From Wuhan to the White House

Just when we thought it couldn’t get any crazier, it did. It was a week ago tonight that President Trump tweeted that he and the First Lady tested positive for Covid 19. This after he returned from a private fund raiser at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey after he found out that Hope Hicks, one of his top and closest advisors, tested positive for the virus. Of course, there were very few masks and little social distancing at the event. The next evening it was off to the hospital after Trump needed oxygen at the White House. We were told very little by his personal doctor, Dr. Sean Conley, who looked like a doctor from an old daytime soap opera. He was clearly overwhelmed by the moment and following Trump’s orders to reveal as little as possible about his condition. There were pictures from the hospital with Trump posing at a table pretending to be writing sometime on a blank piece of paper with the oversized black marker he uses to sign all his Executive Orders. He didn’t hold up the paper as he usually does.

Then there was the return of the king to his palace carefully timed to preempt all the network newscasts. The dramatic presidential helicopter sweeping him back where he belongs. The puffing walk up the White House stairs to the Truman Balcony for maybe these most embarrassing photo op in presidential history. He takes off his mask. He adjusts his suit coat. Stared defiantly over the South Lawn, and then saluted! What was he saluting? The helicopter? It was yet another example of the damaged human being who’s running the country. Then he does a couple of takes for the White House videographer to get just the right shot of him re-entering the White House to potentially infect more people.

We all now know almost two dozen top White House aides and campaign staff are infected. The White House has guys in hazmat suits spraying the inside of the White House. The place is a hot zone. People are afraid to go inside. The top military leaders of the country are in quarantine after being exposed at White House events. Of course, Trump doesn’t think rules are for him. He’s working in the Oval Office with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and another staffer who have to wear PPE. He’s outside the White House recording video about how great he feels and how it was a “gift from God” that he got the virus. He wants everyone to get the same expensive treatment he got for free. He was looking forward to the Town Hall style debate with Joe Biden next week in Miami when he believes he’ll be over the virus. The Commission on Presidential Debates has now ruined his return to the debate stage by saying next week’s debate will be virtual. Voters will be in a room in Miami. Trump and Biden will be Zooming in. No way says Trump. You can’t debate in front of a computer. They could mute me.

There’s real questions about the value of these debates. The first presidential debate was a train wreck that just showed how unbalanced and dangerous Trump is. The candidates don’t answer the questions and ignore the moderators. The highlight of last night’s vice presidential debate was the fly that managed to stay of Vice President Pence’s head for over two minutes before he lost interest.

The New England Journal of Medicine has been around since 1812. It has never taken a position in a presidential election. Even they can’t take it anymore. They’ve published an editorial “Dying in a Leadership Vacuum” condemning Trump’s failed response to the pandemic calling it “astonishing” saying, “We have failed at almost every step.” In less than a year, the virus that Trump intentionally played down and said would go away when the weather got warmer has gone from an animal at a market in Wuhan, China to the White House. Twenty six days until Election Day.