Coronavirus on Trump: Will Trump’s Covid Infection Reduce Your Choice? – News

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced that he was infected with the corona virus and immediately isolated himself. According to his personal physician, Trump can fulfill his duties “without interruption.” But infection with Covid-19 will definitely have an impact on the election campaign in the United States, says former SRF USA correspondent Arthur Honegger.

Arthur honegger

Host of “10vor10” and former US correspondent SRF

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Arthur Honegger is a journalist and author. Before joining the “10vor10” team in 2015, he reported for more than seven years as a US correspondent, first from New York and then from Washington DC, where he also headed the SRG office. Arthur Honegger filmed much of his contributions himself, and also takes photos and writes with passion, from the tweet to the book.

Honegger has been with SRF since 2005, after studying journalism and political science, he completed his training as a television journalist and the Ringier School of Journalism. He is married and has two children.

SRF News: The election campaign in the US is in the hot phase. What are the concrete effects of the Donald Trump news? For example, are you expecting more discussions with your competitor Joe Biden?

Arthur Honegger: That is open, there are still 13 days until the next debate. If the disease progresses optimally, Trump could be healthy again by then. Still, I don’t think this second debate will go as planned. The audience is intended to be able to ask questions. Exposing citizens to possible contagion would be negligent. Joe Biden’s team, who is also at risk, will make sure he is protected as best as possible. Perhaps that is why a virtual format would be appropriate for the second and third debate. As for the rest of the campaign, as long as Trump is safe, he will keep the conversation going via Twitter and direct calls to TV shows.

How does the infection of the president of the United States affect the chances of election? Is that quite negative for him or can it also be positive, especially if he survives the infection with some degree of damage?

That depends entirely on how the disease progresses; nothing can be said about it yet. However, the most immediate consequence is clear: the Corona issue continues to dominate the electoral campaign. And dealing with the pandemic is the point that hurt Trump the most in the election campaign. Now the discussion is enriched by a chapter, it does not move to issues on which Trump can score, for example, security in cities, his economic history before Covid-19 or the election of a new conservative judge for the Supreme Court.

At the moment it is said that Donald Trump is in charge of his official business. What would happen now if you were incapacitated? When would Vice President Mike Pence take office?

The decision is up to the president. It has happened several times in history that vice has taken over, most recently in 2007 during a George W. Bush operation. If the president falls seriously ill but does not want to resign from his official functions, there is still the 25th amendment to the constitution. Based on this, the vice president can decide with the majority of the cabinet that the president is unable to hold office and then take office.

What would that mean for the election campaign and elections?

Mike Pence is like Donald Trump nominated by the party’s congress; in this sense, he has the same standing as a candidate. Depending on the course of Trump’s illness, voters in the U.S. will know whether they will vote for a Trump presidency on November 3 or de facto for a penny presidency, regardless of the name at the top of the ballot.

The wildest rumors are circulating on the Internet: this is how the infection is supposed to be organized. What do you think about that?

Nothing at all. It is not so easy to stage a disease of this type: there would have to be a large number of people involved, both medical specialists and the highest officials. The risk of dizziness coming to light would be too great. The most important thing now is that citizens are correctly informed about the President’s state of health.

In the past, this was often overlooked, for example, in the Kennedy era. What can be said with certainty: Donald Trump will receive the best medical care there is. Therefore, it is to be hoped that he will soon be healthy again and can contest the final in the electoral campaign.

The interview was conducted by Matthias Schmid.