From president’s taxes to virus, news moving at a breakneck speed
NEW YORK — Remember the presidential debate? The revelation about how much President Donald Trump pays in taxes? The nomination of a new Supreme Court justice?
They all happened within the past week. Then, just as quickly, they receded into memory with the revelation Friday that Trump had tested positive for COVID-19. Substantial news is rushing by at the speed of light.
“I don’t know how many writers who were working on political melodramas have just deleted their files and opened up a bottle of Scotch,” said veteran journalist Jeff Greenfield.
Seventeen hours after the world learned of the president’s diagnosis, television pictures showed the president walking toward the Marine One helicopter, before it took off to take him to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
The coronavirus story unfurled shortly after 8 p.m. Eastern on Thursday when Jennifer Jacobs, Bloomberg News White House reporter, tweeted that sources had told her that Hope Hicks, one of Trump’s closest aides, had tested positive.
At 12:54 a.m., the president tweeted that he and first lady Melania Trump were positive.
“It’s a lot to wake up to,” Savannah Guthrie said at the top of NBC’s “Today” show for those who were asleep when the news hit.
There were plenty of angles for reporters to chase, and questions were raised about why Trump went to a fundraiser Thursday when he knew Hicks was sick. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was asked pointedly why hewas not wearing a mask when he briefed reporters Friday.
ABC’s hiring of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as an analyst paid dividends, as he told a “Good Morning America” audience that he had been at the White House for several days until Tuesday for debate preparation and that none of Trump’s aides were wearing masks.
On Saturday, Christie tweeted that he had “just received word that I am positive for COVID-19.” He said he would be “receiving medical attention today.”
Through much of Friday, Twitter was a whack-amole of announcements about people testing positive (like Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee; Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien; and former counselor Kellyanne Conway; Sens. Mike Lee, RUtah, and Thom Tillis, RN.C., and negative (Democratic opponent Joe Biden and his wife, Jill).
Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather said it felt like he had been through a “newsquake.”
“I don’t recall any week where there have been this many important stories in the same week, not since World War II,” he said. Anytime a narrative sets in, “boom, something comes in and changes the subject.”