ChrisWeigant

ChrisWeigant's Journal

March 28, 2020

Friday Talking Points -- We're Number One (Hundred Thousand)!

[Program Note: I am pre-empting our normal column format today (as well as our use of the editorial "we" ) in order to make room for a straight-up rant. After finishing it, I don't think I've ever written such a lengthy one before, and after finishing I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface of the criminal incompetence and lies emanating from the White House in shameful fashion during the worst crisis of Donald Trump's presidency. Books will be written later about this monumental screwup, when we all have time to examine the many, many things that have gone wrong... and are still going wrong. But until then, I just felt the need to get this rant off my chest. You have been warned.]

We're number one! Well... number one hundred thousand and climbing, at any rate....

Yesterday, the United States of America took the lead on the world stage, but not in a good way. We're now the most-infected nation on the planet, and are now the number one epicenter of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. Today, the number of cases in this country surpassed 100,000 -- a grim milestone indeed. We still have a ways to go before we are the country with the most deaths from the disease, but at the rate we're going that won't be long either.

What is really worrisome, at least for those who can read what the numbers are saying, is how fast we're increasing. With any exponential progression, what really matters is the rate of doubling. At the moment, the United States is doubling the number of cases every three days. So while we're on track to hit 110,000 or so today, three days ago there were only 54,856 cases. Three days before that, there were only 24,192 cases. This is truly frightening because if it keeps up, we're on track to hit over 400,000 cases by this time next week. The week after that, we could be getting close to 2 million cases. So far, that curve hasn't been bending in a good direction at all -- it's been rocketing up instead.

Perhaps the rise in cases isn't sustainable. Perhaps the social distancing is going to start to have an effect on the numbers. As I wrote earlier in the week, there's a lag time of more than a week between when people actually contract the disease and when they get entered into the statistics. So maybe next week will finally have some good news -- which, at the moment, would only be that the rate of doubling has begun to slow down a little bit. We'll see.

The other truly frightening thing about the numbers is that they may be severely undercounting the actual cases. So far, there just haven't been enough test kits to go around. They've had to be rationed. Even if you're sick, you can't get tested in many places unless you are actually hospitalized, due to the scarcity of the tests. This could begin to get better, as the tests are finally (finally!) being made more widely available, but up until this point supplies have been woefully inadequate. The governor of California announced just yesterday that only 66,000 tests had been performed in the state, but that of those 48,000 had no results yet because they had just been administered. That means only 18,000 had been given prior to this week -- which is quite obviously not enough in the most-populous state in the country.

Everyone trusts the governor when he conveys such important information, because he is honestly telling us the truth. Everyone trusts their governor in all the other states as well, one assumes, because the governors have been at the front lines and are providing the only honest leadership to be found in this time of crisis.

No one in their right mind trusts anything President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, or anyone else in the Trump administration is telling them -- with the sole exception being Dr. Anthony Fauci. This is because all we are getting from Trump and his minions are lies. Lies, damned lies, and faulty statistics -- we're getting them all by the truckload from Trump. What we're not getting by the truckload is anything they've promised to deliver. Which is why nobody believes all their happy-talk horse manure any more.

At this point, I don't even care if all the lies Trump is telling are conscious attempts to deceive, things he just doesn't know much of anything about, or just garden-variety ass-covering. It really doesn't make much difference anymore. The absolute vacuum of leadership at the top is approaching the point where it could be called criminal, in fact, and when things get this bad you really stop caring what his actual motive may be.

This all enrages me, and it should enrage anyone who can remember the lies that were being told just last week. Trump's inaction and inability to lead a one-car parade are becoming painfully acute, and they have directly contributed to the increase in cases. Let's run down the most egregious mistakes and lies we've had to put up with yet:

The worst lies yet

Nobody could have ever seen something like this coming, but now we know, and we know it can happen and happen again. And if it does, somebody is going to be very well prepared because of what we've learned and how we've done.

President Trump has used some form of this blanket excuse over and over and over again. But it is not true -- not by a longshot. Experts in the field knew it could happen, and they all told the Trump administration how serious a problem it could be. Trump ignored them.

Two stories put this into focus in stunning fashion, although I have yet to see either one of them mentioned by the talking heads on television, or asked about during one of Trump's now-daily press conferences. Here's the whole sordid story, from Politico (click on the link to see the full playbook that Team Trump totally ignored):

The Trump administration, state officials and even individual hospital workers are now racing against each other to get the necessary masks, gloves and other safety equipment to fight coronavirus -- a scramble that hospitals and doctors say has come too late and left them at risk. But according to a previously unrevealed White House playbook, the government should've begun a federal-wide effort to procure that personal protective equipment at least two months ago.

"Is there sufficient personal protective equipment for healthcare workers who are providing medical care?" the playbook instructs its readers, as one early decision that officials should address when facing a potential pandemic. "If YES: What are the triggers to signal exhaustion of supplies? Are additional supplies available? If NO: Should the Strategic National Stockpile release PPE to states?"

The strategies are among hundreds of tactics and key policy decisions laid out in a 69-page National Security Council playbook on fighting pandemics, which POLITICO is detailing for the first time. Other recommendations include that the government move swiftly to fully detect potential outbreaks, secure supplemental funding and consider invoking the Defense Production Act -- all steps in which the Trump administration lagged behind the timeline laid out in the playbook.

"Each section of this playbook includes specific questions that should be asked and decisions that should be made at multiple levels" within the national security apparatus, the playbook urges, repeatedly advising officials to question the numbers on viral spread, ensure appropriate diagnostic capacity and check on the U.S. stockpile of emergency resources.

The playbook also stresses the significant responsibility facing the White House to contain risks of potential pandemics, a stark contrast with the Trump administration's delays in deploying an all-of-government response and President Donald Trump's recent signals that he might roll back public health recommendations.

"The U.S. government will use all powers at its disposal to prevent, slow or mitigate the spread of an emerging infectious disease threat," according to the playbook's built-in "assumptions" about fighting future threats. "The American public will look to the U.S. government for action when multi-state or other significant events occur."

Got that? An easy-to-follow guide exists which tells the political leaders of our country exactly what to do and when to do it. It was utterly ignored, which led to losing two months of lead time that could have been used to fight the spread of the disease.

That's pretty astonishing stuff, which is why I wonder why nobody has even mentioned it on television or in the White House press room. But even more astonishing is that it wasn't even the only pandemic disaster preparedness effort that was ignored by Trump. Also uncovered by Politico was the following:

The Department of Homeland Security stopped updating its annual models of the havoc that pandemics would wreak on America's critical infrastructure in 2017, according to current and former DHS officials with direct knowledge of the matter.

From at least 2005 to 2017, an office inside DHS, in tandem with analysts and supercomputers at several national laboratories, produced detailed analyses of what would happen to everything from transportation systems to hospitals if a pandemic hit the United States.

But the work abruptly stopped in 2017 amid a bureaucratic dispute over its value, two of the former officials said, leaving the department flat-footed as it seeks to stay ahead of the impact the COVID-19 outbreak is having on vast swaths of the U.S. economy. Officials at other agencies have requested some of the reports from the pandemic modeling unit at DHS in recent days, only to find the information they needed scattered or hard to find quickly.

And while department leaders dispute that, others say the confusion is just the latest example of the Trump administration's struggle to respond to an outbreak that has sickened more than 50,000 Americans and threatens to overwhelm hospitals and other health care providers. Officials are now scrambling to secure enough masks, respirators and ventilators to meet the rapidly exploding need. Doctors and nurses are reusing their protective gear as supplies dwindle; governors are begging the administration for federal help that has been slow to arrive.

. . .

Some of the modeling unit's analyses looked at what would happen if a large portion of the U.S. workforce -- say, 40 percent -- got sick or couldn't show up at work to maintain and operate key aspects of the national infrastructure, such as the systems that keep planes flying safely. The reports were meant to guide policymakers toward areas that would demand their attention in the event of an outbreak.

One 2015 DHS report... warned that America's public and private health systems might "experience significant shortages in vaccines, antivirals, pharmaceuticals needed to treat secondary infections and complications, personal protective equipment (PPE), and medical equipment, including ventilators."

Got that? Ventilators. So two different agencies had created sophisticated models for how the country should react to a pandemic, and they were both ignored by the Trump administration. And, to add insult to injury (or perhaps to rub some salt in the wound -- choose your metaphor), Team Trump is still absolutely ignoring the one playbook they should be paying attention to, by "breaking every rule in the Center for Disease Control's 450-page handbook for a health crisis." No wonder their response has been so pathetic. Because, as always, Donald Trump refuses to listen to anyone who knows more than he does about any subject under the sun -- and that includes a whole bunch of smart people.

There are two other big lies worth highlighting right up front. The first came from Donald Trump, on March 6:

Anybody that wants a test can get a test. That's what the bottom line is.... Anybody right now and yesterday -- anybody that needs a test gets a test. We -- they're there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful. Anybody that needs a test gets a test.

This was not true three Fridays ago, and it is not true now. Everyone that needs a test still can't get a test, although the situation has improved in the past week. Even so, it's nowhere near even where Mike Pence promised we already were over two weeks ago, on March 9:

Over a million tests have been distributed... before the end of this week, another 4 million tests will be distributed.

