Tag: Donald Trump

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Fact-Check: Trump Says U.S. Has ‘Best’ COVID-19 Testing System (Nope)

L-R CNN’s Jim Acosta, Donald Trump
From NowThis News:

During a White House press briefing, Donald Trump said the U.S. doesn’t need nationwide testing before sending people back to work. Watch CNN’s Jim Acosta challenge President Trump on his COVID-19 testing claim.

The U.S. does not have the ‘best’ testing system. As of April 1, dozens of countries have far higher testing rates including Germany, Italy, Norway, S. Korea, Canada, Australia, & Estonia.

The White House had promised to conduct 27 million tests by the end of March. As of April 9, Trump himself told the press only 2 million tests had been administered. Based on those 2 million tests, the U.S. is testing approximately 6 people per thousand. Countries like South Korea and Germany are triple that rate. In the same exchange between Acosta and Trump, the Donald told the CNN journalist, “You shouldn’t be asking that kind of a question … it is very insulting to a lot of great people.” Journalists ask questions. It’s literally their job. People who are on point don’t get defensive when asked questions. They have answers.

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Campaign Ad: “Distracted”

A pretty devastating new ad from The Lincoln Project: “Trump says his own impeachment “distracted” him from the #Coronavirus response. Let’s be clear: He was never distracted. He just didn’t care.”

 

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Poll: Biden Leads Trump By 6 Points In Vital Swing State

L-R Former Vice President Joe Biden, Donald Trump
A new poll by the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab shows Donald Trump’s mixed messages and slow response to the ongoing coronavirus health threat is having a negative impact on his standing with voters in the vital swing-state of Florida. Pollsters found that 55% said the federal government has not gone far enough in taking action against COVID-19. The poll found 45% strongly or somewhat approve of the job Trump is doing to address the pandemic, while a majority of 53% disapprove. Asked if the election were held today, who voters would support for president, former Vice President Joe Biden trumped Trump by six points, 46% to 40%. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the president’s top health advisor, scored the highest rating with 85% approval and 6% disapproval among registered Florida voters.

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Jake Tapper To Trump: ‘This Isn’t About Winning A News Cycle’

CNN’s Jake Tapper addressed Donald Trump directly today on-air asking questions many Americans – like myself – would like answered.

“If I can take a moment, I would like to speak directly to one person known to watch this show, or at least clips of this show, President Trump.

“Mr. President, I know you, like millions of Americans, are eager to have the nation go back to some semblance of normal. One of the questions the American people need answered for that to happen responsibly: What’s the plan?

“Is there a plan for widespread testing of every American so as to isolate the virus — the way other countries have done? When will there be enough tests for that to happen? How will they be administered? Who will pay for the tests and the results? Who will notify us as to whether we’ve tested positive or not and what to do then?

[snip]

“This isn’t about winning a news cycle on Fox, please. The American people right now need someone to explain what is going to be done to get us out of this. It’s a moment that requires leadership. It requires honest information. It requires empathy. And it requires a plan. Do you have one?”

Sadly, I think we know the answers to those questions.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Trump Goes On Attack After Question About Jared Kushner’s “Our Stockpile” Comment

On Thursday, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner (you know, the one solving the Middle East conflict) made a perplexing remark about the stockpile of medical equipment housed by the federal government. “The notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile,” Kushner said. “It’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.” Folks were confused as to what differentiates the federal “our” stockpile from what would/should be used by states. It almost sounded like Kushner was saying the stockpile was for the Trump clan or the Trump administration to do with it as they wished. The federal government IS the United States of America. It exists primarily to keep the citizens of all states and U.S. territories safe. If the stockpile isn’t meant for states to use, then who would be using it? And why is anyone at this point in time even using the word “OUR” in regard to anything? Then on Friday (via CBS News):

When CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jiang pressed the president on what Kushner meant by “our,” he dismissed the question as a “gotcha.”

“‘Our, our’ — it means the United States of America,” the president said.

Mr. Trump said the stockpile is needed for the “federal government,” to keep for the country “because the federal government needs it, too, not just the states.”

The president accused Jiang of using a “nasty” tone in her question.

Governors have implored the president to provide them more ventilators and other much-needed equipment, but the president has repeatedly put the blame on the states for not stocking up on the equipment themselves.

