Four years ago, less than a week before the 2016 presidential election, George Korda told the Rotary Club of Farragut that the polls showed Hillary Clinton with a comfortable lead over Donald Trump in the popular vote and Electoral College (the only one that matters). But Korda thought Trump had a better chance to turn blue states into red states than Clinton had to turn red states into blue states. He was right.
Is this going to be “déjà vu all over again?”
Trump did win the Electoral College in 2016 and yesterday, six days before the 2020 election, Korda again spoke to Farragut Rotarians. “We may see history repeat itself Tuesday. I just don’t trust these polls showing Joe Biden ahead by so much. I think Trump is doing better in the blue states than the polls say and he may well get more Latino and African-American votes than in 2016.”
To that he added, “I also don’t think people and average Americans blame Trump for COVID-19. If you go down that road then you have to blame the leaders of Great Britain, Italy, France, Germany and all countries for the virus.”
The only issue in this election is Trump. “The Democrats are not enthused about Biden. They really don’t care about Biden or the issues. It’s all about Trump and just beating him because they hate him so much.”
Here are other points he made:
- Democrats are keeping Biden out of sight now to protect him from making any statements that could call into question his cognitive abilities. “He does not want to answer any questions about his son’s dealings in China. He said no comment and that is not saying it didn’t happen. His camp is terrified of him saying something bizarre.”
- “Russia, China, Covid, Trump or Biden are not the biggest threats to our country. The national debt we have now of $27 trillion is the biggest threat and no one is mentioning it. We will have to repay it. The problems that will create are monumental.”
- One of the worst things happening now is what this election has done to the news media. “A lot of big news we don’t know about is because this is all they cover. CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times and Washington Post and the networks – all they want to cover is what they think is negative for Trump and anything that is remotely positive they ignore. For example, except for FOX. they all ignored Monday night’s historic swearing in of a woman to the Supreme Court. The media say they are for diversity – but not diversity of thought. The media are killing themselves over Trump.”
“If Trump wins, much of the media would have lost all credibility and they will become irrelevant. The average America knows that the media are out to get Trump and that’s all they care about.”
To explore membership in the Rotary Club of Farragut, email tking535@gmail.com or call 865-659-3562. Tom King has served at newspapers in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and California and has been the editor of two newspapers.