Instead of Spilling to Woodward Shouldn't Trump Have Told All This To Fauci?

[Jack2aTee]

It doesn't make sense to me. Republican strategists and campaign directors are criticizing Fauci for telling the American people in the early days of the pandemic that masks were not necessary. Yet we know now from the Woodward tapes that Trump knew as early as January that he was facing a monumental medical crisis--the worst crisis of his presidency. One of his aides had compared it to the 1918 Spanish flu as early as January according to Woodward.

The question that comes to my mind is "Didn't Trump have a duty for the safety of the American people to disclose to his task force just how serious the virus really was?" Was the task force apprised of the dangers Trump outlined to Woodward: that it was spread through the air and that it was "deadlier than the most strenuous flu" (Trump's words)?

I think if Fauci had been told how deadly the Coronavirus was he would never have said "You don't needs masks" in February. It makes sense in light of Fauci's naive statement that he simply had not been briefed by Trump on how deadly the virus was, yet here is Trump spilling all this delicate information to a news reporter in early February! :shock: These Republican strategists keep using the phrase "the fog of war" to defend Trump's lackadaisical response in the early days of the pandemic, like Trump didn't know how dangerous the virus was so how could he implement any policy for it? The tapes make clear he did know how deadly the virus was yet he chose to "play it down".

 

[Barnacle]

It doesn't make sense to me. Republican strategists and campaign directors are criticizing Fauci for telling the American people in the early days of the pandemic that masks were not necessary. Yet we know now from the Woodward tapes that Trump knew as early as January that he was facing a monumental medical crisis--the worst crisis of his presidency. One of his aides had compared it to the 1918 Spanish flu as early as January according to Woodward.

The question that comes to my mind is "Didn't Trump have a duty for the safety of the American people to disclose to his task force just how serious the virus really was?" Was the task force apprised of the dangers Trump outlined to Woodward: that it was spread through the air and that it was "deadlier than the most strenuous flu" (Trump's words)?

I think if Fauci had been told how deadly the Coronavirus was he would never have said "You don't needs masks" in February. It makes sense in light of Fauci's naive statement that he simply had not been briefed by Trump on how deadly the virus was, yet here is Trump spilling all this delicate information to a news reporter in early February! :shock: These Republican strategists keep using the phrase "the fog of war" to defend Trump's lackadaisical response in the early days of the pandemic, like Trump didn't know how dangerous the virus was so how could he implement any policy for it? The tapes make clear he did know how deadly the virus was yet he chose to "play it down".

Yeah ... Fauci was definitely kept out of the loop in January ...

 

[joko104]

The Democratic Party and the MSM/press desperately want to avoid ANY actual issues having anything to do with government. Singularly, they only will talk hate-on-Trump personally, declaring us peasants shouldn't worry about whatever government does.

Biden on foreign policy? Absolutely nothing - zero - from Biden.
Anything on entitlements - Absolutely nothing - zero - from Biden.
No issue of any kind but hating Trump's personality, hating the police, hating white people, hating our allies. Nothing about issues.

This will be the first no government issues presidential election in history. Now it is just a personality contest for which the insiders will take care of anything of domestic and foreign policy - not troubling us little peasants.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

It doesn't make sense to me. Republican strategists and campaign directors are criticizing Fauci for telling the American people in the early days of the pandemic that masks were not necessary. Yet we know now from the Woodward tapes that Trump knew as early as January that he was facing a monumental medical crisis--the worst crisis of his presidency. One of his aides had compared it to the 1918 Spanish flu as early as January according to Woodward.

The question that comes to my mind is "Didn't Trump have a duty for the safety of the American people to disclose to his task force just how serious the virus really was?" Was the task force apprised of the dangers Trump outlined to Woodward: that it was spread through the air and that it was "deadlier than the most strenuous flu" (Trump's words)?

I think if Fauci had been told how deadly the Coronavirus was he would never have said "You don't needs masks" in February. It makes sense in light of Fauci's naive statement that he simply had not been briefed by Trump on how deadly the virus was, yet here is Trump spilling all this delicate information to a news reporter in early February! :shock: These Republican strategists keep using the phrase "the fog of war" to defend Trump's lackadaisical response in the early days of the pandemic, like Trump didn't know how dangerous the virus was so how could he implement any policy for it? The tapes make clear he did know how deadly the virus was yet he chose to "play it down".

Mr. Trump didn't want to panic Dr. Fauci.

Other American Presidents, when faced with similar threats of potential panic have done much the same as Mr. Trump did. Some of those instances were identified by D.H. in Lisbon Falls, ME, in his:

Great moments in presidential history when the president did not want to "panic" Americans, and so used the "Trump approach":

• Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941: "Yesterday, we had a little naval issue in Hawaii. Damages could be slight, but I am not sure...we get back to you soon. I love Hawaii, it has great beaches...some great hotels could be built there"

• Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957: "The issue in Little Rock may be a little upsetting...some bad hombres at work. But I am sure the local police can handle the issue. I respect the governor; he is a good friend of mine, and I don't want to get involved in a state issue."

• John F. Kennedy, 1962: "Yes, we have some excellent pictures of cool military stuff that we found hidden in Cuba. It could be something really interesting...everyone is talking about it. I asked my friend Khrushchev about it, and he promises he will look into it."

• Ronald Reagan, 1986: "I blame the so-called 'NASA experts.' Some of them are left over from the Carter years.. If we has a real Space Force this would not have happened."

• Bill Clinton, 1995: "Many people are taking about what happened in Oklahoma yesterday, but there are good people on both sides of this issue. Plus, I know some firms in that state who are great at rebuilding stuff."

• George W. Bush, 2001: "Some planes got lost yesterday and they hit a few buildings, but this is not a problem. It will go away really quickly, like magic."
​

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

The Democratic Party and the MSM/press desperately want to avoid ANY actual issues having anything to do with government. Singularly, they only will talk hate-on-Trump personally, declaring us peasants shouldn't worry about whatever government does.

Biden on foreign policy? Absolutely nothing - zero - from Biden.
Anything on entitlements - Absolutely nothing - zero - from Biden.
No issue of any kind but hating Trump's personality, hating the police, hating white people, hating our allies. Nothing about issues.

This will be the first no government issues presidential election in history. Now it is just a personality contest for which the insiders will take care of anything of domestic and foreign policy - not troubling us little peasants.

That's interesting. <SARC>I didn't realize that when you click on "Bold Ideas" you don't go anyplace. BUT if you click on "Together, we are rebuilding our nation" you get a comprehensive listing of Mr. Trump's platform</SARC>.

 

[Slavister]

"Didn't Trump have a duty for the safety of the American people to disclose to his task force just how serious the virus really was?"

Well, once Trump team realized it would hit the Blue states harder, they figured they could benefit from the virus politically by blaming governors and stopped their testing plans... So there is that...

As for Fauci, he was rightly concerned about mask shortages for the healthcare workers at the time, as he had explained.

 

[rocket88]

The Democratic Party and the MSM/press desperately want to avoid ANY actual issues having anything to do with government. Singularly, they only will talk hate-on-Trump personally, declaring us peasants shouldn't worry about whatever government does.

Biden on foreign policy? Absolutely nothing - zero - from Biden.
Anything on entitlements - Absolutely nothing - zero - from Biden.
No issue of any kind but hating Trump's personality, hating the police, hating white people, hating our allies. Nothing about issues.

This will be the first no government issues presidential election in history. Now it is just a personality contest for which the insiders will take care of anything of domestic and foreign policy - not troubling us little peasants.

Hating our allies is Trump's calling card. Also good job making it racist.

 

[Aunt Antifa]

It doesn't make sense to me. Republican strategists and campaign directors are criticizing Fauci for telling the American people in the early days of the pandemic that masks were not necessary. Yet we know now from the Woodward tapes that Trump knew as early as January that he was facing a monumental medical crisis--the worst crisis of his presidency. One of his aides had compared it to the 1918 Spanish flu as early as January according to Woodward.

The question that comes to my mind is "Didn't Trump have a duty for the safety of the American people to disclose to his task force just how serious the virus really was?" Was the task force apprised of the dangers Trump outlined to Woodward: that it was spread through the air and that it was "deadlier than the most strenuous flu" (Trump's words)?

I think if Fauci had been told how deadly the Coronavirus was he would never have said "You don't needs masks" in February. It makes sense in light of Fauci's naive statement that he simply had not been briefed by Trump on how deadly the virus was, yet here is Trump spilling all this delicate information to a news reporter in early February! :shock: These Republican strategists keep using the phrase "the fog of war" to defend Trump's lackadaisical response in the early days of the pandemic, like Trump didn't know how dangerous the virus was so how could he implement any policy for it? The tapes make clear he did know how deadly the virus was yet he chose to "play it down".

This is a direct indictment of the GOP and their voters. Trump knew they wouldn’t care. Even if he killed 100’s of 1000’s. He bet right.

 

[snakestretcher]

It doesn't make sense to me. Republican strategists and campaign directors are criticizing Fauci for telling the American people in the early days of the pandemic that masks were not necessary. Yet we know now from the Woodward tapes that Trump knew as early as January that he was facing a monumental medical crisis--the worst crisis of his presidency. One of his aides had compared it to the 1918 Spanish flu as early as January according to Woodward.

The question that comes to my mind is "Didn't Trump have a duty for the safety of the American people to disclose to his task force just how serious the virus really was?" Was the task force apprised of the dangers Trump outlined to Woodward: that it was spread through the air and that it was "deadlier than the most strenuous flu" (Trump's words)?

I think if Fauci had been told how deadly the Coronavirus was he would never have said "You don't needs masks" in February. It makes sense in light of Fauci's naive statement that he simply had not been briefed by Trump on how deadly the virus was, yet here is Trump spilling all this delicate information to a news reporter in early February! :shock: These Republican strategists keep using the phrase "the fog of war" to defend Trump's lackadaisical response in the early days of the pandemic, like Trump didn't know how dangerous the virus was so how could he implement any policy for it? The tapes make clear he did know how deadly the virus was yet he chose to "play it down".

Hold on; Fauci didn't need any advice from Trump's 'team'. He is the leading expert in epidemiology and could only comment on what he knew from his experience with previous pandemics. Knowledge of the novel virus was pretty much non-existent at the start of the outbreak, so everyone was playing catch-up, including Fauci.
So, who comprised this 'team' who were so apparently knowledgeable about a previously unknown pathogen that they could advise Trump?

 

[Greenbeard]

The Democratic Party and the MSM/press desperately want to avoid ANY actual issues having anything to do with government.

The president deliberately concealing the dangers of a virus while botching the federal response is very much an issue having to do with government.

 

[snakestretcher]

The president deliberately concealing the dangers of a virus while botching the federal response is very much an issue having to do with government.

Expect a response (excuse), stating that Trump delegated responsibility for dealing with the pandemic to state and local governments. "I don't take responsibility at all".

There should absolutely have been a concerted bi-partisan response to this, leaving aside political differences and working together-just like European nations have been, and are, doing.
Instead we're seeing a political free-for-all with nothing being done beyond political point-scoring. And we all know why. November.

 

[Taylor]

The president deliberately concealing the dangers of a virus while botching the federal response is very much an issue having to do with government.

You didn't know that the virus that was killing people in China was a deadly virus?

 

[bluesmoke]

It doesn't make sense to me. Republican strategists and campaign directors are criticizing Fauci for telling the American people in the early days of the pandemic that masks were not necessary. Yet we know now from the Woodward tapes that Trump knew as early as January that he was facing a monumental medical crisis--the worst crisis of his presidency. One of his aides had compared it to the 1918 Spanish flu as early as January according to Woodward.

The question that comes to my mind is "Didn't Trump have a duty for the safety of the American people to disclose to his task force just how serious the virus really was?" Was the task force apprised of the dangers Trump outlined to Woodward: that it was spread through the air and that it was "deadlier than the most strenuous flu" (Trump's words)?

I think if Fauci had been told how deadly the Coronavirus was he would never have said "You don't needs masks" in February. It makes sense in light of Fauci's naive statement that he simply had not been briefed by Trump on how deadly the virus was, yet here is Trump spilling all this delicate information to a news reporter in early February! :shock: These Republican strategists keep using the phrase "the fog of war" to defend Trump's lackadaisical response in the early days of the pandemic, like Trump didn't know how dangerous the virus was so how could he implement any policy for it? The tapes make clear he did know how deadly the virus was yet he chose to "play it down".

Your OP describes Fauci’s then position on wearing masks out of context. You give only a part of the whole and the result is you misinform readers.

At the time, Fauci was saying what the U.S. Surgeon General, the WHO and the CDC were saying. The SG did not want so many people to buy masks and possibly runs out of supply for healthcare providers. Fauci held the same position and that healthy people, people showing no symptoms, need not wear masks. When it was later found that asymptomatic people could transmit the disease, Fauci and everybody then recommended everyone wear masks when unable to socially distance.

 

[Greenbeard]

You didn't know that the virus that was killing people in China was a deadly virus?

Xi and Trump lied about the dangers with disastrous consequences.

 

[Jack2aTee]

Yeah ... Fauci was definitely kept out of the loop in January ...

Well, that's just a desk with a lot of people including Fauci sitting at it. What does that tell us? I think you're jumping to the conclusion that just because he's in a meeting with Trump, that trump is giving all these people the same data he gave Woodward. That's a naive assumption.

 

[Jack2aTee]

The Democratic Party and the MSM/press desperately want to avoid ANY actual issues having anything to do with government. Singularly, they only will talk hate-on-Trump personally, declaring us peasants shouldn't worry about whatever government does.

Biden on foreign policy? Absolutely nothing - zero - from Biden.
Anything on entitlements - Absolutely nothing - zero - from Biden.
No issue of any kind but hating Trump's personality, hating the police, hating white people, hating our allies. Nothing about issues.

This will be the first no government issues presidential election in history. Now it is just a personality contest for which the insiders will take care of anything of domestic and foreign policy - not troubling us little peasants.

Let's assume both are bad: Biden is bad and Trump is worse. It's a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. Do we judge a person fitness for the Presidency based on their charisma? Trump has tons of charisma, to the point that he possess all the qualities of a cult leader. Biden has zero charisma. A stump post has more appeal than Biden. But will Biden govern the country better than Trump? Or do we get four more years of 2020 except on steroids? That's the choice the American people have to make in November: choose between a vegetable or a liar and conman.

 

[Jack2aTee]

Hold on; Fauci didn't need any advice from Trump's 'team'. He is the leading expert in epidemiology and could only comment on what he knew from his experience with previous pandemics. Knowledge of the novel virus was pretty much non-existent at the start of the outbreak, so everyone was playing catch-up, including Fauci.
So, who comprised this 'team' who were so apparently knowledgeable about a previously unknown pathogen that they could advise Trump?

Well wait a second. If Fauci knew what everybody else knew, or to put it another way, if the people advising Trump didn't know anymore than Fauci did, then Fauci knew exactly what Trump knew when Trump was talking to Woodward on February 7 about the coronavirus being more deadly than the flu. Are you saying Fauci still went ahead and told people they didn't have to bother wearing masks when he knew how deadly the coronavirus actually was? That'd be criminally negligent of him. Fauci in reference to his remark has stated repeatedly that it was the early days of the pandemic and nobody knew how deadly it really was. We didn't have the data from China about Wuhan because China was lying to us at that time. So Fauci didn't know how deadly the virus was. Only Trump and Xi knew how deadly it was and Trump told Woodward instead of the people that really mattered.

 

[Visbek]

It doesn't make sense to me. Republican strategists and campaign directors are criticizing Fauci for telling the American people in the early days of the pandemic that masks were not necessary....

It's easy.

Trump and his sycophants don't care about truth or consistency.

For Trump, the only thing that matters is whether he believes that saying "X" will make him look good, or enrages his adversaries, or distracts from the real issues.

For Trump's sycophants, the only thing that matters is whether saying "X" will sound good to Trump.

The question that comes to my mind is "Didn't Trump have a duty for the safety of the American people to disclose to his task force just how serious the virus really was?"

Yes.

Was the task force apprised of the dangers Trump outlined to Woodward: that it was spread through the air and that it was "deadlier than the most strenuous flu" (Trump's words)?

Yes.

I think if Fauci had been told how deadly the Coronavirus was he would never have said "You don't needs masks" in February.

Actually, part of that was a miscalculation. They knew that there was an PPE shortage, so the better message should have been "essential workers need PPE, so please use cloth masks, do not buy surgical or N95 masks until that shortage is resolved."

 

[CaughtInThe]

 

[Luce]

It doesn't make sense to me. Republican strategists and campaign directors are criticizing Fauci for telling the American people in the early days of the pandemic that masks were not necessary. Yet we know now from the Woodward tapes that Trump knew as early as January that he was facing a monumental medical crisis--the worst crisis of his presidency. One of his aides had compared it to the 1918 Spanish flu as early as January according to Woodward.

The question that comes to my mind is "Didn't Trump have a duty for the safety of the American people to disclose to his task force just how serious the virus really was?" Was the task force apprised of the dangers Trump outlined to Woodward: that it was spread through the air and that it was "deadlier than the most strenuous flu" (Trump's words)?

I think if Fauci had been told how deadly the Coronavirus was he would never have said "You don't needs masks" in February. It makes sense in light of Fauci's naive statement that he simply had not been briefed by Trump on how deadly the virus was, yet here is Trump spilling all this delicate information to a news reporter in early February! :shock: These Republican strategists keep using the phrase "the fog of war" to defend Trump's lackadaisical response in the early days of the pandemic, like Trump didn't know how dangerous the virus was so how could he implement any policy for it? The tapes make clear he did know how deadly the virus was yet he chose to "play it down".

So Woodward should have done Trump's job for him?

 

[Taylor]

Xi and Trump lied about the dangers with disastrous consequences.

Where/when did they say you coudn't die from Covid?

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

You didn't know that the virus that was killing people in China was a deadly virus?

Not if you believed what Mr. Trump was saying at the time, you wouldn't.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Xi and Trump lied about the dangers with disastrous consequences.

On another site, G.N. in Milwaukee, WI, wrote

People seem to be missing the most significant issue with Donald Trump claiming that he lied to avoid a panic. The issue with that argument is that he claimed China lied about the virus and he wants people to hold them accountable for it. But now he's claiming he did the same thing. Shouldn't we hold him accountable?
​

"Claque Trump" dismisses the fact that Mr. Trump deliberately lied to the American people as totally inconsequential. (The more ludicrous members of "Claque Trump" deny that there is any such thing as a "COVID-19 crisis" and maintain that the governments of every other country in the world are providing totally false data on the effects of COVID-19 as a part of some vast hidden Deep State conspiracy against Mr. Trump.)

 

[Noodlegawd]

It doesn't make sense to me. Republican strategists and campaign directors are criticizing Fauci for telling the American people in the early days of the pandemic that masks were not necessary. Yet we know now from the Woodward tapes that Trump knew as early as January that he was facing a monumental medical crisis--the worst crisis of his presidency. One of his aides had compared it to the 1918 Spanish flu as early as January according to Woodward.

The question that comes to my mind is "Didn't Trump have a duty for the safety of the American people to disclose to his task force just how serious the virus really was?" Was the task force apprised of the dangers Trump outlined to Woodward: that it was spread through the air and that it was "deadlier than the most strenuous flu" (Trump's words)?

I think if Fauci had been told how deadly the Coronavirus was he would never have said "You don't needs masks" in February. It makes sense in light of Fauci's naive statement that he simply had not been briefed by Trump on how deadly the virus was, yet here is Trump spilling all this delicate information to a news reporter in early February! :shock: These Republican strategists keep using the phrase "the fog of war" to defend Trump's lackadaisical response in the early days of the pandemic, like Trump didn't know how dangerous the virus was so how could he implement any policy for it? The tapes make clear he did know how deadly the virus was yet he chose to "play it down".

You seem to be operating under the impression that Trump actually had some special information that Fauci didn't have at the time. In reality, it's far more likely that Trump was BSing Woodward.

 

[Jack2aTee]

You seem to be operating under the impression that Trump actually had some special information that Fauci didn't have at the time. In reality, it's far more likely that Trump was BSing Woodward.

But then why didn't Trump say to the public in briefing, "Oh come on, folks, don't you recognize BS-ing when you hear it? I was toying with Woodward. I knew he was preparing a political hit piece on me and I fed him what I thought was garbage at the time. I didn't believe it was deadly and I certainly didn't believe I should start a panic over what I thought was something that wasn't any worse than a mild case of flu."

Now that would have been more believable than Trump trying to sell us on the ridiculous notion he wasn't trying to start a panic when we all know he thrives on starting panics and stirring up chaos.