As did Jake Tapper (you can read his comments here), Wallace noted that the White House was not sending folks to make the rounds on Sunday; instead, they were referring folks to the campaign. Remember that the next time you want to know who's running the government, I guess.
Wallace pointed out the apparent conflict between what Sean Conley, DO (the president's physician and, it would seem, a skilled Doctor of Obfuscation) and Mark Meadows (Trump 4th Chief of Staff) said in response to questions about Trump's condition. Cortes said that he had spoken with the president - he and the campaign staff that's not infected with COVID, I guess - and that
He was as upbeat and assertive as he's ever been. And then we also know what the rest of the world saw, which was that terrific video of Donald Trump, the fighter, speaking directly to the American people extemporaneously for four minutes, looking good, sounding good and, of course most importantly of all, we know what his doctors said, which is that his progress has been incredible. So this president is going to recover. We are highly confident of that and, again, he is a fighter in every sense of the word and he's doing really well.
As to the doctor lying, or Mark Meadows lying, Cortes didn't want to talk about that but when Wallace asked if the American people don't deserve the truth, Cortes said yes, and he was the one giving it to us. And, of course,
... we talk directly to the patient, in this case the President of the United States, who tells us things are going great. The whole world heard directly from the doctor who said things are going great. I mean to me, if the patient and the doctor say things are great and you hear from both of them and see both of them, to me, that is sort of case closed, really.
Yes - when the man who has told over 20,000 lies in his short time in office says he's healthy, we should believe him. One thing that Cortes said that I completely agree with?
I'm not Mark Meadows, I'm not part of White House staff. As you well know, both the campaign and the White House staff, we both serve the president but we have very different tasks.
And the campaign is to present Trump as a winner, not as a human being with underlying medical conditions and a potentially fatal illness. Got it.
Cortes also said that people don't get close to the president, "at least people who don't have to" and that everyone takes a test and stuff, but
I think given these precautions and given that he is probably the most protected person on earth, the fact that he still got infected shows us that unfortunately this virus has that kind of power, that kind of communicable ability. And the president though, and he's made this clear, he was unwilling to completely sequester himself to take no risk because leaders take risks and he is the servant of the people as well as the commander-in-chief so he said he must be around the people he serves.
And of course, as I write this, he's announced that he's leaving Walter Reed today at 6:30 PM Eastern time, also known as national news time, and I heard Melania's wearing her favorite jacket - you know the one I mean, right? But that last part might be a lie, not sure. It's so hard to tell these days.
Unfortunately, he got the virus and I think what this shows us for a policy perspective, I think this is important, Chris, is that we know that even the most severe of lockdowns cannot completely stop the virus. Therefore, we should take reasonable precautions, as a society, and we should not, as Joe Biden threatens, even think about shutting this economy and this society down again.
Which, of course, Joe Biden is not thinking of doing - he never said that, and Cortes and everyone else know that, but you know, the campaign is still part of the Trump Lie Machine, and we should expect nothing more from them than we do from the White House
There was somewhat of a contentious discussion surrounding the debate, where Wallace pointed out the rules: everyone must wear a mask, with the exception of Wallace himself, Trump and Papa Joe; and that it didn't matter that everyone was tested, because the Cleveland Clinic rules are that everyone actually wear a mask, and they even offered masks to the Trump cohort, which didn't accept the help or abide by the rules. And, by the way, Wallace also said that anyone not wearing a mask would be escorted from the hall, so
Why did the first family and the chief of staff feel the rules for everybody didn't apply to them?
Cortes tried the 'we believe that masks are helpful... We also believe in some element of individual choice, people were distanced and they had been tested' but Wallace disagreed. They argued back and forth, about the rules and about the chairs being apart or not apart and the rules, and the rules, and why didn't the follow the rules. And then this happened.
(CORTES) Chris, the way you're starting to harangue me now actually reminds me of what you did to the president during the debate on Tuesday night when he - WALLACE: Oh yes, I harangued him -- (CROSSTALK) CORTES: No, that he had to -- he had to debate not just Joe Biden, but you as well. You were not a neutral moderator then. I don't mind tough questions. I welcome -- WALLACE: You know how much (ph) -- CORTES: -- reasonably tough questions. But what I don't think is okay is for you to become the effective opposition to the president. Okay? And those -- (CROSSTALK) CORTES: -- everyone there was tested in the crowd, they were distanced from each other. People can make reasonable decisions -- (CROSSTALK) WALLACE: Steve, that's -- CORTES: -- for themselves. WALLACE: Steve -- no, actually they can't, there are the rules and they will be kicked out next time.
And, Wallace added,
Steve, let me simply say the president interrupted me and the vice president 145 times, so I object to saying I harangued the president. I know it's the talking point.
Wallace then asked if there was any concern on the campaign about keeping Pence off the campaign trail, or delaying the veep debate, "until we see the president is safe?" Cortes poo-poo'd that, saying it's important that the campaign "vigorously proceed" and
look, the MAGA movement is bigger than just President Trump, he's instrumental of course, but he is not the only element of the MAGA movement. And so what we have said is that the other people, including of course vice president, campaign people, millions of regular Americans need to step up and to some degree fill the void that is left because our champion, our main instrument, is not able at this moment to vigorously campaign and certainly not campaign physically right now at all.
Wallace then asked about the data showing "the seven-day average of new cases is almost 44,000 new cases a day and 700 new deaths a day" and wondered how that shows that we're "rounding the corner" on the pandemic, as the president says. But of course we are, says Cortes.
Hospitalizations are down from the July second spike highs, down 60% in ICU patients, and down 34% in deaths.
Now, nobody is signaling the all clear, but all of those statistics that I just noted tell us that we absolutely are rounding the corner as a country. And, by the way, not just on the virus, but also economically. We are more than rounding the corner, we are actually exploding higher economically and they are very much related, those two phenomena, of course. And part of the reason why President Trump needs to and will recover quickly is because he needs to also get back to leading the greatest economic recovery in American history, and that is tied to our trend toward health.
And finally, with at least three GOP senators having COVID, should there be a delay in the Amy Coney Barrett SCOTUS nom?
No. Listen, there will be no delay and Leader McConnell has been very adamant on this. There's already been quite a bit of remote technology used in these hearings, clearly those who don't feel safe to be in a room can do so, but there is a constitutional mandate to do this. There's also an electoral mandate from the American people to get this done. It can be done expeditiously. Amy Coney Barrett is an amazing justice, she's going to be a credit to the court.
SCOTUS opened their 2020-2021 term today, with one empty seat.
See you around the virtual campus.
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