Cray
2025-01-28 01:47:27 UTC
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PermalinkAnd he botched COVID too
From the outset, Donald Trump has bungled our response to the coronavirus,
leaving America with the worst outbreak in the world with over 175,000
people dead, five million infected, and our economy reeling.
New York Times, 8/6/20: "one country stands alone, as the only
affluent nation to have suffered a severe, sustained outbreak for more
than four months: the United States."
Instead of listening to warnings from Vice President Biden and public
health experts, Trump praised the Chinese government's response and
mindlessly parroted their propaganda failing to prepare America to deal
with the virus.
Washington Post, 3/20/20: "Trump's insistence on the contrary seemed
to rest in his relationship with China's President Xi Jingping, whom
Trump believed was providing him with reliable information about how
the virus was spreading in China, despite reports from intelligence
agencies that Chinese officials were not being candid about the true
scale of the crisis." New York Times, 4/11/2020: "Throughout January,
as Mr. Trump repeatedly played down the seriousness of the virus and
focused on other issues, an array of figures inside his government
from top White House advisers to experts deep in the cabinet
departments and intelligence agencies identified the threat, sounded
alarms and made clear the need for aggressive action." POLITICO,
4/15/20: "Trump, however, echoed many of those same assurances
regarding China and its response to the virus throughout January and
February, as the unique coronavirus began to infiltrate countries
around the world. Just days before the U.S. recorded its first death
from Covid-19, Trump touted China's government for its transparency
and hard work to defeat the coronavirus that causes the illness."
As COVID-19 swept across our country, Trump bungled testing, leaving us
with persistent shortages and delays even now. And, Trump inexcusably
failed to get protective equipment to the heroes on the front lines of
this fight, opting to side with corporate lobbyists instead of heeding
Vice President Biden's call to fully invoke the Defense Production Act to
mobilize our economy to fight the virus.
New York Times, 3/28/20: "As the deadly virus spread from China with
ferocity across the United States between late January and early
March, large-scale testing of people who might have been infected did
not happen because of technical flaws, regulatory hurdles,
business-as-usual bureaucracies and lack of leadership at multiple
levels." New York Times, 7/6/20: "In recent weeks, as cases have
surged in many states, the demand for testing has soared, surpassing
capacity and creating a new testing crisis." Washington Post, 7/8/20:
"Health-care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic
are encountering shortages of masks, gowns, face shields and gloves
a frustrating recurrence of a struggle that haunted the first months
of the crisis." CNN, 7/14/20: "Trump administration's delayed use of
1950s law leads to critical supplies shortages"
As the crisis mounted, Trump's failure to effectively lead undercut our
response to the pandemic at every turn and cost Americans their lives.
POLITICO, 3/7/20: "For six weeks behind the scenes, and now
increasingly in public, Trump has undermined his administration's own
efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak resisting attempts to plan
for worst-case scenarios, overturning a public-health plan upon
request from political allies and repeating only the warnings that he
chose to hear. Washington Post, 4/4/20: "It may never be known how
many thousands of deaths, or millions of infections, might have been
prevented with a response that was more coherent, urgent and
effective. But even now, there are many indications that the
administration's handling of the crisis had potentially devastating
consequences." NBC News, 3/14/20: "An examination of how the Trump
administration responded to the coronavirus outbreak that was first
documented in December reveals a story of missed opportunities,
mismanagement and a president who resisted the advice of experts
urging a more aggressive response."
Even after months of abject failure on COVID-19, Trump still refuses to
take the threat seriously, repeatedly claiming that it will simply
"disappear" even as he and his allies attack public health officials and
undermine the basic measures we need to control the virus.
POLITICO, 8/1/2020: "President Donald Trump publicly rebuked Dr.
Anthony Fauci on Saturday, forcefully rejecting the nation's top
infectious disease expert's testimony on why the U.S. has experienced
a renewed surge in coronavirus cases."