President Donald Trump’s inner circle behaves increasingly like a cult, with relentless deference to their “Dear Leader.” This week during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson pompously proclaimed that President Trump isn’t getting enough credit for being “courageous.” That’s right; an actual medical doctor, who’s also supposed to lead housing policy in the U.S., claimed that the guy is “courageous” who couldn’t even be bothered to take the virus seriously until after Americans were dying. The oh-so-courageous Trump discounted the science of the Coronavirus spread, calling concern a “hoax,” until it was too late to stop large-scale spread.
Carson insisted to Hannity, in reference to the administration’s supposedly great Coronavirus response:
‘Absolutely, they’re not getting the credit for it. And for that sake, you know, neither is the president getting the credit for being incredibly courageous. You know, imposing the travel ban so early on. Now you have people saying, oh, you were too late. The same people who were telling people to go out and have fun and to mix.’
Watch below:
Ben Carson says the President isn’t getting the credit for being courageous pic.twitter.com/RNYLCXG3cp
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) April 3, 2020
The president and his supporters have referenced his early ban on travel from China, where the Coronavirus first emerged, ad nauseum at this point. Over and over again it comes up — the problem is that it doesn’t remotely make up for the vast ineptitude of all of the other parts of the Trump administration’s Coronavirus response. That ineptitude makes it clear — the drive for the China travel ban doesn’t appear to have been competent and courageous response. It was racism.
Months after the crisis began, Coronavirus testing remained an issue in some areas of the country, and around the same time — Trump can’t even be bothered to take local authorities’ demands for lifesaving medical assistance seriously. He’s claimed that medical personnel are hoarding supplies and local leaders are playing politics, neither of which have any basis in reality and both of which prove that Trump’s not some courageous, valiant leader — he’s putting Americans in danger so that he can play politics.
He belted out on Twitter just this week:
‘Massive amounts of medical supplies, even hospitals and medical centers, are being delivered directly to states and hospitals by the Federal Government. Some have insatiable appetites & are never satisfied (politics?)… The complainers should have been stocked up and ready long before this crisis hit.’
No! That’s the job of the president of the United States, too! Trump is aware that he’s the president, right? Or does he think this is all some elaborate reality television ruse?
….have been stocked up and ready long before this crisis hit. Other states are thrilled with the job we have done. Sending many Ventilators today, with thousands being built. 51 large cargo planes coming in with medical supplies. Prefer sending directly to hospitals.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2020
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been among those to hammer the president for his floundering. During a recent appearance on CNN, she commented:
‘What the President, his denial at the beginning was deadly… as the President fiddles, people are dying. And we just have to take every precaution… the other day when he was signing the bill, he said just think 20 days ago everything was great. No, everything wasn’t great. We had nearly 500 cases and 17 deaths already. And in that 20 days because we weren’t prepared, we now have 2,000 deaths and 100,000 cases.’
The numbers prove Pelosi’s point.
