Trump had a game plan to destroy Joe Biden in the general election — but coronavirus has ruined it: analysis

On Thursday, Politico's Alex Isenstadt and Natasha Korecki analyzed how the global coronavirus pandemic has upended President Donald Trump's campaign strategy to take down former Vice President Joe Biden.

"President Donald Trump’s top political advisers in recent weeks envisioned unleashing a massive advertising campaign against Joe Biden to define him for the general election before he had a chance to recover from the primary," they wrote. "Then the novel coronavirus arrived."

"With the death toll rising and daily life grinding to a halt, Trump’s sprawling political operation has put on hold any plans to use its nine-figure war chest to unload on the former vice president," they continued. "The strategy, mimicking the playbook of Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign against Mitt Romney, was aimed at crippling the lesser-funded Biden before he could unify the Democratic Party behind him and marshal his forces for November. "The reprieve is a blessing for Biden: Rather than spending valuable time fending off an assault, he is free to present himself as a steady leader amid a national crisis and to regroup for the general election."

Trump famously kicked off the election cycle by threatening to withhold military aid from Ukraine unless their president agreed to announce an investigation of Biden's son. This scandal led to Trump's impeachment, which ended in Republicans moving to acquit Trump on a partisan basis.

Trump's allies, too, appear to be standing down for now, with the president of the far-right Club for Growth acknowledging, "The response to the coronavirus has pushed the whole election off the front page." Meanwhile, the downside for Biden is that he, too, cannot hold big in-person fundraisers, and his campaign haul is limited.

"Trump allies say that, for the time being at least, his reelection hopes hinge almost entirely on his ability to manage the crisis," said the report. "While they acknowledge his initial response was lacking and that the virus poses a mortal threat to his 2020 prospects, they foresee a possible silver lining. If the virus passes and businesses and schools reopen before the election, they say, the president could present himself as the protagonist in an American comeback story."

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