Donald Trump doesn’t seem to know what to do with himself in the absence of holding WWE wrestling match-style rallies during an election year, so he’s using daily press briefings about COVID-19 as a replacement. Like most Trump rallies, they’re full of disinformation and boasting, but unlike Trump rallies, they’re essential for the good of the country and he’s failing miserably at them.
Listening to Donald Trump’s press conference. He claims that republican governed states can have absentee voting but Democrats governed states are unqualified to have absentee (mail in voting), which has been the norm for decades. Wow! #TheRealDonaldTrump #MoscowMitchMcConnell
— Michael Ash (@Michael87494463) August 4, 2020
Trump began with his favorite conspiracy theory of late that Democrats are trying to steal the election through expanded mail-in voting procedures, and had a ready excuse when he was asked about his own mail-in vote in 2018. Trump voted in Florida and, he said, “Florida has a very good system.” It’s only blue states, apparently, where Trump thinks voter fraud will be happening, but the fact is that there are a few too many states leaning blue in this election for him to feel comfortable.
Why Trump is slowing postal service:
"Officials in 34 states will not accept ballots that arrive in the mail after Election Day—even if they are postmarked before the contest is held, a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures showed." https://t.co/YeQ1jhHErS
— Matt Ortega (@MattOrtega) August 4, 2020
Trump also insisted, once again, that the United States has the lowest death rate of any country in proportion to cases, although the U.S. is also the only country with over 155,000 deaths, a number that is nothing to dismiss. During 9/11, no one said that there was no reason for concern since only a very small percentage of New Yorkers, or American citizens, died. Trump’s facts and figures are usually a figment of his imagination and whatever sounds beneficial to him at the time, but he told reporters that the U.S. is “at the bottom of the list,” as far as he knew, because he’d have to check the numbers are “get back to you” since “we have lots of different lists.
He also dismissed the numbers of deaths by hypothetically eliminating two blue states from the total, saying “take New York and New Jersey out…our numbers are among the lowest.” Except Trump can’t take New York and New Jersey out. They’re still two of the fifty states he’s supposed to be representing.
We are only now beginning to recover, but we still don't have the testing we need. Their is no willingness to engage on this, and without a strategic blueprint or direction from POTUS, unless the private sector steps in with their own plan, you won't see testing at CVS 3/3
— 𝙳𝚊𝚗 𝙶𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚛𝚍, 𝙼𝚂, 𝚁𝙽, 𝙽𝚁𝙿 (@DanielRGerard) August 4, 2020
Trump once again blamed China for the virus, saying in no uncertain terms that the virus “China’s fault” and “a terrible thing that happened to the United States.” While that is certainly true, shifting responsibility turns Trump into a victim of circumstance or at the hands of another country rather than the man responsible for keeping Americans safe. Well, except for in New York and New Jersey.
For Trump’s full press conference, see video below:
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
