An issue raised many times by President Donald Trump’s critics as he deals with his COVID-19 diagnosis is Trump’s pending illness has left the country’s national security in a vulnerable state. During an interview with Mobile, AL radio’s FM Talk 106.5 on Monday, U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) explained why he saw that as an “overplay” by those detractors within the media and the Democratic Party.
Byrne said, given Trump’s faculties were all in place, there was no reason to be concerned that a “rogue actor” would take advantage of the situation.
“Absolutely, I think it is an overplay,” Byrne said. “The President is awake. He is alert. His mental faculties are all there. The entire national security apparatus is intact. I can tell you that. We had a hearing last week. I know what’s going on there. Any, quote, ‘rogue actor,’ some adversary of the United States — they’re trying to take advantage of what will probably be a brief period of time the President has symptoms from the disease would truly be making a huge mistake. And I don’t see any indication of that, by the way. There’s nothing out there that shows me that is about to happen. I’m not worried about that at all.”
“And I’m not worried about the President’s ability to make decisions across the board,” he continued. “He sounds like he’s doing that just fine even though he is in the hospital. And he’s not the first President of the United States to go into the hospital. This has happened several times before, and the country keeps on clicking. We have institutions in place to make sure this stuff continues to operate, and I’m not worried about those institutions breaking down. They’re pretty strong, pretty firm, and we continue to be the great country we are.”
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