6 NEWS Controversy of the week
Covid-19: Is Trump up to the challenge?
President Trump survived impeachment and the Mueller
investigation, and has “waved away dozens of lesser scan-
dals as though they were nothing more than gnats,” said
Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes in TheAtlantic
.com. In the rapidly spreading coronavirus, though,
he “faces a challenge unlike any he has confronted
before”—one that he can’t fix with his “usual
tool kit” of bullying, lies, and claims of a “witch
hunt.” As the deadly virus started to spread
within our borders, Trump repeatedly made it
clear he views the epidemic in purely political
and selfish terms, as a threat to the stock market
and his re-election. Virtually every day, the presi-
dent and his aides have used public statements to
praise the “incredible job” they are doing, to min-
imize the threat, and to blame Democrats for politicizing the epi-
demic. But “denial isn’t going to work” against a virus that doesn’t
watch Fox News. Trump owes his success to a visceral understand-
ing that “what passes for reality in American society is far more
malleable” than anyone realized, said Eric Levitz in NYMag.com.
But loyal Senate Republicans can’t “hold a vote to make an epi-
demic go away,” and Trump’s angry blame shifting is not going to
help him, or the nation, “when Americans start dying.”
It’s Trump’s critics who are lying, said Miranda Devine in NYPost
.com. Desperate to wring political gain out of what New York
Times columnist Gail Collins dubbed “Trumpvirus,” the media
spent the last week spreading the lie that Trump dismissed the epi-
demic itself as a “hoax”; in fact, he used that term to describe the
Democrats’ claim he’d mismanaged the response. Trump actually
deserves credit for imposing travel restrictions on coronavirus-
stricken China back in January—a decision Democrats derided
at the time as xenophobic. A viral pandemic begins on the other
side of the world, and yet “the liberal
intelligentsia tries to name it after
the American president,” said Scott
Jennings in the Louisville Courier-
Journal. Sadly, as this virus spreads, the
“disgustingly disloyal opposition” will be rooting
for Trump to fail.Trump can rise to this occasion, said Rich Lowry
in NationalReview.com, but so far he’s taken
“exactly the wrong approach.” Rather than
“pooh-poohing worries about the virus and saying
everything is under control,” Trump should be tap-
ping into that side of himself that overreacts to
threats. He should be “pulling up the drawbridge”
and imposing additional travel restrictions, putting true medical
experts instead of Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the U.S.
response, and spending however much money it takes to control
and ultimately defeat this viral threat.Let’s hope Trump follows that advice, said Jonathan Chait in
NYMag.com. But we’re talking about a remarkably ignorant presi-
dent who can’t even grasp “the basic medical facts” about the coro-
navirus. Meeting with pharmaceutical executives this week about
the effort to develop a vaccine, Trump asked one CEO why we
couldn’t just use the regular flu vaccine (um, it’s a different virus)
and pressed the execs to skip clinical trials and release vaccines “in
a couple of months” instead of a year—that is, before the election.
We’re facing a global pandemic behind “the leadership of a man
who doesn’t believe in science,” said Paul Krugman in The New
York Times, and who dismisses all bad news as “fake.” Anyone
looking to Donald Trump for competent leadership in the weeks
and months ahead simply “hasn’t been paying attention.”Only in America
QA blind Chicago man has
been denied U.S. citizenship
because he is “unable to read
a sentence in the English lan-
guage.” Mexican immigrant
Lucio Delgado, 23, taught
himself English by listen-
ing to the radio. But officials
refused to provide the reading
portion of his naturalization
test in braille. “To receive such
negative news shattered all of
my dreams in one second,”
Delgado said.
QA New Jersey couple says
their Catholic church is refus-
ing to give their son Holy
Communion because he’s au-
tistic. Anthony LaCugna, 8, has
been studying to receive Com-
munion, but the church told
the LaCugnas that because
Anthony is largely nonverbal
and cannot express “contri-
tion” for his sins, he cannot
receive the sacrament. “It is
absurd,” said Anthony’s mom.
“My son is a child of God.”A second try for
spy chief nomination
President Trump announced
last week that he would again
nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe
(R-Texas), an outspoken ally,
to be director of national intel-
ligence, after Ratcliffe’s nomi-
nation for the role last July
imploded within days. Senate
Republicans offered tepid
support for Ratcliffe, who with-
drew from consideration last
year after it was revealed that
he had exaggerated his work
prosecuting terrorists. Ratcliffe
has been a vocal skeptic of
Russian interference efforts;
Trump fired the previous DNI,
Joseph Maguire, after Maguire
told lawmakers Russia had
a “preference” for Trump in
the upcoming election. With
Ratcliffe’s nomination, former
ambassador to Germany
Richard Grenell, who has also
won Trump’s confidence, can
remain as acting spy chief for
up to seven more months.Woke epidemiology,after the World Health Organization urged
against saying that people are “transmitting Covid-19,” “infecting
others,” or “spreading the virus,” because that wording “assigns
blame.” Instead, we should refer to people “acquiring” the virus.
American Samoa, whose profile was briefly raised when Mike
Bloomberg won the South Pacific island chain’s caucuses with 175
total votes. It was the only jurisdiction Bloomberg won after he
spent $500 million on his campaign.
Computer literacy, after Fox News anchor Brit Hume tweeted
out a screenshot of his computer, forgetting to close a browser tab
on which the 76-year-old had evidently been researching a “Sexy
Vixen” set of vinyl lingerie, retailing for a hard-to-resist $15.37.Eco-anxiety, with a new BBC survey of 8- to 16-year-olds show-
ing that 73 percent are worried about the future of the planet, with
19 percent having had climate change–themed nightmares.
Garth Brooks,after the country music legend was deluged with
online vitriol for wearing a Detroit Lions NFL jersey with the name
“Sanders” on the back during a concert in Detroit. The jersey hon-
ored Lions Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders, but some of
Brooks’ disappointed fans assumed he was showing support for
Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.
Oprah Winfrey, who while delivering a speech in Los Angeles
about wellness and the importance of “balance” in life lost her bal-
ance and fell over on the stage. “It is what it is,” mused the 66-year-
old later. “You would prefer not to fall, but now I’ve fallen.”Good week for:
Bad week for:
GettyTrump: ‘An incredible job’ by us