During an interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, Donald Trump Jr. stated COVID-19 infection rates have dropped to “almost nothing.”
Jr. claims Coronavirus death numbers are down to “almost nothing” pic.twitter.com/NGMDLYkdsD
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) October 30, 2020
If over nine million is “next to nothing,” when does it get to be “something”?
We shouldn’t expect honesty from the Trumps at this point.
Coronavirus/COVID-19 contagion is at record single-day levels, higher than they were at their peak in March and April.
Last week, the U.S. reported over 90,400 new cases–more than one per second.
This week topped that with 107,872 new infections in a single day.
• A record 90,446 new U.S. coronavirus cases in 1 day
• That's more than 1 new case for every second of the day
• 24 states set new 7-day records
• 544,775 new cases in past week
• That's 1 out of every 600 Americans testing positive in a single weekhttps://t.co/74QzWYbn1p pic.twitter.com/Le4f73ZmTi— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) October 30, 2020
9 m cases, and a record number of #covid cases today.. this is Trump’s failure… #vote https://t.co/RctlHxxQpn
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) October 30, 2020
The COVID Tracking Project explained in its weekly update:
“Unlike the spring and summer outbreaks, the third surge is geographically dispersed, and counts are up in every region of the country. An increase in testing is not sufficient to explain the numbers.
“The country reported a record number of tests at 8.2 million, but case growth (24 percent) far outpaced test growth (9 percent), as we explained earlier this week. That’s also true for the entire month of October: Forty-seven of the 50 states, along with the District of Columbia, have seen cases rise faster than reported tests since October 1.”
As the Washington Post reported:
“Coronavirus cases are surging in every competitive state before Election Day, offering irrefutable evidence against President Trump’s closing argument that the pandemic is nearly over and restrictions are no longer necessary.
“In the 13 states deemed competitive by the Cook Political Report, the weekly average of new cases reported daily has jumped 45 percent over the past two weeks, from fewer than 21,000 on October 14 to more than 30,000 on October 28.”
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers warned:
“There is no way to sugarcoat it: We are facing an urgent crisis. There is an imminent risk to you, your family members, your friends, your neighbors.”
This is a failure of leadership at the most egregious level.
Another record day of COVID cases. Not because of testing – but because President Trump has given up on controlling the virus and his Administration has failed the American people.https://t.co/pBfAb0IyMH
— House Homeland Security Committee (@HomelandDems) October 30, 2020
So what is Donald Trump doing about it as he is about to lose a second term to Joe Biden?
As COVID-19 cases rip through the country, Trump does what he always does–get rid of those who don’t exist in his alternate reality.
He has threatened (or at least hinted) to fire National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) director Anthony Fauci, whose dire predictions about heightened COVID numbers once fall hit and more people flocked indoors have so far turned out correct.
But the question is not why Trump continues to deny the pandemic’s exigency.
As stated before, we shouldn’t expect honesty from the Trump crime family at this point.
The real question, now two days after election day, when Joe Biden is a mere six electoral college votes away from clinching the White House, is why Trump hasn’t lost in a landslide.
How much more inept does a leader have to be?
Future generations, in their volumes of text (or whatever medium the printed word is in) will likely scratch their heads wondering if Trump was just a (bad) fictional character.
Surely a president who ignored a contagious virus infecting his citizens every second was something out of a poorly written sci-fi story, right?
But he’s real.
The damage he has caused is real.
The malice is real.
In 1932, the United States had a choice–go the way of Germany and embrace fascism, or elect a leader with enough vision, empathy, and humility to lift America out of the Republican Great Depression and revitalize the economy and the foundations upon which it was built.
We chose the latter.
And in so doing, we created and cultivated a middle class until the “Reagan revolution” of 1980.
Donald Trump is just the failing libertarian experiment’s authoritarian climax that has continued to march us steadily toward fascism.
If he wins, it is the end of the Republic.
That’s not hyperbole.
Image credit: orinocotribune.com