Trump: 'Don't Be Afraid of It, You're Gonna Beat It'

President releases triumphant video after leaving hospital
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 6, 2020 2:22 AM CDT
Updated Oct 6, 2020 6:41 AM CDT
Trump Releases Triumphant Video After Leaving Hospital
President Donald Trump returns to the White House Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, in Washington, after leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md. Trump announced he tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 2.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Moments after leaving Walter Reed Medical Center and returning to the White House on Monday night, President Trump recorded what CNN refers to as a "campaign-style video" on Twitter. "Don't be afraid of [coronavirus], you're gonna beat it," a maskless Trump says in the video. "We have the best medical equipment, we have the best medicines, all developed recently. And you're gonna beat it." Trump also echoed other sentiments he had tweeted about earlier Monday, insisting that he could have left the hospital two days earlier than he did and that he feels even better after treatment than he did 20 years ago. "And now I'm better, and maybe I'm immune, I don't know," he said, insisting multiple times that people not let COVID-19 "dominate" their lives. A vaccine, he added, will be available "momentarily."

The video set off a firestorm, just as his earlier tweet had; the AP rounds up some reactions from virus survivors and those who've lost loved ones. "I’m so glad that he appears to be doing well, that he has doctors who can give him experimental drugs that aren’t available to the masses," says one survivor. "For the rest of us, who are trying to protect ourselves, that behavior is an embarrassment." An epidemiologist echoed that sentiment: "The president has access to the best medical care in the world, along with a helicopter to transport him to the hospital as needed." And one of the medical professors who spoke to CNN says of the video itself, "It is inexplainable that the President of the United States, who is actively shedding virus in millions of particles, would walk into that building with an enormous number of staff, unmasked." The AP also rounds up anonymous Secret Service agents and White House staffers who are increasingly upset about the White House's lax safety policies—and increasingly concerned for their own health. (More coronavirus stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X