Trump's Learning He Can't Have It Both Ways, Says UVA's Lawless LIVE

Trump's Learning He Can't Have It Both Ways, Says UVA's Lawless LIVE

University of Virginia Professor of Political Science Jennifer Lawless said that President Donald Trump is "learning he can't have it both ways" during the coronavirus crisis -- and said why she expects a major announcement from Joe Biden's campaign shortly. 

"I think in terms of the growing conflict with the states, the problem for Donald Trump is that he wants to take credit when the states see success, when the governors do something innovate or interesting, and he wants to distance himself when their cases continue to rise," she said. 

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"What he’s learning is he can’t have it both way, because this is not a war that he’s launching on Twitter, he’s launching this from the press room every day and he’s speaking to reporters and he’s being asked questions," she continued.

"So I think part of it is you can’t say you love Andrew Cuomo when [Cuomo] says that the federal government has been helpful — and that you hate him and think he’s an ineffective governor when he launches a critique — and that’s what we see Donald Trump struggling with every day," she said. 

"As far as the reporters themselves are concerned, he clearly misses political rallies because he has totally turned these White House briefings into a political rally," said Lawless. "The only difference with the exception of one or two reporters that thrown him softball questions, is it’s a pretty confrontational environment, and he’s not doing well in that environment."

Reopening Economies -- and Biden's Campaign

Lawless also spoke to the politics of states around the country deciding to reopen portions of the economy, as well as the optics of which big businesses have received government subsidies. 

“You can imagine Joe Biden and other Democrats are keeping track of every single one of these instances to demonstrate the administration is playing politics,” said Lawless, of the big corporations that have gotten government funds. 

Lawless spoke to Biden’s continued struggles communicating with voters — “from his basement.”

“There has to be a significant reorientation of how to communicate with people,” she said. 

“This crisis is sucking up a huge amount of the news and as a result in order to make news — if you’re not Donald Trump or if you’re not the coronavirus, you have to be doing something absolutely stunning or shocking and I think that’s why we’re going to see a Vice Presidential announcement sooner rather than later,” Lawless predicted.