MSNBC Panel Widly Speculates About Trump Having Coronavirus, Blasts Hand-Shaking, Back-Slapping Presser: ‘Of Course It’s Dangerous’
MSNBC panelists grew increasingly alarmed over President Donald Trump’s exposure to the coronavirus and freaked out about his hand-slapping and back-slapping behavior at his latest press conference on the pandemic.
After an extended interview with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who has tested positive for COVID-19 after meeting with a Brazilian delegation that included an aide infected with the virus, MSNBC host Nicole Wallace turned the discussion to Trump. The president, she noted, met with that Brazilian delegation several days ago and was photographed standing next to the same infected aide.
“He was, today, on a stage shaking hands, touching hand to hand, with the CEOs of four major companies and the entire coronavirus task force,” Wallace noted. In fact, according to a count by the Washington Post, Trump touched the microphone and shook hands or patted the backs of the members of the coronavirus task force at least 31 times during his Friday press conference.
“It’s just stunning,” Wallace added comparing the similarities between Suarez’s experience and Trump’s. “Donald Trump says he doesn’t have any symptoms, but he could be positive.”
“It’s irrational,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center of Disaster Preparedness.
“Is it dangerous?!” Wallace shot back.
“Of course it’s dangerous,” Redlener asserted, “because any one of those people, if he has it, of any of the others have it, they’re doing exactly what we’re telling people not to do.”
“The president’s health is of international concern,” Wallace pointed out. “We are all his constituents, we all have a right to know if the president is positive or negative for coronavirus.”
On Friday, Trump announced that he will “most likely” get tested for the coronavirus though he said he has exhibited no symptoms. His concession comes just hours after Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases all but said that Trump should be tested because of the numerous potential exposures he has had to the COVID-19 virus.
“Of course the president is of age and has underlying health issues that make him particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus were he to contract it,” noted AP White House correspondent Jonathan Lemire. “At this point, yes, he’s not showing off any symptoms, but this was just a few days ago, his meeting at Mar-A-Lago with the Brazilian delegation, and that could certainly still change. He may be passing it to others.”
“Not just others,” Wallace broke in, “every member of the task force that we are looking to protect our country.”
“It is a rabbit warren in there,. If the president is stomping around in there, refusing to get tested…it’s, it’s ridiculous,” exclaimed ” MSNBC national affairs analyst John Heiliemann referring to the White House. “We have long since given up the notion that Donald Trump is a role model. I mean, no one, no one, even his fans don’t consider Donald Trump a role model. But at this moment, the level of danger and risk that is out there, the president must, has to be held to a standard where he should be trying to model appropriate behavior for the United States.”
Watch the video above, via MSNBC.
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