President Donald Trump enters the final week before Election Day with a surge in coronavirus cases in the U.S. and another outbreak from the White House threatening efforts to reverse his political fortunes with a series of devastating demonstrations. .
Trump started the weekend on a strong note, with campaign aides believing his best performance in the final debate against Democratic nominee Joe Biden could provide a boost to determined voters.
But once again the coronavirus intervened.
News broke Saturday night that several people in Vice President Mike Pence’s inner circle had contracted the potentially deadly virus.
Among those who tested positive were Pence’s political adviser, Marty Obst, and the vice president’s chief of staff, Marc Short. Another Pence staff member has also been diagnosed with the virus in recent days, according to people familiar with the matter.
Pence had been largely unaffected by the coronavirus cases that swept through the White House last month, infecting Trump, the first lady, her teenage son and several senior advisers. In a twist, Pence also leads the White House coronavirus task force.
Despite the new outbreak within his office, and guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggesting that you should self-quarantine unless you perform essential work, which must be done with a mask, Pence said he would continue. with their official and campaign schedules.
“The vice president will maintain his schedule in accordance with the CDC guidelines for essential personnel,” Pence press secretary Devin O’Malley said in a statement.
Those duties were expected to include a visit to the Senate Monday night to preside over the vote and confirm Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s third nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“As vice president, I am president of the Senate. And I’m going to be in a chair, ”Pence said Friday, before the outbreak became known in his inner circle. He added that he would not “lose that vote for the world.”
The vice president’s office did not respond to a request for comment Sunday on whether Pence would continue with his plans. But his attendance would run the risk of drawing the coronavirus once again into the limelight in what was intended as a time of celebration for the White House, as it did in the series of cases that followed Trump’s announcement on 26. September at Rose Garden on Barrett’s selection.
In a letter Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, urged his colleagues to “cast their votes quickly and from a safe distance” and avoid congregating on the Senate floor.
“His neglect of the health and safety of his colleagues and Capitol employees reflects his neglect of the health and safety of Americans during this crisis,” Schumer wrote.
Meadows Reviews
The administration’s problems were compounded by comments from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who in an interview Sunday with CNN said the United States “is not going to control” the coronavirus, which has killed more than 225,000. Americans.
“We are not going to control the pandemic,” Meadows said. “We are going to control the fact that we receive vaccines, therapies and other areas of mitigation.”
Top Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, took advantage of the comments to argue that the Trump White House was abandoning efforts to suppress the virus.
“Eight months after the pandemic, as new cases are breaking records, we need an administration that does not wave the white flag,” Obama tweeted Sunday.
Biden, in a statement, said that Meadows’ comments noted that they “have renounced their basic duty to protect the American people.”
The latest outbreak from the White House and Meadows’ comments were amplified by a growing burden of cases nationwide.
The United States reported record coronavirus infections Saturday for the second day in a row, adding 85,317 cases, averaging more than 800 deaths per day in the nation. Hospitalizations are rising steadily, and Trump’s first Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb warned Sunday that the nation had reached “a dangerous tipping point.”
Survey numbers
The administration’s pandemic response has weighed on the Trump campaign throughout the year. The RealClearPolitics national poll average shows Biden with an 8-point lead. About 57% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the virus and only 39% approve, according to a Reuters / Ipsos poll published last Wednesday.
He is also distracted from the president’s efforts to turn to what he sees as winning issues, from Biden’s comments during last week’s debate saying he wanted to remove federal support for the oil industry, to questions about the son’s foreign business. of the Democratic candidate.
Still, Trump hopes that a fast-paced campaign program can help activate voters in the swing states he needs to win. The president plans three rallies in Pennsylvania on Monday, with a trip to Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska scheduled for Tuesday.
One advantage of Trump is that many Republican voters are not as concerned about Covid-19. A CBS poll released on Sunday showed that in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, only 12-15% of potential Trump voters said they were “very concerned” about contracting the virus.
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