President Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis was a moment of reckoning for his Republican Party, whose leaders largely adopted his strategy of playing down the disease but are now confronted with a stark political nightmare a month from Election Day. …
“It’s challenging,” said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster active in five competitive Senate races. “It would be better if the discussion was about jobs and the economy, or even Joe Biden is going to be held captive to the left. But the election is going to be about coronavirus, and that’s not favorable terrain for Republicans.”
In private conversations over recent months, Republicans had reached a level of stoicism about how their fates were yoked to the president’s, even as he ricocheted from outrage to outrage and denied the severity of a pandemic killing thousands of their constituents. CONT.
Nicholas Riccardi, Thomas Beaumont & Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press
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