"We are not going to control the pandemic," Meadows told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" Sunday, arguing that "proper mitigation factors" like therapies and vaccines should be the priority.
The window into the administration's thinking came as Trump spent the weekend constructing a giant confidence trick for voters, declaring the country was "rounding the corner beautifully" in the battle against Covid-19.
The latest signs that Trump is putting his political priorities ahead of his duty of care to the American people come as the President plans a frantic week of packed rallies that flout good social distancing practice.
View Trump and Biden head-to-head pollingBut the weekend of grim health data and controversy means the climax of the campaign will be overshadowed by the pandemic — a tough reality for Trump since 60% of Americans in a recent CNN Poll disapproved of his crisis management. The President has all along downplayed the threat from the virus. He mocked mask wearing, turning the practice into a culture war issue, and pressured Republican governors to open their states before the virus was under control, helping to unleash a wave of infections in the Sun Belt during the summer. As a result, his handling of the pandemic is a central campaign issue, and his behavior in recent days signals there will be no change to the White House's approach to the pandemic if he wins the election -- no matter how bad the virus gets this winter.The final week of the campaign opens with Trump trailing Biden in national popular vote polls by 9 or 10 points and by smaller margins in many of the states that will decide the election on November 3. If the polling is accurate, Trump does have a narrow path to reelection but will need to make good on his vow to massively expand his political base with new conservative voters, and he will have to almost run the table in competitive states.Remarkably, more than 58 million Americans have cast early ballots, surpassing all early voting in the 2016 election, meaning that it will be more difficult for either candidate to shake up the dynamics of the race at the last minute. Biden appears to have more routes to the 270 electoral votes needed for victory, but Democrats are nervous after a late surge by Trump in 2016 carried him to a shock victory over Hillary Clinton."I'm one of those folks, or competitors, it's not over till the bell rings. And I feel superstitious when I predict anything other than going to be a hard fight," Biden said in an interview aired on CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday when asked whether Trump could still defeat him. "We feel good about where we are. But, you know, I don't underestimate how he plays."Meadows sends shock waves through Washington
The extent to which the White House has all but given up fighting the pandemic -- for instance, public briefings by top government scientists have disappeared -- was made clear by Meadows.
The issue with his comments is that a vaccine, even if it is...Read the Original Article on Source Page
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