The test results cast Trump’s risky decision to pursue a closed-door rally that doctors fear will turn into a contagious super-spread event in an even worse light. They also show how the virus – which is marching through southern and western states despite Trump’s insistence that the U.S. has already “prevailed” in the fight – has a catastrophic impact on the “Great American Return” narrative at the heart of its re-election.
Trump, who described his remark as a “semi-literal language in the cheek,” went on to claim that the problem in the United States is not that the virus is so prevalent, but that testing reveals how deep it has penetrated the community.
“Instead of 25 million tests, let’s say we did 10 million tests, we would seem to do a lot better because we would have far fewer cases. You see that. I wouldn’t do that, but I’ll say this: ee we do a lot more than other countries, that’s us in a way it seems bad, but we’re actually doing it right, ”Trump said.
The comments appear to be triggering another political storm that will further complicate attempts by the president’s election team to withdraw after Saturday’s embarrassment. The campaign team is now considering fewer places for Trump’s events – a move that would surely bite the commander’s ego or outside locations where fans could feel more comfortable.
Restrictions on the campaign would be unbearable for any president seeking re-election. For Trump, such concealment of his style would be even worse, given the centrality of his large rallies in his political id and the morally strong role they fulfill for a president who is an outsider in Washington.
Strong base
And Fox News said Trump’s return to the track ensured his largest television audience on Saturday night, suggesting that while some Trump fans may have been concerned about the virus, their absence from Tulsa did not reduce to diminished enthusiasm.
Trump has always defied political seriousness – and the effect of months of orders and locks makes it even harder for political analysts to make a solid assessment of how much country is now looking at the president.
The event on Saturday night was supposed to send a signal that the worst threat of a pandemic had expired and that America was on its way back. Instead, it suggested that even Trump supporters who chose not to appear in a closed event that carries a risk of infection may still not believe the underlying message of their hero’s campaign.
With every chance of thousands of Americans dying before election day, Trump must face the prospect of his denial and mismanagement of a pandemic that left the country sickly prepared for a deadly public health crisis becoming a cornerstone that his campaign may never be able to shake. switched off.
Search the attack
The president’s response to the miserable 48 hours was typical – a general attack. His targeting of Biden and the Democrats, showing his furious persistence in a way that also hinted at concern in his inner circle.
The president’s team followed with a new offensive on Biden’s health and mental abilities. They argued that the former vice president’s decision to stick to the convention and only sign up for three official presidential debates in the fall – rather than the additional meetings Trump is demanding – shows the former vice president has fears about taking over the president. The tactic has been a return to efforts to define Biden as incapable of performing the duties of president – this does not seem to work if a battlefield situation poll is to continue.
Trump will head to Arizona on Tuesday to tour part of his border wall that was so important to his appeal to conservative base supporters in his first campaign for the presidential election.
While the president is out of town, two of his top public health executives, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, and the government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, will testify before the House committee on the increasingly serious situation in many states.
Trump will try to put embarrassing scenes on Saturday night behind him when he addresses the “Students for Trump” event in Arizona.
Attendees said they wear face masks to the event, but will not have to force them.
Democrats are already trying to take advantage of Trump’s remark about the slowdown in testing in Oklahoma, portraying it as a symbol of poor management of an attempt to fight the virus that caused the economy to shut down.
“Two nights ago in his diabetes he said to stop testing because the numbers are increasing … I mean, my God,” Biden said at the fundraising event, according to a report from the pool on Monday.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.
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