Biden maintains polling lead over Trump with five days until Election Day

The Covid-19 crisis, which gripped the U.S. early in the year and has yet to loosen up, remains a central issue in the election. More than 8.85 million cases, and at least 227,703 deaths, have been reported in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Trump has downplayed the threat of the virus, clashed with his own administration’s public health experts and declined to get personally involved in ongoing negotiations for additional government relief. He has hosted events at the White House and on the campaign trail that disregard guidelines on social distancing and other preventive measures, and he himself was hospitalized with the virus earlier this month.

His latest spate of rallies are marked by massive groups of supporters packed tightly together, many of whom refuse to wear masks. The events are being held even as the U.S. appears to be entering its third peak of rising Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations — a situation that his own experts, such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield, had warned about months earlier. But Trump, in his closing argument for reelection, has complained that the media is focusing too much on the pandemic, accusing them of pushing the issue for political purposes.

Early voting is at record levels, and there are fewer undecided voters left to court than in 2016. Huge numbers of people have registered to vote since the previous election, which Democrats believe helps their efforts.

Trump, however, has doubled down on unverified allegations of wrongdoing by Biden related to his son Hunter Biden. Trump hurled accusations about Biden and and his son in both of their debates, neither of which were followed by a boost in the polls for the president.

The issue might animate some of Trump’s supporters, but even some of the president’s allies in Congress are skeptical it will shift the race.

“I don’t think it moves a single voter,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Axios.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/29/biden-maintains-polling-lead-over-trump-with-five-days-left-to.html