Stories are coming in that Trump is having reservations about his lockdown-lite. Is he seeing data or hearing reports that suggest we might see light at the end of the tunnel? The answer is simple: he is a coward and doesn’t want to own the economic consequences.
Compare that with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who said
“I take total responsibility for shutting off the economy in terms of essential workers,” Cuomo said during a news conference * * * “I had a gentleman tell me, ‘There’s no way this state will ever reelect you because of what you did,’ ” Cuomo said. “Frankly, I don’t even care about that. I did the right thing, and I’m proud of it.”
That’s leadership. It’s not really even all that uncommon. You do the best you can and live with the consequences. Trump, on the other hand, doesn’t want to be blamed for the economic downturn. He’s blaming the virus on China and will blame the economic fallout on Democratic governors. Because, he doesn’t “take responsibility at all.”
He can already sense that over the weekend a lot of the media has pivoted towards reporting on the dire economic consequences and in the immediate term, the death count just isn’t high enough for him, I guess.