TRUMP RETURNS TO CAMPAIGN TRAIL
But concerns raised about spreading of virus at events
WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail Monday, holding his first rally since being hospitalized earlier this month, as part of an effort to demonstrate that his bout with COVID-19 is behind him and that he is the more vigorous of the two septuagenarian candidates vying for the presidency.
Yet Trump’s rally in Sanford, Fla., came amid concerns that his plans to barnstorm the country could put him and others at risk.
Although Trump has declared himself now “immune” to the virus — which has killed more than 215,000 Americans and infiltrated the White House — he and his team have not clarified for the public the last time he tested negative before his COVID-19 diagnosis was announced Oct. 2. This has raised questions about whom Trump may have infected before isolating himself at the White House and then at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
On Monday afternoon, however, Trump’s doctor, Sean Conley, said in a memo released by the White House that the president had tested negative for the virus “on consecutive days,” using the Abbott rapid testing machine, and was no longer contagious.
The Abbott antigen test produces quick results but has a greater chance of false negatives than the more reliable polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, test.
Hours before Trump left for Florida, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned that
holding large rallies was “asking for trouble” with cases of the coronavirus surging in many states.
Fauci, in an interview with CNN, said that Americans needed to be more cautious in the fall and winter months, and warned that rising rates of infections in a number of states suggested Americans should be “doubling down” on precautions rather than casting them aside.
“We know that that is asking for trouble when you do that,” Fauci said of Trump’s decision to begin a full schedule of campaign rallies. “We’ve seen that when you have situations of congregate settings where there are
a lot of people without masks, the data speak for themselves. It happens. And now is even more so a worse time to do that, because when you look at what’s going on in the United States, it’s really very troublesome.”
He noted that many states were now seeing increases in positive tests. “It’s going in the wrong direction right now,” he said.
In Florida, Trump criticized the actions taken by some states to control the outbreak.
“The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself can. The cure cannot be worse,” Trump told the Sanford rally attendees — many of whom were not wearing
masks — referring to public health restrictions in many states. “But if you don’t feel good about, if you want to stay, stay relaxed, stay. But if you want to get out there, get out. One thing with me, the nice part, I went through it. Now they say I’m immune . . . I feel so powerful.”
Since contracting the coronavirus, which causes the illness COVID-19, Trump has remained dismissive of the threat posed by the pandemic, reappearing in public seemingly invigorated by his survival. He has doubled down on his push for reopening the country while continuing to discount social distancing and other public health practices.
Trump, 74, trails Democratic rival Joe Biden, 77, in national and key state polls, with voters giving the president poor ratings for his handling of the pandemic.
His return to the campaign trail, with scheduled back-to-back-to-back rallies at least through Wednesday, is being driven by Trump himself, according to aides, and his schedule so far reflects the frenetic energy of a man trying outrun both a deadly illness and an electoral defeat.
After rallies the first half of the week in Florida, Pennsylvania and Iowa, Trump is expected to return to Florida on Thursday and Friday, as well as hold more rallies over the weekend, probably in Ohio and Wisconsin, said a senior campaign adviser, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe plans that have not been made public. The president also plans to travel soon to North Carolina, the adviser said.
Two senior campaign officials said the operation needs more money to run TV ads, is playing defense in many states, and must win Pennsylvania and North Carolina — both uphill fights, according to the latest polls. Campaign manager Bill Stepien has told others that they need to be careful with money because there are so many states where the campaign needs it, including many that Trump won in 2016, officials said.
As the president returned to the trail Monday, Biden kicked off a week of events in several states that Trump captured in 2016 but that Democrats say they can win this year. Biden campaigned Monday in Ohio, a state Trump won handily four years ago, and will travel today to Florida, where polls Monday showed Biden holding a slight lead.
On a call with reporters Monday morning, top campaign aides stressed Trump’s eagerness to return to public campaigning and touted what they claimed was his robust physical health.
“He is strong, he is energetic, he is raring to go, and I think his campaign calendar reflects his health and wellbeing and enthusiasm to get back on the trail,” said Stepien.
Senior adviser Jason Miller said he expects that the president will start doing two to three events a day, before ramping up to as many as six in the campaign’s final stretch.