Tantrum & Threat

Put two things together: Today Dr. Anthony Fauci is telling Congress that premature opening of states will lead to "needless suffering and death." And yesterday Donald Trump threw a tantrum on Twitter and for the press. 

These two things go together. Trump has utterly failed to protect us from the coronavirus pandemic, and he has no plan to turn things around, so he stirs up as many distractions as possible. Now national Republicans are following suit.

Yesterday Trump engaged a Twitter rant about "Obamagate." Someone leaked Obama's phone comments about Trump's leadership, and Donald just couldn't stand it. He didn't say what Obamagate was exactly, but it appears he's back to accusing Obama of undermining his presidential campaign.

New York Magazine

During his press briefing Trump was asked to explain Obamagate. He didn't. Of course he didn't. Full excerpt.

Rucker: In one of your Mother’s Day tweets, you appeared to accuse President Obama of ‘the biggest political crime in American history, by far’ — those were your words. What crime exactly are you accusing President Obama of committing, and do you believe the Justice Department should prosecute him?

Trump: Obamagate. It’s been going on for a long time. It’s been going on from before I even got elected, and it’s a disgrace that it happened, and if you look at what’s gone on, and if you look at now, all this information that’s being released — and from what I understand, that’s only the beginning — some terrible things happened, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again. And you’ll be seeing what’s going on over the next, over the coming weeks but I, and I wish you’d write honestly about it but unfortunately you choose not to do so.

Rucker: What is the crime exactly that you’re accusing him of.

Trump: You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers, except yours.

For what it's worth, Senate Republicans were unwilling to back up Trump's allegations, whatever they are. So far, no evidence has turned up to support them. (Of course.)

 

Trump's meltdown continued--but is it a meltdown when it serves to distract from his real failures? CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang asked Trump to explain his false claims that the US is "doing far better than any other country when it comes to testing"--a direct confrontation with his public lying.

Trump told Jiang to "ask China." Not exactly an answer to Jaing's question. So Jiang, who was born in China, pressed: "Why are you saying that to me specifically?" Trump immediately ended the briefing and stalked offstage.

(He did actually stalk.)

In the midst of all this distraction, something bigger and more sinister is going on. Republican politicians in Pennsylvania announced an initiative to defy the governor's orders and open certain PA counties ahead of the schedule. Like Republicans all over the country, they're doing so without supporting without supporting metrics. 

The local paper here in Lancaster, hardly a liberal rag, launched a scorching editorial this morning: Questions for GOP leaders. Governor Tom Wolf and local mayors pushed back hard.

What's become clear: National Republicans are targeting Democratic governors in 2016 swing states with irrational pressure campaigns, and Trump is supporting them. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and  Minnesota. It's an attempt to force governors into costly political mistakes, peeling away voters who have been turned off by Trump's ridiculous attempts to cover up his own failure.

A couple of other nuggets. One reason Trump went haywire is Sunday evening's 60 Minutes report on a disinformation campaign spawned by Trump and his allies. Trump blamed the Obama administration for supporting a lab in Wuhan, when in fact (a) the money didn't go to the lab and (b) the funds were so important for pandemic protection that Trump increased them recently. Oh.

And I invite you to take historian John Fea's 15 history exam questions on Trump's inauguration promises.