A lack of notice. Past failures to level with the American people. A tough week for the White House as public impeachment hearings got underway.
Add it all up, and President Donald Trump’s unscheduled weekend visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center raised suspicions about his health, despite White House officials’ insistence that he was merely getting a head start on his annual physical.
For any president, a sudden trip to the hospital would raise questions. But such scrutiny was magnified with Trump.
Members of the U.S. Secret Service' Hazardous Agent Mitigation and Medical Emergency Response (HAMMER) Team, move from their vehicle as President Donald Trump is visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019, in Bethesda, Md. (AP PhotoManuel Balce Ceneta)
A former press secretary under President Bill Clinton, Joe Lockhart, tweeted that “the one thing you can be absolutely sure of is this was not routine.”
Press secretary Stephanie Grisham says everything the White House said about the Walter Reed visit is “true and accurate.”