"I don’t wear a mask like him [Biden.] Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from him and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen."
Donald Trump, mocking Biden at the Tuesday debate.
Donald Trump has his message. Masks are for wimps.
The October Surprise is COVID's message.
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| Ivanka Trump at the Debate. She refused a mask. |
The COVID virus has spread throughout the Trump White House inner circle, and beyond. Both Donald and Melania Trump caught the virus. Campaign manager Bill Stepien caught it. Advisor Hope Hicks, Advisor Kellyanne Conway, and RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel caught it. The President of Notre Dame, John Jenkins, Senator Mike Lee, and Senator Tom Tillis, who attended a Rose Garden event with the President, all caught it. Mike Lee brought it to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he didn't wear a mask. We will see what happens there.
Trump and his entourage held a big fundraiser in New Jersey, even after they knew they were exposed to Hope Hicks. They didn't wear masks and they didn't mention Hope Hicks to the guests.
There had been protocols in place at the Tuesday debate requiring those in attendance, including the family members, to wear masks. Fox anchor Chris Wallace reported that the First Family removed their masks on entering and refused to wear them. He said, "A health person from the Cleveland Clinic came up to the first family when they were seated and offered them masks in case they didn’t have them, and they were waved away."
Trump is defining the Republican message on the virus and what to do about it.
1. The virus is all China's fault. Blame them.
2. It really isn't that bad and the only people at risk are people already sick.
3. Don't inconvenience yourself with masks, social distancing, economic slowdown or school closures, because the cure is worse than the disease.
4. Masks are wimpy and a product of government nanny state over-reach, and you should be free not to bother. He doesn't. His family doesn't. His rally crowds don't.
Trump planted his flag. He is a mask skeptic. He is for freedom.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden, upon the news of Trump's COVID diagnosis, urged all Americans to wear a mask in public and called for a "national mask mandate." He called Trump's diagnosis,"a bracing reminder to all of us that we have to take this virus seriously. It’s not going away automatically….The news is a reminder that we as a nation need to do better in dealing with this pandemic.”
Biden planted his flag.
The October Surprise may have already happened, the Tuesday debate. Trump's manner exposed him as a civic vandal, disrupting an American tradition. He was the crying infant on the plane, the cougher at the concert, the dog that won't stop barking, and he did it on purpose and at length. The debate may have sealed his fate with swing voters.
The October Surprise may have just happened: Trump getting COVID. It shows the disease can happen to anyone and that careless people get it, and that selfish people spread it. The news shows give us updates on Trump's health every 20 minutes. If COVID danger is the subject, then Biden is winning.
The October Surprise may be trickling in, as we learn the outcome of the disease from the various prominent people. If, over the next four weeks, everyone who gets the virus appears to get healthy and with minimum consequences, then the Surprise might be a partial validation of Trump. That is the story Trump is attempting right now, with happy tweets saying he is fine and concluding with all caps "LOVE!"
The news that dribbles out could go the other way, and if one of the famous people becomes very sick or dies. If a couple of Republican Senators die, tracked back to Mike Lee and Trump, that would change the Senate and the story. If Joe Biden gets the virus, tracked back to Trump at the debate, it would be a different story frame, this one of dueling candidates in hand to hand conflict, let the better immune system win.
An October Surprise the Trump campaign needs to fear would be infection of a sympathetic victim who develops a following: a Black or Latinix member of the kitchen staff or uniformed members of the security detail or presidential transportation staff. It is one thing for Trump to go to a fundraiser and sicken fat cats--hey, they wanted that selfie--but another to infect a person whose job required them to be there, protecting someone who is casually, thoughtless spreading the disease. They don't want the story that Ivanka Trump couldn't be bothered with a mask and the pilot of Marine One died, leaving a widow and kids. They don't want BLM or Latinix groups with signs calling Trump a killer. Trump connected with the White working class "forgotten American" back in 2016 and his rallies have shown he has maintained a bond with many of them. That could be broken if Trump and his family are thought to be treating them as disposable saps.
We have seen spoiled rich people in life. They are seen as villains The public recoiled on learning entitled Hollywood people paid, cheated, and connived to get their children into USC and Duke. We know that character type. High school students read The Great Gatsby in English class.
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
COVID has come to the White House. In October we will learn which creatures get smashed up.
Biden planted his flag.
The October Surprise may have already happened, the Tuesday debate. Trump's manner exposed him as a civic vandal, disrupting an American tradition. He was the crying infant on the plane, the cougher at the concert, the dog that won't stop barking, and he did it on purpose and at length. The debate may have sealed his fate with swing voters.
The October Surprise may have just happened: Trump getting COVID. It shows the disease can happen to anyone and that careless people get it, and that selfish people spread it. The news shows give us updates on Trump's health every 20 minutes. If COVID danger is the subject, then Biden is winning.
The October Surprise may be trickling in, as we learn the outcome of the disease from the various prominent people. If, over the next four weeks, everyone who gets the virus appears to get healthy and with minimum consequences, then the Surprise might be a partial validation of Trump. That is the story Trump is attempting right now, with happy tweets saying he is fine and concluding with all caps "LOVE!"
The news that dribbles out could go the other way, and if one of the famous people becomes very sick or dies. If a couple of Republican Senators die, tracked back to Mike Lee and Trump, that would change the Senate and the story. If Joe Biden gets the virus, tracked back to Trump at the debate, it would be a different story frame, this one of dueling candidates in hand to hand conflict, let the better immune system win.
An October Surprise the Trump campaign needs to fear would be infection of a sympathetic victim who develops a following: a Black or Latinix member of the kitchen staff or uniformed members of the security detail or presidential transportation staff. It is one thing for Trump to go to a fundraiser and sicken fat cats--hey, they wanted that selfie--but another to infect a person whose job required them to be there, protecting someone who is casually, thoughtless spreading the disease. They don't want the story that Ivanka Trump couldn't be bothered with a mask and the pilot of Marine One died, leaving a widow and kids. They don't want BLM or Latinix groups with signs calling Trump a killer. Trump connected with the White working class "forgotten American" back in 2016 and his rallies have shown he has maintained a bond with many of them. That could be broken if Trump and his family are thought to be treating them as disposable saps.
We have seen spoiled rich people in life. They are seen as villains The public recoiled on learning entitled Hollywood people paid, cheated, and connived to get their children into USC and Duke. We know that character type. High school students read The Great Gatsby in English class.
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
COVID has come to the White House. In October we will learn which creatures get smashed up.
2 comments:
Best tweet: Biden will resume negative ads but they will all be about Bernie.
The Gatsby comparison is apt. The carelessness and indifference to others is textbook Regressive.
Think about this: Trump's doctor just said that Trump was diagnosed on Wednesday. If true it means he continued for two more days in public including being with his own family. I imagine this will statement will be "clarified", but it absolutely rings true.
I don't think this development, while dramatic, will change the dynamic going forward. The odds are Trump will recover, the only question is how quickly, which will be binge watched for however long it takes. If he becomes very ill he will get sympathy votes so it could be a plus, not to mention the possibility of being reelected while on a respirator. If he skates through he will no doubt brag about beating the virus.
It continues to amaze that now, with Republicans actually getting COVID from contact with the White House, the unabashed loyalty continues. That level of fealty is perversely admirable, in a Kamikaze kind of way.
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