2/29/20: President Trump announces that the uproar over the coronavirus is a “hoax”
cooked up by Democrats to make him look bad.
____________________
Those of us on the other side of the political fence don’t
want plague to sweep the land.
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In fact, it pissed him off, he told another cheering throng at one of his rallies, Friday night, to think that these un-American Democrats would stoop so low as to “politicize” the crisis just to score cheap points.
Unfortunately, in the real world, where disease can kill regardless of politics, the first U.S. citizen to contract the COVID-19 virus on these shores has died.
(If the past is prologue, we know Trump won’t spend much time
thinking about the first person to die.)
*
ON FRIDAY, Don Jr. did his best not to politicize the crisis by insisting Democrats wanted millions of Americans to die, just so the last survivors could vote against his dad.
So, once again, let’s be clear. Those of us on the other side of the political fence don’t want plague to sweep the land.
We do, however, believe that Jr.’s dad must be stopped at
almost any cost from gaining a second term.
To drink deep the toxins President Trump has spilled into the waters of political discourse, let’s go back and see how he assessed the handling of an even more dangerous disease when Barack Obama was in charge. It was the summer of 2014. A new outbreak of Ebola was threatening to spread in West Africa, and, of course, by plane or boat, around the globe.
If we do a little digging, we quickly learn that Citizen Trump went bonkers as soon as the first case reached our shores. When I checked his Twitter archive, I was surprised to see he fired off 103 tweets and retweets on the topic of Ebola.
Don Jr. might want to look at the hysterical responses posted by his dad, that summer and fall. If people were stirring up panic in those days, for political points, his father was stirring with the biggest ladle of all. The nadir may have been reached been when dad labeled Obama a “psycho” for the way in which he was handling the disease. Going low, in other words, is a Trump family trait.
One of the most striking aspects of those five score and three tweets/retweets is how little sympathy Citizen Don had for others. That includes his own countrymen and women when they fell ill. Once it became known that Dr. Kent Brantley, who had been working in West Africa and contracted the disease, was allowed to return to the U.S., Trump howled as if the doctor was going to come traipsing into Trump Tower and spit in his soup. On August 1, 2014, Trump had this to offer: “The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!”
Remember that line.
One good howl deserved another, and Trump howled long and loud and with no more grasp of the science than a coyote on a hill. Trump screamed that all flights from West Africa must be stopped. No infected patients should be allowed to return. Send the doctors to them instead. The fact we were taking infected patients, he said, was “absolutely CRAZY – stupid pols.”
To listen to Trump was to believe that every move Obama made was meant to unleash pestilence in the streets. Below are some of Trump’s worst posts, with editorial comment supplied. Each and every one helped fuel hysteria and not one but was meant to score sleazebag political points.
Sept. 16: “Can you believe that the U.S. will be sending 3000 troops to Africa to help with Ebola. They will come home infected? We have enough problems.”
(No
member of the U.S. military was infected while deployed.)
Sept. 19: “Why are we sending thousands of ill-trained soldiers into Ebola infested areas of Africa! Bring the plague back to U.S.? Obama is so stupid.”
Sept. 30: Here we go! I stated long ago that we should cancel all flights from West Africa. Now we have Ebola in U.S., AND IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE!
(Trump had already perfected the all-caps Twitter YELP.)
Same day: “The United States must immediately institute strong travel restrictions or Ebola will be all over the United States-a plague like no other!
(Seven Americans
who contracted Ebola overseas were brought home.)
Oct. 2: “The Ebola patient who came into our country knew exactly what he was doing. Came into contact with over 100 people. Here we go-I told you so!”
(Thomas Duncan, a Liberian citizen, had been visiting family in Texas when he fell sick.)
Same day: “How incompetent are our leaders allowing these Ebola infected people to come into our country with all of the problems and danger entailed!”
(Obama failed!
He let the guy in.)
Oct. 4: “This Ebola patient Thomas Duncan, who fraudulently entered the U.S. by signing false papers, is causing havoc. If he lives, prosecute!”
(As for
prosecuting, Duncan soon dies.)
Same day: “Something very important, and indeed society changing, may come out of the Ebola epidemic that will be a very good thing: NO SHAKING HANDS!”
(Trump, the germaphobe, can only hope.)
Same day: “President Obama - close down
the flights from Ebola infected areas right now, before it is too
late! What the hell is wrong with you?”
Citizen Trump, who probably knew no more about Ebola, or science in general, than a lazy fourth grader, announces on October 6: “I will be on Fox & Friends (@foxandfriends) at 7.00. Fighting Ebola will be a topic!”
(This is
a guy who believes exercise depletes the body’s finite supply of energy.)
Oct. 7: “Despite the ever increasing Ebola disaster, Obama refuses to stop flights from West Africa. It’s almost like he’s saying F-you to U.S. public.”
Oct. 9: “Obama won’t send troops to fight jihadists, yet sends them to Liberia to contract Ebola. He is a delusional failure.”
The next day Trump makes a second appearance on Fox News and tells the gaping boobs who watch why he doesn’t trust Obama when it comes to Ebola.
Or Benghazi!
