Impact2020: September 16, 2020
In today’s Impact2020 briefing, we look at the tough decisions and questions facing Donald Trump and Joe Biden as they try to win over voters in Florida, Pennsylvania and beyond. Plus, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio deal with absentee ballot mishaps and changes.
On the Ground
Walking a fine line
McClatchy’s Michael Wilner and David Catanese report that President Donald Trump’s push for a coronavirus vaccine breakthrough before Election Day is forcing Joe Biden to make a choice: cast doubt on a process widely seen among Democrats as political, or start building trust in an eventual vaccine he may need to find a way to distribute if he wins in November.
“Biden campaign officials are attempting to walk that tightrope by confronting the president on his politically advantageous timeline without undermining public confidence in a prospective inoculation,” Wilner and Catanese write. Less than a quarter of Americans have expressed a willingness to immediately take a vaccine when it becomes available. Biden himself has said he would take a vaccine but is requesting “full transparency” around the process, while running mate Kamala Harris said she “would not trust Donald Trump” on a vaccine.
Sources told McClatchy that Biden advisers have been in contact with the producers of leading vaccine candidates, including Moderna, the first company to enter a vaccine into Phase III clinical trials.
According to Denis McDonough, a former White House chief of staff for President Barack Obama: “The way to get confidence in a public health matter is to lead with the docs and with the science, and that’s what the vice president is proposing to do.”
Biden is set to give a speech on vaccine development today from Wilmington, Del.
Tough questions at Trump town hall
Trump encountered tough questions in Philadelphia during Tuesday night’s ABC News town hall right from the start. A Bethlehem, Pa. man, who described himself as “a conservative, pro-life and diabetic,” asked the first question: “Why did you throw vulnerable people like me under the bus?”
Credit: Evan Vucci, AP
The Allentown Morning Call’s Lauren Olson described the socially-distanced scene as Paul Tubiana detailed his loss of confidence in the president during the pandemic.
“I’ve had to dodge people who don’t care about social distancing and wearing face masks. I thought you were doing a good job with the pandemic response until about May 1. Then you took your foot off the gas pedal. Why did you throw vulnerable people like me under the bus?” asked Tabiana.
Trump’s response: “Well, we really didn’t, Paul. We’ve worked very hard on the pandemic.”
He later added, after talking about the progress toward a vaccine, “I feel that we’ve done a tremendous job, actually.” Trump later also denied downplaying the threat of the coronavirus.
The seats at the event were filled with Pennsylvania voters, “who ABC identified as uncommitted in who they’ll be supporting for president,” Olson writes. They could stand to make a difference in the critical swing state, where recent polls have shown Biden leading Trump by an average of 4 points.
Working ‘like the devil’
After experiencing lackluster support from Hispanic voters in Florida, Biden made his first visit to the state as the Democratic nominee, making “a direct appeal to Central Florida’s growing Puerto Rican community” the Miami Herald’s David Smiley, Bianca Padró Ocasio and Alex Daugherty report.
Acknowledging that he needed to “work like the devil” to win over more Florida Latinos, Biden “surrounded himself with Puerto Rican politicians and Hispanic celebrities, and detailed plans to help the island of Puerto Rico recover from voluminous debt and a string of devastating natural disasters.”
“There’s no separating out Hispanic heritage from American heritage,” Biden said. “These stories are one and the same and growing more vibrantly intertwined every single day.”
Biden stopped short of endorsing Puerto Rican statehood, but said he “personally believes statehood” is the best political status for the island, though “the people of Puerto Rico must decide.”
Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who helped Bernie Sanders make gains with Latino voters in the primary, said Biden’s trip to Kissimmee was encouraging. “He should just camp out and move there,” he said.
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Trail Mix
Battleground state watch
During her campaign stop in Las Vegas, Harris criticized Trump for holding two rallies of thousands of people in Nevada and noted the president’s efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral process, the Nevada Independent’s Megan Messerly reports. Earlier in the day, Harris met with emergency service personnel and assessed the wildfires in her home state of California, Brianna Calix writes for the Fresno Bee.
The latest round of ads from the Trump campaign airing in Georgia and several other key states “aim to shift the focus of his re-election bid from law-and-order issues to the economy,” Greg Bluestein writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Election disruption
The Delaware State News’ Matt Bittle reports that progressive candidates defeated several Democratic incumbents in Delaware’s local primary elections Tuesday, “a sign of the shift the Democratic Party is undergoing.”
A GOP-led vote in Ohio defeated a plan to pay postage for absentee ballots this fall, which has Democrats saying it represents yet another example of voter suppression. The Columbus Dispatch’s Darrell Rowland has the details.
“More than 400 Michigan military and overseas ballots were downloaded from a state database … with the incorrect running mate for … Trump, listing a Libertarian candidate in the place of Vice President Mike Pence,” Beth LeBlanc and Craig Mauger report for the Detroit News.
Mislabeling of absentee ballots in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County resulted in hundreds of voters receiving two ballots, the Charlotte Observer’s Jim Morrill reports.
Number of the Day
49%
A new CNN poll shows Biden leading Trump 49% to 46% among likely voters in North Carolina. The divide is bigger in fellow battleground state Wisconsin, where 52% of likely voters support Biden and 42% back Trump.
Cruz has jokes
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he agrees with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s daughter (who’s a Democratic political strategist) on a controversial new Netflix movie.
For Planning Purposes
Sept. 16
Joe Biden delivers remarks from Wilmington, Del. on developing and distributing a COVID-19 vaccine
Vice President Mike Pence travels to Zanesville, Ohio
Sept. 17
Biden travels to Scranton, Pa. for CNN town hall
Kamala Harris travels to Philadelphia, Pa.
Sept. 18.
President Donald Trump visits Bemidji, Minn., and Mosinee, Wis.
Biden travels to Minnesota
Pence travels to Phoenix, Arizona
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This story was originally published September 16, 2020 at 12:20 PM.