Today's Liberal News

Election Season Upended: Trump’s COVID Diagnosis Could Reshape Race, Debates & SCOTUS Fight

President Donald Trump has tested positive for COVID-19, throwing the final month of an already unprecedented election season into disarray. What will this latest news mean for the debates and the Supreme Court? And what will happen if President Trump is unable to lead the country? We speak to journalist John Nichols about the line of succession, campaigning in the critical swing state of Wisconsin, and more.

Naomi Klein: I Fear Trump Will Exploit His COVID Infection to Further Destabilize the Election

How will President Trump’s revelation that he tested positive for COVID-19 affect the presidential race? Acclaimed journalist, author and activist Naomi Klein warns that the Trump campaign is likely to exploit the news. “We need to be prepared for the president using the fact that he’s having to cancel campaign events for two weeks to try to further delegitimize elections,” she says.

Superspreader-in-Chief: For Months Trump Spread COVID Lies, Now He May Have Spread the Virus Itself

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for COVID-19. The announcement came early Friday morning, hours after Bloomberg News reported that Trump adviser Hope Hicks became ill during Trump’s Wednesday night rally in Duluth, Minnesota, and had to be quarantined aboard Air Force One on the return flight to Washington. Hicks went on to test positive for coronavirus early on Thursday, though the White House did not report her illness.

Suddenly, Amy Coney Barrett Might Not Have the Votes

September 26 was a festive day for Republicans in Washington. Under overcast skies, President Donald Trump strode to a podium in the White House Rose Garden to introduce Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Trump is hospitalized, COVID-19 is exploding across the GOP, and the experts have been sidelined

It’s now clear that Donald Trump lied to the nation about when he received a positive test for COVID-19. Trump was known to be ill, showing symptoms, and receiving treatment over a day before publicity around Hope Hicks’ diagnosis forced Trump to admit even a sliver of the truth. But if Trump trotting off to Minnesota and New Jersey to get his infectious face up close with supporters seems bad, what’s going on at the White House since then seems even worse.

Participants in Amy Coney Barrett’s introduction were encouraged to take off their masks and mingle

A day after Donald Trump admitted to testing positive for COVID-19, the Rose Garden ceremony formally introducing Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee for the Supreme Court has emerged as a super-spreader event. In addition to Trump, at least 11 others — including former White House press secretary Kellyanne Conway, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, Republican Senator Mike Lee, and Republican Senator Thom Tillis have tested positive following Barrett’s introduction.

Hastily written ‘clarification’ shows that the White House is in charge, not Trump’s doctors

Sean Conley, White House doctor, held one heck of a press conference Saturday morning. Surrounded by a gaggle of masked doctors and nurses, perfectly placed in front of Walter Reed Medical Center, Dr. Conley spoke from written remarks, and named the medical professionals behind him, even letting two of them speak. He then fielded questions, carefully dodging certain ones. 

It was a brief event, and left reporters and Americans confused by two big things: Dr.

Trump’s doctors try to downplay his condition, but blow up the timeline of Trump’s illness

Donald Trump was flown to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday evening. At the time, he was apparently suffering from coughing, fever, lethargy, and some difficulty in breathing. The decision to send him to the hospital at that point appears to have been made not just out of an abundance of caution, but because, as The Washington Post reports, with Trump’s condition worsening, they wanted to move while Trump was “still able to walk to Marine One on his own.

Trump’s campaign strategy implodes

Over the course of 24 hours, the central pillar of Donald Trump’s campaign strategy came crashing down. At almost any cost, Trump had diligently worked to suspend reality, put the coronavirus in the rearview mirror, and train the country’s attention on Joe Biden’s supposedly weak constitution and frailty. But what Trump never counted on was the possibility that he himself might pay the price for his studied ignorance.

Donald Trump, Superspreader

Following months of peddling false information, the president attended at least one event after showing symptoms of COVID-19, putting an untold number of innocent people at risk.

The President Is Not Well

In a 24-hour period between Thursday and yesterday evening, the world learned a week’s worth of news about President Donald Trump. None of the news was good.

Trump Thought He’d Never Get It

Donald Trump has always thought of himself as above the rules. He has demonstrated this conviction throughout his life: in his business, in his personal behavior, and for almost four years as president of the United States. So we know what to expect from him.

Trump Is a Super-Spreader of Disinformation

A super-spreader—a term we didn’t much use nine months ago—is a person with a contagious disease who gives it to a lot of other people. In the coronavirus pandemic, super-spreaders have played an outsize role. Scientists have identified super-spreaders who have infected dozens of people with the virus, while others with the illness haven’t infected anyone at all.

It May Be Time to Invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment

On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot as he entered his limousine after a speech at a Washington hotel. Reagan’s condition soon stabilized. He was released from the hospital April 11 and spoke to a joint session of Congress on April 28.But in the first few hours, it was not clear whether the president would live or die. Paperwork was prepared to appoint Vice President George H. W. Bush as acting president. You can see it here, courtesy of the Reagan Library.