With Trump's Coronavirus Diagnosis, The World Sees A Fully Failed Pandemic Response

 

President Donald Trump’s announcement that he and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for the coronavirus dominated global news, shook financial markets and spurred an outpouring of commentary from world leaders and others. The common theme: The U.S. is a mess.

That the president has fallen ill with the virus is a sharp reminder that it continues to spread rapidly in the U.S., which already has the world’s highest number of infections and deaths.

Officials abroad extended sympathy to the president. But across the world, it was tempting for people to contrast their country’s response to the pandemic with Trump’s in the U.S. 

Trump potentially exposed dozens of people to the disease by attending the first presidential debate on Tuesday, where he and his entourage mostly eschewed the basic protective measure of wearing masks. On Wednesday, he attended a campaign rally. Thursday, even after White House officials knew that close aide Hope Hicks was likely infected, he attended a private fundraiser. His campaign did not inform Biden’s team they may have been exposed to the virus, according to PBS.

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Yuriko Koike, the governor of Tokyo, said Trump’s diagnosis reminded her “of how widely masks are worn in Japan,” The Associated Press reported. Japan, with a population of 126 million, has lost 1,580 citizens to COVID-19. The U.S., with a population 2.5 times larger, has recorded 207,000 deaths.  

Other observers were less restrained. The Australian satire website the Betoota Advocate posted a story claiming the Trump family had caused greater community transmission than the entire population of the Australian state of Queensland, AP noted.

If Trump’s condition worsens, it could lead to global chaos and disengagement from the U.S., one expert predicted.

“There are a lot of concerns around the world at the moment … foreign leaders have to be worried about the capacity of our commander-in-chief and whether he would cede control to Mike Pence if he is unable to govern,” Brett Bruen, the director for global engagement at the White House from 2013 to 2015, told HuffPost. 

The news comes amid multiple international crises that Washington is doing little to address, Bruen noted, including the escalating conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and concerns in Europe over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s suspected role in poisoning a top political opponent and shoring up a dictator in Belarus. It also makes it harder for those responsible for explaining America to the world and sustaining its foreign relations, already contending with a collapse in the country’s global reputation because of the coronavirus catastrophe and international anxiety over Trump’s attacks on the integrity of the November election.

“American diplomats will try and project calm. They are bound to emphasize that our institutions and laws remain strong,” Bruen said. “Yet this comes after an embarrassing performance by President Trump during the debate, which has raised further questions as to the state and strength of our democracy.”

Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, a former ambassador who served in the foreign service for 30 years, said U.S. representatives could use the opportunity to note the contagiousness of the coronavirus and the importance of remaining vigilant until a vaccine is distributed.

“I’d expect our diplomats to add something along the lines of, ‘We’ve seen highly responsible behavior and highly irresponsible behavior around the world. He isn’t the first leader to get the virus and he likely won’t be the last ... Once the president recovers fully, hopefully he’ll make these points — and his own experience will add resonance to his words,’” Abercrombie-Winstanley continued.

But there were already indications that Trump’s diagnosis could actually make his administration’s coronavirus response worse. On “Fox & Friends,” a television show the president frequently promotes, co-host Brian Kilmeade said a Trump recovery from the virus could send a message that “you can say whatever you want with stats and graphs,” but perhaps it’s less serious than thought. 

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who shares many of Trump’s nativist and quasi-authoritarian qualities, successfully battled the virus over the summer. He has since doubled down on skepticism of measures to control what he calls “a small flu,” saying no Brazilians would be required to be vaccinated against it.

Should Trump and his allies keep downplaying the coronavirus to make him appear strong and distract from the pandemic’s sweeping effects on the U.S., they would be adding to the torrent of disinformation and confusion that’s already had deadly consequences for Americans, including those who fell ill after taking risky, unproven treatments on Trump’s recommendation.

Falsehoods about Trump’s illness quickly began circulating. On Twitter, 4Chan, Reddit and Facebook, users were casting doubt on the news of the president’s diagnosis, Britain’s New Statesman noted.

