You’ve been bitten by a true believer (Update: You’ve been bitten by someone’s false beliefs.)
By Novel Coronavirus has come a long way since Mick Mulvaney claimed it was a hoax at COVIDPAC.
The infected attendee has not been named, but it appears the man had access to many of the conference’s highest-profile guests. Matt Schlapp, head of the American Conservative Union, has said he shook hands with him.
Schlapp, as the event’s face, shook hands with hundreds of other people, including Trump. And Cruz and Gosar were both in contact with the infected individual as well — Gosar said in his statement he shook hands with the man “several times.”
All this has many CPAC attendees “apoplectic,” Raheem Kassam, editor-in-chief of the conservative outlet the National Pulse, wrote on Twitter Sunday. Kassam claims to be feeling ill after interacting with attendees who had contact with the infected man, including Gosar. And concerningly, Kassam said a number of the president’s closest advisers, allies, and one cabinet member were also in contact with the infected individual.
The attendee never attended events in the main hall because everyone came to him. See? Completely above-board and nothing to worry about. Schlapp monitored the DOPUS’ hand washing routine very closely.
“I can verify that he had no contact with either the president or the vice president,” Schlapp said. “I can tell you, when the president was on site at CPAC, he lives by what he tells us because I saw him scrub down his hands and clean his hands more than once while he was on the premises, and I did the same, by the way.”
Perfectly fine, perfectly cool. Responding to a crisis based on what a vain, temperamental splat of a human being wants is working out just fine and he’s unlikely to declare that failure to attend his rallies is an act of treason.
Update: In case you weren’t feeling jittery enough a couple of commentarions have linked to a Vanity Fair article that details some very normal behavior.
Paranoia
Last week Trump told aides he’s afraid journalists will try to purposefully contract coronavirus to give it to him on Air Force One, a person close to the administration told me.
Projection.
“He wants Justice to open investigations of the media for market manipulation,” a source close to the White House told me.
Pouting.
Trump’s efforts to take control of the story himself have so far failed. A source said Trump was pleased with ratings for the Fox News town hall last Thursday, but he was furious with how he looked on television. “Trump said afterwards that the lighting was bad,” a source briefed on the conversation said. “He said, ‘We need Bill Shine back in here. Bill would never allow this.’”
