Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Trump sets return to stump
Rallies on tap today, Monday; town-hall debate called off
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his team laid out a plan Friday to return to political activities that include a White House event today and a Monday rally in Florida, a week after Trump was hospitalized with covid-19.
Also on Friday, the Commission on Presidential Debates officially canceled the town hall- style debate between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden that was scheduled for Thursday.
As questions linger about his health — and Biden steps up his own campaigning — Trump planned to leave Washington for the first time since he was hospitalized. He is also increasing his radio and TV appearances with conservative interviewers, hoping to make up for lost time with just over three weeks until Election Day and millions of people already voting.
The president has not been seen in public — other than in White House-produced videos — since his return days ago from the military hospital where he received experimental treatments for his illness.
Trump is planning to convene a large crowd outside the White House today on a law-and-order theme. More than two dozen people linked
to the White House have contracted covid-19 since the president’s last White House event, on Sept. 26, to announce Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to the Supreme Court.
Trump will address today’s group, expected to be at least several hundred people, from the White House balcony. All attendees are required to have masks or they will be provided with them. They also will be given temperature checks and be asked to fill out a brief questionnaire. Adhering to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines will be strongly encouraged, which include mask-wearing and social distancing.
Trump’s Monday rally in Sanford, Fla., was originally scheduled for Oct. 2, the day after he tested positive. He tweeted Friday that he would be in Sanford “for a very BIG RALLY!”
Announcement of today’s White House event came as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, cautioned the White House again to avoid large-scale gatherings of people without masks.
He said of the Barrett event in an interview with The Associated Press, “I was not surprised to see a super- spreader event, given the circumstances.” That means “crowded, congregate setting, not wearing masks. It is not surprising to see an outbreak,” he said.
“The data speak for themselves,” Fauci said in an interview Friday with CBS News Radio. “We had a superspreader event in the White House. And it was in a situation where people were crowded together, were not wearing masks. So the data speaks for themselves.”
Asymptomatic individuals “are a substantial part of the people that actually transmit infections to other people,” Fauci said in the CBS interview. “So the better part of the recommendation would be everybody wear a mask, literally universally.”
District of Columbia virus restrictions prohibit outdoor gatherings larger than 50 people, although that rule has not been strictly enforced. Masks are mandatory outdoors for most people, but the regulations don’t apply on federal land.
Meanwhile, four staff members at the White House residence have tested positive for the coronavirus, linked to an outbreak at the building nearly three weeks ago, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Those infected include three members of the housekeeping staff and an assistant to the chief usher, Timothy Harleth, according to the people. None of the infected staff members came in direct contact with the president or his relatives, and wore masks in the residence, one of the people said.
DEBATE DISPUTE
The cancellation of next Thursday’s town-hall Trump-Biden debate came a few days after Trump backed away when the sponsoring commission switched it from faceto-face to virtual because of Trump’s covid diagnosis.
Trump said the Commission on Presidential Debates was protecting Biden from having to take on the president in person. But Biden’s team said the person demanding protection was Trump.
“It’s shameful that Donald Trump ducked the only debate in which the voters get to ask the questions — but it’s no surprise,” said Biden spokesman Andrew Bates. “Everyone knows that Donald Trump likes to bully reporters, but obviously he doesn’t have the guts to answer for his record to voters at the same time as Vice President Biden.”
Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign’s director of communications, said there was “no medical reason to stop the Oct. 15 debate in Miami from proceeding since the president will be healthy and ready to debate.”
He said the Commission on Presidential Debates was biased in Biden’s favor, and reprised an offer to make up for the cancellation of the forum by adding a debate on Oct. 29. The Biden team rejected that proposal Thursday.
“It’s time for the biased commission to stop protecting Biden and preventing voters from hearing from the two candidates for president,” Murtaugh said. “There’s nothing that says that President Trump and Joe Biden can’t debate together without the overlords at the commission having a say in the matter.”
“It is now apparent there will be no debate on October 15, and the CPD will turn its attention to preparations for the final presidential debate scheduled for October 22,” the commission said in a statement. “Subject to health security considerations, and in accordance with all required testing, masking, social distancing and other protocols, the debate will take place at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.”
The debate Thursday was to be in Miami moderated by C-SPAN’s Steve Scully. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Thursday that it would be done remotely, but the Trump campaign refused, demanding that it be held in-person. “No I’m not going to waste my time on a virtual debate,” Trump said in a telephone interview with Fox Business on Thursday. “That’s not what debating’s about.”
Both candidates have made other plans for Thursday. Biden will participate in a town-hall event in Philadelphia hosted by ABC News and moderated by George Stephanopoulos. Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said Thursday that the president would hold a rally, but ABC News reported Friday that he is planning to take part in a town-hall event hosted by NBC.
TRUMP TALKS
Trump is now making the rounds of conservative media, calling in to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night and spending two hours live on the air with radio host Rush Limbaugh on Friday in what his campaign billed as a “radio rally.”
Holding court on his reelection battle, his fight against the coronavirus and revived negotiations with Democrats to pass an economic stimulus bill, Trump made a direct appeal to his base of loyal supporters, whom he needs to turn out to the polls in droves. He followed that with a taped appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show Friday evening.
Fauci said in his AP interview, “Let me just tell you what the CDC guidelines are for getting people to be able to go back into society. It generally is 10 days from the onset of your symptoms.”
That onset for Trump was Oct. 1, according to his doctors. The president’s White House doctor, Navy Cmdr. Sean Conley, said that means Trump, who has been surrounded by minimal staff members as he works out of the White House residence and the Oval Office, could return to holding events today.
Conley added that Trump was showing no evidence of his illness progressing or adverse reactions to the aggressive course of therapy he has received.
In the interview with Limbaugh, Trump again credited the experimental antibody drug that he received last week with speeding his recovery.
“I was not in the greatest of shape,” he said. “A day later I was fine.” He promised to expedite distribution of the drug to Americans in need, though that would require action by the Food and Drug Administration.
He speculated to Limbaugh that without the drug, “I might not have recovered at all.” However, there is no way to know how the drug affected his progression with the virus.
Trump predicted a greater victory in 2020 than four years ago. He won a majority in the Electoral College in 2016 against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“We had a superspreader event in the White House. And it was in a situation where people were crowded together, were not wearing masks. So the data speaks for themselves.”
— Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert