Trump holds 1st rally since contracting coronavirus
SANFORD, Florida (AP) — Just a week after his release from the hospital, President Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail Monday for the first time since contracting the coronavirus as he tries to stage a late comeback in the election’s final stretch.
“It’s great to be back in my home state, Florida, to make my official return to the campaign trail,” Trump declared in front of a crowd of thousands of supporters, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, mostly without masks, despite the ongoing pandemic.
“I am so energized by your prayers and humbled by your support,” he said.
Trump,
whose doctor said Monday for the first time that he had received a
negative test for COVID-19, is pushing to correct a stubborn deficit in
national and battleground state polling. His Sanford rally Monday night
was his first stop in a busy week that will include events in
Pennsylvania, Iowa, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
The robust
schedule underscores the work Trump needs to do as he tries to win over
voters just three weeks before Election Day. And it comes amid
still-unanswered questions about the impact so much travel so soon could
have on the 74-year-old president’s health. The progression of COVID-19
is often unpredictable, and there can be long-term complications.
After
Air Force One lifted off from Joint Base Andrews, the president’s
doctor released an update on his health that said Trump had tested
negative for the virus — and had done so on consecutive days. His
doctor, Navy Cmdr. Scott Conley, said that the tests, taking in
conjunction with other data, including viral load, have led him to
conclude that Trump was not contagious.
For days, the White House
had sidestepped questions as to whether Trump had tested negative.
Conley over the weekend said that the president met Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention criteria for safely discontinuing isolation and
that by “currently recognized standards,” Trump was no longer considered
a transmission risk.
Trump, eager to return to campaigning, says he is now “immune” to the virus — a claim that is impossible to prove given limitations in what scientists know about the coronavirus.
Dr.
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said Monday
on CNN that those who recover from COVID-19 are likely to be immune for a
limited period of time, but there are cases emerging of people getting
reinfected weeks or months later.
Fauci, speaking as Trump was
prepared to depart the White House for Florida, questioned the wisdom of
holding such an event. He noted that test positivity rates are climbing
in parts of the Sun Belt.
“We know that that is asking for trouble when you do that,” Fauci said.
Some
medical experts have also voiced skepticism that Trump could be
declared contagion-free so soon. And it was unclear what — if any —
added precautions and safety measures the campaign planned to take to
prevent the trip from further spreading a virus that has already
infected so many of the president’s closest aides and allies, including
his campaign manager and the head of the Republican Party.
Florida
is seen as critical to Trump’s reelection chances. Trump narrowly beat
his 2016 rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, in the state by just over
112,000 votes. Some recent polls have suggested a close race in the
state, while others have put Democrat Joe Biden ahead.
Trump’s decision to so quickly return to the campaign trail drew criticism from Biden and other Democrats.
“President
Trump comes to Sanford today bringing nothing but reckless behavior,
divisive rhetoric, and fear mongering,” Biden said in a statement. “But,
equally dangerous is what he fails to bring: no plan to get this virus
that has taken the lives of over 15,000 Floridians under control.”
Florida
state Rep. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat who is running for state Senate
and who recently recovered from his own COVID-19 infection, said in a
conference call with reporters that Trump should not be coming to
Florida.
“It’s reckless and irresponsible,” Jones said.
Florida
lawyer Dan Uhfelder, who has dressed as the Grim Reaper on beaches to
highlight the coronavirus threat, filed a lawsuit Monday trying to stop
Trump from holding his Sanford rally. It sought to have the event
classified as a public nuisance.
Trump, for his part, is eager to
show the world that he is no longer sidelined by a virus that he has
consistently played down and that has killed 215,000 people across the
nation.
Since his release from a military hospital after three
days of around-the-clock care that included access to experimental
antibody treatments unavailable to the public, Trump has used his
personal experience to try to convince the public that he was right all
along.
He has repeatedly told Americans who contract the virus
that they’re “going to get better really fast,” although hundreds of
people in the U.S. die of the virus every day.
Trump held his
first public event since his diagnosis on Saturday, addressing a crowd
of hundreds of people on the South Lawn from a White House balcony.
Appearing without a mask and with bandages still visible on his hands,
likely from intravenous injections, Trump spoke for just 18 minutes —
far less than his usual campaign rallies, which can last upwards of 90
minutes.
He told the crowd the virus is “disappearing,” even as cases have been on the rise.
Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemire in New York and Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Fla., contributed to this report.