Same day: “Obama is making the Ebola problem much worse than it needs to be in the U.S. by not halting flights from West Africa. Airport testing a joke.”
(Airport
testing is currently our first line of defense
against COVID-19.)
Oct. 12: “Here we go - A healthcare worker who treated Thomas Duncan, the man who flew into the U.S. from West Africa infected with Ebola, caught it!”
(A total of four Americans, in addition to the original seven, will be infected in weeks ahead.)
Same day: “I don’t know if President Obama isn’t stopping the flights from Ebola torn West Africa because he is stubborn, stupid, or just doesn’t care!”
(What kind of people would politicize a health crisis!!!)
Same day (a retweet): “‘@trucksellr2007:
150 travelers arriving daily in the U.S. from the Ebola hot zones of
west Africa? This is insanity! #StopTheFlights.’”
Then we had this classic piece of what passed then – and still passes in similar forms – for Trumpian thought:
Oct. 15: “President Obama has a personal responsibility to visit & embrace all people in the US who contract Ebola!
Same day: “A nurse in Dallas who treated Ebola patient Thomas Duncan was allowed to fly to Cleveland. She should never have been so allowed! The real JV.”
(With
Trump human sympathy rarely intrudes.)
Oct. 17: “Obama just appointed an Ebola Czar with zero experience in the medical area and zero experience in infectious disease control. A TOTAL JOKE!”
(Trump
puts VP Mike Pence in charge of his COVID-19 team!)
Oct. 20: “I will be on @foxandfriends at 7.00 - 45 minutes. Talking about Ebola, Obama and other strange U.S. happenings!”
(Trump,
talking science!!!)
Oct. 23: “There is a good possibility that a person who treated patients in West Africa and who FLEW into New York has Ebola. Touched many, bedlam!”
(Bedlam!)
Same day: “If this doctor, who so recklessly flew into New York from West Africa, has Ebola, then Obama should apologize to the American people & resign!”
(See. Not scoring political points at all!)
Same day: “President Obama has a major
meeting on the N.Y.C. Ebola outbreak, with people flying in from all
over the country, but decided to play golf!”
 |
What is Trump doing during this crisis? Go figure! |
Oct. 24: “The Ebola doctor who just flew to N.Y. from West Africa and went on the subway, bowling and dining is a very SELFISH man-should have known!”
(Human
kindness is not in Trump’s box of tools.)
Oct. 28: “President Obama strongly considering a plan to bring non-U.S. citizens with EBOLA to the United States for treatment. Now I know he’s nuts!”
The next day, October 29, it’s back to Fox News! This time Citizen Trump is there for an “interview @seanhannity discussing Obama’s failed presidency, Ebola, DC Post Office, midterms & 2016.”
Same day: Trump quotes himself in a retweet: “Donald Trump says it’s ‘morally unfair’ of Obama to send soldiers into Ebola hot zone.”
(Morals – always a Trump strong suit.)
Same day: “Obama will quarantine all soldiers returning from Africa for 21 days. But he still allows all who contract Ebola into country? Hypocrite.”
(All
Americans brought back since the COVID-19 outbreak have been quarantined.)
Then, with all the various measures taken to control the spread of Ebola, not only inside the U.S.A., but also overseas, the outbreak was over.
There was no “bedlam” in the United States. Only eleven Americans contracted Ebola, seven overseas, four inside the United States. Two died. Trump had panicked his fans for no good reason.
Save to rack up political points.
*
IT’S TELLING, too, that only twice since, has Trump tweeted about Ebola. Once was to retweet Reverend Franklin Graham, on August 2, 2019. That was the fifth anniversary of Dr. Brantley’s return to the U.S. The good Christian doctor contracted Ebola in West Africa while doing both medical and missionary work. It was Brantley who was allowed to return for treatment, to Emory University in Atlanta, a decision that first set Citizen Trump off.
Now Trump approved of Pastor Graham’s take. Thank God, Dr.
Brantley had recovered, Graham said, a “Good Samaritan” who had gone to Africa
to do the Lord’s work.
The last mention, of course, was Trump bragging about himself. Again, it was a retweet of a post from HHS Secretary Alex Azar: “Thanks to US leadership under @POTUS, vaccines & therapeutics are saving lives and helping those affected by the #Ebola outbreak in the #DRC. Working with regional and international partners to stop the outbreak is one of our top global health priorities.
Exactly as it was back in 2014.
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SO: WE’RE NOT ALL going to die. The spread of the COVID-19 virus is a serious issue. But we’re not all going to keel over dead.
Three new cases on Friday were found in the U.S. One in Oregon, particularly worrisome, since it was a school employee, one in Washington State, and one in California, and all rattled people’s nerves. That brought to four, cases in the U.S., where patients are not known to have traveled to infected regions, nor thought to have had contact with anyone who did.
That means the threat may grow – and the Trump administration may face a burgeoning problem.
But who could ever doubt Trump will rise to the occasion, and
find someone else to blame if anything goes wrong?
BLOGGER’S NOTE (9/25/21): This was not a risky prediction
to make. Who did Loser Don blame in the end? Everyone else.
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