How the Trump Administration Downplayed COVID

October 6, 2020 //

The Select Sub-Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis (House of Representatives) released a devastating report on the Trump administration’s efforts to hide the seriousness of the pandemic from the public.

https://coronavirus.house.gov/sites/democrats.coronavirus.house.gov/files/10.2.20%20Political%20Interference%20Report%20%281%29.pdf

Click to access 10.2.20%20Political%20Interference%20Report%20%281%29.pdf

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Lies, Science, Trump

38 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

Chiara says:

October 6, 2020 at 9:25 am

“Secretary Betsy DeVos
So pleased to join virginiafoxx
today as we met with Jenkins ES students, parents and staff as
hickoryschools
and all North Carolina public schools reopened for in-person learning. This is such an important option for families not only in NC but across the country.”

They have done absolutely nothing for public schools except criticize them.

Why are we paying thousands of public employees to act as professional critics of public schools? Can we pay them to stay away from our schools? The last thing public schools need is Donald Trump’s reckless employees modeling bad behavior and telling them their schools suck.

Reply
Linda says:

October 6, 2020 at 9:34 am

A trailer for Alex Gibney’s new documentary, “Totally Under Control”, is available on-line.
The movie about Trump’s response to the pandemic will be released this month.

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retired teacher says:

October 6, 2020 at 9:36 am

Leadership matters in a pandemic. The first documented meddling by Trump and company was February 20th, a full month after the first US documented case on January 20th. We should have been mobilizing and preparing for what we were about to face during that month long gap. Trump did nothing other than minimize and ridicule the threat. His gross negligence and incompetence could have saved many thousands of lives.

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- retired teacher says:
  
  October 6, 2020 at 9:38 am
  
  cx: His gross negligence and incompetence lost many thousands of lives.
  
  Reply
- dianeravitch says:
  
  October 6, 2020 at 10:29 am
  
  He’s still minimizing the danger as COVID continues to spread. What about the staff at the White House? They are in danger. He doesn’t care.
  
  Reply
Jon Awbrey says:

October 6, 2020 at 9:38 am

XLV’s arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence have daily put the Nation and the Planet in danger since Day One of his Presiduncy.

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Robert Rendo, Educator says:

October 6, 2020 at 9:43 am

And now the NY Times has an article by the driveling Bret Stephens about the importance of feeling sorry for the con man who does not really feel sorry for us.

Not me. This is not even schadenfreude.

This is getting rid of a malignant tumor that threatens the entire body. Or it may be more than one tumor.

Bad karma? Absolutely not, knowing full well that I too can perish from the virus. But my daily life decisions (which happen to be considerate of others) do not as directly affect 330 million people. His inconsiderate decisions do.

I hope this virus will teach this president, his horrid spawn, and his cabinet lackeys the nastiest, most vicious and horrifying lesson EVER possible.

So be it. This is the perfect storm both for an “eye for an eye” and the “golden rule”, all rolled into one.

This is a class war, a labor war, a propaganda vs. truth war, and a war against democracy. There are causalities in war, especially when you make stupid decisions and indulge in non-stop narcissism, greed, hubris, non-empathy, and arrogance.

The energy forces in the universe have, do, and will always seek to level and even themselves out. That’s a law no one can escape, whether short or long term.

I am infuriated by this president and his administration’s destruction of our democracy and republic, and I got every right be, no debate. My wishes are morally justified. Boy, are they ever . . .

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- GregB says:
  
  October 6, 2020 at 9:47 am
  
  Bret Stephens, David Brooks, Ross Douthat, Thomas Friedman, Ruth Marcus, Michael Gerson: reading them can be (actually, IS) hazardous to your mental and intellectual health. That’s why I never subject myself to their drivel.
  
  Reply
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 12:06 pm
    
    Ironically, the best coverage of Trump I have read is from conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin. Michelle Goldberg, also conservative, at the NYT, also puts Republican sycophants Bret Stephens and David Brooks to shame.
  - Robert Rendo, Educator says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 2:04 pm
    
    Several columnists at the NY Times poo-pooed single payer, including the multiple-mouthed idiot Paul Krugman, and now they are saying that it is a good thing and what we need per the revelations of COVID. Too bad they clawed at Bernie at a time they should have been supporting him. It’s called blow with the wind to save my job at the Times. And the Times editorial board is definitely not in favor of a single payer system as a whole. They do not even have the guts to suggest a German model, where private health insurance companies are heavily regulated. But then again, it is up to us individually and collectively, not the responsibility of a single media outlet, to push for correct policies.
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 2:47 pm
    
    I like Paul Krugman. He has opinions and he backs them up. When the facts don’t bear out his opinions, he changes.
    
