The resurgence of coronavirus cases across the Midwest, as well as President Trump’s return to the campaign trail this week are expected to dominate the Sunday talk shows this weekend.
According to The New York Times coronavirus tracker, there have been an average of about 56,000 new cases per day in the U.S. over the past week, a 29 percent increase from just two weeks ago.
As of Saturday afternoon, a total of more than 8,122,800 people have been infected with COVID-19 since it first hit the country earlier this year, with at least 218,900 dead as a result of the virus.
Several Midwestern states, including North Dakota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas and Indiana, have reported record numbers of cases this week.
On Tuesday, Wisconsin had its highest number of newly reported infections in a single day with 3,279 cases, and broke its single-day death toll record with 34 deaths due to the virus.
The surge in cases across these states has prompted some experts to believe that the anticipated fall and winter wave of cases is already here.
“We’ve been talking about the fall surge for a long time now. I think that is the beginning of that reality,” Scott Gottlieb, Trump’s former Food and Drug commissioner, told CNBC on Friday.
Gottlieb is scheduled to appear on CBS’ “Face the Nation” this Sunday.
The president is also back on the campaign trail after his bout with COVID-19.
Several Trump family members and campaign officials are expected to be on multiple Sunday talk shows while Trump is set to hold various campaign events over the coming weeks, including in Wisconsin Saturday evening.
These appearances come despite warnings from various local leaders that the rallies could lead to rises in coronavirus cases in these areas.
Ahead of Trump’s Wednesday rally in Des Moines, Iowa, the city’s mayor, Frank Cownie (D), told the Des Moines Register that the president’s event caused him to become “worried about the spread” of the virus.
Trump is trailing former Vice President Joe Biden in national and most key battleground state polls including Michigan and Pennsylvania. A poll released Friday by Hill/HarrisX showed Biden with 51 percent support in the Keystone State, and Trump with 46 percent support. In Michigan, Biden holds a 54-43 percent support advantage over the president.
Trump reelection campaign adviser Jason Miller will be on “Fox News Sunday” this weekend to discuss the latest campaign efforts. Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, is expected on CNN’s “State of the Union,” while the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is scheduled to make an appearance on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Below is the full list of guests who will appear on this weekend’s Sunday talk shows:
ABC’s “This Week” — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel.
NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar; Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.); Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez; former Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus; Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President and CEO Raphael Bostic; Gottlieb.
CNN’s “State of the Union” — Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.); Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.); Lara Trump.
“Fox News Sunday” — Miller; former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.
Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” — Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Chairman, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Gov. Affairs; Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Ranking Member, House Intel Committee; Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), Senate Joint Economic Committee; Trump Jr.; Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
“America This Week” with Eric Bolling — Steve Bannon, Former Chief White House Strategist; Anthony Scaramucci, Former White House Communications Director; Alyssa Farah, White House Communications Director; Dr. Scott Atlas, Coronavirus Task Force; Dinesh D’Souza, filmmaker; Sen. Tom Tillis (R-N.C.)