Why did Donald Trump give nineteen interviews to Bob Woodward? Why did he allow Woodward to ask him a wide range of questions and to record both the questions and the answers?
Who knows why he talked to Woodward. But he did. And from those hours of taped interviews, during which Trump speaks honestly and freely, we understand that he not only knew very well the nature and the threat of the coronavirus but lied about it. In his own voice he reveals that his national intelligence people told him that the coronavirus would be his biggest national security problem. He knew that it is highly transmissible. He knew that is a “killer” disease. He knew that if you were the wrong person and your got the virus you were, “dead.”
But he never revealed this to the public, or incorporated any of these facts into his public policies (such as they are).
Why? He claimed that he didn’t tell America what he had been told because he didn’t want to panic anyone.
Is this the truth? Of course not. The truth is that Trump did not want to face a national health problem during an election year. The truth is he has no interest in health problems (how long have we been waiting for Trump’s magnificent alternative to ObamaCare?) and not much concern for who might be hurt by them. The truth is he understood that the necessary actions to contain the virus (lockdowns, quarantines, wearing masks, etc.) would be unpopular and possibly slow down economic growth (at least temporarily). The truth is that he just wanted to wish away the coronavirus so he could concentrate on how wonderful the economy was. The truth is that was his biggest talking point and he didn’t want to jeopardise it. The truth is he was worried that telling the truth about the virus might panic the stock market and rob him of his other big political talking point.
No. Trump lied when he confided to Woodward that he didn’t tell the American people the truth about the coronavirus because he did not want to panic them. Just consider some of the specific ways he lied.
-Trump not only failed to inform us of the threat of the virus but told us the opposite of the truth.
From the Woodward tapes it is clear that Trump not only withheld the truth about the coronavirus but actually told us the opposite of what was true. How many times did Trump tell us that the virus would simply “disappear?” How many times did he purposefully downplay the seriousness of the virus by claiming that only one or two people got the virus and that is not very lethal? Did he not complain publicly that the cure should not be worse than the disease. Did he not try and convince us that hydroxychloroquine would knock out the virus? Did he not tell us that Convalescent Plasma was an immediate and effective treatment for the virus.
Trump lied by his actions as well as his words. We know now, and have known from some time, that properly wearing a mask greatly reduces the transmission of the coronavirus and saves lives. But how often have you see Donald Trump, or members of his staff or cabinet, wearing a mask? How often have Trump and his supporters mocked and ridiculed people who covered their faces? We know that maintaining a distance from between and among people helps stopped the spread of the coronavirus. But Trump still insists on addressing large gatherings of his supporters (few or none wearing masks), all of whom sit or stand right next to each other, in enclosed places. You can lie with your words and you can lie with your actions. And Trump had done, and continues to do, both.
-Trump never initiated any action to combat the coronavirus.
No matter what the fear of panic may be a real leader knows that he still must act. All year long Donald Trump has taken action to contain or combat the coronavirus only when it has been forced on him. He has never initiated action, even though he knew better than anyone what the risks were.
Think of all the things that Trump, and all the other republicans, could have done to cope with the developing pandemic but didn’t: inform the country of what the coronavirus is and how it spread; develop a national plan on how to track the virus and confirm infections; set standards and benchmarks for taking new action (e.g. mandatory lock down on all place that have more than x number of infections or a high than average positivity test rate for infections).
Trump promised that anyone who wanted a coronavirus test could get one. But there was never any initiative to provide the materials, the organization, the standards for testing, or the money to make good on that promise. Not now, or ever, has there ever been any kind of well thought out plan plan on how to combate, or even contain the virus. Everything that Trump has done has been a grudging concession to immediate pressure or a flight to the fantasy of a miracle cure (i.e. hydroxychloroquine, Convalescent Plasma). If the president does not initiate action on a developing crisis then he is purposely misleading us by his lack of action.
Trump lied about the coronavirus, and he is still lying. He’s still trying to tell us that all of the misinformation that he deliberately propagates are simply to keep us from going into a panic.
As a progressive I believe it is entirely possible for the President to be honest with the American people about anything, no matter how frightening. In fact, the more terrible the problem the more important it is to be open and honest with our citizens.
