SUNBELT COVID & POLLING THREAD: @ProjectLincoln .
@realDonaldTrump's incompetence has failed us. After 5 months, rather than lead, he is ignoring his CDC’s instructions - pressuring Republican governors to follow him - he’s still not implementing a nat'l strategy...

And he is attacking the top infectious disease expert in the country. He is doing all of this to deflect from his ineptitude to handle a crisis that every other industrialized nation in the world has curved downward.

We STILL do not have enough tests, contrary to what the president claims. People wait days to get tested, and the average wait for test results is one to two weeks. Trump is sitting on $14 billion of unused congressionally-appropriated Covid funds…

Trump hasn't used the Defense Production Act to ramp up tests, or to fill the PPE and mask shortage, or to create a federal system of contact tracing. We don't have a fed mask reqr - even tho a nat'l mask mandate could save us 5% GDP while saving 33,000 lives in the next 3 months

But Donald Trump lacks the mental capacity to understand any of the economic ties between people dying and a flailing economy.

Weeks and months of denial and delayed action has led to horrendous conditions in the Sunbelt.

Cases spiking in Arizona, Texas, and Florida:

FL:
•FL broke NY’s record for new daily covid cases, logging 15,000 new infections in a single day, & over 12k new cases again yesterday
•98% of ICU beds in Miami-Dade County are occupied
•18.7% positive test rate for the state. & only 3% of cases are being contact traced

AZ:
•Positive test rate at 26.2%. 90% ICU beds in use. Last 3 weeks cases inc 127% & tests inc 63%
•New daily cases have exceeded NY’s, norm by population
•136 residents in Pima County long-term care facilities have died of covid, 50% of county’s deaths
•2% of cases traced

TX:
•Dallas County, 80% of hospitalizations have been essential workers. 60% of Covid cases among Latinos
•Rate of TX deaths has been accelerating. Took 24 days for TX to go from 2k deaths to 3k. Morgues are filling up, & Austin, Travis, Cameron, & Hidalgo counties are now...

Bringing in refrigerated trucks to store bodies. 40% of TX deaths were residents of long-term care
•Spike in people dying at home in Houston - just like what happened in NY - suggests virus might be worse than originally reported
•15.9% positive test rate. 6% of cases traced

Polling Updates:
TX:
•DMN/UT-T poll has Biden leading 46-41 over Trump - 9% of GOP backing Biden. 38% approve of Trump’s Covid response, w/52% disapproving. In April, 43% approved & 44% disapproved. 18% of Republicans disapprove of Trump’s Covid response.

CBS/YouGov's poll in TX shows Biden leads among women by 5 pts. 60% Hispanic voters back Biden. 62% of Texans say Covid response is going badly.

•RCP shows Biden & Trump tied 46-46. Biden leads women by 8 pts. 70% AZ Hispanic voters back Biden -- more than backed Clinton

69% of AZ voters say Covid response is going badly. Ducey’s approval: 62% disapprove 38% approve

FL:
•Biden leads Trump 48-42. Biden has cut Trump’s 17 pt lead among seniors in half from 2016 -Trump now leads by 8 pts. Biden leads among women by 13 pts -up from Clinton’s 4 pts

Biden’s support in particular among white women and white women with a college degree has significantly increased. 6 in 10 Hispanic voters back Biden. 65% of Floridians say Covid response is going badly.

We are still in the 1st wave. We are experiencing a surge b/c of his incompetence. But what happens when fall comes & a 2nd wave hits? Trump has given every sign that he will continue to act irrationally- simply to make it appear as though the economy is getting back on track.

Trump is failing to fix the one thing that would have made for a quick economic recovery. And he is willing to pile thousands more American bodies on the 135,000 mound of American bodies if it means he gets reelected. #AmericaOrTrump