Tag: Trump lies

Trump coronavirus effort undermined by mixed messages and falsehoods

Washington Post logoWhen Anthony Fauci, clad in a white lab coat, invited an “NBC Nightly News” correspondent into his offices this week and described the coronavirus as an “outbreak” that was reaching “likely pandemic proportions,” the immunologist was acting as he long has during public health crises: delivering a fact-based warning to the public.

But at the White House, the more politically minded officials overseeing the administration’s response were irritated that Fauci — the veteran director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — had used the word “pandemic” without giving anyone on Vice President Pence’s staff a heads-up, according to two people familiar with the situation.

One week after Trump returned home from India to confront an unfolding health crisis and tasked Pence with managing the government-wide response, the effort has been undermined by mixed messages, contradictions and falsehoods — many of them emanating from the president himself, including this week when he repeatedly spread false information about just how soon a coronavirus vaccine would be available. Continue reading.

Pence Will Control All Coronavirus Messaging From Health Officials

New York Times logoThe White House’s attempt to impose a more disciplined approach to communications about the virus was undermined by President Trump, who complained the news media was overstating the threat.

WASHINGTON — The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to coordinate all statements and public appearances with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach.

But on a day that the White House sought to display a more disciplined strategy to the administration’s communications about the virus, Mr. Trump used an evening event honoring African-American History Month to rail against the news media, claiming it is overstating the threat, and to congratulate himself for keeping the number of cases low.

“I think it’s an incredible achievement what our country’s done,” Mr. Trump said, noting that he had moved quickly to ban travel from China after the emergence of the virus. Even though a total of 60 people infected with the coronavirus are in the United States, he ignored all but the 15 who did not initially contract it overseas. Continue reading.

Republican response to potential pandemic aims at protecting Trump with cowardice, hypocrisy and outright lies

AlterNet logoThe last time a deadly virus spread quickly across continents, Republicans in Congress ramped up xenophobic rhetoric to fear-monger ahead of the 2014 midterm elections. Echoing Donald Trump, who at the time hosted a weekly “Fox & Friends,” Republicans called for a travel ban and spread misinformation. “[President] Obama should apologize to the American people & resign!” Trump tweeted in October of 2014. Public polls right before the midterm elections showed that nearly 80% of Republicans thought the U.S. government should quarantine people who had recently been in a West African country with a major Ebola outbreak and nearly 50% worried they would be exposed to the Ebola virus. It was a catastrophic election for Democrats, with Republicans winning nine Senate seats and 13 House seats.

Six years later, President Trump continues to overhype the threat of the Ebola virus — this time in an effort to obscure his bungled response to a global health pandemic under his watch. Republicans in Congress are again spreading misinformation — this time in an overt attempt to defend Trump from criticism over his incompetent response.

As both Trump and his White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow appeared before cameras on Tuesday to claim that the coronavirus — and COVID-19, the disease it causes — are “well under control” and “contained,” the Dow Jones Industrial tumbled 1,000 points. On Wednesday, it fell almost another 900 points. Trump insisted on Twitter, “Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” Continue reading.

Trump: Tuesday Night Debate Caused Monday Market Crash

In a rambling, vague, and, at times, gratuitously boastful press conference, President Donald Trump demonstrated his sprawling ignorance about public health Wednesday night as he gave his first speech in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Though he boasted about working with some of the greatest experts in public health in the world, he demonstrated no personal knowledge of the science or the nature of the outbreak. He seemed entirely ambivalent about getting funding from Congress to fight the pandemic, noting that his administration asked for $2.5 billion, but some Republicans have said $4 billion would be more appropriate, and some Democrats have asked for twice that.

Trump said he wouldn’t mind getting more money from Congress, if they want to give it, but also that the original $2.5 billion would be sufficient. He seemed to have no idea — and less interest — in what the money could actually be used for and what scale of the problem could require. Continue reading.

Trump Has a Problem as the Coronavirus Threatens the U.S.: His Credibility

New York Times logoEven his allies worry that President Trump has undermined his ability to appear presidential in a moment of national emergency.

