Nearly seven months after President Donald Trump took the podium and assured the public that the United States is in a position to confront the coronavirus, the country is entering a dark stage: another 200,000 people who died from COVID-19, the highest number of deaths. from far away from any country in the world.
“We’re in a position for that,” Trump said of the coronavirus last February. “You have 15 people, and the 15 in a few days will be almost zero. “
“He’ll disappear, ” he said the next day. One day, it’s like a miracle, it’ll disappear. “
Trump’s technique against coronavirus is one of the issues discussed in The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Trump. Biden, who examines how he and former Vice President Joe Biden have treated all times of crisis in their lives and careers.
In the film, which begins on September 22, President Trump’s former national security director John Bolton, who fired Trump last year, criticizes the president’s initial handling of the virus.
“There is no doubt that in the early months of 2020, staff from the [National Security Council] and the Centers for Disease Control sounded the alarm about what was going on in China,” Bolton said on the previous scene of The Choice 2020. “But the president made the decision not to hear bad news. “
It is a position that would have devastating consequences.
“This reluctance to think about the implications meant there were no strategic plans in place,” Bolton says, “because it would have meant that we identified a serious threat, and he just didn’t need to do that. “
Bolton, whom Trump has described as discontent and liar, has been criticized for his own role in reorganizing a high-level pandemic reaction team in 2018 and last week, the New York Times reported that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation. in Bolton’s recent book, The Room Where It Happened, illegally revealed classified information. Bolton and his lawyers say no.
Behind the scenes, Trump has identified the risks of coronavirus from the start, according to recently published conversations with journalist and Bob Woodward, but publicly Trump would minimize the risk posed by COVID-19 to Americans.
Trump allies say his management of the coronavirus is a spirit of “power” that attracts voters.
“As the country faces this worst pandemic, they see a guy who sees no problem,” Chris Ruddy, Newsmax’s CEO, told FRONTLINE. “He sees a bright and bright long term in which he can succeed. “
The president’s technique against coronavirus reflects how he has experienced past crises over the years, the film notes: “Just insist that you succeed. He insists that what you’re doing is the right thing to do,” says Gwenda Blair of The Trumps. this manual: double, triple, say that all that is one challenge is another’s fault. “
Trump’s White House has vigorously defended its reaction to the coronaviruses, adding restrictions from China last January. Following Woodward’s revelations, Trump said he had in fact “increased” the virus, not minimized it.
In September, as the United States approached 200,000 deaths, Trump again declared that the coronavirus would “disappear,” disappearing, even without a vaccine, once enough people have become inflamed and recovered. Scientists say this threshold would probably take thousands of people. more American deaths without a vaccine.
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