Trump Campaign Chief Sees Bounce After Virus Briefings Revived

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump's new campaign manager credited the revival of the president's daily briefings with narrowing the gap between him and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, saying that when the president speaks “it's a needle mover.”

Bill Stepien took over as the president's campaign manager in mid-July after Brad Parscale was demoted. At the time, the Trump re-election effort staggered under the pressures of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed about 158,000 Americans, and crashed the economy.

Since Stepien stepped in, Trump has changed his public approach to the virus. He now calls wearing protective equipment an act of “patriotism” after dismissing the value for months. While he still downplays the virus's effect and argues with scientists about it, he also sometimes takes a more somber tone.

Most notably, he has revived the daily late-afternoon briefings in which he reads positive updates about the pandemic, encourages states and schools to reopen and takes questions from reporters.

That step, Stepien said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg, is beginning to turn the president's campaign around. The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows Biden currently leading Trump by 6.4 percentage points, down from a lead of 9 percentage points a few weeks ago.

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“He also happens to be the leader of the free world, and anytime he steps behind a podium as he does every night unlike Joe Biden, it gets covered and it matters and it's noteworthy and it's a needle mover,” Stepien said.

“His instincts are strong and there's no one better at the podium than him. That is a net positive every day of the week, polling shows it,” Stepien said.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said last month that Trump's approval is higher when he speaks to the public.

“I just think the people want to hear from the president of the United States. It doesn't have to be daily, doesn't have to be for two hours, but in my view, it has to be.”

Talking about the virus is also risky for Trump. In a widely panned interview with Axios this week, the president responded to a question about 1,000 people dying every day in the U.S. by saying, “It is what it is,” and continued to insist that the numbers of infections is only rising because of increased testing.

Victory lies in ‘hidden' Trump voter

Stepien also said that the “hidden Trump vote” will help propel the president's re-election, just as it did in 2016.

Stepien said that if the campaign tends to its core supporters, they will repeat 2016's unlikely victory.

“These are voters that always need to be looked after, cared for and paid attention to, because if you lose focus on them, if you take for granted key parts of the electorate like that, there's a chance that they stay at home or vote a different way.”

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Stepien pointed to an ad that shows a woman silently flipping cue cards that express her support for Trump, saying it was designed to appeal to Trump voters who believe they'll be ridiculed for their position.

The ad, he says, “speaks directly to the silent majority who are afraid of being attacked or ridiculed.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.