That was not even close to being true when he said it, and it still isn't true. Just two days ago -- seventeen days later -- Mike Pence tried to brag that 432,000 tests have now been done nationwide. So it took two-and-a-half weeks to even get to half of what Pence promised had already occurred back then. As for "another 4 million," we're obviously nowhere close to that, even though the "end of the week" came and went two Fridays ago. Now, with Donald Trump you always have to wonder if he's intentionally lying or just ignorant as a bag of hammers, but Pence is smart enough to know when he's lying. And lying is precisely what he was doing, back then. I heard the surgeon general say this morning in an interview that "one million tests" had now been performed, but seeing as how he's been nothing but a toady for Trump, I simply don't believe him in the slightest. If Mike Pence lied about it back on March 6, why should I believe any of them now? I'll wait until I hear such a figure from someone trustworthy, like a governor or maybe Johns Hopkins University. Because the only thing you can trust from the Trump administration is that if their lips are moving, they are lying -- and most likely lying about critical issues that will lead to more deaths. This is why the phrase "criminal neglect" keeps coming back to me.

The callous indifference and inaction

Already, polling shows that 58 percent of the American people think Trump acted too slowly to combat the coronavirus outbreak. And they're right.

From the start, Trump has been playing catchup, and this has not been going well at all. The airlines -- on their own initiative -- halted flights to the epicenter in China very early on. Trump jumped on board this bandwagon and announced a "travel ban" for people coming from China.

However, this was a lie. There was no "travel ban" at all. There was a ban on non-Americans travelling from China to the United States. That's it. Americans were still allowed to fly back home. Here's a hint as to why this was pretty much like doing nothing at all: viruses don't check passports. Americans get infected in exactly the same way Chinese people get infected. So the "China travel ban" that Trump loves to now brag about was, essentially, ineffectual. A quarantine is only as good as its loopholes.

Trump doesn't seem to understand that he actually would get a lot more credit for his China travel ban if he had then sprung into action. He didn't. He dithered for over a month afterwards. In fact, he spent most of this time talking down the danger, at times even refusing to admit that it even existed. He brushed the whole thing off as nothing more than the flu. Exactly one month ago, he said: "It's going to disappear. One day -- it's like a miracle -- it will disappear." This was a lie, because it has obviously not miraculously disappeared.

Trump then swore up and down, over and over, that everything was "totally under control." Only 15 Americans were sick, Trump told us, and that number "would soon be zero." That was over 100,000 cases ago. Obviously, the virus was not "under control" in any way, obviously the travel bans did not work, and we're now quite obviously leading the world in infections.

This might not have been the case if Trump had moved more quickly on the issue of testing, instead of endlessly dithering. When the first cases arrived in America, there was already an existing test for COVID-19 which was approved by the World Health Organization and was being successfully used in dozens of countries. The Trump administration decided to create their own test kits from scratch. This delayed providing the tests for weeks, and then (even worse), the tests were faulty. Adding to the ineptitude, private industry wasn't called in to help until things had already gotten so far behind the curve that catching up was now impossible. As we can plainly see, from the fact that even today there are not enough tests to go around. So it wasn't just Trump himself who didn't take the coronavirus seriously, it was the entire federal government he controls.

Here's where we are now, according to what Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiology expert at Harvard University wrote this Monday: "The United States currently has a sliver of the [testing] capacity we need, which is a tiny fraction of that available in other countries. South Korea has performed over 320,000 tests -- almost one for every 150 people. That is 30 times the testing per capita that we have done in the United States."

South Korea, interestingly enough, had their first coronavirus case detected on the same day we did. Their reaction was to immediately leap into action and open 600 test centers and 50 drive-through test centers. By acting so quickly, they avoided having to institute the social distancing that we're now experiencing. All the while, we were essentially doing nothing but listen to lies from Trump about how the whole thing was going to be no big deal. That is the difference between a country led by people who know what they are doing and one "led" by Donald Trump and his circus of clowns.

Trump was finally shamed into announcing a rather weak version of "social distancing," after multiple governors (from both parties) had already instituted such restrictions in their own states. But then Trump blew any advantage this might have given by utterly failing to provide the supplies necessary to successfully combat an infectious disease. There isn't just a critical shortage of ventilators, there is also a critical shortage of all the basic personal protective equipment (gloves, masks, gowns) that should have been provided by the federal government.

The experts were saying back in February that a million Americans could be hospitalized by even a moderate pandemic. But Trump did nothing. If he had utilized the Defense Production Act back then, we simply would not be where we are now -- we'd be in a lot better shape. But Trump has resisted doing so for weeks. He seemed to think using this power meant "nationalizing companies," which is not true at all. It means the federal government orders equipment and they are the highest priority customer -- they get all the factory can make. The feds then divvy up what is made and send it to where it is needed the most. This still has yet to happen because Trump is happy to see all the governors compete with each other over the limited supplies. This has reportedly driven up the price of N95 masks from pennies each to five bucks a pop. All of this could have been avoided if Trump had acted sooner. The governor of Illinois correctly said this was "like the Wild West." Senator Chris Murphy probably put this disastrous policy the best, though (after he told the president to "stop whining and tweeting and start acting," for good measure): "Today, we are in a Lord Of The Flies environment in which every single hospital and every single state is competing with each other."

Meanwhile, the White House forges ahead by just flat-out denying reality. Here's what they had to say yesterday, after reports began to appear in the media of doctors and nurses begging for equipment:

Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator for the White House's coronavirus task force, said during a press update on Thursday that there was no "evidence" that hospitals were facing a severe shortage of ventilators.

As I sat down to write this, the news broke that Trump finally had used the D.P.A., to order General Motors to make respirators. But, like everything else in this fiasco, Trump had to be shamed into doing so. The New York Times reported yesterday that GM had been in talks with the Trump administration to make up to 80,000 ventilators, but that the deal fell through "after FEMA said it needed more time to assess how much the ventilators would cost." Trump was more interested in haggling over the price than he was with getting the ventilators made as quickly as possible. Because this was revealed, Trump was shamed into doing what he should have done weeks ago, and put the federal government in charge of at least one portion of the supply chain for hospitals.

The pettiness and ego-boosting

With Donald Trump, everything and anything is always -- always -- about one thing and one thing only: how it will affect Donald Trump. Period. Throughout the crisis, rather than showing the tiniest shred of leadership, Trump has been obsessed with how this is all going to affect his chances of re-election.

To Trump, the most important thing for anyone else to do -- any state governor, any medical expert, any of his toadies, bootlickers, or minions -- is to praise Trump with every breath they take. And Trump uses this as leverage, which he fully admitted this week on Fox News, when asked about several tantrums he's been having over what the nation's governors are saying about him: "It's a two-way street," Trump said. "They have to treat us well, also. They can't say, 'Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.'"

In other words, to get any attention from the Dear Leader, you absolutely must first kiss the Dear Leader's ass. This should outrage every decent human being in this country, but it's just par for the course for Trump. Trump just does not know how to behave like a decent human being, period. When told that Mitt Romney was self-quarantining last weekend, Trump responded with a sneer: "Gee, that's too bad." No, it was not sincere in the slightest. When he learned that Romney had tested negative, Trump's response was to tweet: "This is really great news! I am so happy I can barely speak. He may have been a terrible presidential candidate and an even worse U.S. Senator, but he is a RINO, and I like him a lot!" Trump wouldn't know what is expected of a decent human being if his own life depended on it.

Every time a governor (or anyone else, for that matter) dares to point out that all the promises from Trump and his team have proven to be nothing short of criminal lies, Trump attacks the messenger. The governor of Michigan was the most recent, although governors of Illinois, Washington, New York, Maryland, and plenty of other places have also found this out. Here's what Whitmer just pointed out:

Whitmer recounted that the most recent delivery of masks, gowns, face shields and gloves from the federal government's national strategic stockpile that was earmarked for a Michigan hospital on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis -- in southeast Michigan -- was woefully short of what is needed.

"With the exception of the gloves, that allotment is barely enough to cover one shift at that hospital," Whitmer said. "Not even a whole day's worth of shifts. One shift."

Officials in the Michigan governor's office tell me the situation is quite dire. They believe they need 400,000 new N95 masks a day for at least the next few weeks. Given how few have come in from the federal government, they've put out an order through other sources -- some international -- for millions of masks. Due to delays, they've received none of them.

Trump, of course, immediately attacked Whitmer.

Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington (the first epicenter of the disease in our country) apparently got tired of Trump encouraging the Lord Of The Flies competition between the states for supplies (where Trump says the federal government should just be the "backup" line of defense), and told Trump on a phone call: "We don't need a backup. We need a Tom Brady." But, obviously, all we've got to work with is a mentally-challenged waterboy, not a first-string quarterback.

Earlier, Andrew Cuomo got downright incensed after requesting 30,000 ventilators and getting only 400 from the federal government.

"The president said it's a war... then act like it," Cuomo said, raising his voice during a morning news conference at the Javits Center in Manhattan. "They're doing the supplies? Here's my question: Where are they?"

If more ventilators aren't sent within weeks, Cuomo told the feds, "You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die."

Cuomo went on to call on Trump to do what he finally (finally!) did today, to invoke the D.P.A. to get the ventilators, saying "not to exercise that power is inexplicable." He mocked Trump's insistence that he was using the power as "leverage" to get private companies to help:

"When we went to war we didn't say, 'Any company out there want to build a battleship?'" he said, mocking the federal government's current stance.

He argued business would welcome such an order.

"You know what business wants? They want to make money... let them open their factory and make money, help them do that by ordering the supplies you need," Cuomo said. "That's what the Defense [Production] Act was all about and at the rate they are going -- it is not happening. FEMA says we're sending 400 ventilators. Really? What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?"

Trump immediately attacked Cuomo, because of course he did. It took many more days before Trump finally (finally!) used the act's power. In the meantime, a high-ranking official at the DHS was removed from her position because she was deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump. You just can't make this stuff up, folks.

In fact, there is only one man who even appears remotely trustworthy in the entire Trump coronavirus team, and that is Dr. Anthony Fauci. There was a scare this week, however, when all of a sudden he wasn't present at the daily briefings for a few days, right after an interview came out where Fauci pretty much admitted how tough it was to deal with the Toddler-in-Chief:

When asked Sunday by Science magazine's Jon Cohen about having to stand in front of the nation as "the representative of truth and facts" when "things are being said that aren't true and aren't factual," the 79-year-old said there is only so much he can do.

"I can't jump in front of the microphone and push him down," Fauci said, referring to Trump. "Okay, he said it. Let's try and get it corrected for the next time."

He was even asked about whether he'd be fired for saying stuff like this, and he correctly pointed out that the Trump administration would lose their one remaining shred of believability if it happened:

"I don't think they're going to try to silence me. I think that would be foolish on their part," he said. "I think, in some respects, they welcome my voice out there telling the truth. I'm going to keep doing it. And no matter what happens to me, I'm going to keep doing it."

What we've lost

We've lost a lot of time, while Trump dithered. That time could have been spent getting ready, but instead Trump spent most of it telling everyone that this wasn't a big deal and he had it "totally under control." Neither is true. We're going to lose a lot of lives because of this criminal negligence. A lot more people are going to get sick as a direct result.

But it's not only what we're losing here at home. We're also losing our status as a world leader. Here is how the rest of the planet now sees us:

Planeloads of Chinese medical equipment, masks and protective gear have been landing in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Iran and Iraq, among others. Jack Ma, China's wealthiest man, donated test kits, masks and protective suits to each of Africa's 54 countries.

African heads of state took to social media to profusely thank him, and headlines of major newspapers gushed with gratitude. "The perception across much of the continent today is that the Chinese are stepping up to deliver the kind of public goods that the U.S. used to provide," said Eric Olander, the director of the China-Africa Project

. . .

"In international crises, America has always been the country to which other countries have turned for leadership and to steer the ship. And now, which country is looking to the United States? No one," said Elisabeth Braw of the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

. . .

Meanwhile, the chaotic American response to the spread of the virus in the United States is undermining its reputation as a global leader in science and technology. TV footage of New Yorkers queuing in the cold for scarce virus tests has been broadcast worldwide, accentuating the sense that America can't manage its own coronavirus epidemic, let alone lead other countries out of theirs.

American enemies have seized the opportunity to take digs. "Spend it on yourself," said Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as he rejected an offer of U.S. assistance to help Iran fight the coronavirus. "You have shortages yourself."

Ouch. That's pretty sad, but that's where Trump's abysmal failure to provide even the pretense of leadership has left us. Even worse? Hope Trump doesn't hear about this one:

Mexican protesters blocked a port of entry that connects Nogales, Ariz., with Nogales, Mexico. They expressed worries that U.S. travelers could bring the pandemic into Mexico and demanded more screenings on traffic from the U.S.

Got that? The Mexicans are trying to shut down their border to prevent us from entering their country. Hoo boy. Like I said, hope Trump doesn't hear that anecdote.

You know what message we're sending to the world, instead of providing leadership? That all Trump is interested in is the blame game. Here's how a recent meeting of the foreign ministers of the G-7 went:

Meeting by video conference because of the outbreak, the ministers agreed on the need for joint efforts to halt the spread of the virus, known as COVID-19. But U.S. and European diplomats said the ministers were unable to agree on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's call for COVID-19 to be identified by name as the "Wuhan virus."

As a result, just a day after G-7 finance ministers and central bankers issued a joint communique referring to "COVID-19," the foreign ministers opted against releasing a group statement.

That is what we're losing. Being taken seriously on the world stage. The world used to just be laughing at us, but it's even worse now because they are reduced to pitying us.

Conclusion

America needs leadership in times of crisis. We are not getting it now -- not even close. We are instead getting petulance and indifference and lots and lots and lots of outright lies. Trump lies about things both great and small. He lies about current things and history. He could learn the actual facts in an instant, by calling any number of experts up to get his story straight. He doesn't bother to do so because he is incapable of correctly learning new facts. On Fox News this week, he was asked about the last major pandemic, the Spanish Flu of 100 years ago. This is how he responded:

Excuse me, just one second. You can't compare this to 1918, where close to 100 million people died. That was a flu -- it's a little different -- but that was a flu where if you got it, you had a 50/50 chance or very close of dying.

That's not even close. Estimates vary (record-keeping was rudimentary back then), but they range from a 2.5 percent death rate to perhaps 10 percent from the Spanish Flu. To put it another way, that is between a 1-in-40 chance of dying and a 1-in-10 chance of dying. Neither one is anywhere near "50/50." This is a basic fact that anyone can discover in about five seconds spent online, but even though Trump is surrounded by medical experts, he hasn't bothered to either listen or retain the truth. This is but one small example of his callous indifference to reality, but it is pretty representative of his entire approach.

And, of course, the rest of his team takes their cues from the boss. Steve Mnuchin responded to the news that at least 3.3 million workers filed for unemployment last week by brushing it off: "I just think these numbers right now are not relevant, and you know, whether they're bigger or smaller in the short term." Not relevant. Got it. This is so far away from "I feel your pain" as to not even be in the same moral universe.

Trump doesn't feel anyone's pain but his own, period. He's now pushing to get the whole country open again in time for Easter, because as a showman he can't resist the imagery (of "packed churches" as he put it). He doesn't really care if this means that tens of thousands more people get sick, or thousands more die. And the rest of the Republican Party just rolls right along, insisting that grandma and grandpa should just make the sacrifice of possible death in order to get the stock market ticking up again. This, from the political party that makes such a honkin' big deal about how deeply they care about "the sanctity of life," mind you.

However, luckily not everyone is a GOP toady willing to sacrifice anything -- or anyone -- just to improve Trump's chances of being re-elected. Trump is not showing leadership at all during this crisis -- he's doing whatever the opposite could be called. In direct response to Trump's irresponsible call for everyone to get the economy moving again, a whopping 800,000 doctors just signed a letter begging him not to prematurely end the social distancing.

And, as they used to say in advertisements, 800,000 doctors can't be wrong.

Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com
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March 21, 2020

Friday Talking Points -- 19,382 And Counting

The big political news this week was that former Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in federal prison for using money from his campaign to pay for all sorts of personal items. Oh, and also that one of the few remaining anti-abortion Democrats, Dan Lipinski of Illinois, was successfully primaried by a progressive candidate this week. Lipinski was also previously against both Obamacare and gay marriage, so this will be a real ideological changing of the guard.

We're kidding, of course. Neither of these stories -- which, in normal times would have been covered extensively by the media -- even caused a blip on the radar this week. Because the nation is gripped in the midst of a viral pandemic and we've got the Keystone Kops running the response. Which, admittedly, is a much bigger story to focus on.

A quick review of where we stand is in order. Less than a month ago, on February 24, President Trump tweeted: "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.... Stock market starting to look very good to me." Two days later, during a press conference, Trump exuded optimism once again: "And again, when you have 15 people [in the country infected with COVID-19], and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done." Got that? "Within a couple of days" the number of infected people would get "down close to zero." OK, less than a month later, let's check the numbers, shall we?

As of this writing, that number is -- surprise! -- nowhere near zero. In fact, it currently stands at 19,382. By the time you read this, it will be higher -- much higher (when we began writing this article, it stood at 18,755). And it's probably far from accurate, since not everyone who is sick and should be tested is currently being tested. The administration cannot now even predict the date when enough testing will be available to achieve this rather fundamental goal. Until then, those numbers should be seen as a mere fraction of the reality. And that number just climbed by 5,000 people in a single day, as more and more testing is being performed.

The American Clinical Laboratory Association, representing commercial testing labs, said that as of Wednesday night its members had completed "approximately 43,000 tests to date." Three weeks ago, the Trump administration was promising that "one million," or "a-million-and-a-half," or sometimes even "four million" tests would be available "by the end of the week." We were told this over and over again. Week's end would arrive and the goal (quite obviously) had still not been met. So they started making even higher promises for "the next week." That was two and three weeks ago, and we're still under 50,000 tests performed. Here is some of what the state-level people are now saying about the current situation:

"I watch a news conference and they tell us we have testing capacity, but I am telling you we don't have testing capacity. It is not out there yet," said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during a Wednesday news conference. His state has a current backlog of 1,700 samples waiting to be processed.

. . .

Trump on Thursday insisted that governors have all they need, telling reporters he was hearing "very good things on the ground."

"I can tell you what we're doing is working with local governors to get them what they want," Trump said.

But the president's words don't match reality, state and local officials say.

"We're the boots on the ground. We know what's available," said Kris Ehresmann, infectious disease division director for the Minnesota Health Department. "Some of the commercial labs do not have the materials they need."

That's left states to impose strict criteria on who can be tested, frustrating people across the country who are showing symptoms, worried but were told to wait and see if their cases worsen. In several states, only those who are hospitalized or at high risk, including those with underlying conditions, can be tested.

. . .

Rob Davidson, an emergency room physician in Michigan and the executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare, said the lack of testing combined with a critical need for manpower leaves patients at risk. Doctors are being told to keep working until they have a fever, even if they are exposed to a patient with the virus. They are being told to use one mask per shift unless it becomes soiled. But because of the lack of testing, there is no way to know whether a doctor contracts the virus until it's too late.

"For God's sake, just get us more tests," he said.

Trump is deaf to their pleas, however. In fact, he's deaf to anyone who isn't offering up fulsome praise to him, as evidenced by his tantrum today when asked a perfectly legitimate question by NBC reporter Peter Alexander. Worth noting: an NBC News colleague of Alexander died today of the coronavirus. When Alexander tried to ask why Trump's spokesmen are disagreeing with his rather rosy assessment of the possibilities of a drug for treatment, Trump responded:

"Well," Trump said, "you know I think we only disagree a little bit. I disagree. Maybe and maybe not. Maybe there is; maybe there isn't. We have to see."

Alexander countered: "Is it possible that your impulse to put a positive spin on things, may be giving Americans a false sense of hope?"

"No, I don't think so," Trump said.

Alexander noted it was not yet an approved drug.

"Such a lovely question," Trump shot back. He tried to say he agreed with [Dr. Anthony] Fauci -- despite what he had said just a moment before -- but then again offered a more optimistic tone than the doctor has about the drug.

"I feel good about it. That's all it is -- just a feeling. [I'm a] smart guy," Trump said, adding: "We have nothing to lose. You know the expression: What the hell do you have to lose?"

Alexander responded with what might seem like an innocuous question: "What you said Americans were scared, though? Nearly 200 dead. Fourteen thousand are sick. Millions, as you witness, who are scared right now. What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?"

"I say that you're a terrible reporter; that's what I say," Trump said. "I think it's a very nasty question. And I think it's a very bad signal that you're putting out to the American people. The American people are looking for answers, and they're looking for hope. And you're doing sensationalism."

He added: "Let me just say something: That's really bad reporting. And you want to get back to reporting instead of sensationalism. Let's see if it works. It might and it might not. I happen to feel good about it, but who knows? I've been right a lot."

But here's the thing: Alexander rightly noted that Trump was saying something that medical experts like Fauci have strained to avoid -- that this drug could be the kind of "game-changer" Trump actually volunteered that he disagreed with that and said it might be. There is a real difference in what they are saying, and it's completely fair for a reporter to ask Trump to account for that.

For the most part, though, Trump remains cheerfully oblivious. From his recent statements: "I don't take responsibility at all. We're doing a great job." When asked if the buck stopped with him and how he'd rate his response on a scale of 1 to 10, Trump answered (because of course he did): "I'd rate it a 10." He also said that the buck "normally" stopped with him, "but this has never been done in this country." So maybe the buck stops with Trump unless there's an emergency, when the buck can just get the heck out of the Oval Office entirely?

On the same day Trump gave himself a perfect score for dealing with the crisis, the stock market sent him a gigantic vote of no confidence in the form of the biggest one-day drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average's history, losing almost exactly 3,000 points.

We have to admit we've lost count of how many times the "circuit breaker" provision has kicked in over the past few weeks in the stock market, which temporarily halts trading when the market is down 7 percent in one day. Four? Five? Previous to this crisis, it had happened exactly once, over 20 years ago. It didn't even happen during the slide which began the Great Recession. The day Trump gave himself a perfect score, it almost hit the second threshold of a 13 percent drop, which would have halted trading for the day. The Dow dropped 12.9 points.

The stock market has posted multiple new records for "largest point drop in history" over the past few weeks, only to see these records fall when they hit an even worse trading day. We can't even give this market crash a day-themed name (like "Black Monday" ) since it isn't just one day, it is ongoing. Black March? March Madness? We have now moved beyond even week-based themes to having to use the whole month. That's how bad it's been on Wall Street, with no end in sight (the market dropped almost another thousand points today). All gains made during Trump's tenure in office have now officially been wiped out, meaning he won't be asking audiences how "their 401K" is doing quite so much any more.

Of course, the lucky ones got out of the market before the crash. Or maybe "lucky" isn't the best word to use, since it has now been revealed that several senators moved very early on to sell off millions in stock holdings right before the market crashed. Coincidentally enough, these very same senators got classified briefings about the coronavirus right before they sold their stocks. Funny how that works, isn't it?

Well, no. Nothing about this is funny, really. It's no laughing matter. While Trump gives himself perfect marks and throws a tantrum worthy of a five-year-old when reporters ask questions based in reality (rather than the fantasyland which exists only in Trump's head), people are dying out there. Hundreds of them. Soon to be thousands, if not tens of thousands.

Anyone tired of "all the winning" yet? November can't come fast enough.

We actually called for this earlier in the week, and we're pleased to see almost immediate action from three Democratic senators (two of whom have been pushing the idea for quite some time).

This week, Senators Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley, and Amy Klobuchar introduced a bill which would expand in-person and no-excuse absentee voting by mail to all 50 states. This could become a critical requirement if we're still fighting the coronavirus in November. The faith of the public in the American election system is what is at stake here, which is no small thing.

In fact, as we suggested in our article a few days ago, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer really need to demand this -- for the 2020 election, on an emergency basis -- as a piece of the next must-pass coronavirus bailout bill. We need to get started on this right now, to provide enough lead time for the states to get ready for it. Oregon -- the state Wyden and Merkley hail from -- already runs its entire election as vote-by-mail. And they have seen record turnout for their elections as a direct result (63 percent of eligible voters in Oregon voted in 2018 -- and that was only during a midterm election).

This is a public health emergency, and we have to prepare our elections to be able to cope with it. As Wyden put it:

If Ohio, Louisiana, Georgia, Maryland and Kentucky had vote by mail on the books years ago, they wouldn't have had to cancel their elections. It will give us the highest chance of avoiding delayed elections and ensuring Americans can exercise their Constitutional rights. No one should have to put their health at risk to vote.... Now is the time to bring this practice to the national stage so we can ensure that even during this crisis, the American people can safely exercise their sacred right to vote.

He's right. But it needs to happen now, not later. The states who will have to expand their mail-in voting dramatically are going to need all the time they can get in order to successfully get up and running by November. So Pelosi and Schumer need to start demanding this as the price for Democratic votes on the next must-pass bill.

For pushing the issue at precisely the right time with a piece of legislation, Senators Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley, and Amy Klobuchar are the winners of this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award.

[Congratulate Senator Amy Klobuchar on her Senate contact page, Senator Jeff Merkley on his Senate contact page, and Senator Ron Wyden on his Senate contact page, to let them know you appreciate their efforts. And, even more important perhaps, please don't hesitate to contact your own congressional representatives and demand they get on board with this effort right now.]

This may be somewhat premature, but it certainly looks pretty bad already. So far, Senator Richard Burr has been the poster child of "using inside information to cash in before the markets crash," but three other fast-moving senators (as of this writing) have also been identified. Two are Republicans, just like Barr.

But one isn't. Senator Dianne Feinstein, whose husband has made quite a lot of money in China over the course of his career, sold between $1.5 million and $6 million in stocks right before the markets crashed. Her office, when asked about this, stated that all of her assets were "in a blind trust," but they also admitted that there was a rather large loophole: "She has no involvement in her husband's financial decisions."

So it all must have been a huge coincidence.

Maybe she's right, but we've known DiFi for too long to just take her at her word (full disclosure: DiFi represents us in the Senate, as we live in California, so we know her quite well). This gives off -- at the very least -- the appearance of insider trading and using confidential information given in the Senate to lock in a profit before everyone else is affected, which is (to put it mildly) not the best look for a politician to have right now. Or ever, for that matter.

Which is why she's the obvious choice this week for Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week. Because you just know that every time a Democrat brings up Richard Burr in the next few days, Republicans will immediately counter with: "Yeah, but what about Feinstein?" And, sadly, they'll have a point.

[Contact Senator Dianne Feinstein on her Senate contact page, to let her know what you think of her actions.]

Volume 566 (3/20/20)

The only question that we have is what label historians will put on the epic failures of Donald Trump and his administration to handle a real crisis. Will they call it "Trump's Katrina" or maybe "Trump's Chernobyl" or even "Trump's 9/11"? At this point, none of those labels seems in any way an overstatement.

Starting to look pretty good right now

Too, too funny.

