Trump says boaters, bikers' rallies show he is still favorite in 2020 race: 'There's more spirit now than ever'
President Donald Trump might be trailing his presumptive Democratic opponent Joe Biden in key states but he is not ready to concede that he is losing advantage ahead of the November 3 presidential election. Like he did earlier this month, he reiterated that support from boaters and bikers gives concrete evidence that he is ahead of Biden in the race for the White House irrespective of what the numbers say. On Monday, July 27, Trump told reporters during a day trip to North Carolina to see the progress on coronavirus vaccine: “I think there's more spirit now than there's ever been for my campaign and that includes 2016 where obviously there was great enthusiasm, great spirit.”
Mentioning about Florida where the boaters took out the parade in his support, Trump said, “And you have thousands of boats out on the ocean, out on the intercoastal, you look at other states where likewise you have thousands of boats and they're all waving the Trump sign, Trump-Pence sign.”
Trump backed his boat and bike supporters on July 14
On July 14, Trump rubbished claims that he was less favorite in the race with Biden and cited the same boat and bike rallies in Florida to back his point. At the Rose Garden, the president said then: "You look at the intercoastal in Florida, you look at the lakes you see thousands of boats and bikers with Trump signs, American signs, you've got the Trump-Pence sign all over. You look at bikers for miles and miles riding up highways proudly with their signs.” Even on the Memorial Day weekend, the president invited a number of bikers to the White House to show that he also supported them. Bikers have, in fact, been part of Trump’s voting base for a long time. In 2017, they held a rally in his support in Scottsboro in Alabama.
On Monday, a North Carolina poll carried out by NBC News/Marist said the president trailing Biden by seven points. Another poll -- one done by Harvard-Harris -- also showed the incumbent falling behind Biden by 10 points. The president, who is battling several challenges in the run-up to the election, however, called them “fake” and “suppression-type”. Trump said internal polls showed him leading in key states like North Carolina, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Florida, and also Georgia, historically a red bastion.
He also gave the media a list of his accomplishments even though his administration has come under heavy criticism over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic which has hit more than 4.2 million people in the country and killed over 148,000. He has also been accused of coming up with a less-than-perfect response to the race riots that have engulfed America’s cities in the wake of the brutal death of George Floyd under police custody in Minneapolis.
“I think when people see all that we've done - even Space Force - we created a force, an actual, you know, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines - it's pretty amazing - Coast Guard and now Space Force. That hasn't happened in 75 years,” he said.
A fresh polling from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that Trump voters were more enthusiastic about their candidate compared to those supporting Biden. The latter group is getting more motivated by the urge to remove Trump from office than the leadership of the former veep.