CBS reporter claps back at Trump after he says media “viciously gripes” about his virus response
President Trump and his allies have been pushing harder and harder for the economy to re-open and for some semblance of normalcy to return as his re-election chances and the Republican Party’s grip on the Senate grow weaker by the day, even though medical experts warn that doing so would provide the coronavirus a chance to return in force.
But it appears that the president’s selfish ambitions are more valuable to him than the lives of American citizens, as Tuesday morning saw him once again call for the quick reopening of the American economy and praised the Governor of Texas’ irresponsible decision to resume business operations.
Many States moving to SAFELY & QUICKLY reopen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2020
Texas to open businesses in phases beginning Friday. Great job being done by @GregAbbott_TX
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2020
This was all justified by falsely arguing that America’s COVID-19 testing program was “better” and bigger than any other country in the world and bitterly complaining that the media continues to correctly point out that his self-congratulatory assertions are false.
We are doing far more, and better, Testing than any other country in the world, and yet the media does nothing but complain. No matter how good a job is done, the same as with the Ventilators, they will never say we are doing a great job, they will only viciously gripe!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2020
While he publicly claims “we” are doing far more, just yesterday the White House announced a blueprint for a new testing plan that largely shunts responsibility for the programs on to state governments and puts the federal government as a “supplier of last resort.”
It is a transparent attempt to absolve the president of the blame for the distressingly inadequate COVID-19 testing being performed in the United States at the very same time that he publicly tries to hoard all the credit for the little testing that is being done.
To that end, the Trump team has been aggressively misrepresenting the importance of individual test numbers in hopes that simply shouting increasingly impressive numbers will reassure worried citizens (an ironic callback to how Trump deals with the investors he defrauds) and drown out the warnings of the pesky doctors.
But the fact of the matter is that nowhere near enough per-capita testing has been done to begin thinking about re-opening the economy — and for that, Trump only has himself to blame.
CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang said what everybody in the media was thinking in a quote-tweet of the President’s outburst, framed with a simple question: Where are the tests you promised us 53 days ago, President Trump?
“Complaining” is not the same as asking why it matters if we are doing more testing than any other country if every American who wants and needs a test still can’t get one.
53 days ago on March 6th, the President claimed they could.
It’s fair to keep asking #WhereAreTheTests ? https://t.co/vijQ4eiyfC
— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) April 28, 2020
If the past few weeks are anything to judge by, we will never get an answer to that question — only more lies and complaints. Perhaps it’s best that testing is being left to the states, because the Trump administration clearly has little interest in doing any.
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Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.