For years, experts have warned that Mr. Trump has been squandering the credibility he could need in a moment of national emergency, like a terrorist attack or a public health crisis.

Now, as the coronavirus races across the globe and has begun to threaten the United States, Mr. Trump could face a moment of reckoning. Maintaining a calm and orderly response during an epidemic, in which countless lives could be at stake, requires that the president be a reliable public messenger. Continue reading.

Trump rips coronavirus coverage, to hold news conference

The Hill logoPresident Trump said in an early morning tweet on Wednesday that he will hold a news conference at 6 p.m. to address his administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.

In the post, he continued to blame the media and Democrats for overstating the danger of the disease, even as health experts have warned of its spread.

Trump accused MSNBC and CNN of “doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible.”  Continue reading.

White House struggles to contain public alarm over coronavirus

Washington Post logoTop White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told The Washington Post late Monday that investors should consider “buying these dips” in the stock market amid the coronavirus panic. The message was to take advantage of one-day slumps and “buy low.”

After all, the Dow Jones industrial average had just fallen 1,032 points. President Trump tweeted similar guidance thousands of miles away in India.

Less than 24 hours later, the Dow Jones industrial average would fall another 879 points, bringing Trump and Kudlow’s investment advice — at least in the short term — under greater scrutiny. Continue reading.

Trump continues to mislead Americans about Mueller’s report — the ‘most damning document ever produced’ about a sitting president

AlterNet logoEleven months have passed since former special counsel Robert Mueller completed his final report for the Russia investigation: Mueller submitted his report to Attorney General William Barr on March 22, 2019, and it was subsequently released publicly in redacted form. Many other Trump-related scandals have captured the headlines since then — most notably, the Ukraine scandal and the president’s impeachment. And the Moscow Project, in a February 18 article, discusses the steps that President Donald Trump has taken to make the public forget what is in the Mueller Report.

That isn’t to say that Trump doesn’t bring up Mueller’s investigation, but when he does, he typically dismisses it as a “witch hunt” that turned up nothing of importance — which, as the Moscow Project points out, is a huge mischaracterization.

“As with the rest of the Trump team’s arguments, their attacks on the Mueller investigation continue to be both irrelevant to the charges at hand and outright false,” the Moscow Project asserts in its article. “The Mueller investigation not only resulted in 37 indictments, including eight convictions — seven of which came via guilty pleas. It also uncovered both collusion and obstruction of justice. It is vital that the public understand the truth.” Continue reading.

Enraged Trump Rants (And Lies) About Mueller Probe, Again

It’s been 11 months since the Mueller Investigation came to an abrupt close, refusing to specifically indict President Donald Trump (while handing Congress a blueprint to do so,) and yet the leader of the free world Tuesday morning launched himself into a fiery meltdown over the investigation.

An irrationally enraged Trump is now declaring “the whole Mueller investigation was illegally set up based on a phony and now fully discredited Fake Dossier, lying and forging documents to the FISA Court, and many other things. Everything having to do with this fraudulent investigation is badly tainted and, in my opinion, should be thrown out. Even Mueller’s statement to Congress that he did not see me to become the FBI Director (again), has been proven false. The whole deal was a total SCAM. If I wasn’t President, I’d be suing everyone all over the place,” he threatened.

Trump concluded: Continue reading.

Here’s the insidious goal behind Trump’s trail of inconsistent lies

AlterNet logoAs Donald Trump embarks on his campaign of vengeance against his enemies, Philip Rucker reminds us that part of that effort is to rewrite history on the Russian probe.

Seven months after Mueller’s marathon testimony brought finality to the Russia investigation, Trump is actively seeking to rewrite the narrative that had been meticulously documented by federal law enforcement and intelligence officials, both for immediate political gain and for history.

Lost amidst all of the focus on the Senate impeachment trial and the attorney general’s undermining of the Department of Justice is the fact that a little more than two weeks ago, the Senate Intelligence Committee released their report on the Obama administration’s response to Russian interference in the 2016 election. The committee’s account tracks almost perfectly with the report published in the Washington Post over two years ago, which led me to write that Trump should be more worried about the Brennan dossier. Continue reading.