Although he considered the situation too dangerous to carry out the quadrennial political spectacle, he insisted that it was perfectly safe for the children to return to school full time in a few weeks.
Trump used northeastern states like New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, which reduced his infection curve with strict orders to stay home, as part of a misleading argument that much of the United States was free of the virus. What he did not say is that those states were successful because they ignored his calls to reopen.
“That really indicates to a large extent where the problems are,” Trump said, referring to a map that shows less virus penetration in the northeast states and the central plains, where fewer people live, than through the sunbelt.
“As you can see, it is in very good condition, very much,” Trump said.
“The northeast has become very clean. The country is in a very good state, apart from looking south and west, some problems will be solved,” said the president.
States that disregarded scientific advice to meet government re-opening benchmarks, many led by pro-Trump governors and endorsing it in 2016, such as Texas, Florida, and Arizona, are now in the midst of a nightmare of Covid-19. Florida, for example, recorded 10,249 new cases and 173 additional deaths on Thursday, breaking the previous record of 156 deaths on July 16, according to the state health department.
Trump also complained that a dozen European countries and Taiwan and South Korea were sending their children back to class, and the United States failed to do so, ignoring the fact that those places had competent central governments that adequately beat the virus. However, Trump was unable to provide the leadership and national testing and tracking system that could make the restart of school a viable proposition along with a full reopening of the economy. The United States currently has more infections and deaths than any other nation.
“It is not about politics, it is something very, very important. It is not about politics,” Trump said of his push back to school, after months when politics and not science seemed to be the primary one. driving force behind His response to the worst internal crisis since World War II.
Still, if Thursday’s half-hour briefing did not provide medical clarity, it did provide insight into the president’s electoral thinking. His decision on his convention acceptance speech, which he had previously demanded, should go ahead and have moved from North Carolina after officials said it was unsafe, made one thing clear: he finally understands that his denial and neglect of the pandemic seriously threaten his reelection.
Trump hero loves the Yankees closer on a tragic day
It is also becoming obvious that Trump’s return to the White House meeting room has nothing to do with a genuine new “tone” or providing solid information to the American people. (After complaints that he was not sharing the stage with medical experts, Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the coronavirus task force, sat off to the side on Thursday, wearing a mask, but was not asked to speak) .
Several times in an appearance that took place as the deaths rushed to the 1,000 mark for another day, Trump stopped to worship the hero, former New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera, who sat in the seats of the Personnel adjacent to the President and not wearing a mask.
Trump answered a question about whether the canceled Jacksonville event showed he was pushing openings too quickly by announcing that he would launch the opening pitch in a Yankees game in August.
“I have never seen a pitcher throw a ball where as many bats as Mariano were broken. He has the all-time record,” Trump added in comments that showed a lack of focus and seriousness behind his leadership in the pandemic.
The briefings have become a theater of disinformation in which the president promotes any positive development, such as progress in vaccines, but ignores the terrible and growing number of human victims of the pandemic and offers very misleading information about its severity and probable duration.
“It will come and go. It will. When you look at what happened in New York and what happened in New Jersey and other places. And now you’re looking and it’s gone. I hope it stays.”
Trump’s optimistic assessment contrasts with warnings from his own members of the coronavirus task force on Thursday. Dr. Anthony Fauci, using a baseball metaphor on the Opening Day of the truncated major league season, said in a briefing organized by the TB Alliance: “We are not winning the game right now, we are not leading it.”
Trump says he canceled the convention to ‘protect’ the American people
Weeks ago, Democrats decided it was too inappropriate, given the national emergency, to hold a full nomination convention to anoint former Vice President Joe Biden as their candidate. Trump has long insisted that his moment take place in front of a large crowd and mocked his rival for planning a virtual convention. Therefore, his claim that his decision to cancel showed great leadership was exaggerated.
“It really is something that, for me, I have to protect the American people. That is what I have always done, that is what I will always do, that is what I am doing,” Trump said, alleging that his staff advised him that the The convention could easily go ahead but he told them he was “chosen to help and protect”.
The Trump campaign is likely to react to criticism of the entire convention saga by saying that journalists who criticized him for moving forward now criticize him for the cancellation and that the president cannot win.
But the notion that the president has always cared more about the American people is belied by the fact that for weeks he played down the threat the virus poses to the United States, and then pressured states to open up prematurely before that he was defeated. Until this week, when the political damage caused by his indifference became increasingly obvious, the President ignored the increasingly serious crisis.
“We have to be vigilant, we have to be careful. And we also have to lead by example. I think leading by example is very important,” Trump said, in a deeply ironic comment given his earlier attitude.
A source familiar with the situation told CNN on Thursday that the president had been watching an increasing number of Republican lawmakers announcing that they would not be attending the convention speech in Jacksonville, which had become a hot spot for coronavirus in recent years. weeks.
The prospect of a disappointing crowd at the televised event would have been profoundly unpleasant for the President, who was embarrassed and ridiculed for the poor attendance at his return rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last month.
Reopening of ‘critical’ schools
The president also redoubled his demands for schools to be opened, in a move that could help revive the vital economy for re-election and foster a sense of normalcy he needs to argue that he pulled the country out of fire.
But the president also said that school districts that don’t open should be deprived of such funding, setting up another showdown with Republicans in Congress who disagree with such steps. He said the unused money “would go to the parents” to enable them to decide whether to send the children to private or charter schools. “We cannot indefinitely prevent 50 million children from going to school,” Trump said. “Reopening our schools is also critical to ensuring parents can go to work and support their families.”
While he allowed some schools in critical areas to have to continue learning at a distance for a time, the president completely downplayed the fear of parents who are desperate for their children to return to the classroom but who also fear they may bring the virus . home. Schools are a lifeline for less affluent children, who depend on them for adequate food, and those with family problems at home are often seen by teachers.
Still, several school districts and governors across the country have chosen not to follow Trump’s warnings because they cannot guarantee the safety of children in already crowded buildings or fear that mass gatherings like a normal school day will unleash new centers of infection.
Trump spoke about how children have a very strong immune system and rightly said that the incidence of children with complications from the virus is very low.
Government health experts such as Fauci and Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have said they still don’t know to what extent children are causing the infection in the home.
A recent study in South Korea found that while children under the age of 10 transmit the disease much less frequently than adults, middle school and high school children are just as likely to spread the virus as adults.
These data suggest that sending older children to school could create new infection centers and put teachers and auxiliary staff at high risk.
Such is the pressure Trump has put on scientists and government experts of all kinds to reinforce his personal goals. Recommendations will never be free from the stain of politics.
.
