Daily Archives: May 8, 2020

On Tuesday afternoon, Gretchen Whitmer, the Governor of Michigan, came on the line with a breaking-news bulletin. Just before our interview, Whitmer had heard that President Trump was talking about dismantling the coronavirus task force he had assembled to oversee the national response to the pandemic. Whitmer seemed stunned by this informationU.S. infections from COVID-19 were well over a million, the daily national death toll was often more than two thousand, and, in Whitmers hard-hit state, the crisis had already claimed more than four thousand of her constituents lives. Its just shocking, she said, as we both tried to absorb the news. Something new happens every day.

By the next morning, Trump had, once again, changed his mind. He told reporters that he had no idea how popular the coronavirus task force was, and that it would remain in operation while shifting its emphasis toward reopening the economy and away from a public-health catastrophe that has already caused more U.S. deaths than the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq combined. These are crazy times in American politics. Whats a governor, or anyone trying to make sense of Trumps on-again, off-again war on the virus, supposed to say?

Whitmer, a first-term Democrat in a swing state that helped Trump win the Presidency in 2016, has become such a lightning rod for Trump and his supporters that the President has given Whitmer her own derogatory Twitter nickname. After long-gun-toting protesters opposing her stay-at-home order entered the Michigan capitol last weeksome of them wearing Trump campaign regalia, and some carrying Confederate flags, nooses, and swastikasthe President praised them as very good people. As Democrats nationally celebrate Whitmers unyielding response, and as Joe Biden considers her as his running mate, both the Republican-controlled state legislature and a Republican member of Congress have now sued her for using her emergency powers to keep the state closed during the crisis. Meanwhile, in heavily Democratic, heavily African-American Detroit, health-care workers are struggling to contain one of the worst outbreaks in the country.

Public polls show that the vast majority of Michiganders support social-distancing measures to combat the pandemic (as is true nationwide), and also Whitmers handling of the situation. In a state that Trump needs to win this fall, his approval ratings have dropped, while Whitmers have risen. Whitmer told me that Trumps hyper-partisan approach did not make sense in terms of either public health or crass politics. The enemy is a virus, and it doesnt care what party youre in, it doesnt care what state youre in, she said. Trump, however, has not only persisted in his critiques of that woman from Michigan but nationalized his combative approach, with one policy for Democrat states, as he recently called them, that are the worst-affected by the virus, and another for Republican ones.

A fleeting image, captured on C-SPAN inside the U.S. Capitol this week, highlighted the divisive absurdity of the moment: Mitt Romney, wearing a mask, walked out of the Senate Republican Conference weekly lunch meeting toting a large placard with a graph on it. Blue states arent the only ones who are screwed, read the headline on the placard. Romney, though, is a minority of one. The lone Republican in either the House or Senate to support convicting Trump in his recent impeachment trial, Romney, who was the Republican Presidential nominee in 2012, is now an outlier in a Party with a devotion to Trump so strong that it has not faltered even in the face of the Presidents reality-defying response to the pandemic.

Romneys pitch, in fact, appeared to be so unpersuasive that, by Wednesday evening, Politico reported that Senate Republicans are settling on their pandemic message as they fight to save their majority: President Donald Trump did a tremendous job. This, not at all coincidentally, is the theme of a new ad being run nationwide by the Trump campaign, in which the President is portrayed as a heroic leader who defied Democrats and media pundits, shut off the country from the Chinese virus, and will lead Americas cratering economy to recovery. In case the message is too subtle, the ad spells it out in big all-capital letters on the screen: THE GREATEST COMEBACK STORY.

When I went to college, we used to joke during exam period that you were really in trouble when you started to lie to yourself and believe it. The President and at least some of his most fervent supporters appear now to be in the lying-to-yourself-and-believing-it stage of the pandemic. Truth has become so inconvenient that its better left aside for some alternate, less inconvenient reality. This is, of course, not the first time in the Trump Presidency, or even the first time during this pandemic, that there has been such a gap, but it appears to be a moment when there is a widening and very likely unsustainable gulf between Trumpian truth and what is actually happening.

