Trump Is Going All Out In Right-Wing Media To Convince People He’s ‘Cured’ Of COVID-19
In the four days since President Donald Trump left the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, his medical team has not done a single press event where reporters could ask questions about the president’s health. They have provided only a daily letter with scant and sometimes contradictory information, leaving the entire country without any meaningful information about the health of a 74-year-old president who has contracted the novel coronavirus.
Trump has instead undertaken a manic spree of tweets, bizarre prerecorded videos, and appearances on friendly conservative media outlets to proclaim he’s back to full health. This public relations campaign will culminate Friday night in a televised health exam on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s prime-time show, performed by pro-Trump stalwart Marc Siegel, an internist and frequent Fox News contributor.
The likely absurdity of this performance — not only is Siegel unreliable, but he will conduct the “exam” remotely and it will be pre-recorded — underscores that not only are Americans not getting real updates about the president’s health 25 days before the election, but there is a high chance they are being actively misled.
Siegel is Fox News’ go-to source for medical analysis and has appeared on the channel over 300 times since the start of the year. Throughout the pandemic, he has repeatedly promoted unsubstantiated claims that tend to fit with the White House narrative on coronavirus. Early on, he downplayed the threat from COVID-19, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity in early March that “worst-case scenario, it could be the flu,” and promoting the unproven anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for the virus.
Siegel has also continually backed Trump’s response to the virus, as well as praised U.S. states that lifted coronavirus lockdowns despite surging cases. He has pushed to reopen schools and defended Trump for holding campaign rallies and events. After...