National security officials warned that U.S. adversaries like Iran and North Korea could try to tap that doubt and disorientation to influence Americans in the sensitive pre-election period, further polarizing the country the way Russian interference did in 2016.

“Our enemies will see us in a vulnerable state,” former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos told Politico. 

Analysts can track and attempt to counter those messages. But it’s particularly hard for them to deny reports that contain a kernel of truth, often the crucial element in luring readers and viewers down rabbit-holes of untrue or manipulated information.

“The coronavirus continues to spread, even as Trump has tried desperately to suggest it no longer poses a danger,” the state-run Chinese outlet China Daily tweeted.

Related...

Here's What Trump Did In The Week Leading Up To His COVID-19 Diagnosis

MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell Shouts Out Unproven COVID-19 'Cure' To Trump

As A Doctor, Here's The First Thing I Thought When I Found Out Trump Has COVID-19

Trump Joins Growing List Of World Leaders Who've Contracted COVID-19

Carl Bernstein Warns That Trump's COVID-19 Diagnosis Creates National Security Threat

 

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Guess how many  Trump kept lying about Zero

 Remember how Trump said that ballots with his name on it were being found in a “river?” Then you may remember White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany arrogantly explaining Trump was talking about ballots in a ditch, discovered by ”local authorities.“ Well, about those absentee ballots ...

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that in the “three trays of mail” that were found in a ditch in Greenville, Wisconsin, last week, and grand total of zero absentee ballot were discovered. This contradicts what the Outagamie County Sheriff's Office claimed last week when they said cryptically that there were “some” absentee ballots in the trays discovered and that it was being investigated.

October 17. That's all the time we have to write, prep and then send 10 million "please vote" letters to folks in battleground states. Click here to sign up or log into your Vote Forward account, and participate in the most popular get-out-the-vote activity the Daily Kos community has ever done.

Every single time conservatives, be it Trump or any Republican official, claim some form of voter fraud, it is either completely false, or it is fraud being perpetrated by Republicans for Republicans. 

When Republicans tell lies smash their lie holes shut.

Another Republican Scumbag Tests Positive For COVID-19. GOP Sen. Mike Lee tests positive, leaving a trail of questions behind him.

 Lying bastards, Louie Goemert and Rand Paul have COVID-19. That scumbag Herman Cain got it at a Trump rally and died - Piss on his grave and now Scumbag Mike Lee is positive for COVID-19.

 U.S. Circuit Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a Supreme Court nominee, meeting with Sen. Mike Lee of Utah on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Lee announced he had tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursda

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, a prominent member of the GOP senate caucus and Senate Judiciary Committee, announced Friday that he had tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday after experiencing symptoms he called "consistent with longtime allergies." Several days earlier, he also reported testing negative during a visit to the White House.

In a statement, Lee said he would be isolating for the next 10 days, which frankly may not be long enough given the virus sometimes afflicts people for unpredictable periods of time. But Lee's admission—particularly after he said he had tested negative just days earlier—leaves a trail of unanswerable questions behind him. For instance, had he already been exposed to the coronavirus when he was at the White House Saturday attending the Supreme Court nomination announcement for Amy Coney Barrett? Was his system already incubating the virus, which can take up to 14 days to cause symptoms? And who else might have been exposed as he walked around the Rose Garden greeting people while carrying his mask in his hand?

As Dr. Vin Gupta explained on MSNBC Friday, Lee's earlier negative test could mean he had already been exposed to coronavirus, was presymptomatic and incubating the virus, "and then it took some time for the test to actually turn up positive" for COVID-19.

But what is perfectly clear at this point is that the virus has been walking around at the White House and now back on Capitol Hill too, where Lee met with Barrett on Tuesday and attended a Senate Judiciary Committee executive business meeting on Thursday. So even as COVID-19 tests have initially come back negative for Barrett (who had reportedly already contracted the virus this summer and recovered, according to anonymous sources), White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General Bill Barr, and others, it's no guarantee that the virus isn't on the move among a group of high-level Washington lawmakers, administration officials, and their staffers.

