S*** the President Says – 3/23/2020

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, some s*** the president said during the previous week:

“We’d much rather be ahead of the curve than behind it, and that’s what we are. Therefore…[a]void gathering in groups of more than ten people.”

3/16/2020 at the White House.

Sadly, we are not ahead of the curve. Here is the curve as of Saturday 3/21:

At this moment, the U.S. looks to be handling this worse than anyone in the world. By the way, take a look at that photo above when President Trump said these words. Notice anything? There are 16 people in the photo.

Meanwhile, our hospitals are already facing critical shortages of masks, gowns, gloves, and ventilators – at the very beginning of the coronavirus surge. It’s nice that some individual companies have volunteered to help, but this kind of messaging from the president – again downplaying the threat – makes it less likely companies will feel they need to help.

“Now, a drug called chloroquine – and some people would add to it ‘hydroxy’ – hydroxychloroquine. So chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine…And that’s where the FDA has been so great. They – they’ve gone through the approval process; it’s been approved.”

3/19/2020 at the White House.

It doesn’t have two different names, and it hasn’t been approved. How on Earth can a president walk up to a microphone and blurt something like this with no basis in reality?

“The federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping. We’re not a shipping clerk.”

3/19/2020 at the White House.

With this, the message was clear. States: you’re on your own. The government will not be using its vast operational power to solve the medical supply shortage problem during this pandemic. It is state against state, left to compete against each other for vital medical supplies like something out of the Hunger Games.

“I also just invoked the Defense Production Act to help facilitate distribution of essential supplies if necessary.”

3/19/2020 at the White House.

Nope. No he did not. He still has not. He should.

“I have to tell you the throwing away of the mask, being in private business, the throwing away of the mask right away they’re throwing away right away and when you hear 55 million masks – 55 million – how could it possibly be such a number and they’re saying, ‘Oh, that’s just a small fraction of what we need,’ and I said, ‘Why aren’t we sanitizing masks?’”

3/21/2020 at the White House.

What a time for the return of President Drunk Uncle. This comment presents only two possibilities: either the president doesn’t know about contamination and deterioration, or he’s come up with a mind-bogglingly simple life hack that millions of medical professionals that actually use these things never thought to try. I know which scenario I believe. It’s time to invoke the Defense Production Act, like he said he did two days earlier.

“When you look at the masks – I’ve looked at all of the different masks – some don’t lend themselves to doing that, I think, but many do…We have very good liquids for doing this – sanitizing the masks – and that’s something they’re starting to do more.”

3/21/2020 at the White House.

They’re doing that out of desperation, because there aren’t enough masks. This is the same guy that doesn’t want to use the Defense Production Act to marshal the private sector’s production capacity because “hopefully, we won’t need to.” We need to.

“Romney’s in isolation? Gee, that’s too bad.”

3/22/2020 at the White House.

We’re celebrating the idea that our political rival might be sick with a deadly illness. That’s what we’re doing here.

Here, we have a U.S. senator that actually tested positive for COVID-19, and at least this time our president strikes the right tone. I’m not a fan of Senator Paul (R-KY), but let’s all hope he gets better soon. By the way, this insistence on the “Chinese Virus” verbiage seems to have started around the same time coronavirus began to take off in the U.S. It’s almost as if once Trump knew he couldn’t wish it away, he immediately shifted focus toward finding someone to blame. Take this tweet from just two months ago, for example:

What changed in two months? Ominously, the chances of this “working out well” for us seem to have plummeted. What didn’t change in two months? The virus’ origin.

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That’s our report for this week. Be sure to check out the links for more info on any particular topic and, as always, thanks for reading.