02/10/2020 - 18:38
Clarín.com
World
The extremely busy electoral agenda that US President Donald Trump had has come to a scriptable end after testing positive for coronavirus and having to confine himself to the White House, with his calls to the conservative Fox News network and his claims on Twitter as main escape route, and now opens the
unknown about the future of the campaign
for the November 3 elections.
After the confirmation that the president and first lady Melania Trump are infected - both with "mild symptoms", according to the White House - the entire
calendar of campaign events remains up in the air.
Despite the fact that the vice president, Mike Pence, tested negative for Covid-19, the fact of being second in the line of succession suggests that he will not be unnecessarily exposed to possible infections derived from campaign trips, thus Republican electoral logistics are complicated at a time when
a marathon of events was expected
in the most contested states.
With Trump, 74, confined, the two main questions are whether the president will be able to carry out his presidential tasks, which sometimes require meetings with his team in closed spaces such as the Situation Room, or in the electoral campaign.
A banner on a facade in Times Square, in the heart of New York, reports that Donald Trump tested positive for coronavirus.
Photo: BLOOMBERG
There
are
still
two presidential debates scheduled for October 15 and 22
in Miami and Nashville, respectively, against the Democratic candidate for the White House, Joe Biden, after the one that took place on Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio;
and although they could be carried out in virtual format, judging by how harsh and difficult to moderate the first one would be a nightmare for those in charge of mediating between the two candidates.
Biden, who this Friday confirmed his negative for Covid-19, maintained his campaign events, with which he will be able to ask for the vote for the most important states of the Midwest or South, while Trump is content to mobilize his base and ask for suffrage from Washington.
The coronavirus returns to the center of the campaign
The pandemic had been the main theme of the campaign, with Trump defending what he considers his achievements against Covid-19 and Biden criticizing his management, but the death of the progressive Supreme Court judge
Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
on September 18,
He had stolen prominence from him for the vacancy he leaves in a court that has the power to change the laws of the country for decades.
Trump has already named his candidate, the ultra-conservative Amy Coney Barrett, and hopes the Senate will confirm her before the election.
In recent days, the political discussion had focused on the format of the electoral debates, after a first Trump-Biden face-to-face, very chaotic and with innumerable interruptions by the president.
What if your health worsens?
If Trump falls ill to the point where he cannot serve as chief executive,
Vice President Pence would have to take the reins
, something that would put the country in an unprecedented crisis in an already uncertain election, with the White House delegitimizing the vote by mail and prepared to go to the Supreme Court if there are disputes in the count to decide the winner.
Vice President Mike Pence should take the reins of the White House in case Trump's health worsens.
Photo: AFP
Trump is already showing "mild symptoms" and has 32 tough days ahead of him until the elections.
His health may deteriorate, but he will surely continue to try to mobilize his voters and at the same time lead the country, in a key weeks before the electoral contest.
About
2 million people have already voted early
, but those who have not cast their ballot are still faced with the doubt of doing so by a president who since the beginning of the pandemic denied the seriousness of the virus and who has shown absolute disdain for social distance and chinstraps in your campaign events.
Donald Trump's main decays on the coronavirus.
/ AFP
If Trump were seriously ill or died, a possibility now to be considered, the line of succession goes through Pence and as the last safeguard the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi.
What if you quickly overcome the disease?
In a recently published book by journalist Bob Woodward, the president acknowledged that he intentionally underestimated the severity of the pandemic in his speeches in February and March, knowing the severity of Covid-19, in order, according to him, not to cause panic, and He did not begin to show himself with a mask until last July, although he continued to criticize his use.
If he overcame the disease, it
is unknown if he will be strengthened or if he will be criticized more
, facing the elections.
On Thursday he kept his schedule in Bedminster (New Jersey), where he participated in two campaign events, despite knowing that his adviser, Hope Hicks, had tested positive for Covid-19, his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, acknowledged this Friday.
That was not an obstacle for Trump to address a meeting with a hundred donors at his Bedminster golf course on Thursday afternoon, when he was already aware of Hicks' positive.
Donald Trump with his adviser Hope Hicks, who confirmed Thursday that he had coronavirus.
Photo: REUTERS
Upon his return, as soon as he got off the presidential helicopter in the White House gardens, Trump,
with a tired face
, confirmed in a live conversation with his friend Sean Hannity of Fox News that his adviser had been infected and that he had submitted to the test and was waiting for results.
Trump seemed to blame those in charge of his security in that call at the edge of 10 at night: "It is difficult when you are with soldiers, with pilots, with Marines and policemen (...) It is difficult to tell them to back off."
Three hours later, the president confirmed that he had tested positive and that he was quarantining himself.
Trump, a tireless speaker who harangues hundreds of supporters up to twice a day in the states that will decide the winner of the election, stays home under medical observation, for the moment, indefinitely.
By Jairo Mejía, EFE agency
CB