The Most Shocking Aspects of Trump’s Big Lie on Covid-19

By
Greg Diamond
– September 9, 2020Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice

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Donald Trump is all the rage; now he wants to turn the page…

Watergate journalist Bob Woodward, having waited until after Labor Day, has released a book called Rage which includes transcripts of tapes of Trump telling him back in early February (and those tapes have now been released) that:

  • he knew that Covid-19 was different from and far deadlier than influenza.
    • (“This is more deadly than even your strenuous flus.  This is 5 per—you know, this is 5 percent versus 1 percent and less than 1 percent. You know? So, this is deadly stuff.”)
  • he knew that SARS-CoV-2 (which causes Covid-19) is especially dangerous because it is communicated through air rather than just by touch.
    • “It goes through the air. That’s always tougher than the touch. You don’t have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed. And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one.”
  • that he told Woodward (this on March 19) that he had withheld this information from the public — meaning that he lied about it.
    • “I wanted to always play it down.  I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”
    • (It’s not clear whether he thought that he was worried about panicking the public — who, if panicked, would have stayed home and possibly squelched the virus by now — or panicked the stock markets, which we can guess are not going to like this.

CNN quotes former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Thomas Frieden as saying: “What that means is we didn’t start wearing masks when we should have. We didn’t take it seriously, we didn’t shut down soon enough in some places and other places we shut down too soon, too long.”

Putting aside the questions about Woodward waiting this long to publish this material because he had an implicit source agreement (i.e., not any explicit agreement) to delay publications until, um, delay time over) and that he didn’t know whether Trump was telling the truth (which he had probably already figured out long before this week), what are the most shocking things about this disclosure:

  1. That so early on he already knew the truth
  2. That he knew he had told a journalist the truth and lied about it anyway
  3. That so many people still believe that it’s not the truth
  4. That so many people will continue to act like it’s not the truth
  5. That this lie means that, if Trump is re-elected, his credibility is show when he urges people to get a vaccine
  6. That, given U.S. leadership in the world, he probably contributed to the deaths of thousands of Brazilians, Indians, and others worldwide, with many more to come and many deaths from complications as yet unrealized
  7. That, no matter what he did, the Senate would not remove him if her were somehow impeached
  8. That he would happily let 200,000 Americans (and counting) die just for his personal political gain

Sorry — I’ve fixed that last one. This was intended as only a list of what’s shocking.

Anyone still against masks or social distancing or avoiding large indoor crowds — Trump has played you for fools.  Tens of thousands have died as a result.  Get your act together and behave like patriotic citizens.

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)