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"[Trump] has created a difficult situation for himself. He decided deliberately to minimise COVID-19 when he knew it was much more serious than he was communicating. A lot of this difficulty is something he’s created himself," said Andrew Claster in an exclusive interview to The Quint.
Claster was the Deputy Chief Analytics Officer for President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
Trump testing positive for COVID-19 is not transformative, Claster said. Most voters have already made up their mind, according to him.
However, the development is crucial and comes at a time when Trump is on the bottom rung compared to Biden, said Claster, highlighting Trump’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis. “This is making it very difficult for him to change the subject to a subject he wants to talk about”.
What Are Trump’s Chances?
"Wearing a mask and social distancing are not signs of weakness, but Trump has presented them as a sign of weakness in the past 8 months," he further stated.
According to Reuters, Trump testing positive for the coronavirus has given Democratic candidate Joe Biden the widest lead yet in the presidential race. As of the past weekend, Biden has a 10-point edge over Trump, which is is 1 to 2 points higher than leads Biden posted over the past several weeks.
“There is some early evidence that it may be hurting Trump”, Claster reinstated to The Quint.
Speaking of possible future trajectory, Claster said, “I think it’s going to depend substantially on what happens with Trump’s health over the next two weeks, as well as a number of other things that are going on right now, including the Supreme Court nomination.”
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