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WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump will deliver a public address at the White House on Saturday for the first time since testing positive for COVID-19, as he prepares a swift return to the election campaign just three weeks before the election.
The 74-year-old commander-in-chief also announced a rally in Florida Monday in an attempt to relaunch his shaky re-election campaign against growing Democratic rival Joe Biden, who called the president’s behavior “reckless.”
Seeking to project strength and better health, Trump had declined to participate in the debate scheduled for next week after organizers switched it to an online format due to coronavirus concerns.
LEE: Trump leaves the hospital to the White House, removes his mask immediately
On Friday, the Committee on Presidential Debates made it official, saying next Thursday’s debate was ruled out, leaving an Oct. 22 event as the final showdown between Trump and Biden before Election Day on Nov. 3.
That sparked accusations of bias from Trump’s campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh, who said “there is no medical reason to stop” the Oct. 15 debate.
Defeated from the election campaign by his three-night hospitalization last week, the president is in the midst of a frantic attempt to catch Biden.
On Friday, during an extensive media blitz, Trump falsely claimed that COVID-19 now has a cure.
He also revealed that he had been told he was near death at the worst moment of his fight with the virus, which has killed more than 213,000 Americans and severely undermined his chances of winning a second term.
Saturday’s speech, which a senior administration official said would be on Trump’s favorite “law and order” topic, will give him a chance to dispel lingering doubts about his health.
The crowd will be on the South Lawn of the White House, while the president will speak from the balcony.
A source with knowledge of the planning said all attendees should wear masks and have their temperatures checked.
– ‘Reckless’ conduct –
On Monday, Trump will take another important step by holding a rally in a crucial state on the battlefield.
“We will be in Sanford, Florida on Monday for a BIG RALLY!” Trump tweeted.
The events come despite continuing questions about how sick Trump was and how complete his recovery is now, and White House officials are refusing to answer basic questions, including when the president first contracted the virus and whether he has negative since then.
LEE: Trump salutes the ‘blessing’ of COVID when he returns to the Oval Office
After Trump spent months mocking Biden for staying home during the pandemic, it is Biden who has swept the swing states this week.
He visited Arizona on Thursday and campaigned on Friday in Nevada. Trump won both states in 2016, but now they are narrowly tipping the Democrats in the polls.
At a drive-in event in Las Vegas, Biden hit the president.
“His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis, the destabilizing effect he’s having on our government, is inconceivable,” Biden said.
When he got on his campaign plane, he delivered a message to those attending Trump’s public events: “Good luck. I wouldn’t show up unless you had a mask on and you were estranged.”
On Friday, Trump gave a marathon interview to right-wing talk radio host Rush Limbaugh in which he said the experimental cocktail of Regeneron antibodies he took as part of therapeutic treatment was “a cure.”
It is “a total game changer” and “better than a vaccine,” he said.
In fact, there is no cure and there is still no approved vaccine for the coronavirus.
– ‘Without medication’ –
Later on Friday, he appeared in his first televised interview since being diagnosed with the virus, telling Fox’s Tucker Carlson that he is now “drug free.”
In what the White House called an on-air “medical evaluation,” the president told Fox aide Dr. Marc Siegel that he had been retested for Covid-19, saying he did not know the “numbers.” but “I know I’m either at the bottom of the scale or free.”
It was unclear when the interview was filmed.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he feels fine and has been backed by statements from Presidential Physician Sean Conley.
But in his interview in Limbaugh, Trump suggested for the first time that he had been close to death, had it not been for his aggressive regimen of therapeutic drugs.
“I’m talking to you today about that. I could have been a bad victim,” he said, adding that the doctors told him: “You were entering a very bad stage.”
Polls show that Biden largely leads key demographics, including women and the elderly, leading analysts increasingly to talk of a possible landslide victory.
Trump’s greatest responsibility, overwhelming public dissatisfaction with his handling of the pandemic, has once again been the main theme of the campaign thanks to his own infection.
In addition to the pressure, the Democrats who control the House of Representatives revealed plans for a commission to investigate the suitability of a president for the job, a move clearly aimed at attacking Trump.
