Murder/Suicide by Nancy Ohanian Wisconsin is pandemic-central right now. Thursday, the state reported 2,887 new cases, third most in the country after Texas and California, both with far bigger populations. Friday, while the media was reporting on the Trump family's COVID-ity, Wisconsin reported 2,745 more cases, bringing the state's total to 127,906-- a very rapidly rising 21,968 cases per million residents. And the center of the contagion, Green Bay, where Trump's rally was scheduled for today. He had also scheduled a rally in La Crosse today, but Mayor Tim Kabat told him to fuck off and he moved the rally to Janesville, Paul Ryan's hometown, where the mayor also asked him not tp come. Late Thursday Wisconsinites breathed a sigh of relief when Trump's disease announcement and quarantine caused all his appearances to be cancelled. Rich Republican donors in New Jersey Thursday weren't as lucky. I wonder how many will be joining Herman Cain now. Reporting for the Daily Beast, Jamie Ross wrote that "Just hours before President Trump announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19, he was mingling with fundraisers at an event held at his New Jersey golf club—and even posed for personal photo-ops with supporters. The event went ahead after the White House learned that one of the president’s closest aides, Hope Hicks, had tested positive for the disease, according to multiple reports... Trump reportedly delivered a droplet-spraying speech. According to the Washington Post, Trump didn’t wear a mask at the golf club, or on the plane back to Washington, D.C. The president then tested positive after he had returned to the White House." The White House had plenty of time after learning of Hicks' diagnosis on Wednesday night to cancel or postpone the Bedminster event but all they did was reduce the size of the staff that would be attending and left the wealthy New Jersey Trumpists to their fates. (This was around the time they learned that RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel is also sick with COVID.) Ross reported that "The event may have exposed dozens of people to the virus and adds to a long list of people who have had recent contact with Hicks or Trump who may now need to isolate. They include a large contingent from Trump’s family who traveled to Tuesday night’s debate in Ohio together. Hicks was also seen boarding Marine One on Wednesday with President Trump and senior White House advisers Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller.
The fact that the Bedminster event went ahead despite Hicks’ symptomatic case has been met with stunned disbelief. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said: “The fact that the president still went, knowing he’d had very close contact with somebody who’d tested positive, is irresponsible.” Reporters also voiced their incredulity at the fact that press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who has also been in contact with Hicks, held a news briefing at the White House on Thursday and didn’t wear a mask. Neither Hicks’ symptoms or rest were mentioned at the briefing. CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins asked: “Why did the president still go to New Jersey, knowing that he could potentially put these people at risk, these donors and fundraisers? And of course, why did the press secretary still hold a briefing despite knowing she had come into contact with somebody who had just tested positive for coronavirus?” Although a Trump rally scheduled for Friday in Florida was canceled after his positive test result, some events are still being pushed as if there’s a chance of them going ahead. Early Friday, an email went out to Trump supporters for a Texas rally next week which touted a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enter to win a trip to meet your favorite president.”
Jonathan Martin, Maggie Haberman and Matt Stevens reported for the NY Times that the conornavirus diagnosis "upended the presidential race in an instant, inviting significant questions about his cavalier attitude toward the pandemic and the future of his campaign just 32 days before the election... [H]is personal indifference toward the virus could threaten his own health, the stability of the country and his already dimming hopes for re-election... 'It’s hard to imagine this doesn’t end his hopes of re-election,' said Rob Stutzman, a Republican consultant, pointing to Mr. Trump’s 'flouting of obvious precautions.'"
It’s almost certain that the remaining two debates between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden will be canceled or drastically changed. The next one is scheduled for less than two weeks from now, on Oct. 15, and medical guidance would most likely keep the president isolated until then. And after having gone forward with the rallies he craves, despite rules against large gatherings in many states, Mr. Trump will not be able to leave Washington during a final, crucial stretch of the campaign. Moreover, one of his central arguments against Mr. Biden, that the 77-year-old former vice president is enfeebled and unfit to lead the country, has now been undermined by questions about the president’s own health. “Trump is now in the position of becoming exhibit No. 1 for the failure of his leadership on coronavirus, and he runs the risk that his supporters will feel misled by his dismissiveness of the virus and the need for precautions,” said Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster. ...[I]n private conversations, members of his staff were also candid that the president has comorbidities that could make him more susceptible to a severe bout of the virus. ...On Tuesday, at his first debate with Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump ridiculed his opponent, a fellow septuagenarian, for his precautions. “I don’t wear masks like him,” the president said. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from it. And he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.” Even on Thursday, after his close aide Hope Hicks was showing symptoms of the virus, Mr. Trump delivered remarks from the White House for the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in which he insisted falsely that “the end of the pandemic is in sight.”
Alex Gibney's new documentary, Totally Under Control, focusses on Donald's completely, dosgracefully failed response to the pandemic and how it didn't haveto be that way. It comes out in mid-October. Here's the trailer: