March 19, 2020: President Trump Blames the Media as COVID Spreads

 

3/19/20: The coronavirus continues to spread. Italy has almost 41,000 cases and 3,400 deaths. Cases have surged in Iran (18,000), Spain (18,000), Germany (15,000) and the United States, as well as other countries. The world total stands at 243,000 and nearly 10,000 deaths. 

At 11:13 a.m. today, the U.S. had 9,415 confirmed cases, 9,400 more than Dr. Zero predicted on Feb. 26. 

But when I checked back before posting this at 9:13 p.m., that number had surged to 13,678.

Port of Los Angeles in better times.

 

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“Perhaps that’s been the story of life.” 

Dr. Zero

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If you wanted to encapsulate President Trump’s grasp of the crisis in just a couple of quotes, here would be one. When a reporter asked what he thought yesterday about reports that rich and well-connected individuals were able to get tested, when sick patients who might be infected could not, here was his answer. “You’d have to ask them [those getting tested] that question,” he said. “Perhaps that’s been the story of life. That does happen on occasion, and I’ve noticed where some people have been tested fairly quickly.” 

It was the verbal equivalent of a not-my-problem shrug. 

Then you had the typical Trumpian attempt to dodge any criticism: “You’d have to ask them.”

 

* 

“The only thing we weren’t prepared for was the media.” 

TODAY, DR. ZERO stepped before the press again, flanked by leaders of his coronavirus-fighting team. Since he was calling himself a “wartime president,” he was asked about shortages of safety gear in hospitals across the country. He had invoked the Defense Production Act, which allows a president to demand that manufacturers shift to meeting wartime needs. Why wasn’t he getting medical supplies to the people fighting on the front lines? 

“Governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work,” Dr. Zero replied, dodging as much responsibility as possible, “and they are doing a lot of this work. The Federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping. You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.” 

Sure. Wartime president. 

And you thought he might get ammunition to the troops!

 

Rather than focus on getting bullets to the soldiers, Trump wasted a chunk of his press conference blasting the free press, mainly because the free press fails to praise him. His irritation arose when Kristen Welker of NBC asked him why the White House was so unprepared to implement widespread testing, especially since Trump claimed recently he had known all along a pandemic was coming. 

“We were very prepared,” Trump replied. “The only thing we weren’t prepared for was the media. The media has not treated it fairly. I’ll tell you how prepared I was,” he continued. “I called for a ban from people coming in from China long before anybody thought it was” necessary. “In fact, it was your network – I believe they called me a racist because I did that. It was many of the people in the room, they called me racist and other words because I did that.” 

At that moment, only fools could fail to notice. Being called a “racist,” a “raconteur” or a “race car driver” would be irrelevant if the matter at hand was ramping up testing. You could ramp up testing in any case.

 

And Dr. Zero had failed to ramp up testing – because Dr. Zero was the greatest fool of all. As recently as February 26, he made it clear he didn’t believe testing was going to be necessary. He had closed off travel from China. That was the magic bullet to fire. We wouldn’t need testing. 

Another week went to waste. Dr. Zero was still patting himself on the back. On March 5, the president tweet-congratulated himself: “With approximately 100,000 CoronaVirus cases worldwide, and 3,280 deaths, the United States, because of quick action on closing our borders, has, as of now, only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths.” 

Finally, let’s be clear. The media couldn’t stop the government from testing more people. 

All the media did was report on the testing. 

Dr. Zero screwed the pooch, not the free press.

 

* 

Like a “ghost town.” 

THE ECONOMIC DAMAGE continues to come in ripples and waves. The Big Three automakers are shutting down North American production until at least March 30. The New York City Metropolitan Opera has laid off chorus, singers, and musicians. The film industry estimates 125,000 jobs will be temporarily lost. Marriott International plans to furlough tens of thousands of workers. Two other hotel chains have laid off 50% and 80% of their employees. A coffee shop company in Seattle, a Starbucks competitor, is keeping on 39 of 189 employees. The Carson’s Cookie Fix Bakery in Omaha cut a number of bakers. A Minnesota cabinet-making company threw in the hammer and saw and sent all 140 workers home. The Philadelphia International Airport plans to lay off as many as 1,000 of its 1,400 subcontractors. The Port of Los Angeles is sending 145 truck drivers home, as shipments from around the world are halted. The port, says one worker, is like a “ghost town” with almost no activity of any kind. 

Predictions for the coming months have turned grim. As many as 3,000,000 jobs could be lost by June. S&P Global warns, “While economic data for March is just starting to be released, the severity of the blow from the coronavirus leads us to believe that the U.S. is entering recession – if not already in one.” The economy could shrink by 1% in the first quarter of this year, and 6% in the second. Growth for the year had already been expected to slow. Goldman Sachs predicts a recession, but not one so pronounced as in 2008-2009. Kevin Hassert, a former Trump economic advisor, has a sunnier view of how the U.S. economy will fare, but does say, “The odds of a global recession are close to 100% right now.”