friday, march 13 , 2020. the washington post eZ m2 A
The coronavirus outbreak
BY TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
AND ANNE GEARANAs a viral pandemic has spread
across continents with a severity
and deadliness that world leaders
say demands a global response,
President Trump has increasingly
turned inward.
He has imposed travel restric-
tions on one-fourth of the world’s
population while criticizing other
nations’ response efforts, refused
to meet with House Speaker Nan-
cy Pelosi, attacked his handpicked
federal reserve chairman and
defied the warnings of his own
public health experts.
His handling of the crisis, in-
cluding a surprise decision to re-
strict travel from Europe, is draw-
ing criticism at h ome and abroad,
with leaders warning that
Trump’s go-it-alone approach is
doing harm to an already fraught
situation.
German foreign minister
Heiko maas said that reasons
“less than factual” appeared to
have played a role in Trump’s
decision-making.
“We can’t adequately meet this
challenge — not even within the
USA — when decisions being
made are garnished with blame,”
maas said in an emailed state-
ment.
Before announcing the travel
restrictions in an oval office ad-
dress to the nation Wednesday,
Trump compared the death rate
in the United States positively
with other places where the coro-
navirus has been spreading,
bluntly criticizing U.S. allies as
they face a debilitating crisis.
“The European Union failed to
take the same precautions and
restrict travel from China and
other hot spots,” he said. “A s a
result, a large number of new
clusters in the United States were
seeded by travelers from Europe.”
on Thursday, he defended his
decision to go forward with the
30-day travel ban without first
consulting the 26 affected coun-
tries. Doing so would take too
long, he said, before bringing up
an unrelated gripe over trade.
“We had to move quickly,” he
said. “I mean, when they raise
taxes on us, they don’t c onsult us.”
Trump’s approach reflects his
us-against-them mind-set, ten-
dency to assign blame and com-
bative view of geopolitics — char-
acteristics that have only been
amplified by the global crisis, said
russell riley, a presidential histo-
rian at t he University of Virginia’s
miller Center.
“It is a persistent, enduring and
probably irreversible feature of
this president that he’s going to
approach a problem on his own
and will rise or fall based on his
ability to succeed in doing that,”
he said, describing Trump’s strat-
egy as a “recipe for a disastrous
exercise in leadership.”
The White House defended the
president’s leadership, arguing
that Trump has been engaging
with world leaders about the cor-
onavirus for several weeks.
“A s the President said last
night, we are using the full power
of the federal government and the
private sector to protect the
American people,” White House
spokesman Judd Deere said in astatement. “It is because of the
President’s leadership and rela-
tionships that he has brought to-
gether government and private
industry for unprecedented col-
laboration to curb the spread of
the Coronavirus, expand testing
capacities, and expedite vaccine
development.”
Trump, who called the corona-
virus a “foreign virus” and repeat-
edly said it was “not our fault,” has
focused more on its origins than
its rapid spread within the coun-
try as Americans transfer it to one
another. The outbreak has ad-
vanced within the country’s bor-
ders amid a lack of adequate test-
ing, disjointed messaging and po-
litical brinkmanship that even
Trump administration officials
acknowledge have hampered the
public health response.
Trump’s isolationism has ex-
tended to the domestic political
sphere, where the president has
refused to speak with Pelosi (D-
Calif.) amid his anger over his
impeachment, despite her lead-
ing role in determining what kind
of emergency stimulus package
Congress will produce.
Trump skipped the annual bi-
partisan St. Patrick’s Day lun-
cheon hosted by Pelosi on Thurs-
day, becoming the first president
to miss the event since George W.
Bush shortly before the Iraq War
began in 2003.
“No, I won’t be going,” he said
Thursday. “I have other things to
do. I’m very busy.”
Trump has dispatched Trea-
sury Secretary Steven mnuchin to
work with Pelosi on a major relief
bill, but a bipartisan agreement
remained elusive Thursday.
European leaders — accus-
tomed to Trump’s snubs — felt
particular stung by his surprisetravel ban targeting more than
400 million people in the 26-na-
tion euro zone.
“The Coronavirus is a global
crisis, not limited to any conti-
nent and it requires cooperation
rather than unilateral action,” Eu-
ropean Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen and Europe-
an Council President Charles mi-
chel said Thursday in a joint state-
ment. “The European Union dis-
approves of the fact that the U.S.
decision to impose a travel ban
was taken unilaterally and with-
out consultation.”
An E.U. official said the White
House has not explained how it
decided which European nations
to target.
