4 years ago today, Trump admitted that more than 200,000 Americans were likely to die from Covid — just weeks after promising it would "go away" on its own.
That same day, he bragged about the high TV "ratings" of his pandemic briefings.
@rbreich Indeed. His comments about the World Trade Center attack included him bragging he now had the tallest building in the area (which itself was inaccurate).
@rbreich Trump screwed up COVID royally, but he wasn't alone. Remember Fauci also initially downplayed it as low concern, and recommended against masks.
He later admitted he LIED about the masks so doctors could get the N95s.
@rbreich there's more to that story involving the change in reference model used to predict mortality from the Imperial College model (which predicted over 1,000,000 fatalities in the US) to a novel approach using curve fitting developed by University of Washington IHME which predicted the 200,000 number. Both Fauci and Birx went on a media blitz promoting this new prediction e.g. Fauci was on NPR.
Many experts questioned the methodology and accuracy of this new model at the time. IHME quietly abandoned the model over the summer and switched back to a conventional compartmental model.
@rbreich The sad reality is that is MAGA minions don’t get that this is all about his tiny ego. Trump will never help the small or marginalized people of America.
Yet they prop him up as an orange Jesus.
All of this enabled by the Democratic Party focusing on the elite educated portion of their constituents.
@rbreich Let’s be honest, Trump knew of Covid many months before admitting it existed, He deliberately knew it would negatively impact his own personal businesses and bottomline such as his hotels and country clubs. In his “It’s only about me” mindset he delayed announcing since it would negatively impact his businesses. If he was honest and cared about our citizens and acknowledged Covid early and rallying the nation to “wear face-masks” millions of lives would have been spared death and not divided our country.