(CNN) President Donald Trump's relentless effort to undermine Joe Biden as "Sleepy Joe" backfired this week when the former vice president delivered a forceful speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination. Now the pressure is on the President to right his own campaign as he heads into the Republican National Convention next week.
Trump, a former television producer and the ultimate showman, is heavily involved in the planning for the four-day extravaganza that will give him an opportunity for a reset. He is aiming to create a more dynamic program than the Democrats with more live programming and audience interaction to lift his poll numbers.
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Over the course of the summer, Trump has fallen behind Biden in national polls amid voters' disapproval of the President's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the protests against police brutality and systematic racism following the death of George Floyd. He must now match Biden's well-received appearance and try to generate excitement for his reelection campaign at a time when many Americans are rightly focused on the pandemic.
Looking to bolster his image before a consortium of conservative groups Friday morning, Trump once again compared himself to Abraham Lincoln and refuted the efforts by Democrats to portray him as a leader who has shirked responsibility for fighting the virus while deepening the polarization in this country with his race-baiting campaign.
Democrats "held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history," he said with no note of irony, even though it is he who has accused them of sowing chaos and disorder in the nation's streets as part of "a merciless campaign to wipe out our history" and "erase our values."
"They spent four straight days attacking America as racist and a horrible country that must be redeemed," Trump continued, rejecting Biden's argument that the President has plunged the country into "a season of American darkness" and that he hoped to lead the country back into the light.
"It was the most successful period of time in the history of our country, from every standard," Trump said of his presidency. "Look what we've accomplished."
Alluding to the promising signs of economic recovery -- from record retail sales to the performance of the stock market -- he said the economy is "shooting up" into a "super V" and Democrats are "probably not happy about it," he said.
"Where Joe Biden sees American darkness, I see American greatness," Trump said in remarks that foreshadowed the GOP message at the convention next week. "We've seen heroic doctors and nurses racing into action to save lives. We've seen first responders helping strangers in need. We've seen the passage of historic legislation to save 50 million American jobs."
The pandemic has now claimed more than 175,000 lives, cast countless Americans from their jobs and created havoc in the nation's school systems as Trump has pushed children to return to in-person instruction despite the risks.
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But the President took credit Friday for having built "military hospitals from scratch" and "produced lifesaving therapies" and said the nation is "on track to develop the most incredible -- from a standpoint of time, record time -- vaccines."
In a round of television appearances earlier on Friday, Vice President Mike Pence said he hoped the United States would have one or more coronavirus vaccines by the end of the year, despite intense skepticism from medical experts that a vaccine can be produced safely within that short amount of time. Pence appeared to admit he was wrong when he suggested in June there "isn't a coronavirus second wave," saying that "things changed."
Even if the administration pulls off some kind of October surprise, in the form of a vaccine or treatment for Covid-19, Republicans have a tall task ahead of them next week as they try to convince wavering voters that the pandemic is under control and that Trump is focused on their concerns -- rather than his political prospects.
As Democrats hammered their anti-Trump message during a convention that they said drew 122 million live viewers as they raised $70 million, the White House has been contending with a series of scandals this week.
Joining a long line of Trump advisers ensnared by the law, the President's former strategist Steve Bannon was charged with defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars that were supposed to be directed to a fundraising campaign known as We Build the Wall that was aimed at building a section of Trump's border wall.
Bannon called the charges by New York federal prosecutors "a political hit job."
At the same time, the White House has been trying to regroup after a national backlash to the administration's effort to undermine the post office in the lead-up to a national election where many voters intend to vote by mail to limit their exposure to Covid-19.
As he was being grilled by lawmakers at a Senate hearing Friday, Trump's new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, insisted that his recent changes to postal operations -- including the removal of automated sorting machines -- were not intended to help Republicans in November.
DeJoy also said that he supports mail-in voting, despite the President's effort to convince Americans that the practice is rife with corruption. CNN has found no evidence to support Trump's claim that there has been widespread fraud when Americans vote that way.
DeJoy, a big Trump fundraiser and GOP donor, told senators that he was "extremely, highly confident" that all ballots sent seven days before the election would be received on time.
"I promise you, we are not making any changes until after the election," he said during the hearing, adding that changes under his watch were intended to make sure Americans get "their mail faster."
And Trump is facing a new level of legal pressure with a federal appeals court opening the possibility Friday night that a grand jury could get his accounting records if Trump doesn't secure Supreme Court help or a lifeline from prosecutors.
Republicans other than the President have also been scrambling this week to distance themselves from the dangerous conspiracy theory known as QAnon after Trump seemed to praise the theory's followers earlier this week. The affinity of QAnon followers for Trump drew fresh scrutiny after the Georgia primary victory of Marjorie Taylor Greene, whom Trump congratulated.
During an appearance on CNN's "New Day" Friday, Pence said he doesn't "know anything" about the people involved in QAnon, a conspiracy theory that the FBI has labeled a potential domestic terrorist threat.
"I called it a conspiracy theory, I said I don't have time for it, I don't know anything about it," Pence said when pressed by CNN's John Berman to disavow it.
Among the theories embraced by QAnon is the wild and baseless idea that there is a high-level government official known as "Q" who leaves clues on the internet about a "deep state" conspiracy. Previous presidents, QAnon followers believe, were part of a criminal enterprise, and they say that Trump is the emissary allied with the military who will root out that corruption.
Like Pence, Trump said during a White House briefing Wednesday that he didn't know anything about the theories embraced by QAnon followers.
"I've heard these are people that love our country," Trump said. "So I don't know, really, anything about it other than they do, supposedly, like me."
Trump's decision to embrace fringe groups has long posed risks, but never more so than at a time in his reelection campaign when he must convince middle-of-the-road voters that he shares their values. Next week's convention may be his best shot to persuade them that he deserves a second term.