"Y'know, it wasn't that long ago that Trump's devoted followers were ridiculing some of the Democratic presidential candidates for 'promising free stuff from the government' and sneering at how Americans would never warm up to 'socialism.' But I seriously doubt that many of them will be complaining about 'free stuff' when they get a fat check from the federal government in a few weeks, will they? Call it the vindication of Andrew Yang. Because all those MAGA-hat-wearers are now beginning to think that 'free stuff from the government' is starting to look pretty good right about now."

Nothing to see here... move along...

Remember Baghdad Bob? That guy who told Iraqis that Saddam Hussein was winning the war against America?

"Of course, there have been plenty of folks over on the right who have treated the whole crisis as some sort of made-up scheme by the Democrats and the media to 'make Trump look bad,' which kind of ignores the fact that the stock market isn't exactly a hotbed of liberal orthodoxy, but whatever. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said last Sunday that he certainly didn't expect the economy to slip into recession. Larry Kudlow was even more optimistic. Donald Trump himself even said:

We're not thinking in terms of recession. We are thinking in terms of the virus. I think there is a tremendous pent-up demand, both in terms of the stock market and in terms of the economy. And once this goes away, once it goes through and we are done with it, I think you're going to see a tremendous surge.

Beyond the obviously false happy-talk from the White House, though, everyone else is seeing a quite different reality. Here's Trump's own former chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, Kevin Hassett: 'I think that the odds of a global recession are close to 100 percent right now. I think in the U.S., we're going to have a very terrible second quarter.' He also went on to predict: 'We think the jobs number in early April might be as much as minus a million or so because nobody is going to be hired next week.' So, who are you going to believe, all the happy talk from the White House or the consensus of every single economist who doesn't currently work for Donald Trump?"

Chaos everywhere you look

As usual, chaos is king in the Trump White House.

"I've lost count of how many people have now been named the Coronavirus Czar. First it was the doctors at the C.D.C., or maybe it was the N.I.H.? Then it was Mike Pence, who was supposed to be the point man. Then all of a sudden the surgeon general started appearing on television as the administration spokesman. Then we all learned that Jared Kushner was on top of things -- which, I have to say, is not a very comforting thought at all. Then a new doctor was shoved in front of the television cameras -- I've forgotten her name, because she is just the last in a very long line of people who were supposed to be responsible for the White House's efforts to combat the pandemic. Nobody now even knows who is supposed to have the answers to basic questions like when testing will be available to all patients who are either sick or think they might be sick. Nobody knows, and all they do is keep passing the buck to each other. Nobody knows if we'll have enough masks or respirators. Nobody can even answer why the response has been so chaotic, and so woefully inadequate. Oh, and by the way, I'm still waiting for that website Trump promised a full week ago to become available -- but, once again, nobody's even got an answer as to when that's going to happen. There's more organization in a Jackson Pollock painting than in the White House's response to this emergency."

It snuck up on you, pal

Trump, as usual, is trying to gaslight his way out of any possible blame.

"Donald Trump apparently was shocked that even Fox News started taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously this week, and immediately changed his tune to begin lying about what he's been saying for the past few weeks. He tried to tell the country that he had 'always known' it was a pandemic and even 'felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.' He also said the virus 'snuck up' on everyone. Of course, both of these were bald-faced lies, which many took to Twitter to point out. Best response: 'A stampede of elephants covered in bells and sh*tting bottle rockets could sneak up on him.' I guess Trump forgot that his immediate reaction to the pandemic was to tell his supporters it was a 'hoax' dreamed up by the Democrats."

Trump lies and lies and lies

Like a rug.

"Donald Trump has been lying about the crisis the country faces from the very beginning. He has piled one lie on top of another. Instead of being honest with the American people about the threat we all face, he has lied to us and told everyone that the virus is going to magically go away in a few weeks, quote like a miracle, unquote. Where are the millions of tests he promised weeks ago? They still don't exist, leaving doctors to refuse to test sick patients because they have to ration the tests they do have for the sickest patients. Remember when Trump lied that 'everyone who wants to get tested can get tested'? That was quite a while ago, wasn't it? And not only is it still not true, the Trump administration is now sheepishly admitting that they cannot even predict when it will become true. Remember the website that was supposed to be up and running by now? It's not. Trump lied that 1,700 people at Google were feverishly working on it. They weren't. He has said that basic safety equipment would be available to all states. It isn't. Remember when he said to buy stocks? The market's down almost 10,000 points since then. Remember when he promised that all coronavirus treatment would be fully covered by insurance companies? This still isn't true. Remember when he said he was shutting down the borders to trade goods from Europe? Even he had to admit that was false. Remember when he swore up and down that he had the virus 'under control'? Nothing could be further from the truth. Remember when Trump said the number of coronavirus cases in the country would -- within a few days -- be at zero? That number is now over 19,000 and climbing by more than 5,000 new patients per day. The only thing you can trust about Trump's response to the crisis is the fact that pretty much every time he opens his mouth, he lies about it."

Shhh! Don't tell the market!

Looks like the numbers are going to be pretty bad, folks.

"Donald Trump likes to boast of his administration's 'radical transparency,' but like much else he says, this is nothing short of a lie. The White House has already banned all executive administration officials from testifying to Congress about their coronavirus response for the rest of the month, and now it appears they are telling states not to release any unemployment numbers so they don't 'spook the markets.' The Labor Department just sent out an email asking states to only speak in, quote, generalities, unquote, and to use terms like 'very high' or 'large increase' for now. The administrator of the Office of Employment Insurance was more direct: 'States should not provide numeric values to the public.' Those numbers are, quite obviously, going to be horrendously bad. For three years, Trump has been bragging about the low unemployment rate, but it looks like this is another bit of bragging Trump won't be doing in the future."

Lookin' out for number one

Hoo boy. Bet this story starts getting repeated.

"Senator Richard Burr apparently got briefed about the seriousness of the coronavirus and immediately pulled millions of dollars out of the stock market as a direct result. That's bad enough and people are already expressing their disgust on Twitter, but this isn't the first time Burr has been looking out for himself in a time of financial crisis. Back in 2008, in the midst of the financial meltdown, Burr warned the public not to panic:

Today's news of Citigroup's acquisition of Wachovia might be unsettling to many in North Carolina. While these are difficult times in our economy, it is important to remember that this move provides for the protection of accounts and the soundness of savings for Wachovia's customers. FDIC has said that all services for customers should continue uninterrupted.

But he told his wife something very different, according to his own admission the year afterwards:

On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, "Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine [sic], and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take. And I want you to go tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday."

Words fail me to describe the sleaziness of Senator Barr. But I bet his constituents have quite a bit to say about his propensity to cash in during a crisis."

Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com
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March 14, 2020

Friday Talking Points -- The Weird Turn Pro

{Program Note for DemocraticUnderground.com readers:
This is a weekly roundup column of what is going on in the political world. For the duration of the 2020 campaign, I've been instructed to post it under the "Democratic Primaries" category rather than the "General Discussion" category, whenever the primary race is discussed. This discussion may be a large part of the column, or a very small part. Just wanted to clarify this up front, to avoid any objections that most of the post is "off topic."}

In a surreal bit of coincidence this week, America saw a simultaneous broadcast of President Trump stumbling and lying his way through a primetime Oval Office address, while on another channel former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin danced around in a frilly pink bear costume while rapping "Baby Got Back," which contains the memorable line: "I like big butts and I cannot lie...." Signs of the impending apocalypse? You be the judge. What flashed through our mind was the old quote from Hunter S. Thompson: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Or, as we might put it (with a fake Sarah Palin accent): "How's that 'stable genius' stuff workin' out for ya now?"

Yes, that's the type of week it was. The stock market went completely crazy, with wild swings up and down that mostly added up to it sinking like a rock. Before this week, trading had only ever been halted by the "circuit breaker" now built in to it (which is only triggered if the market loses seven percent or more in a single day) once previously, back in the 1990s. This week, it happened again -- twice. The market dropped by more points in one day than it ever had before, and then a few days later it blew through that record and dropped over 2,300 points. That was immediately after Trump addressed the nation (and Palin gyrated on stage).

So, America, the question now is: can we take much more of this Trumpian "winning"? Donald Trump keeps flailing about in an effort to make the coronavirus go away, but the problem is that you can't just insult it on Twitter or make up lies about it and everyone's going to forget about it. That's not going to work, as we've already seen.

Trump, of course, is only concerned with how this affects Trump. He is setting the worst possible example, since he's now been in contact with at least two people who later tested positive and yet Trump not only refuses to self-quarantine, he gave a press conference today where he made a point of shaking everyone's hand as they came up to the podium. One executive tried to get him to "bump elbows" instead, but that was after Trump had already shaken the guy's hand once. Trump has also refused to be tested for the coronavirus so far, and didn't exactly instill confidence when asked about it directly. There were lots of doctors in the White House, he responded, and he'd probably get tested at some unspecified future point once they worked it all into the scheduling. In other words: the most powerful person in the country, with a full staff of multiple doctors tasked only with monitoring the president's health cannot get tested right away. That sure sends a message to everyone else, who doesn't have a full medical staff at their beck and call, on how long it'll likely be before they'll be able to get tested.

