During yesterday’s on-mic failure of leadership, Donald Trump asserted that he’s not hearing anything about people who need coronavirus testing being unable to access that testing:
Q Thank you, Mr. President. I have a question about testing. When will every American who needs a test get a test and be able to get a test? And why not have medical equipment being shipped right now to hospitals who need it, to —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you’re hearing very positive things about testing. And just so you understand, we don’t want every American to go out and get a test.
Q We’re talking about the people who need a test.
THE PRESIDENT: Three hundred and fifty million people — we don’t want that. We want people that are sys- — that have a problem, that have a problem with — they’re sneezing, they’re sniffling, they don’t feel good, they have a temperature. There are a lot of different things. You know them — you know them better than I do. So, ready? We don’t need that.
But what we are having is we’re having — these private labs have come and they’ve been really fantastic. And we also have a great system for the future. Because, as I said, we inherited — “we,” meaning this administration — an obsolete, broken system that wasn’t meant for anything like this.
Now we have a system that you can see because — look, we’re well into this and nobody is even talking about it, except for you —
Q There are Americans —
THE PRESIDENT: — which doesn’t surprise me. Which doesn’t surprise me.
Q There are Americans though who say that they have symptoms and they can’t get tests.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Well, okay —
Q What do you say to the Americans who are scared that they have symptoms and can’t get a test?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Well, okay. I’m not — I’m not hearing it. But we don’t want everybody to go out and get a test because there is no reason for it.
Yeah.Q What about some Americans who have symptoms who can’t get a test?
Q Mr. President, I want to ask —
THE PRESIDENT: We’ll do one more after this [The White House, official transcript of coronavirus press briefing, 2020.03.20].
But Trump did hear it the day before, personally, on the phone, from Governor Kristi Noem:
In a call held on Thursday with Mr. Trump, a group of governors stressed to him that they were struggling to address the staggering demand for equipment.
At one point, Gov. Kristi Noem, Republican of South Dakota, grew frustrated as she expressed to the president and members of the coronavirus task force that state officials had been working unsuccessfully with private suppliers.
“I need to understand how you’re triaging supplies,” Ms. Noem said. “We, for two weeks, were requesting reagents for our public health lab from C.D.C., who pushed us to private suppliers who kept canceling orders on us. And we kept making requests, placing orders.”
She added, “I don’t want to be less of a priority because we’re a smaller state or less populated.”
Mr. Trump promised her that would “never” happen before Ms. Noem’s telephone line was disconnected [Katie Rogers, Maggie Haberman, and Ana Swanson, “Trump Resists Pressure to Use Wartime Law to Mobilize Industry Response,” New York Times, 2020.03.20].
Noem was referring to the kink in the supply line that shut down testing in South Dakota for two days this week.
We’re used to Trump cutting off reporters when they ask questions. But with Noem, Trump usually just changes the subject to fireworks. Now he’s so overwhelmed byt he failure of his leadership that he has to cut off a Republican governor and lie about ever hearing her say plain facts to him on the phone.
He has always treated Republicans like crap – and they support him anyhow. Because – he has an R associated with his name and that’s just what they ARE ALL ABOUT. Forget the notion of a rational or even a consistent set of policies or attitudes or beliefs, it is 100% identity politics, at the simplest ONE LETTER level.
And talk about dumbed down, the modern effort to associate party with a COLOR (red or blue) makes even the idea of literacy irrelevant.
THIS is the state of our nation.
When there are no test results things seem stable. Then we do some tests and the numbers rocket up. The real situation is obscured but we can be assured that things are much, much worse than what has been announced.
Maybe there are some that don’t want testing to protect us?? (them)
Less testing keeps the numbers of infected low. Next will be fudged numbers of the unemployed.
I have a hard time finding anything truthful from this administration.They are doing the same thing they accused China of doing.
Hey, Kristi, call our outstanding cadre of representatives in D.C., you know, Photo Op guy, Smilin’ Do-nuttin’ guy and Opie. They have been 100% Trumpkins so they might be able to get thru without getting cut off. Those guys give new meaning to the word “sycophant”!
Trump sees things through his own personal lens. What benefits him most is what he’s going to do. He denied, denied, denied the seriousness of COVID-19, until it became to his benefit to act like he’s the wartime commander in the fight against the virus. Apparently, Noem got off the talking points Dear Leader had in mind for his conference call, and got cut off. Noem doesn’t seem to have prefaced her requests with the expected genuflection so often shown by Vice Commander Pence.
