Not even a globally spreading disease — the Coronavirus — could put a damper on President Donald Trump’s glib egomania. Now, the Daily Beast is reporting that his team has seemingly specifically directed the administration task force handling virus response to go after Democrats in their public commentary about the situation. Americans could die from a disease that’s already claimed thousands of lives around the globe, and what’s Trump prioritizing? Getting in a political jab at his opponents.
The publication notes:
‘According to a person familiar with the strategy, the White House has encouraged members of the president’s coronavirus task force to denounce Democrats for attempting to politicize the crisis during media appearances this week.’
Reportedly, as a concurrent development, all White House communications about the Coronavirus situation are getting funneled through Vice President Mike Pence’s office for approval before release.
The problem, of course, is that Democrats are not “politicizing” the situation, no matter the extremes to which Trump defenders go to try and prove otherwise. During a Friday Fox appearance, Donald Trump Jr. even claimed that Democrats seem to want the virus to “kill millions,” just so that they can stick it to Trump! There’s not a shred of evidence for this claim, but Trump and his allies seem perpetually unwilling and/or unable to even conceive of the Coronavirus situation in terms other than “My way or the highway!”
At his South Carolina rally this week, Trump claimed:
‘The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. They’re politicizing it. They don’t have any clue… Border security is also health security.’
That is a ludicrous argument. The Coronavirus is not getting transmitted by people supposedly sneaking across the Mexican border who provide a seemingly endless basis for Trump’s fearmongering, no matter whether or not they’re even really there in the first place. Actually, the first community-transmitted case of the virus in the U.S. can seemingly be tied to Trump’s own administration’s incompetence. Reportedly, staffers got sent to handle quarantined patients without proper precautions — and the first community-transmitted case subsequently popped up in the vicinity of the failed quarantine. They’re the ones who let it get out.
Ludicrously, Republican supporters of Trump remain far gone, no matter the facts. Like politics is nothing more than some big bullfighting game to her, GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel insisted recently that Trump is “taking this by the horns like he always does” and is “going to make sure the American people are safe.” That’s just laughable. They’ve essentially elevated Trump to the level of some kind of cultish savior.
White House spokesman Judd Deere insisted:
‘Unfortunately what we are seeing is a political effort by the Left and some in the media to distract and disturb the American people with fearful rhetoric and palace intrigue.’
What are journalists supposed to do? Ignore the virus? Ignore the warnings from the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, and more about the virus’s danger and potential spread? Should they run their coverage plans by the White House first? This isn’t a totalitarian state.
