Tag: Trump trying to weasel out of blame

Trump Accuses Obama Of ‘Biggest Political Crime’ — But Can’t Say What That Was

While the United States is still struggling to cope with the COVID-19 crisis, President Donald Trump and his right-wing media allies have been distracting themselves by whipping up hazy and dubious allegations about the origins of the Russia investigation. They’ve targeted members of the Obama administration and former President Barack Obama himself with strained accusations.

In a weekend Twitter rant, Trump himself declared the previous administration carried out the “biggest political crime in American history, by far!” But he was extremely vague about what he meant. (Trump has previously alleged that treason was carried out against him, but there’s no sign he actually knows what that would entail.)

So when he appeared in the White House Rose Garden on Monday to address reporters, Washington Post reporter Phil Rucker asked him directly what he’s been talking about. Continue reading.

Trump’s bizarre effort to tag Obama’s swine flu response as ‘a disaster’

Washington Post logo“Biden/Obama were a disaster in handling the H1N1 Swine Flu. Polling at the time showed disastrous approval numbers. 17,000 people died unnecessarily and through incompetence! Also, don’t forget their 5 Billion Dollar Obamacare website that should have cost close to nothing!”

— President Trump, in a tweet, April 17

As the coronavirus pandemic emerged, President Trump quickly sought to compare his performance to the pandemic that appeared in 2009 under the watch of his predecessor, Barack Obama. He called it a “big failure” and a “debacle,” compounded by “horrific mistakes.” He railed about the death toll, often inflating the figures to 17,000, as he did in this recent tweet.

These criticism might have had some resonance back when there appeared to be relatively few cases in the United States. On March 4, when Trump first attacked Obama’s handling of the swine flu, there were only about 100 reported cases of covid-19 in the United States.

But as of April 17, there were more than 700,000 cases reported in the United States and nearly 40,000 deaths, more than double than what supposedly took place under Obama. One would think Trump would drop this talking point, but apparently he thinks it still works for him. Continue reading.

Trump, Head of Government, Leans Into Antigovernment Message

New York Times logoWith his poll numbers fading after a rally-around-the-leader bump, the president is stoking protests against stay-at-home orders.

First he was the self-described “wartime president.” Then he trumpeted the “total” authority of the federal government. But in the past few days, President Trump has nurtured protests against state-issued stay-at-home orders aimed at curtailing the spread of the coronavirus.

Hurtling from one position to another is consistent with Mr. Trump’s approach to the presidency over the past three years. Even when external pressures and stresses appear to change the dynamics that the country is facing, Mr. Trump remains unbowed, altering his approach for a day or two, only to return to nursing grievances.

Not even the president’s re-election campaign can harness him: His team is often reactive to his moods and whims, trying but not always succeeding in steering him in a particular direction. Now, with Mr. Trump’s poll numbers falling after a rally-around-the-leader bump, he is road-testing a new turn on a familiar theme — veering into messages aimed at appealing to Americans whose lives have been disrupted by the legally enforceable stay-at-home orders. Continue reading.

Trump blames testing criticism on politics

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Monday lashed out at governors who have clamored for more widespread coronavirus testing, accusing them of playing politics or simply being ignorant of resources in their own states.

Trump and other administration officials devoted a significant portion of the daily coronavirus press briefing to outlining efforts to scale up the production of testing materials as governors across the country warn more federal help is needed to increase capacity.

The briefing at times appeared intended to rebuke the criticism directly, with Trump insisting his administration had already done a commendable job and that those who disagreed were trying to score political points. Continue reading.

Trump’s Pandemic Plan: “Absolute Authority,” No Responsibility

The novel coronavirus brings out the same old, same old President.

A week ago, President Trump foreshadowed his growing anxiety over when and how to end the Great Shutdown, a decision he is well aware will have existential consequences—for his own political future. He called the question of reopening the country amid the coronavirus pandemic “the biggest decision I’ll ever make” and “by far the biggest decision of my life.” Yet by the time Trump advertised a “Major News Conference” for Thursday evening, there was little suspense from a man who has been tweeting about a “LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL” and who declared, on March 24th, that he wanted church pews “packed” by Easter. Trump backed off the Easter deadline within days of promoting it, and he repeated the act this week, with a May 1st date and a new plan for “OPENING UP AMERICA AGAIN,” which started out on Monday as an imperial diktat from an almighty President and ended up on Thursday as a mere recommendation to individual states, without a fixed date. Many governors have already announced that they will not follow his guidance. “You’re going to call your own shots,” Trump reassured them on a conference call on Thursday afternoon, according to an audio recording, which promptly leaked. “You’re going to be calling the shots.”

This might seem a head-spinning reversal. But it is classic Trump. His two most memorable lines of the covid-19 pandemic, proclaiming “absolute authority” and “no responsibility at all,” are wildly contradictory, and yet also completely consistent with his approach to governing. The novel coronavirus is truly a new type of American crisis, but it has been met by the same old, same old from America’s President: unhinged press conferences and unfounded conspiracy theories; lies, attacks, and bizarre non sequiturs; and abrupt, seemingly incomprehensible policy shifts from a leader who has no problem changing course at the expense of his own credibility. Continue reading “Trump’s Pandemic Plan: “Absolute Authority,” No Responsibility”

Trump’s false claim that the WHO said the coronavirus was ‘not communicable’

Washington Post logo“The WHO failed to investigate credible reports from sources in Wuhan that conflicted directly with the Chinese government’s official accounts. There was credible information to suspect human-to-human transmission in December 2019, which should have spurred the WHO to investigate, and investigate immediately. Through the middle of January, it parroted and publicly endorsed the idea that there was not human-to-human transmission happening despite reports and clear evidence to the contrary. … The WHO pushed China’s misinformation about the virus, saying it was not communicable.” <

— President Trump, remarks at a news conference, April 14, 2020

The president’s announcement that he would suspend payments to the World Health Organization in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic contained a number of false or misleading claims. He faulted the WHO for believing that China was doing a good job and praising its transparency — when he had done the same thing at the time. He claimed the WHO “fought” his decision to impose some restrictions on travel from China, but WHO officials said nothing publicly; opposition to travel restrictions has been a consistent WHO policy.<

That’s the usual Trump hyperbole and flip-flopping. For the purposes of this fact check, we will examine the part of Trump’s statement that holds some credibility — that the WHO did not alert the world quickly that the new virus could travel among people. We have assembled a detailed timeline to look at what the organization said.

The Facts

The WHO is a United Nations organization, with all of its inherent bureaucracy, slow decision-making and dependence on member states. The WHO is heavily reliant on information provided by countries and cannot fine countries that fail to provide accurate information. But that does not mean officials cannot use its platform to express skepticism or prod for more transparency, rather than amplify incomplete information.

Trump is throwing Sondland under the bus. But the new spin has a fatal defect.

Washington Post logoThe plight of Gordon Sondland is an object lesson in the perils awaiting those who get sucked under by the gravitational pull of Trump’s bottomless corruption and narcissism but fall just short of displaying absolute loyalty and subservience to the Trump cause.

Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, is now getting accused by at least one Trump loyalist of fabricating his latest round of testimony in league with Democrats — even though Sondland is a top Trump donor. And another leading Trump sycophant is questioning Sondland’s credibility, something Trump himself tried to do at a rally on Thursday night.

But the new story that Trump and his loyalists are telling about Sondland is deeply flawed: It elides a mountain of evidence that’s already out there on the public record, as will be explained below.

View the complete November 15 commentary by Greg Sargent on The Washington Post website here.