The problem is South Dakota doesn’t offer Trump anything. The electoral votes in South Dakota, small as they are, are his. He has little, if any business interest in South Dakota to protect. You peons in South Dakota do not matter. Trump has a big stake in business in the larger states. Also, there are more people to get infected there, so, as Trump would say, “the numbers” need to look better to stupid people in the Dakotas, who will die at a higher rate, but fill fewer graves.
Wisconsin is a swing state that Trump needs, though I know of no business he has here. He put a lot of his effort in Wisconsin into setting up the Foxxcon con. That never panned out as big as he promised, but if that totally falls through due to the Trump virus and the Trump depression, and Wisconsinites end up losing a lot of lives and jobs, he’s done. If he can’t win Wisconsin, he ain’t going to be President. So, I expect Governor Evers will get all the supplies he needs, which means I’ll have a far better shot at living through this than that South Dakota geezer, Grudz.
Hey, I’m sorry South Dakotans.
Isn’t it amazing that The Dope Queen
of Delusion actually thinks that Trump
gives a crap about her ?
Not to mention South Dakotans.
THAT is delusional. And, that’s what we have in Pierre.
I won’t even go into Curly, Larry and
Moe …..
GNOem and the rest, do not seem to get it. By not testing, you don’t show how many are infected. By doing that, it artificially keeps Wall Street from knowing the true damage this tyrant is doing.
GNOem plays right into that hand by not telling us who these infected people are and what village they are from. By doing that, she keeps the virus moving among us. Something like Marsy’s Law should be applicable here.
cibvet, trump has already notified states to fudge unemployment numbers so it all fits the pattern you describe, no numbers, nothing to worry about.
Donald, although I completely agree with your identification of the myopic, selfish focus of President Trump, the farm bailouts show that he is willing to throw national treasury around to smooth over his mistakes – even here in small SD – even for a few. Maybe that is more of a crass recognition that even a few can make a big embarrassment for him. Unlike the Trump corporation, he now is not spending the company’s money so, “make it rain.”
As far as the unemployment numbers (and the crisis itself), I really hope that progressives learned the lessons of the housing crisis and the stimulus package: money has to go to those affected by the crisis, the unemployed. Bailing out corporations and hoping that trickles down to employees (that have already been laid off) does not work. Most corporations are not going down BECAUSE they are keeping workers on the payroll; they have already cut loose those expenses for corporate preservation.
China is now back to being cool. After ignoring the pandemic for months and finding out that, low and behold, we don’t have medical supplies to even cover basic needs. China has been supplying Italy, Spain, France and Iran with much needed medical supplies, so now we want in on that. From Bloomberg:
“The Trump administration signaled a willingness to remove tariffs on medical supplies from China as health authorities backed by U.S. businesses express an urgent need for more masks, ventilators and other equipment to suppress the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. Trade Representative, in a statement late Friday, invited the public, businesses and government agencies to submit “comments on possible further modifications to remove duties from additional medical care products.”
Probably won’t happen until we hit a quarter of a million deaths, but one thing is for certain, China has stepped up their game for supplying needed medical supplies and medics to these countries and more.
O, drumpf isn’t supporting farmers out of the kindness of his heart…..
9 in 10 counties that voted for Trump have received subsidies …www.washingtonpost.com › politics › 2019/08/01 › nine-in-counties-tha
Article is behind paywall, but drumpf is trying to shore up his base and his trade policies are damaging farms and truckers. He is losing alot of rural voters and rightly so, one would think.
mfi, wait till those funerals and deductibles start to bite them on the boo boo, they will find out how badly they played this…and still not be able to sell beans and corn. They all bought into a huge lie, hook, line and with stinker.
I will give Klued Kristi points for pushing Medical Moron to understand and meet SD’s needs. Clearly she pushed him past his comfort zone of slavering adulation so he cut her off. Good for KK.
(I think I’ve said that once before, but it does feel weird.)
I must say, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been outstanding. If you want to see real leadership and a governor you’d love to have, check out any of his press conferences of the past week on YouTube.
Tim Walz for GOD.
According to The Hill, this is where Democrats and the GOP are on negotiations for the mammoth aid bill.
is.gd/2obA8E
Bumbling Butthead remembers who his friends are. North Korea says he sent a personal letter to his buddy Kim Jong Un offering US assistance in any way he might need. Because, you know, we’ve got plenty of everything we need and it’s all under control here.
is.gd/Czq049
This story is in the Strib, so paywalled. It’s about the work happening at the University of Minnesota med school. Everything has been flipped to coronavirus work. One prof has “Macgyvered” a ventilator. Others are working on meds. Some already in existence have shown promise. That includes malaria and HIV drugs. The FDA is fast tracking reviews while the U’s med ethics is reducing requirements for approving studies.
