President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in North Carolina | FULL, 9/8/2020

President Donald Trump on Tuesday lamented that he was "sailing" to reelection prior to the coronavirus pandemic, asking a crowd of supporters in North Carolina whether they thought China allowed the virus to spread "on purpose." "How are we doing with China? We just have the plague. We've had other plagues sent by them. I wonder if they did it on purpose. What do you think?" Trump said in Winston-Salem, amplifying the unproven idea that China intentionally allowed COVID-19 to spread to the rest of the world. "I’ve got to tell you, I was sailing to an easy election. This was going to be so easy," Trump continued. "I probably would’ve not been here tonight. I would’ve said, ‘No we don’t have to bother.' Now we have to work against a guy that doesn’t know where he is. I can’t believe it." The president has previously questioned the source of the coronavirus outbreak in China and mused about how certain parts of the country were not as intensely impacted by COVID-19 as the rest of the world. But he made a clear connection at Tuesday's rally between the onset of the virus and his political fortunes. Trump appeared well positioned for re-election in February and early March as the economy remained strong and the Democratic Party had yet to coalesce around a nominee for president. But the U.S. struggled to get a handle on the pandemic, which Trump frequently downplayed for weeks as cases mounted. You can read more here: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign...