Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell has said he believes President Trump needs to continue to project an image that he is still in charge of the country despite being hospitalized with coronavirus.
Trump tested positive for the disease late on Thursday night and was taken to Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday evening.
Speaking on MSNBC to Joy Reid, Swalwell said that he believes ‘our enemies are watching right now’ and that the president needs to continue to make daily video messages in order to avoid plunging the country into a national security crisis.
California Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell has shared his concern that Trump’s being in hospital could be seen as a sign of weakness by enemies
Speaking on MSNBC he stated how it was important for the president to make daily statements in person if at all possible
‘We are in the midst of a completely avoidable national security crisis and if the president of the United States can contract this [disease], it’s a pretty clear sign that we are not doing enough nationwide and that this crisis is not being controlled,’ Swalwell said.
‘I really believe we are a country that follows our leaders and if the leader of the country is not wearing a mask and mocking others who are wearing masks, it is going to have a trickle-down effect where not everyone will wear masks.’
Swalwell shared his fears that should any of America’s enemies detect a moment of weakness, they could potentially seize upon that opportunity.
‘We face many threats across the world not just from nation states but individual actors who would want to do us harm. So, it is very important that as long as the president is able to project that he is in command and in control, he should do that, even if it’s virtually. He should do that every single day,’ Swalwell noted.
Swalwell told how he was relieved to see Trump walk towards Marine One on Friday, unaided. The president, 74, gave a ‘thumbs up’ as he walked from the White House to the helicopter as he was taken to hospital on Friday evening
‘The second an adversary believes that there is an issue with command and control in the United States they may seek to use that as an opportunity to strike against us, whether its an ally of ours or U.S. person’s abroad or even God forbid, U.S. persons here. So if the president is healthy and able, I think demonstrating this is a good thing. I promise you, our enemies are watching right now.’
During the interview on Saturday, he told how he was relieved to see Trump walk towards Marine One on Friday, unaided.
‘I was encouraged to see the president walk to the helicopter and give the thumbs up. What happens again tomorrow is going to be important because our adversaries are watching.’
Before traveling to hospital, Trump released an 18 second video message to the nation, saying he was being hospitalized but said, ‘I think I’m doing very well.’
‘We’re going to make sure that things work out,” he said, adding that the First Lady was also “doing very well.”
President Trump delivered an address in a Twitter video Saturday in which he said that he was ‘starting to feel good’
On Saturday night President Trump said that he was starting to feel better as he delivered an update on his coronavirus diagnosis from Walter Reed military hospital.
‘I’m starting to feel good,’ the president said in a video posted to Twitter as he promised that he was fighting the virus for COVID-19 patients ‘all over the world’.
Trump, 74, added that the treatments he is receiving are ‘miracles from God’ as he explained that First Lady Melania Trump’s symptoms were not as severe as his own.
‘We’re both doing well,’ Trump said in the four-minute Twitter video.
‘Melania is really handling it very nicely. As you’ve probably read, she’s slightly younger than me, just a little tiny bit,’ he said of his 50-year-old wife.
‘And therefore, we know the disease, we know the situation with age versus younger people and Melania is handling it statistically like it’s supposed to be handled and that makes me very happy, and it makes the country very happy, but I’m also doing well and I think we’re gonna have a very good result again.’