Former President George W. Bush senior adviser Karl Rove on Friday weighed in on the recent Fox News poll showing former Vice President Joe Biden extending his lead on President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Although Trump trails, Rove told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” that the president’s ability to restore the economy and control the national conversation around police reform and other topics should still be to his advantage.
“The president is behind, no ifs, ands or buts about it,” Rove acknowledged. “On the other hand, the president has some advantages. And the question is going to be whether the president takes those advantages that he has and begins to do something in a systematic, deliberate, disciplined way to begin to turn those numbers around. First of all, he is president. And as a result, he gets to control the dialog. And for example, if the president puts his shoulder strongly behind passing a police reform bill and it gets done with Republicans and Democrats working together, that works to his advantage because he is the guy in charge.”
“He maintains a strong lead on jobs in the economy,” he continued. “Even in these polls showing him behind Biden, people say they believe that Donald Trump is better able to restore the economy than is Joe Biden, and that’s going to be a big issue between now and the Election Day. And then finally, the president has the ability, if he focuses on it, and we will see tomorrow night if he is going to begin to do this, to set up contrast between what he wants to do and what Joe Biden wants to do, and he has the ability to exploit Biden weaknesses — go with things that Biden has said or done that are problems.”
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