    To compare Krugman to columnists like Stephens and Douthat and Brooks is like comparing the Republicans to the Democrats.
    
    I don’t always agree with Krugman, but I find his opinions reasonable. Why can’t he change his mind, just like Bernie Sanders did about charters?
    
    One problem with some progressives is they are still deluding themselves that the public is all clamoring to trade in their private health insurance for Medicare for All and it’s so simple. It isn’t. Many people don’t want to give up their private health insurance — even democrats. I object to that simplification the way I object to those who claim that charter schools — just letting parents “choose” — are the perfect answer.
    
    It is COMPLICATED to start a huge new government program. Medicare had lots of issues at the beginning. So did the ACA. So do public schools. It’s so easy to say “well public schools aren’t perfect, look at this failing one, so we must not support public schools”.
    
    The solutions to failing public schools are complex. So our the solutions to giving Americans health care.
    
    But one party – the Democrats – actually wants to provide better health care coverage to all Americans and one party – the Republicans – doesn’t.
    
    And just like public schools, if you keep empowering the people who want to undermine public schools instead of the people who are trying — even if their solutions aren’t perfect — to make public schools better, then things keep getting worse and worse.
- retired teacher says:
  
  October 6, 2020 at 9:56 am
  
  Trump’s experience with Covid has not made him less arrogant. He said, “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.” Of course, he can say this after receiving a world class socialized medical treatment at the expense of tax payers. Trump has learned nothing. He will continue to try to overturn the ACA in a pandemic.
  
  Reply
  - dianeravitch says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 10:27 am
    
    Trump is the beneficiary of socialized medicine.
- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  October 6, 2020 at 10:46 am
  
  This is getting rid of a malignant tumor that threatens the entire body.
  
  exactly
  
  Reply
- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  October 6, 2020 at 10:48 am
  
  I’m with you, Robert. At this point, I have absolutely ZERO compassion for this guy because he is an enormous, immediate threat to the lives of millions.
  
  Reply
  - Robert Rendo, Educator says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 10:58 am
    
    Darn right.
    
    We have so much work cut out for us in reforming the DNC, but in war and crises, FEMA always taught me about primary crisis and secondary crisis, and right now, this guy and his admins need to go. Period, end of story.
  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 11:05 am
    
    It’s a matter of the Pareto Principle. Deal with the biggest problem first.
GregB says:

October 6, 2020 at 9:45 am

Thanks for this document. It is an excellent summation and I’ve already shared widely. They’ve done a lot of homework for a future book.

Speaking of homework, how ’bout the Idiot claiming “It’s been an interesting journey. I’ve learned a lot about COVID. I learned about it by really going to school. This is the real school. This isn’t the ‘read the book’ school. And I get it. And I understand it. And it’s a very interesting thing. And I’m going to be letting you know about it. In the meantime, we love the USA and we love what’s happening.”

Dontcha hate those “read the book” schools?! We know the Idiot does. And ponder those last four words for a while as long as doing so doesn’t shrivel your brain like a raisin.

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Laura H. Chapman says:

October 6, 2020 at 10:00 am

The Select Sub-Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis (House of Representatives) is an amazing document, with timelines that show an unrelenting drive to misinform the public and prevent knowledgeable CDC and other experts from speaking forthrightly.
All of this misrepresentation has killed people and undermined the importance of having scientific expertise inform life and death policies.
The staged return of Trump from three days in his four-room suite at the Walter Reed Hospital is another example of Trump’s needs to look invincible while putting many others at risk of being infected.
If he is not removed from office by the virus he MUST be removed by our votes.

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Bob Shepherd says:

October 6, 2020 at 10:44 am

Trump is a very badly conceived comic book supervillain–the joker in the orange clown makeup. I say “badly conceived” because comic book supervillains need to have two qualities: a willingness to do anything, however harmful to others, for personal gain (which Trump has in spades) and the intelligence and other skill to pull this off (which he lacks).

We all know that Trump needed to win the 2020 election because if he didn’t, he would no longer be protected by the presidential immunity handed to him, gift-wrapped in legalize, by his Department of “Justice.” He is facing, when he loses, literally hundreds of criminal indictments and civil suits, many for very serious crimes like rape and bank and insurance fraud. So, it’s do or die for Donald. And his “big plan” (he’s the man with the plan and the tan in the can) was to run on having created “the best economy ever,” even though the recovery he takes credit for really took off in the last two years of the Obama administration). Unfortunately, IQ45 saw a sane government response to SARS-CoV-2 as an impediment to that. Lockdowns, social distancing, huge expenditures on PPE and field hospitals and contact tracing–all these would slow the economy, he thought, in the tiny nutcase of his combed-over cranium (thanks for that image, CBK), and so the best thing to do, he thought, if you could call this thinking, would be to pretend that it was all a hoax or, failing that, a nothingburger.

