After a day of confusion and coronavirus chaos from the White House, Donald Trump has just released a video that is clearly aimed to calm political nerves over his health condition.
“I came here, wasn’t feeling so well,” the ex-Celebrity Apprentice host said in footage from Walter Reed Medical Center posted on his Twitter feed. “I feel much better now,” he added in the 4-minute straight to camera video that was obviously being read off a teleprompter. “We’re working hard to get me all the way back.”
“We’re going to beat this coronavirus or whatever you want to call it and we’re going to beat it soundly,” Trump asserted. With conflict analysis from his own doctors and close aides of the true nature of how sick the clearly ailing 74-year old is, Trump stopped just short in his pre-taped remarks of calling the disease the “China virus” as he so often has the past six months to score points with the anti-Middle Kingdom crowd.
“I’ll be back. I think I’ll be back soon,” Trump continued in the small scale POTUS address. “And I look forward to finishing up the campaign the way it was started,” he went on to say.
“You don’t know over the next period of a few days, I guess that’s the real test,” the poll sagging incumbent went on to declare, echoing language stated OTR by his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows earlier Saturday. “So we’ll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days.”
Watch all of Trump’s latest video below:
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2020
Interestingly, Trump did not acknowledge nor try to set straight the confusion over when he was identified as having COVID-19 and how he caught it … though many are pointing to the mask-less and lack of social distanced September 26 Rose Garden that was packed to the bushes for the rollout of Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett as the probable culprit.
Almost from the moment that reports of Trump confidante Hope Hicks had come down with COVID-19 surfaced late on October 1, the Trump administration has been conducting a joint exercise of spin and lack of transparency. The delay in revealing that Trump and First Lady Melania Trump had also contracted the virus compounded the matter(s), as did a sudden decision on Friday to chopper POTUS from self-quarantine in the White House over to Walter Reed in nearby Maryland.
As more and more members of Trump’s inner circle and at least three GOP Senators have now tested positive for the coronavirus, the spotlight has turned brighter on Vice-President Mike Pence. Sporting a negative test result yesterday, the loyal sidekick has now become the headliner in the bitter election battle with just over 30 days to go. Additionally, as rivals Joe Biden and Sen Kamala Harris have had repeated negative results and continued appearances on the campaign trail, a whispering thread has started in the Beltway that Pence will step in as Acting President at amy moment.
Coming off self inflicted wound of a press conference from Trump’s doctors this AM on his status, confusing timelines of who was sick when and when did they know, reports of oxygen treatments, and a blundered attempt by staffers to clarify the whole thing, Trump jumped into the fray directly from his hospital suite.
Whether it helped or not, remains to be seen. However, no one who watches the video above can walk away thinking those were the words of a healthy man.
Including the Trumps and a lot of their top aides, there have been nearly 7.4 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the USA since January. There have also been over 209,000 deaths from the virus in the USA – the most reported in the entire world.