The Note: Trump cedes ground across the board to Biden
Trump and Biden are at near-parity over who can better handle the economy.
The TAKE with Rick Klein
President Donald Trump and his campaign keep promising to define former Vice President Joe Biden.
But events are defining Trump -- and continuing to dictate a presidential race that is tipping in Biden's direction.
The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll shows the extent to which Trump has lost ground to Biden in what should be -- or what could have been -- areas of core strength for the president. Biden has a 15-point polling edge overall against Trump, and a 10-point lead among likely voters, gaps that align with a range of recent public polling.
Such advantages are powered in part by a 25-point Biden edge on handling race relations, a nine-point gap on crime and safety and a 20-point edge on trust in handling COVID-19. Trump and Biden are at near-parity on the question of who can better handle the economy.
Such perceptions make the president's legislative strategy particularly curious at this moment. Trump is maintaining his veto threat of the defense spending bill over language on bases named after Confederate generals, and his White House is pushing to end funding for federal coronavirus testing and contact tracing in the next COVID-19 bill.
"President Trump is trying to keep money away from the public health measures that we know will keep us and our families safe," Biden said in a statement Sunday.
Trump's interview on "Fox News Sunday" included some testy and downright strange exchanges. He even refused to back down from his infamous statement that COVID-19 would "disappear."
"I'll be right eventually," the president told Chris Wallace. "It's going to disappear and I'll be right."
For now, Trump appears to be running against a caricature of Biden that is not resonating with voters who know both men fairly well. Even that strategy, though, is based on a president who isn't particularly trusted at the moment being proven right.
The RUNDOWN with Alisa Wiersema
Against the backdrop of recent polls indicating a potentially favorable outcome for Biden come November, Trump -- in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" -- declined to give a direct answer as to whether he would accept the results of the election.
"I have to see. No, I'm not going to just say 'yes.' I'm not going to say 'no,' and I didn't last time either," Trump said in reference to a similar comment he made ahead of the 2016 election when he was asked if he would commit to the American principle of a peaceful transition of power.
The president also hedged in saying whether he considers himself to be gracious in situations where he doesn't come out on top, and instead, took a swipe at mail voting.
"You don't know until you see. It depends. I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election. I really do," Trump alleged, without citing any proof of his claims.
The president's comment escalates his ongoing rhetoric against a practice that states are already implementing under ongoing pandemic conditions. With election experts already sounding the alarm for a potential constitutional crisis on the horizon in November, Trump's claims likely add another layer to their concerns. After all, the office of the president isn't the only position on the ballot this fall -- other candidates down ballot could also follow suit by potentially challenging the outcome of contests across the country.
Just over 100 days away from the election, the Biden campaign is drawing a line in the sand.
"The American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House," a Biden campaign spokesperson said in a statement.
The TIP with Averi Harper
As the Biden campaign eyes an early August announcement of his pick for vice president, the death of congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis adds to the mounting pressure for Biden to pick a Black woman as his running mate.
After all, it is Lewis' decades-long fight for equality and his bloodshed as a freedom fighter walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, that helped pave the way for the women of color on the shortlist to be considered for high office.
In interviews on ABC's "This Week," Reps. Val Demings and Karen Bass talked about Lewis' impact. Demings recalled being in awe of him during her 1960s upbringing in the segregated South and later as she served in the House of Representatives alongside him. And Bass called for his legacy to be honored by approving the Voting Rights Advancement Act, after the Supreme Court overturned a central part of the original 1965 Voting Rights Act in 2013.
"Because of John Lewis dedicating his life to social justice and righting wrongs and making sure that we see more firsts in this country … we owe him a debt of gratitude," Demings said Sunday.
Lewis' death and the aftermath of Black Lives Matter protests nationwide serve as a reminder that the work Lewis dedicated much of his life to remains unfinished. As Biden pledges to "restore the soul" of America, many are counting on him to select a VP who, if elected, is prepared to address and offer solutions to issues of racial inequity and systemic racism on day one.
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News' "Start Here" podcast. Monday morning's episode features ABC News' Trish Turner, who tells how there could be a clash between Senate Republicans and the White House over coronavirus testing this week as Congress returns to Washington. ABC News' Molly Nagle and Will Steakin talk us through the latest polling around the presidential race. And, Allison Mechanic from ABC affiliate KATU joins us from Portland to explain why some say federal law enforcement is overstepping when it comes to dealing with protesters. http://apple.co/2HPocUL
FiveThirtyEight's Politics Podcast. In recent weeks, public opinion on Black Lives Matter has swung significantly in favor of the movement, and people are taking the view that Black people face discrimination in America. But is there public support for policies that could address that discrimination? In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, Perry Bacon Jr. and political science professor Meredith Conroy discuss what the polls can tell us. https://53eig.ht/2M0rQx6
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