A forthcoming book from former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has the story. Despite the positive test, Trump went forward with his public schedule, unmasked.
He
exposed the guests at a Rose Garden ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett, his nominee
for the Supreme Court; it became a super spreader event that infected Chris
Christie, Kellyanne Conway, and Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Mike Lee
(R-UT). That night, Trump held a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
The
next day, Trump met with Gold Star families who lost a loved one in the
military, posing for photographs. He later suggested he might have contracted
the virus from the families, although he knew he had been infected at the time and risked infecting others.
On September
28, Trump spoke in the Rose Garden from a lectern 10 feet away
from everyone else, prompting Philip Bump of the Washington Post to
ask a week later whether Trump had known then that he might have COVID.
On September
29, Trump went to his scheduled debate with Democratic candidate
Joe Biden, arriving too late for testing. Chris Wallace of the Fox News
Channel, who was the moderator at the debate, later said the event was
relying on the “honor system.” Trump railed and snarled at Biden, who was close
enough to him to have been in danger. Trump’s contingent refused to wear masks
despite rules at the venue to do so. At least 11 people tested positive after
the debate.
Trump
continued to hold his normal schedule until 1 a.m. on October
2, when the White House announced he was sick. As soon
as today’s story broke, Trump’s
spokesperson called it “Fake News.” Tonight on
the strongly pro-Trump network Newsmax, Meadows echoed Trump and
agreed the story was “fake news” and said that the positive test was “a false
positive.”
Trump’s arrogance and disregard for others—and perhaps of his desire to infect Biden with a deadly virus— struck a blow at the principle that “all men are created equal.” The men who broke England’s North American colonies away from the monarchy insisted that no man had an inherent right to rule.
They embraced a
theory of government that says men are equal, that they have inherent rights,
and that government is legitimate only if those it governs consent to it. Their
vision excluded women and men of color, but their theory of a government based
on equality is very different from the idea that some people have more rights
than others.
The
idea of a country based on equality means that no person should be able to
disregard others’ interests in order to serve their own. It also means that the
law must treat everyone equally and that lawmakers must govern in such a way
that they win the support of a majority of those they govern.
By
risking others’ lives without their knowledge or consent, Trump claimed the
right to dominate them. But now that Trump is no longer at the head of the
government, the rule of law appears to be bearing down. Yesterday, a
three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit appeared
to reject Trump’s argument for blocking access of the House Select Committee to
Investigate the January 6th Attack
on the U.S. Capitol to official documents from his presidency.
The
committee has already found Trump advisor Stephen K. Bannon in contempt of Congress
for ignoring a subpoena; today it
held former Department of Justice lawyer Jeffrey Clark in contempt for his
refusal to testify but said it may reconsider if he shows up on Saturday. Desperate
to stay in the news and keep supporters angry, Trump on Sunday night
called for a public debate of his long-debunked arguments that the election was
stolen from him.
Representative
Liz Cheney (R-WY), the committee’s vice chair, responded with what sure sounds
like a warning that Trump might soon be on the receiving end of a subpoena. She
said: “[Trump] has recently suggested that he wants to debate members of this
committee.” The committee’s investigation “is not a game,” Cheney said. “Any
communications Mr. Trump has with this committee will be under oath and if he
persists in lying then, he will be accountable under the laws of this great
nation, and subject to criminal penalties for every false word he speaks.”
Equality
was also at stake today before
the Supreme Court as it held hearings over a Mississippi law banning abortions
after 15 weeks of pregnancy. This law directly attacks the 1973 Roe v. Wade
decision guaranteeing the constitutional right to abortion. In the hearings,
the right-wing justices on the court, especially Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh
and Amy Coney Barrett, appear to be willing to uphold the Mississippi
law.
Roe
v. Wade was part of the dramatic expansion of civil rights after World War II,
in which Republican-led Supreme Courts used the equal protection and due
process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution to enable the
federal government to overrule discriminatory state laws and protect
individuals’ civil rights. It was on these grounds that the court protected
Black and Brown rights, interracial marriage, access to birth control,
religious freedom, gay rights, and so on.
Those
who objected to such expanded equality insisted the court was indulging in
“judicial activism” by overruling the state laws that preserved the power of
white men. They worked to stack the court with “originalists” who would defer
to the states. Now, finally, thanks to Trump’s three Supreme Court picks, the
era of using the federal government to protect equality appears to be under
deadly threat, although the laws that protect civil rights are popular: 58% of
Americans want Roe v. Wade to stay in place, for example, while only 32% want
it overturned.
Make
no mistake: it is not just reproductive rights that are under siege. If the
Supreme Court returns power to the states to legislate as they wish, any right
currently protected by the federal government is at risk. Justice Sonya
Sotomayor made the connection to the First Amendment’s protection of religious
freedom today when she was questioning a
lawyer during the oral arguments: “The issue of when life begins… it’s still
debated in religions. So, when you say this is the only right that takes away a
life, that’s a religious view, isn’t it?”
After
19 Republican-dominated states have passed election laws suppressing the vote
and gerrymandering districts, a reactionary minority controls them. Although
Biden won Wisconsin, for example, the state supreme court today left
in place districts that likely will enable Republicans to control 60% of the
legislative seats in the state (and 75% of the state’s seats in the U.S. House
of Representatives). Ending federal protections for civil rights means handing
to these reactionaries' power over the majority of us.
In
1858, Abraham Lincoln deplored the state laws discriminating against Black
Americans, as well as immigrants in the North and West. He challenged Illinois
Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who said that discriminatory state laws—including
laws that protected human enslavement—were just fine so long as those few men
allowed to vote liked them.
“I
should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which
declares that all men are equal, upon principle, and making exceptions to it,
where will it stop?” Lincoln said. “If that Declaration is not the truth, let
us get the statute-book in which we find it and tear it out….”
—Heather
Cox Richardson
Notes:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/01/trump-covid-test-reckless-timeline/
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/01/politics/jeffrey-clark-criminal-contempt-report/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/01/bad-day-trump-stonewalling-good-day-jan-6-committee/
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2021
https://news.gallup.com/poll/350804/americans-opposed-overturning-roe-wade.aspx
Glen,
ReplyDeleteI do not say this enough, BUT I truy appreciate so much being able to access your blog. I appreciate the information and insights provided by you and others so much. The indepth coveage of topics is so valuable and informative. Your blog merits more than an A+
Earl
Thank you so much, Earl.
DeleteSincerely,
Glen