Media
Related: About this forumLaura Ingraham asked Fauci a question. She got the wrong answer.
Source: Washington Post
By Greg Sargent
Opinion writer
April 17, 2020 at 10:26 a.m. EDT
Only hours after President Trump released his vague new plan for reopening the economy, one that does not include anywhere near the testing well need, Fox News host Laura Ingraham tried to get Anthony Fauci to trash Joe Bidens response to Trumps new rollout.
It did not go as planned.
The exchange perfectly captures a profound problem bedeviling Trump and his media allies. They urgently need to minimize the continuing threat of coronavirus, to buttress Trumps case for reopening the economy quickly in keeping with his reelection needs.
But pushing that line risks making Trump appear cavalier about the virus while deaths mount past 30,000 and experts warn that a rush to reopen could prove catastrophic. So they also must demonstrate that Trumps call for a reopening is the argument thats truly grounded in science.
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Ingraham tried mightily to enlist Faucis help in making this problem disappear, but inadvertently revealed why making it disappear is impossible which has important ramifications for whats about to unfold.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/17/fox-news-host-asked-dr-fauci-question-she-got-wrong-answer/
brewens
(15,359 posts)That's why he denied it was serious for so long. It had to be. Something like this just couldn't ruin his presidency. It's not fair. Plus it might literally be a matter of life and death for Trump, some of his family and collaborators. Jared would not do well behind bars.
The best play was to downplay it to avoid tanking the markets and keep all their fortunes intact. Then when it just went away or flowed on through with little impact, Trump would be in the best possible position.
Now Trump knows his only chance is to get things running again and see the economy start to recover. The only way that can happen in time is to just open things back up and hope it works. He feels like he has nothing to lose.
John Fante
(3,479 posts)No matter how much we loathe this POS and want him defeated at all costs, blaming him for a coronavirus-fueled global recession would have been a huge stretch. Like Reagan in 1984 and Obama in 2013, Trump would have recieved minimal blame for the economic struggles we'll surely be facing in November.
What an idiot Trump is. All he had to do was give a bare-ass minimum effort to prepare for this pandemic and he'd be in a far more formidable position than he is right now. The MSM (because they have bar set so low for him) would have hailed Trump for unexpectedly "rising to the occasion", Republicans would have dubbed him the new Lincoln, etc. But no, Trump thought wishing the virus away was a better strategy instead. 😂
napi21
(45,806 posts)spread of the virus will escalate and THEIR citizens will suffer even more than they are now. Yea, I know. Some of the red State Govs will jump at the chance to bow down to DT's wishes, but most of them aren't important enough to the economic recovery to make a big difference. The base of the economy is run by the big industrial States, but THEY are all Blue States and they''ll tell him to stuff it.
PLUS, I don't think the economy is going to recover like he thinks it will. People aren't sitting at home dreaming about when they can go shopping!