Friday, April 10, 2020

What did Donald Trump do today?

He forgot how germs work in the middle of a pandemic.

Some of his closest supporters in the Republican party are now openly begging Trump to stop his daily pandemic briefings, for his own political good. Figures ranging from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to the ultra-conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board have warned him—on the record—that the daily marathon sessions, which he has used as a sort of replacement campaign rally, are dangerous spreading misinformation that will be held against him in November.

Today, in a briefing that lasted two hours and sixteen minutes, Trump was asked a narrow technical question about testing for coronavirus at food processing plants. This was his answer, in its entirety:

TRUMP:  Well, you’re asking that because of what happened — it’s a fair question, too — what happened in Denver.  Because in Denver, I’ve never seen — I said, “What’s going on?”  We’re looking at this graph where everything’s looking beautiful and it’s coming down and then you got this one spike.  It’s — I said, “What happened to Denver?” 
And many people, very quickly, and they — by the way, they were on it like, so fast, you wouldn’t believe it.  They knew every aspect.  They had people go and — not only testing, “Who did you see?  Where were you?  How many people did you meet?  Were you out to dinner in somebody else’s home?  Where were you?”  Where did — where did this number of people come from?  How did — they are totally on it.
Now, this just happened.  I just saw it this morning.  I’m looking at everything smooth, going down, topping out.  And then you have this one spike in Denver.  It’s like, where did this come from? 
So we’ll be looking at that.  And we don’t want cases like that happening.  This was — but this — this is the kind of thing can happen.  This is very complex. 
This is a very brilliant enemy.  You know, it’s a brilliant enemy.  They develop drugs like the antibiotics.  You see it.  Antibiotics used to solve every problem.  Now one of the biggest problems the world has is the germ has gotten so brilliant that the antibiotic can’t keep up with it.  And they’re constantly trying to come up with a new — people go to a hospital and they catch — they go for a heart operation — that’s no problem, but they end up dying from — from problems.  You know the problems I’m talking about.  There’s a whole genius to it. 
We’re fighting — not only is it hidden, but it’s very smart.  Okay?  It’s invisible and it’s hidden, but it’s — it’s very smart.  And you see that in a case like a Denver. 
But, you know, I think we’re doing well, and they’re on Denver like you wouldn’t believe.  I came in this morning; it was a flurry.  I said what’s going on?  They said, “Denver.”  I said, “What happened to Denver?”  Because Denver was doing pretty well.  And they’ve got that under control.  But, yeah, that would be a case where you do some very big testing.

Antibiotics treat bacterial infections, not viral ones.

Trump's mind may have been on Denver because its main newspaper, the Denver Post, wrote a scathing editorial this week. Trump received a request for 500 ventilators from the state's Democratic governor, and then tweeted that he was giving the state 100 ventilators because of its Republican senator.

We are left to believe that if Colorado didn’t have a Republican senator in office, our state would not be getting these 100 ventilators. How many ventilators would we be getting if we had a Republican governor and a second Republican senator? Would that indicate we had more Republican lives in our state worth saving for Trump and resources would start flowing? Should Utah be concerned that Sen. Mitt Romney voted to remove the president from office?

Why is this a problem?

  • During a national emergency, presidents need to be able to remember basic middle school-level facts about the situation they're in.
  • Americans' health and safety is more important than Donald Trump's need to stay in the spotlight.
  • Who gets lifesaving medical equipment in a crisis is not supposed to be about who voted for the president.