Trump completes Covid treatment and can make public return, says doctor
AMERICAN President Donald Trump has completed his course of treatment for Covid-19 and can return to public engagements this weekend, his doctor has said.
Dr Sean Conley said the President had responded “extremely well” to medication and had “remained stable”.
Mr Trump later said he would probably take another Covid test and hoped to hold a rally over the weekend.
The President had earlier pulled out of next Thursday’s TV debate with Democratic rival Joe Biden.
He said he was “not going to waste my time on a virtual debate” after organisers said it would have to take place remotely because Mr Trump had tested positive for coronavirus.
The move sparked a row about how and when further debates would take place.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful Democrat in Washington, said she planned to introduce legislation to establish a commission to assess Mr Trump’s fitness for office.
A statement announcing the move said the commission would be set up under the 25th Amendment, which outlines how a sitting president can be stripped of power if they are deemed unable to conduct the duties of the office.
Ms Pelosi told reporters that serious questions concerning Mr Trump’s health were still unanswered, and described the President as being in an “altered state”.
Any serious consideration of the measure is unlikely, but it will serve as a political tool to raise questions about Mr Trump’s health.
Mr Trump called Ms Pelosi “crazy” and said she was “the one who should be under observation”.
The amendment was introduced after the 1963 assassination of President John F Kennedy to clarify issues around the transfer of presidential powers.
The Democrats are focusing on a clause – Section Four – allowing a president to be removed from office against their will because of physical or mental incapacity.
The powers of the president have been temporarily transferred before, such as when Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in 1981 and George HW Bush took over, but Section Four has never been invoked.
The amendment says it can only be used if the vice-president plus either a majority of the 15 US Cabinet secretaries or another body, such as Congress, agrees. Even then, the president can appeal.
It seems the Democrats, who were meeting last night, are planning to set up the mechanisms that would enable Congress to have its say on whether the President is unable to discharge his powers.
But really, it’s being seen as a political
move to stoke questions about Mr Trump’s health. There’s no sign that Vice-president Mike Pence would agree with them, and little legislative time to move the commission forward.
In a memo released by the White House, Dr Conley said Mr Trump was displaying no signs “to suggest progression of illness”.
“Saturday will be day 10 since [last] Thursday’s diagnosis, and based on the trajectory of advanced diagnostics the team has been conducting, I fully anticipate the President’s safe return to public engagements at that time,” the memo added.
Meanwhile, a US federal judge has denied a motion to extend voter registration in Florida even though a computer meltdown on the final day of registration might have prevented
thousands from taking part in November’s presidential election.
In a 29-page ruling yesterday morning, US District Court Judge Mark E Walker said his decision was “an incredibly close call” but added: “The state’s interest in preventing chaos in its already precarious – and perennially chaotic – election outweighs the substantial burden imposed on the right to vote.”
He noted the historical problems the state seems to have with elections.
“Notwithstanding the fact that cinemas across the country remain closed, somehow I feel like I’ve seen this movie before,” he wrote.
“Just shy of a month from election day, with the earliest mail-in ballots beginning to be counted, Florida has done it again.”
Florida secretary of state Laurel Lee re-opened the registration site for seven hours on Tuesday after consulting governor Ron Desantis, providing another opportunity to people who were not able to submit their voter registrations online before Monday night’s deadline.
Data filed by the state indicates 50,000 people registered during the extended time period. Based on previous trends, the judge noted, another 20,000 additional people might have also registered to vote if they had been able to access the system.
Judge Walker criticised a state lawyer’s argument that other venues had been available to register to vote, including in-person at an elections office or by mail.
“With the public sounding the alarm, the secretary of state decided to implement a half measure,” he wrote.
“She hastily and briefly extended the registration period and ordered Florida’s supervisors of election to accept applications submitted by the secretary’s new ‘book closing’ deadline.”
Judge Walker wrote that Ms Lee’s “cure” had at least one major flaw: she did not notify the public until – at the earliest – after noon on the date of her new deadline.
“This left less than seven hours for potential voters to somehow become aware of the news and ensure that they properly submitted their voter registration applications, all while also participating in their normal work day, school, family and caregiving responsibilities,” he wrote.
The judge said the issue boils down to whether Ms Lee’s failure to maintain a fully functional voter registration website in the final hours of the registration period, and her limited deadline extension, “pass constitutional muster”.
Ultimately, he said, the need to prevent more chaos outweighed the denial of voting rights for thousands.
In the end, the case is not about Floridians missing registration deadlines or a challenge to a state statute, Judge Walker wrote.
“This case is about how a state failed its citizens,” he wrote.
I fully anticipate the President’s safe return to public engagements