Donald Trump “has essentially left the leadership job saying he should provide a country in trouble” during the coronavirus pandemic, a former CIA secretary of defense and director said on Wednesday.
Leon Panetta, who served in various capacities under nine United States presidents, became the latest prominent public figure to accuse Trump of effectively surrendering to the virus and abandoning Americans to their fate, using awol military jargon, which means AWOL.
“This is a major crisis,” Panetta told Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN, noting that leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci warned that the United States could reach 100,000 new cases per day, double the current rate.
“But the president, instead of putting together some sort of national strategy to deal with this crisis, simply resorts to tweeting about vandalism and other things to divert attention from the crisis that is there.”
He added: “We have a president who is unwilling to stand up and do whatever it takes to lead this country in times of major crisis. I have never had a president who has avoided that responsibility. “
The virus has infected more than 2.6 million Americans and killed 128,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. Recently reported infections topped 50,000 on Wednesday for the first time, a record high in the US outbreak, and they’re increasing significantly in 40 states, more than a dozen of which have been forced to pause reopening plans. . Hospital beds and testing capacity are under tension.
Trump is accused of a double failure of leadership, first downplaying the virus in January and February and then after a hectic April in which he proclaimed himself a “wartime president”, recklessly pressuring states to reopen, organizing a campaign rally and back to a head-on approach in the arena. Now, as then, he has claimed that the virus “will just go away,” adding “I hope” in an interview, even as Covid-19 ravages the nation.
When Trump held a town hall on Fox News with Sean Hannity last week, just three minutes of the hour was spent on the coronavirus, according to CNN analysis. When the White House coronavirus task force held its first briefing in nearly two months, it took place in the health department instead of the White House and was chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, while the President had taken the rudder frequently before.
Trump’s Twitter feed is dominated by attacks that draw attention to electoral rival Joe Biden, fulminations for the overthrow of statues, bellicose calls for law and order, and bald pronouncements like “THE SOLDIER WARRIOR!” – but the virus is rarely mentioned.
When asked by the Guardian if the President had made a conscious decision to talk less about the virus, Kayleigh McEnany, White House press secretary, said Wednesday: “The President is not focused on speaking; It is focused on action. And this administration has taken historic steps regarding the coronavirus.
“We have an excessive amount of EPP, overvoltage, a lot of fans in the arsenal. We were told that things that could never be done were done under this administration. Test more than 600,000 per day. This president has done historic work regarding the coronavirus. “
Democrats argue that Trump is ignoring the disaster while passing the money to state governors. Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday, Biden said: “It seems that our wartime president surrendered and waved the white flag, and left the battlefield.”
Moe Vela, a Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Biden in the White House, said: “I think he really believes that if he doesn’t talk about it, and if it distracts us, we are going to somehow forget that he was responsible for it. .
“He thinks that if he talks about something else or focuses on some other topic or engages in some other pattern of ridiculous behavior, then we will forget that people are dying.” How do you forget that people are dying? This is not a revival; This is a continuation of a very deadly virus that is spreading like a forest fire and is running in the opposite direction. “
Vela, director of transparency for TransparentBusiness, added: “It could easily rank among the top one or two examples of the epitome of failed leadership in our nation’s history. You contrast this with an Abraham Lincoln and you can dramatically see the ends of the leadership spectrum. ”
Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, is recovering from Covid-19. When asked her opinion on Trump’s response to the pandemic, she replied: “I don’t think printing is appropriate. President Trump’s response to the virus has been, I believe, the worst of any large-scale democracy in the world. It is unprecedented. There is no national plan. “
Tanden, a prominent supporter of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, added: “They catch him because his performance has been so terrible with the virus that he believes he can change the subject by not talking about it.” The problem is that it is the main concern of voters, much more than the economy. “
A poll by Hart Research for the lobby group Protect Our Care found that even voters who approve of Trump’s handling of the economy are more concerned with his failed response to the virus. About 57% believe Trump’s policies are increasing the chances that many more people will die from the coronavirus, while only 17% believe they will decrease it.
Overall, according to the poll, 60% of voters disapprove of how Trump has handled the coronavirus, and 57% believe the President is to blame for the deaths associated with it.
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