“We don’t know, and we would
like to know,” s aid the official, who
spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity to discuss internal delib-
erations.
Trump has tangled with the
E.U. — among Washington’s clos-
est allies — for years on issues of
defense spending, climate change
and trade. But the travel ban was
seen by many European leaders as
a reckless move in a time of crisis.
“Viruses do not recognize bor-
ders,” f ormer finland prime min-
ister Alexander Stubb said on
Twitter. “Decisions should be
based on facts, not politics.”
Trump’s habit of making ex-
temporaneous comments about
the coronavirus has isolated him
from members of his administra-
tion tasked with managing the
outbreak.
While the president defended
his decision to ban travel from
Europe, he brushed off concerns
about his administration’s strug-
gles to ensure that tests are avail-
able for Americans who have cor-
onavirus symptoms.“The testing has been going
very smooth,” he said Thursday
afternoon in the oval office. “If
you go to the right agency, if you
go to the right area, you get the
test.”
Around the same time, the na-
tion’s l eading expert on infectious
diseases was delivering a very
different message on Capitol Hill.
“The system is not geared to-
ward what we need right now,
what you are asking for,” said
Anthony S. fauci, director of the
National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases and a mem-
ber of the president’s coronavirus
task force. “That is a failing. Let’s
admit it.”
There were more than 1,
confirmed coronavirus cases in
the United States as of Thursday
evening, and state and local offi-
cials said the actual total would be
significantly higher if more peo-
ple were able to get tested.
Since Trump first campaigned
for office in 2015, there have been
few of the country’s ills he has not
tried to link to a foreign source —
whether nation-states or immi-
grants.
He has blamed the U.S. drug-
addiction crisis on foreign smug-
glers and said shuttered factories
were exclusively the result of bad
trade deals with other countries.
And as recently as this week,
Trump cited the virus as added
reason to build a physical wall
across the southern U.S. border.
former Trump homeland secu-
rity adviser Thomas P. Bossert
said the president’s focus on im-
migration control made little
sense in the face of a virus that
had already begun spreading in
communities throughout the
country.
“In two weeks, we will regretwasting time and energy on travel
restrictions and wish we focused
more on hospital preparation and
large scale community mitiga-
tion,” Bossert tweeted.
The virus has taken hold in the
United States despite Trump’s u n-
precedented efforts to use his ex-
ecutive authority to ban large
swaths of the global population
from being able to travel to the
country.
Trump has repeatedly praised
his Jan. 31 ban on most travel
from China as evidence of for-
ward-thinking leadership.
fauci and other public health
officials have credited Trump for
his early decision t o restrict travel
from China, a country of 1.4 bil-
lion, saying the move bought the
United States time to prepare.
As he has quizzed his aides
about the number of coronavirus
cases in the United States, he has
also asked how the quantity com-
pares with other countries.
Trump’s partial ban of Europe-
an travelers, which does not in-
clude the United Kingdom, may
have some effect on slowing infec-
tion in the United States. But
since the virus is already spread-
ing rapidly within the country, t he
ban’s chief purpose may be sym-
bolic and political, said Heather
Conley, who directs the Europe
program at the Center for Strate-
gic and International Studies.
“It was a domestic political de-
sire to offer a big announcement
and to blame someone,” she said
Thursday. “And the blame was
assigned, last evening, to Europe.”
[email protected]
[email protected]James mcauley in Paris and michael
Birnbaum in Brussels contributed to
this report.Facing a global crisis, Trump doubles down on his go-it-alone approach
His critics warn that
isolationism will only
make matters worse“Unfortunately, this virus laid
bare the severe shortcomings of
the current administration,”
Biden said. “Public fears are being
compounded by pervasive lack of
trust i n this president, fueled by an
adversarial relationship with the
truth.”
While Trump cited America’s
preeminence, Biden emphasized
global interconnections, saying,
“Disease can start anyplace on the
planet, can get on a plane to any
city on Earth.” He added, “The
coronavirus does not have politi-
cal affiliation. It will not discrimi-
nate on national origin, race or Zip
code.”
As he has taken control of the
Democratic nominating contest,
Biden has started t o focus o n mak-
ing his campaign one that broad-
casts stability.
Earlier in the week, he unveiled
a new team that i s advising h im on
the coronavirus outbreak, a list
that included several former
obama administration officials,
including former U.S. surgeon
general Vivek H. murthy, former
homeland security and counter-
terrorism adviser Lisa monaco,
and Ezekiel E manuel, who advised
obama o n health c are.
