SATURDAy, MARCH 14 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A21
BY BOB BAFFERTT
he horse-racing world was stunned this
week by the arrest of 27 people on federal
horse-doping charges. The indictments de-
scribe a “widespread, corrupt” scheme to
give racehorses performance-enhancing and other
banned drugs that can mask preexisting injuries and
directly lead to horse injuries and death.
Nothing is more important than the health and
safety of our equine and human athletes, and
nothing impacts their health and safety more than
the policies and procedures concerning drugs. These
indictments show that the current system of 38 state
racing jurisdictions, each with its own regulatory
body, laws and regulations, is entirely inadequate.
Horse racing is experiencing the most profound
crisis in the long history of the sport. To emerge
stronger, we must act decisively to protect the horses
who are the stars of the show; nothing else will
restore the confidence of fans, gamblers and the
general public. And that means federal action.
Our horses and jockeys deserve an unbiased,
independent national anti-doping authority. Fortu-
nately, the Horseracing Integrity Act (HIA) is mov-
ing through Congress. This legislation would create
the Horseracing Anti-Doping and Medication Con-
trol Authority, a private, nonprofit body with the
expertise to set national drug policies, procedures
and penalties. For the first time, we would be racing
under a uniform, nationwide set of drug rules.
I have held off supporting the HIA until now
because I’ve questioned whether the benefits of
creating a new layer of federal regulation would
outweigh the burdens. However, these federal in-
dictments have convinced me that horse racing
needs immediate and drastic action to fix a broken
system.
Horse racing is more international than ever, so
it’s important that our national policies align with
accepted international standards and rules.
F ortunately, the HIA provides that the U.S. Anti-
Doping Agency (USADA) would play a key role in
this national g overning body. The USADA is univer-
sally recognized as having world-class drug knowl-
edge and anti-doping expertise, and it governs
anti-doping programs for the U. S. Olympic team
and others. The agency is independent and unbi-
ased and would have no agenda other than the best
interests of our athletes and o ur sport. Its oversight
would ensure that we have the best possible rules,
testing protocols and effective penalties. This in
turn would ensure horses would receive medica-
tions only when the therapeutic benefits would
clearly outweigh any negative or health-threaten-
ing effects, and that cheaters would be quickly
caught and punished.
The HIA was introduced in the House b y Rep. Paul
To nko (D-N.Y.) and has strong bipartisan support,
with 244 co-sponsors. Companion legislation was
introduced in the Senate by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
(D-N.Y.) and has 24 co-sponsors. The bill is moving,
but Congress needs to speed up the pace.
In the past, there has been disagreement about
whether a federally sponsored anti-doping body was
necessary, and I understand the reluctance of many
in the industry to invite Washington onto the track.
However, these federal indictments clearly show
that a patchwork of 38 separate regulatory bodies
doesn’t work and that the losers are horses and all
those who love this grand sport.
It is time for the horse-racing industry to unite in
support of a national anti-doping regulatory system.
I invite all of my colleagues to join me in clearly
asking Congress to pass the Horseracing Integrity
Act.The writer trained Tr iple crown winners American Pharoah
and Justify. Horses he has trained since 1992 have won
the Kentucky Derby five times, the Preakness Stakes
seven times, the Belmont Stakes three times,
15 Breeders’ cup races and three Dubai World cups.Horse racing is
in crisis. We need
federal action
to fix it.
O
n Wednesday, the president sat
behind the Resolute Desk and
addressed the nation with
soothing and accurate words
about the coronavirus. Unfortunately,
none of the accurate things he said were
soothing, and none of the soothing
things he said were accurate.
What do you need at a moment of
crisis? Maybe you would like to feel that
someone competent is in charge of
things. Maybe you would like to see
reassuring e vidence that t he president i s
capable of delivering a prepared state-
ment that contains no obvious errors
about how the country is responding to
the crisis at hand. Or maybe you would
like instead to hear from Donald Trump.
On the plus side, we got to enjoy little
Trump touches, like leveling xenophobic
insults against the “foreign virus” — if
only this were a good American virus,
reared on our native soil, which, if
placed under a microscope, would beseen to be waving a tiny flag! — and
continuous sniffling.
(Mind you, this is all happening mo-
ments after Sarah Palin was revealed to
be a Masked Singer, in keeping with this
news cycle’s commitment to being a
heavy-handed Edgar Allan Poe story.)
The president, no doubt sensing that
the nation was feeling anxious in the
early throes of the pandemic, realized
that hearing and seeing exactly who was
in charge were what we needed to
reassure us. B ut first, according to Politi-
co, he waited for Jared Kushner to
conduct some independent research
into the question of coronavirus and
come to his own conclusions. (This
raised terrifying questions, like: All this
time, has Trump thought that Kushner
was genuinely the best man for every
job? Is it not nepotism, after all? I just
assumed Kushner was being put in
charge of difficult problems because of
corruption, but this raises an even morealarming specter. If all along they have
actually been applying themselves as
best they could, things are even worse
than I suspected!)
Trump informed Americans that, out
of an abundance of caution, he would be
canceling all travel to the United States
from Europe, but not immediately, and
not including Britain! Starting Friday.
And also cargo. Correction: Actually, the
cargo w as s till c oming, and also, U.S. citi-
zens and permanent residents could
come back from Europe. Trump also s aid
that coronavirus care co-pays would be
covered by insurance. Correction: They
will not be. In other words, he said,
everything is under control. Correction:
It is not!
This was just the kind of thing that
was n eeded to s oothe the markets, which
were too high. They are now lower,
which is much more relaxing for them.
