Two things seem to have the most attention from Trump as we enter the last 40 or so days until the election—a Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Cindy McCain’s endorsement of Joe Biden. But he ought to be concerned about the uptick in the virus with 200,000 deaths and the senate race in North Carolina.
Trump announced that a woman would be his choice to replace Ginsburg, and the two women mentioned most are Amy Coney Barrett, 48, a former clerk for the late Justice Scalia, whose death in 2016 has invoked a new round of debate about the hypocrisy of Sen. McConnell. She was nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in 2017. The conservatives would applaud her appointment given her opposition to Roe v. Wade.
Judge Barbara Lagoa, 52, is the other frontrunner who was nominated by Trump to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in 2019. She is a Cuban-American and that would certainly enhance Trump’s appeal in Florida where he is in a nip and tuck race with Biden. Either one would bolster Trump’s flagging aspirations, though Lagoa would probably, in the short run, be of greater benefit.
But Trump, over the last couple of days, has focused his time on Cindy McCain and her endorsement of Biden. “I hardly know Cindy McCain other than having put her on a Committee at her husband’s request,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. “Joe Biden was John McCain’s lapdog. So many BAD decisions on Endless Wars & the V.A., which I brought from a horror show to HIGH APPROVAL. Never a fan of John. Cindy can have Sleepy Joe!” None of this rebuke comes as a surprise since Trump has often belittled John McCain, most disgustingly as not being a war hero.
“My husband John lived by a code: country first,” McCain said. “We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost. There’s only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is @JoeBiden,” she tweeted.
Important as these issues are they pale in comparison to the virus, in which tens and thousands of new cases are reported each day nationwide.
Most well-informed Americans are alarmed about the new outbreak, but Trump continues to minimize its importance. “I think we’ve done an amazing job…in my opinion we’re rounding the turn,” the president said in an interview with a local Fox station in Detroit in which he continued to minimize the danger. On Monday, he had claimed the virus “affects virtually nobody” while doubling down on previous claims that young people are “virtually immune,” comments and conclusions that fly in the face of a distressing reality.