Current State Of The Presidential Race Favors Trump

Less than a week after surviving an attempted assassination, former President Donald Trump will accept the GOP nomination for president Thursday evening, as Republicans enthusiastically unite behind the man they’re confident will win the White House in November. By contrast, President Joe Biden, sick with COVID-19, has paused his campaigning and faces increasing calls from top Democrats to withdraw from the race altogether.

The respective conditions of the two campaigns, at least in perception, if not reality, could not be more opposite at the moment. Biden is in isolation and losing support, and Trump is in the spotlight and gaining confidence.

Trump has been able to stand back and comfortably take in all the accolades from his supporters at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, including from his selection for Vice President, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, Wednesday night.

"For the last eight years," Vance told cheering delegates, "President Trump has given everything he has to fight for the people of our country, he didn't need politics, but the country needed him."

Trump will take the stage Thursday night for the first time since his close call with a would-be assassin's bullets last weekend, an experience that he says caused him to rewrite and soften his acceptance speech.

Some delegates in attendance believe the party needs to be more welcoming and inclusive.

"I would like to see a kinder, gentler Trump," North Carolina alternate delegate Marie Taylor told CBS News. "I want to make sure that he has taken a moment to realize the magnitude of the event he went through on Saturday."

The Biden-Harris campaign, meanwhile, is missing President Biden, who removed himself to his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware yesterday after testing positive for Covid. His doctors say he's experiencing mild, cold-like symptoms.

The pressure on Biden to withdraw from the race went up another notch today as reports emerged that former President Obama has privately expressed concern to other Democrats about Biden's ability to beat Trump. This comes on top of revelations that both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeen Jeffries both separately told Biden his continued presence on the ticket jeopardizes the ability of Democrats to win back the House and hold the Senate.

So far, the President and his campaign leaders insist the 81-year-old is in it to win it.

"Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not the top of the ticket," said Quentin Fulks, Principal Deputy Campaign Manager. "He is and will be the Democratic nominee."