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US President Donald Trump will deliver a public address at the White House today 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.
He also announced a rally in Florida on Monday in an attempt to relaunch his shaky re-election campaign against his Democratic rival Joe Biden, who called the president’s behavior “reckless.”
Seeking to project strength and improve health, Trump declined to participate in the debate scheduled for next week after organizers switched it to an online format due to concerns about the coronavirus.
The Presidential Debate Committee has said that next Thursday’s debate has been scrapped, leaving an Oct. 22 event as the final showdown between Trump and Biden before Election Day on Nov. 3.
That prompted allegations 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.
Yesterday, 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.
Today’s speech, which a senior administration official said would be on Trump’s favorite “law and order” topic, will give him an opportunity 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.
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.
After Trump spent months mocking Biden for staying home during the pandemic, it is Biden who has assaulted swing states this week.
He visited Arizona on Thursday and campaigned in Nevada yesterday. President Trump won both states in 2016, but they are now narrowly tipping the Democrats in the polls.
At a drive-in event in Las Vegas, Biden criticized the president.
“His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis, the destabilizing effect he’s having on our government, is inconceivable,” he 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.”
Yesterday, Trump gave a lengthy interview to right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh in which he said that 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’
Trump also appeared in his first televised interview since he was 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 up by statements from the presidential physician, Dr. 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.
“Today I’m talking to you 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 unveiled plans for a commission to investigate a president’s suitability for the job, a move clearly intended to hit Trump.
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