Live updates: Trump at hospital; new cases among GOP allies; White House physician to speak
A feverish and fatigued President Donald Trump was spending the weekend at a military hospital for treatment of COVID-19, as new cases emerged among some of his top advisers and allies. Attention focused in particular on last Saturday’s White House event introducing Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, with several attendees announcing they had tested positive for the virus.
Among them: former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, the president of the University of Notre Dame, and at least two Republican lawmakers — Utah Sen. Mike Lee and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. Though the ceremony announcing Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination was held outdoors, attendees sat closely together and few wore masks. Some also mingled at a smaller event inside the White House.
The White House said Trump’s expected stay of “a few days” at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was precautionary and he would continue to work from the hospital’s presidential suite, which is equipped to allow him to keep up his official duties. The White House physician said he was being treated with remdesivir, an antiviral medication, after taking another experimental drug at the White House.
The White House says Trump’s doctor will provide an update on his condition Saturday morning as the president undergoes treatment for COVID-19 symptoms at a military hospital. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says Navy Commander Dr. Sean Conley will address reporters at 11 a.m. ET from Walter Reed.
The decision for the president to leave the White House for the hospital capped a day of whipsaw events in Washington on Friday. The president, who has spent months playing down the threat of the virus, was forced to cancel all campaign events a month before the election as he fought a virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans and is hitting others in his orbit as well.
Trump walked out of the White House on Friday evening wearing a mask and gave a thumbs-up to reporters but did not speak before boarding Marine One. Members of the aircrew, Secret Service agents and White House staff wore face coverings to protect themselves from the president onboard the helicopter.
In a video taped before leaving for Walter Reed, Trump said, “I think I’m doing very well, but we’re going to make sure that things work out.” He remained fully president, all authority intact.
More details:
GOP faces reckoning over Trump’s virus strategy, diagnosis
Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis was a moment of reckoning for his Republican Party, whose leaders largely adopted his strategy of playing down the disease but are now confronted with a stark political nightmare a month from Election Day.
The president’s infection thrust the pandemic front and center when Republicans would rather be talking about Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, law enforcement or the economy as early voting is underway in most states. They include Iowa and North Carolina, states that Republicans must win to maintain their three-vote edge in the Senate.
On Saturday, another Republican senator, Ron Johnson on Wisconsin, announced he has tested positive for the virus, the third GOP senator this past week.
With Trump in Walter Reed military hospital for treatment and quarantine, the virus seemed to spill into every corner of the party. Tests came back positive for Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, Republican Party Chair Ronna McDaniel and for the Republican senators Mike Lee of Utah and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis, a vulnerable incumbent who announced Friday he would quarantine for 10 days at the peak of election season.
The pandemic even spread to a subject the GOP hoped to be its safe harbor in the campaign’s closing weeks — the looming confirmation of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. Videos of an unmasked Lee mingling with other conservative luminaries at a White House ceremony for Barrett ran relentlessly on cable news, turning the party’s push to reshape the court into a story about the spread of a deadly virus.
QUESTIONS EXPLAINED
