It is very damaging for Donald Trump to have Fox News questioning his handling of the coronavirus, in the wake of the explosive audio tapes released by journalist Bob Woodward. None other than Karl Rove was called into action to defend Trump, after Kayleigh McEnany blatantly lied from the podium that “The president has never lied to the American people” in the face of all evidence to the contrary. Here’s Karl Rove saying, “perfection is not possible” with respect to Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Who asked for perfection? All that’s under discussion here, and all morning, is the lies that were told.

Another Fox News reporter, White House correspondent John Roberts, chimed in.

This is another crisis-of-the-moment, to be sure. And this revelation is exactly like the Atlantic article. What was said about that, was that it didn’t give us any new information, it just told us what Trump said at the time. This is the same thing. We know Trump lied to us, we know he played down the coronavirus, and we know why: he wanted to protect the stock market and his reelection prospects. All that Woodward’s audio does is tell us what he said at the time.

What is intriguing is that the “fake news” screams haven’t been happening. As you saw with Rove’s pathetic waffling, now the narrative is more like going for Christian forgiveness than denying what took place.

That’s a new political strategy. Maybe we can call it The Rove Theorem or some such. It would go along the lines of: “Nobody’s perfect and even though I’ve done a horrible job in office, you should forgive me and let me go back and try it for another four years and maybe I’ll get it right. Or, maybe I won’t, but vote for me anyhow.” Very persuasive.

Here’s a portion of the breaking story on CNN. What is relevant here is to go to 5:57, where Trump stands up and lies blatantly. Juxtiposed with the audio with Woodward, the same lies that you’ve heard before take on a new context and become even more devastating than they were the first time you heard them.

 

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1 COMMENT

  1. A line from The Outlaw Josey Wales: “You know there ain’t no forgiving.” This one should knock off the last of the fence-sitters once and for all. I’ve already said that I’m not going to become another suppressed statistic of Trump’s reenactment of Jaws with this virus. This revelation clinches that conviction in concrete.

    • I don’t think there are any fence sitters at this point. I think there are 1. People who see Trump for what he is; 2. The unreachable; 3. The completely uninvolved. That’s how I see the American populace right now. I am hoping, obviously that category one prevails and we vote him out and take back our country.

      • I’m sure there are fence-sitters…probably not a lot, but I’m sure they exist. I’ve just watched too many of those insipid undecided voter panels in the days leading up to a vote, where you watch a dozen people display how little they know about Things.

      • A few houses in my neighborhood have Trump/Pence signs in their yard or window. Also an article on CNN is questioning whether Trump is closing the gap in the electoral college. This is making me so nervous. I am praying this man loses or I will have to move out of the country for a few years, maybe forever.

  2. Empty the phucking jails. When the #1 serial killer, charged with the phucking top responsibility to protect us, is still being wined & dined on the taxpayer dime, PHUCK YOU AMERICA!!! Clean up ur goddamn evil so the river of blood & money can begin to be stopped. Otherwise, take your EVIL HYPOCRISY, along with ur religions u don’t really believe in, & stick them up ur collective arses.

  3. CNN did an excellent job of laying out the case, where if he had simply taken action, instead of ignoring the virus, the outcome would have been very different. How can people say they still want this clown for president?

    • You know what the tremendous irony is here? If Trump HAD taken action and had done a reasonably decent job of dealing with COVID-19, and the economy hadn’t tanked, he probably would have gotten reelected. He totally shot himself in the foot with his stupid strategy of covering it all up.

      • And by doing and not doing what he did, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICANS HAVE DIED entirely because of what he did and didn’t do.
        Remember if the USA had been as effective as, say, New Zealand, the death toll would be less than 1500, total. Instead of nearly that, per day.
        And the virus would be easily controlled scattered outbreaks and the economy nearly back to normal.

      • You’re projecting his doing something competent and compassionate, and as we’ve learned, he’s utterly incapable of that. It’s not in his nature.

      • I said months ago that if he had just let the doctors take charge and done what they suggested he would have cruised to reelection. Just like I think if he had turned in the Russians and set up a sting with the FBI he would have probably won without cheating in 2016. The reason he hasn’t done the logical is not that he is stupid. It is simple. He is a traitor. Why is he a traitor? Who the hell cares?

        • Oh, and him letting Woodward tape him. He thinks his Russian friend will come through again. He ain’t worried about this stupid election. His KGB buddy and that smarmy moronic Tea Bagger DSI are working overtime to completely destroy democracy.

          • Jonathan Lemire says Trump wanted Woodward to tape him because he thought that with his direct input, he could shape a flattering book, as opposed to Woodward’s earlier book based on the comments people not Trump.

            Remember that in January, we all pretty much knew what Trump knew. I was arguing with people in the Federalist at the time, talking about air transmission and flu numbers, etc. They could not back up their opinions, and their parting shot was usually to call me a “fearmonger.”

            Remember, too, that we are judging Trump’s words with the benefit of hindsight. By February 7, only a couple people had died. He, like most people, does not understand exponential growth, and how a largely horizontal slope can turn vertical on a dime.

            Since we know he doesn’t mind creating panic, and his whole campaign depends upon creating panic about “Biden’s America”, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG7yZ_4SBLQ I expect he was telling the truth when he said he wanted to downplay the virus to the public to avoid panic. He meant stock market panic.

            In an earlier comment, I suggested Trump should be be charged with manslaughter based on my limited knowledge. Later I found that Glenn Kirshner says that Trump had meant the three conditions to be charged with manslaughter.

        • blue man, I still don’t think he’s smart enough to be a traitor! He just operates in a total vaccuum, doing what he believes will benefit him personally. But Everything tRump Touches Dies. It’s that simple.

    • They’re members of his personal cult, they think he’s a deity – or maybe a demi-god, those with a little more sense – and can do No Wrong.

  5. Two things:
    1) For all his blaming of China, the facts about COVID that Trump knew sometime before February came from China. Early on, it is true China kept the virus under wraps for about a week as they worked hard to contain it. But when it escaped China, they were forth coming with whatever they knew. Trump, on the other hand, downplayed it for months. At the very least, he is guilty of manslaughter of all but about 30,000 of those who died.

    2) The only Senate Republican not guilty of accessory to manslaughter is Mitt Romney. What the GOP need to do now is what they did with Nixon: send a delegation to pressure Trump to resign. Then resign themselves and let the Dem challengers run unopposed. Romney can be Senate minority leader. If he refuses to resign, the House should impeach him again, and this time the Senate MUST vote to convict and remove. It would also eliminate any more lame duck mischief.

  6. This Tom Friedman with the NYT is some kind of overpaid menace to society. Just saw him on the 11th Hour. At this point in time he is acting like Trump supporters are something other than racist. Oh sure, he admits some may be racist, but mainly they don’t like people looking down their noses at them because they don’t have a college education. Please don’t let me throw up. Joe should go to the mid-west and have a “dialogue”. Maybe the fucking NYT should quit sabotaging Democrats.

  7. Over at TownHall.com, where I comment to represent a liberal view (I’m 100% courteous, and just very plainly state my case. It’s probably a waste of time, but I have to think piercing those bubbles has to happen if we’re every going to heal this divide)…anyway…their take on the last couple of weeks is “how dare the left drop these October surprises! They’re so unfair.”

    That is literally the core theory, that somehow it’s wrong in a campaign to make a case against an opponent usimg that person’s own words.

    A rabid, dying dog is dangerous until it’s dead. This administration is still dangerous, but all this flailing is that of a dying, rabid dog.

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