White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended President Trump in response to a recent stretch of national and battleground-state polling that shows him down badly to Joe Biden, telling reporters at a briefing Thursday: "His historic COVID response speaks for itself."
Driving the news: Trump demoted campaign manager Brad Parscale and replaced him with his deputy, hours after a brutal new round of polls showed Trump losing five of six swing states — and sinking into a double-digit hole nationally.
- A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday found that 62% of registered voters say Trump is hurting efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, compared to 31% who say he's helping.
- The poll found Joe Biden with a 15% advantage nationally over Trump, widening his lead from last month by 7 points.
- In an NBC News/WSJ poll also out Wednesday, voters favored Biden over Trump 51% to 40%.
What she's saying: "We believe this president has great approval in this country. His historic COVID response speaks for itself, with delivering on ventilators and testing," McEnany said.
- "Leading the world in the amount of testing we've provided, therapeutics, 13 vaccine candidates, the Moderna example that I pointed out to you. This president's response has been historic and we believe his support in this country reflects that."
Go deeper: Trump's summer campaign shakeup shows he knows he's losing
