Trump’s tweet interrupting talks for a new round of stimulus spooked Wall Street, causing stocks to tumble as much as 2% from their session highs and clouding one of the metrics the Republican president has touted as a sign of his success.
Along with Democrat Biden, the former vice president he will face in the Nov.3 U.S. election, Congressional Democrats and some Republicans criticized Trump, saying more was needed to help the millions who have lost their jobs in a crisis. in which the United States leads the world in deaths and infections.
“The president turned his back on him,” Biden said in a Twitter post.
On Tuesday night, Trump, in a series of tweets, urged Congress to quickly pass $ 25 billion in funding for passenger airlines, $ 135 billion for small businesses, and provide $ 1,200 stimulus checks for Americans. “I’m ready to sign right now,” Trump wrote.
Trump, 74, returned to the White House on Monday after spending three nights in a hospital for treatment for the new coronavirus. His doctor said Tuesday that Trump reported no symptoms of COVID-19 and that he was “extremely well.”
But the disease continues to spread among Trump’s top advisers, and White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller said he tested positive Tuesday.
Top US military leaders are also isolating themselves after Coast Guard No. 2 tested positive for the disease, Pentagon officials said.
Officials said Trump was working out of a makeshift office space in the residence rather than in the Oval Office, and that few high-level officials had face-to-face access exactly four weeks before the U.S. election in which he seeks a second. mandate.
In his first major political pronouncement since leaving the hospital, Trump suspended talks with Democratic lawmakers on coronavirus relief legislation until after the election, even as cases are on the rise across much of the country.
“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major stimulus bill that focuses on working Americans and small businesses,” Trump wrote on Twitter .
Despite Trump’s bravado, support for Biden has grown about 4 percentage points since mid-September, according to a Reuters / Ipsos poll from Friday to Tuesday, with 52% of likely voters backing Biden versus him. 40% Trump.
Speaking in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of America’s Civil War, Biden said the country was experiencing a “total and relentless partisan war” and, without naming Trump, criticized his handling of the disease. .
“Wearing a mask is not a political statement. It is a scientific recommendation,” he said, alluding to Trump’s reluctance to wear a mask even after falling ill. Upon his return to the White House, Trump removed his mask to pose for photos.
‘FORGET HIM’
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed Trump’s comment, saying he would lose the election and that Congress would pass a stimulus during the “lame duck” session when a president awaits the replacement of his successor.
“Forget about him. Four weeks, six, seven hours from now, lame duck,” he said in an online conversation Tuesday night with journalist Jonathan Capehart, using a term that also denotes growing powers. scarce from an outgoing president.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins, in a fierce battle for reelection in Maine, called Trump’s decision to end the talks a “big mistake.”
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said he agreed with Trump, telling reporters that “his opinion was that they were not going to produce a result and that we should focus on what can be achieved. “.
Democrats’ chances of winning a Senate majority increased in recent days when three nonpartisan U.S. election analysts added Lindsey Graham’s South Carolina seat to the list of what is now 10 Senate seats, which includes eight potentially vulnerable Republicans and two vulnerable Democrats.
Republicans have a 53-47 majority in that chamber.
McConnell plans to focus on pushing for the confirmation of Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, who would cement a 6-3 conservative majority.
DOWNPLAYS RISK
Trump, who said on Friday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus after months of downplaying the deadly infection, continued to downplay it and received reprimands from Facebook and Twitter for spreading misinformation.
“Many people every year, sometimes more than 100,000, and despite the vaccine, die from the flu. Are we going to close our country? No, we have learned to live with it, just as we are learning to live with Covid , in most populations they are much less lethal !!! “Trump wrote on Twitter and Facebook.
Twitter Inc responded by placing a warning label on the post, saying it contained potentially misleading information. Facebook Inc removed Trump’s post for violating its rules on COVID-19 misinformation, according to CNN.
The United States has the highest death toll in the world from the pandemic, with more than 210,000 deaths. By comparison, influenza generally kills between 22,000 and 64,000 people a year in the United States, as US government statistics show.
Anthony Fauci, the US government’s leading infectious disease expert, said the White House rash of infections could have been prevented.
“Take a look at what happened this week in the White House … Every day more infected people appear,” he told the American University’s Kennedy Political Union in an interview broadcast on the Internet. “That could have been avoided.”
Trump, who has not been seen in public since Monday night and has no public events scheduled for Wednesday, tweeted that he was expecting a second debate with Biden scheduled for Oct. 15 in Miami.
Biden told reporters, however, that if Trump “still has COVID, we shouldn’t have a debate.”
“President Trump will be healthy and he will be there,” said Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh. “There is no way out of this for Biden.”
This story was published from a news agency feed with no changes to the text. Only the title has been changed.
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