It’s hopeful.
is.gd/xPfBEZ
Wonder if wingnuts give any thoughts about saving the Amazon rain forest and the potential for new medicines, among other things?
Naw! The Amazon and Brazil be full of brown peoples.
ps I wonder how many cases of Covid 19 drumpf can claim his wall stopped ?
0 – Just to be clear – there is no “Trump Corporation”. The entire enterprise is a sole proprietorship – owned entirely by Mr. Trump. No share-holders, no board, nothing. There are of course HUNDREDS of shell “LLCs” set up to shuffle profits around from one account to another to assure an over all “loss” to minimize taxation. But each and every one of them is owned solely and entirely by one person – who answers to no one else. And THAT is his whole mindset around the notion of “business”.
drumpf considers opening up registration for Obamacare to help fight Covid 19.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/trump-administration-obamacare-coronavirus-140806
mfi, trump doesn’t explain how unemployed workers in South Dakota will be accepted into the ACA/Obamacare. You see, you have to be employed in order to qualify in our state. No job, no ACA/Obamacare and you have to make more than $12,000.00 a year. So trump can open the ACA/Obamacare and act like it’s a big deal, but it’s a huge nothingburger that will help no one. Besides, don’t republicans hate the ACA/Obamacare enough to destroy it?
We’re on our own brother until we nationalize healthcare for all.
The greatest scandal in American history we are witnessing: The trump cover up of a looming health crisis. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/22/1930173/-The-Greatest-Scandal-In-American-History-The-Trump-Cover-Up-Of-A-Looming-Public-Health-Crisis
trump and the senior republicans knew and they did nothing. Thune knew and sat idly by, maybe selling stocks or telling friends and family to do so. EB5 Rounds, knew and sat idly by, maybe selling stocks or telling friends and family to do so, Tell me that EB5 Rounds didn’t know the danger, please, he knew, they both knew and they did nothing.
“Rounds Secures Key Committee Assignments for 116th Congress
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today announced that he will maintain his membership on four key committee assignments in the 116th Congress:
Senate Armed Services
Veterans’ Affairs
Environment and Public Works (EPW)
Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs”
Richard, thank you; that is an important distinction that should be made in my language.
As we see the irrelevancy of trump, it’s becoming clear that other country’s will see the same. Meanwhile, we are now at over 35,000 cases that we know of here, with probably 10 times more that are just not reported.
I think that South Dakota should start to deal directly with China and trade soybeans and corn for medical supplies. Seriously, there are many here in the state, that have connections with China trough one way or another, that could put some things together. trump is like Pontius Pilate, he has washed his hands of the blood.
Here “Lead or get out of the way.
That was the message from state and local officials on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States over the weekend, with many officials saying they were increasingly dismayed at the federal government’s response to the crisis to date.”
When the states and their citizens see what is going on, the financial systems see the same and so does the rest of the world. I think we shall soon see that country’s will start to ignore the sanctions and other sanctimonious projects trump has delivered. The empire is further weakened. No Bailouts
All of the idiotic Republican leadership in this country needs to get their heads out. The only way that China and South Korea got a handle on this thing was by aggressively attacking it…..not the leadership we have seen that just hopes it goes away.
The public are idiots and need to be controlled. Over the weekend bars and restaurants in SD along the border with Iowa were jammed because Iowa had shut them down. Shouldn’t that send a signal to people?
trump/republicans are gaslighters, oh, and a new bonus video from the Dixie Chicks, booyah!
““Trump is a sales guy, and it’s all about point of sale,” said Stuart Stevens, a longtime Republican operative and frequent Trump critic. “It’s not about repeat customers and follow-ups. He wants to get the sale — that’s it — he wants to sell you the undercoating for your car, and it’s not his problem if the car breaks driving off of the lot.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=223&v=sbVPcPL30xc&feature=emb_title
Love the Chicks! Thanks Jerry.
Dems snookered again. They’ve been too busy working for their cooorporist overlords. Save wall street!
Looks like the Trumpster will definitely get reelected now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAoaMaFvh-E
Clyde, this conman will pull anything out of his lying arse. Take what he says, and then think and do the opposite and you will survive.
Come on, Jerry…..how many word’s right from the horses mouth will it take to admit that your blue won’t do. We will see what Trump comes up with but something like “med for all” is going to be needed, not the joke of what we have right now. It won’t surprise me what he will promise and do to get re-elected while all the DNC and establishment propaganda media will do is to try to keep their status quo. Of course the R party won’t continue the help once the election is over but isn’t it interesting that they are, in effect, promising “med for all”.