Basically, Kushner misspoke. And in the Trump administration handbook, rather than say, “He misspoke,” everyone has to act like the response was “perfect” and they are stuck defending a stupid comment.

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The Daily Show: Supercut Of Fox News’ COVID-19 Coverage

Remember when COVID-19 was declared a “Democratic hoax” by Donald Trump? Remember when all of Fox News fell over itself to announce we had practically “nothing to fear” from the virus? Pete Hegseth on Fox & Friends: “The more I learn about coronavirus, the less concerned I am.” Man, how I’d love to hear what they think about their dumb AF comments today. But, come to think of it, they probably still believe them. From The Daily Show with Trevor Noah:

Hannity. Rush. Dobbs. Ingraham. Pirro. Nunes. Tammy. Geraldo. Doocy. Hegseth. Schlapp. Siegel. Watters. Dr. Drew. Henry. Ainsley. Gaetz. Inhofe. Pence. Kudlow. Conway. Trump.

Today, we salute the Heroes of the Pandumbic.

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Trump’s Approval Rating Sinks Amid Coronavirus Debacle

Trump walks past reporters with no comment

Trump walks past reporters with no comment
Donald Trump (image via public domain/White House)
The latest polls show the mixed messaging of the Trump administration is taking a toll on Donald Trump’s job approval rating. Via Mediaite:

An ABC News/Ipsos poll released Friday, 47 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s coronavirus response, while 52 percent of Americans disapprove — a steep drop from the same poll taken just two weeks ago when a whopping 55 percent approved of Trump’s response.

And in Trump’s favorite survey, the Trump-skewing Rasmussen daily tracking poll, his approval rating has dropped four points in a matter of days. The last time Trump was above water in that poll was Feb. 27, when his approval was at 52 percent. But he began this week with a -5 point net unfavorability, and finishes it nine points underwater with 44 percent approving and 53 percent disapproving.

 

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Trump Campaign Threatens TV Stations For Airing Anti-Trump Ad

Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has threatened TV stations they could lose their broadcast licenses for airing an ad criticizing how the Donald has handled the ongoing COVID-19 threat. From Bloomberg News:

President Donald Trump’s campaign, in a letter on Wednesday, told stations in five battleground states to stop showing the ad from Priorities USA, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

Failure to remove the ad “could put your station’s license in jeopardy” before the Federal Communications Commission, the campaign said in the letter. “Your station has an obligation to cease and desist from airing it immediately to comply with FCC licensing requirements.”

The letter was sent to stations in presidential battleground/swing states – Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – which are considered vital to Trump’s reelection. The spot, from anti-Trump PAC Priorities USA, shows a graphic of the increasing cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. from January 20 to March 22. The audio uses sound bites of Trump downplaying the seriousness of the coronavirus threat at the time. “The coronavirus,” Trump says at the beginning, “this is their new hoax.” This is the updated version of the spot released today:

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Trump Extends Shutdown Guidelines Past ‘Aspirational’ Easter Target

Donald Trump announced an extension of his administration’s “15 days to slow the spread” shutdown guidelines for 30 more days as the reality of increasing coronavirus infections and deaths set in. Public health officials and governors had urged him to change course from lifting the shutdown on Easter Sunday. Via Axios:

The president set April 30 as the new deadline for the social distancing guidelines in a Sunday evening briefing from the White House.

Driving the news: With the original 15-day period that was announced March 16 about to end, officials around the country had been bracing for a premature call to return to normalcy from a president who’s been venting lately that the prescription for containing the virus could be worse than the impacts of the virus itself.

“We had an aspiration” of Easter, Trump said, but when he heard the numbers of potential deaths, he realized he couldn’t push a reopening of the economy as soon as he previously had foreshadowed.

Trump explained his turnaround by saying his government’s modeling shows the peak death rate will likely come in two weeks. He said that 2.2 million people could die if the government did nothing and the public didn’t do the social distancing. “Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won,” he said.

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Trump Brags On White House TV Ratings After Reviving Press Briefings

Donald Trump
Donald Trump took the time to copy and paste text from a New York Times report about the viewership of the White House daily press briefings since the onset of the COVID-19 threat. It took the Donald four tweets to fit in all the ratings numbers he is so proud of, and then he came back an hour later with yet another ‘ratings tweet.’ An unprecedented number of Americans are contracting a lethal virus and Trump’s takeaway is beating “Bachelor finale” ratings.