SFGATE: Trump presented with grim polling showing him losing to Biden
Published on April 30, 2020 at 04:14AM by Josh Dawsey, The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's advisers presented him with the results of internal polling last week that showed him falling behind former vice president Joe Biden in key swing states in the presidential race, part of an effort by aides to curtail Trump's freewheeling daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations.
The president spoke with campaign manager Brad Parscale, White House senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, among other officials, in calls and meetings last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, according to the three people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions.
One call on Wednesday - with Parscale patched in from his home in Florida and McDaniel from hers in Michigan - was designed to present grim polling data to the president to encourage him to reduce the frequency of coronavirus briefings or to stop taking questions, after seeing his numbers slip for several weeks, officials said.
Trump resisted the pleas, saying people "love" the briefings and think he is "fighting for them," a person with knowledge of the Wednesday conversation said. Trump has long been distrustful of polling data presented to him when the numbers are negative, aides say.
The two polls given to Trump - one from the Republican National Committee and another from the Trump campaign - both showed Trump trailing Biden in swing states, officials said. His political team has grown more concerned in recent weeks, as the briefings became more combative while the economy cratered and coronavirus deaths continued to rise.
On Thursday, Trump set off a new uproar with his suggestion that injecting bleach or other disinfectants could help kill the novel virus - prompting a scramble by the administration to...
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