Today’s COVID taskforce presser was the most obvious manipulation of the event as a propaganda show in service of the Trump election campaign. Trump tried to rewrite history much like there’s little information about the deaths in nursing homes that might actually be part of the total COVID-19 death toll. Trump’s control of emergency powers will constitute much of the remaining conflict to come.
The tactics are the same. The simplistic message ignores how Trump deliberately delayed action in the face of expert analysis and reporting during a critical, early phase of the spread, and can be shown to have been a failure by comparison to numerous other nations.
“The problem is that he mixes lies with truth” — Captain Adama on interrogating a cylon in Battlestar Gallactica
Trump 2016: “I alone can fix it.”
Trump, March 13, 2020:“I don’t take any responsibility at all.”
Trump, April 13, 2020:“When somebody is president of the United States your authority is total.”
- Trump: When somebody is the president, "the authority is total."!?!?!
- A bit later, Trump says that "the authority is total" for the president with regard to this particular subject. (Still extremely false.)
- Trump on state (or local?) officials: "They can't do anything without the approval of the president of the United States." Extreeemely false.
- Trump, pressed on state and federal powers, avoids the powers issue and says: If states refuse to open, I'd like to see that person run for election.
- Trump again making his highly questionable claim about his power to reopen things, not citing any law/precedent/constitutional clause but declaring, "The president of the United States calls the shots."
www.dailykos.com/...
During a visit to Minsk in August 1941, Himmler witnessed an Einsatzgruppen mass execution first-hand and concluded that shooting Jews was too stressful for his men.[119] By November he made arrangements for any SS men suffering ill health from having participated in executions to be provided with rest and mental health care.[120] He also decided a transition should be made to gassing the victims, especially the women and children, and ordered the recruitment of expendable native auxiliaries who could assist with the murders.[120][121]
Tuesday, Apr 14, 2020 · 4:20:20 AM +00:00
·
annieli
Trump delivered an indignant screed about claims that he was slow in responding to the coronavirus outbreak, repeatedly citing the travel restrictions on China he announced in late January and began in early February. Yet his defense did not address his public
downplaying of the virus into March, how his administration was
slow to deploy the tests experts believe might have helped contain the outbreak, or how the administration waited critical weeks to make large orders of critical equipment.
Trump also falsely claimed he has "total" authority over states' coronavirus restrictions, falsely claimed he had inherited broken coronavirus tests, falsely claimed presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden apologized for having called him xenophobic, falsely claimed that governors have stopped talking about a need for ventilators, and falsely claimed he banned travel from Europe.
Here's our preliminary rundown of his claims and the facts that go with them. This will be updated throughout the night.
Fact checking a portion of the White House video presentation
During the task force briefing, the White House presented a digital montage of TV and radio clips of Trump's early actions with the coronavirus. One clip featured audio from New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who can be heard describing how the President was criticized for his early travel ban from China.
Facts First: The Haberman quotes are misleading as they edit out one of her key points: that the President's travel restriction was one of the last actions he took to address the coronavirus for weeks.
Here's the Haberman quote as it was presented by the White House video:
"As there were more cases and it was clear that it was spreading out of China -- where it originated -- the President took this move that he was widely criticized for by Democrats and even some Republicans at the time. Which was he halted a number of flights from China into the U.S. The idea was to halt the spread of the disease, keep transmissions to a minimum. He was accused of xenophobia. He was accused of making a racist move. At the end of the day, it was probably effective, because it did actually take a pretty aggressive measure against the spread of the virus."
"At the end of the day, it was probably effective, because it did actually take a pretty aggressive measure against the spread of the virus. The problem is, it was one of the last things that he did for several weeks."
According to the transcript, the Daily's host Michael Barbaro asked a follow up question: "So the right decision in retrospect, but not accompanied by similar actions that might have contained transmission."
Haberman responded: "That's exactly right. In the same way that George W. Bush was criticized for his 'Mission Accomplished' banner about Iraq, the President treated that moment as if it was his mission accomplished moment. He did not do anything after that in terms of alerting the public, or telling people to be safe, or telling people to take precautions. And it basically squandered several weeks within the US."
As Haberman
pointed out on Twitter, she went on to say that the President "treated that travel limitation as a Mission Accomplished moment," harkening back to former President George W. Bush.
