The latest news out of the White House is incomprehensibly dire. Politico is reporting that Donald Trump is “reluctant” to give the COVID-19 pandemic an emergency designation, which would provide emergency funding to states and allow a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) response in affected areas, because Trump believes calling it an “emergency” would go against his prior insistence that the coronavirus outbreak was no worse than the yearly flu.
He doesn’t want to declare the emergency, said a “Republican who speaks to Trump,” because it “contradicts his message.” Worse, still, is this news: The coronavirus task force now led by Vice President Mike Pence will be holding off on its own recommendation on whether to declare a national emergency. The reason? They’re waiting on Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
According to a person “familiar” with the situation, the task force “will not give Trump its final verdict until Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and husband to his daughter Ivanka, finishes his research and comes to a conclusion himself,” Politico reports. Continue reading.