But it's not just tone-deafness, it's out-and-out lies coming from Trump. Wednesday, while reading a speech off a TelePrompTer -- not ad-libbing in any way -- Trump said the following, to explain his new travel ban on Europe (except for the two countries where he owns golf courses, of course):

To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days. The new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight. These restrictions will be adjusted subject to conditions on the ground. There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings and these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things as we get approval. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing.

As Salon snidely put it: "The White House said the president 'misspoke' when he read the prepared statement from his TelePrompTer verbatim." Trump later had to walk this back himself, on Twitter:

Please remember, very important for all countries & businesses to know that trade will in no way be affected by the 30-day restriction on travel from Europe. The restriction stops people not goods.

No wonder Wall Street panicked. Trump obviously doesn't have a clue about what to do next or even what he's attempting to do right now. Trump also promised: "Earlier this week I met with the leaders of health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments and to prevent surprise medical billing." This was also a lie. The insurance companies quickly pointed out that they had agreed to cover coronavirus testing, but not actual treatment. As Bernie Sanders has been pointing out for quite a while now, health insurance that doesn't cover the cost of being treated for a pandemic is completely worthless. Medicare For All isn't sounding like such a bad idea anymore, to put it bluntly.

During today's press conference, Trump also simultaneously tried to blame the Obama administration for Trump's poor response to date (spoiler: Trump is laughably wrong about this), while expressing astonishment that the Trump administration had eliminated a White House position for someone to prepare for pandemics, way back in 2018. Trump, of course, had nothing to do with it, according to Trump, and this was apparently the first he had heard of it. That shows how hopelessly out of touch Trump is on the subject of preparedness, obviously.

To date, the response to the coronavirus crisis has been haphazard, at best. Since there has been zero leadership from the White House, private entities have been the ones making the tough decisions. One professional sports league after another has announced cancellations of events, games, and even whole seasons. The entertainment industry is also shuttering its doors, one by one. Broadway went dark. Theme parks are closing. Movies delay their releases. Shows are no longer taped "before a live audience." Again, since the federal government is providing absolutely no guidance, state and local governments have stepped in to announce bans on gatherings of crowds and cancellation of school terms. But again, this has all been rather random, since nobody is at the helm of the response efforts. The vacuum of leadership becomes more obvious each and every day.

Throughout the whole crisis, the one constant is that the entire federal government's medical apparatus seems to have learned one valuable lesson: always stroke Trump's ego as much as possible -- fit it into every other sentence, if you can. The fawning praise heaped upon Trump by people who really should know better smacks of a North Korean-style cult of personality more than anything else. The Dear Leader can't possibly be wrong about anything, even when he is. When in doubt, praise his "tremendous leadership," just for good measure. And, of course, shake his hand when he offers it, even though he's had contact with two infected people in the last few days.

Of course, the GOP being the GOP, Trump's not the only one out there spouting nonsense. Matt Bevin, who was recently got kicked out of the governor's office by the good people of Kentucky, tweeted:

BREAKING NEWS:

Chicken Little has just confirmed that the sky IS indeed falling...

Everyone is advised to take cover immediately and to bring lots of toilet paper with them when they do so...

The Kentucky Democratic Party tweeted right back at him:

Area unemployed man logs on to Twitter.

There's also a new blame game coming from the top down as well, and that is to use the label "the Chinese virus" or "the Wuhan virus." In Trump's primetime speech he called it a "foreign virus." We have no idea why they're even attempting to do this, unless it just feeds into the rampant xenophobia Trump loves to stir up. Today, we saw two headlines right next to each other on Politico -- "Trump Aides Pound On China. Health Experts Say: Please Stop." and "Chinese Businessman To Donate 500,000 Test Kits And 1 Million Masks To The U.S." In other words, while Trump is desperately trying to put all possible blame on China, one of their citizens is doing more for the American public than the president of the United States has yet managed to do. The going is definitely getting weird, folks.

One other story that hasn't gotten much attention yet is downright bizarre. From Reuters came the following jaw-dropper:

The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government's response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials.

The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus.

Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said.

"We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go," one official said. "These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary."

The sources said the National Security Council (NSC), which advises the president on security issues, ordered the classification. "This came directly from the White House," one official said.

So much for transparency. Trump probably classified these meetings so America wouldn't have to learn how woefully unprepared he was for this crisis, and how Trump and his gang of merry men and women absolutely squandered weeks and weeks and are only now even beginning to ramp up the response we really should have seen from the very start. But America can take solace from the fact that Sarah Palin now knows all the words to "Baby Got Back," we suppose. The weird have indeed turned pro.

You may have never heard her name before, and you may have missed this in the news, but one Democratic member of the House of Representatives more than earned her salary this week. She accomplished an amazing feat, which was summed up in a headline from the Arizona Republic: "How Rep. Katie Porter, at a coronavirus hearing, may have saved your life." George Takei weighed in, too, on Twitter: "Katie Porter is the hero we need. She is astonishing here."

So what did she do that was so astonishing? Here's how the Washington Post reported it (apologies for the length of the excerpt, but it really is worth reading in full):

Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) did the math.

Like a host of The Price Is Right, Porter asked a Department of Health and Human Services official to guess what it would cost for an uninsured American to receive a coronavirus test, itemizing everything from the initial flu test to the expensive emergency room visit. She tallied up the total cost on a whiteboard: an estimated $1,331 out of pocket.

She turned to Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and quickly transformed her demeanor from an amiable game-show host into a formidable principal doling out discipline.

"Doctor Redfield," she asked, "do you want to know who has the coronavirus and who doesn't? Not just rich people, but everybody who might have the virus?"

It was the beginning of a relentless line of questioning from Porter that, in just five minutes, would pry a promise out of Redfield to ensure that coronavirus testing would be free for all Americans. The stunning exchange between the doctor and lawmaker, during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing, led many to credit Porter with potentially saving lives amid the federal government's uneven response to the pandemic, calling her "brilliant" and a "hero."

"How many lives did Katie Porter save today using a whiteboard, a bull---- detector, and an ability to retain focus?" television producer Hart Hanson wrote on Twitter, linking to a video of Porter's questioning that has since been viewed nearly 20 million times.

. . .

Porter was additionally worried about a financial barrier: that uninsured or underinsured Americans would forgo seeking testing out of fear of the medical costs.

In five minutes, Porter sought to dismantle that barrier altogether.

She began grilling Redfield by pointing to a federal statute that gives the CDC director the power to "authorize payment for the care and treatment of patients subject to medical examination, quarantine, isolation, and conditional release." The existing statute, Porter argued, meant that the federal government should be able to pay for everyone's coronavirus tests without needing any new legislation.

"Doctor Redfield, will you commit the CDC right now to using that existing authority to pay for diagnostic testing free to every American, regardless of insurance?" she asked.

"Well," he replied, "I can say we're going to do everything to make sure everybody can get the care they -- "

Porter interrupted him: "Nope, not good enough. Reclaiming my time."

She asked him the same question again, this time more sternly, more impatiently.

"What I'm going to say is," Redfield responded, "I'm going to review it in detail with the CDC and the department."

"No," Porter shot back. And again: "I'm reclaiming my time."

At that point, Porter said she and two colleagues had already sent a letter to HHS seeking responses by Wednesday about how the agency planned to tackle insurance issues with coronavirus testing -- and the agency had already blown that deadline. Now, she said, he still wasn't giving an answer.

So she asked Redfield a third time: "Will you commit to invoking your existing authority under 42 CFR 71.30 to provide coronavirus testing for every American regardless of insurance coverage?"

"What I was trying to say," Redfield tried again, "is that CDC is working with HHS now to see how we operationalize that."

Disappointment flushed over Porter's face, as she said he hoped that response would "weigh heavily" on him.

"Doctor Redfield," she said, "you don't need to do any work to 'operationalize.' You need to make a commitment to the American people so they come in to get tested. You can operationalize the payment structure tomorrow."

And with that, the doctor waved a white flag.

"I think you're an excellent questioner," he said, "so my answer is yes."

"Excellent," Porter responded. "Everybody in America hear that? You are eligible to go get tested for coronavirus and have that covered regardless of insurance."

Now, this has not become reality quite yet, of course. But Porter forced a solemn promise from the federal government to pay for coronavirus testing for anyone regardless of whether they have insurance or not. And, as she later pointed out:

The CDC director made that commitment today under oath. He was sworn in at the start of that hearing, and my job as a Congress member is to ask those tough questions and to extract those promises. That was a promise he made to the American people, and I intend to hold him to it.

As we said, Representative Porter more than earned her salary this week, since this is the type of thing we should expect from our elected officials. If she does succeed in holding the government to this promise, she may save lives as a direct result. A lot of lives. That's pretty good for a five-minute question period, we have to admit.

For demanding an answer and refusing to traffic in gobbledygook, Representative Katie Porter was easily the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week. While Republicans are busy showering Trump with unearned praise for his "leadership," people like Porter are the ones who are actually forcing the issues that Trump and his Keystone Kops haven't gotten around to yet. For doing so, we heartily thank her for a job well done.

[Congratulate Representative Katie Porter on her House contact page, to let her know you appreciate her efforts.]

