Guy Cecil, who chairs the pro-Biden outside advocacy group Priorities USA, said Wednesday that President Trump’s massive rallies during the closing stretch of the campaign are turning off the voters Mr. Trump needs to win re-election.
“Bad public health policy is bad politics, and voters are onto this,” Mr. Cecil told reporters. “This mythology that Trump is somehow rallying the troops… he is making a difference, no question about it — he’s making people less favorable and less open to voting for him.”
Mr. Cecil cited polling the group conducted among 4,800 total likely voters across Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina and Arizona from Oct. 19-25.
Solid majorities in all six states said Mr. Trump’s holding large, in-person rallies made voters feel at least somewhat less favorable toward the president.
The exact wording of the question was: “Does knowing Trump continues to hold large, in-person campaign rallies where wearing a mask is not required of attendees, and Trump himself does not wear a mask, make you feel more or less favorable to him?”
Asked why Mr. Trump is continuing to hold the rallies if they’re hurting him, Mr. Cecil asked rhetorically why the president mused about injecting bleach as a potential COVID-19 cure.
“Because he is a reckless, egotistical, self-centered, uncontrollable president who is not doing anything that makes any sense,” he said. “It’s because he is a reckless a—hole that has no self-control and is putting hundreds of thousands of lives at risk through his policies and putting thousands of lives at risk by holding super-spreader events in places across the country.”
“Asking why Donald Trump does something — I don’t f—ing know why Donald Trump does anything,” he added. “[Because] he’s a terrible human being.”
Mr. Cecil also alluded to reports that some of Mr. Trump’s supporters at the president’s Tuesday rally in Omaha, Nebraska ended up stranded and/or required medical attention from being out in the cold.
“Given the president’s campaign team’s actions in Omaha yesterday — a lot of their supporters, sending some of them to the hospital in this case for hypothermia whereas in other cases for COVID — the Nebraska-2 district is also in the lean Democratic column,” he said.
Priorities USA and its partners are the third-biggest spenders on TV, radio and digital in the core states in the general election, behind Joseph R. Biden and the Democratic National Committee and Mr. Trump and the Republican National Committee.
As of Wednesday, the group projected that Mr. Biden is on track to win enough states to secure at least 258 Electoral College votes, including Michigan and Wisconsin.
An additional four states totaling 76 Electoral College votes — Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona, plus Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district — were in the “lean Democrat” column.
The group rated Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, and Texas, which collectively total 78 Electoral College votes, as pure toss-ups.
It takes 270 Electoral College votes to secure the presidency.
Mr. Cecil said he wants Mr. Biden to be north of 52% in the popular vote to make sure he has enough support to win.
Their latest analysis had Mr. Biden leading Mr. Trump by about 9 points in a two-way race, 54.5% to 45.5%.
Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 over Mr. Trump by a 48% to 46% margin, or about 3 million votes.
But Mr. Trump won enough support in key states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to secure the presidency.
The president has cast doubt on the results of the election he won, saying Mrs. Clinton’s securing the popular vote was a product of massive fraud.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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