Trump Lashes Out at His Cabinet With Calls to
Indict Political Rivals
The pressure on his top administration officials to
take action came as President Trump bristled at the restraints of his illness.
Peter
BakerMaggie Haberman
By Peter
Baker and Maggie Haberman
Oct. 8,
2020
WASHINGTON
— President Trump berated his own cabinet officers on Thursday for not prosecuting
or implicating his political enemies, lashing out even as he announced that he
hoped to return to the campaign trail on Saturday just nine days after he
tested positive for the coronavirus.
In his
first extended public comments since learning he had the virus last week, Mr.
Trump went on the offensive not only against his challenger, former Vice
President Joseph R. Biden Jr., but the Democratic running mate, Senator Kamala
Harris, whom he called “a monster” and a “communist.” He balked at participating
in his debate next Thursday with Mr. Biden if held remotely as the organizers
decided to do out of health concerns.
But Mr.
Trump secured a statement from the White House physician clearing him to return
to public activities on Saturday and then promptly said he would try to hold a
campaign rally in Florida that day, two days earlier than the doctor had
originally said was needed to determine whether he was truly out of danger. The
president again dismissed the virus, saying, “when you catch it, you get
better,” ignoring the more than 212,000 people in the United States who did not
get better and died from it.
In his
statement on Thursday night, the physician, Dr. Sean P. Conley, reported that
Mr. Trump “has responded extremely well to treatment” and that by Saturday, “I
fully expect the president’s return to public engagement.” Dr. Conley, who has
previously acknowledged providing the public with a rosy view of the
president’s condition to satisfy his patient, contradicted his own timeline
offered upon Mr. Trump’s release from the hospital, when he said doctors wanted
to “get through to Monday.”
The
president has not been seen in person since returning to the White House this
Monday, but he sought to reassert himself on the public stage with a pair of
telephone interviews with Fox News and Fox Business as well as a video and a
series of Twitter messages. Even for him, they were scattershot performances,
ones that advisers said reflected increasing frustration over his political
fortunes only 26 days before an election with surveys that show him trailing
Mr. Biden by double digits.
The
president castigated his own team, declaring that Attorney General William P.
Barr would go down in history “as a very sad, sad situation” if he did not
indict Democrats like Mr. Biden and former President Barack Obama. He
complained that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had not released Hillary
Clinton’s emails, saying, “I’m not happy about him for that reason.” And he
targeted Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director. “He’s been disappointing,”
Mr. Trump said.
“Unless
Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the
history of our country, then we’re going to get little satisfaction unless I
win and we’ll just have to go, because I won’t forget it,” Mr. Trump said,
referring to the investigation into his 2016 campaign ties with Russia. “But
these people should be indicted. This was the greatest political crime in the
history of our country, and that includes Obama and it includes Biden.”
Mr. Trump
has often argued that his political antagonists should be prosecuted, but in
this case, he went further by indicating that he had directly pressured Mr.
Barr to indict without waiting for more evidence. “He’s got all the information
he needs,” the president said. “They want to get more, more, more, they keep
getting more. I said, ‘You don’t need any more.’”
The
president was all over the map in his two Fox phone calls, throwing out
unsubstantiated or discredited accusations, explaining that he wanted to bring
home troops from Afghanistan to be ready to fight China or Russia if necessary
and calling Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan “the lockup queen” even as his
own Justice Department was announcing the existence of an anti-government
group’s plot to kidnap her.
As for his
opponents, he said on Fox Business that Mr. Biden “wouldn’t be president for
two months” because “he’s not mentally capable,” leaving Ms. Harris to then
take over the presidency. “She’s a communist,” he said. “We’re going to have a
communist.” A few hours later, Mr. Trump reposted Twitter messages claiming
that Speaker Nancy Pelosi might be orchestrating “a coup” against him.
Mr. Trump
told his Fox interviewers that he felt well despite his hospitalization,
although during his evening phone call with Sean Hannity, his voice at times
sounded raspy and twice he had to clear his throat. During his hourlong morning
call with Maria Bartiromo, he seemed to suggest he may have been infected by
the Gold Star parents of soldiers killed in battle at an event honoring them
last month at the White House, although a spokeswoman later denied he meant
that.
Fellow
Republicans exhibited increasing frustration with the president’s casual
approach to the virus that has now infected not just himself and the first lady
but two dozen other high-ranking officials, campaign aides, advisers and
Republican senators who attended White House events. Senator Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky, the majority leader, even indicated that he was boycotting the White
House because of its lax handling of the virus.
“I haven’t
actually been to the White House since August the 6th because my impression was
that their approach to how to handle this is different from mine and what I
suggested that we do in the Senate, which is to wear a mask and practice social
distancing,” Mr. McConnell told reporters.
After being
rebuffed by the White House, the Washington city government’s health department
released an open letter to the staff members and guests who attended a Sept. 26
ceremony in the Rose Garden that has been blamed for the outbreak, imploring
them to get tested for the virus. Crede Bailey, the head of the White House
security office, has been hospitalized and a fourth White House journalist
tested positive on Thursday.
Ms. Pelosi
said she planned to introduce legislation on Friday creating a commission on
presidential capacity to review the health of a commander in chief under
provisions of the 25th Amendment providing for the temporary transfer of power
to the vice president in case of inability to discharge the duties of the
office. “Crazy Nancy is the one who should be under observation,” Mr. Trump
replied on Twitter.
