Trump news: Fears of new White House super-spreader debacle as president invites guests to public event
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Your support makes all the difference.After likely contracting Covid-19 from a "super-spreader" event at the White House, Donald Trump will mark his first public engagement on Saturday by holding… another event at the White House.
It comes after the president returned to the virtual campaign trail on Friday with a two-hour online rally with radio host Rush Limbaugh, ahead of a planned "televised evaluation" on Tucker Carlson's evening Fox News broadcast.
The two-hour love-fest with Limbaugh saw the president drop the F-bomb, call his experimental Covid treatment a "cure", and claim Nancy Pelosi was trying to oust Joe Biden with a 25th amendment play.
Trump's theory on Pelosi ousting Biden came after the House speaker announced a bill to create a new oversight commission, which would use the 25th amendment to remove the commander in chief form office if determined to be lacking the physical or mental capacity.
While it wouldn't apply to Trump before the election, it would apply to whoever wins the next term.
Trump believes he is at full capacity after his doctors gave the all-clear to return from Covid treatment from Saturday - giving him 24 days on the campaign trail until the election.
The president was set to give an in-person interview and undergo a “televised medical evaluation” on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show on Friday night, with a larger in-person rally to be held in Florida on Monday.
The second presidential debate, meanwhile, was officially cancelled after the format was changed to a virtual townhall. In a late radio interview, Trump said the debate commission was a "crooked" deal and that the moderator was a "never Trumper".
He was referencing C-SPAN's Steve Scully, who had faced allegations of bias for interning with Joe Biden decades ago and posing with him in friendly photos while socializing in 2016, when he also tweeted "No, not Trump, not ever" when sharing a news article.
CSPAN said on Friday that Scully’s Twitter was hacked when a tweet was sent from his account to anti-Trump activist and former White House staffer, Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci.
Fact check: Did Trump suggesting dropping a nuclear bomb on Hurricanes to stop them reaching the US?
Joe Biden mentioned this again today at his campaign stop in Las Vegas, and he has been repeating it consistently in recent weeks of the campaign.
“And by the way, did you hear what the president said about the hurricane in the summer?” Biden said at the drive-in rally.
“He was told about how they were coming across the warm water in the Atlantic, and if they get to, the closer they get to the shore the worse they get. You know what he said Alejandro, he said, maybe, we should drop an atomic weapon on them and blow them up. As we say in my religion, bless me father for I have sinned. What’s going on here?”
This came from an Axios report in August, 2019, which cited anonymous sources that Trump suggested homeland security officials explore dropping nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes reach the US.
Fact checking website Snopes rates this as “unproven”, as the claims can’t be independently verified.
While Trump called it fake news, of course, the Axios reporter stands by his reporting.
That’s not how masks work
Watch Ted Cruz tell the GOP it faces a ‘bloodbath of Watergate proportions’ if voters are angry and depressed on Election Day
Oliver O’Connell has the full report on this dire warning from by a Republican, for Republicans.
GOP could face ‘bloodbath of Watergate proportions’, says Senator Cruz
Texas senator warns of disaster for Republicans if voters are unimpressed by economy and pandemic response
Trump is speaking on the Mark Levin Show right now
"I could stay in the White House, upstairs, not even go down to the Oval Office… but you can't run a country like that," Trump told Mark Levin.
What’s it like in Donald Trump’s head? Rush Limbaugh gave us a two-hour tour
What’s it like inside Donald Trump’s head?
The Independent’s Washington Bureau Chief John T Bennett sat through the whole Rush Limbaugh interview so you don’t have to.
He found a mind milieu of grievances, gripes and gregariousness on the two-hour ride.
Second debate on 15 October officially cancelled, reports
This via Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender, who reports the virtual match-up between Biden and Trump has been scrapped after the president didn’t agree to the new format.
Trump didn’t get the memo about the reported debate cancellation
Speaking on the Mark Levin Show when the news dropped on Friday afternoon, Donald Trump said the Commission on Presidential Debates “is a Clinton-Obama group of people” that is a “crooked deal”.
“And now they have a Never Trumper, I didn’t know too much of this guy from C-SPAN,” he said in reference to moderator Steve Scully.
“This debate commission, it sounds so good… sounds so wonderful. In my opinion it’s a crooked deal. You look at the guy they gave me for the next debate he’s a Never Trumper.”
Read the official statement from the Commission on Presidential Debates
“It is now apparent there will be no debate on October 15, and the CPD will turn its attention to preparations for the final presidential debate scheduled for October 22”
Trump continues debate commission criticisms, with an assist from Bob Dole
Debunking Trump's false claims about voter fraud, and what really happened to mail-in ballots
Election officials are pushing back against president’s narrative as millions of Americans post their ballots, writes The Independent’s Alex Woodward.
Trump spreads false claims about 'voter fraud' – here are the facts
Election officials are pushing back against president’s narrative as millions of Americans post their ballots
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