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[...]

The president's short stint at the hospital prompted Democrats to accuse him of politicizing his illness. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) lambasted Trump for spending too little time at the facility, arguing that he might become "a long-hauler." The term is used to describe a Covid-19 patient, who tests negative but is experiencing long-term debilitating effects from the virus, such as severe fatigue and impaired memory.

"He should not be dealing with it politically to make it look like he overcame the virus because he's had such good policies...He has been very destructive and dangerous to the country," Pelosi told MSNBC on Monday.

It wasn't just Democrats blasting the president, either. Former New Jersey governor and EPA administrator in the George W. Bush administration, Christine Todd Whitman, tweeted that Trump's "irresponsibility" was "shocking," referring to a string of tweets in which the president told fellow Americans "not to be afraid" of Covid-19.

President Trump returned to the White House from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and told the public that it should not be afraid of the coronavirus.

Trump posted two videos after he returned from the hospital. The first is a dramatic video showing Marine One landing on the White House lawn. The clip featured cinematic music and showed the president walking up the stairs at the White House and saluting the presidential helicopter as it departed.

The second video features Trump, abutted by two American flags, speaking into the camera about his return to the White House. The National Monument can be seen in the background.

"I just left Walter Reed Medical Center, and it's really something very special, the doctors, the nurses, the first responders — and I learned so much about coronavirus, and one thing that's for certain, don't let it dominate you," Trump said.

"Don't be afraid of it. You're going to beat it. We have the best medical equipment, we have the best medicines, all developed recently," he added.

[...]

During his brief Monday evening speech, Trump echoed remarks he made earlier where he said he felt better today than when he was 20 years younger. He also defended his actions leading up to the cluster of COVID-19 cases within his orbit. Just days before he and others became infected, he held a large gathering at the White House to announce his nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Some attendees were not wearing masks during the event and were seen shaking hands.

"I stood out front, I led. Nobody that's a leader would not do what I did, and I know that there's a risk, that there's a danger, but that's OK. And now, I'm better and maybe I'm immune, I don't know," he said. "But don't let it dominate your lives, get out there, be careful, we have the best medicines in the world."

The president also said that the vaccines are coming "momentarily" and once again thanked the workers who treated him at Walter Reed.

Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin was taken to the woodshed online after labeling Walter Reed medical center a "public health hazard" and calling for its budget to be slashed following Donald Trump's brief stay there.

The self-ordained "NeverTrump, pro-democracy" opinionator took calls to 'defund' public institutions to another level on Monday, urging Congress to slash Walter Reed's budget for reasons left unstated - presumably something to do with the president, who was discharged from the medical center later that day after spending the weekend there to be treated for Covid-19.

"Congress might want to defund Walter Reed. It is a public health hazard," Rubin declared from her perch on Twitter.

While she provided no explanation for her jab at the hospital in the tweet, a flurry of previousposts slammed the doctors' decision to allow the president to leave the facility "with a deadly communicable disease."

Netizens quickly piled on the missive, some reminding the hawkish columnist that Walter Reed "provides care to all the soldiers you spent years working to send overseas to lose their life and limbs," not only the president.

Marine vet and sports analyst Ryan Spaeder, meanwhile, mused whether his comrades would have to hand over their prosthetic limbs under Rubin's austerity plan.

Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna (California) took a gentler approach, noting that his own visits to Walter Reed have been "moving experiences," adding that the staff at medical center do "inspiring work in helping soldiers with prosthetics, serious trauma and brain and spinal cord injuries" and "have my utmost admiration and respect."

Others pointed out the basic optics of Rubin's request to slash funding for "a hospital that cares for our veterans," although some congratulated her for the "great idea" and encouraged the Democratic Party to take note of her ingenious political strategy.

Seizing on the wave of outrage over a maskless Donald Trump saluting from the White House balcony, the broadcaster suggested the scene was fit for Il Duce - and took quite some heat from enraged online commentators as a result.

MSNBC has been among the news outlets broadcasting live from the White House, to which the US president returned after undergoing coronavirus treatment at the Walter Reed military hospital. The network's hosts started exercising their tongues as soon as Trump appeared on the balcony, ripped off his mask, and saluted the Marine One helicopter that had transported him home, before wobbling back inside.

"This is a Mussolini moment. Donald Trump - who looks like he has makeup on, which means someone had to get close enough to make up his favorite orange patina - he's standing there as if he's a member of an old Russian Tsar family," a news anchor, said to be Joy Reid, can be heard in the footage.

The vitriol-laden broadcast was referring, of course, to Benito Mussolini, known as Il Duce - the notorious Italian fascist leader who often addressed the crowds from a balcony above Rome's Piazza Venezia.

While it might have been deemed acceptable among MSNBC hosts, the historical parallel was judged over the top by those watching the coverage online. Some viewers were particularly enraged by the fact the network has been so negative about Trump's speedy recovery from Covid-19.

"These journalists are uncultivated, comparing Trump to Mussolini and to the Czar family! What's the link between them and the POTUS?" one observer asked.

Others unloaded on the mainstream media for their poor timing in criticizing the president and "call[ing] him a dictator," when he has been ill with the deadly virus.

Many observers were astonished by "the casual and consistent use of extreme hyperbole any time Trump does anything." The president's critics are so "blinded by hate," one claimed, they lose sight of what's rational.

Then there were those who speculated how Barack Obama would have fared in Trump's shoes. One asked why an unfortunate photo that captured a moment when the former president raised his hand didn't amount to references from the likes of MSNBC to a 'Hitler moment', and another why the Obamas' own balcony appearances didn't elicit similar disapproval.

The mainstream media is sounding alarms that reporters' lives are at risk amid a coronavirus outbreak in the White House, with a reporter likening the working conditions to North Korea. The comparison drew derision on Twitter.

"You shouldn't risk your life reporting to work at the White House," CNN security analyst Sam Vinograd tweeted on Monday, after Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and two of her aides became the latest members of the Trump administration to test positive for the virus.

CBS White House correspondent Ben Tracy took the hyperbolic fear to another level, saying: "I felt safer reporting in North Korea than I currently do at the White House. This is just crazy."

The sentiment appeared to strike a chord with Trump critics. Some have scolded the White House Correspondents Association for "sending people into these super-spreader events," while others called for the White House press corps to "walk out en masse" in protest.

Conservative media pundits argued that the fears were overblown, rather seeing them as another opportunity to vilify Trump and his administration. Podcast host Michael Doran responded to Tracy's North Korea tweet by saying: "Twitter has its faults, but at least it offers a window onto the hallucinatory world of the news people who claim to be reporting on reality."

Some suggested that Tracy move to North Korea for safer working conditions. "I am genuinely and personally offering to pay for a full trip to North Korea for you and crew," Blaze TV host Elijah Schaffer said. "Only catch is, you have to act the exact same way in North Korea as you do at the White House. Move freely, walk without a guide, speak poorly of the leader, negatively about the country."

[...]

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