With Trump Sidelined, His Campaign Promises MAGA as Usual – The New York Times

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Those events will include a rally in Peoria, Ariz., the day after the debate. The campaign’s bus tours, meanwhile, were on the road on Saturday, with a stop in Boone County, Iowa, where Gov. Kim Reynolds and Matt Whitaker, the former acting attorney general in Mr. Trump’s administration, held indoor and outdoor events. A Trump campaign aide, Marc Lotter, shared pictures of supporters gathered indoors to see them, many without masks.

Mr. Biden’s team announced on Friday that it would cease negative advertising. Around 10:30 p.m. that night, some of his negative ads about Mr. Trump were still live on Facebook, raising questions among Republicans about whether the spots were actually coming down. A spokesman for Facebook, Andy Stone, said it was the result of a “lag” that sometimes occurs when ads are no longer live.

By contrast, the Trump campaign is not ceasing advertising. And so far there are no plans to change its approach to messaging, campaign officials said.

Republican and Democratic internal polling since the debate between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump has showed Mr. Trump losing ground against the Democratic challenger following an aggressive performance during which the president repeatedly interrupted Mr. Biden and talked over him, ignoring the moderator.

An official with one Democratic group, who requested anonymity to discuss internal surveys, said that the group’s polling showed that voters wanted the president to recover and that they felt sympathy for him but that so far, that wasn’t translating into the kind of political advantage that Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, experienced when he fell ill with coronavirus. The official said that voters still disapproved of Mr. Trump’s handling of the coronavirus and didn’t feel that the White House had been forthcoming about his health.

Despite the criticisms of large-scale events, the Trump campaign plans to move on with them. On Saturday, for instance, a Trump ally held a large rally supporting the president on Staten Island in New York.

“There is zero margin for error here,” Mr. Gorman said. “We’re a month out. Everyone needs to wear a mask, social-distance and take it seriously. Speaking from a purely cynical perspective, shouldn’t Republicans want their voters to be healthy enough to get to the polls?”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/03/us/politics/trump-campaign-covid.html

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