Is Trump an underdog? And how likely is another stimulus? Blunt shares views on CBS
Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt said it was “hard to tell” whether President Donald Trump is a net underdog or favorite in the upcoming election against Joe Biden — one of many topics he discussed in a podcast interview with CBS’s Major Garrett posted Friday.
Blunt said part of the reason it is difficult to handicap the presidential race is his belief that Trump “under-polls pretty dramatically.”
Trump, who took the 2016 election over Hillary Clinton without winning the popular vote, is currently 10.5 points behind Biden in FiveThirtyEight’s latest national polling average.
“I do know that in the world we live in right now, an awful lot can happen in 20 days or so,” Blunt said, “and that’s how much time we have left.”
Blunt spent much of his time discussing Amy Coney Barrett’s likely nomination to the Supreme Court. Garrett asked Blunt about Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who earlier in the podcast relayed concerns that Barrett would be part of future votes to repeal Roe v. Wade, the Affordable Care Act and the legalization of gay marriage.
“I can’t imagine that’s true,” Blunt said. “I’d certainly be glad to take some money from Chris Murphy on those three things, the trifecta.”
Blunt called Barrett both a “great person” and also a “fine judge.” He also dismissed any insinuations that she had pre-ruled on cases she might see in the future.
“I think she’s going to look at the case, look at the law, look at the Constitution and make a good decision,” Blunt said.
Blunt later revealed his frustration that another COVID-19 relief bill had not been passed, saying he’d be in favor of revisiting that before the election, even if a deal would be difficult in that short amount of time.
“I think it’s a big failure of the Congress,” Blunt said. “There’s been largely agreement on the trillion dollars of this that’s truly COVID relief, then some disagreement on the next amount of money that’s the state and local money, and lots of disagreement on the trillion dollars in the House bill that had nothing to do with the COVID issue, but just a chance to pass a trillion-dollars’ worth of things that you’d wanted to do for a long time.”
Blunt said he believed a majority of Senate Republicans would vote for a $1 trillion bill for COVID relief, but likely not one that was for $2 trillion.
