Coronavirus and China
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Sarah, Steve, Jonah, and David discuss China's role in the coronavirus outbreak, how governors are navigating this crisis, and the impact of the president's daily briefings.
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“President Trump, the person who is running a response to a pandemic that is ravaging the American economy and has cost 4,000 lives.....”
Mike Pence is running the pandemic response.
Maybe you think the President is the person who should be running it. Fair enough. He isn’t. He’s tweeting and eating hamburgers.
I would prefer President Pence as well. It wouldn’t make a difference and we are seeing that now.
Obsession with Trump’s deficiencies as a figurehead has blinded people to the actual mechanics of every aspect of government.
“Trump should have ramped up testing in January.”
Okay good idea. How does that actually work? So Trump, a realtor, calls the CDC FDA etc and tells them to do a good job testing and then what?
“Oh thanks for calling Mr President, we hadn’t considered testing before. Yes we will do a good job. Before you hang up Mr President, can you please give us ideas for how to do that? We need you to give us plans for testing and also, we just sit here waiting for you to tell us to Control and Prevent Disease even though that’s our name. We don’t actually do it unless you call.”
The FBI didn’t whiff on the hijackers because Bush wore cowboy boots
The CDC didn’t whiff on testing because Trump is orange
I think David was being less than generous to the importance of the news conferences when he suggested that "reporters are watching them (the press conferences). All the while you can see them on different feeds and then use your own platforms to put out the information that was truly important . . .)
First, I would prefer to watch the full press conferences and make my own decisions about Trump's words and how he says them, rather than having a reporter decide what information is "truly important." Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I don't trust Fox, CNN, or any news organization to tell me what's important. I can make up my own mind as to the value/lunacy of what Trump says/intuits/blurts.
Yes, it's infuriating to hear Trump repeat over-and-over about how he closed the border with China early . . . really, really early . . . and powerfully. (That drinking game had to end for the sake of my liver and marriage.)
However, a conscious decision not to cover Trump's opening remarks seems to presuppose that anything he says - and how he says it - is not worthy of people watching. I think that's a mistake. We can make our own judgement about the value or vacuousness of his comments.
And to that point, this Never-Trumper was moved on Sunday by what I saw as a seriousness, a sense of sadness and resolve in the President that both my wife and I felt to our bones. Like Steve, we go into these press conferences hoping the President will rise to the occasion. More often than not, he disappoints. But not Sunday. His words and demeanor were what I think everyone would hope of any President.
He's the President of the United States. Love it or hate it, what he says and thinks matters to my wife, son, me and tens-of-millions like us whose business has come to a screeching halt, whose retirement fund is now paying rent, and who is wondering if life will ever be the same. I can't imagine why it would be at this moment that news organizations would not want to present the President when he speaks.
In the end I will find a way to watch the entire press conference. I just think it's a shame that some news organizations would not offer me that opportunity on their channel.