In an interview on Fox News Donald Trump has been as controversial as usual.
President Trump, in an exclusive interview with Fox News, challenged his critics on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, threatened a veto for the defense bill, and speculated on whether he will accept the results if his Democratic challenger wins the presidency in November.
Trump, in a contentious sitdown that aired Sunday, told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace that recent statistics regarding COVID-19 cases and deaths are misleading. Early in the discussion, the president disputed Wallace’s claim that the U.S. currently has the seventh-highest mortality rate in the world.
“I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world,” Trump said, offering White House statistics that differed from the ones Wallace cited.
Worldometer ranks the US tenth worst in deaths per 1m population.
Wallace then explained that his numbers came from Johns Hopkins University, which ranked the U.S. seventh in mortality, ahead of the UK and worse than Brazil and Russia. He noted that the White House’s chart, which uses data from the European Centre for Disease Protection and Control, has the U.S. ahead of Spain and Italy, but worse than Brazil and South Korea, with Russia and other countries not included in the chart.
rom there, Trump pushed back against statements from leading U.S. doctors, specifically CDC Director Robert Redfield and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci. Redfield said last week that he expects the coming fall and winter to be among “the most difficult times that we’ve experienced in American public health.”
When asked if he agrees with Redfield, Trump said he was unsure, but pointed to mistakes that doctors have made.
“I don’t know and I don’t think he knows,” Trump said. I don’t think anybody knows with this. This is a very tricky deal. Everybody thought this summer it would go away and it would come back in the fall. Well, when the summer came, they used to say the heat — the heat was good for it and it really knocks it out, remember? And then it might come back in the fall. So they got that one wrong.”
That’s something trump also got wrong, as well as a number of predictions he has made on Covid.
“I guess everybody makes mistakes,” the president said, then added, “I’ll be right eventually. I will be right eventually,” referring to his past prediction that the virus would eventually go away.
“It’s going to disappear and I’ll be right,” he said.
In the meantime, Trump says that he takes responsibility for what happens to the nation during the pandemic, as critics claim that the U.S. does not have a national plan.
“Look, I take responsibility always for everything because it’s ultimately my job, too. I have to get everybody in line,” Trump said, while stating that governors have to lead as well.
“No country has ever done what we’ve done in terms of testing. We are the envy of the world,” he said.
The US ranks 23rd on tests per 1m.
With 3.8 million cases and 143,000 deaths and rising case rates, totalling a quarter of world cases and nearly a quatrer of recorded world deaths, the US is not the envy of the world.
Asked about racial tension in the wake of George Floyd’s death, Trump recognized how Black Americans are feeling. When asked if he understands why Black people are angry about being disproportionately shot and killed by police compared to White people, Trump said he does.
“Of course I do. Of course I do,” Trump said. At the same time, the president noted that “many Whites are killed also,” and that “this is going on for a long time, long before I got here.”
Turning to the upcoming election, Trump had strong words for Joe Biden, taking political and personal shots at the presumptive Democratic nominee.
In the past, Trump has taken shots at Biden’s mental capabilities, and he continued to go down that path.
“Biden can’t put two sentences together,” Trump said.
Trump is in risky territory accusing others of mental capabilities and incoherent speech.
Later on, Trump said that this is why he will be victorious.
“[Y]ou know why I won’t lose, because the country, in the end, they’re not going to have a man who – who’s shot. He’s shot, he’s mentally shot,” Trump said.
Asked about the possibility of losing, however, Trump noted that he does not handle losing well, and may not handle it well if it happens in November.
“I’m not a good loser. I don’t like to lose,” he said. “I don’t lose too often. I don’t like to lose.”
When asked if he is gracious, Trump said, “You don’t know until you see. It depends.” He then claimed that mail-in voting, which Democrats have pushed as a response to the coronavirus pandemic, “is going to rig the election.”
Asked if this means that he will not accept the election results, Trump said, “No. I have to see.”
Asked again if he would accept the results, Trump said, “No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time either.”
Transcript: ‘Fox News Sunday’ interview with President Trump
There wasn’t anything in this interview that is likely to change things for Trump, it was fairly familiar stuff.
Polls suggest he has an uphill battle this election – FiveThirtyEight currently has him on:
- 55.5% disapproval
- 40.5% approval.
And presidential polls aren’t promising for him either.
- Biden 50.4%
- Trump 41.6%
See also:
- Yes, Biden Has A Big Lead, But It’s Probably Not 15 Points
Notably, the state polling averages have not moved much in the past several weeks either. Biden continues to lead the polling averages of states worth 368 electoral votes, while Trump leads in states with only 170 electoral votes. - Why Trump — Not Biden — Might Have An Enthusiasm Problem
Polls consistently show that Trump’s supporters are more excited to vote for him than presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s supporters are to vote for him…while Biden voters may not be all that excited about voting for Biden, they’re very enthusiastic about voting against Trump. And that gives Biden a pretty strong edge, because Trump supporters don’t despise Biden the way they despised Hillary Clinton in 2016. - Americans Increasingly Dislike How Republican Governors Are Handling The Coronavirus Outbreak
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, governors have generally received better marks for the way they’ve handled the crisis than President Trump has. However, new polling suggests that may be changing, especially for Republican governors in states where the number of coronavirus cases has spiked in recent weeks.