Donald Trump's appalling, blame-shifting Rose Garden news conference

[Rogue Valley]

Donald Trump's appalling, blame-shifting Rose Garden news conference

3/13/20
A pandemic is sweeping the globe. Schools are closing. Major sports leagues are suspended. The stock market has plunged into bear territory. And, Donald Trump? "No, I don't take responsibility at all," Trump responded when asked if he took responsibility for the lag in necessary coronavirus testing while speaking to reporters gathered in the Rose Garden to hear his declaration of a national emergency to combat the virus.

Which sums up his response to this crisis well. And, in fact, is actually a pretty nice summation of his approach to the presidency. Call it the Michael Scott strategy of management. "I do want the credit, without any of the blame," the boss of the fictional paper company tells his employees in one episode of "The Office." It's a remarkable thing for a President to say -- ever. But especially in the midst of a historic public health crisis defined, at least in this country, by an inability of people who need to be tested for coronavirus to get tested. Look. It is not a new observation that Trump lacks any of the traditional traits we associate with good leaders. He seemingly always takes the low road. He villainizes opponents as evil. He doesn't tell the truth -- a lot. And he is forever looking to hog credit and deflect blame. In Trump's world, the buck stops anywhere but with him. Asked whether he took responsibility for disbanding the office of pandemics, Trump called it "a nasty question" (it wasn't) before adding: "When you say 'me,' I didn't do it. We have a group of people [in the administration].

As for the lack of coronavirus test kits currently available -- a "failing" acknowledged by Fauci, Trump reached back to the previous administration's handling of the H1N1 swine flu in 2009. "Ask them how they did with swine flu," said Trump. "They had a very big disaster." Over and over again during the news conference, Trump sought to take credit for his decision to limit travel from China and, as of midnight tonight, Europe, while refusing to take any blame at all for the obvious hiccups that have characterized the ramping up of the government response to this virus. Or his well-documented efforts in recent weeks to downplay the severity of the illness and the threat it poses to the country and the world. In fact, Trump repeatedly sought in the news conference to suggest that this will all be over soon despite virtually no experts agreeing with that view. A leader who is so insecure that he can't accept ANY responsibility for decisions that have been made and are being made on his watch isn't a leader at all. And, unfortunately, that's what Trump's news conference revealed about him. Again.

A high school students council could have handled the COVID-19 crises better than Trump and the Republicans.

And why did Moscow Mitch McConnell have to hurriedly adjourn the Senate before voting on the bill passed by the House to fund the fight against the coronavirus? Because Mitch was bringing Justice Brett Kavanaugh home with him to Kentucky this weekend to officiate at the swearing in of another of Mitch's far-right conservative judges. The gall of these mother****ers is astounding. A swearing-in ceremony trumps the needs of millions of Americans vulnerable to COVID-19.

Related: Mitch McConnell, Brett Kavanaugh attend federal judge's swearing-in ceremony in Louisville

 

[trouble13]

These desperate attempts to politicize a health epidemic and put blame on Trump when he has been doing as well as anyone can be expected is rather disgusting. The left is doing themselves a grave diservice with the electorate. This partisan approach is as morally repugnant as the people trying to price gouge essential supplies. They are whistling to their graves.

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