WASHINGTON — Joe Biden said Friday he is praying for the president and first lady after Donald and Melania Trump tested positive for Covid-19 — a stunning development that has upended an already tumultuous campaign.
Biden shared a stage with Trump in Cleveland just three days ago for one of the nastiest presidential debates in modern history, where some members of the president’s entourage refused to wear facemasks despite organizers’ rules and last-minute pleas from an on-site medical expert.
Biden, 77, and his wife, Jill were tested for the virus Friday and found to be negative, their doctor said in a statement.
“I hope this serves as a reminder: wear a mask, keep social distance, and wash your hands,” Biden said on Twitter.
With the test result in hand, Biden pressed ahead with plans to campaign in the battleground state of Michigan. Running mate Kamala Harris, who was not at the debate, also tested negative and is proceeding with a planned trip Las Vegas for a drive-in campaign event and low-dollar virtual fundraiser with former President Barack Obama.
In an email to staff obtained by NBC News, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon assured employees that their health and safety was a top priority and urged staffers to “refrain from posting about the situation on social media unless otherwise directed by your manager.”
Biden has made Trump’s handling of the coronavirus the central pillar of his campaign and has repeatedly argued that the president’s cavalier attitude towards the virus — and outright denial of its danger on occasion — has made the situation far worse than it needed to be and led to needless deaths.
“I don’t wear masks like him,” Trump said at the debate, mocking Biden. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from me, and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
But Democrats know they have to tread carefully or risk looking callous if they publicly say what many are privately thinking — that Trump’s chickens are coming home to roost. Republicans are sure to seize on any comments taking political advantage of what could be a potentially grave medical condition for the president.
“This election isn’t about Trump getting Covid, it’s about America getting Covid and Trump’s infection is the latest proof that it’s a risk to everyone,” said Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson. “The pandemic’s the most serious threat we’ve faced in a generation and voters want someone they believe will listen to experts, have a plan and combat the virus.”
Without citing any examples of people doing so, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally, said on Twitter that he was “disgusted by those wishing ill on the President and First Lady.”
“It’s truly shameful,” Graham added. “President Woodrow Wilson caught the Spanish Flu in 1919. I doubt the people of his time wished him ill.”
The need to isolate could keep Trump off the campaign trail for critical days or weeks in the final month before the Nov. 3 election.
Nse Ufot, the CEO of the New Georgia Project, a progressive group that works to engage young and minority voters, said Biden should send thoughts and prayers the first couple and anyone else exposed, “And then he should return to ‘chopping wood and carrying water'” on the campaign trail.
“There are 32 days until November 3rd and Americans in more than a dozen states have already begun casting their ballots,” Ufot said.
The president has been holding large campaign rallies despite the advice of medical experts and sometimes in the outright defiance of state and local laws against large gatherings. Many of his supporters in those crowds do not wear masks and do not attempt to keep distance between them.
Trump’s diagnosis and sudden departure from the campaign trail has no recent historical precedent.
Ben LaBolt, who worked on former Obama’s campaign that year, said Biden should press ahead with his campaign now.
“Suspending the campaign would be a disservice to the country and there is no reason to do it,” LaBolt said.
“One of the judgments voters are making is which candidate would have better managed the response to the coronavirus and who has the leadership to lead us out of this national emergency,” LaBolt said. “While we should wish the president a healthy recovery, his diagnosis is a visible demonstration of a failure of leadership at every level of this White House.”
Karen Finney, a veteran Democratic strategist, said Trump could continue to campaign virtually, much as Biden has done in recent months, despite Trump’s ridiculing Biden for spending time in his Delaware “basement.”
“Maybe, semi-ironically, he could employ a strategy similar to what the vice president has used and appear via technology,” she said.
Biden’s campaign has begun to step-up in-person appearances and announced Thursday it will resume door-to-door canvassing after months in which the former vice president and his volunteers did almost everything digitally.
The Democrats’ campaign has had strict policies in place for in-person events, such as allowing in only a small number of reporters who are restricted to white circles placed on the floor to keep them at least six feet apart.
“This is a frightening moment because it’s a reminder that anyone can get Covid,” Finney said. “We have to be mindful of the risk and take it very seriously. And I hope that rebalances the conversation from those who were suggesting that we’re not still in the middle of this.”
Jonathan Tasini, a progressive operative and Bernie Sanders ally, said he doesn’t expect Trump to get the kind of sympathy from voters that a different president in this situation might enjoy.
“In normal times, there might be a ‘rally around the flag’ impulse. That might have been true, say, in April. But, at this point, too many people do not trust him and he’s simply underwater,” Tasini said.
“It will actually somewhat freeze the current status in place, and maybe even eliminate the next debate — and Republicans can’t afford to have a frozen-in-place dynamic,” he said, noting Biden is ahead in most polls.