By Dave Andrusko
There is a lot to get to, so let’s get to it.
Pro-abortion Vice President Kamala Harris’s margin in the national vote over former President Donald Trump has dropped to 0.6, according to Real Clear Politics. In 2020, President Joe Bidan had a whopping 8 point lead on this day and in 2026 Hillary Clinton led Trump by 5.9 on October 23.
On the crucial seven battleground states, Trump’s margin has inched up to 1.2.
Writing for the Washington Examiner, columnist Byron York talks about the paradox of the attacks on Trump:
It’s hard to measure the intensity of negative media coverage of former President Donald Trump, but it’s safe to say it is rising as Election Day approaches. What’s interesting to note is that in the face of unrelentingly negative coverage, at a high level now but negative for a long time, the public views Trump more favorably than it has since he entered politics.
Really?
[W]hat is extraordinary is Trump’s ability to improve his favorability rating in the face of relentlessly hostile media coverage. In August, at the end of Harris’s first month of campaigning, the conservative Media Research Center found that Harris’s media coverage had been 84% positive, higher than any other major-party nominee ever, while Trump’s media coverage was 89% negative. Against a headwind like that, Trump’s improvement in favorability is remarkable.
So, is there a cause and effect here? It’s entirely possible that wildly negative media coverage is actually causing many people to view Trump more favorably. After all, the media are some of the least-trusted institutions in public life, and if top media figures say something, millions of people are likely to think the opposite. It’s hard to see Trump-bashing as helping Trump, but that might be what is going on.
National Review Online’s Dan McLaughlin talks about the devastating ads the Trump campaign has run…and run…and run. The ads point to the positions Harris ran on in the 2020 presidential primary.
McLaughlin writes,
“It’s hard to believe but it’s true. Even the liberal media was shocked,” the ad intones, running through confirmations from CNN, ABC, PBS and the New York Times. Even Politifact grudgingly rated the claim “Mostly True.”
Between the Trump campaign and an outside super PAC, this and similar ads ran over 60,000 times in the first two weeks of October, at a cost of more than $20 million.
Of course, the Harris campaign cries foul. This from a woman who has accused Trump of being guilty of everything but the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby.
Trump is guilty of (in no particular order) of being a “fascist,” “cruel,” “increasingly unstable and unhinged,” “unstable,” etc., etc., etc.
For good measure “The Harris campaign debuted a digital ad this month slamming GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance as ‘extremist’ and warning he ‘could be a heartbeat away from the presidency if Trump wins,’ the first time the Democratic ticket has gone after Trump for his age in paid media,” according to Monica Alba of NBC News.
Why is Harris on the attack against Trump is such personal terms? CNN’s Harry Enten explains
Trump’s more popular at this point in this campaign than at this point in either his 2016 or 2020 bids. Harris’s popularity rise, on the other hand, has crested, and she’s fallen back (barely) into net negative favorability territory.
Of course, Trump is legendary for giving as good as he gets. The last couple of weeks will not be an exercise in restraint.
More tomorrow.
