Donald Trump has decided to reopen the nation’s economy and shut down the Coronavirus Taskforce. He noted that more people would die, but they were sacrificial “warriors” in this war against COVID-19. That was cavalier, and so was it when POTUS framed the rest of the pandemic war with belittling nicknames such as putting out “little embers” across the nation Actually, America is in the midst of a years-long war with thousands dying every day.
The places where these “embers” land included certain locations where people spend the most time in close quarters. The ships were large Petri dishes where many cases blossomed and flourished. Then, there were the meatpacking plants and nursing homes.
Standing before the presidential seal and a group of journalists, Pompeo gave away his temperamental attitude, which had been fairly well concealed, but until performance time. He snapped at a reporter during the press conference. The journalist had inquired about why the secretary of State stood alone in his attack on China. Other countries came to a different conclusion than the Secretary of State.
The reporter asked why intelligence officials in the “United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand claimed that the idea “that COVID-19 came from a lab… was unlikely.” Pompeo snapped at her as he played to his audience of one:
‘Your efforts to spend your whole life trying to drive a little wedge between senior American officials, it’s just, it’s just, it’s just false.” pic.twitter.com/Ent2pmn3BQ’
Pompeo to reporter: “Your efforts to spend your whole life trying to drive a little wedge between senior American officials, it’s just, it’s just, it’s just false.” pic.twitter.com/Ent2pmn3BQ
— The Hill (@thehill) May 6, 2020
Martha Raddatz turned to the COVID pandemic in her ABC This Week interview with the Secretary of State. She was trying to clear up or verify the rumors on Sunday:
‘I want to turn to China, with intelligence officials, as we mentioned, saying that the Chinese government intentionally concealed the severity of COVID-19 from the international community in early January, while it stockpiled medical supplies.’
The cohost continued, asking about “some sort of retaliation:”
‘In terms of international concealing, I assume you think they did that intentionally to keep as many masks for themselves as possible. Will there be some sort of retaliation?’
Then, the secretary of State responded:
‘Martha, you’ve got the facts just about right. We can confirm that the Chinese Communist Party did all that it could to make sure that the world didn’t learn in a timely fashion about what was taking place.’
Pompeo has been insisting that the Wuhan, China lab released the COVID-19. Just like POTUS, he felt comfortable going after the journalists. Raddatz said:
‘President Trump discussing an unsubstantiated theory that the Coronavirus outbreak began in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. This comes amid new reports that U.S. intelligence now believes the Chinese government concealed the severity of COVID-19 from the international community in early January.’
Pompeo replied and then deftly turned to talk about North Korea’s Kim Jong Un:
‘I’ve seen that reporting, too. I’ve seen some of our internal information as well. We can confirm at least the initial reports are that you’ve described are just about right, a handful of shots that came across from the North.’
Then, the co-host noted that Kim had been missing in action. Pompeo replied that the North Korean leader “alive and well:”
‘Martha, there’s not much that I can share with you about what we knew about Chairman Kim’s activities during that time. We don’t know why he chose to miss that moment. We know there have been other extended periods of time where Chairman Kim’s been out of public view as well, so it’s not unprecedented.’
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
