JOE BIDEN IS CORRECT: TRUMP HAS WAVED A WHITE FLAG AT COVID-19

 

…Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell, basically stating that the 2020 Election could cause major problems for his US Senate…Ya think?

 

The Trump Presidency will be very hard on the Republicans in the US Congress

 

If you can believe it, (and I can about President Trump), faced with record levels of coronavirus infections and a new White House outbreak, the president declared that the pandemic was “ending anyway.”  He was tying his re-election bid to his ability to convince the voters at his large rallies that the viral danger is fading.  (Just another lie.)

The problem with Trump is that it’s his “ability” that is fading.

As expected, the financial markets were falling as he spoke, with the investors reacting to the growing infection rates and any hope of a pre-election stimulus package.  Vice President Pence even canceled a planned appearance at the US Senate for the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court justice.  This was only after Democrats had objected because he has been in close contact with his five staff members who tested positive for the disease two days ago.

The Republicans in the US Congress are starting to realize just how negative the Trump administration is gong to be on their lives.

Over the past week, the US has suffered a 20% increase in new diagnosed cases, a 13% rise in hospitalizations and an 11% rise in daily deaths.  This is according to Johns Hopkins University, with the seven-day average of new cases reaching its highest level…ever.  The increase has been driven by spread in rural communities and northern states, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and parts of Michigan, all of which will play a decisive role in the presidential contest…and all of it will be a negative effect for the GOP.

Trump nonetheless argued in three different Pennsylvania rallies that the viral danger has been exaggerated by the news media.  Of course, the rallies were where thousands had gathered without social distancing or consistent mask-wearing.  Democratic politicians, including the governors of several swing states, had imposed necessary restrictions on these types of large gatherings for political reasons.

Trump had falsely declared that, “It’s ending anyway. We are rounding the turn. It’s ending anyway,”  And Trump said of the virus at an outdoor stop in Allentown, Pa. “Normal life. That’s what we want, right? Normal life. Normal life. We just want normal life. It’s happening, very quickly.”

Before taking the stage, the president rejected his opponent Joe Biden’s claim in a statement that Trump’s strategy had been to: “wave the white flag of defeat and hope that by ignoring it, the virus would simply go away.”

“No, he has. He’s waved the white flag on life. He doesn’t leave his basement,” Trump said. “We’re doing a great job.”

And these mobs just seem to soak up whatever Trump says.

In a stark contrast to Trump’s packed campaign schedule, Biden, who had tested negative for the virus again, traveled for a single unannounced campaign stop in Chester, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia, where he addressed reporters.  This was done with the appropriate forms of having a political event as stated by the CDC’s rules for these types of gatherings.

“The bottom line is, Donald Trump is the worst possible president, the worst possible person, to try to lead us through this pandemic,” Biden said. “Either he just doesn’t have any idea what to do or he just doesn’t care.”

Biden condemned Trump’s recent claim that medical professionals are inflating the number of covid-19 cases to “get more money.”

“What in the hell is the matter with this man?” Biden exclaimed, noting what he said was regarding the deaths of more than 1,000 health-care workers due to the covid-19 virus,. “Mr. President, you have to have a little bit of shame. Just a little bit of shame. Because people are dying.”

Biden said he plans to travel in the coming week to Iowa, Florida, Wisconsin, Georgia and possibly other states.  But he would continue to follow the CDC’s strict rules.

“I am not overconfident about anything,” Biden said, when asked about his campaign schedule. “But the big difference about us, the reason it doesn’t look like we are traveling, is we are not putting on [virus] superspreaders. We are doing what we are doing here — everybody is wearing a mask and trying as best we can to be socially distanced.”

Biden’s latest attacks on Trump’s handling of the virus stemmed from a television interview Sunday in which White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said, “We’re not going to control the pandemic.”

Meadows expanded on his remarks by mocking Biden’s purposeful efforts to wear a mask in public, a measure public health experts say could save more than 100,000 American lives in coming months.

“The only person waving the white flag along with his white mask is Joe Biden,” Meadows told reporters traveling with the president. “We’re going to defeat the virus. We’re not going to control it. We will try to contain it as best we can.”

That bogus argument was rejected by Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir, a political appointee, who contradicted Meadows in a call with reporters.  “I think we can control the pandemic,” he said. “I want to be clear that what we have done, what the American people have done, has been able to put out very significant outbreaks.”

He encouraged Americans to keep their distance from each other, wear masks when they can’t stay more than six feet apart and frequently wash their hands.

