This: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/09/10/if-trump-lied-so-did-fauci/
I’d actually like someone to show me the logical problems with this. Considering it’s defending Trump, I assume there are some. I also refuse to admit a good point. It ruins my ability to attack the next lie they make.
Not really, recently Trump has dismissed Fauci’s advice at the drop of a hat of Dr Atlas. Point being that it was still Trump’s choice to follow the advise of whoever told him that the virus was likely airborne and it was going to be worse than the flu. Most likely it was also Fauci that advised on the risks early on, but Trump had another advise to give Fauci. As it was shown at the Coronavirus Press conferences, Fauci is also a good soldier. Unfortunately, whatever Trump touches dies…
Having realized the holes on that argument, that one came from a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. A group that is responsible of a lot of the stupidity coming from the White House.
I don’t think I understand. I assume that there is a lie or logical break in this guy’s defense, but I don’t have the mental energy to spend hours finding it. You may not have it either, of course. But I wonder if someone can point out why these quotes from Fauci are wrong, or misleading, or out of context, or why they don’t matter.
The author of that op-ed is a total right-wing hack (check out his bio and some of his other columns). Regardless of what Fauci did or did not say publicly, which is irrelevant, it’s clear that Trump was being advised by medical experts that COVID was a serious threat at the time he was dismissing it as just a flu and that it would be gone very quickly, just the same way that other world leaders were being advised the same way. The difference is that the leaders of most advanced countries took the advice seriously and took effective action. Trump did the opposite, ridiculing masks, holding crowded rallies, encouraging and bullying state governors to open their economies and curtail quarantines, withholding PPE from states he didn’t like, and in general being so grossly and wilfully negligent as to be directly responsible for many tens of thousands of completely preventable deaths, leaving the US with one of the worst track records in the world for COVID mismanagement. The idea that “no one knew” how bad it could be is preposterous. The WHO declared COVID a global pandemic on March 11, and every advanced country except the US reacted accordingly, while Trump diddled about and blatantly lied to the American people. To this very day he continues to disparage wearing masks. The claim in the article that once it was clear how serious it was Trump took decisive action in closing down the economy is shamelessly misleading bullshit. This may go down as the most horrifically mismanaged crisis in US history, perpetrated by an idiot who has never acted responsibly in his life.
What wolfpup said.
This reminded me of an anecdote attributed to President J.F. Kennedy, AFAICR Kennedy was skeptical about someone telling him that the staffers were the ones doing the basic work in the White House, it meant that problems that were considered to be not important did not reach the President, but problems that were really serious were the ones that reached the President because important decisions are the job of the president.
He found that that was the case.
What one has to realize is that what that commentator is concentrating on is in reality showing another layer of incompetency coming from this administration. Trump has no clue about who is an expert and not a hack in his administration, and if Fauci was no good, a competent leader should had dismissed him a long time ago and explain why he or she was dismissed.
That did not happen.
It remains a choice that it is still Trump’s.
It was not Fauci’s responsibility, but this is one of the things the Trump administration could have done very early, had they taken it seriously.
A US mask manufacturer contacted the government in January, and offered to spin up 4 mask manufacturing lines capable of producing an additional 1.7 million masks per week, if the federal government would commit to purchasing them. People at the top of HHS said no, despite being urged to take the company up on its offer by an expert.
In a just world, this would have been a major article of impeachment in a new Senate trial of Donald J. Trump.
It’s always the instinct of con men to corner a market. In this particular case, the paucity of N-95 masks drives up the price of those that are available. Whether or not payments (or ‘campaign contributions’) by grateful manufacturers can be traced to the pockets of Trump family members, though, is another question.
The Trump hoarding of PPE offers another benefit to the family: re-election chances could be enhanced if governors take certain actions and refrain from taking certain other actions. The ability to provide a governor with needed PPE provides substantial leverage to the Trump Administration.