Politico: “Trump’s Republican critics have long argued that he was a virus infecting their party that would eventually destroy it. Trump skeptics-turned-supporters, which could describe most Washington Republicans, made a different calculation: If the worst elements of Trump could be contained, then Republicans could keep a Democrat out of the White House, lock in a majority on the Supreme Court and protect their redoubt in the Senate. Even before Trump’s diagnosis, the cost of the deal with Trump was starting to look high. But the path to pushing through Barrett and retaining the Senate and even White House was hardly insurmountable. That an actual virus has now infected Trump, his wife, his campaign manager, the head of the RNC, several advisers, and three senators — many of them at a celebration of Barrett’s nomination — thus throwing all three of the GOP’s 2020 goals into chaos, is a plot twist that would be rejected by any writer as just a little too on the nose.”

“‘Trump has done more to derail the Barrett nomination than any Democrat,’ said one dejected former senior White House official. ‘They are screwing themselves, that’s for sure.’ As grim as the exercise may be, Republicans across Washington are trying to game out the politics of the president’s illness. ‘I don’t know exactly how this plays,’ Graham said. ‘I’m hoping the president recovers fully and quickly.’ He noted that several world leaders have recovered from coronavirus without major interruptions and that Woodrow Wilson caught the Spanish Flu (though it was after his reelection).”