‘I could have been a bad victim’: Donald Trump praises COVID-19 experimental treatment, takes aim at Iran
Donald Trump has dropped an F-bomb while taking aim at Iran, and said he could have been a “bad victim” if it weren’t for the experimental antibody cocktail he took as part of his COVID-19 treatment.
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Donald Trump dropped an “F-bomb” as he took aim at Iran during a two-hour radio interview.
Speaking to conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, the US President said when talking about the Middle Eastern nation: “If you f--k around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are gonna do things to you that have never been done before.”
In his interview with Limbaugh, Mr Trump also discussed his COVID-19 diagnosis.
He said the experimental Regeneron antibody cocktail that he took as part of therapeutic treatment was “a cure.” It’s “a total game changer” and “better than a vaccine,” he said. In fact, there is no cure and still no approved vaccine for the coronavirus. Mr Trump repeatedly asserted that he feels fine and he has been backed up by statements from the presidential physician, Sean Conley.
But in his Limbaugh interview, Trump suggested for the first time that he had been close to death, had it not been for the therapeutic drugs.
“I’m talking to you today because of it. I could have been a bad victim,” he said, referring to friends of his who had died from COVID-19.
Mr Trump said that doctors told him afterward, “you were going into a very bad phase.” “You know what that means,” said the president.
According to Conley, Mr Trump is now fit for a “safe return to public engagement” from Saturday.
Earlier this week, the US President appeared to have antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease.
“The president this morning says, ‘I feel great!’ His physical exam and vital signs, including oxygen saturation and respiratory rate, all remain stable and in normal range,” Conley said in a memo released by the White House.
“He’s now been fever-free for more than four days, symptom-free for over 24 hours, and has not needed nor received any supplemental oxygen since initial hospitalisation,” he added.
Dr Conley also revealed that the president’s blood tests from Monday showed “detectable levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies.”
It’s unclear if antibodies make you immune to the coronavirus but they may help to ward off future occurrences of infection, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.
TRUMP APPROVES STIMULUS AS DEMS PAVE WAY ‘TO REPLACE BIDEN’
An astonishing refusal to state whether he will expand the number of seats on the US Supreme Court has left Joe Biden flailing as news emerged Donald Trump approved a new COVID economic stimulus package.
The President’s director of the United States National Economic Council Larry Kudlow said Mr Trump had given the thumbs up to a revised stimulus package with the White House set to speak to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the hope of confirming a deal.
“The key point is the president has approved the package,” Mr Kudlow said.
Americans have been waiting on a second round of coronavirus stimulus checks.
However, due to disagreements between the Republican and Democratic parties, a decision took longer than expected.
It came as Ms Pelosi, the most senior elected Democrat and an avowed Trump critic, unveiled legislation which seeks to effectively strip “future presidents” of presidential powers if they are unable to fulfil their duties through a bipartisan committee.
The “Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office Act” is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate and has raised eyebrows with its introduction just 25 days until Election Day.
“This is not about President Trump,” the speaker insisted.
“He will face the Judgement on the voters, but he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents,” she went on, referring to his diagnosis with COVID-19.
Mr Trump said Ms Pelosi was actually laying the groundwork to replace Joe Biden with his deputy Kamala Harris if he won the November 3 election.
Mr Trump said Nancy Pelosi’s new 25th Amendment commission was not about him but Democratic opponent Joe Biden.
“Crazy Nancy Pelosi is looking at the 25th Amendment in order to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris,” he told his 87 million followers on Twitter.
“The Dems want that to happen fast because Sleepy Joe is out of it!!!” he went on.
Meanwhile, Mr Biden is facing growing pressure to state whether he will increase the size of the Supreme Court if he wins the election.
He has taken the bold decision to refuse to answer questions about whether he will expand the court to ensure it is Democrat-controlled after the next election.
Indeed, in a puzzling political manoeuvre, Mr Biden is not just dodging the question - he is acknowledging that he’s flat out not providing an answer.
“You’ll know my position on court-packing (expanding the number of seats on the Supreme Court) when the election is over,” he told stunned journalists.
“Now look, I know it’s a great question and I don’t blame you for asking, but you know the moment I answer that question, the headline in every one of your papers will be about that.”
President Trump said Mr Biden’s refusal to answer the question meant he wasn’t fit to occupy the White House.
“I think what he said was so disrespectful to the process and to the people,” Mr Trump said.
“But what that means, really, is that they’re going to do it, because obviously, that means 100 per cent that’s what they’re going to do. They’re going to end the filibuster and they’re going to do things that you wouldn’t have thought.”
Republican politicians have vowed to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court before the November 3 election. Judge Barrett was nominated to fill the seat vacated by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg following her death in September.
Mr Trump has warned that top Democrats would move to “pack” the court with progressive judges in order to prevent a conservative majority.
“If they ever got in, day one, this would be the first move they make, [to] end the filibuster -the nuclear option, as they call it - and they will do that,” the president said. “Not a week will go by, probably not a day will go by.”
Earlier, Ms Pelosi mentioned that due to the drugs that Mr Trump has been on since he was diagnosed with Covid last week, “medical professionals say this could have an impact on judgment.”