In addition, one of Biden’s top
advisers has been ronald Klain,
who was Biden’s chief of staff
when he was vice president and
also handled the obama adminis-
tration’s r esponse to the Ebola o ut-
break.
About 90 minutes after Biden
began his remarks, Sanders stood
before a wall plastered with cam-
paign signs in a hotel near his
home in Burlington, Vt., and is-
sued the most dire assessment,
declaring a “global economic melt-
down” a nd a potential human and
economic toll on the “scale of a
major w ar.”
Leaning heavily on a lectern,
Sanders said the United States is
“at a severe disadvantage” com-
pared with other countries be-
cause it does not offer universal
health care, and he urged the na-
tion to learn from other countries
that are t esting for t he coronavirus
at a much higher rate.
Sanders — who also convened a
roundtable discussion with doc-
tors on the coronavirus on mon-
day — has called for the govern-
ment to take such actions as pay-
ing f or h ospital visits and vaccines
and guaranteeing workers’ pay-
checks.
“While we work to pass a medi-
care-for-all single-payer system,
the United States government to-
day must it make i t clear t hat in the
midst of this emergency, everyone
in our country, regardless of in-
come or where they live, must be
able to get all of the health care
they need without cost,” Sanders
said.
[email protected]
[email protected]sean sullivan and Paul Kane
contributed to this report.rus that, he emphasized, “started
in China.” He cast the “foreign
virus” as an opportunity for the
United States to once again show
its strength and dominance in the
world.
rather than soothing fears,
however, his comments seemed to
stoke them. Stock market futures
plummeted as he spoke, and ad-
ministration officials had to clarify
three important points that
Trump, while reading from a tele-
prompter, had misstated.
After he thought the cameras
had stopped, he unbuttoned his
jacket, sighed and let out a long
“okayyyyy.”
Biden had been preparing an
address for Thursday afternoon
before Trump had announced his
address to the nation. But after
Trump’s speech, Biden’s campaign
had a moment they had wanted,
one that would offer a dramatic
contrast.
Biden opened his remarks by
addressing the anxiety and wor-
ries spreading through the nation
and offering comfort to those who
have been infected or lost a loved
one t o the virus.
He spoke for twice as long as
Trump and repeatedly criticized
the p resident for spreading misin-
formation, downplaying the
threat and blaming foreign na-
tions. He noted that Trump’s ad-
ministration has reduced public
health funding, cut federal agen-
cies and strained relationships
with other c ountries.reassure the public and global
leaders that on matters so serious,
bipartisan work is p ossible.
“right now we have to find our
common ground, work together to
get this done as soon as possible,”
Pelosi told reporters Thursday.
“What we r eally have t o do is c ome
together a nd get the job done.”
A Democratic d raft p roposal r e-
leased earlier this week includes
extended u nemployment benefits,
mandatory sick leave, funds for
coronavirus testing, provisions for
those on food programs to get
meals even when schools close,
and other measures. Pelosi sug-
gested a modest deal this week
could lead t o more expansive legis-
lation in t he f uture.
But the unusual nature of the
political moment was most evi-
dent in the maneuvering on the
presidential level. The addresses
by Trump, Biden and Sanders, all
within a 24-hour period, set stark-
ly different tones and widely diver-
gent views not only of this crisis
but o f the U.S. role in the w orld.
Biden emphasized unity and
empathy f or those i mpacted, w hile
Sanders urged the nation to do
more to provide health c are for a ll.
Trump, who rose to office on an
America first agenda, largely
blamed foreigners for spreading
the virus and said he was restrict-
ing t ravel from much o f Europe.
Trump, his thumbs fidgeting as
he sat at his desk in the White
House, touted his administration’s
“unprecedented response” t o a vi-Biden and Sanders as opportunis-
tic, saying they were fearmonger-
ing f or t heir own p olitical gain.
“President Trump acted early
and decisively and has put the
United States on a stronger foot-
ing than other nations,” said Tim
murtaugh, communications di-
rector for Trump’s campaign. “His
every move has been aimed at
keeping Americans safe, while Joe
Biden has sought to capitalize po-
litically and stoke citizens’ fears.”
As f or S anders, murtaugh called
him “just another D emocratic can-
didate for p resident trying t o score
political points by recklessly pro-
voking a nxiety a nd fear.”