Here is what I would expect from a progressive, Democratic, president in terms of handling the coronavirus.
-Just tell us the basic truth about the problem.
No matter how bad things are, or might become, the president should just tell the American people at least the basic things that they need to know.
It is not necessary to belabor every gory detail. Just calmly tell us what we need to know to eliminate the mystery and fear of the disease. Stick to the basics of what the virus is, how it is transmitted, who is most susceptible and what happens when you get it. No matter how bad it is, don’t make the problem any bigger, or smaller, than it actually is.
-Make a commitment to finding the facts and faithfully reporting them to the public.
Any new threat will be alarming and poorly understood. Whatever the problem the president should put the experts on it and let them take the lead coping with the problem. The president should take the information gained from his experts and report it promptly. In fact make sure to report the bad news as quickly and accurately as possible. This is something that Trump can not do: he lives for the love and adoration of his masses. His solution is simply to lie and give them happy talk.
-Stick to the experts, the real experts.
This is something that Trump refuses to do, and it simply breeds mistrust about his handling of the coronavirus by everybody but his convention trolls.
Trump does not respect real expertise (probably because he has so little of it in anything). This is unfortunate because expertise has always been America’s strong suit. But Trump is not really interested in who knows what. He wants someone who will tell him what he wants to hear or who will be amenable to his claims.
America has Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Brix, both very knowledgeable and experienced in infectious diseases and virus infections on his White House staff. But they seems to be there mostly for window dressing. Just a couple of scientists types to parade around in front of the camera.
Who does Trump really use for his coronavirus policy (such as it is)? For example, who is in charge of the communication duties at the dept. of Health and Human Services and for overseeing collection of information and communication of such to scientist around the nation? Michael Caputo. Is he a scientist? No, he is political strategist and lobbyist. He is evidently not only lacking in scientific qualification but in metal stability and judgement as well. He just recently took a medical leave of absence because of a bizarre rant on Youtube in which, among other things, accused government workers of wanting Americans to be sick with Covid-19 through the presidential election (presumably to hurt Donald Trump)
Peter Navarro is another example of a nonscientist being used by Trump to handle coronavirus policy. Even though Navarro’s supposed expertise is in trade economics he was one of Trump’s chief spokesman on the value of hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus. What does he know about viruses? Nothing. But that didn’t stop him from telling America that hydroxychloroquine was both safe and effective. Nor did it stop him from attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci for being wrong on almost everything he said and did about the coronavirus during the year.
Perhaps Trump’s most dangerous and stupid non expert expert is Dr. Scott Atlas. Dr. Atlas is the man in love with the idea of herd immunity. This concept basically says let the virus run through the entire population until it kills off everyone who is susceptible to it. The survivors will either be immune or develop immunity after surviving the disease. The big problem with this is that under present conditions, before we get to herd immunity we could lose half a million people. Painful!
Scott Atlas is a doctor. He is a doctor of neuroradiology. Neuroradiology is a Greek term meaning, “man who takes photographs of the spine but doesn’t know anything about infectious diseases and is basically talking out of his butt.” In English, this just means that Scott Atlas has no real understanding of infectious diseases and he really ought to let people like Dr. Fauci handle the coronavirus policy making.
-Don’t lie.
I believe that Trump is lying when he says that he withheld vital information about the coronavirus, all year long, so as not to panic people. But even if Trump and the reactionary Republicans did worry about panic it would only show how little the understand Americans and how greatly they underestimate us. Americans are not scared, hysterical children. We don’t fall apart at the slightest hint of trouble. America as a nation has survived the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the AIDs crisis, 9-11 and many other national threats. Lying is the worst thing the president can do because after we find out (and we will), it will be hard to ever know what is true and worth believing.
Joe Biden is a man who I believe will do right by Americans concerning the public health menace of the coronavirus. Biden has seen his wife and daughter both killed in an auto accident, and seen one of his sons come home from overseas service just to end up dying from a brain tumor. I am sure that Biden knows how to look at life or death matters and face them squarely.
Number of Americans killed by the coronavirus: 194,000. Number of cases of coronavirus: 6.5 million. Vote for Democrats. Vote for Biden.