The comments come less than 24 hours after the Democrat questioned if the president would be thinking clearly due to the medication.
“The president is, shall we say, in an altered state right now,” Ms Pelosi said. “I don’t know how to answer for that behaviour.”
DEMS SCHEME TO REMOVE ‘UNFIT’ TRUMP FROM OFFICE ‘TOMORROW’
Scheming is underway within the Democratic Party to unseat US President Donald Trump on Friday US time, his nemesis House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has revealed.
She threatened to try to remove Mr Trump from office using an obscure Constitutional Amendment that speaks to fitness for office and presidential succession.
It follows her suggestions that the President has been behaving erratically since he undertook experimental drug treatment in hospital for COVID-19.
“I’ll talk to you about that tomorrow,” the 80-year-old Ms Pelosi said when asked if she was considering “invoking the 25th Amendment” against the 74-year-old Mr Trump.
She said that she and her fellow Democrats are considering invoking the constitutional provision on presidential succession — a seemingly fantastical yearning among Trump opponents.
“Tomorrow. Come here tomorrow. We’re going to be talking about the 25th Amendment, but not to take attention away from the subject we have now,” she chirped excitedly.
The amendment allows for the transfer of power from the president of the United States to the vice president.
“Mr President: when was the last time you had a negative test before you tested positive?” she asked, referencing his coronavirus diagnosis.
“Why is the White House not telling the country that important fact about how this spread and made a hotspot of the White House?”
Since testing positive last week for COVID-19 last week, Mr Trump has not transferred any of his presidential power.
Throughout the week, he’s worked from Walter Reed military hospital in Maryland and from the White House.
The 25th Amendment works like this: A president sends a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President pro tempore of the Senate that he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
The vice president then becomes acting president.
When the president is ready to resume authority, the president sends another letter.
“Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress,” the amendment states.
The Speaker of the House – at this time, Ms Pelosi – is behind the vice president in the line of succession.
In a scenario where neither president nor vice president could fulfil the duties, Ms Pelosi would take over as commander-in-chief of the United States.
Presidents have only transferred power three times since 1967 when the amendment was ratified.
Former President Ronald Reagan did so in 1985 when he underwent a colonoscopy, giving power to Vice President George HW Bush.
When George W Bush underwent colonoscopies in 2002 and 2007, he turned power over to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Trump was flown via presidential chopper Marine One last Friday after testing positive for coronavirus.
The White House made sure to note that Trump did not transfer any power to Vice President Mike Pence, despite his health status.
TRUMP DEMANDS FACE TO FACE DEBATES WITH BIDEN
Donald Trump wants two face-to-face debates with Democratic rival Joe Biden, his campaign said, after the US President said he wouldn’t “waste time” on a proposed virtual encounter but calling for a final showdown just five days before US election day.
The second debate, scheduled as a town hall-styled event, was set for October 15 but that timeline is now likely to be scrapped after Mr Trump, who is recovering from COVID-19, rejected the change to a virtual format.
After Mr Trump deemed a virtual debate “ridiculous”, the Biden campaign called for the debate to be pushed back a week “so that the president is not able to evade accountability”.
“Joe Biden was prepared to accept the C.P.D.’s proposal for a virtual Town Hall, but the president has refused, as Donald Trump clearly does not want to face questions from the voters about his failures on Covid and the economy,” Mr Biden’s deputy campaign manager and communications director, Kate Bedingfield, said in a statement.
The Trump campaign expressed openness to the Biden campaign’s idea, in a statement that was highly critical of the commission, suggesting without evidence that it was trying to help Mr Biden.
An in-person town hall debate, with questions from voters, “should happen on October 22, and accordingly, the third debate should then be shifted back one week to October 29,” just days from the November 3 vote, Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement.
Earlier, Mr Trump said he would refuse to take part in the presidential debate next week after it was switched to a virtual format, adding that he doesn’t think he’s contagious and wants to resume campaign rallies.
“I’m not going to do a virtual debate,” Mr Trump told Fox Business News on Thursday (local time), saying this was “not acceptable to us.”
“I heard that the commission a little while ago changed the debate style. That’s not acceptable to us. I’m not going to do a virtual debate,” the US President said.
“I’m not gonna waste my time on a virtual debate, that’s not what debating is all about. You sit behind a computer and do it, debates? Ridiculous. And then they cut you off whenever they want.”
Mr Trump accused the bipartisan debate commission of trying to “protect” his opponent Joe Biden.
The Commission on Presidential Debates said earlier it was making the change to a virtual format so as to “protect the health and safety of all involved.”
It said the debate would have a town hall forum with the candidates in remote locations.
Mr Trump, who also said he no longer thought he was contagious, did declare that he was ready to resume his rallies, which have been criticised due to the fact that many attendees do not wear masks.
Mr Trump also said that he is immune from another infection and attributed his recovery to being a “perfect physical specimen”.
- with David Aidone and AFP
Originally published as ‘I could have been a bad victim’: Donald Trump praises COVID-19 experimental treatment, takes aim at Iran