Tag: 2020 trump campaign
Trump's COVID Response Was Far Worse Than We Remember

Trump's COVID Response Was Far Worse Than We Remember

Here are Trump's words from that infamous April 2020 press conference about Covid:

"So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light. ... And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. ... I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. ... And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning."

Yet here we are, a little more than four years later, and the narrative about how COVID was handled has shifted. It now seems to be conventional wisdom that the worst errors we committed concerned massive shutdowns and school closings. We hear comparatively little about the large discrepancies between Republicans and Democrats in death rates because of the former's resistance to public health measures and vaccination.

A serious country would look back at Trump's greatest challenge during his presidency and remember what an embarrassing failure it was.

It began with denial of the problem. Trump told Bob Woodward in a February 2020 phone call that "You just breathe the air and that's how it's passed. And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flus. ... This is deadly stuff."

But in his public statements, Trump repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the virus. On Jan. 22, 2020, he said, "We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine." On Feb. 7, he tweeted:

"Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation."

On February 10, he again reported on a chat with Xi, reassuring Americans that "I think China is very, you know, professionally run in the sense that they have everything under control."

On February 26, he urged people to wash their hands (fair enough) but then suggested that the new virus was "the same as the flu" — exactly the opposite of what he told Woodward.

On February 27, he predicted that COVID would "disappear ... it's like a miracle."

On February 28, Trump said the Democrats were politicizing the coronavirus, calling it their "new hoax."

Trump's principal actions as chief executive in the early days of the pandemic were to enact travel bans from China and later Europe. He did nothing to initiate a testing program, though he did assert falsely that anyone who wanted a test could get one.

In March, Trump urged that the Grand Princess cruise ship, with sick passengers aboard, not be permitted to dock in San Francisco because he didn't want to increase the number of cases counted in the United States. "I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault."

Also in March 2020, citing a small French study, Trump declared that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, taken together with an antibiotic, could be "one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine" and should "be put in use immediately."

On April 3, Trump mentioned that the CDC was now recommending that people wear masks but said that he would not wear one.

By July, with the number of cases rising sharply, Trump suggested that the tests were picking up trivial cases: " They have the sniffles and we put it down as a test." By that point, 3.7 million Americans had been infected and more than 140,000 had died.

Also in July, Trump elevated Dr. Stella Immanuel on Twitter. Dr. Immanuel touted hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID and denied that masks were effective. She also believed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches.

In a September 2020 campaign stop, Trump said that COVID affects "virtually nobody," mainly just "elderly people, elderly people with heart problems and other problems. If they have other problems, that's what it really affects, that's it."

Trump modeled contempt for masking, mocking reporters and others for wearing them. He held huge rallies and White House indoor parties that became superspreader events. When he himself became infected with COVID, he failed to disclose it to associates like Chris Christie (who wound up in intensive care) and arguably attempted to infect Joe Biden at the first presidential debate.

Trump denied the problem, failed to coordinate a federal response other than banning travel, embraced quack cures and modeled antisocial behavior. After first praising Xi Jinping to the skies for his "strong" control of the virus, he switched to name calling — the "Kung Flu," the "China virus" — to incite xenophobic responses. He really did only one big thing right — backing Operation Warp Speed, which hastened the development of the vaccine.

Now his party has gone full nutcase, demonizing Anthony Fauci. These are unserious people in thrall to a sociopathic clown. The U.S. death rate from COVID far exceeded that of peer nations. That was not due to excessive lockdowns or masking. It was due to incompetence in the White House. Time for a great remembering.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Select Panel Report Shows Trump Isn't The Only 'Big Ripoff' Grifter

Select Panel Report Shows Trump Isn't The Only 'Big Ripoff' Grifter

Most Americans know by now that former President Donald Trump isn't a brilliant business executive, let alone a "stable genius" who earned billions. We have learned from various investigations, including the forced release of his tax returns, that he is a financial loser — and that his most conspicuous talent is for brazen grifting.

Now the House Select Committee, in a scathing appendix to its final report on the January 6 insurrection and coup attempt, has exposed the latest and perhaps most successful Trump grift. It's called "The Big Rip-off" because it depended on Trump's Big Lie about election fraud in 2020. Using hundreds of emails sent incessantly to its millions of supporters, the Trump campaign continued to raise enormous sums after the election ended by pretending that the Biden campaign had "stolen" its victory — and that with enough money that victory could be overturned.

Trump's principal co-conspirators in this bigtime scam were officials of the Republican National Committee, or RNC, which had a joint fundraising agreement that split proceeds with the campaign. From extensive interviews with top officials from both the RNC and the Trump campaign, the House investigators determined that the Republican leadership continued that deal long after it knew that the funds obtained were tainted by the Big Lie.

"The RNC knew that Trump's claims about winning the election were baseless and that post-election donations would not help him secure an additional term in office," the report explains. Yet both the RNC and the Trump campaign decided to continue fundraising after the election ended — "a decision that would have come from President Trump himself." The operations of that joint fundraising machine, known as Trump Make America Great Again Committee (or "T-Magic" to insiders) were overseen by the former president's son-in-law Jared Kushner and approved by Trump himself.

Their letters used incendiary language to damage public confidence in the electoral process, insisting that the election had been "stolen" and that the money would be used to "fight back" and "stop the steal." Sending out as many as 25 inflammatory emails every day, TMAGAC saw its most lucrative fundraising immediately after Election Day, hauling in as much as $100 million in the first three days, by claiming to establish a nonexistent "Official Election Defense Fund."

Eventually they raised more than $250 million.