"Everyone on that flight should immediately go into quarantine for the next 10-14 days," Dr. Gupta said of those who flew on an Air Force One flight to Minnesota Wednesday that included Hope Hicks. Hicks reportedly started experiencing symptoms on the flight and quarantined on the way back before ultimately testing positive. Trump also traveled to Bedminster, New Jersey, on Thursday for a high-dollar fundraiser before announcing early Friday morning that he and the first lady had tested positive. Trump reportedly did not wear a mask at the fundraiser nor on the plane ride back to Washington, D.C. 

Lee was also pictured maskless and standing barely a foot apart from Barrett during his Tuesday meeting with the nominee. The Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Lee participated in on Thursday was also attended by multiple senators from both sides of aisle, including Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, John Cornyn of Texas, Ted Cruz of Texas, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Josh Hawley of Missouri. Democrats shown at the hearing included ranking member Dianne Feinstein of California and Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Chris Coons of Delaware, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. Vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris of California is a member of the committee but appears not to have attended Thursday's hearing.

One person who was not exposed to Lee was former FBI Director James Comey, who testified remotely for a separate judiciary panel hearing Wednesday on the Russia investigation. Comey, a colon cancer survivor, told the committee he did not want to testify in person, fearing exposure to the virus from maskless members. The GOP-controlled committee responded by insisting he testify in person, according to the The New York Times' Mike Schmidt. Comey refused and instead gave his testimony offsite, including answering questions from Sen. Mike Lee.

Lyin Ted - Copy Cat Ted - Hypocrite Ted - Coward Ted - Traitor Ted

 

There is only one liar who lies more than Trump and it's #LyinTed Cruz. When it came time for the Republican base to pick it's candidate Trump and #LyinTed Cruz were neck and neck but in the end, the trash that is the Republican base went with the biggest liar of the two.

#LyinTed would not defend his wife after Trump trashed her in the most cruel ways. A real man would have taken Trump down hard and defended the honor of his wife and every woman in America but not #LyinTed.

#LyinTed is a traitor for not working to remove Trump from office and see that he's prosecuted and executed to treason but instead #LyinTed was complicit in Trump's treason.

#LyinTed is now parroting Trump.

Another example of the cowardive of #LyinTed was when Trump accused Ted's father of killing JFK. A real man would have stepped across the stage and pounded Trump into a coma. Any man who would not defend his wife or father is not a man. Worse than #LyinTed are the people of Texas who elected him. Let's make sure they continue to believe Trump's lies about COVID-19 and they continue to get sick and die. THat really would make America great again.

#LyinTed Cruz's Odd Attempt To Diss Biden Gets Roasted To Oblivion

 

Sen. Ted Cruz's Odd Attempt To Diss Biden Gets Roasted To Oblivion

Thu, October 1, 2020, 10:20 PM EDT

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) threw a potshot at Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden that the internet chewed up and spat right back at him.

Cruz posted a graphic of a train labeled “Biden Express” taking “Exit 2020″ to the “radical left.” It’s conducted by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). On board are fellow progressive Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.); Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.); and Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“Biden may be the Democrat Party’s nominee, but we know who is driving the train,” Cruz claimed, parroting President Donald Trump’s go-to narrative about his moderate opponent being a puppet for those further to his left. Trump and his Republican allies also persistently conflate Democrats with the “radical” left.

People took issue with the graphic on several fronts. For one, Trump can’t seem to make up his mind what train his opponent is on; he tweeted just days ago that the “Radical Left is dumping” Biden. Critics also questioned the mix of people Cruz chose to cast as “radical left” riders and, frankly, the logistics of a train cruising by a highway off-ramp sign.

Several of the train’s “passengers” chimed in, including Ocasio-Cortez, who pointed out the railway Cruz is traveling on:

Here’s some of the other blowback.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

As Bad As Trump Is And As Deserving He Is Of Getting COVID-19 And Dying An Agonizing Death, His MAGAts Are Worse And They Deserve Worse

 Hayley Miller

·Senior reporter, HuffPost

Thu, October 1, 2020, 1:18 PM EDT

A supporter of President Donald Trump attacked a journalist outside Trump’s rally in Duluth, Minnesota, on Wednesday.

The attacker, who has not been publicly identified, appeared to punch a phone out of the hands of Dymanh Chhoun, a photojournalist who was on assignment for local CBS affiliate WCCO-TV at the time.

Chhoun captured the assault on his phone, which he was using to gather video of demonstrators who had assembled ahead of the rally.

“You guys want to be peaceful? Be peaceful! You want to be violent? Come to me!” the assailant can be heard saying in the video, moments before turning to confront Chhoun.

Chhoun was not injured during the incident, WCCO reported. Chhoun had identified himself as a member of the media prior to being assailed, according to the news station.

Duluth police said they’re investigating the reported “disturbance.”

“A male reported that while recording footage on his phone for a news report, another male hit the phone out of the reporting party’s hand,” the police said in a statement. “The male who hit the phone left without incident several minutes before this event was reported to officers. There were no injuries or property damage reported in connection with this incident and no citations issued at this time. The Duluth Police Department is investigating this case.”

This isn’t the first time a Trump supporter has attacked a journalist. In February 2019, a Trump rally attendee swore at a BBC cameraman and shoved him.

Trump has repeatedly stoked anger against members of the press, calling them the “enemy of the people.” He’s also praised violence against journalists as a “beautiful sight.”

In 2018, Trump praised a Republican congressman who physically assaulted a reporter the year before.

“Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my guy,” Trump said of the congressman.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

President Trump and first lady test positive for COVID-19

 

Fake News?

ZEKE MILLER and JILL COLVIN

Thu, October 1, 2020, 8:30 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, he said Friday. The positive test comes a month until the election and after the president has spent the year largely downplaying the threat of the virus.

Trump’s positive test comes just hours after the White House announced that senior aide Hope Hicks had come down with the virus after traveling with the president several times this week. Trump was last seen by reporters returning to the White House on Thursday evening and looked to be in good health. Trump is 74 years old, putting him at higher risk of serious complications from a virus that has now killed more than 205,000 people nationwide.

"Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!" Trump tweeted.

In a memorandum, the president’s physician said that the president and first lady “are both well at this time" and “plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence.”

“Rest assured I expect the President to continue carrying out his duties without disruption while recovering," he added.

Trump had announced earlier in an interview with Fox News that he and the first lady were awaiting their results.

The diagnosis marks a major blow for a president who has been trying desperately to convince the American public that the worst of the pandemic is behind them even as cases continue to rise just weeks before the Nov. 3 election. And it stands as the most serious known public health scare encountered by any sitting American president in recent history.

Symptoms of COVID-19 can include fever, cough and breathing trouble. Most people develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal.

In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday, Trump said he was awaiting results of a COVID-19 test. “Whether we quarantine or whether we have it, I don’t know,” he said, adding that first lady Melania Trump was also awaiting results.

Hicks traveled with the president multiple times this week, including aboard Marine One, the presidential helicopter, and on Air Force One to a rally in Minnesota on Wednesday, and aboard Air Force One to Tuesday night’s first presidential debate in Cleveland.

Trump had consistently played down concerns about being personally vulnerable to contracting COVID-19, even after White House staff and allies were exposed and sickened.

“I felt no vulnerability whatsoever,” he said told reporters back in May.

He has instead encouraged governors to reopen their states and tried to focus the nation’s attention on efforts to revive the economy — not a growing death toll — as he seeks another four-year term.

The news was sure to rattle an already shaken nation still grappling with how to safely reopen while avoiding further spikes. The White House has access to near-unlimited resources, including a constant supply of quick-result tests, and still failed to keep the president safe, raising questions about how the rest of the country will be able to protect its workers, students and the public as businesses and schools reopen.

Senior staff have been tested for COVID-19 daily since two people who work at the White House complex tested positive in early May, prompting the White House to step up precautions. Everyone who comes into contact with the president also receives a quick-result test.

