COVID-19 puts White House incompetence on display
Every political campaign hopes for an October surprise to shift the November election their way.
President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis and hospitalization may be the worst self-inflicted October surprise any candidate ever stumbled into.
Trump didn’t plan to get sick, of course. But his refusal to wear a mask or keep people at a safe distance made him vulnerable to the coronavirus and helped turn the White House into a hot zone, with at least a dozen positive cases.
For months, Trump and most of his aides flouted public health guidelines. They staged campaign rallies and White House ceremonies, including one on Sept. 26 to introduce Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett that may have been a super-spreader event.
Even after the president spent three days in the hospital, the White House didn’t try to track down the hundreds of people with whom he or his aides had met — and possibly infected.
On his return from the hospital, Trump took off his mask and posed for a video. "Don't be afraid of it. You're going to beat it,” he said of COVID-19.
If the president intended to reassure Americans, he instead displayed the Trump traits that voters like least: his self-absorption, his disdain for scientific advice — and his failure to express any empathy for the more than 210,000 Americans who have died of COVID-19 in the last six months.
It also showed the incompetence that has been one of Trump’s trademarks for the last four years.
https://news.yahoo.com/column-covid-19-puts-white-110016881.html
Every political campaign hopes for an October surprise to shift the November election their way.
President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis and hospitalization may be the worst self-inflicted October surprise any candidate ever stumbled into.
Trump didn’t plan to get sick, of course. But his refusal to wear a mask or keep people at a safe distance made him vulnerable to the coronavirus and helped turn the White House into a hot zone, with at least a dozen positive cases.
For months, Trump and most of his aides flouted public health guidelines. They staged campaign rallies and White House ceremonies, including one on Sept. 26 to introduce Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett that may have been a super-spreader event.
Even after the president spent three days in the hospital, the White House didn’t try to track down the hundreds of people with whom he or his aides had met — and possibly infected.
On his return from the hospital, Trump took off his mask and posed for a video. "Don't be afraid of it. You're going to beat it,” he said of COVID-19.
If the president intended to reassure Americans, he instead displayed the Trump traits that voters like least: his self-absorption, his disdain for scientific advice — and his failure to express any empathy for the more than 210,000 Americans who have died of COVID-19 in the last six months.
It also showed the incompetence that has been one of Trump’s trademarks for the last four years.
https://news.yahoo.com/column-covid-19-puts-white-110016881.html
