If President Donald Trump tuned into Fox & Friends this Friday morning, he may have faced an unpleasant (for him) surprise. On Thursday, the anti-Trump group Republicans for the Rule of Law unveiled a video ad hammering Trump over his flailing Coronavirus response, which they announced would air during Fox & Friends the following morning, on Friday. The ad features a procession of clips of Trump himself and some of his allies and advisers insisting that the Coronavirus was nothing to be concerned about and would soon be under control. Well, neither of those claims are true — the U.S. is fast-approaching 15,000 confirmed cases, with well over 200 deaths.
The ad features moments like Trump insisting at the World Economic Forum in January that there was no indication of an incoming pandemic. Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, and Vice President Mike Pence all eventually make an appearance, delivering what in retrospect are terribly off-base pronouncements. For example, on February 25, Kudlow told reporters:
‘We have contained this, I won’t say airtight, but pretty close to airtight.’
Could he have been more wrong? The stock market alone has plummeted in value so sharply that at least for a time, the entirety of the gains seen while Trump was in office were completely wiped out.
A voiceover in the Republicans for the Rule of Law ad insists:
‘America needs a President who tells the truth. Our lives depend on it.’
Check out the ad:
In an accompanying statement, the group’s spokesperson Chris Truax insisted:
‘Accurate and timely information is America’s most potent defense against the pandemic we now face. Republicans who have been misled by the president’s self-serving coronavirus lies are our families, our friends, and our neighbors. We urge them, and all Americans, to get their coronavirus information from the CDC and other reliable sources. This isn’t about politics. It’s about saving hundreds of thousands of American lives.’
Trump, mind-bogglingly, has insisted that he’s always taken the Coronavirus pandemic seriously right from the very beginning. That’s not true. At one rally, he infamously even called concern over the situation a “hoax,” and it took him weeks to formally declare a national emergency over the outbreak. Those declarations free up additional resources, but reportedly, Trump delayed it in this situation because of fear about the potential impact on the public image of his administration.
On other occasions, he’s explicitly countered counsel from public health professionals around the world. During one Sean Hannity interview, he said that he had a “hunch” that the World Health Organization’s reported Coronavirus fatality rate was wrong, and during that same appearance, he suggested that it would be okay for people to go into work right on through the pandemic — but that’s not true! All sick people should stay home, and many businesses have been forced to close as authorities have tried to stem the spread of the virus.
Next up, the Senate is deliberating over a relief plan that includes bailouts for hard-hit businesses and relief checks for individual Americans.
