Trump news: Fears of new White House super-spreader debacle as president invites guests to public event

Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh have now been chatting for 1 hour and 42 minutes  

The virtual campaign rally is at the half way mark as Limbaugh checks in at almost two hours to say Trump’s election to president was “providential”.

Trump: ‘I like Putin’

Going through the list of international leaders, Trump had this to say of Russia and Germany’s heads of state.

On Russia’s Vladamir Putin: “I get along with Putin. I like Putin. Putin possibly, probably, likes me,” he said.

On Germany’s Angela Merkel: “I get along with Angela a lot. She’s a player,” he said. “She’s a very smart, cunning person.”

‘It’s true’: author of Axios report responds to Trump

Trump today said he would tell attorney general William Barr that it’s a disgrace if the Durham probe isn’t released before the election, per reports in Axios, “if it’s true”.

Responds reporter Alayana Treene: “It’s true.”

Dr Anthony Fauci says Trump’s cough ‘not unusual’ and not necessarily a sign he’s spreading Covid virus

Asked about Donald Trump’s cough during a Fox News interview on Thursday night, Dr Anthony Fauci said on Friday it could be “relatively benign".

“For a couple of days you could have a residual cough that could be relatively begnin and not particularly bother you,” Fauci said. 

“Some people after several days relapse and get into trouble… most people when they recover they recover fine in a linear fashion and get better and better and better, which it appears that the president’s doing. But having a bit of a lingering cough is not at all unusual as someone recovers.”

Trump appears to have kicked the cough on Friday, speaking for two hours to radio host Rush Limbaugh.

Listen to Trump drop the F-bomb on Iran: ‘If you f*uck around with us’  

Speaking about sanctions on Iran, Trump said on Rush Limbaugh today:

“If you f*ck around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are gonna do things to you that have never been done before,” Trump said.

In any other presidency, this would be headline news. But in 2020, this is par for the course. Here is a super cut of Trump dropping the F-bomb like it’s Shock & Awe.

Trump unlikely to hit campaign trail until Monday, awaits more testing

Donald Trump is itching to get back on the campaign trail after being sidelined by a Covid-19 infection but is unlikely to hold any in-person events until at least Monday, aides said on Friday.

Trump said on Thursday night he hoped to hold campaign rallies in the crucial swing states of Florida on Saturday and Pennsylvania on Sunday. But aides said the short notice would make the events difficult to stage.

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said the president was hard at work and ready to go as soon as he got approval from his doctor, telling Fox News, “He wants to talk to the American people, and he wants to be out there.” - Reuters

Dr Anthony Fauci calls Scotus Rose Garden announcement a  ‘super spreader’ event

“I think the data speaks for itself, we had a super spreader event in the White House, and it was a situation where people were crowded together and were not wearing masks, so the data speak for themselves,” Fauci said today.

Latinos the future of the country, Biden says

Speaking at a campaign stop in Las Vegas on Friday, Joe Biden said the future is “just absolutely breathtaking if we just use our heads and begin to operate in a way that I think the American people are ready to do”.

“I’m not trying to be solicitous with you I’m not trying to be nice, you are the future of the country, I mean you really are,” Biden said.

“If in fact, if in fact we’re in a situation where the Latino community of the United States of America and they’re, the GDP, the wealth that they generate nationwide, if just took just the Latino population, you’d be the eighth largest economy in the world, in the United States.”

He continued: “All those folks on the front lines, look at how many Dreamers are out there risking their lives, you know it, but the American people don’t know I keep telling them all over the country. The Dreamers, there’s thousands and thousands there’s thousands and thousands of them, risking their lives making sure that people are staying alive, they can stay home.”

Biden bends the knee in Las Vegas campaign stop

ICYMI: White House preparing $1.8tn stimulus bill, days after Trump told his team to delay it until after election

The White House was preparing to unveil a new $1.8 trillion stimulus package, according to reports, after President Donald Trump blew up negotiations with Democrats and Republican leaders warned a Covid-19 relief bill was unlikely before Election Day.

US Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin was expected to discuss the new aid package with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D—Ca) during a meeting on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported, amid stalled negotiations on Capitol Hill over coronavirus relief.

Chris Riotta has more on the Covid relief negotiations.