Those who have been retracing Trump’s steps over the past few days have noted with alarm that he’s been in maskless, not-socially-distanced contact with much of the upper echelon of the Republican Party. This includes Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chair, who tested positive on Wednesday. See Sam Brody, Daily Beast:
The web of those exposed by President Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis reads like a who’s who of his peripatetic campaign: his campaign manager, the chair of the Republican National Committee, the leader of the House GOP’s campaign arm, and several high-profile members of Congress.
Now, those officials—not to mention countless supporters of the president—have either contracted COVID-19 or are at high risk for it after a week in which an infected Trump has criss-crossed the country. It also means a wide swath of the GOP’s formal campaign apparatus could be sidelined a month before a pivotal election in which the party is losing ground in its efforts to hold onto the White House, keep the Senate, and recapture the House.
Go on to read the rest of the article to see where he’s been and who he has been in contact with. For example, at least two other people at the Amy Coney Barrett nomination announcement on Saturday have tested positive — Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee and the Rev. John Jenkins, the president of the University of Notre Dame. Trump was not exactly exercising caution at the event; Sam Brody writes that “video taken of the event by a CNN reporter shows him hugging and greeting other attendees without wearing a mask.” I don’t suppose there is any way to know if Trump was the infector or infectee at that point.
Amy Coney Barrett herself says she already had the virus and recovered.
There are some hints here and there that Trump was not feeling well as early as Wednesday. His speech at a rally in Minnesota was short, by Trump standards, for example. But sources in the White House are saying that Trump feels just fine or has only mild symptoms or has a fever and a cough. Given how the White House clearly lies about the state of Trump’s health, my guess is that he’s sicker than they’re letting on.
Erin Banco and Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast say that the White House has been plain sloppy about virus protocols for a long time.
News that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump had contracted the coronavirus may have sent shockwaves through the nation’s capital as it awoke Friday morning. But for those who worked for the president, the surprise was that it had taken this long to get to this point.
The White House may house some of the most important figures in government. But for months, the testing protocols to screen potentially infectious individuals have been more lax than the president’s aides present to the public.
It’s a wonder he didn’t catch it sooner. Joe Biden is still negative, he says, although that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s in the clear.
Paul Waldman writes that Trump thought he could beat the virus with spin. Obviously, he failed.
Charles Pierce has questions, including “Do they have to disinfect the nuclear ‘football’?” and “Does the White House have enough roosts for all these returning chickens?”
The Probable Outcomes of Trump’s Diagnosis.
Update: CNN reports that Trump is on his way to Walter Reed.
Some have noted with alarm that he’s been in maskless, not-socially-distanced contact with much of the upper echelon of the Republican Party.
And some have noted with something that is not a synonym for alarm.
Note: The presidunce is being transported to Walter Reed 'as a precautionary measure'. Sort of adds some spice to the questions that have risen about The Donald not tweeting today.
I must admit, I find myself smiling as I read this post. Couldn't happen to a more deserving group at a more critical time.
Let's just say that because it would be so, so… so 2020, "Judge Coathanger" does indeed end-up on the SCOTUS.
Next year, I'll laugh myself to death if I find out that she was shocked to discover that because she had Covid-19 this Summer – and despite that still voted to end ObamaCare – Amy Coney Barrett was just denied health care because she has a pre-existing condition!
If "revenge is a dish best served cold," then 'irony is the mistress who ignores your mutually agreed upon "Safe Word."'*
*My new motto.
Here's something that's just occurred to me:
tRUMP dying (knock off any enthusiastic cheers, folks – I just did) may be the very worst thing to happen to Democrats.
Why? Because a lot of voters out there might be voting for Joe only because they truly despise this presidunce.
And if he's suddenly worm-chow (the best worm-chow EVER! BELIEVE ME, because it'll BE me!!!), will likely either sit home on Election Day, or vote for Pence because they know he's meek and pliable, so he'll stick to whatever the RepubliKKKLAN Party (and its rich KKKristo-Fascist backers) wants to do.
So, all of the hate, greed and sociopathy, but minus the overt racism, misogyny, hysteria, yelling, and stupid rhetoric and unfunny "jokes!!!!!"
