Author: Peter Nicholas
Affiliation: The Atlantic
Organization/Publisher: The Atlantic
Date/Place: May 12, 2020/USA
Type of Literature: Policy Analysis
Word Count: 1670
Link: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/05/trump-biden-coronavirus-2020/611500/
Keywords: Trump, Joe Biden, the US presidential election and COVID-19.
Brief:
This article argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has shattered the basic economic rationale of American President Trump, and instead of having a good plan to fight against COVID-19, Trump is stating that Joe Biden’s handling of the pandemic situation would be worse. The author elaborates that Trump and his allies are confronting Biden as a feeble alternative to Trump, claiming that Biden couldn’t revive the economy, defeat the virus, or stand up to Chinese leaders. For the author this is a conspicuous irony, for many reasons such as that Trump is presiding over historic job losses as well as over a pandemic that is raging without end. The article explains that polling shows voters are largely discontented at how Trump has managed the pandemic, yet still one recent survey showed that Trump is holding a small lead over Biden. Also, the author expounds how Trump tries to frame Biden as incompetent to manage the public-health response to the pandemic through reaching back to the early days of Biden’s vice presidency, specifically how the Obama administration responded to the H1N1 swine flu.
By: Fadi Zatari, CIGA Senior Research Associate
