President Donald Trump is “going to defeat this virus” and “once he gets out of the hospital, he’s ready to get back to the campaign trail,” senior campaign adviser Jason Miller said Sunday.
Miller said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that in a phone conversation on Saturday afternoon Trump, who has for months defied public health recommendations to wear a mask and maintain social distance, wants “to remind folks to wash their hands, use hand sanitizer, make sure that if you can’t socially distance to wear a mask.”
Asked about a new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll that shows Biden leading Trump by 14 percentage points, Miller said on ABC’s “This Week” that “we feel very good about our positioning” in key battleground states needed to get to 270 electoral votes. In the poll taken after Tuesday’s president debate but before Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19, Biden led Trump 53% to 39%, the biggest lead of the presidential campaign.
With Trump being treated for the coronavirus at Walter Reed military hospital, his aides took to the Sunday news shows seeking to dispel doubts about his re-election campaign and defend his personal handling of the pandemic.
Miller said Trump is “going to defeat” the virus. “And I think when President Trump gets to the White House and out on the campaign trail that it’s going to be a slingshot going forward,” he said on ABC.
But National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, who came down with the virus earlier and has recovered, was more cautious, underscoring that it’s too soon to know how Trump will fare. “Day seven and eight are the critical days,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Asked about a potential transfer of power should Trump’s situation deteriorate, O’Brien said, “We’ve got a great team in place and the president is firmly in control.”
Miller, the campaign adviser, promoted what’s being billed as “Operation MAGA,” with a virtual event on Monday night followed by Vice President Mike Pence, Trump family members and surrogates fanning out after the vice presidential debate scheduled for Wednesday night in the effort to generate momentum in Trump’s absence.
Trump’s aides defended his campaign rallies and White House events where Trump and his supporters seldom wore masks.
“We give them a mask, we check their temperature,” Miller said on ABC, scoffing that Democratic candidate Joe Biden often “used the mask as a prop.” Trump also has ridiculed Biden for wearing a mask in his public appearances.
Trump aides including Hope Hicks, campaign manager Bill Stepien and supporters including former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Republican Senators Thom Tillis, Mike Lee and Ron Johnson have come down with Covid-19, raising questions about whether Trump’s White House and campaign events have become superspreader locations for the virus.
Miller said he and other Trump aides and advisers “keep distance from the president at all times” and Trump “is one of the most tested people the country.”
Steve Cortes, another Trump campaign adviser, defended the president’s actions leading up to his illness, including broadly disregarding health authorities’ guidance.
“He took reasonable risks, not reckless ones,” Cortes said on “Fox News Sunday.” “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 very well.”
Pence will continue to campaign and there’ll be no delay in the Senate’s confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, Cortes said.