Things Trump Said Monday Morning -- and Other Stuff

Not doing so well in open conversations with reporters, Donald Trump ran to momma this morning; that is, he went on Fox & Friends. In case we forget how awful he is apart from the coronavirus, he provided a little help. Here's a selection of his quotes.

Concerning disinformation campaigns concerning the coronavirus on the part of China and Russia: "They do it and we do it. Every country does it."

On why he's nice to Russia and not to Germany. "We have problems with other countries, more than Russia. [In World War II]. They also fought World War II. They lost 50 million people.... Germany was the enemy and Germany is like this wonderful thing. Well, Germany takes advantage of us on trade for years.... Look, it's fine...it's in my heritage."

New York will be "fine... based on the numbers." Regarding ventilators, "After this is over they’ll be selling them for a dollar a piece."

Oh, but here's the biggie. On the coronavirus relief bill Trump gave away his election strategy: keep people from voting. In earlier versions Democrats "They had things — levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again."

Oh, and there's the corruption. Always the corruption. Trump had promoted a coronavirus website that would farm people out to coronavirus testing sites. He said Google was working on it, but the project--which has done almost no good--went to a company in which Jared Kushner and his brother hold a significant take. From The Atlantic:

Kushner’s younger brother Joshua is a co-founder and major investor in Oscar, and Jared Kushner partially owned or controlled Oscar before he joined the White House.

One more thing: the White House and its allies are selling the notion that Trump's delayed and ineffectual response to the coronavirus was due to his being distracted by his impeachment. Two thoughts.

1. Doesn't that amount to an admission that his response was inadequate? What an interesting defense....
2. Bullshit. From January 9 to March 9 Trump found the time to (a) hold 8 political rallies, and (b) have 6-8 golf outings. 37 days passed between the Senate vote and the first meaningful federal action, apart from banning travel from China. (Compiled from various reporters.)