For the second Tuesday in a row, Bernie Sanders disappointed millions of his supporters by not doing nearly well enough in the primaries. Sanders lost Michigan to Joe Biden, which may be the beginning of the end of his campaign. He seems to realize this, and while he's sticking around at least until the next round of primaries next week (mostly so he gets to debate Joe Biden one-on-one), he knows the end is in sight for his chances of winning the Democratic nomination for president. Which, as we said, disappoints many Democrats out there.

Oh, that brings up a related matter, because the Northern Mariana Islands are voting tomorrow. So we'll just stick in our prediction here, but sadly for Sanders we are going to bet that Joe Biden wins this far-flung primary, too.

[Contact Senator Bernie Sanders on his Senate contact page, to let him know what you think of his actions.]

Volume 565 (3/13/20)

We are pre-empting our talking points this week in order to bring you a partial timeline of what President Trump has been saying about the coronavirus crisis over the past few months. This is only a partial list, cribbed from a much more extensive one which ran in the Washington Post this week. But it's representative of Trump's thinking, and it is really all any Democrat needs to create their own talking points to highlight Trump's head-in-the-sand thinking and growing desperation about "the numbers."

From the start, Trump begins patting himself on the back, which he continues to do with each and every statement. In his mind, instituting a travel ban from China completely solved the problem, and therefore we should all just stop talking about it. After we all praise his leadership, of course.

Trump is obsessed with the number of coronavirus cases in America and the number of deaths. Unfortunately for him, these numbers did not quickly go down "to zero," but continue to climb daily. As of this week, he's stopped talking about the number of cases altogether, because it is now in the thousands. Which he doesn't want to admit, of course, so he's now only counting deaths, since that number is a lot lower.

At one point, Trump devotes some happy talk to the stock market. The day he tweeted this, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 28,992. The next day it was down over 1,000 points, to 27,912. Yesterday, it closed at 21,200, after the worst one-day point drop in history.

To sum up (pun intended), the numbers are not good for Trump no matter how hard he tries to make them sound rosy. We wrote yesterday about the stark difference between all of Trump's happy talk and how a Democratic president would be responding right now. Because now that the crisis is upon us, we can all see for ourselves how woefully inadequate the current president is. In times of trouble, the only thing on his mind is making himself look good. That's it. That's his only real concern. Not the deaths, not the sickness, not the widespread disruption to the economy and society, but making sure everyone is patting him on the back sufficiently enough for his gargantuan ego. Don't believe me? Here is how our Dear Leader has reacted to this crisis from the beginning, in his own words:

Jan. 30:

"We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment -- five. And those people are all recuperating successfully. But we're working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it's going to have a very good ending for it. So that I can assure you."

Feb. 2:

"Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from China.... We can't have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem, the coronavirus. So we're gonna see what happens, but we did shut it down, yes."

Feb. 10:

"I think the virus is going to be -- it's going to be fine."

Feb. 14:

"We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it. It's like around 12. Many of them are getting better. Some are fully recovered already. So we're in very good shape."

Feb. 24:

"The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.... Stock Market starting to look very good to me!"

Feb. 25:

"You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country. We have very few people with it, and the people that have it are... getting better. They're all getting better.... As far as what we're doing with the new virus, I think that we're doing a great job."

Feb. 26:

"Because of all we've done, the risk to the American people remains very low.... When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. That's a pretty good job we've done."

Feb. 28:

"I think it's really going well. We did something very fortunate: we closed up to certain areas of the world very, very early -- far earlier than we were supposed to. I took a lot of heat for doing it. It turned out to be the right move, and we only have 15 people and they are getting better, and hopefully they're all better. There's one who is quite sick, but maybe he's gonna be fine."

Feb. 28:

"It's going to disappear. One day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear."

March 5:

"With approximately 100,000 CoronaVirus cases worldwide, and 3,280 deaths, the United States, because of quick action on closing our borders, has, as of now, only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!"

March 7:

"It came out of China, and we heard about it. And made a good move: We closed it down; we stopped it. Otherwise -- the head of CDC said last night that you would have thousands of more problems if we didn't shut it down very early. That was a very early shutdown, which is something we got right."

March 9:

"So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!"

March 10:

"As you know, it's about 600 cases, it's about 26 deaths, within our country. And had we not acted quickly, that number would have been substantially more."

March 12:

"It's going to go away.... The United States, because of what I did and what the administration did with China, we have 32 deaths at this point... when you look at the kind of numbers that you're seeing coming out of other countries, it's pretty amazing when you think of it."

For the record, there are now over 2,100 coronavirus cases in America, with 48 deaths. But by the time you read this, those numbers will likely be higher.

Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com
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March 7, 2020

Friday Talking Points -- Tennis, Anyone?

{Program Note for DemocraticUnderground.com readers:
This is a weekly roundup column of what is going on in the political world. For the duration of the 2020 campaign, I've been instructed to post it under the "Democratic Primaries" category rather than the "General Discussion" category, whenever the primary race is discussed. This discussion may be a large part of the column, or a very small part. Just wanted to clarify this up front, to avoid any objections that most of the post is "off topic."}

The stock market is crashing daily, a pandemic is sweeping America, a tornado in Tennessee just killed two dozen people, so of course First Lady Melania Trump decided to reassure the public with a message designed to calm people in these perilous times. The message? Don't worry, everyone -- the construction of the new White House tennis pavilion was still on track. No, seriously -- you just can't make this stuff up. She even donned a hard hat (in order to look fabulous) while making this tone-deaf announcement.

The internet's reaction, as usual, was not kind. Many referenced Marie Antoinette, either directly or indirectly. Perhaps the best response: "Let them lob serves." Just another week in Trump's America, folks.

Of course, as usual, there was a not-so-hidden backstory to this little vignette -- the new tennis pavilion will replace Barack Obama's basketball court. You just knew there had to be a petty and vindictive angle to all this, didn't you?

Tennis pavilions aside, the biggest story of the week by far was the progress of the coronavirus. Sober-minded doctors and scientists issued warnings to the public and helpful advice to follow, all of which was then immediately either directly contradicted or snidely pooh-poohed by President Trump himself. The president is very concerned about the coronavirus, but not the same way everyone else is. Trump is deeply worried about two things, and two things only: the stock market, and his own prospects for re-election. If someone told him that more coronavirus cases would boost either the market or his poll numbers, then he'd be out there urging everyone to get infected -- there is no doubt whatsoever about that. Nothing like a president who feels the public's pain, is there? The even sadder thing is that if Trump did issue an insane suggestion like this, his followers would likely line up for hours in order to get infected.

Meanwhile, the people whose job it is to keep the public safe from pandemics are in a bind. Here's how one of the most prominent of such voices, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, put it in a recent interview: "You should never destroy your own credibility. And you don't want to go to war with a president. But you got to walk the fine balance of making sure you continue to tell the truth." Just think about the implications of that statement for a moment: telling the truth and maintaining your own scientific credibility is walking a fine line that might just land you in a war with the president of the United States. Mind-boggling.

Here's the worst proof of this from the past week, in the form of a Trump phone-in interview with a friendly Fox News host. Trump was asked about the World Health Organization's estimate that the death rate from the coronavirus now stands at 3.4 percent and here's how our Dear Leader responded:

I think the 3.4 percent is really a false number. Now, and this is just my hunch, and -- but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this. Because a lot of people will have this and it's very mild. They'll get better very rapidly. They don't even see a doctor. They don't even call a doctor. You never hear about those people. So you can't put that down in the category in the overall population in terms of this corona flu or virus. So you just can't do that. So if, you know, we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, by sitting around and even going to work -- some of them go to work, but they get better. And then when you do have a death... all of a sudden it seems like three or four percent, which is a very high number, as opposed to... a fraction of one percent. But again, they don't -- they don't know about the easy cases because the easy cases don't go to the hospital. They don't report to doctors or the hospital in many cases. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number -- personally, I would say the number is way under one percent.

Now, it isn't all that surprising when conspiracy theories pop up during a crisis. During a pandemic, there will also be plenty of price-gouging and outright snake-oil salesmen peddling miracle cures (such as Jim Bakker is currently doing). But the American people generally want their president to be the one debunking such nonsense, not contributing to it.

The Washington Post pointed this out, in no uncertain terms:

As leading public health experts from across the government have tried to provide clear and consistent information about the deadly coronavirus, they have found their messages undercut, drowned out and muddled by President Trump's push to downplay the outbreak with a mix of optimism, bombast and pseudoscience.

Speaking almost daily to the public about an outbreak that has spread across states and rocked the markets, Trump has promoted his opinions and at times contradicted the public health experts tasked with keeping Americans safe.

The president has repeatedly misstated the number of Americans who have tested positive for the virus and claimed it would "miraculously" disappear in the spring. He has given a false timeline for the development of a vaccine, publicly questioned whether vaccinations for the flu could be used to treat the novel coronavirus and dismissed the World Health Organization's coronavirus death rate estimate, substituting a much lower figure and citing a "hunch."

. . .

The president's running commentary about the coronavirus, untethered to script or convention, indicates that the Trump administration's greatest obstacle to sending a clear message about the outbreak may be Trump himself.