To make matters better or worse, Joe
Biden addressed Americans the next dayabout the crisis. In the parallel universe
where he is president, everything would
be going much better, he assured us. No
expense would be spared (this is one
advantage of not actually being in
charge; you can really spend all the
money y ou would l ike, in exactly the b est
way), and millions of tests would be in
the hands of Americans. No one would
say xenophobic things about the virus.
People would listen to science. Lives
would be saved.
This was inspiring and presidential i n
a way, but also had the impact of
reminding us that he is not, in fact, in
charge of anything. For all the good it
would do, I could give an address myself
about an appropriate national response
to the coronavirus.
Instead, Donald Trump is in charge.
As the president himself said after he
had concluded his remarks but before
his mic was turned off: “Oookayyyy."
Twitter: @petridishesALEXANDRA PETRIThe coronavirus is under control. Correction: It is not.
DRAWING BOARDBY JoHn colE FoR THE ScRAnTon TIMES-TRIBUnEBY HoRSEY FoR THE SEATTlE TIMESBY lUcKoVIcH FoR THE ATlAnTA JoURnAl-conSTITUTIonBY lUcKoVIcH FoR THE ATlAnTA JoURnAl-conSTITUTIonT
he reality of coronavirus hit
home around noon last Saturday
when D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bows-
er (D) greeted me at a Northwest
groundbreaking with an elbow bump
instead of the usual handshake. A mere
seven hours later, Bowser would an-
nounce that two people in the District
had tested positive for the virus. Bowser’s
announcement followed Maryland
Gov. Larry Hogan’s report of confirmed
coronavirus cases in Montgomery Coun-
ty. The counts have climbed since. As of
Friday, 42 cases had been announced by
the District, Maryland and Virginia.
The crisp, authoritative responses
from Bowser, Hogan (R), New York Gov.
Andrew M. Cuomo (D) and other officials
around the country to the quickly devel-
oping crisis contrast sharply with Presi-
dent Trump’s failure in leadership.
Rather than call attention to the
threat, Trump wasted time griping that
Democrats were circulating the “hoax”
that his administration’s response had
been lacking. The virus is no big deal;
treat it like the flu; wait until spring has
sprung. All will be well.
To concerned citizens who want to get
a coronavirus test, not to worry: “A nyone
who wants a test can get a test,” he
declared.
Except, as it turns out, there are not
enough kits. What’s more, Trump’s health
and human services secretary, Alex Azar,
told the country just the opposite: “You
may not get a test unless a doctor or
public health official prescribes a test.”
It h as b een like that out of the adminis-
tration since the novel coronavirus came
on the scene: happy talk, contradictory
messages (The Post counted at least
14 o ver the past 30 days), false statements
laced with presidential self-praise.The low point came midweek with
Trump’s televised Oval Office address,
which was a doozy.
Trump solemnly announced restric-
tions on travel to the United States from
Europe — and more. “These prohibitions
will not only apply to the tremendous
amount of trade and cargo, but various
other things as we get approval,” he said.
Except when the show was over, Trump
tweeted a correction: “Trade will in no
way be affected.... The restriction stops
people not goods.”
He also looked into the camera and
declared that health insurance compa-
nies “have agreed to waive all co-pay-
ments for coronavirus treatments.” ‘ Ta int
so, said a trade association for insurers.
The insurance companies are going to
cover testing only, not treatment.
Trump assured the country that the
risk to most Americans is “very, very low.”
But said Anthony S. Fauci, director of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infec-
tious Diseases, in congressional testimo-
ny earlier in the day: “Bottom line, it’s
going to get worse.”
Trump’s principal contribution to
combating the virus? Chaos and confu-
sion.
The fight has been left in the hands of
public health officials beyond the White
House’s reach, and with state and local
officials on the front lines.
Use of this space to critique any more
of Trump’s coronavirus performance
would be a needless repetition of already
well-documented screw-ups.
However, I return to the administra-
tion’s bungling of coronavirus because it
is emblematic of Trump’s service to the
nation, which has been three years of
boorish strutting on the national stage
animated by a toxic mixture of arrogance
and ignorance.
Arrogance that made him declare, “I
will build a great wall... and I’ll have
Mexico pay for that wall.” (And perhaps
stupidity for ever believing it would
happen.) It was ignorance — and malice
— that led him to say about Mexicans:
“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bring-
ing crime. They’re rapists.”
Arrogance got Trump to discard three
decades of U.S. policy toward Pyongyang
in the expectation that it would beat its
nuclear arsenal into plowshares because
big, bad, but sweet-talking, Donald said
so. But ignorance caused Trump to fall for
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s
charm offensive in the first place, during
which time Kim played Trump like a
fiddle.
Arrogance convinced Trump that Iran
would come crawling back to the negoti-
ating table if the United States flexed its
muscle and sanctioned the hell out of
Te hran. Ignorance fueled the belief that
Iran cannot absorb the pain and step up
the effort to develop its nuclear capabili-
ties. Which reportedly is being done.
It takes arrogance and ignorance in
equal measure to mislead yourself into
thinking that everything can be spun,
and that governing is nothing more than
dealmaking.
Simply stated: Donald Trump may
(possibly) know the development busi-
ness, but he doesn’t know diddly-squat
about how to govern. The country is
paying the price.
[email protected]COLBERT I. KINGTrump fights
the virus
with chaos
and confusion
A toxic mixture of
arrogance and ignorance.
JoHn MIncHIllo/ASSocIATED PRESS
Horses and jockeys enter the stretch during the
Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in May.