Fox & Friends scrambles to defend Trump for returning to the White House while potentially contagious with COVID-19
Steve Doocy: “He feels like he has beaten it. Even though ... I don't know that he is still not contagious at this stage of the game”
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From the October 6, 2020, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): So a lot of the media, Democrats, had a problem with that message because many of them have lost loved ones, and they're saying that he's too cavalier with his message. But Rudy Giuliani said he's not asking people to take risks, he's saying we have to be cautious but we can't be paralyzed. Sarah Sanders; “he's a fighter, he keeps coming back and usually stronger, reminding America we have made significant progress." Mollie Hemingway; “we can't have our whole lives be in fear, contradictory to the message that they wanted to send", talking about the media. “You do what it what you" -- wait -- “you do what it takes, take it seriously but you don't want to destroy your entire life or your entire country." And then his son tweeted out, “Take it seriously, do not let it ruin your life, your country, your economy. Take precaution, go on with your life. Locking down the country forever is not the answer."
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Right. Nobody said -- he didn't say for one moment this isn't dangerous. He's lost five good friends because of this. People his own age, in his own business. One day he's talking to them and the next day they have passed away, and it's sad. 206,000, 209,000 people I think it's up to now have lost their lives. Do you think that eludes the president for a second? But what he says is look, I'll be in front. Not only I have been every day studying the therapeutics, seeing how close we're getting to the vaccine. We know that. Not only we seeing the numbers ratchet up, not only seeing Paris shut down, Israel lock down again. The rates go up in the U.K. 167%. His buddy Boris Johnson gets it, almost dies, had to go on oxygen into the ICU. He gets it. So he says OK, after nine months of putting himself out there, he has gotten it. And then he saw what it was like, he saw the dangers of it, and he said listen, now I have a better understanding of not only the worry about getting it, but getting it, and it what it takes to come out of it. Even though he's not out of the woods yet. Why can't you look at that message and analyze it? Why do you have to ridicule it? One person that didn't, not surprisingly, is former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson.
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KILMEADE: Steve, I've never seen anything like it, and I've said that so much and so have you over the last three and three-quarter years, is that the president takes a position, whatever it is, there's outrage on the left. But now it's amped up. Why? Because if this message resonates, and if people look at the president as inspirational, if undecideds say OK I can get behind this guy, then all of a sudden this election could change. And that's what's at stake here. And the outrage is so off the charts, my hope is the president doesn't even listen to it. He goes out, listens to his doctors, gets back on his feet and slowly, logically -- responsibly -- gets back to running the country and gets back to campaigning.
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STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): You know, some people had thought that perhaps the president would pivot when he came out of Walter Reed after three days there. But his message was very clear. He said, you know, we're eventually going to beat this. He said that he felt that vaccines would be coming momentarily. Do not let it dominate your life, although for a lot of people who are locked away, that's absolutely what is going on. But he also said be careful, Ainsley, because this is a problem. But, nonetheless, he feels like he has beaten it. Even though he -- I don't know that he is still not contagious at this stage of the game.
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KILMEADE: He's got one more day I think of remdesivir, and he's of course going to be monitored if his oxygen drops below and he ends up at Walter Reed, he knows the risks there. But his doctors were not bullied. They recommended it because, keep in mind, if you've ever spent time in a hospital, even great hospitals, there's also a risk of catching other diseases in there, by nature of what it does.