Trump just threw his own CDC director under the bus for his Senate vaccine and mask testimony
As if the United States wasn’t experiencing enough furious infernos right now, the raging dumpster fire that Donald Trump calls his coronavirus press briefings took place again this afternoon after other campaign activities took precedence in recent days.
As usual, the briefing was full of lies about the success of the administration’s response to the pandemic and featured a number of false promises, but the highlight was watching the president try to completely contradict the testimony that his own Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, delivered under oath to the GOP-controlled Senate Appropriations Committee today.
Dr. Redfield made two points today that directly contradict Trump’s own past statements on the pandemic.
The first was that any potential vaccine against COVID-19 wouldn’t be widely available to the general public until the second or third quarter of next year.
Sen. Kennedy: When do you think we'll have a vaccine ready for the public?
CDC Dir. Redfield: Vaccine initially available in Nov.-Dec. but in “very limited supply.” If asking when is it going to be generally available to the American public, you’re looking at late Q2-Q3 2021. pic.twitter.com/AopPUTsd9K
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 16, 2020
The second was Dr. Redfield’s opinion that facemasks are a better solution to virus prophylaxis than any vaccine, particularly one rushed to market without proper testing protocols because of political pressure.
NEW: CDC Director Redfield to US Senate cmte.:
“These facemasks are the important, powerful public health tool we have … I might even go so far as to say that this facemask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine.” pic.twitter.com/7LJZ3U9xi1
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 16, 2020
In his briefing this afternoon, Trump threw Redfield under the bus by trying to either claim that he knew better than the doctor and head of the agency specializing in infectious diseases or that Dr. Redfield had misunderstood the question.
Either explanation was a complete fabrication designed only to advance the president’s re-election campaign.
"When I called up Robert [Redfield] today, I said to him, 'what's with the masks?' He said, 'I think I answered that question incorrectly.'" — Trump on the CDC director's congressional testimony pic.twitter.com/S1FpJRmsVO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 16, 2020
Sign the petition to tell Congress to stop Trump’s sabotage of the post office!
"I am the one who got football back," says the guy whose coronavirus bungling caused it to be delayed in the first place pic.twitter.com/G3sE0I5slb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 16, 2020
Even worse than Trump’s nonsensical claims about vaccines and masks was his continued insistence that the United States only has more cases of coronavirus than any other country because of our extensive testing as if the design was causing the virus to spread.
This is just absolutely insane stuff. Completely bonkers. There aren't words for how unhinged the president is. pic.twitter.com/KFXKP1Cflz
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 16, 2020
In the end, Trump revealed the real reason he is so unconcerned with the now nearly 200,000 American dead, so unconcerned that he has been knowingly downplaying the deadliness of the disease that Bob Woodward’s audio tapes now show that he knew all about as early as February of this year — that he is not among the victims.
When asked about reports that someone on the White House staff has tested positive for COVID-19 after the spate of mask-averse rallies that the president has riskily held in recent days, Trump answered with supreme obliviousness to his own self-centeredness: “it was not anybody that was near me”
Kayleigh McEnany confirms that there was a positive Covid test among a White House staffer, but Trump quickly points out that "it was not anybody that was near me" as if he's the only person in the world that matters pic.twitter.com/xq6iOleSQ3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 16, 2020
It’s amazing that the president still believes that enough people will fall for his con-man routine to win a second term when any president not facing the threat of multiple prosecutions for criminal behavior at their term would have already resigned or at least dropped out of the race as Lydon Johnson did when he realized that he faced no path to victory.
Trump’s malignant narcissism just won’t allow him to admit to the possibility of defeat. Just how far he may go to ensure that his fragile ego won’t be shattered is what’s most worrying for the American public in the next two months.
Vote to make sure that ego lies in pieces in the ground when November 3rd comes around.
Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.
Original reporting by Aaron Rupar at Vox.
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