President Trump wants you to know he definitely did not have a stroke last year. In fact, Trump was so adamant in his denials that he couldn’t stop bringing it up over and over again on Tuesday, making it an even bigger story.
In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, the Trump campaign urged CNN to fire political analyst Joe Lockhart after he floated a suggestion that Trump’s unexpected visit to Walter Reed late last year was prompted by a stroke, which the President dismissed as “fake news” in a tweet earlier in the day.
“CNN should fire Joe Lockhart, a lifetime failure who thought it was a great idea for fellow loser Michael Dukakis to put on that stupid helmet, for knowingly pushing a conspiracy theory about President Trump’s health,” the Trump campaign said in an unsigned statement.
The Trump campaign went on to rip into Lockhart — who formerly served as a press secretary under the Clinton administration — for supposedly having “single-handedly” torpedoed John Kerry’s campaign, and predicted that he will do the same to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden “from a distance.”
“If another CNN employee said similar things about Barack Obama they’d be fired immediately, so the same standard should be applied here,” the Trump campaign wrote. ‘That is, of course, unless CNN is complicit in the smear campaign in order to level the playing field against Joe Biden, somebody who truly has lost a step.”
Trump’s tirade over the suggestion that he suffered from a stroke came after CNN reported that New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt wrote in his forthcoming book that Vice President Mike Pence was privately put on “standby” to assume presidential powers “temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized” at Walter Reed.
Although the White House claimed that the President was “fine” and that his unexpected visit to the Maryland-baed medical center in November 2019 just involved a series of “quick exam and labs” ahead of a “very busy 2020,” a CNN source pointed out that Trump’s visit did not follow the protocol of a routine presidential medical exam, which fueled speculation over why the President paid an unscheduled visit.
Earlier Tuesday, Dr. Sean Conley, physician to the President, rebuked the suggestion that Trump had suffered from a stroke late last year. Conley wrote that he can confirm that the President had not experienced nor had been evaluated for stroke, mini stroke or any acute cardiovascular emergencies. Conley added that recent comments surrounding Trump’s health have been “incorrectly reported in the media.”
Shortly after the Trump campaign issued its statement bolstering the President’s denial of having suffered a stroke, the President roped Matt Drudge into his ongoing tirade against the suggestion that he vehemently denies yet continues to rehash.
Drudge didn’t support me in 2016, and I hear he doesn’t support me now. Maybe that’s why he is doing poorly. His Fake News report on Mini-Strokes is incorrect. Possibly thinking about himself, or the other party’s “candidate”. https://t.co/9FraoFqOKq
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2020
And another one:
Not even a “minor” one. Thank you! https://t.co/PEgbb9XyhU
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2020
CNN did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.
