Trump's best excuse for his testing remark is still horrifying

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Trump’s best excuse for his testing remark is still horrifying

By Jennifer Rubin
Opinion writer
6/22/2020, 7:45:21 a.m.

At least three explanations could account for President Trump’s remark at his Tulsa rally on Saturday that “I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down,’” seemingly a reference to his oft-repeated and inane declaration that if we would just stop counting cases, there would be fewer cases. (If we stop going to the dentist, do we get fewer cavities? Stop looking at the scale, and we don’t gain weight?)

First, he could actually have said it to his aides in keeping with his insistence at the beginning of the pandemic that there were 15 people detected with the virus “and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.” This would mean Trump is incapable of grasping the most elementary principles of science and leading us during a pandemic when testing and tracing are critical.

Second, he could have been boasting that he said such a thing — because he somehow thinks it is a clever solution to making the statistics look less horrible — but he did not actually say it to anyone with authority to reduce testing. Once more, this suggests he has no ability to discern between critical tasks (e.g., testing) and his own nonsense — nor does he know what will offend or shock people with a conscience and a rudimentary understanding of the virus.

Third, the excuse Trump chose, was that he was “joking,” his all-purpose excuse when he says something stupid even though there is zero evidence he was being humorous. (And what is humorous about reducing the number of tests?) At the very least, then, Trump is entirely cavalier and unfeeling about the nearly 120,000 Americans who have died and more than 2 million who have been infected.

The Biden campaign put out a statement bashing Trump’s remark. In a written statement, the campaign argued that “as the American people suffer through rising coronavirus cases and fight to get back to work and get our economy back on track, Donald Trump made one of the most damning admissions in presidential history: that he ordered federal officials to slow down testing just to artificially suppress numbers and conceal his atrocious mismanagement of the worst public health crisis in generations.” Biden’s team declared that “it wasn’t a joke: it was a confession. Look no further than Trump’s own past statements.” The statement concluded, “Donald Trump just announced to the entire country that he cares more about saving his job than he does about saving lives or building our economy back. And that is unforgettable.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/22/trumps-best-excuse-is-still-horrifying/

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Biden is right to bash idiot's remarks on CV testing. Idiot needs to resign and let far better...

into office to starting seriously addressing the CV outbreaks raging across in a lot of states still, today.

Most states and/or portions of a state that have increases in CV infections are those that seem to belittle efforts to combat CV infection rates (reduce/eliminate, wear masks, etc.).

SW Missouri is an example, whereas the majority of CV cases were in STLMO (and KCMO, smaller numbers), the CV cases are increasing, sadly, in parts of the state (more rural) that ignored for the most part, guidelines to stay at home, masks, etc.

My sister and her daughter's family are from that part of SW Missouri, and they just yanked two of her grand kids from summer school, who were potentially exposed to two cases of CV.

This is a rural part of MO, normally votes for rump w/ fervor and zest. I suspect that this is changing now (the zest and fervor for rump), and may account for why rump got so few attendees for his stupid Tulsa campaign event. That whole part of southern KS, stretching into OK, AR, SW Missouri (the 4 - state area as it is known as) is undergoing a serious outbreak of the CV when the CV had seemingly bypassed the area.

[LastDemocratInSC]

2. "And that is unforgettable"

Yes, but also unforgivable.

[lagomorph777]

3. Why do so many writers use "inane" instead of "insane?"

"Insane" is clearly the correct word here.

[lagomorph777]

5. It's more or less on track but weak, like calling a lie an "untruth"