President Donald Trump’s diagnosis with COVID-19 presents a stunning new twist in a tumultuous year, throwing an election that is only 32 days away into chaos.
WASHINGTON — An election year already defined by a cascade of national crises descended further into chaos Friday with President Donald Trump declaring that he’s tested positive for the coronavirus after consistently playing down the threat. No one knows exactly what comes next. At the least, the development settles the focus of the campaign right where Democratic nominee Joe Biden has put his emphasis for months: on Trump’s response to a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 people in the U.S. And for the short term, it’s grounded Trump in a quarantine, denying him the large public rallies that fuel his campaign.”From now until we get to the election, attention is going to be back where it should be: on COVID, the president’s response and the impact – and on health care,” said Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright, a Biden supporter. “This proves our candidate was right all along.”Karen Finney, another Democratic consultant and top adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, said the immediate focus should be on the Trumps’ health. But she added the development proves that not even Trump, no matter his talents for dictating headlines and framing events, can control a pandemic.”It’s a reminder that the American presidency is bigger than any one person, given the reach and depth this news has,” she said, noting that a health scare for a president not only dominates headlines but can rattle financial markets. Trump tweeted Friday that he’d begin quarantining and recovery. He’s cancelled his weekend itinerary in Wisconsin, one of the three Great Lakes states that he won by less than 1 percentage point in 2016 on his way to the presidency.
