On Wednesday, Trump tweeted this, despite the fact that there is no senator in the hospital:
With one Yes vote in hospital & very positive signs from Alaska and two others (McCain is out), we have the HCare Vote, but not for Friday!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2017
On Thursday, he repeated this claim on Fox & Friends & Trump:
Trump said 2 more times to "Fox & Friends" that health care can't pass because a senator is in the hospital.
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) September 28, 2017
This is a blatant fabrication. pic.twitter.com/vvgRoGUMEL
Josh Dawsey of Politico also tweeted, “Trump just said on six occasions a senator can’t vote because he is in the hospital.”
Trump just said on six occasions a senator can't vote because he is in the hospital. No one is known to be in the hospital.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) September 27, 2017
To which I say: Literally show me a senator in the hospital. Apparently, Trump might be referring to Senator Thad Cochran, who had to tweet on Wednesday that he was in fact not hospitalized and was recuperating at home from a urological issue:
Thanks for the well-wishes. I'm not hospitalized, but am recuperating at home in Mississippi and look forward to returning to work soon.
— Senator Thad Cochran (@SenThadCochran) September 27, 2017
Maybe Trump is just making stuff up. Or maybe he really thinks someone is in the hospital and no one has corrected him, as you might do with your dotty grandfather who is not the president of the United States. Or maybe we are all in the hospital right now and trapped in the alternate reality of Trump’s mind like that episode of Lost. Or maybe Trump is just doing what he does best, which is make up excuses for his wretched and embarrassing failures.