Trump has been totally inconsistent in his embrace of that advice. At an event in the Oval Office on Friday, where people gathered in proximity without masks, Trump mocked a reporter from Reuters for wearing “the largest mask I’ve ever seen.”  (Why has Trump always had an issue with the “size” of everything….?)

The posture of the president and other administration officials is in opposition to a majority of American voters, who consistently have agreed with mask-wearing and social distancing.  They have harshly judged Trump’s handling of the pandemic.

Rather than trying to reverse those views, Trump has chosen to reject any objections of the health officials, even those in his own government, in order to corral his big crowds of supporters. Trump has been pushing aides, in conversations on Air Force One and from the White House residence, to schedule more campaign rallies for the final stretch.  He is trying to do four or five rallies a day.  Aides say his travel is likely to focus heavily on the states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, chief among them.

According to his aides, the president has convinced himself that people are tired of the coronavirus and of staying home.  Trump and his Chief-of-Staff Meadows have both sought to downplay the news of the virus in the final days of the campaign.  Trump’s officials are trying to publicly show optimism, even placing positive polls on the seats of Air Force One where reporters sit.  (These are their internal polls, not any recognized national polls.)

Democratic strategists believe Trump is making major political errors. They remain committed to pushing Trump’s strategy of dismissing concern over the virus, or to blaming it on a conspiracy by the “fake news media” and political opponents, “this will all be self-defeating”.

A Washington Post-ABC News Poll in early October found 65% of Americans were either very worried that they or someone in their family would catch the coronavirus.  Those answers have remained steady throughout the course of the pandemic.

“Every time Donald Trump pushes conspiracy theories, it just reminds everyone that he takes no actual responsibility for the reality that’s plaguing their lives,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. “It’s as if the captain of the Titanic not only refused to go down with the ship, but demanded everyone else stay aboard because it was actually an airplane.”

VP Mike Pence aides say the vice president, who continues to test negative for the virus, will continue to have campaign events, even though his proximity to infected staff marks him as a “close contact” under federal guidelines.

White House officials said Pence’s campaign work makes him “essential.”  This allows Pence to ignore Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines that he self-quarantine for 14 days after close contact with any individual who is symptomatic or tests positive.

While Trump traveled the Pennsylvania, Pence appeared at a closely packed outside event in Minnesota, the state the White House coronavirus task force he chairs categorized on Oct. 18 as in the “red zone for cases.” This is the highest level, with the 19th-highest rate of covid-19 spread in the country. Nonetheless, he and many in his audience did not wear masks.

He encouraged those in attendance to “vote with a friend” and talk to their extended circle of neighbors about the upcoming election.

“You know I will always believe that the greatest form of media in the this country is not your TV networks, it’s not your big newspapers, it’s not even social media. I think it’s word of mouth, ” Pence said. “We came so close in Minnesota last time around because people were talking to each other.”

Pence’s had planned to attend the Senate vote to confirm Barrett, but it was canceled after 10 Democratic senators demanded that he not appear because his “presence alone could be very dangerous to many people.”

Biden’s running mate, Senator ­Kamala Harris, was in Washington DC, in preparation for the vote on Barrett. In a morning interview on ABC’s “The View,” she responded to Trump’s recent attacks on her as a “female socialist.”

“You know, look, the name calling is not new to me… it’s not new to anybody who played on the playground as a child,” said Harris, who is anything but a socialist. “But this is not a playground.”

After his final campaign rally, Trump planned to return to the White House, where he had instructed aides to stage an event to celebrate Barrett’s confirmation.

This is only 30 days after he held a White House event to announce Judge Barrett’s nomination.  That was the event that the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Anthony Fauci, called “ a superspreader even.t”  At least eight people, including Trump, tested positive following that event.

Some political and communications advisers to Trump, they feared that a second event would be a bad idea.  (This is as usual, according to people familiar with internal discussions, who requested anonymity to speak more frankly about the event.)

Asked about the planned White House event, Biden urged caution.  “I don’t blame them for celebrating,” Biden said.  He also urged the participants to wear masks and practice social distancing, and said it would be a problem if the president did otherwise, but expected that he would be ignored.

“The words of a president and the actions of a president matter. They matter a great deal,” Biden said. “I just hope he is willing to have learned the lesson.”

But even Joe Biden knows that Donald Trump seldom listens to anyone other than himself.

Copyright G. Ater 2020