The Trump Administration saw this coming...
Let that sink in as more and more Americans are being ordered to stay at home and practice social distancing, there is still a shortage of testing, N95 masks, ventilators and hospital beds. Meanwhile, unemployment claims are going through the roof.
For the first few months, the president downplayed the threat that the virus posed and it has only been in the last few days that the president has changed his tone for the better. As Kristen Welker explained, the president wants to be out front but there have been mixed results. Thenews media distills these press conferences to sort out what the facts are, mostly coming from Dr. Anthony Fauci, and what the president is saying, which has just made the response from the government more muddled and confusing. The president has just made things worse so as America shuts down, the president should just shut up.
The president has invoked the Defense Protection Act, which gives the president the authority to order private companies to switch in this case to the production of much needed medical equipment, however, Mr. Trump has not enacted the law so states are in bidding wars for masks, ventilators and hospital gowns. The military, as New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio said, has vast medical capacity in crisis areas and is second to none in terms of logistics. This was needed a month ago but has yet to materialize.
Governor Larry Hogan's (R-MD) statement saying that we are still behind the curve is a gross understatement about the federal government's response, which frankly, has been awful. It's understandable that Governor Hogan's statements were measured as he has to work directly with the Administration. However, Mayor Blasio pleaded that his city and the states needed help now or more people would die. But because the federal government is slow in mobilizing, it is up to the states to act, which Mr. Hogan said was happening in conjunction with the federal action.
As David French explained, the states at this moment are acting with the maximum power they can muster, however, states acting individually is not going to get us through this crisis unless the federal government steps up. The good news is that FEMA is now running point for the federal response but that the FEMA Administrator, Peter Gaynor, gave a tepid answer when it came to the prevention of hoarding supplies, which stuck out as a concern for former HHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, who said if he were still in his role, he would call up the national guard with a Title 32 status that would have the states control the guard but the federal government would shoulder the burden of the cost, along with the Army Corps of Engineers. Mr. Gaynor did say that good things are happening, shipments of masks and supplies, and that is good. However, we're still playing a waiting game for all the supplies and mobilizations to be up to adequate production and speed.
Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said in times of national crisis we need to trust the word of the president and for the federal government to take systematic action. However, in reading that you can see the problem. That's not the president that we have. We're unable to trust the word of this president because of all his false statements on a plethora of topics and because the administration lacks cohesion and order, systematic action is readily coming through.
We're not saying that the Trump Administration is to blame, but Americans rely on the federal government to combat the problems and crises that individuals cannot solves themselves. Mr. Trump has made a signature of his presidency to disparage the 'deep state' but the deep state is the federal bureaucracy that's in place for just these situations.
So when Chuck Todd asks, how the president's response has been during this crisis, the first one of his presidency that isn't self-made, it hasn't been difficult to predict how the president would handle it.
The president is simply not up to the task, and this lack of leadership and experience and empathy is a compounding circumstance that has made overcoming the challenge of this crisis all the more difficult.
Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC; Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian; Jeh Johnson, fmr. HHS Secretary; David French, Time Magazine
No comments:
Post a Comment