Tag: Trump botched COVID-19 response killed over 210000 Americans

5 big questions on the White House’s botched handling of Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis

Washington Post logo

On Saturday, White House physician Sean Conley stepped forward ostensibly to provide some clarity on the condition of the coronavirus-stricken President Trump. As with the doctors who came before him, though, what we have gotten from him over the past 24 hours is decidedly not that.

Conley’s comments Saturday and at a follow-up briefing Sunday have combined with other conflicting signals to yet again provide a hazy and misleading picture of the president’s health. But unlike his predecessors, this time we get it at a particularly precarious juncture in his presidency, when it’s literally a matter of national security.

As with previous flaps over Trump’s health, there is clearly tension between projecting the kind of strength he likes to see and providing actual, sober-minded details — a tension that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows seemed to acknowledge in his own updates on Trump’s situation. Continue reading.

Trump claims that he had no choice but to risk his own health. Americans disagree.

Washington Post logo

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani called his old friends at the New York Post to pass along a message from his most prominent legal client, President Trump.

“I am the president of the United States. I can’t lock myself in a room,” Trump told the world through his lawyer Saturday. “I had to confront [the virus] so the American people stopped being afraid of it so we could deal with it responsibly.”

In a video message published on his personal Twitter account a few hours later, Trump offered a similar sentiment. Continue reading.

HHS Secretary Azar says public health protocols don’t apply to president’s inner circle

AlterNet logo

Democratic lawmakers were incredulous after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Friday testified following President Donald Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis that the Trump family can’t be expected to take the precautions that public health experts recommend, while also claiming the spread of the coronavirus to more than 7.3 million Americans is a matter of “individual responsibility.”

Testifying before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis as Trump reportedly began developing Covid-19 symptoms, Azar told Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) that the president’s family did not wear masks at the first presidential debate last Tuesday because “the first family and the protective aspect around the president is a different situation than the rest of us.”

Despite the fact that at least two members of the Trump family are now ill, Azar suggested the family is in “a protective bubble.” Continue reading.

Trump says he’s leaving Walter Reed Monday evening

The Hill logo

President Trump announced that he will be discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Monday evening after three days of treatment, insisting that Americans should not be “afraid” of the novel coronavirus.

Trump, whose oxygen levels dropped as recently as Saturday and who is on several medications following his COVID-19 diagnosis, tweeted that he is “feeling really good” and said that Americans should not allow COVID-19 to “dominate your life,” downplaying a virus that has killed over 210,000 people in the country. He said that he feels better than he did 20 years ago following his treatment at the military hospital in Bethesda, Md. 

“I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good!” Trump tweeted. “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!” Continue reading.