‘I feel so powerful.’ Trump returns to the campaign trail in Florida after COVID
Hospitalized and knocked from the trail for more than a week by the coronavirus, an exuberant President Donald Trump returned to campaigning Monday in Central Florida as if little had changed.
He did not wear a mask. He railed against Democratic nominee Joe Biden in must-win Florida. He cast himself as now immune against COVID-19.
“I went through it. Now they say I’m immune. I feel so powerful. I’ll walk in there. I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women,” he told a cheering audience of thousands at an airport rally.
Trump said he had been energized by his fans and humbled by their support as he returned to the campaign trail on the evening that hearings on Judge Amy Coney Barrett, his third Supreme Court nominee, began on Capitol Hill.
He had been scheduled to travel to Sanford on Oct. 2, but the trip was called off after his coronavirus diagnosis. His campaign rescheduled it as his first in-person event outside of Washington in recognition of the electoral importance of Florida, a linchpin of the president’s reelection strategy. Without the state and its 29 electoral votes, Trump would need to win all the other battleground states he won in 2016 or pick up new ones to win reelection.
Most public surveys of likely voters show Trump down by several points in Florida. But that was also the case in 2016 at the same juncture in the presidential race, and Trump went on to close the gap in the final days of the election and win the state.
Senior advisers to Trump’s reelection campaign insisted on a Monday call with reporters that current public polling is off.
“Our internal numbers — and we are very confident in where our numbers are — they continue to show a different story. A story that the public poll numbers aren’t articulating,” Corey Lewandowski, the president’s 2016 campaign manager, said. “We’re using the same methodology and the same individuals who did our polls in 2016. The polls that had us right, and the rest of the media wrong.”
Trump told supporters in Sanford he was optimistic about winning the state just as he had four years ago.
“And we’re winning by a lot more now than we were four years ago. Twenty-two days from now, we’re going to win this state. We’re going to win four more years in the White House,” he said.
TRUMP BARRAGE
This time four years ago Trump was facing accusations of misogyny after an Access Hollywood tape on which he made derogatory comments about women surfaced.
Now the president is battling concerns about his handling of the pandemic. He was off the campaign trail for the previous 10 days after he and members of his staff and inner circle tested positive for the coronavirus after attending events at which attendees were not wearing masks or socially distancing.
The White House on Monday released a memo by the president’s physician Sean P. Conley stating that Trump had tested negative for COVID-19 on consecutive days. The negative tests and other clinical and laboratory data led to the medical team’s assessment that “the President is not infectious to others,” Conley wrote.
Thousands of supporters arrived early to see Trump, waiting under Florida’s October sun to see him speak. Many chose not to wear masks, despite the president’s diagnosis.
“It showed the strength that Trump has to overcome that,” said Aidan Kraus of New Smyrna Beach, referring to the president’s battle with the coronavirus. At age 19, this will be Kraus’ first presidential election. “We need to talk about our reopening again.”
Trump said that would happen, thanks in part to Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who recently lifted state restrictions on businesses and socializing, and rendered toothless local mask orders.
“You’re open and open for business and doing great,” Trump said.
High-profile surrogates for Trump, including the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and Vice President Mike Pence, held events in Florida over the weekend. Trump also held a tele-rally targeted at Tampa residents on Sunday afternoon.
Pence held events in Orlando and at The Villages retirement community on Saturday for Latino voters and seniors. His chief of staff said Monday that the vice president would return to South Florida later in the week to deliver a speech on the Trump administration’s policies on Cuba, Venezuela and the Southern Hemisphere.
The Trump campaign is targeting residents of Miami with an advertisement featuring Cuban-American law enforcement officials delivering testimonials. It is also running commercials on Spanish-language networks, including Telemundo, Univision, Estrella, WAPA and Galavision.
Democrats, meanwhile, used Trump’s visit to attack his handling of the coronavirus and his administration’s position on health care. Ahead of Trump’s Sanford visit, the Democratic National Committee released digital ads Monday in Seminole County — the region around Sanford that narrowly went for Trump in 2016 but narrowly went Democrat in 2018 races for governor and U.S. Senate — highlighting the Trump administration’s efforts to overturn Obamacare. The Florida Democratic Party also held a conference call featuring politicians who have contracted COVID-19 and criticized Trump’s rally.
“It’s reckless and irresponsible,” said Shevrin Jones, a Democratic South Florida lawmaker who contracted COVID-19 over the summer.
CRUNCH TIME
Trump’s delayed visit to Sanford comes at a crucial time in the campaign, with tens of thousands of voters sending ballots in the mail every day. Though in-person early voting doesn’t begin until Oct. 19, nearly 1.7 million voters had cast mail ballots as of Monday morning — equal to about 17 percent of all votes submitted in the 2016 presidential election.
Nearly 4 million mail ballots remain outstanding in Florida.
“Get out there and vote. Send in your absentee ballot if you requested one. Be very careful,” Trump implored the crowd, alluding vaguely to mail ballot “shenanigans.”
The latest state figures, available through the end of August, show that there were 5.2 million registered Democrats in Florida, and 5.02 million Republicans. Those totals bring the GOP within 180,000 votes of the Democratic Party in Florida, closer to parity than the party has been since 1972, the earliest date available on the Florida Division of Elections website for partisan voter registration.
In the 2016 presidential election, there were 4.877 million Democrats in Florida and 4.550 million registered Republicans, an advantage of 327,000 for Democrats.
Republicans have even managed to outgain Democrats in deep blue Miami-Dade County, where Democrat advantage of 213,423 voters over the GOP four years ago had slimmed to 209,751 as of Oct. 1, according to data posted on the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections website.
Trump’s campaign is hopeful that the nomination of Barrett to the Supreme Court will solidify conservative support for the president.
“Who would have thought we’re on number three? You know other presidents never had any. We’re at three already. Three and a half years,” Trump said. “It’s driving them crazy. And Amy is of fantastic intellect. A great scholar. I think she’s going to be a fantastic U.S. Supreme Court justice.”
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said Monday that the Republican’s operation is counting on improved standing with Hispanic and Black voters to make up deficiencies with other coalitions that supported Trump in his first election.
The president also plans to ramp up his travel. Jason Miller, senior adviser to the campaign, said that Trump will soon be holding two to three events a day and plans to increase his activity even further heading into the Nov. 3 election.
“We’re excited to have him back out there. He’s our best asset and it’s going to be a big shot in the arm for the campaign,” Stepien said.
Tampa Bay Times political editor Steve Contorno contributed to this report.
This story was originally published October 12, 2020 at 8:12 PM with the headline "‘I feel so powerful.’ Trump returns to the campaign trail in Florida after COVID."
