Editors at National Review Online pull no punches in their criticism of the president’s actions in the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s hard to remember a more damaging Sunday morning interview than Chris Wallace’s sit-down with President Trump over the weekend.
Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, is always tough and well-prepared, but it wasn’t his insistent questioning that tripped up Trump. It was the president himself.
His responses on COVID in particular were characteristic of his posture through much of the crisis. He blamed testing for the recent increase in cases — partly true, but positivity rates have soared in the states with major spikes in cases. He claimed, falsely, that other countries don’t do tests. He complained that no one talks about Mexico and Brazil, which aren’t really material to what’s happening in, say, Florida. He argued over our mortality rate, not quite accurately. And so on.
The overall sense was of the president trying to litigate his way out of admitting any U.S. failures or the seriousness of the crisis (although he did at one point say, in the midst of all the fog, “I take responsibility always for everything”).
Given that the virus had reached our shores and begun spreading in communities earlier than first thought, and given the understandable hesitation of authorities around the country to take the extreme step of locking down, it was inevitable that we would get hit hard like many other advanced Western countries. After initial stumbles on testing, the administration’s substantive response has often been adept and energetic. …
… The president should have realized by now that he can’t look past or talk by the virus, and as long as it is spreading in a significant way his (hugely important) priorities of jump-starting the economy and seeing schools reopen around the country are going to falter.
