Most Americans see Trump as a coronavirus super-spreader and dishonest about Covid, poll finds

Clear majorities of American voters believe Donald Trump has “personally” exposed others to the coronavirus and was not straight with the country about the virus back in February.

Sixty-four percent of respondents say the president is directly responsible for others contracting the respiratory disease, according to a JL Partners-Independent survey.

The same poll found Mr Trump has a credibility problem with many Americans on his handling for the virus. Thirty-two per cent of respondents agreed when asked if they believe the president was honest earlier this year; 44 per cent disagreed.

The president has dismissed the virus publicly since February, and continues to do so at official events and campaign rallies – even as cases and hospitalisations are spiking anew and over 220,000 Americans have died.

“We are rounding the turn,” Mr Trump said of the pandemic at a campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona on Monday.

“We have the vaccines coming ... but even without, we're rounding the turn,” he said to loud cheers. “People are pandemic’d out. You know that: they're pandemic’d out.”

Multiple national and battleground state polls, however, suggest Americans are concerned about the virus’s new spread in many states – even as they head back to stadiums, bars, restaurants and other public settings.

Voters appear concerned by the president’s judgement after he hosted an indoor-and-outdoor event on 26 September honouring Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. That event is believed to be the one that led Mr Trump, First Lady Melania Trump and other White House and Republican officials to contract the sometimes-deadly virus.

It landed Mr Trump in Walter Reed military hospital for parts of four days, and he was given an experimental – and pricey – cocktail of antibodies and powerful steroids.

They also appear to believe it was Mr Trump’s voice on recordings made throughout the year, as far back as February, by journalist Bob Woodward that captured the president admitting coronavirus was highly contagious and deadly – at a time he was telling the American people it was far less severe.

"This is deadly stuff," Mr Trump told the Washington Post journalist on 7 February.

“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” the president added during the phone call. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.”

Though Mr Trump has since falsely claimed he “up-played” the virus’s threat publicly, he has confirmed at a White House briefing what he told Mr Woodward.

“If you said in order to reduce panic, maybe that’s so,” the president said on 9 September when asked about comments he made to Woodward for his latest book. “It’s just another political hit job.”

Mr Trump told reporters that day he told Woodward one thing and the American people another because being honest in public would mean “you’re going to have bigger problems.”

“I don’t want people to be frightened,” he said. “We want to show confidence, we want to show strength.”

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