View this email in your browser Trump isn't masking his denial By Jane Greenway Carr / May 24, 2020 The week began with (apologies to my beloved 1980s pop queens, The Bangles) a Manic Monday — only more so.
During a round table event with restaurant leaders and executives, President Donald Trump spilled it to reporters: "I'm taking it, hydroxychloroquine. Right now, yeah. Couple of weeks ago, I started taking it. 'Cause I think it's good, I've heard a lot of good stories."
Even Fox News host Neil Cavuto was stunned by what Trump said next: "You know, I'm not going to get hurt by it." Don't count on it, Cavuto warned his viewers: "If you are in a risky population here ... it will kill you." (Trump immediately took a jab at Cavuto on Twitter.)
As Peter Bergen marveled, "Trump's own FDA in late April warned of the dangers of taking hydroxychloroquine outside of a hospital or clinical study setting, 'due to the risk of heart rhythm problems.'"
And despite a horrific death toll still climbing and warnings from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield about a coming winter outbreak, Bergen noted further that when it comes to "playing fast and loose" with facts about the pandemic, "the apple falleth not far from the tree."
Donald Trump Jr. recently defended his right to "hyperbole" in speculating back in February that Democrats relished a coronavirus crisis big enough to end his father's prospects for reelection, while second son Eric Trump cracked that once Dems have exploited it, "coronavirus will magically all of a sudden go away and disappear and everybody will be able to reopen" after the presidential election on November 3.
Beyond the political bluster, Jennifer Senior posited for the New York Times that there may be more to it when it comes to Trump and hydroxychloroquine. In addition to being the "world's most powerful patient," she wrote, Donald Trump is "the patient perfect storm: a science denier, a devotee of medical quackery, and — above all else, I cannot emphasize this part enough — a powerful and narcissistic celebrity." Citing examples as various as Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, Senior observed that the powerful, rich and famous "often seek out doctors who'll follow their patients' egos, not science and data." No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service Trump's resistance to wearing a protective face mask also drew lots of attention this week — and he leaned into it, going so far as to hold out to reporters a mask with the presidential seal on it during a visit to a Ford plant in Michigan on Thursday (he said he had put it on out of sight of cameras) but flouted the plant's mask requirement during a walkthrough, surrounded by company brass with their faces covered.
"Too many encounters around masking turn hostile," David Perry cautioned, urging a strategy simpler than making it a political or a policing issue. He said, "we already have all the tools we need built in to low-key and widely accepted societal norms. Let's add 'no masks' to the famous "no shirt, no shoes, no service."
Julian Zelizer had a different tactic for dealing with the tensions between individual freedom and public safety: Don't be the guy who gets people killed. Try to focus on the real enemy here: Our 21st century viral Great White. "Jaws" celebrates its 45th anniversary in a few weeks and Zelizer wrote, "Today, as summer sets in...we find ourselves facing similar tensions to the ones that unfolded on screen back then. Now, our shark is a virus — and as we grapple with how to keep citizens safe while reopening our public spaces, the film can offer some important lessons."
'Memorial Day is every day for me' The concept of a fun, long weekend seems like a quaint relic after months of lockdown and grief for so many, and indeed this Memorial Day weekend is unlike any Americans alive today have known.
Staying isolated from family and friends is staggeringly hard. And as biology professor Erin Bromage acknowledged in the New York Times, some people just aren't going to do it anymore, even though the "actions and choices we make over the next few days and weeks will determine what summer looks like for all of us." Bromage recommended practices for safer (though not safe) socialization.
John Kirby suggested that the painful hardships of isolation can each us all more about what this holiday is actually for: memorializing our lost war dead. Kirby spoke with Gold Star spouse Coleen Bowman, who lost her husband Rob to cancer resulting from a combat deployment to Iraq. "Every day is Memorial Day for me," Bowman said, adding that her experience has both taught her there is no right way to deal with grief and given her empathy for those brought low by the virus.
This Memorial Day is not about making a perfect comparison between soldiers and those killed by Covid-19 (or the heroes fighting the virus and keeping us fed and safe), Kirby reflected, but "we'd be fools, indeed, if we failed to remember what those fallen troops and their surviving families can teach us about how to better connect with one another, how to recover from tragedy and how to overcome our own fear and grief during this pandemic."
Public health is an expression of faith On Friday, the President announced that he would "override the governors" if they didn't allow churches and other houses of worship "to open right now, this weekend." He called them "essential places of faith." Father Edward Beck responded that he won't argue the point that worship is essential but took strong issue both with the idea that in-person worship warrants compromising public safety and with the implication that clergy and people of faith haven't already been providing essential spiritual care. Beck himself has presided over funerals with limited family members and prayed via FaceTime and Zoom, and "even heard a confession in a supermarket parking lot."
Priests, rabbis, imams and many other faith leaders are blessing the sick and dying in hospitals, wrote Beck, and are providing ceaseless community support while continuing to celebrate Masses and prayer services and other rites and rituals virtually "for countless of the faithful ... That is all 'religious service.' What most of us have not done is put ourselves and our parishioners in danger by gathering in large groups for Mass or other religious services 'as usual.' That would have been — and would continue to be, in this time of contagion — irresponsible and sinful."
A Trump firing leaves a trail of fallout A week ago Friday, the President announced that he was firing State Department inspector general Steve Linick, whose job is "investigating any signs of malfeasance at the State Department," headed up by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, wrote Frida Ghitis. On Wednesday Pompeo acknowledged that he asked Trump to fire Linick. "Mike Pompeo has surged into the headlines atop a geyser of revelations so dramatic that they may even help President Donald Trump distract the public from his disastrous pandemic response," Ghitis observed.
Pompeo, under investigation for having staffers do his personal errands, according to an NBC News report, was also being investigated by Linick for his handling of an arms deal with Saudi Arabia, according to Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. "One of the most distinctive and harmful traits of the Trump administration is its disdain for ethics and integrity in government," Ghitis wrote. Pompeo has denied any wrongdoing. As Quin Hillyer put it for the Washington Examiner, "Something looks rotten in the State Department of Mike Pompeo."
In defending his secretary of state against accusations that he used his position to task aides with among other things walking his dog and picking up his laundry, Trump said, "I'd rather have him on the phone with some world leader than have him wash dishes because maybe his wife isn't there or his kids aren't there." This showed his hand on what he really thinks women are for, appraised Jill Filipovic — to clean up the mess.
More smart takes:
Elie Honig: Firing State Department inspector general may be a crime
Samantha Vinograd: Trump's dangerous assault on government watchdogs |
