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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will resume the campaign in person on Saturday (October 10) after being sidelined by a COVID-19 case, but a debate against his election opponent was canceled next week. Presidential Joe Biden.
Trump will address a crowd of supporters Saturday from a White House balcony on a “law and order” issue, an administration official said. A source familiar with planning the event said the crowd could number in the hundreds and all were expected to wear masks.
The Republican president will travel to central Florida on Monday, a state critical to his hopes of winning a second term in the November 3 election.
He will host his first campaign rally at an airport in the city of Sanford, less than two weeks after he tested positive for COVID-19. The campaign did not reveal whether it would take place in a hangar with the doors open, as it has in the past, or completely outside.
LEE: Trump says he will not make a virtual debate with Biden
As the president prepared to get back on track, the body that oversees presidential debates said the showdown between Trump and Biden, the Democratic nominee, scheduled for Oct. 15 was formally canceled.
Trump declined to participate in what was supposed to be the second of three debates with Biden after the Presidential Debate Committee changed it to a virtual contest in the wake of the president’s illness.
The final debate on October 22 is still scheduled to take place.
US President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden participate in their first debate on the 2020 presidential campaign on September 29, 2020 (Photo: REUTERS / Brian Snyder).
Questions remain as to whether Trump, who announced on October 2 that he had the coronavirus and spent three nights in a military hospital, is still contagious.
In an appearance on Fox News Friday night, Trump said he was retested for coronavirus, but did not reveal the result. He also said that he had stopped taking medications to combat it. “I feel very strong,” Trump said.
The disease has prevented him from holding public rallies and attending fundraising events at a critical time in the campaign. Follow Biden in opinion polls with just weeks before the election.
Attendees of the Florida rally will receive a temperature check, masks that they will be encouraged to wear and access to hand sanitizers, the campaign said.
Biden harshly criticized Trump’s decision to resume the campaign. “Good luck. I wouldn’t show up unless you have a mask and can distance yourself,” he told reporters in Paradise, Nevada.
READ: Trump’s eyes return to rallies Saturday after doctor says COVID-19 therapy was completed
Trump and his administration have faced criticism for their handling of the pandemic, as well as a lax approach to wearing masks and social distancing in the White House and mixed messages about how ill the president has been.
At least 11 people who attended an event at the White House on Sept. 26, where Trump announced Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, have since tested positive.
US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House after returning from hospitalization at Walter Reed Medical Center. (Photo: Reuters)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, called it a “super-spread event” on Friday.
“It was in a situation where people were crowded together, they weren’t wearing masks. So the data speaks for itself,” Fauci told CBS Radio.
Nine cases of COVID-19 have also been linked to a Trump rally in Bemidji, Minnesota, on Sept. 18, the state health department said on Friday, according to local media.
White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said the president was eager to resume the campaign, but would do so safely.
“He wants to talk to the American people and he wants to be there,” he told Fox News.
“Medical tests are underway that will ensure that when the president retires he will not be able to transmit the virus,” added McEnany.
READ: Trump ‘Symptom Free’ in Oval Office, Says Catching COVID-19 Was ‘Gods Blessing’
With Trump’s handling of the pandemic dominating the campaign, a new Reuters / Ipsos poll showed Americans steadily losing confidence in how he has handled the health crisis, with their net approval on the issue reaching a new low.
McEnany is one of a number of Trump aides, including his campaign manager, who tested positive in the past week as the coronavirus spread within the White House and the Trump campaign.
FILE PHOTO: People line up to cast their votes for the upcoming presidential election when early voting begins in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 6, 2020 (Photo: REUTERS / Megan Jelinger).
Biden has continued to campaign through Trump’s illness, spending the day in Las Vegas, Nevada.
At a self-service rally attended by people in vehicles, Biden criticized Trump for careless behavior since he became infected with the virus.
“His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis, the destabilizing effect he is having on our government, is inconceivable. He did not take the necessary precautions to protect himself or others. And the longer Donald Trump is president, the more reckless he becomes, “said Biden, who delivered the entire speech in a surgical mask and trademark aviator sunglasses.
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