TRUMP FALSELY SAYS THAT AMERICA “WILL SOON” TEST “ OVER 5 MILLION PER DAY”

…Former Fox commentators, Diamond & Silk

The president again lied about US Test numbers, and other country’s test numbers

One of my favorite op-ed writers, Dana Milbank, said it best when he wrote: “In the president’s approach to fighting the pandemic, Trump has begun clinical trials testing his most promising antidote:  Can the novel coronavirus be killed by a lie?”

The following demonstrates where Mr. Milbank is coming from:

“Some health experts say the United States needs 5 million tests per day by June in order to safely reopen,” NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Trump in an East Room Q&A. “Can you get to that benchmark?”

“We have tested much more than anybody else times two,” Trump replied. “We’ve tested more than every country combined.” He went on to say, “We inherited a very broken test, a broken system and a broken test, and within a short period of time we were setting records. We have done more than the entire world combined.” And Trump said the United States would “very soon” surpass 5 million tests per day.  Please note, that’s a figure well beyond his own administration’s rosy forecasts.

Here’s the truth:

First, let’s focus on just one of these lies: His statement that the country has done more tests “than the entire world combined.” Trump has said this over and over, and it has been corrected over and over, for it is totally false.

According to an updated tally by WORLDOMETERS the United States, after a painfully slow start, has done a total of 5.8 million tests. (That’s the total, total!)

But the rest of the world has in combination, done far beyond that number. Russia alone reports 3.1 million, Germany 2.1 million, Italy 1.8 million, Spain 1.3 million, the United Arab Emirates 1.1 million, and other countries have performed well more than 10 million additional tests. And the WORLDOMETERS testing tally doesn’t include China.

I am leaving aside Trump’s claim the US would, to quote him will, “very soon” test more people each day than the country has managed to test in all of the past four months.  And that Trump said the United States would “very soon” surpass 5 million tests per day. 

This is also putting aside that Trump has also speculated that the virus could be killed by an “antimalarial drug” and an “antibiotic”, or by “ingesting bleach or other household disinfectants”.  But he has never abandoned the regular application of disinformation as his primary defense against the coronavirus.

“The Trump administration is attempting to stifle real journalism”.  This is a quote from the media critic, Erik Wemple.

The Washington Post Fact Checker, Glenn Kessler and his colleagues will explore Trump’s tendency to double down on falsehoods in their forthcoming book, “Donald Trump and His assault on the Truth”. “One hallmark of Trump’s dishonesty is that if he thinks a false or incorrect claim is a winner, he will repeat it constantly, no matter how often it has been proven wrong,” they write.  Though “many politicians are embarrassed,” Trump just “keeps going long after the facts are clear, in what appears to be a deliberate effort to replace the truth with his own, far more favorable, version.”

In the latest coincidence, as Trump was repeating his nonsense about testing, Hillary Clinton was endorsing Joe Biden in a webcast.  Clinton made the case that restoring transparency should be at the core of Biden’s challenge to Trump. “Trust is the glue that holds a democracy together and right now we are in an age of deliberate disinformation, and the reason for that is to destroy trust,” she said. “If you can’t believe what your leaders say, if you’re told not to believe what the press says. . . . Then you can’t trust each other enough to solve the problems that we jointly face.”

As to more disinformation, this week Trump showed support for former Fox commentators: “Diamond and Silk” after they were dropped by Fox News.  They were let go over their repeated false statements about the coronavirus: suggesting that the “deep state” is to blame.  Also that the virus is “engineered” and that people should go “out in the environment,” instead of sheltering in their homes.  Most recently, this pair hosted a scientist that is part of the “fire-Anthony-Fauci” crowd.  This so called, “scientist” argues that the coronavirus can be cured not with vaccines, but with vitamin supplements.

“I love Diamond & Silk, and so do millions of people,” Trump tweeted in their defense.

Dana Milbank also wrote: “Now the country, fed a diet of such disinformation about the virus, is preparing to reopen workplaces based on the false assurance of 5 million tests a day!  More than the rest of the world combined! — given by Trump’s repeated lies. What could possibly go wrong?”

Hear, hear…….!

Copyright G. Ater 2020