They perpetrated that historic larceny, in the report's words, "by claiming to fight fraud they knew did not exist and to challenge an election they knew he lost." The RNC copywriters would "draft a lot of the content based on what the president was saying... a very aggressive, excitable tone... giving them 'red meat'... to make it seem as if the president himself was writing these letters and texts," according to the Select Committee's report.

This belligerently deceptive approach to monetizing the Big Lie began on Election Day 2020 when the campaign decided how to report election results to its supporters. As outlined by the Select Committee report, the campaign had three options: It could say that Trump had won, knowing that was false; it could say that the outcome remained uncertain which was then true; or it could claim, as it did, that "the Democrats are trying to steal the election" — a destructive accusation that the campaign decided to use even before Election Night results came in. As campaign officials later confessed to the Select Committee investigators, that claim was not based on any actual information received by TMAGAC staff or any attempt by them to determine its veracity.

RNC attorneys made a few feeble efforts to moderate that language in the TMAGAC donor messaging, to cover their own collective behind. But as the Select Committee notes, the RNC "was clearly aware that President Trump's claims regarding the election were not true and tried to have it both ways."

So, the RNC knew that Trump was lying to the American public every day and did virtually nothing to oppose that strategy. Its leaders, including RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, chose only to "tinker around the edges" of that false messaging. RNC officials admitted that they had seen no evidence to support Trump's claim that he had won the election and were not aware of any evidence of voter fraud sufficient to change the election's outcome.

Despite its lawyers' concerns about repeating the most extreme and unsupportable claims of fraud, the RNC "stayed the course with a coordinated, single fundraising plan with the Trump campaign... and publicly stood shoulder-to-shoulder with President Trump and his Big Lie."

To this day, most of the money raised remains in the bank, but millions have been paid out to Trump himself, his political associates and his businesses.

Among many egregious examples of pilfering and looting, well over $100,000 was paid for "strategic consulting" to Melania Trump's fashion stylist. A million dollars went to a "conservative" nonprofit that employs former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and participated in planning for Trump's Jan. 6 coup, and over $10 million went to an event-planning firm that helped to run the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse that preceded the Capitol riot. Additional millions were later spent on lawyers representing witnesses called to testify before the Select Committee.

There is no honor among thieves, so chair McDaniel is now being challenged for her position by an even more extreme MAGA politician. What this report shows in embarrassing detail is how they fleeced their own followers — who are, alas, mostly gullible enough to continue listening to them, at great cost to our country.

To find out more about Joe Conason and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

GOP Donor Accuses Lewandowski Of 'Sexually Graphic' Harassment At Vegas Fundraiser

GOP Donor Accuses Lewandowski Of 'Sexually Graphic' Harassment At Vegas Fundraiser

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet

A longtime aide to former President Donald Trump is facing accusations of misconduct after allegedly inflicting brazen, repeatedly rejected sexual overtures, including physical contact, on a female Republican donor.

According to Politico, Trashelle Odom — wife of Idaho executive John Odom — is accusing Corey Lewandowski of "making unwanted sexual advances" toward her at a charity event that was held in Las Vegas, Nev., this past weekend. Odom "alleges that Lewandowski repeatedly touched her, including on her leg and buttocks, and spoke to her in sexually graphic terms" while they were at the event.A donor and longtime aide for former President Donald Trump is facing accusations after allegedly making sexual advances toward a female victim.

Speaking to Politico, Odom recounted what occurred on September 26 when she crossed paths with Lewandowski.

"On the evening of September 26 in Las Vegas, Nevada, I attended a dinner to support a charity and spend time with wonderful friends," Odom said in a statement to the publication. "He repeatedly touched me inappropriately, said vile and disgusting things to me, stalked me, and made me feel violated and fearful," she said in reference to Lewandowski.

Odom went on to explain why she is speaking out about the encounter. "I am coming forward because he needs to be held accountable," she continued. "I am blessed to have a loving husband and family behind me. I want other women to know that you can be heard, too, and together we can stop terrible things like this from happening."

Odom's attorney has also released a statement detailing his client's account. According to the attorney, Lewandowski aggressively pursued Odom as he made advances "approximately 10 times."

"Mrs. Odom stated that over the course of the dinner, Mr. Lewandowski tried to hold her hand, and she pushed his hand away. He touched her leg, and she moved it away. He grabbed her napkin off her lap and tried to touch her leg again, and she pulled her dress over her leg, to move his hand away and cover her skin," Odom's attorney wrote in the statement.

"He touched her back and she tried to get away," the statement continued. "He described an area where he was sore from a workout, on the side of his butt, but he demonstrated this by touching her there—on the upper side of her rear end. Lewandowski tried to touch her approximately 10 times, and Mrs. Odom always rebuffed him."

In wake of the latest allegations, David Chesnoff, the Las Vegas-based attorney representing Lewandowski, also released a brief statement in response to the situation. However, he did not directly address Odom's allegations. "Accusations and rumors appear to be morphing by the minute and we will not dignify them with a further response," he said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Wednesday evening, the Trump apparatus announced that the former president has severed ties with Lewandowski, according to this tweet posted by New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman:

Jared Kushner

Bombshell: Kushner Ran Shell Outfit That Paid Campaign Funds To Trump Family Members

Reprinted with permission from DailyKos

Business Insider is reporting that Donald Trump's son-in-law and chief adviser Jared Kushner approved creation of a shell company that "secretly paid" Trump's family members and "spent almost half of the campaign's $1.26 billion war chest."

That would amount to a cool $617 million in cash supposedly meant for Trump's reelection campaign that essentially disappeared without a trace. The shell company appears to have served as a pass-through entity with the added benefit of shielding all of its transactions from public view.

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