And this is where Trump failed as a supervillain. One cannot simply throw a toddlerlike tantrum and expect nature to comply. This might have worked for a time in his “business” life, but the facts of the virus and its devastating toll are stubborn things, and it would soon become obvious to at least half the country that in taking this tack, Trump had become Donnie Death.

Well, here, in this report, is the horrifying documentation of that.

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- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  October 6, 2020 at 11:00 am
  
  OK. So Trump’s response led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. But whatabout Joe Biden, huh? It’s said that once, when he was a young man, he promised that he would remember to place his emptied coffee cup in the sink to be washed and forgot to do that.
  
  I thought I would save one of the regular commentators the trouble of responding to this report.
  
  Reply
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 1:36 pm
    
    lol!
    
    This reminds me of people saying “I just don’t know what Joe Biden will do — he hasn’t explained it to me enough and he’s just being mean about Trump”.
    
    What some people don’t seem to get is that it is much easier to destroy than to build. The Republicans want to destroy ACA, want to destroy Medicare, want to destroy Social Security.
    
    Are any of those perfect? Nope, it’s possible to cherry pick some problem with medicare and social security as the Republicans are so good at doing to explain why “ending” them will be so much better.
    
    What some deluded Americans (or perhaps they are just right wing trolls) never seem to notice is that President Trump hasn’t explained what he would do either. He supposedly has a health care plan that he’s going to reveal in 6 weeks, which he has been saying for 4 years.
    
    it’s all a con. Because governing is HARD. Just like running a school system is hard.
    
    It’s no different than when outsiders criticize public schools by ONLY looking at the problems and saying “you public school supporters have not explained how you will make public schools perfect, so that’s why we are supporting charters so much, because they are offering “plans”, and the only thing you union members and people who like public schools are doing is being “anti-charter” and you are not offering any plans about how to fix all the terrible and awful and nasty things about public schools.”
    
    They remind me of the people who attack democrats for not “fixing” all the terrible things that democrats have supposedly caused.
    
    Just like public schools haven’t fixed all the terrible problems that public schools have caused. That kind of reasoning should be shut down, but it often works and turns people who should know better against public schools and democrats. And we are where we are because instead of seeing through that propaganda, too many people legitimize it.
  - dianeravitch says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 1:38 pm
    
    I am now seeing many disgusting Trump ads that ask “Is Joe Biden too old?” Superimposed on a photoshopped skeletal Biden face that looks like a dark skull.
  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 1:40 pm
    
    Excellent analogy!
  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 1:42 pm
    
    Trump is, predictably, running ads that are outright lies, saying, for example, that Biden is a Socialist and that he is going to raise taxes on the middle class.
  - Robert Rendo, Educator says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 2:09 pm
    
    Bob, Biden is about as much a socialist as Jane Mansfield was a football player for the Dolphins.
    
    Donald Trump Jr. is a stupid-ist. Or the stupidest . . .
    
    Besides, there is nothing wrong with socialism when it is in balance with and harmony with capitalism. it’s all about balance and dignity, something the sheeple in this country do not yet really understand because they simply don’t know better and have not been exposed to other countries, other societies.
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 2:24 pm
    
    Bob,
    
    Those ads are no different than when teachers unions were accused of “protecting pedophiles”.
    
    What is really harmful are NOT those right wing attacks. What is really harmful is when those right wing lies are legitimized and amplified by people who are identified as “strong supporters of public schools”, who say over and over again:
    
    “Sure, teachers unions do protect pedophiles, that is true, but you should still support them…”
    
    When they should be saying “The teachers union does NOT protect pedophiles and the people who are saying that lie want to replace your public school with a school where bad teachers can abuse children, and if good teachers reports it, the good teachers who report it can be fired because the school wants to cover it up”.
    
    So it is very important NOT to legitimize any of the right wing propaganda. That is what “one of the regular commentators” specializes in. Legitimizing the right wing propaganda.
    
    Notice that every single one of her posts begins by legitimizing at least one, and often two or three right wing talking points.
    
    It needs to be called out, not legitimized. Just like someone who pretended to be a public school supporter who kept posting “the teachers union still won’t stop protecting pedophiles and we know they are corrupt, but I do believe people should be support public schools even if they are no better than the alternative.”
    
    If you give that post legitimacy, you push the narrative that the union protects pedophiles. And no one pushing that narrative has the interests of public schools in mind. Their only goal is to undermine them and empower the people who hate public schools. Most of us aren’t fooled by anyone who includes in their post the “fact” that the union supports pedophiles no matter how much that person professes to care about public schools. But there are a few here who still seem to believe that someone who keeps writing posts that are the equivalent of “we all know the democrats support pedophiles”, in reference to the democrats actually isn’t a right wing troll.
    
