momadance wrote:

@brianstelter
News: I have obtained a memo from the @WHCA board to WH reporters with word of "two additional cases of COVID-19 at the White House." A journalist received a preliminary positive result. And a WH staffer who sits in the "lower press" area received a confirmed positive result.

This administration absolutely fucking sucks.

@brianstelter
A followup memo, just a few minutes ago, says "another member of our press corps tested positive today." This person was last at the WH on Saturday (the day of the SCOTUS event) and traveled on Air Force One for the PA rally that night. The journalist showed symptoms yesterday.

MoBettle wrote:He hasn’t tweeted since the announcement last night. Might be a record.

TenuredVulture wrote:Biden of course will take the high road. Lincoln project? Not so much.

Slowhand wrote:

MoBettle wrote:He hasn’t tweeted since the announcement last night. Might be a record.

So...he's already dead?

Wolfgang622 wrote:I wonder if Trump is telling the truth.

The debate was a disaster. A story just broke that his wife is shitting on Christmas. The news cycle has been brutal for him. Further debates are likely to produce more bad results. His poll numbers were already bad and now are getting slowly but steadily worse with the election getting closer by the day. His window to do anything about it was closing, and fast.

Like magic, now he is a sympathetic figure a la Boris Johnson (whose poll numbers increased as reports of his condition worsened) and both those stories, particularly the Melania one, vanish underneath a tidal wave of media speculation about how he got it, how he is doing, do others in his family have it, etc. Perhaps he avoids further debates with a legitimate excuse.

Tinfoil hat I know but I would put absolutely nothing past him.

Kman223 wrote:He checks a lot of the high risk boxes...

- Old
- Obese
- Low income

JayBallz wrote:Pence & wife are COVID negative, but CNN reporting that there is no procedure for replacing or filling the void of an incapacitated Vice Pres.

Contributor Garrett Graff says when Cheney was VP he left with his legal rep a signed letter of resignation, intended to be given to Bush in case Cheney was ever struck ill.

CalvinBall wrote:Man what if he is actually pretty sick

momadance wrote:

06hawkalum wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:Man what if he is actually pretty sick

I doubt he or Pence will get many sympathy votes. Who wants to re-elect a severely physically ill incumbent who may be hospitalized on Election Day and uncertain to survive? Pence has been invisible for the past four years. Many voters don’t even know the VP’s name.

Monkeyboy wrote:

Wolfgang622 wrote:I wonder if Trump is telling the truth.

The debate was a disaster. A story just broke that his wife is shitting on Christmas. The news cycle has been brutal for him. Further debates are likely to produce more bad results. His poll numbers were already bad and now are getting slowly but steadily worse with the election getting closer by the day. His window to do anything about it was closing, and fast.

Like magic, now he is a sympathetic figure a la Boris Johnson (whose poll numbers increased as reports of his condition worsened) and both those stories, particularly the Melania one, vanish underneath a tidal wave of media speculation about how he got it, how he is doing, do others in his family have it, etc. Perhaps he avoids further debates with a legitimate excuse.

Tinfoil hat I know but I would put absolutely nothing past him.

Exactly, I don't trust this at all and neither should anyone else. I think most of us believe Trump will do something in the run-up to the election to try to change the trajectory of the race. By definition, that thing would have to be consequential enough to move the needle in his favor. There are very few things that would fit that bill, but this is one of them. I will be suspicious of anything consequential that comes out during this period because any one of those big things could be his play.

CalvinBall wrote:Man what if he is actually pretty sick

TenuredVulture wrote:

Monkeyboy wrote:

Wolfgang622 wrote:I wonder if Trump is telling the truth.

The debate was a disaster. A story just broke that his wife is shitting on Christmas. The news cycle has been brutal for him. Further debates are likely to produce more bad results. His poll numbers were already bad and now are getting slowly but steadily worse with the election getting closer by the day. His window to do anything about it was closing, and fast.

Like magic, now he is a sympathetic figure a la Boris Johnson (whose poll numbers increased as reports of his condition worsened) and both those stories, particularly the Melania one, vanish underneath a tidal wave of media speculation about how he got it, how he is doing, do others in his family have it, etc. Perhaps he avoids further debates with a legitimate excuse.

Tinfoil hat I know but I would put absolutely nothing past him.

Exactly, I don't trust this at all and neither should anyone else. I think most of us believe Trump will do something in the run-up to the election to try to change the trajectory of the race. By definition, that thing would have to be consequential enough to move the needle in his favor. There are very few things that would fit that bill, but this is one of them. I will be suspicious of anything consequential that comes out during this period because any one of those big things could be his play.

I have no reason to think the WH is telling the truth here either. The more likely scenario though is that they would not release the info that the President was positive unless he is pretty sick. This is like the old USSR days when the Kremlin said that Andropov and Cernenko had colds that turned out to be fatal.

Monkeyboy wrote:

momadance wrote:

Can he vote from home? I know the dems tried to make that possible, but I remember pushback against it. It would be funny if they lose his vote because they refused to make accommodations.