WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's re-election campaign urged surrogates in a call Wednesday to capitalize on the coronavirus pandemic to attack his rival Joe Biden and other Democrats as "the opposition" in Trump's war against the outbreak, according to a person who participated in the call.

"This is the bottom line: President Trump is leading the nation in this war against the coronavirus, and Joe Biden, the Democrats and the media have decided to be the opposition in that war," Tim Murtaugh, the campaign's director of communications, said in a phone conversation with surrogates, according to the source.

Campaigning ahead of the November election has ground to a halt as the nation grapples with a pandemic that the White House estimates could kill more than 100,000 Americans in the coming weeks. The call with Trump's campaign officials provides an insight into how the campaign continues to operate in the background.

Other officials on the call, including campaign manager Brad Parscale and senior adviser Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law, pointed to the increase in the number of Americans watching the news and encouraged surrogates to capitalize on the attention not to bolster Trump's handling of the pandemic but to attack Biden.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-campaign-tells-surrogates-paint-biden-opposition-coronavirus-war-n1174506

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-campaign-tells-surrogates-paint-biden-opposition-coronavirus-war-n1174506