Oh God, to be a fly on the wall of the White House and be able to do a split screen of what they’re saying next to one of what’s really going on. Mark Meadows let it slip on Fox News Saturday night that Trump’s oxygen level “had gone down rapidly” Friday morning and this was when he had a temperature of 103. So the initial lies and obfuscations about no oxygen have been refuted. But Meadows is doing a Trumpian spin on it all. To hear him tell it, it matters not that Trump the titan was felled, he got right back up, stronger than before. “In typical style this president was up and walking around,” said Meadows, and of course all the experts are dazzled at the kind of vigor that Trump displays. What a specimen. Geez louise. No wonder Mike Pence burns in the night for him. What a he man.
Then Trump went on Twitter Saturday, after he spoke to his new ad hoc press secretary, Rudy Giuliani, who put up a story in the New York Post about how fit as a fiddle and ready to play Donald Trump is — as if anybody in New York cares. The only logic one can ascribe to Giuliani’s motives is that he still has a few contacts left in New York from the old days who will still speak to him, so that was as big of a media scoop as he could arrange on short notice.
So with Twitter, Fox News, and the New York Post presenting Trump the dynamo, Trump the pillar of brute strength, Trump the bull pawing the ground wanting to get back out there on the campaign trail and win win win — but held back by those pussy over protective doctors — on the one side of our fictional split screen, here’s what it looks like from the other side. You decide which is real. Gabriel Sherman, Vanity Fair:
Two sources said doctors gave Trump an ultimatum: he could go to the hospital while he could still walk, or doctors would be forced to take him in a wheelchair or on a stretcher at a later point if his health deteriorated. “They told him, ‘You can go now or we’re taking you later and it’s non negotiable,’” a second source close to the White House said. Trump waited to leave for the hospital until the stock market closed on Friday, a source said.
After spending months denying the dangers of COVID-19, Trump is expressing an emotion aides have rarely seen: fear. On Friday, Trump grew visibly anxious as his fever spiked to 103 fahrenheit and he was administered oxygen at the White House, according to three Republicans close to the White House. Two sources told me Trump experienced heart palpitations on Friday night—possible side effects of the experimental antibody treatment he received. Trump has wondered aloud if he could defeat the disease. “Am I going out like Stan Chera?” Trump has asked aides, referring to his friend, New York real-estate developer Stan Chera, who died of COVID in April.
On Saturday, two sources said Trump was feeling better. But it is difficult to assess the information given the White House’s history of lying. According to a source, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has told Republicans that the next few days will be critical to determine the virus’s outcome. “Meadows has said if Trump can get out of the hospital by Tuesday, then he’s gone through the worst of it. But if he’s still there after Tuesday, the worst is yet to come,” the source told me.
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).
Sing it with me now,
“The worst is yet to come and babe won’t it be fiiiinne, the worst is yet to come, with Rethugs a’cryyyin;
We’ll get the senate back and won’t it be dee-viiiine, Schumer will pound the gavel in Mitch’s groinnne”
If this sounds hostile, or in poor taste, take a look at this tweet from Atlantic writer Norman Ornstein which nails it.
Note to Schumer: here is what McConnell would do if situation reversed. 53 D’s, 5 or more quarantined. Keep Senate in session, bring in all Rs, replace you as leader, change committee chairs, direct Sergeant at arms to bar entry to any with Covid, reject SCt nominee. Just sayin.
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) October 3, 2020
This is exactly the size of it. We can never lose sight of who we’re dealing with and what’s at stake. While I respect the hell out of Joe Biden pulling his attack ads for 14 days, we have to keep our wits about us and take advantage of this opportunity that the political gods have provided — because McConnell would and if you don’t think so, you are unconscious. Democrats are always the mark in the Republican poker game. That needs to stop now. I say we fight fire with fire, particularly on the SCOTUS nomination.
So, assuming he’s really sick but still alive, how does that affect the elections from a constitutional point of view?
If he’s too sick to function as POTUS he is obligated to turn the government over to Pence. How that affects the election, I don’t know. But I’m very sure that different scholars will be gaming out the various possibilities and the legality of each.
Yeah, they’re looking at 25th Amendment territory. But unless Himself dies, he’s still president until Jan 21. If he dies before the election, the RNC would have to name the replacement – but the name on the ballots would still be Trmp.
However, Biden is currently leading in the polls by as much as 10%.
Better to Repudiate Trumpism once and for all. Pence on the ticket won’t do that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuZgYATHO8w
SOME OF US HAVE ALREADY VOTED, FOR CRYING OUTOUD! ?
Quite a few of us, from what I understand.
WE have no intention of changing our vote anyway. But some of THEM who were intending to vote for Biden, might see a vote for Pence as a way to keep what they like about Trumpism, but without Trump.
For the Orange Howler Monkey to all of a sudden function as anything other than the 2 bit gangster he is, is sickly laughable.
Here’s how journalists should handle the CT nuts floating their “the Democrats did this” crap. Point out that when all those people were at the WH last Saturday for Barret’s nomination/”ha ha you liberals!” event it’s clear THAT was the super spreader event that’s kneecapping the GOP. Then hit them with a simple question – “How many DEMOCRATS” were even invited, much less went to the WH that day?” Because that’s what I’d do with anyone trying to slide that shit past me!
The only elected Democrat of note to catch it all year was Katie Porter and she made a full recovery. And she never stopped being careful the whole time, in contrast to the Masque of Jonestown over at Notre Dame.
Let’s hope it stays that way – only one of ours or at least only a few (odds are more will get it) have been infected. The talking point in the Party, to be hammered again and again all over the country when conservatives float CT is: There’s a reason why so many Republicans have been infected while almost no Democrats have. It’s because unlike you WE believe in science. And we listen to and follow the advice of actual experts. You know – people with decades of experience in infectious diseased, epidemiology and public health administration instead of some RADIOLOGIST that Trump liked hearing bash us on TV, Fox OPINION “journalists” and right wing talk radio hosts. WE listen to and follow the advice of real experts and try to get others to do so. YOU ignore those same experts, and listen to and follow the advice of Trump who has spent the entire time trying to convince everyone this virus that’s killed well over 200,000 Americans and infected well over 7 million and sometimes overwhelmed our hospitals to ignore real experts with experience in this type of thing. It’s either you don’t believe experts or are afraid to stand up to Trump, but either way WE wear masks and social distance whenever possible while most people in the GOP don’t do the things they should do and should have been doing. And you have gall to ask why YOU folks get sick and we don’t? The thing about scientific truth is that it’s real whether you believe in it or not.”
Amy Klobuchar’s husband had it and was seriously ill so that was close.
I don’t think it affects the election at all.
I’m torn about the politics part. I’m quite sure your Ornstein source was correct and that’s one of the reasons I am not a repub. I don’t think we should act like them. But some common sense rules aren’t a bad thing either. Keeping covid out of the house is one of them.
Ornstein’s point is that we should take advantage of a situation that McConnell would — and that McConnell IS! We wouldn’t be having this conversation but for the fact that McConnell decided to blow off the 2016 rule about letting the electorate vote on the new SCOTUS. We can’t be foolish about this. Using power blatantly for power’s sake is very bad form, but if it would save the supreme court as an institution, then I say go for it.
His completely-invented rule from 2016, that he amended this year to include party? They should blow that one off completely.
Funny, I thought Ornstein was just falling back on tired stereotypes on what Dems would never do.
Harry Reid was the best bare fisted fighter in the senate. Schumer should have gotten lessons.
You say this NOW, long after he’s been gone a while. But I clearly remember folks saying what a wimp he was when he was still around. The truth or lie of either statement, I’ll leave to history. But let us keep in mind William Blake’s assertion about how the past is the only corpse that smells sweet before succumbing to the siren call of nostalgia. It’s a terrible look, one we should leave to the doomed MAGA maggots.
Of course they did. Wen weldon’t get exactly what we anti immediately, we eat our own. ALWAYS.
Yawn…it’s such goddamn tired advice Ornstein is dispensing here, the kind of lynch mob philosophy that hasn’t learned a thing from their oppressors except how to imitate them. Joe SHOULD keep his hands clean while this is going on. Someone needs to be the grownup and he’s more than up to that job. WE, on the other hand, are under no such obligations and the Lincoln Project and Meidas are certainly going to keep pushing ahead. Gotta a feeling Joe won’t say boo about us and the GOP is too deep in “every man for himself and God against all” mode to have a unified defense.
sfdsfsdfgdfsg
Someone from the Lincoln project, I don’t remember the name, said that Biden should still keep running the negative ads because they are telling the truth. I think that is something to consider, to not stop telling the truth, even if it is ugly.
Do remember that the LP boys have got the ulterior motive of wanting to “show them all” mixed with certain delusions of grandeur and pet prejudices about how our party would be helpless without them. ALSO remember that without US, they’ve got no place to launch their little counter attacks from. They feel that strongly about it, they can do it themselves.
‘It’s weird that all these Republicans are getting it.”
REALLY?????? REALLY??????????
The level of delusion is gobsmacking!