I don't think so, Gulag. Trump is just the front man and I think people realize that his enablers need to be turned out of office if they hope to get our country back on track. The only reason he wasn't convicted and put out of office during his impeachment was because of his enablers.
Look at Susan Collins for example.. she say she thinks Trump learned his lesson from the impeachment, but never articulated exactly what that lesson was supposed to be.. The lesson Trump learned was that the repugs where going to cover his ass no matter crime he commits. It's not like he learned that extortion is an unacceptable behavior for the President of the United States to engage in.
The most interesting statistic I ran across was that Trump made one tweet all day. With anyone else that would mean nothing but I think that's a record. I won't know until an independent medical group does the test and processes it. Which won't happen.
If Pence invokes the 25th Amendment, I will believe.
If Trump does have it and is displaying symptoms, he's facing his own mortality. Maybe for the first time. He's not prepared for it, I'd guess. One could hope that Trump would have an Ebeneezer Scrooge moment, express remorse, and make amends. But I won't bet on it.
You temp God (at least the Jewish one) you get smitten. The anointed one of the Evangelicals just got a smit down. Is this a sign to them? Will they abandon the golden calf?
God's work has strange and mysterious ways it is said. Why now do God's ways make so much sense?
That is truly strange and mysterious.
Naaw, hes gonna be "fine". He will be back in a week looking like an even more preservative filled puss bag saying that the whole thing was just a bad case of the sniffles. He'll say See? the covid thing was just the radical left trying their old evil tricks again. But he owned them. And the little hitler juniors will lap it up. All of this is just good for the GOP. Sympathy for Orange Julius, a good conspiracy for the base, and a whole new round of chaos just right for for stealing the election. Just what the doctor (Mengele) ordered. Get ready, it is entirely predictable.
As part of my futile effort to learn French, I started reading Camus' "La Peste" a few days ago. I just arrived at the part where Père Paneleux makes his entry with a fire and brimstone sermon, which begins fittingly, by citing the plagues visited upon Egypt in order to punish the Pharoah. The rhetoric was familiar despite the difference in languages. The evening of the day was marked by the announcement about the Trumps testing positive, now followed by a panoply of his followers. So, naturally, Père Paneleux's sermon seemed right on time.
It is difficult to imagine how the evangelicals will avoid the notion that their side is the one being punished. That's going to take some serious spin, maybe "Trump is being punished for not repealing gay marriage and the ACA quickly enough."
I don't know if that's going to fly.
It is difficult to imagine how the evangelicals will avoid the notion that their side is the one being punished.
Not necessarily, the evangelicals can just as easily view Trump as a martyr who is bearing the sins for a wicked nation. Early on they were circulating on facebook a factsheet of the causes and numbers of deaths that occur in the world on a yearly basis.. Ex: natural disasters, heart attacks, car accidents, war, the flu and so on. At the top of the list was listed abortions at around 10 million deaths a year. Their point being that any virus, flu, or plague paled in comparison to the horror of abortion. And Trump is their hope and champion who will bring the scourge of abortion to an end.. So the Evangelicals will probably be more inclined to see Trump's getting Covid as an attack by Satan to stop the good work for the Lord that Trump has embarked on.
Despite the suffering ("mild symptoms" is another soothing euphemism, like "leaving to take care of family") I am finding the whole thing increasingly hilarious.
Someone remarked of the many photos of the weekend's White House gatherings over Barrett's annointing – where everyone was sitting next to each other oblivious to the pandemic – that it's like playing bingo – drawing circles around the particpants who now have COVID.
Frank Rich remarked: "Still no White House explanation as to why Trump not being treated with hydroxychloroquine. "What have you got to lose?"
I'm *glad* someone asked that question. It would prove he was right all along, right?
He's on remdesivir and I remember how *glad* I was when I learned that:
1) there was a meaningful, useful, treatment, and
2) it was not something some boneheaded idiot heard on Fox News, and started babbling about, because that would provide the exact opposite of the right lesson.
He's also on an antibody cocktail, probably from plasma of recovered people, and I can only say, if I'd been infected, and donated for convalescent plasma, I'd hope against hope that my plasma caused him *at least* an annoying allergic reaction, since he would have been a large part of the reason I got infected in the first place.