And, of course, there is simply no problem too big to blame on Barack Obama. No, really -- you just knew this was coming, didn't you?

Trump has made several misleading claims that have forced government scientists and officials to navigate publicly contradicting a president who has placed a premium on loyalty.

On Wednesday, Trump said the Obama administration was responsible for the inability of the federal government to ensure widespread testing for potential coronavirus patients, an unsubstantiated claim that even his own administration officials could not back up.

"The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we're doing," Trump said during a briefing at the White House in which he boasted that he "undid" that decision.

The unsupported claim, made for the first time publicly by the president, put Trump administration officials in the uncomfortable position of responding to questions about its accuracy.

When asked about this by Congress, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar reportedly said (according to Nancy Pelosi): "nothing about the prior [administration's] policy had worsened our response, and nothing about any change in policy is going to dramatically improve our response." In other words, just another bald-faced lie from Trump.

Trump is even lying about the small stuff, because of course he is. He claimed that he hadn't "touched his face in weeks," which was immediately proven false by all those photos of him touching his face over the past few weeks, including him touching his own face during meetings about the coronavirus.

But not to worry, everyone. The White House tennis pavilion is still on schedule!

The other big political story of the week came from the Democratic presidential race, which reached a crescendo on Super Tuesday. Since our article last Friday, an astonishing number of developments have taken place: Joe Biden won a commanding victory in South Carolina, capturing almost half the vote. Pete Buttigieg immediately dropped out of the race, followed one day later by Amy Klobuchar, who also announced she was endorsing Biden. Pete then followed suit, and the two of them (together with Beto O'Rourke) appeared at a Texas Biden rally in support of Joe Biden.

The moderate lane got a lot clearer as a direct result. Joe Biden then romped through Super Tuesday, winning 10 out of 14 states, although Bernie Sanders did manage to chalk up the biggest win of the night, in California. The political media went through a U-turn of whiplash-inducing force, pivoting from: "Bernie is inevitable!" to quickly replace it with: "Biden is inevitable!" O fickle press....

Elizabeth Warren then dropped out of the race, and pointedly did not endorse anyone.

All of this, obviously, led to Joe Biden having the best week of his political life. His comeback was one for the ages, and will be oft-quoted by future presidential candidates who do poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire (that's our guess, at any rate). This political resurrection also earns Biden our very own Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award. This week, there really was no other choice.

Of course, the primaries aren't over and we've already seen several radical twists and turns, so while Biden does have a slight lead in the delegate count (something nobody foresaw), the race is nowhere near over. But no matter what happens in the end, Biden's very good week was indeed one for the history books.

[Joe Biden is technically a private citizen, and it is our standing policy not to link to campaign pages, so you'll have to search his contact information on your own if you'd like to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]

Before we get to our second big award, we have a (Dis-)Honorable Mention award to hand out, to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. An abortion rights case came before the Supreme Court this week, and it is very important because it is the first one they've heard since Justice Fratboy joined the court. Abortion rights in this country are what is at stake, because if the court rules that the new state law requiring admitting privileges for abortion doctors is upheld, it will put access to the procedure at risk for tens of millions of women. And so far, the signs look pretty bad.

So the pro-choice side held a rally in front of the court. Schumer spoke, which is to his credit, but what was not to his credit was when he went too far in speaking to the two newest justices, both nominated by Donald Trump. Schumer issued what many considered to be a threat, telling them they would "pay the price" if they voted to gut Roe v. Wade. He later tried to walk this back by saying he really meant Republican senators would pay a political price (for confirming Justice Fratboy in the first place), but if you listen to his initial remarks that obviously wasn't what he was saying. Even if you insert the word "political," it kind of makes it worse because then Schumer would have been threatening Supreme Court justices with political retribution -- which is exactly what the idea of an independent judiciary is supposed to prevent.

But once again we are going to interpret "most disappointing" as "having disappointed the most people." And while Bernie's poor showing on Super Tuesday -- losing states he was predicted to win such as Minnesota, Maine, Massachusetts, and Texas -- was indeed disappointing, it also came as a result of the voters themselves speaking. So while Bernie disappointed many; many others weren't disappointed, because Biden won.

Instead, we are going to award the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week to Elizabeth Warren. Not only did she disappoint millions of her own voters by not even placing second in her home state on Tuesday, she then disappointed them again by dropping out. But in doing so Warren also disappointed all the Bernie Sanders voters by withholding her endorsement.

There are rumors that Team Warren and Team Bernie are in talks to secure her endorsement, but then again there are rumors that Team Biden is also pursuing it. Warren, at this point, has only three choices: endorse Bernie, endorse Joe, or remain neutral until the winner is declared. Endorsing Joe is going to be a shock to a lot of her supporters, if it happens, because it will run counter to her entire reason for running -- "dream big and fight hard." Refusing to endorse will also be seen as pretty self-serving. But even delaying an endorsement of Bernie Sanders -- the Democratic candidate whose agenda is almost identical to her own -- would be seriously disappointing for every Democrat who favors a progressive platform.

The window for Warren to endorse Bernie is closing fast. If she doesn't do so by the next round of primaries next Tuesday, then her endorsement's value is going to go way down -- especially if Bernie doesn't win Michigan. To be really effective, in fact, Warren should endorse before the Sunday morning political talk shows air. Or perhaps during one of them -- that would certainly make a news splash in the best possible way.

But for the time being, Warren is our Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week, for playing the game of being coy. What happened to fighting hard for what you believe in, after all? The clock is ticking....

[Contact Senator Elizabeth Warren on her Senate contact page, to let her know what you think of her actions.]

Volume 564 (3/6/20)

For anyone thinking that that last section was a little too harsh, we're going to open the talking points with a quote Elizabeth Warren made while announcing the end of her presidential campaign. She was asked a "gotcha" question from the media, and she responded more brilliantly than I think I've ever heard any politician manage to do in such a situation. In one short statement, she pointed out the minefield nature of the question and how no matter what she said in response, it would then be misleadingly spun. In other words, she pointed out the rigged nature of the question in a way that made her look good while making the questioner look very bad. As I mentioned, this was a bit of political jiu-jitsu that should become just as memorable in the Warren legacy as the "she persisted" line has now become. It really was that good.

However, after that, we're just going to kick Trump around for the rest of the program. Because he so richly deserves it this week. To do so, we're sticking with a very simple theme, which works well for any Democrat right now, from supporters of Michael Bloomberg to supporters of Andrew Yang. Doesn't matter whether you're for Bernie or Joe, because it works equally well no matter who you imagine should sit in the Oval Office next. And because this theme is such a simple and easy one to use, we've kept them as short as possible this week, because really anything more is just icing on Marie Antoinette's cake.

Oh, we should also mention (by way of giving full credit for where this theme came from), that those of you old enough to remember the old Beach Boys song can sing the refrains in your own head.

The no-win nature of the question

As promised, though, our first talking point is from Elizabeth Warren. When asked the question of whether sexism played a part in why her campaign hadn't been more successful, Warren absolutely nailed her answer:

Gender in this race, you know, that is the trap question for every woman. If you say: "Yeah, there was sexism in this race," everyone says: "Whiner!" And if you say: "No, there was no sexism," about a bazillion women think: "What planet do you live on?"

Wouldn't it be nice?

Of course, the Beach Boys song was really just a randy teenage boy wondering how nice it would be to have sex with his girlfriend every night (after they were married, of course), but that doesn't stop it from being a powerful refrain that can be used in purely political ways.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could all believe what our president says once again?"

Remember when?

Yeah, it would be nice, wouldn't it?

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could all trust the president to do the right thing for the American people no matter what it meant for him politically? Those days are obviously gone."

It wasn't that long ago

And again...

"Wouldn't it be nice if we all knew the president of the United States spent a lot of time studying complex problems in great detail and was briefed extensively and minutely by his own experts so that he could gain sufficient knowledge about the problem to know what the correct next course of action should be? Remember that? It wasn't that long ago, after all."

Even the worst presidents were better than this

Well, except for that whole "weapons of mass destruction" thing, we suppose....

"Wouldn't it be nice if scientists could tell the truth without worrying about political retribution from the petulant man-baby that is their boss? Remember when the truth was the truth, and nobody know what the phrase 'alternative facts' meant?"

Hurricane-force petulance

Can't forget this one, of course.

"Wouldn't it be nice to have a president whose immediate response to being contradicted by scientific fact was to admit he was mistaken rather than pick up a Sharpie and try to alter reality? I remember when the White House was corrected by scientific experts, instead of the White House forcing scientific experts to lie -- in order to back up the president's claims that of course everyone could see his new invisible clothes."

Tennis, anyone?

And we'd like to end where we began.

"Wouldn't it be nice to once again have a first lady with at least a tiny shred of human empathy? One who wouldn't go visit disaster victims wearing a coat proclaiming to the world how little she cared? One who might have the slightest perception that her own husband was the biggest online bully in the entire world when she launched an anti-bullying campaign? Or maybe just one who didn't resemble Marie Antoinette quite so much? I mean, really, to ask: "Tennis, anyone?" while people are dying of a pandemic certainly reaches the "let them eat cake" level, wouldn't you say?"

Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com
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