Yet since the early days of the pandemic, experts have questioned the health and safety protocols at the White House and asked why more wasn’t being done to protect the commander in chief. Trump continued to shake hands with visitors long after public health officials were warning against it and he initially resisted being tested. He has been reluctant to practice his own administration’s social distancing guidelines for fear of looking weak, including refusing under almost all circumstances to wear a mask in public.

Trump is not the only major world leader known to have contracted the virus. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a week in the hospital, including three nights in intensive care, where he was given oxygen and watched around the clock by medical workers. German Chancellor Angela Merkel self-isolated after a doctor who gave her a vaccination tested positive for the virus, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau worked from home after his wife fell ill.

The White House got its first COVID-19 scare in early March when at least three people who later tested positive came in close proximity to the president at his private Florida club. That included members of the Brazilian president’s delegation, including the Brazilian chargé d’affaires, who sat at Trump’s dinner table.

In mid-March, as the virus continued to spread across the country, the White House began taking the temperature of everyone entering the White House complex, and in April, it began administering rapid COVID-19 tests to all those in close proximity to the president, with staffers being tested about once a week. The frequent tests gave some staff the false impression the complex was safe from the virus, and few, as a result, followed recommended safety protocols, including wearing masks.

But then the bubble broke.

On May 7, the White House announced that a member of the military serving as one of the president’s personal valets tested positive for the virus, followed a day later by a positive diagnosis for Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary.

Even then, Trump said he was “not worried” about the virus spreading in the White House. But officials again stepped up safety protocols for the complex, directing everyone entering the West Wing to wear a mask.

“I think it’s very well contained, actually,” Trump told reporters on May 11.

But by June, concerns at the White House had dissipated once again, with few staffers bothering with masks even as more and more people tested positive for the virus, including campaign staffers preparing for a Tulsa rally and Secret Service agents.

On July 3rd, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is dating Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., tested positive in South Dakota before an Independence Day fireworks show at Mount Rushmore. Guilfoyle, a former Fox News personality who works for Trump’s campaign, had not flown on Air Force One and had not been in direct contact with the president, though she had had contact with numerous top GOP officials.

In July, Trump's national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, tested positive.

While there is currently no evidence that Trump is seriously ill, the positive test also raises questions about what would happen if he were to become incapacitated due to illness. The Constitution’s 25th Amendment spells out the procedures under which a president can declare themselves “unable to discharge the powers and duties” of the presidency. If he were to make that call, Trump would transmit a written note to the Senate president pro tempore, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Pence would serve as acting president until Trump transmitted “a written declaration to the contrary.”

The vice president and a majority of either the Cabinet or another body established by law, can also declare the president unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, in which case Pence would “immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President” until Trump could provide a written declaration to the contrary.

___

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

OpEd: You can't believe anything with Trump. He got his ass handed to him in the debate. Biden wrecked him! In the next debate Biden would have finished him off like a matador killing a bull. I have very serious doubts if he actually has COVID-19.  Trump is like school the bully who gets stood up to and challenged to a fight after school but calls his mommy to pick him up. With the rule changes Biden would have destroyed him. 

If he does have COVID-19 how the election will play out is unknown. Will it  help Trump? Certainly it would save him from the brutal spanking Biden would have given him but on the other hand it will show to even some MAGAts what a fool Trump is while other MAGAts will. Biden will take the high road and remain presidential but I hope his surrogates are not as kind to the evil Orange Menace. 

I'm sure a lot of patriots would like to see Trump die and agonizing death in order to prevent 4 more years of him or to end him once and for all so there will be no need to trial and housing him in prison.  There are still plenty of criminal in his orbit starting with but not ending with Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka. Donald Jr is a candidate for the death penalty and the other two are candidates for prison along with Kushner. 

Personally, I think it's a hoax by Don the Con and a play for sympathy but time will tell. Trump has had a charmed life but maybe his luck will run out but not even a long and agonizing death will ever be justice enough for the damage he's done to the world. 

Trump will probably get convalescent anti-bodies it he is sick and they are effective so he probably won't die.