WHITE HOUSE
Trump keeps things brief in first public address
since hospitalization
The president delivered a truncated stump speech from
the White House balcony to supporters packed below.
By CAITLIN
OPRYSKO
10/10/2020
03:27 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/10/trump-white-house-speech-coronavirus-428516
President
Donald Trump on Saturday made his first public appearance since returning from
a three-day hospitalization due to coronavirus, addressing hundreds of Black
and Latino supporters crowded together on the White House lawn.
“First of
all, I'm feeling great. I don't know about you,” Trump told the estimated
audience of 500 who, despite wearing masks, were packed together below the
Truman Balcony where he spoke. According to a person familiar with the event,
more than 2,000 guests had been invited.
Trump kept
his comments to the cheering crowd shorter than usual, speaking for less than
17 minutes a day after going for nearly two hours on a talk radio show. The
event, billed by the White House as a “peaceful protest” for law and order, was
organized by right-wing activist Candace Owens and her group Blexit.
The
relatively brief speech touched on all of the main points of Trump’s stump
speech — despite the White House insisting it was an official event rather than
a political one — with Trump attacking Democrats, running through the latest
polling data and recapping his first debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden
and this week’s vice presidential debate.
The speech
was tailored slightly to include an emphasis on criminal justice issues, and
Trump’s plans to boost Black Americans.
But
otherwise, the president mounted his usual attacks against mail-in voting,
lauded his administration’s coronavirus response and again teased a “much
better” health care plan that he has yet to release.
White House
President
Trump invited over two thousand guests to hear him speak just a week after he
was hospitalized for Covid-19. Only several hundred attended the president's
address on Saturday. | Samuel Corum/Getty Images
The event
on the South Lawn on Saturday was the first since Trump gathered dozens in the
Rose Garden two weeks ago to announce his choice of Judge Amy Coney Barrett for
the vacancy on the Supreme Court.
Though it’s
unclear where Trump contracted coronavirus, at least eight people who attended
the announcement have since tested positive, leading the nation’s top
infectious diseases expert to decry it as a “super spreader” event. Since the
announcement, more White House aides, Trump’s reelection campaign manager and
members of the White House press corps also tested positive.
For Trump’s
speech on Saturday, guests were only screened for Covid-19 with a temperature
check and “brief questionnaire" — but not a test.
At the same
time, critical details of Trump’s health remain shrouded in mystery.
His doctors
and the White House have declined to reveal when the president’s last negative
test was before announcing his diagnosis early last Friday. They have similarly
refused to say whether Trump has received a negative test since then, leaving
open the possibility that Trump is still contagious, or whether Trump suffered
any lung damage as a result of his bout with the respiratory disease.
Even as
those questions remain, Trump is set to resume traveling for the campaign,
announcing rallies on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week as Election Day
draws nearer.
In his
speech on Saturday Trump appeared healthy, delivering his remarks without
coughing or sounding winded. Close-ups of the president taken by press
photographers showed bandaging on his right hand, potentially at the spot of
insertion of an IV.
After about
a quarter of an hour, Trump bid the crowd farewell with a plea for them to get
out and vote, thanking them and sending them off with an “I love you” before
turning and heading back into the White House without putting his mask back on.
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