President Biden’s testing positive for COVID-19 provides a grim counterpoint to an energetic Republican convention at which former President Trump is scheduled to deliver his first speech since surviving an assassination attempt on Thursday.
While Biden is in quarantine at his home in Delaware, Trump recovered from the shooting at his rally on Saturday and received a hero’s welcome in Milwaukee. Biden’s campaign has been running ads and holding press conferences all week to counter Republicans, but the president himself will not be making any public appearances for at least a few days.
That juxtaposition may seem like a night-and-day difference between the two men’s respective campaigns in a race that has been consistently close for most of the year.
“Today is a terrible day. If you step back and look at it: strength versus weakness,” said Democratic strategist Van Jones Wednesday evening on CNN. “A bullet couldn’t stop Trump; a virus just stopped Biden. You have the nominees of this [Republican] Party is getting its ass kissed. Biden is getting his ass kicked by his own party. The Democrats are falling apart and the Republicans are coming together.”
Biden tested positive in Las Vegas, moments before he was scheduled to speak at a convention of Latino voters – a crucial voting bloc for him to win in November. He suffered upper respiratory symptoms, a runny nose and cough before receiving a COVID-19 test.
When he landed at his home in Rehoboth Beach tardy Wednesday night to isolate himself, Biden told reporters, “I’m fine.”
Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, gave an update on the president’s health Thursday afternoon, saying he still has gentle upper respiratory symptoms, he continues to receive Paxlovid, he has no fever and his vital signs are normal. He added that Biden will “continue to conduct the affairs of the American people.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s candidate for vice president, Senator JD Vance (Republican, Ohio), a noisy speech to officially accept the nomination as the Republican vice presidential candidate. The crowd in Milwaukee is now waiting anxiously for Trump’s speech, which the campaign said was cut brief after the shooting on Saturday.
“Nobody understands the power of visual imagery better than Donald Trump, and it seems that President Biden understands that power less and less. It’s ironic, of course, to say that becoming the target of an assassination attempt could be part of a lucky streak, but last week’s split-screen images changed the campaign in an enormous way,” said Stewart Verdery, who served in the administration of former President George W. Bush.
Biden’s COVID-19 diagnosis also comes at a precarious time for him, as calls for him to withdraw from the candidacy intensified again this week. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California added more votes to the list, and reports are emerging that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Senate Speaker Chuck Schumer (D-California) are pressuring him to drop out of the candidacy.
“If the Democrats were a football team, Nancy Pelosi would be the coach about to replace a sick player,” added Verdery, founder of Monument Advocacy.
However, some Democrats expressed hope that Biden’s surrogates would step in and offer counter-programs during his recovery.
“There’s never a good time for COVID-19, but Democrats have a strong group of people who can serve as surrogates while the president gets healthy. Should we be worried? It’s on the list, but I’m not sure it’s at the top of the list of concerns,” said Ivan Zapien, a former Democratic National Committee official.
Biden’s local surrogates in Milwaukee, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), Senator Cory Booker (DN.J.), Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Representative Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), are holding daily press conferences with reporters.
The Biden campaign revealed a powerful Television ad on Wednesday night, shortly before Vance’s remarks, narrated by a Kentucky woman, Hadley Duvall, who was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant at age 12. She argued that “Trump and JD Vance don’t care about women.”
But the focus on Biden’s health, which has increased since his destitute debate performance tardy last month, was intensified when he tested positive for COVID-19. The White House recently had to defend his fitness for office, relying on the results of his February medical exam, which said he was fit for the office and at the same time clarify why a neurologist with expertise in Parkinson’s disease had visited the White House several times.
The president said in an interview broadcast Wednesday that only a doctor’s determination that he was suffering from an illness would make him reconsider his decision to run for a second term.
“If I had a disease that came up. If doctors came to me and said, ‘You have this problem, that problem,'” Biden said said Ed Gordon of BET News.
Since the debate, Biden has been trying to allay Democrats’ concerns about whether he can beat Trump in November. After the assassination attempt on the Republican candidate over the weekend, he tried to demonstrate leadership and call for unity in three different remarks.
But some say the COVID-19 diagnosis at the end of three turbulent weeks for the president – who is trying to change perceptions and prove he is ready for another four years in office – is a bitter blow.
“In the three weeks leading up to the Republican convention in Milwaukee, the weak got weaker and the strong got stronger,” said strategist Bruce Mehlman, a former deputy secretary of commerce under Bush.
Even before Trump’s comments Thursday night, Republicans seemed ready to point to the divided opinion between the two parties this week.
“There is chaos, disarray, free fall in the Democratic Party, Schumer and Pelosi are meeting privately with Joe Biden. They are talking about how this is a problem for the House and the Senate. In contrast to the unity we have with the Republicans,” Rep. Elisa Stefanik (RN.Y.) said Thursday on Fox. “For the American people, this is a stark contrast.”
Updated at 1:58 p.m. ET