Late Thursday, Trump took to
Twitter to criticize Biden. “Sleepy
Joe Biden was in charge of the
H1N1 Swine flu epidemic which
killed thousands of people. The
response was one of the worst on
record,” Trump wrote. “our re-
sponse is one of the best, with fast
action of border closings & a 78%
Approval rating, the highest on
record. His was lowest!”
on Capitol Hill, Democratic
leaders shifted their emphasis
from slamming Trump’s response
to working with the administra-
tion to provide relief to those suf-
fering e conomically.
Pelosi has spent the past few
days negotiating with Treasury
Secretary Steven mnuchin, both i n
person and over the phone, trying
to hammer out a set of policy
proposals that would help amelio-
rate the coronavirus’s impact andopportunity to make the case that
he’d be a calm and competent
leader.
The pandemic has rapidly con-
sumed the presidential contest,
with candidates readjusting their
schedules, canceling rallies and
relying on virtual meetings with
supporters. The Biden and Sand-
ers campaigns both told staffers
Thursday to work from home.
Biden’s headquarters and field of-
fices will be closed to the public,
making door-knocking and grass-
roots organizing that much hard-
er, with four more states voting on
Tuesday.
The Democratic National Com-
mittee announced that i t was m ov-
ing Sunday night’s Biden-Sanders
debate from Phoenix to Washing-
ton so the candidates and their
staffs would not have to travel as
far. There will be no live audience
and one of the moderators, Univi-
sion’s Jorge ramos, is dropping
out because he recently came into
proximity with someone who test-
ed positive for t he coronavirus.
The debate itself will now un-
fold on unique political terrain.
Sanders has signaled that he will
press Biden on health care, among
other i ssues, while B iden is hoping
to alleviate doubts about his age
and verbal stumbles. Given the
sense of crisis enveloping the
country, both candidates will face
pressure to carefully calibrate
their tone.
The Trump campaign wasted
little time Thursday portrayingnation.
The world didn’t respond as he
hoped, with the stock markets col-
lapsing, professional sports
leagues suspending their seasons,
major cultural events canceled
and Americans bracing for the
sorts of daily disruptions they
have never experienced.
Ty pically, an incumbent presi-
dent running for reelection might
step into a moment of crisis to
harness the power and mega-
phone of the o ffice to demonstrate
strong leadership. But Trump’s re-
sponse gave Biden, Sanders and
other Democrats a chance Thurs-
day to turn those conventions up-
side down, asking voters to envi-
sion them steering the country
through troubled waters.
“I can promise you that when
I’m president, we will prepare b et-
ter, respond better and recover
better,” Biden said. “A nd I will al-
ways, always tell you the truth.
That i s the r esponsibility of a pres-
ident.”
While Trump was criticized for
sowing confusion in his 11-minute
oval office address Wednesday —
focusing on problems more for-
eign than domestic, m ore e conom-
ic than medical — Biden a nd Sand-
ers focused squarely on how a
commander in chief might use his
powers to tackle a spreading pan-
demic. Biden outlined how the
Pentagon could build n ew h ospital
beds, how r esearchers could strive
for a vaccine, and how testing kits
should be free and readily avail-
able. S anders s aid the government
should pressure pharmaceutical
companies to provide eventual vi-
rus-related medications at-cost,
set up a national h otline that c ould
help people assess their symp-
toms, and dramatically increase
testing.
Democrats on Capitol H ill have
moved in similar f ashion, pressing
for a relief package that they be-
lieve Trump and the republicans
are t aking too l ong t o approve. “We
don’t need 48 hours, we need to
just make a decision to help fami-
lies right now,” s aid H ouse Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “We have
to operate not as business as u sual,
but in emergency status where we
have to g et t he job done.”
The day encapsulated a remark-
able moment in American politics,
putting on vivid display how a trio
of leaders — one p resident and two
presidential hopefuls — respond-
ed to a spiraling crisis that is re-
constructing the way modern
American life is conducted. In the
90 minutes between Biden’s and
Sanders’s comments, the Dow
Jones industrial average lost a cou-
ple h undred points.
The volatile p olitical moment in
some ways echoed the final weeks
of the 2008 presidential cam-
paign, when a financial collapse
prompted dramatically different
reactions f rom Barack obama and
John mcCain, giving obama an
democrats from a
Biden, Sanders o≠er their takes on responding to pandemic
Drew angerer/agence France-Presse/getty Images
Former vice president Joe Biden leaves the stage thursday after speaking about the novel coronavirus. For video: wapo.st/VirusDems.UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws