Published 12:07 IST, October 3rd 2020
As Trump tests COVID positive, campaign events either cancelled or moved to virtual
Stepien had also tested positive to the coronavirus hours after President Trump and First Lady did, a campaign official told local US broadcasts' sources.
After the US President Donald Trump’s diagnosis that turned back positive to the novel coronavirus, the Trump campaign postponed events, or either, will have it held virtually, campaign manager Bill Stepien said. This comes as Stepien had also tested positive to the coronavirus hours after President Trump and First Lady did, a campaign official told sources of US broadcaster Fox. As even Trump’s campaign manager suffered “mild flu-like symptoms,” and Trump was rushed to Walter Reed Medical Center, as an “abundance of caution” the in-person re-election events have now all been temporarily postponed.
“Trump’s main advantages, including incumbency, have been removed. Rallies, his main vehicle for mobilizing his base, will no longer be possible. Fly-bys with Air Force One as a backdrop is gone,” AP quoted the Republican strategist Rick Tyler, a frequent Trump critic as saying.
In a presser, the White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that US President was experiencing some of the “mild symptoms” from the virus, but was, in fact, “feeling good.” In a statement, the campaign manager announced that all campaign events involving the president's participation were in the process of being moved to a virtual one, meanwhile, they could also be “temporarily postponed” in the wake of the President’s positive diagnosis of the COVID-19. The events, Stepien added, will be considered on a case-by-case basis and the relevant announcement would be made in days ahead. However, the Trump campaign said that the Vice President, Mike Pence, who tested negative for COVID-19, will continue to deliver his schedule and will hold the reelection campaign trail.
“This is not a matter of politics. It’s a bracing reminder to all of us,” AP quoted Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden as saying in Grand Rapids, calling for a nationwide mask mandate. "We have to take this virus seriously," he added.
“Going into crowds unmasked and all the rest was sort of a brazen invitation for this to happen,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said live on televised MSNBC address.
Trump's infection symptomatic
On October 1, the US president and first lady announced, just before 1 a.m. that they had tested positive to the coronavirus following the positive diagnosis of Trump’s close adviser Hope Hicks. “We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately," the US president tweeted, adding, that the first lady Melania Trump and he will “get through this together.”White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in a televised press conference said that as the President continues to assume his duties out of his residence, the White House staff is ensuring his health and safety and welfare is good.
Meadows said that the US President not only “continues to be in good spirits, but was very energetic.” Although he said, Trump does have some mild symptoms, indicating that the President was symptomatic towards the infections. However, in a televised address, the Trump campaign advisor said that shortly today US President's condition was in fact worrisome. That the president has been having some "trouble breathing", that he's been "very fatigued today, very tired".
Updated 12:07 IST, October 3rd 2020