Trump at his rally yesterday was still calling for things to be opened up more and blaming MI governor Whitmer for closing things. What's sad is his supporters were cheering that even as they knew and he didn't deny that he knew the disease was much more serious than he had said.
Also for the guy who's saying he didn't want to panic people at that same rally he again said that suburbs are going to be destroyed.
You might overestimate the impact of this evidence though. Now its out, Trumpers still aren't changing their attitudes about the virus. They rationalize Trump's messaging as 'avoiding a panic' and continue to wear their masks under their noses. If Woodward released this tape in March, nothing would be different today. They'd say he's an alarmist and it's okay for old people to die and its more important to go to work and keep the economy running for rich people than it is to stop a pandemic. I don't get the flak that Woodward is taking -- this news is politically significant but epidemiologically insignificant.
I agree. As I said I think releasing it now is more effective as frankly it would've gotten lost in the news cycles as we get closer to the election. Also as we see Trump continues to deny and his supporters either rationalize what he said or out rightly ignore it.
Sure, poor leadership has been a big problem. And we've lost more than 2 months from it. But Woodward telling the world that Trump knew better than he let on wouldn't have fixed that problem. Trump still wouldn't have created a national strategy, he still wouldn't have ramped up the testing, he still would have said the economy is more important than lives, he still would have underspent to save that economy, he still would have discouraged mask wearing, he still would have used ventilators like political weapons, and he would still blame everyone except himself for the outcome. Woodward could have given the media another thing to bludgeon him with in the meantime, but they can't actually make him be a better president.
We are seeing exactly what would have happened from the Trump administration/ republicans if Woodward released the tapes early... Absolutely nothing.
There is a simple thing about telling the truth and lying by the gov. When your president tell the truth, people are not confused, they trust their gov, and they are enabled to make calm and informed decisions. When your president lie, people are confused, they lack trust in their own gov and those two together causes chaos. People are not enabled to make informed decisions. The head of states that tell the truth to their people mostly handled this virus well. The one that lied, like here... 200k dead and counting with chaos, confusion and a deteriorating lack of trust in gov data.
This is why Trump is to blame for the 200,000 dead and climbing across this country. Trump still refuses to mask up, and fills his supporters heads with lies. The lies and minimizing of the Covid threat are causing reckless abandon of doing what is necessary to stop the spread and save lives. Among his mostly maskless cult following at his last rally a CNN reporter asked some of them why they weren't wearing a mask. These are some of the responses. * "I have a hard time understanding people when they talk, so that's why I don't wear it." * "Because there's no Covid. It's a fake pandemic created to destroy the United States of America." * "I am not wearing a mask because I had my temperature taken already and I'm not sick." * "Why? Because it really doesn't do anything really. These little things? *pulls out mask* This is the worst pandemic in the world and a little mask? A little mask? This protects you from the world's deadliest and serious virus that ruined our economy? We have to wear this?" * "Why am I not wearing a mask? I am not wearing a mask or a couple different reasons. Mainly because a lot of the numbers that have come out on coronavirus are not as big as -- ... the media makes them a lot bigger than they actually are ... one other reason is that I'm very young and people who are here, coronavirus is a very serious issue..." The disturbingly dangerous mindset he has put in their heads is on him. Trump is to blame for not taking this seriously, not telling the truth, and not taking a National Response. Just think how different things could have been right now without an uneducated narcissistic compulsive liar brainwashing thousands of Americans who arent able to see the truth if it slapped them in their maskless face and left a big red mark. Trump has changed his stories more often than he changes his adult diapers. He is confusing people with lies and misinformation. He is a dangerous man whose negligence is killing thousands of people a week. Those responses above sound like something those guys I put on ignore in here would say. Reality is fake, illusions are real, and Trump is our chosen one type thinking is the Trump cult madness mentality. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/11/politics/masks-trump-michigan-rally/index.html
note: caputo is the only person to have worked for the trump white house and the kremlin... and this is an example of trump's "playing down" the COVID-19 crisis.
First I want to apologize for going hard into the paint but ... The Woodward tape is not extremely damaging. Maybe just extremely embarrassing. Maybe. The 40% of the electorate that are voting for Trump do not care. The rest of us do not believe a damn word Trump says on all things, especially related to science. Before CV-19 got to the US, we saw what it did in China ... what it did in Italy, Spain, France et al. We knew CV-19 was serious. We knew Trump was lying and is still lying. We now know that Trump knew he was lying, which is no big surprise. I am a bit surprised that his briefers were able to get Trump to pay attention long enough for him to understand the scope of CV-19. That is about it.
