Joy Reid on MSNBC just likened Joe Biden’s Covid diagnosis to Donald Trump surviving an assassination attempt, an attempt she called a “photo op.” Reid:
“These two men are both elderly. Donald Trump is an elderly man who — for whatever reason — was given nine seconds to take an iconic photo op during an active shooter situation. . . . His survival of that and bouncing right back and going right to his invention is being conveyed in the media world as a sign of strength. This current President of the United States is 81 years old and has Covid. Should he be fine in a couple of days? Doesn’t that convey exactly the same thing? That he’s strong enough, older than Trump, to have gotten something that used to really be fatal to people his age, so if he does fine and comes back and is able to do rallies, isn’t that exactly the same?”
“It’s an elderly man coming through out of an illness.”
First: Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump’s life was a reprehensible, easily condemnable act of political violence. Not a nine-second photo op. Second: Trump was centimeters away from death, yet continued campaigning, making statements, and, yes, even stopped for seconds after the attack to show the American people in a time of obvious crisis that he would stand strong against the worst of threats. Third: Biden scuttled back to Delaware within hours of his diagnosis, despite having quarantined at the White House during previous bouts of Covid.
In the seconds after Trump almost got his head blown off, he gave what should be remembered as one of the bravest gestures in presidential history. Biden ran (sorry, hobbled, up the Air Force One steps) back to the beach, maskless (the horror!), as soon as trouble hit.