President Trump is back on campaign trail less than 2 weeks after contracting COVID-19. Thousands joined their hands to support the Republican in an outdoor rally in Sanford, Florida from where he will start a 3-week campaign to secure another four years in White House. A defiant Trump has returned to the first of four planned stops over the next couple of days in battleground states totally alienated by the fact that the pandemic has taken lives of 215,000 US citizens. Making a frantic push to the November’s re-election, Trump mocked former VP Joe Biden over social distancing measures painting a very different picture of nation’s response to pandemic. A three-week quest before the final bout could prove as super-spreader of COVID-19.
“I feel so powerful, I’ll walk into that audience. I’ll walk in there, I’ll kiss everyone in that audience,” Trump said in Sanford, Florida, showing his illness did not teach him to respect his own government’s pandemic guidelines. “I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women and the — everybody. I’ll just give everybody a big, fat kiss.”
The Republican participating in his first rally to mark the return form his own bout with coronavirus, is facing a not very pleasant situation in a bid to save his Presidency. Sliding poll numbers are raising alarms as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel recently cautioned the party that Democrats are “on fire”. On Monday, the former spoke in the swing state of Ohio. Polls suggest that the Democrat challenger Biden has a 10-point lead over Trump nationally. However, the overall the overall margin of lead in some key battlegrounds is narrower like in Florid where the former VP is 3.7 points ahead according to the numbers given by Real Clear Politics.
The Key states like the “Sunshine State” will have a big role for obtaining 270 electoral college votes required to win the WH. Just winning the popular vote may not be enough as it was for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Trump who tested positive for Coronavirus some 11 days ago was flown to Walter Reed Medical Center a day later after the diagnosis. But on Sunday his personal physician confirmed he was not contagious anymore and on Monday revealed that his most recent COVID-19 profile showed negative results.
Trump fed off on the usual chants of “Four more years!” as huge crowd rallied around him. During his hour-long stage show, President rammed through his favorite political attacks from law and order to his claims about voting discrepancies.
“(Biden) may be the worst presidential candidate in history and I got him,” Trump said, despite a series of latest polls showing him trailing by double digits to the former VP and down in most swing states, though by a narrow lead.
Biden
On Monday in Ohio, the Democrat took the platform to use Barrett nomination as a last ditch bid by President to exterminate the Obamacare completely.
“In the middle of this pandemic, why do Republicans have time to hold a hearing on the Supreme Court instead of providing the significant economic need for localities?” Biden asked. “I’ll tell you why. It’s about finally getting his wish to wipe out the Affordable Care Act.”
Biden also blasted Trump for his reckless conduct since his diagnosis and mocking the very serious threat posed by him, saying: “The longer Donald Trump is president the more reckless he seems to get.”
Trump: Crowds are “the real polls”
As thousands gathered to support their president in the big, outdoor show of power, three weeks ahead of the Election Day, the rally looked like any other of Trump’s big campaign events. Despite coming up with a botched-up strategy on COVID-19, Trump claimed to have save millions of American lives. In front of a packed-crowd, the unhinged President in his usual demagogic tone criticized his Democratic rival for organizing socially distanced campaign events.
“They only have the circles because that’s the only way they can fill up the room,” the President said, ignoring his own large and boisterous crowd that flouts every government guideline to stem the virus and saying: “These are the real polls.”
Medical experts have expressed their worries and disapproval of president’s decision to sanction crowds fearing that the actions will worsen the pandemic numbers as the nation goes into Elections.
“I promise you, the virus is there, whether it is an indoor event or an outdoor event in these large gatherings,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of health policy and preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University on CNN’s Erin Burnett “OutFront,” adding that the scenes of Republican’s rally made him “weep.”
“Some of those people will become sick, they will spread it to others when they get home and they will become sick. These are accelerator events that promote the distribution of the virus,” Schaffner said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top scientist and expert on infectious diseases cautioned that rallies like the one held by Trump in Florida on Monday are “asking for trouble.”
“Because when you look at what is going on in the United States, it is really very troublesome,” Fauci was talking to Jake Tapper of CNN. The doctor issued an even more stark warning about the deadly disease is again raising it head in 31 states.
“I think we’re facing a whole lot of trouble,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, referring to COVID-19 cases which have recently increased to over 50,000 a day.
“That’s a bad place to be when you’re going into the cooler weather of the fall and the colder weather of the winter,” Fauci said.
