MSNBC’s Maddow: Trump’s ‘Performative Return’ Was ‘Unnerving Spectacle’ — He Was ‘Struggling to Breathe’

MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow called President Donald Trump’s return to the White House an “unnerving spectacle of the president really, visibly appearing to struggle for breath” during Monday’s broadcast of her show.

Maddow said, “President Trump returned to the White House tonight after three nights spent in the hospital at Walter Reed. He staged a kind of performative return that may have tried to be a sort of triumphant ‘I beat the virus’ thing with Marine One landing right next to the White House. The president then tromping up the stairs into the White House. This may have tried to be a sort of triumphant return impression, but the real impression it created was something almost opposite to that. I mean the president walking up the stairs to the South Portico, but then turning out to face the cameras while he was- could be plainly seen really gasping for air, huffing and puffing, mouth breathing, and trying to pull in air while his chest sort of rose and fell with difficulty, looking out at the cameras.”

She added, “If the idea was to show that he’s all better, you know, he’s got his hair done again, he’s got his makeup on again, he’s himself, that was undercut seriously by the sort of unnerving spectacle of the president really, visibly appearing to struggle for breath. But spare a thought for the White House staff as well, you know, for the military aides and the cooks and the gardeners and the security guards and the butlers and the valets and everybody in that complex. I mean, after the president did his thing walking up those stairs, he ripped off his mask right before he walked into the White House complex, not wearing it, right? He gets there wearing the mask, takes it off, and then that’s how he goes into the White House. This is a man who tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, who has had symptoms serious enough to require multiple days in the hospital and supplemental oxygen and all sorts of experimental therapies, who even tonight appears to be struggling to breathe, and he’s insisting on being not just out of the hospital but being back home in a house that is also a workplace for hundreds of people. And he is apparently not going to wear a mask there.”

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