    Their only purpose is to legitimize a lie, so that the public believes: “even the people who like public schools admits that the union protects pedophiles” so it must be true.
    
    And anyone who actually thinks that will make the public support public schools is deluded. Just like anyone who thinks their non-stop posts about democrats being evil, but…. serves any purpose except to stop people from voting for the democrats and empowering Republicans.
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 2:31 pm
    
    And before someone posts “do you mean we all have to say that the teachers’ union is perfect and we must not allow anyone to ever criticize the teachers union because it is perfect”, I say, no, that’s making a false equivalency.
    
    I don’t have to believe that the teachers’ union is the most perfect entity in the world and never makes mistakes to understand why the people who say “the union protects pedophiles” have an agenda.
    
    Same goes with criticism of the democrats. There is acknowledging that an entity isn’t perfect, and there is pushing a false narrative to demonize an organization like the teachers union by spewing lies like “the union protects pedophiles” to get the public to believe the union is evil.
    
    I hope everyone understands the difference because the people pushing the false narrative that “the union protects pedophiles” are simply helping those who hate public schools. Same as those who post similar lies about the democrats.
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 2:34 pm
    
    Anyone who posts “well Biden is demented and seems really old, but….” is working for the re-election of Trump.
  - Robert Rendo, Educator says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 2:45 pm
    
    I know that whatever I think of Biden (I shall refrain in this forum), he is still the better candidate compared to the orange clown Pennywise we have now.
  - Linda says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 7:57 pm
    
    NYC-
    The Guardian 10-6
    Revelations about the Manchurian nominee
  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 8:11 pm
    
    Well, that she’s a fundie nutcase is not much of a revelation.
  - NYC public school parent says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 8:21 pm
    
    Linda,
    
    I just saw that, also! It’s notable that it isn’t the sycophantic NYT who is reporting this, but the Guardian.
    
    It occurs to me that the democrats need to approach the hearings in terms of Amy Barrett’s “judgement”. Her judgement is suspect. She hasn’t been forthcoming.
    
    Just yesterday, Justices Thomas and Alito attacked the Obergefell decision as wrong. The Democratic Senators should ask Judge Barrett to acknowledge, without offering an opinion either way, that it is possible that a decision approved by Justice Ginsburg and others can be wrong. (She should be pressed because she will try to say she shouldn’t have to answer, but no one is asking her opinion about a case, they are asking if she acknowledges that two justices can have completely different opinions because they have different views of justice.)
    
    Once it is emphasized that Justice Thomas and Alito have different JUDGMENTS, the emphasis by the Democrats is that a Supreme Court Justice must be someone whose judgement is trustworthy and won’t be swayed simply because she wants to please a politician or someone else.
    
    Then Amy Barrett is asked what led her to JUDGE that she should spurn science and bring her entire family — all 7 children – to a crowded event at the White House where other people (albeit just a few) wore masks but she chose to have none of her family in masks.
    
    She should ask whether her knowing that President Trump did not like to see people wearing masks had anything to do with it. (She will say no, she decided all on her own). Then she should be asked whether she has ever read that wearing masks is recommended by scientists and whether she believes that is true or not. Because either she spurns science and believes that she can decide Supreme Court cases using any unproven “facts” that suit her, or her judgement was swayed by her desire to please the president.
    
    Either way, she is unfit to hold the position of SC Justice.
  - Bob Shepherd says:
    
    October 6, 2020 at 8:26 pm
    
    Indeed. This is truly scary. Thomas, Alito, Kave-man, Barrett, Gorsuch–that’s five. Yikes!!!
  - retiredbutmissthekids says:
    
    October 7, 2020 at 2:39 am
    
    That is HILARIOUS, Bob! I’m laughing SO hard at that first paragraph.
    OMG, I have tears in my eyes!!.
    
    I really want to, but I dare not re-read it: I might fall off my chair.
Lloyd Lofthouse says:

October 6, 2020 at 8:16 pm

That report is grounds for another impeachment trial, but it is apparent that Moscow Mitch the Grinch has already let the House Democrats know that the Senate will vote to find Donald the Terrible innocent and let him continue to destroy the country.

Reply
retiredbutmissthekids says:

October 7, 2020 at 2:46 am

Oh, the wonders of Word Press! Bob, of course my 2:39 AM comment was to go under your 11:00 AM Biden “coffee cup” comment, NOT your 8:26 PM comment about SCoTUS. There is NOTHING funny about that.

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- Bob Shepherd says:
  
  October 7, 2020 at 5:50 am
  
  LOL. Thanks, retired.
  
  Reply