"This crisis completely changes the presidential race overwhelmingly in Trump’s favor," Dick Morris, who was Clinton’s political adviser and later campaign manager, told radio show host John Catsimatidis on Sunday.
"There is no more oxygen left in the room for Joe Biden. ... He can’t say anything. He can’t campaign. He can’t attack Trump. He can’t talk about [the coronavirus]. There is nothing left for him to say," he added. "Biden is kind of an afterthought. He’s almost in the history books."
Biden, who is likely to win the Democratic presidential nomination, and his rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have been sidelined from campaigning across the country because of the pandemic. Trump has also canceled campaign events, but the White House has held daily news briefings on the crisis.
Morris argued Hurricane Sandy had a similar effect on President Barack Obama’s reelection and other policy issues that could derail Trump’s chances of keeping the White House have been brushed under the rug as the coronavirus pandemic takes precedence.
"There are no other issues anymore in America. Nobody’s thinking about immigration, or income inequality, or climate change," he said. "All Trump has to do now is be a good president. ... Ride out this epidemic. Succeed in containing it, and he’s home free."
Morris has previously been critical of Biden’s chances of winning the White House, questioning his mental acuity.
"I don’t think that Biden has much of a chance of defeating Trump. I think that Biden is a very fragile candidate," he said earlier this month. "Biden should be required to have a test for Alzheimer’s disease. We can’t elect a president who has that deterioration of the brain setting in at the start of his term."