WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump’s teenage son Barron has contracted the coronavirus, first lady Melania Trump revealed Wednesday in shocking news that underscores how much the Republican president is struggling to divert attention from the coronavirus pandemic in stages. late in his fight for reelection.
Melania Trump wrote in a statement that after she and the president tested positive for Covid-19 two weeks ago, “naturally my mind immediately went to our son.”
He said the 14-year-old, who attends a private school near Washington, had no symptoms and has tested negative since.
However, the news, which had been kept under wraps despite worldwide attention to Trump’s own health, brought public attention to refocus firmly on the pandemic and, in particular, an outbreak within the White House. supposedly highly safe for the past two weeks.
Trump, who spent three nights in the hospital but returned to a pre-election rally schedule Monday, has been trying to steer voters away from the issue in the last 20 days of his campaign against Democratic leader Joe Biden.
“Barron is fine,” Trump told reporters at the White House as he left for another rally in Iowa, abruptly switching to his preferred subject of the long-awaited confirmation by Senate Republicans of his conservative Supreme Court candidate Amy Coney. Barrett.
On Thursday, Trump and Biden will duel in unusual ways when they hold separate but simultaneous town hall events on major television networks.
The primetime appearances were arranged after a face-to-face debate between Trump and Biden on Thursday was scrapped in the wake of Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis.
Trump negotiated to go to NBC on an outdoor stage in Miami after Biden had hosted his own ABC event in Philadelphia.
In the past, Trump has seemed uncomfortable in city hall settings where ordinary voters ask questions. But as a former reality show star and an avid fan of ratings, the president will at least be interested in attracting a larger audience than Biden.
The two were supposed to have gathered on stage for their second debate Thursday in a town hall format where the two candidates would have answered questions from voters.
However, in an unprecedented decision, the organizers of the debate said they wanted to switch to a virtual format for security reasons after Trump contracted the coronavirus. When he rejected the new conditions, the debate was suspended.
NBC said it had received a statement from the clinical director of the National Institutes of Health, Anthony Fauci, that there was “a high degree of confidence” that Trump is now “not spreading infectious viruses.”
Trump and the NBC host will be socially estranged at the outdoor venue and the audience will wear masks, NBC added.
Biden has run frequent coronavirus tests and reported negative results since Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis on Oct. 1.
The first of three scheduled presidential debates was widely criticized for descending into an angry shouting match when Trump attempted to inflict a belated wound on the Biden campaign.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Trump accused Biden of “choking like a dog” during the debate and unleashed a tirade of lurid insults at his rival, mentally calling him “triggered.”
“He can’t stand up to the lunatics running his party,” Trump told the rowdy crowd in Johnstown.
Continuing his long-standing narrative that Biden, 77, is too fragile for the presidency, Trump, 74, tweeted a grossly false image that he purported to show Biden in a wheelchair.
The attack came as Biden stepped up his own courtship of the senior vote of the elderly, saying at an event at a Florida retirement center Tuesday that Trump “has never focused on you.”
“His handling of this pandemic has been erratic, as has his presidency,” he said.
The coronavirus has claimed more than 215,000 lives in the United States, and Trump’s handling of the crisis is met with the disapproval of more than two-thirds of those surveyed.
An average of national polls from RealClearPolitics sent Biden up 9.8 points, with the Democrat leading Trump by substantial margins in half a dozen key states on the battlefield.
Melania Trump wrote in a statement that after she and the president tested positive for Covid-19 two weeks ago, “naturally my mind immediately went to our son.”
He said the 14-year-old, who attends a private school near Washington, had no symptoms and has tested negative since.
However, the news, which had been kept under wraps despite worldwide attention to Trump’s own health, brought public attention to refocus firmly on the pandemic and, in particular, an outbreak within the White House. supposedly highly safe for the past two weeks.
Trump, who spent three nights in the hospital but returned to a pre-election rally schedule Monday, has been trying to steer voters away from the issue in the last 20 days of his campaign against Democratic leader Joe Biden.
“Barron is fine,” Trump told reporters at the White House as he left for another rally in Iowa, abruptly switching to his preferred subject of the long-awaited confirmation by Senate Republicans of his conservative Supreme Court candidate Amy Coney. Barrett.
On Thursday, Trump and Biden will duel in unusual ways when they hold separate but simultaneous town hall events on major television networks.
The primetime appearances were arranged after a face-to-face debate between Trump and Biden on Thursday was scrapped in the wake of Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis.
Trump negotiated to go to NBC on an outdoor stage in Miami after Biden had hosted his own ABC event in Philadelphia.
In the past, Trump has seemed uncomfortable in city hall settings where ordinary voters ask questions. But as a former reality show star and an avid fan of ratings, the president will at least be interested in attracting a larger audience than Biden.
The two were supposed to have gathered on stage for their second debate Thursday in a town hall format where the two candidates would have answered questions from voters.
However, in an unprecedented decision, the organizers of the debate said they wanted to switch to a virtual format for security reasons after Trump contracted the coronavirus. When he rejected the new conditions, the debate was suspended.
NBC said it had received a statement from the clinical director of the National Institutes of Health, Anthony Fauci, that there was “a high degree of confidence” that Trump is now “not spreading infectious viruses.”
Trump and the NBC host will be socially estranged at the outdoor venue and the audience will wear masks, NBC added.
Biden has run frequent coronavirus tests and reported negative results since Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis on Oct. 1.
The first of three scheduled presidential debates was widely criticized for descending into an angry shouting match when Trump attempted to inflict a belated wound on the Biden campaign.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Trump accused Biden of “choking like a dog” during the debate and unleashed a tirade of lurid insults at his rival, mentally calling him “triggered.”
“He can’t stand up to the lunatics running his party,” Trump told the rowdy crowd in Johnstown.
Continuing his long-standing narrative that Biden, 77, is too fragile for the presidency, Trump, 74, tweeted a grossly false image that he purported to show Biden in a wheelchair.
The attack came as Biden stepped up his own courtship of the senior vote of the elderly, saying at an event at a Florida retirement center Tuesday that Trump “has never focused on you.”
“His handling of this pandemic has been erratic, as has his presidency,” he said.
The coronavirus has claimed more than 215,000 lives in the United States, and Trump’s handling of the crisis is met with the disapproval of more than two-thirds of those surveyed.
An average of national polls from RealClearPolitics sent Biden up 9.8 points, with the Democrat leading Trump by substantial margins in half a dozen key states on the battlefield.
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