Joe Biden’s campaign manager warns ‘Donald Trump can still win’ the election and cautions against complacency because numbers favoring the Democrat are 'inflated'
Joe Biden's campaign manager has warned supporters against complacency, adding President Trump 'can still win this race' and that recent national polls showing the candidate leading by double digits are 'inflated.'
In a memo obtained by Washington Post and Fox News, Campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon told supporters they shouldn't count Trump out of the race just yet.
'We cannot become complacent because the very searing truth is that Donald Trump can still win this race,' Dillon wrote. 'And every indication we have shows that this thing is going to come down to the wire.'
She added the contentious race between Biden and Trump was 'neck and neck' - despite recent polling numbers that favored Biden.
Campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon warned supporters to not 'become complacent' ahead of the November election, per a memo
Dillon added that the election race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was 'neck and neck'
The election race, Dillon said, was 'far closer than some of the punditry we’re seeing on Twitter and on TV would suggest.'
'While we see robust leads at the national level, in the states we’re counting on to carry us to victory like Arizona and North Carolina we’re only up by three points.
'We also know that even the best polling can be wrong, and that variables like turnout mean that in a number of critical states we are functionally tied — and that we need to campaign like we’re trailing.'
National polls released this week by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist and NBC News/Wall Street Journal show Biden leading Republican President Donald Trump by 11 percent.
But Dillon pointed out that polls dismissed Trump during the 2016 election, which he won with the Electoral College while losing the popular vote.
'If we learned anything from 2016, it’s that we cannot underestimate Donald Trump or his ability to claw his way back into contention in the final days of a campaign, through whatever smears or underhanded tactics he has at his disposal,' she wrote.
Dillon issued an additional warning in an online campaign event on Friday, saying 'please take into the fact that we are not ahead by double digits,' according to New York Times reporter Shane Goldmacher.
'Those are inflated national public polling numbers,' Dillon added during the livestreamed 'Grassroots Summit,' video of which the campaign did not leave online.
Campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon issued the warning in online campaign event on Friday, saying 'please take into the fact that we are not ahead by double digits'
During the event, Dillion predicted that Biden would win Arizona in the November 3 election, even though the state has not voted for a Democrat since Bill Clinton won the state in 1996.
'I know we're going to win Arizona,' Dillon said, according to Goldmacher.
The memo noted Biden's financial advantage over Trump, the 3,500 staffers serving in battleground states and the 'largest and best-resourced vote protection program in history,' per Fox News.
The Biden campaign has created 17-state voter hotlines and has 'thousands of lawyers and volunteers' focused on voter protection.
Dillon predicted that the Biden campaign will raise another $234 million through the election, adding to a war chest that is already larger than Trump's.
If the Biden campaign surpasses that amount, they can push more funding toward efforts in conservative-leaning Texas.
Trump's campaign, along with the Republican National Committee and associated groups, raised $247.8 million in September, well short of the $383 million raised by Biden and the Democratic National Committee in the same period.
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh tweeted that the campaign had $251.4 million on hand at the end of September, compared with $432 million for Biden.
The president's campaign was betting on a well-stocked bank account to blanket airwaves and online with Trump ads. But last week he was outspent on advertising by Biden by more than $10 million, according to the ad tracking firm Kantar/CMAG.
'President Trump hits final stretch with strength, resources, record & huge ground game needed to spread message and secure re-election,' Murtaugh tweeted.
'I know we're going to win Arizona,' Dillon said during the online fundraising event
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh tweeted that the Trump effort had $251.4 million on hand at the end of September, compared with $432 million for Biden
Biden's fundraising benefited from a boost in donor enthusiasm following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Trump's widely panned performance in the first presidential debate.
This week, Republican Senator Graham, a close Trump ally from South Carolina, expressed worries that Trump could lose the election.
'Y'all have a good chance of winning the White House,' Graham told Democratic colleagues during hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court
Senate Republicans are also battling to keep their 53-47 majority in the election.
Recent polling shows Democratic challenger Mark Kelly pulling far ahead of Republican incumbent Martha McSally in Arizona, one of 10 states where Republican incumbents are vulnerable to being unseated.