Donald Trump’s claims about the pandemic have been at odds with the information shared by his public health advisors. Take a look.
If you missed it, it may be because the NY Times buried it in the Opinion Section instead of putting it on the front page at the top. Adam Westbrook and Sanya Dosani have put together a video that compares Trump’s statements with those of his own experts.
President Trump’s responses to the Covid-19 pandemic have been dizzying, and at times, demonstrably untrue. It’s no wonder most Americans don’t trust what he is saying about the coronavirus. In the above video, we compared Trump’s words to those of the public health officials leading his administration’s response. In a life or death crisis, the consequences of bending the truth have never been clearer.
In just 3 minutes and 40 seconds they use video clips that demonstrate — using Trump’s own words — he has consistently lied and/or been wrong about coronavirus. The same people who have to stand there and nod when he speaks at the daily Trump worship sessions have a very different message when they are allowed to speak freely.
The video is must-see TV. Unfortunately the Times does not have it set up for embedding; here’s a transcript. I’ve taken the liberty of putting the statements from officials that contradict Trump in italics.
The President Is Lying About Coronavirus
Donald Trump’s claims about the pandemic have been at odds with the information shared by his public health advisors. Take a look.
Mr. President, very simple question. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your response to this crisis?
[FLASHBACK SOUND EFFECT]
The risk to the American people remains very low. This is an unprecedented potential severe health challenge. It’ll go away. Goes away. It’s going. away. We will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now. In April, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather.
This virus is probably with us beyond this season, or beyond this year. This is a pandemic.
I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.
Have you been briefed by the CDC? I have. Are there words about a pandemic at this point? No, not at all, and we have it totally under control.
When you have 15 people and the 15, within a couple of days, is going to be down to close to zero.
And we can expect to see more cases in the United States. We will see more cases. Unfortunately, we are likely to see more deaths.
I like the numbers being where they are. I don’t need to have the numbers double.
We’ll certainly have tens of thousands of cases in the US. Hopefully, we won’t hit hundreds of thousands of cases. We’d much rather be ahead of the curve than behind it, and that’s what we are. You are always behind where you think you are. If you think you’re here, you’re really here.
Anybody that wants a test can get a test. Not everybody, tomorrow, is going to be able to get a test. Anybody that needs a test. That’s the important thing. And the tests are all perfect.
The idea of anybody getting it easily, the way people in other country are doing it, we’re not set up for that. That is a failing. A failing? Yes. It is a failing, let’s admit it.
Dr. Fauci said that the lag in testing was in fact a failing. Do you take responsibility for that? Yeah. No, I don’t take responsibility at all.
They’re gonna have vaccines, I think, relatively soon. And they’re going to have— [CHEERING] something that makes you better.
It would take them about a year to a year and a half to be fully confident that we would have a vaccine that would be able to protect the American people.
I mean, I like the sound of a couple of months better, I must be honest.
Is it safe or appropriate to be holding rallies during a public health crisis like this? I think it’s very safe. Yeah.
You probably shouldn’t get on planes. You shouldn’t go into areas, large malls, large areas where people are congregating because it’s too high a risk. Getting away from shaking hands is a good thing. Maybe people shouldn’t be shaking hands for the long term because it does transmit flu and other things. I’m working on getting the boss to do this. I may not be successful, but we’re working on it.
In terms of deaths, I don’t what the count is today. Is it 11? 11 people. What is the number as of this morning? Is it 32? You could tell me, is it 32 deaths, Steve? Unfortunately, one person passed away overnight. She was a wonderful woman, a medically high-risk patient in her late 50s.
[“She” was a he.]
[FLASHFORWARD SOUND EFFECT]
And on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your response to this crisis?
I’d rate it a 10. I think we’ve done a great job.
emphasis added
If anything should go viral (and there’s an expression that has come back to bite us in the ass), it’s this video. (See it here or here.) This has been labeled opinion, but it’s not. It’s a documentary. You can quibble about selectively quoting people to make a point, but that doesn’t change the fact that Trump has been consistently making claims that are not supported by the facts or his own experts. But then, that has been Trump’s modus operandi all along.
When it comes to speaking truth to power, the media has failed us badly — but they’re going above and beyond in their efforts to give us ‘happy news’ stories about coping with the pandemic...
If anyone can find a way to embed this video or link to it for people who can’t get through the Times pay wall, please do so in comments.