President Barack Obama canceled planned political events for Thursday, amid rising public concern about his handling of the expanding Ebola crisis.
Obama had planned to give a populist economic speech midday in Providence, R.I., at Rhode Island College.
Instead, he’ll remain at the White House and likely stage a brief press event to show him working hard on the Ebola crisis.
Officials have promised more aggressive action on the crisis, but deputies and the president are still trying to keep up with changing knowledge about the disease.
Public confidence in his handling of the crisis has been hit hard, partly because of his decision to allow free entry of people from the afflicted countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. On Sept. 20, a Liberian disease-carrier walked through U.S. customs, flew down to Dallas and infected at least two Americans. with the deadly disease.
An early October poll showed that 67 percent of Americans want to exclude travelers from the disease countries, but Obama and his progressive aides oppose restrictions on foreigners.
Democrats are pushing back, by trying to portray public concern as a partisan complaint by GOP supporters.
“Americans’ confidence in response to Ebola driven by partisanship,” said a Thursday tweet from Democratic consultant, Paul Begala.
Begala’s tweet linked to a New York Times article, which said that “only 54 percent of Republicans are confident in the federal government’s ability to respond effectively to Ebola — far fewer than the 76 percent of Democrats who expressed confidence.”
But the concern about Ebola is bipartisan.
A growing number of Democratic and Republican politicians are calling for a travel ban.
They include liberal Rep. Alan Grayson and conservative Rep. Steve King, House Speaker John Boehner and independent Senate candidate, Greg Orman.