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(CNN) – President Donald Trump’s growing political desperation is raising concerns about his trial following his aggressive treatment of COVID-19. And as suspicions mount that the White House is not telling the truth about his health.
In a day of chaos on Thursday, Trump repeatedly changed his position on a new plan for a second virtual presidential debate. And suddenly he decided to back negotiations on an economic rescue package from the coronavirus that he had eliminated earlier in the week.
His actions suggested a campaign in disarray, as he is trailing Democratic candidate Joe Biden by double digits just 26 days before Election Day.
The president’s erratic behavior only underscored an alarming leadership vacuum in a White House hollowed out by disease. This, as the pandemic takes a disturbing turn amid new signs that a fragile economic recovery is slowing.
Trump’s official physician, Navy Commander and Dr. Sean Conley, stated that the president would be in a position to return to public engagements on Saturday after completing his treatment.
But questions remain about when Trump got sick, who he might have infected, and whether he’s still contagious.
Interview
And twice in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Thursday night, the president declined to say whether he had tested negative, even as he said he might try to hold a rally in Florida as early as Saturday. the night.
A day of dizzying events prompted some of Trump’s critics to suggest that his health may be influencing his political decisions.
«He is not well. We would not want anyone else on the planet to do the things that he is doing shortly after he finds out he is infected, “Rick Bright, the dismissed director of the government office involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine, told Jake Tapper from CNN on “The Lead.”
Bright, the former director of the Advanced Biomedical Research and Development Authority, said that normally someone who has undergone experimental COVID-19 therapies would still be in a hospital bed.
“It’s very dangerous. He’s in charge of a lot of things, he makes a lot of big decisions for our country and for the world, in fact, ”said Bright, who spoke publicly after resigning from the National Institutes of Health this week.
“If you are not in your right mind to make rational decisions, then you could be very reckless with the country and the world.”
LOOK: Dr. Huerta: “What they are telling us about Trump’s health is very murky”
What Pelosi said about Trump’s health
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, questioned on Thursday whether the president is in an “altered state” during an interview with Bloomberg TV, alluding to his sudden decision to stop stimulus negotiations.
He noted that doctors have said that the steroid drug Trump was taking can affect a patient’s judgment.
“When the president made his strange tweet that said, ‘We’re leaving the negotiations,’ it was like, ‘What?'” Pelosi said during her weekly press conference. “We have all worked very hard to find common ground.”
She is pushing for a new bill, which has little chance of becoming law, to give Congress a role in determining whether the president should be forced out of office because he is unable to do his job.
Debate on debates
Conley’s statement on Trump’s health was especially fitting as the president spent the day engaged in a test of wills with the Biden campaign and the Presidential Debate Committee over the second head-to-head showdown planned for next Thursday.
The timing will only heighten concerns that Conley is being bullied by a president who cares exclusively about his own political fate.
Trump first said he refused to show up for a virtual showdown, which was planned out of fear it was still contagious. Then Trump’s side demanded that the last two debates be delayed for a week each.
Later, after Conley’s evening bulletin, Trump’s team insisted that the debate could take place as planned next week in Miami despite fears about whether the president remains contagious.
The president’s latest tactic reflects the fact that he is now at risk of missing one of the last opportunities to change his campaign, simply because he ignored social distancing measures and fell ill.
And he offered Biden, who would be happy to avoid risks in recent days, an opportunity to accuse him of backing down.
Trump also made a total change Thursday after sparking talks about an economic rescue package with House Democrats earlier in the week.
In a new sign of his increasingly disturbing behavior since leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Trump touts Covidien-19 ‘cure’
The president is trying to deflect the campaign from his mismanagement of the pandemic by making exaggerated promises about the forthcoming availability of an antibody treatment by Regeneron that he is touting as a ‘cure’, even though it still lacks Administration approval Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
And his post-hospital warnings that Americans should not allow the disease to “take over” are complicating efforts by health officials to promote public safety measures such as wearing masks and avoiding crowded areas.
LEEWARD: Experimental treatment Trump received would have affected his blood tests showing antibodies, says Regeneron
On the same day that federal and state officials announced charges in an alleged domestic terror plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Trump accused the Democrat of “complaining” and again attacked her for her handling of the pandemic, accusing her to have »locked« your status. Trump has consistently called on states to reopen, regardless of case numbers across the country.
Projections
Earlier this week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist, warned that the country could see as many as 400,000 coronavirus deaths by this winter.
“Models tell us that if we don’t do the kinds of things we’re talking about in the cold of fall and winter, we could have 300,000 to 400,000 deaths.” So Fauci said during a discussion with students from American University on Tuesday.
“That would just be so tragic, if that happens.”
On Thursday, Fauci tried to clear up Trump’s falsehood on social media this week that the flu is more deadly than covid-19.
“There is absolutely no doubt, there is no doubt, that this Covid-19, with its 210,000 deaths in the United States, one million deaths worldwide, more than seven million infections in the United States, is much more serious Than a seasonal flu.
There’s no question about that, “Fauci said in MSNBC’s” Andrea Mitchell Reports. “
White House cover-up of Trump’s latest negative test
With no medical experience, the president insists that it is no longer contagious.
The White House also unconvincingly argues that privacy concerns prevent them from sharing details about the timing of the president’s latest negative covid-19 test.
That information is important to assess whether the president recklessly continued public events, including last week’s first presidential debate, while possibly infected.
The date of the test could establish whether the White House was telling the truth when it says Trump was tested regularly, an important consideration as the presidential compound became a hotbed for coronavirus.
Knowing the date of the test is also key to assessing the president’s claims that it is no longer contagious, as he agitates to get back on the campaign trail and resume packed rallies that put the health of supporters and anyone he meets at risk. can be found later.
Political attacks
Trump is also launching furious political attacks, as national polls show Biden has risen double digits with voting in many states already underway.
In recent days, including in a maniacal Fox Business interview on Thursday, Trump wondered aloud why his enemies, namely Hillary Clinton, Biden and former President Barack Obama, are not in jail.
The president unbelievably raised the possibility of being infected by family members of the fallen US military in the White House, holding his team harmless for his negligent measures to keep staff and visitors safe from the virus.
One president who benefited from 24-hour care from top military doctors and experimental treatments that are not available to other Americans said on Fox Business: “The thing is, you get better … you know, you don’t really need drugs.”
LEEWARD: Reality TV helped shape the image of Donald Trump by blurring the lines of reality
Trump on Thursday also used shocking racist, sexist and McCarthyist slurs. This is to assert that Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris behaved like a “monster” and communist in her debate with Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday.
Wild behavior
Trump’s savage demeanor coincides with signs that the long-feared rebound in the pandemic is accelerating.
Coronavirus cases are increasing in 23 states, based on the average number of new cases over the past seven days. The number of new cases reached nearly 50,000 on Thursday alone with another 850 deaths belying the president’s claim that people who get sick with the pathogen simply outnumber it.
Yet there is no sign of a government-coordinated health offensive to prepare Americans for a bleak winter before vaccines are widely available.
