Trump is facing a timid revolt within his own party due to his absent or misguided handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to one scathing New York Times report that was published over the weekend.
“They appear to be spurred by several overlapping forces, including deteriorating conditions in their own states, Mr. Trump’s seeming indifference to the problem and the approach of a presidential election in which Mr. Trump is badly lagging his Democratic challenger, Joseph R. Biden Jr., in the polls,” reported the New York Times.
“The president got bored with it,” David Carney, an adviser Gov. Greg Abbott and former George H.W. Bush staffer, told the paper. The Texas Republican said Abbott was directing requests to Vice President Mike Pence, not Trump.
The report comes as fatalities from the virus in Texas have reached 4,000 as of Monday, per the latest state data.
The resulting growth in the pandemic has corresponded with polls this month showing Texans are increasingly fed up with Trump and Abbott. Most polls in Texas this month show that Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are almost even, with one striking survey by the Dallas Morning News showing Biden leading by a five percentage point margin.
The number of new cases and the state’s infection rate have risen dramatically since June, when Abbott opened the state only to reverse some of his decisions weeks later — like a statewide mask order or closing bars.
State data reported this week shows that the intensifying pandemic is rounding off or approaching a peak, at least in terms of new cases, test positivity, and statewide hospitalizations. Another week of data will be needed to confirm a drop in the moving average of those indicators, or that social distancing measures being encouraged throughout the state are working or being taken seriously.
Photo: Dan Tian/Xinhua via Getty Images
Fernando covers Texas politics and government at the Texas Signal. Before joining the Signal, Fernando spent two years at the Houston Chronicle and previously interned at Houston’s NPR station News 88.7. He is a graduate of the University of Houston, Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, and enjoys reading, highlighting things, and arguing on social media. You can follow him on Twitter at @fernramirez93 or email at fernando@texassignalarchive.com
