The headline is an apocryphal Winston Churchill quote that he absolutely should have said. Meanwhile, the Dear Leader propaganda tweets about the bathrobe campaign, and pictures of Trump signing blank documents in hospital have a “show mercy for this parental murderer, your honor, my client’s an orphan” feel to it.
Probably the most irresponsible behavior of the Trump campaign is happening right now as they refuse to change their irresponsible behavior after seeing where it leads. And as it happens, it was predictable.
Andrew Joseph/STATNews:
We here at STAT are health and science reporters, not political journalists. We’ll leave the crystal-ball gazing and electoral insights to others. Still, a number of infections have been confirmed among people who were at the White House’s Barrett event and who were involved in the Trump team’s debate preparation. With a month before the election, debates scheduled, and a campaign that was already hinging on the coronavirus pandemic, we’ll just say that, yep, Trump’s Covid-19 could have an impact.
Dr. Conley and the WH spin are not going down well:
Reuters (post hospitalization):
Biden leads by 10 points as majority of Americans say Trump could have avoided coronavirus: Reuters/Ipsos poll
Most Americans continue to be deeply worried about the virus, and the poll found that 65%, including 9 in 10 registered Democrats and 5 in 10 registered Republicans, agreed that “if President Trump had taken coronavirus more seriously, he probably would not have been infected.”
Only 34% said they thought that Trump has been telling them the truth about the coronavirus, while 55% said that he was not and 11% were unsure.
Of those polled, 57% of Americans said they disapproved of Trump’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic overall, up about 3 points from a poll that ran late last week.
Katherine Eban/Vanity Fair:
“I Don’t Give a Shit About That”: Inside the White House, Cavalier Disregard Created a COVID Petri Dish
President Trump created a workplace culture that mostly matched his public efforts to dismiss, downplay, and distort the COVID-19 pandemic. There was just one difference: a rigorous daily testing regimen that the vast majority of Americans could only dream of
From early on in the coronavirus response, visitors to the White House and to health agencies responding to the crisis were stunned to find themselves at meetings where health protocols were rarely followed. At a meeting at the Federal Emergency Management Agency in late March, participants were crowded into a room. “It didn’t feel like they were practicing social distancing,” one meeting participant recalled. “No one was wearing masks.”
Gabe Sherman/Vanity Fair:
“THIS IS SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL”: ALLIES PANIC ABOUT TRUMP’S HOSPITAL STAY AS WHITE HOUSE DEFLECTS
The White House’s history of lying makes it difficult to assess the truth of Trump’s condition. But allies are bracing for an election blowout, and at least one G-7 nation is predicting president Ivanka.
Inside Trumpworld, the shock of Trump’s hospitalization is giving way to despair about his prospects in the upcoming election. “They all know it’s over,” a Republican close to the campaign said. “This is spiraling out of control,” a former West Wing official said. Some Trump allies are entertaining conspiracy theories that the White House outbreak was caused by someone with political motives. “It’s weird that all these Republicans are getting it,” a prominent Republican told me. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on. But one thing I’ve learned is: when something major happens thirty days before an election, it usually has to do with the election.” (There is no evidence for this wild claim).
NY Times:
‘If He Doesn’t Win Ohio, It’s Over’: Trump Slips in the Heartland
Four years ago, the president easily won Ohio by building a balanced coalition among white voters across educational lines. But his support has waned since then, particularly in the suburbs.
“If he doesn’t win Ohio, it’s over,” David Cohen, a political scientist at the University of Akron, said in an interview. He noted that Mr. Trump had traveled to Ohio several times last month, holding rallies in white, working-class areas in a tacit acknowledgment of how badly he’ll need the state in order to eke out an Electoral College victory.
“If you think about it, why the heck is he spending any time in Ohio in September, in a state that he won by over eight points?” Dr. Cohen said. “The only answer is that he and his campaign know that he’s in trouble.”
NBC/WSJ (pre-hospitalization):
Biden's national lead over Trump jumps to 14 points after debate in NBC News/WSJ poll
Joe Biden's lead has nearly doubled since Tuesday's debate with voters saying by a 2-to-1 margin that he has the better temperament to be president.
“The clear loser from the debate was Donald Trump,” said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.
“And at least for the short term, this has damaged his standing against Joe Biden,” Horwitt added.
But McInturff, the GOP pollster, cautions that the survey could represent a “shock to the system” right after a consequential debate. (Democrats, for instance, hold a 9-point advantage in party identification in this poll, compared with 5- to 6-point advantages in past ones.)
And as a result, McInturff believes that the race could return to the stable 8- to 9-point margin where it’s essentially been over the last several months — which is still a difficult place for an incumbent four weeks before Election D
Robin Givhan/WaPo:
Trump’s refusal to wear face masks turned them into a sad national symbol
The mask, with its ever-shifting and broadening meaning, speaks to just how exhausting it has become to be a citizen in 2020 when every single day — indeed, every hour — is a test of emotional stamina and the power of prayer.
The mask reminds us of how relentless the coronavirus remains as the U.S. death toll surpasses 208,000. The virus finds its way through concentric circles of testing, hand sanitizer and denial. The mask represents safety and community. We wish Trump and others affected by covid-19 a speedy recovery, but the president’s nearly constant refusal to wear a mask in public despite medical guidance to do so conjures up a vision of karmic revenge. It signifies discomforting comeuppance for the would-be bully who mocked former vice president Joe Biden’s adherence to medical protocol. It makes the ugliness of our partisan schadenfreude plain and marks the slow chipping away of our humanity as we go to war over face coverings.