As former Vice President Joe Biden’s (D) lead over President Donald Trump continues to expand, some are questioning whether the current occupant of the White House really wants another four years.
In an interview with RealClearPolitics that was published on Wednesday, Trump left little doubt about his goals.
“I want it with all my breath,” Trump said when asked about the rumors that he does not want to win another term. He added that he wants to win “with every ounce of what I represent.”
However, he acknowledged that the dynamics of the race have shifted dramatically since COVID-19 began spreading around the world earlier this year.
“This was going to be a blowout, and then China hit us with the ‘China virus,’ and all of a sudden, it discombobulated this country and the entire world,” Trump said. “Now, it’s a much closer situation.”
Despite the electoral landscape, with several polls show him trailing Biden in almost every swing state, Trump is not ruling out a win in November.
“We were sailing to an easy victory. Now, I have to fight for the victory, but I’ve been fighting all my life. That’s what I do. I fight for victory,” Trump said.
Late last month, Fox News’ Charlie Gasparino reported that some Republican operatives are predicting that Trump may drop out of the 2020 presidential race if his electoral prospects do not improve.
BREAKING— (thread)GOP operatives are for the first time raising the possibility that @realDonaldTrump could drop out of the race if his poll numbers don’t rebound. Over the weekend I spoke to a sample of major players; one described Trumps current psyche as “fragile.” I’m
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) June 28, 2020
https://twitter.com/CGasparino/status/1277280835499184130
However, Trump’s re-election campaign flatly rejected that idea. The campaign’s spokesman Tim Murtaugh called that notion the “granddaddy of fake news.”
“Everyone knows that media polling has always been wrong about President Trump – they undersample Republicans and don’t screen for likely voters – in order to set false narratives. It won’t work. There was similar fretting in 2016, and if it had been accurate, Hillary Clinton would be in the White House right now,” he added.
Despite the recent spate of bad polls for the president, Trump’s allies believe that there is time for him to turn things around and win the election. And some Trump supports have voiced skepticism in the accuracy of the polls and have argued that the race is closer than the polls appear to show.
Currently, an average of polls by RealClearPolitics finds that Biden holds an 8.7% lead over Trump.