1. TRUMP IS IGNORING THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS AS HIS ACTIONS THREATEN TO MAKE THE OUTBREAK WORSE.
Americans isolated themselves for months to give Trump and his administration time to come up with a plan and prepare the country to defeat the pandemic, but Trump has failed to deliver and largely given up on fighting coronavirus. Yesterday in Arizona, faced with skyrocketing cases and hospitalizations, Governor Ducey punted the authority to require masks in public to local authorities — but didn’t return the authority to close businesses.
Republican leadership is pretending like the crisis is over as hospitalization and infection rates climb. “We flattened the curve,” said Vice-President Pence, head of the White House Task Force on coronavirus, in Forest City, Iowa.
Mr. VP, it’s more like a peak-plateau. In other words, nothing to be proud of:
- CNN: “’They’re in denial’: How Trump’s White House is ignoring the pandemic”
- “President Donald Trump has largely tuned out the persistent coronavirus contagion — which is causing spikes in new cases across 21 states and daily death tolls that reach into the hundreds — to focus instead on reviving both the economy and his own political prospects.”
- “People around the President say he remains intent on reopening the country, and has said he will not allow another shutdown that might hamper an economic recovery. Trump’s thinking is being driven in large part by the message he has gotten from his political advisers, which is that strong signs of a recovering economy are his surest ticket to reelection.”
- Reuters: “In most of the states where cases are spiking, COVID-19 hospitalizations are also rising or at record highs. Unlike spikes reported in new infections, rising hospitalizations cannot simply be attributed to increased testing.”
It’d be bad enough for Trump to just ignore the crisis and give up on defeating the pandemic, but instead he is actively putting people in harm’s way and threatening to spread the virus himself — all for his own ego and personal political interests.
- Reuters: “Ahead of Trump rally in Tulsa, new coronavirus cases set records in Oklahoma”
- Business Insider: “Hundreds of Oklahoma nurses and doctors plead to cancel Trump’s Tulsa rally over concerns it will be a coronavirus superspreader event”
- “Allowing our city to be one of the first places in the world to host an indoor gathering of this magnitude is not a political matter, it is a public health matter,” the letter reads. “It is unthinkable that this is seen as a logical choice.”
2. TRUMP’S FAILURE TO CONTROL THE VIRUS IS HURTING THE ECONOMY.
This morning we saw another 1.5 million new unemployment claims. Over the last 13 weeks, new claims have totaled 45.7 million. What’s clear is that Trump’s (and Ducey’s) rush to reopen before it’s safe and their refusal to encourage Americans to wear masks and take precautions has made it harder for businesses to rebound as many are now forced to re-close.
- WAPO: “Restaurants are closing again after workers test positive for coronavirus”
We need leadership in the White House and more than punting responsibility from our Governor. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll get it from the current crew.
Material adapted from Navigator Research.
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