trump on those who died from COVID-19 “it is what it is”

Washington Post... link

From the article...

“Trump actually doesn’t appear to understand how bad the pandemic is”

President Trump came prepared, or so it seemed.

When he sat down for an interview with Axios’s Jonathan Swan last week, Trump held a number of loose sheets of paper, each with a graph that, he clearly believed, showed how well the United States has done in combating the coronavirus pandemic. He had a graph showing the number of tests completed in the United States, for example, a soaring line rising above other countries tallying the tens of millions that have been conducted over time. Another had a simple bar chart, four colored rectangles demonstrating his administration’s success.

These were the emperor's clothes, and he was proud of them. But Swan, given one of the few opportunities for a non-sycophant to interview the president, revealed them for what they were. Trump was left fumbling, unable to rationalize his repeated claims that all was well. Because, of course, it isn't.

“Right now, I think it's under control,” Trump said at one point. “I'll tell you what—”

“How? A thousand Americans are dying a day,” Swan interjected.

“They are dying, that's true. And you ha— It is what it is,” Trump replied. “But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague that beset us.”

“You really think this is as much as we can control it? A thousand deaths a day?” Swan said.

“I’ll tell you, I’d like to know if somebody—” Trump began, then switched directions. “First of all, we have done a great job.”

He then went into his standard patter about ventilators and protective equipment. This has emerged as a standard defense mechanism for the president: What he’s done is the best that could have been done, and nothing he hasn’t done would have been useful to do until such time as he does it. The number of tests completed is an unalloyed success, although the slow ramp-up in testing allowed the virus to spread without detection for weeks this spring, spurring massive numbers of deaths. To Swan, Trump blamed this on his having taken office without there being a test for the virus — a virus that emerged in humans more than two years after Trump became president.

Aaron Rupar...

”They are dying. That’s true. It is what it is.” Trump’s Axios interview was a disaster.”


As of this morning.

The United States has 4,873,925  of the 18,543,305 confirmed cases of COVID-19.  That is 26% of the total confirmed cases in the world.  

The United States has 159,385 deaths of the 699,745 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the world.  That is 22% of the confirmed deaths from the virus.

The United States has 4% of the total world population.

And the response from the President of the United States?  “It is what it is”.

Daniel Dale....

”Trump made at least 19 false claims in his HBO interview with Jonathan Swan. (This is a preliminary count, will likely rise.) My fact check here:”

”This excellent @jonathanvswan interview is yet more evidence that even basic follow-up questioning - like asking wait, hold on, what are you even talking about - immediately exposes Trump's lies. And yet it has almost never happened.”




“Jonathan Swan reveals the simple secret to exposing Trump's lies: basic follow-up questions”

From the article....  link

”Other false claims

Trump made at least 17 additional false claims in the 35-minute interview. (We're still reviewing the transcript, so the final total might be higher.)

An incident in Portland: When Swan mentioned "disturbing footage of people in fatigues beating the Navy veteran" in Portland, Trump said "no" repeatedly and then said, "Fake news." (There was nothing fake about what Swan said. As Swan noted, the beating of protester Chris David was captured on video.)

NBC and Portland: Trump claimed that Lester Holt's NBC news program misleadingly depicted Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler's July 23 visit to a protest site by portraying Wheeler as a friend of protesters. (The NBC Nightly News segment that evening explicitly noted that protesters were unhappy with Wheeler: "Ted Wheeler, who's also Portland's police commissioner, was booed by protesters, who criticized his leadership of Portland's police." There is no evidence for Trump's claim protesters "would have killed him" if not for his security team.)

The Portland courthouse: Trump claimed that the federal courthouse in Portland, which has endured damage from some of the protesters in the city, is a "$600 million building." (The courthouse cost a reported $129 million to build in the 1990s; even with inflation, that is roughly $200 million in today's dollars. Trump claimed last week that it was a "billion-dollar building.")

Penalties for courthouse damage: Trump claimed, "We now have a 10-year rule. You knock down -- you try and knock down -- our courthouse, you touch our courthouse, you go to jail for 10 years." (There is not a "rule" that anyone who touches or damages the courthouse goes to jail for 10 years. This is the maximum penalty a judge can choose to impose, under a decades-old federal law, for destroying federal property. In June, Trump issued an executive order declaring that people who damage monuments or federal property will be prosecuted "to the fullest extent" under existing laws, but he did not create any new laws.)

Coronavirus cases: Trump claimed that "we have cases" of the coronavirus "because of the testing." (Testing does not create cases, just reveals their existence -- and, in fact, testing is a pandemic-fighting tool that is supposed to help reduce the number of actual cases.)

South Korea's death toll: Trump cast doubt on Swan's correct statement that South Korea has 300 deaths from the coronavirus, saying, "You don't know that." When Swan pressed him on whether he thinks South Korea is faking its statistics, Trump said, "I won't get into that because I have a very good relationship with the country. But you don't know that." (South Korea had precisely 301 confirmed deaths as of Tuesday; there is no basis to claim the country is faking its data. Many countries, including South Korea and the US, likely have more actual coronavirus deaths than have been confirmed to date, but Swan was correctly using the available numbers.)

The US presence in Afghanistan: Trump claimed the US is "largely out of Afghanistan." ("Largely" is vague, but as Swan noted, the US still has more than 8,000 troops in Afghanistan.)

The number of troops in Afghanistan: Trump told Swan "you're wrong" for saying that the current number of troops in Afghanistan is roughly the same as the number when Trump took office. (Swan was right.)

Trump's 2016 margin: Trump claimed he beat Hillary Clinton "306 to 223" in the Electoral College in 2016. (Clinton earned 232 electoral votes; we know this is a small thing, but Trump has said "223" 12 times since July 2019.)

The history of mail-in voting: Trump claimed, "We have a new phenomenon. It's called mail-in voting." (As Swan noted, Americans have voted by mail all the way back to the Civil War. Trump clarified that he was saying mail-in voting is now going to be used more than it has before, which is fair, but that doesn't make it "new.")

Mail-in voting and fraud: Trump claimed, "There is no way you can go through a mail-in vote without massive cheating." (There is no evidence of massive cheating with mail-in voting -- and five states, including conservative Utah, have previously conducted fair elections almost entirely by mail.)

Absentee voting: Trump again argued that "absentee" voting is fair but other mail-in voting is not. (There is no real difference; many states, like Florida, where Trump himself votes by mail, make no distinction at all between people who vote by mail while in the state or while out of the state.)

Travel restrictions: Trump claimed he put a "ban on China" and a "ban on Europe." (He imposed pandemic travel restrictions on both China and Europe, but neither was a full "ban"; he exempted citizens and permanent residents, many of their family members, and entire European countries.)

China and trade: Trump suggested China is paying the tariffs on imported Chinese products (American importers make the actual tariff payments, and studies show Americans are bearing the cost) and that China had its worst year in "67 years" before the pandemic (China's official GDP growth in 2019, 6.1%, was the lowest in 29 years).

Black Americans: Trump claimed that he has done "more for the Black community than anybody with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln, whether you like it or not." When Swan asked him specifically if he thinks he did "more than Lyndon Johnson, who passed the Civil Rights Act," Trump said yes. (We give Trump wide latitude to express opinions, but this one is ridiculous. Lincoln, who emancipated the slaves and won the Civil War, is a certain exception, not a possible exception; Johnson's monumental Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act clearly dwarfed the impact of any of Trump's policies.)