Trump campaign hobbled by Covid-19 as Biden pulls away

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has seen its candidate, campaign manager and party chairwoman all laid low by Covid-19. He is short on cash, Democrat Joe Biden is pulling away in the polls and his best hope to climb back — the raucous rallies that fuelled his 2016 win — is on hold indefinitely as the last month of the race ticks away.
Trump is still dominating the news cycle, but for all the wrong reasons — in the hospital, fighting the virus he sought to effectively erase from the story of his presidency as he appealed to voters for a second term.
Instead, coronavirus dominates the conversation around Trump. His own diagnosis sent him to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and the virus continues to spread inside the White House, seemingly due to the same indifference to basic precautions that Trump himself has demonstrated for months.
Whether he can participate in the final two presidential debates this month is an open question — though voters hammered Trump’s performance in the first debate, when he interrupted Biden so much the former vice president finally told him, in vain, to shut up.
The litany of political disasters “certainly causes great worry in the closing weeks of a campaign in which the
president is behind in polls and fundraising,” said Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist who heads the pro-Trump
Great America political action committee.
Of the campaign leaders sidelined by the virus, he said: “These are the decision makers, and normally the workload only intensifies on these individuals in the closing days.”
Among those infected are people most responsible for securing Trump’s re-election: his campaign manager, Bill Stepien; the Republican Party chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel; his trusted aide Hope Hicks; his wife, Melania; his debate coach, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and several senators who will help see his Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, confirmed before November 3.
“It certainly doesn’t help,” said Chris Wilson, a Republican strategist who worked on Senator Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign. “Assuming they all just have mild to moderate symptoms, it still slows things down and makes the campaign less nimble and responsive to news events. And this is 2020, so there will be events.”
Trump sought to re-energise his re-election effort, announcing “Operation MAGA,” an effort to flood the campaign trail with top surrogates like Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s family and others.
Some of those surrogates joined the Washington shows, offering a sunny view of Trump’s health condition as doctors raised the possibility Trump could leave the hospital on Monday. With the approval of his medical team, according to the White House, Trump conducted a brief motorcade outside Walter Reed hospital to wave to gathered supporters.
“None of us is Donald Trump, but we can still deliver Trump’s message,” Steve Cortes, a campaign senior adviser for strategy, said on Monday.

Trump hospital-release call expected soon: Meadows
Bloomberg

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said a decision on President Donald Trump’s release from the hospital was expected to be be made after consultations with medical staff on Monday.
“It’s going to be, at the earliest, this afternoon,” Meadows said on Fox News of the decision for Trump to leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — where he’s been staying after his diagnosis with a Covid-19 infection.
“We have further evaluations and consultations
that have to take place between the president and his medical team.”
Meadows said the president continued to improve overnight, after he made a surprise outing on October 4, waving to supporters gathered outside from his
motorcade.
Trump on Monday resumed his campaign via Twitter, with a series of posts urging supporters to vote and reminding them that today is the last day to register in states including Florida and Arizona.
“We’re still optimistic that, based on his unbelievable progress,” he will be released, Meadows said in an interview with Fox News.