Thats because the numbers are the numbers and, for Trump and for America, they look terrible. On Wednesday, there were some twenty-six hundred deaths in the United States from COVID-19, and, on Thursday, there were even more: around twenty-seven hundred. Leaked predictions from government scientists show an increase, by June 1st, to three thousand deaths, on average, every twenty-four hours. As Whitmer noted to me, that amounts to essentially a 9/11s worth of victims per day. Even after some seventy-five thousand deaths and a couple months of social-distancing public-health measures, the charts demonstrate clearly that the national curve has not flattened, with sharp declines registered only in New York and New Jerseywhich have already gone through the countrys worst ordealand a handful of other states. More than half the states have at least partially lifted strict stay-at-home orders, although none of the states that announced reopeningsnot onemet the criteria established by the Trump Administration for doing so. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, a detailed, seventeen-page guide for how to return safely to workplaces and schools was quashed by the White House, and its authors were told it would never see the light of day, the Associated Press reported on Thursday. Testing capability is nowhere near the millions of additional tests needed to resume regular daily life, according to experts, nor is there widespread capacity to conduct contact tracing, another prerequisite.

Yet many states are reopening anyway, and Trump is not, at least for now, even bothering to hide the fact that more Americans may die as a result of these decisions. On Tuesday, he flew to a mask factory in Arizona for a photo op, where he appeared not wearing a mask, as the Guns N Roses version of the song Live and Let Die blasted over the factorys loudspeakers. In an interview taped at the factory, Trump said, Im viewing our great citizens of this country to a certain extent, and to a large extent, as warriors. Theyre warriors. We cant keep our country closed. We have to open our country. Will some people be badly affected? Yes. On Wednesday, he elaborated as to what he meant by badly affected. Asked if more Americans might die as a result of reopening too soon, he said, Hopefully that wont be the case. But, he added, It could very well be the case. He also argued against more testing. In a way, by doing all this testing, we make ourselves look bad, he said. On Thursday, it was reported that, even as Trump was saying this, one of his personal valets, who delivers his meals, had tested positive for the virus. In response, Trump said he would now be tested every day. Reality, it turns out, is not just a matter of political optics.

Originally posted here:

Has Trump Reached the Lying-to-Himself-and-Believing-It Stage of the Coronavirus Pandemic? - The New Yorker

Early pictures of Mary Anne MacLeod tell a story of hope and confidence: Shes smiling, shes poised, fresh-faced and looking ready for adventure. Shes probably pretty smartat least her friends thought soand ambitious enough to want to leave her home on the remote Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides.

Mary, the youngest of 10 children of Mary Smith and Malcolm MacLeod, grew up there, in the small village of Tong, where the Gaelic-speaking family farmed and lived on their croft, a small plot of land on a tidal flat. Today, its still a more-than-two-hour ferry to reach the Scottish mainland from Stornoway, the isles largest town (current population: around 6,000).

Even attending church was a trek for the MacLeod family. In rain boots, theyd trudge through mud, wind, and water every Sunday to worship at the Stornoway High Church, writes journalist Nina Burleigh in her book Golden Handcuffs: The Secret History of Trumps Women. The congregation was part of the Free Church of Scotland, an evangelical movement that had splintered from the Church of Scotland almost a century earlier in protest of the corruption of landed gentry. The island is still conservative and faithful: The local tourism board advises making sure your hotel will actually be open on Sunday, as most businesses on the island are shut down on the Sabbath. The first Sunday Isle of Lewis ferry launchedto accompanying protestsjust over a decade ago.

Mary had her reasons for setting sail for America at age 17, both pragmatic and social. Stay, and her main job prospects would be weaving the local Harris Tweed or working as a fishing girl curing herring. There were few marriageable men on the isle, after World War I exacted a great death toll on the local men who went to servearound 17% of Lewisman would die in battle and another 200 men returning from war died yards away from the Stornoway coastline in 1919 when their ship hit rocks and sunk. The Calvinist sentiment of the religious isle had already stigmatized Marys older sister Catherine for having a child out of wedlock, likely encouraging Catherine to leave for New York City a decade before.

Mary joined Catherine there, finding work as a maid for Andrew Carnegies widow in Manhattan in the Carnegie Mansion on the Upper East Side, writes Burleigh in Golden Handcuffs. In relatively short order she met Fred Trump, an up-and-coming builder, at a dance; they married in January 1936, at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church.

In 1946, Mary gave birth to their fourth child, Donald J. Trump.

Theres supposedly no relationship in life so central, so formative, as the childs relationship with their mother. That has seemed to hold true for our presidents. God bless my mother; all that I am or ever hope to be I owe to her, said Lincoln of his mother, Nancy, who died when he was seven years old. American presidents tend to give their mothers high marks: Theres FDRs original helicopter mom, Sara Delano; Clintons strong survivor of a single mother, Virginia Kelley; and the beloved matriarch Barbara Bush, among other 20th- and 21st-century presidential mothers.

No modern president has lacked the ability to demonstrate public compassion; several presidentsmost recently Barack Obama during a speech after the massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary Schoolheld no compunction crying in public during times of great national tragedy.

Until Trump, that is.

That brings us to the flip side of the warm familial cocoon, as described by Philip Larkin: They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

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Donald Trump Loves His Father Fred, But He Rarely Mentions His Mother - Vanity Fair

The task forces mission will no longer be in response to coronavirus, but on opening up America again, said a senior White House official, adding that Pence has truly loved steering the governments response to the deadly pandemic because its allowed him to bring comfort, answers and transparency to the American people.

As Pence continues to coordinate with health officials working to develop vaccines and therapeutics, he will maintain a travel schedule that includes frequent visits to front-line facilities and meetings with people hit by coronavirus or its fallout. On Friday, the vice president will discuss the return of religious gatherings with faith leaders in Des Moines, Iowa, and participate in a roundtable on food shortages.

No longer relegated to a White House side stage, Pences highly visible role leading the pandemic response gave him a rare political opportunity: a chance to impress Americans who have sought straightforward updates and genuine reassurance from their leaders something Trump himself has at times struggled to provide.

Still, a person close to the vice president said he is anxious to outsource the lions share of supervision once the response is divided between FEMA, a handful of executive agencies and the remaining Pence-led team. The vice president has presided over daily task force meetings since late February, when Trump placed him in the command post, and has sometimes fielded phone calls from multiple governors each day.

Hes been living and breathing this crisis 24/7 for three months and believes now is an appropriate time to let others take over, said an administration official. The official added that Pences team is considering ways for him to refocus on the 2020 election without appearing insensitive to the reality that tens of millions of Americans remain out of work and thousands remain in mourning.

The senior White House official added that Pence is looking forward to getting back to his normal routine just like every American, which does not mean he wants this process to be over.

He still thinks its really important work and hes honored to be doing it, the official said.

One Republican close to the White House said the longer Pence remains the public face of the administrations coronavirus response, the more susceptible to criticism he becomes especially as efforts to rescue the economy, by sending workers and consumers back into their communities, run the risk of creating deeper health problems closer to the 2020 election.

This person said Pence may have signed his own death warrant when he first took over the coronavirus task force because no amount of loyalty will shield him from becoming Trumps fall guy if the virus returns this fall and costs the president a second term.

People have a sense that Mike Pence is in the command chair on this and I do think, to a certain extent, he will be judged by the outcome, said longtime conservative columnist Stephen Hayes, author of a 2007 biography on former Vice President Dick Cheney.

One triumph the vice presidents allies want him to lean into as he continues to discuss the administrations coronavirus efforts during interviews, official visits and eventual campaign events is the public-private collaboration to produce personal protective equipment and ensure a steady supply of ventilators for the U.S. and other countries. While touring a ventilator production plant in his home state of Indiana last week, Pence repeatedly touted the U.S. ventilator surplus.

Others believe Pences close coordination with governors will be his saving grace if he runs in 2024 and faces an onslaught of criticism over other elements of the administrations handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, including testing shortages and interagency squabbles along with a hurried reopening that could have devastating health consequences in pockets of the country that have yet to reach their peak number of cases.

Instead of indulging Trumps request in March to stop calling Democratic governors in Washington and Michigan, Pence continued to check in weekly with both governors and monitor the fulfillment of supplies they requested. In private phone calls with other governors, he has been careful to sidestep their personal frustrations with the president and always brings the conversation back to their needs and concerns, according to one state official whose boss has been on more than a dozen calls with Pence in the past few weeks.

A person involved with Trumps reelection effort said Pences deliberate outreach to states has already benefited him politically, noting that his approval rating has risen in some recent polls. This person attributed the slight uptick to public praise from popular governors such as Larry Hogan of Maryland and Andrew Cuomo of New York. (Pences national approval rating was up 3 percentage points since mid-April in an Economist/YouGov poll released this week. But several other polls have recorded no recent changes in voter attitudes toward the vice president.)

Of course, if Pence chooses to run in 2024, his coordination with governors is likely to attract less focus than both the administrations early failures in responding to the coronavirus outbreak and the laundry list of eye-popping statements Trump has made about the severity of the virus and treatment options for those who contract it.

The trouble for Pence is that other Republicans running for president are going to have every incentive to say things should have been done differently, said Goldstein, the expert on vice presidential history. So he can talk about working effectively with governors, and I think theres been plenty of indications that he has, but there are still going to be voices who say, Why did you do this? Why did you do that?

One former White House official said Trumps dubious medical claims are likely to become an albatross around Pences neck if he touts his leadership of the coronavirus task force in a future presidential primary. The president infamously suggested that household disinfectants might kill the virus a claim he made after Bill Bryan, who leads the Office of Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security, delivered a presentation at the White House explaining how sunlight and humidity can kill the novel coronavirus. In addition to sparking a firestorm of criticism, the episode frustrated some Trump aides who were against Bryans presentation from the start.

But it also concerned Pence allies, who have long wondered how the vice president will survive thorny questions about Trumps most controversial statements comments that have sparked dayslong news cycles, created diplomatic crises and alienated key voters if he runs as the presidents natural successor four years from now.

Regular news conferences by Trump and Pence over the course of the Covid-19 crisis have only magnified the vice presidents reluctance to contradict or correct the president, while inextricably linking him to his exceptionally polarizing boss.

Catastrophic earthquakes. Solar flares that bring down the entire power grid. The global rise of white supremacy. What could come after coronavirus?

On multiple occasions when Trump commandeered the White House briefing room to promote untested coronavirus treatments or lob insults at journalists, Pences trademark stoicism was on full display. Standing with his hands clasped just off to the side, there would be Pence staring warmly at Trump with a soft smile.

When the president goes out and says something off-script or sends mixed messages about states opening back up, none of that is something Mike Pence can control, but the results will ultimately shape the way Mike Pence is being seen coming out of this, Hayes said.

The next several months could have profoundly positive implications for Pence if the coronavirus abates and the economy shows signs of improvement by the time voters cast their ballots this November. A second term for Trump, whose reelection chances are now tethered to his administrations Covid-19 response, would give Pence another four years to build his own case for higher office in a period of economic recovery much like George H.W. Bush did during the brief recovery period following the Black Monday market crash in 1987.

On Wednesday, Trump said the Pence-led coronavirus task force would readjust its purpose to be very focused on vaccines and therapeutics, an area in which the White House is hoping for a major breakthrough before the 2020 presidential contest heats up later this summer.

Pence, who has described ongoing attempts to develop a Covid-19 vaccine as a Manhattan Project-style effort, praised Trumps intervention to speed up the development process during a closed briefing on Tuesday with reporters and fellow task force participants. Sipping on a Diet Coke as he guided discussions about outbreak zones, hospitalization rates and state-based approaches to reopening businesses, Pences deep grasp of the once-in-a-generation pandemic was on full display.

Despite the off-camera setting, the vice presidents approach was unchanged from a week before, when he joined Trump for a Rose Garden news conference and jumped in to provide particulars on testing expansions when the president himself was short on details.

One of Pences strengths is he is an effective communicator who stays on message, Goldstein said. I think thats helpful to him now, but its hard for me to see those moments being remembered in the long term.

Link:

The 2024 election test arrives early for Mike Pence - POLITICO