.

In Nevada, which Trump came close to winning in 2016, Democrats are set to outspend Trump in the closing days by a more than 3-to-1 ratio.

But though Trump has pulled back from advertising in Midwestern states that secured his 2016 win, he’s invested heavily elsewhere, including North Carolina, where he is on pace to slightly outspend Biden in the days ahead.

[Sourced from Agencies]