March 13
On This Day In 2020
Trump was referring to the uncontrolled spread of Covid across the U.S.
“Those words will probably end up as the epitaph of his presidency, the single sentence that sums it all up,” David Frum wrote later in The Atlantic.
@davidfrum continued:
“That the pandemic occurred is not Trump’s fault. The utter unpreparedness of the United States for a pandemic is Trump’s fault. The loss of stockpiled respirators to breakage because the federal government let maintenance contracts lapse in 2018 is Trump’s fault. The failure to store sufficient protective medical gear in the national arsenal is Trump’s fault. That states are bidding against other states for equipment, paying many multiples of the precrisis price for ventilators, is Trump’s fault. Air travelers summoned home and forced to stand for hours in dense airport crowds alongside infected people? That was Trump’s fault too. Ten weeks of insisting that the coronavirus is a harmless flu that would miraculously go away on its own? Trump’s fault again."
He was finally being forced by events to take some action. He declared a national emergency and freed up $50 billion to respond to the outbreak.
But by this point, the stock market was in shambles, the price of oil was falling to “below zero,” and hospitals had passed their breaking point. So, Americans had started dying in droves.
There were some national leaders stepping up. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also OTDI 2020, said the House would approve its coronavirus aid package, imploring the Trump Administration and congressional Republicans to help “put families first.” By the end of March, both houses had appropriated almost $2 trillion (compared to Trump’s $50+ billion) in Covid relief.
Sources/Links for further reading
Associated Press story on the Rose Garden press conference and Pelosi remarks
@TheAtlantic has the story on how Americans are paying the price for Trump’s inaction on Covid
On This Day In The Trump Administration: "I don't take responsibility at all" for Covid