‘Border Security Is Also Health Security,’ Trump Says at Rally as Coronavirus Fears Grow - The New York Times

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Larry Kudlow, the president’s chief economic adviser, stood in the White House briefing room on Friday urging the public — and the plunging financial markets — not to panic over the coronavirus outbreak, while Vice President Mike Pence spread a similar message to officials and residents at an event in Florida.

Later, as the authorities revealed a second person in California had been found to be infected with the coronavirus without having any known risk factors, President Trump suggested the panic over the issue was being manufactured by his enemies.

In South Carolina on Friday night at his latest freestyle “Keep America Great” rally, the president accused Democrats of treating alarm over the coronavirus as “their new hoax,” and said the news media was in “hysteria mode” over his administration’s handling of the outbreak, continuing an attempt to shift blame for a public health crisis onto his political adversaries.

“Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” Mr. Trump told a crowd of supporters, who roared in response. “They can’t even count their votes in Iowa.”

“We have 15 people” with the virus “in this massive country, and because of the fact that we went early,” referring to an earlier decision to close American borders to travelers from China, “we could’ve had a lot more than that.”

The president added that “so far, we have lost nobody” to the coronavirus.

“It doesn’t mean we won’t,” he said.

(By late Friday, two more unexplained cases of the coronavirus had been confirmed in the West, one in Oregon and one in Washington State.)

Mr. Trump, who overnighted this week in India and who, according to his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, has barely slept since, spent nearly 90 minutes mixing his views about the coronavirus with insults about the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.

He also sprinkled in free-associative rants about his popularity with black voters and topics further afield. The president at different points mused about the Rev. Al Sharpton’s weight — “He looked better when he was heavy” — and the Academy Awards — “Seriously, the Academy Awards has gone way, way down in ratings. You know why? Because they started attacking us, and we don’t believe in it anymore. That’s why.”

But he always found his way back to partisan politics.

“On Jan. 31, I ordered the suspension of foreign nationals who have recently been in China from entering the United States,” Mr. Trump said to loud cheers about his decision to seal the borders to travelers, “an action which the Democrats loudly criticized and protested, and now everybody’s complimenting me.”

Experts have questioned the effectiveness of border closures and quarantines when so much about the coronavirus is unknown. Yet Mr. Trump appeared to tie his administration’s response with his case for tighter immigration policies: “We must understand that border security is also health security.”

In recent days, the president has appeared more interested in his prospects for re-election than in conducting a measured response to a public health crisis. On Friday morning, Fox News — usually a reliable ally — drew Mr. Trump’s ire for releasing polling that showed him faltering in matchups against potential rivals in November.

“Worst Polls, just like in 2016 when they were so far off the mark, are the @FoxNews Polls,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “Why doesn’t Fox finally get a competent Polling Company?” (At the rally, he remarked that the unnamed Fox pollster “hates Trump’s guts.”)

The Keep America Great rally in South Carolina, a state that Mr. Trump won handily in 2016, was intended to draw attention away from the Democratic primary, scheduled for Saturday. With both of the state’s Republican senators, Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, in tow, the president became the latest national politician to visit a state that has been overwhelmed by them.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the billionaire businessman Tom Steyer, both running for the Democratic presidential nomination, are betting that South Carolina will revive their flagging campaigns, and the president had words for them.

“I thought I knew all the wealthy people,” he said of Mr. Steyer, whom he mocked as “Mr. Impeachment.” He then teased Mr. Biden for mixing up the names of states he has visited. “He did that like seven times,” Mr. Trump said.

“If I did that once, it would be the end of the road, right?” he added. “They’d say Trump has lost it.”

He paused before saying, “They like to say that anyway, I guess.”

Mr. Trump poll-tested various candidates with the crowd — “We won’t include Steyer, he’s a loser” — before disparaging Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as a “mean one” and dismissing Michael R. Bloomberg as “gone” and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota as “not going to happen.” The president then asked his supporters who they thought was the weaker candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont or Mr. Biden.

“Who the hell is easier to beat? Crazy Bernie? Or Sleepy Joe?” he said, before concluding that his best chances lie with Mr. Sanders.

Among other topics, Mr. Trump assessed his own effectiveness with minority voters, regaling the crowd with a story about a “love fest” event at the White House at which he hosted African-Americans. His campaign recently announced a push to open storefronts in swing states targeting black voters with “Woke”-themed merchandise and pamphlets.

“One of the things I asked them,” Mr. Trump said, “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time — great people, some of them are here tonight — ‘Do you like the name African-American or black?’ And they said, ‘Black!’ all at the same time. True. I tell you. Because you say African-American or black. And they said almost, like, immediately, ‘Black.’”

On and off the rally stage, the president has zeroed in on Mr. Bloomberg for his performances in recent debates. Earlier Friday, Mr. Trump spread an unfounded Twitter rumor that Mr. Bloomberg was thinking of ending his presidential bid.

“Shouldn’t you be worrying about the coronavirus?” Mr. Bloomberg replied on Twitter. “Listen to your scientists. Prepare your people. Be the leader America needs. If only just this once.”

The South Carolina rally was just the latest stop on Mr. Trump’s grievance roadshow. He has visited every state that has held a primary or caucus so far this year, making trolling Democratic candidates a cornerstone of his re-election campaign strategy.

Democrats say that this penchant to chase them around the map is evidence that Mr. Trump is not confident about his chances. But Erin Cassese, a political science researcher at the University of Delaware who studies the psychology of voters, said that the president was capitalizing on the anger felt by Republican voters who have been bombarded with messaging they do not necessarily agree with.

“There’s how much you like your own party and then there’s almost how much you dislike the opposing party,” Ms. Cassese said. “I see Trump as riding the wave of negative partisanship by following Democrats through these early primary states. And the rally is kind of a pressure valve.”

At the rally, Mr. Trump summoned Mr. Graham, a fervent defender of the president’s, onstage for a round of praise.

“Do you know why you’re going to win?” the senator asked Mr. Trump. “You’ve been a damn good president.” Mr. Graham then thanked the president for putting up with what the senator described as never-ending obstacles, though Mr. Graham used an expletive instead.

Later, as Mr. Trump spoke about immigration, he celebrated a federal appeals court ruling that determined that his administration would not have to provide funding to so-called sanctuary cities, and he recounted in grisly detail stories of an undocumented immigrant who had been arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. He said the man was also a member of the MS-13 gang, a vicious criminal organization.

“He should never have been in our country,” Mr. Trump said as the crowd roared and started a “Build the Wall” chant. “He should not have been allowed.”

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‘Border Security Is Also Health Security,’ Trump Says at Rally as Coronavirus Fears Grow - The New York Times
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