Six years later, Perdue, a first-term senator, is on the ballot again in Georgia -- and now is running on the same ticket as a President struggling to get control of a virus far more deadly to the country.

But Perdue has praised Donald Trump, even as the President has repeatedly downplayed the coronavirus, contended it would disappear, called on states to be "liberated" as they were trying to isolate from the virus, was late to embrace mask wearing and has falsely claimed that more testing is the lone reason for more cases.

"It's a totally different situation," Perdue told CNN last week when asked about his criticism of Obama in 2014.

Asked if he was concerned about Trump's handling of the crisis, Perdue said: "No, I think, given the uncertainty that we had at the very beginning, we've done everything we could. Right now he sees declaring Covid-19 as the enemy. We're not fighting among ourselves. We're all together: Democrats (and) Republicans should be fighting this virus."

Perdue's comments are a reflection of how GOP senators in difficult reelection races recognize that their fate is tied in large part to the President's standing heading into November. And with polls showing voters more concerned about the coronavirus than any other issue, Republicans need Trump to bolster his performance on the pandemic -- and have calculated that they must show solidarity with a President who deeply values loyalty in order to win over the GOP base.

In North Carolina, Trump has seen his standing erode -- he's down 7 points to former Vice President Joe Biden among registered voters in a new NBC News-Marist College poll and down 17 points to the presumptive Democratic nominee over the handling of the coronavirus. The same poll shows Republican Sen. Thom Tillis down 9 points against his challenger, Democrat Cal Cunningham.

Before he won his first term in 2014, Tillis railed against Obama over Ebola concerns, as he battled the late Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in a fiercely contested race.

"It's just another example of where this President and Sen. Hagan just have not worked on a comprehensive strategy," Tillis said in October 2014, calling for a travel ban from three Western African nations.

Asked last week about his criticism of Obama but praise of Trump, Tillis said of the Democratic President: "There were problems he needed to surge. It's a very different story."

The Ebola epidemic claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people worldwide, almost all of them in West Africa.

Just four people were diagnosed with the virus in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and two of them died. By contrast, the coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 147,000 people in the United States, with more than 4.2 million cases in the country.

"The President has made a number of good moves," Tillis said when asked if he has confidence in Trump's handling of the current crisis, while also praising North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. "Whe

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