Donald Trump’s alleged stroke could turn the entire 2020 election upside down
When Donald Trump tweeted today that he had not had a “series of mini-strokes” in relation to his Walter Reed visit last November, his oddly specific denial – of something that hadn’t even been reported – felt like a de facto confirmation that he did in fact have a series of mini-strokes in November.
Let’s be clear here. Plenty of strokes are mild. Plenty of people have strokes, recover well, and go on to do great things. Donald Trump’s (alleged) stroke does not automatically disqualify him from office. What does disqualify Trump is that he went out of his way to dishonestly cover it up, even going so far as to claim that he only went to the hospital because he wanted to get a jump on his annual physical. What if his stroke did severely impact him? He’s spent the past nine months frequently displaying physical and cognitive health issues in public. Something is still wrong with him. Thanks to his lies, we don’t get to know what it is.
What we do know is that at least one person in Donald Trump’s current or former inner circle was willing to leak to the New York Times that Trump’s Walter Reed trip was due to a severe health issue. These kinds of leaks tend to snowball, particularly now that Trump is seemingly lying about what really happened, which could prompt other insiders to leak more details about the truth. If it turns out Trump really has been covering up a stroke for the past nine months, it could turn the entire 2020 election upside down – and not just for him.
Here’s something to consider. Donald Trump’s alleged stroke happened in November of 2019. Fifty-two Republican Senators then voted to acquit Trump two months later in February of 2020. It’s bad enough they let him remain in office when they knew he was guilty in his Ukraine criminal scandal. What if some of them let him remain in office when they knew he was covering up a major health issue?
Some of these Republican Senators are particularly close to Donald Trump. If he had a stroke, it’s difficult to imagine that he could have kept it hidden from his Senate GOP allies. Some of them are up for reelection right now. What if it leaks out that they voted to acquit him when they knew he was medically incapable of doing the job? For that matter, did Mike Pence know? How deep does this rabbit hole go?