Well, I’ve
been following, following the advice of the C.D.C. and the Capitol physician. I
can tell you, I haven’t been to the White House since Aug. 6. And I personally
didn’t feel that they were approaching protection from this illness in the same
way that I thought was appropriate for the Senate. And the Senate has been
operating in a way that I think has largely prevented contraction of this
disease.
The
president’s phone interviews were his first time answering questions since he
was infected with the virus and flown to the Walter Reed National Military
Medical Center, where he stayed for three nights. He said he was no longer
taking the experimental drugs used to treat the virus, but he added that he was
still taking a steroid that doctors say can produce bursts of energy, euphoria
and even a sense of invulnerability.
“I felt
pretty lousy,” Mr. Trump said. But, he added, “I’m back because I’m a perfect
physical specimen and I’m extremely young.” He once again played down the
severity of the disease. “Now what happens is you get better,” he said. “That’s
what happens, you get better.”
Mr. Trump
later released a video addressed specifically to senior citizens, who were once
his political base but have increasingly soured on him as they have been
disproportionately affected by the pandemic, according to polls.
“To my
favorite people in the world, the seniors,” he said in the video. “I’m a
senior. I know you don’t know that. Nobody knows that. Maybe you don’t have to
tell them. But I’m a senior.”
Acknowledging
that he had been “very sick,” he praised the experimental treatments he was
given for the virus and vowed to provide them to seniors. “I want you to get
the same care that I got,” he said. “You’re going to get the same medicine.
You’re going to get it free, no charge, and we’re going to get it to you soon.”
The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention say that a person infected with the
coronavirus can be with other people 10 days after symptoms first appear if the
patient has gone 24 hours free of fever without the use of medication that
reduces temperatures and if other symptoms are improving.
The onset
of the president’s symptoms remains murky; if he started feeling sick on Oct.
1, the day he reported testing positive, then a Saturday return would be
premature by C.D.C. guidelines. If he had his first symptoms the day before,
then Saturday would meet the 10-day mark. Mr. Trump’s doctors have said he has
not experienced fever in days, but the dexamethasone steroid he is taking is
known to hide a fever.
Experts
said resuming a public schedule might worsen Mr. Trump’s condition, which could
still rapidly deteriorate in the next several days. Covid-19, an unpredictable
disease, can suddenly and unexpectedly worsen during a patient’s second week of
illness. Based on the information provided, “No, I would not clear him to start
public engagements on Saturday,” said Dr. Phyllis Tien, an infectious disease
physician at the University of California, San Francisco, where she conducts
and advises on Covid-19 clinical trials.
White House
aides privately expressed concern about whether the president’s animated mood
in recent days stemmed from the dexamethasone. Doctors not involved with the
president’s care said it could have a significant effect on a patient’s
behavior.
Dr. Negin
Hajizadeh, a pulmonary/critical care physician at Northwell Health, noted that
the majority of Covid patients receiving dexamethasone are on mechanical
ventilation and in a state of induced coma, so they do not exhibit any
behavioral side effects. But, she said, large studies show that generally 28 to
30 percent of patients will exhibit mild to moderate psychiatric side effects
like anxiety, insomnia, mania or delirium after receiving steroid treatments,
and about 6 percent may develop psychosis.
“When we
prescribe steroids we warn our patients: ‘This may cause you to feel jittery,
might cause you to feel irritable,’” Dr. Hajizadeh said. “We will tell family
members, especially for our older patients, ‘This may cause insomnia, this may
cause changes in eating habits and, in extreme cases, mania and impaired
decision making.’”
Watching
the news coverage and angry at the state of the race, Mr. Trump has been
imploring aides to let him resume campaign rallies as soon as this weekend. He
showed up again in the Oval Office on Thursday despite efforts to get him to
remain in the residence until he was more fully recovered. In addition to the
attempt to hold a rally in Florida on Saturday, he said he would try to stage
one the following day in Pennsylvania.
Campaign
noted that the “Access Hollywood” tape with its sexually offensive banter that
was seen as the end of his 2016 candidacy emerged on Oct. 7 that year, roughly
the same point in the campaign as now. But something else happened that day
that helped distract attention from the tape: the leak of emails stolen by
Russia from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman.
Mr. Trump
appeared eager for such a bolt of lightning this year as he talked with Ms.
Bartiromo on Thursday. He spent a striking amount of time on the four-year-old
investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s emails at the same time another 1,000 people
died of the coronavirus in the United States on Wednesday and his own White
House had become the biggest hot spot in the nation’s capital.
Alex
Conant, a Republican strategist and former aide to Senator Marco Rubio of
Florida, said that the Trump campaign was entering a dangerous period, one when
a campaign heading for a possible defeat can become treacherous.
“The knives
come out, the donors flee and the candidate throws embarrassing Hail Marys,” he
said. “Most politicians can handle losing a race, but they really don’t want to
be embarrassed. When a loss seems inevitable, people who want a future in
politics start looking out for their own interests. People start looking over
their shoulders.”
Peter Baker
reported from Washington, and Maggie Haberman from New York. Reporting was
contributed by Gina Kolata, Roni Caryn Rabin, Katie Thomas and Katherine J. Wu
from New York.
Peter Baker
is the chief White House correspondent and has covered the last four presidents
for The Times and The Washington Post. He also is the author of six books, most
recently "The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker
III." @peterbakernyt • Facebook
Maggie
Haberman is a White House correspondent. She joined The Times in 2015 as a
campaign correspondent and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018
for reporting on President Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia. @maggieNYT
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário