The administration's attitude toward the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically the president's, has been metaphoric of their performance over the last four years. The president keeps being tested and ultimately he's failed the test.
Before going further on this point, it must be said that we hope that the president and the first lady make a healthy and speedy recovery. For all the divisive statements and actions the president has adopted, he is after all the president of the United States and for the sake of the American people you never want to see the president's health in danger.
Yet, with the president now at Walter Reed Hospital whose condition has been made less than clear, we see again that the Trump Administration and its campaign are putting politics over the safety of the nation. By having Vice President Mike Pence go out on the trail, the Trump campaign is putting the continuity of government at risk. That is to say unless the administration wants Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to act as president as she is third in line. As Peggy Noonan explained, the nation is in a state of emergency and that should require leaders to be in Washington, especially the vice president. It's another small test of the Administration that they don't even realize they're failing.
Given the irresponsibility that the campaign has thus far demonstrated in terms of following CDC protocols, Senior Campaign Advisor Jason Miller's are hardly reassuring when he says that he has no concerns at all about the "aggressive" campaign schedule planned this week for the vice president. "Meet The Press" wasn't the only Sunday program that Mr. Miller on and throughout he manages to have the gall keeping a straight face while explaining that the president has always urged the American people to get tested and socially distance with a mask in between tests.
During the debate, the president mocked Mr. Biden for wearing a mask, even when he's '200 feet away from people' but isn't for the president to model behavior recommended by his health experts? For Mr. Trump, his answer during the debate was 'no' as he openly disagreed with administration health officials.
Throughout this pandemic, the president's failures have been well documented along with all the misinformation he has unceasingly spouted, but while the reasoning that if the president can contract the virus anyone can is sound, the administration DID NOT take all the necessary precautions to protect the president. The truth here is that President Trump is the administration and he acted irresponsibly and now he is among over 7 millions Americans infected with Covid-19.
The debate, if that's what we're calling it, was certainly an embarrassment but it was also instructive in some ways. As the National Review's Rich Lowry pointed out, Mr. Trump's strategy was to steam roll Mr. Biden but the fmr. vice president didn't buckle. The big elephant in the room is to ask why the president took this strategy instead of the consequence of it. Mr. Trump couldn't debate the issues because on the most important to the American people, he has failed the test. Obviously on he's failed on his pandemic response (He's contracted it!) but in the wake of George Floyd's and Breonna Taylor's deaths, he failed to bring heal the country. Going back to what seems like a distant memory, the administration completely botched the response to Hurricane Maria and the relief effort for Puerto Rico.
In terms of healthcare writ large, the administration is seeking to completely nullify the Affordable Care Act in the midst of a pandemic with no replacement plan. On the economy, pandemic recession aside, the trade deficit with China that Mr. Trump says he's combatting is higher than it's ever been and we're in a manufacturing recession. As Peggy Noonan said, getting 90 minutes undiluted Donald Trump is just too much. The reason is that Mr. Trump's sound bite discourse is catches up with him in a debate setting because he can not speak intelligently and insightfully about any issue important to the American people. The populace, even Republicans deep down, implicitly know that Mr. Trump has failed these tests of leadership. With him contracting Covid-19, these failures all come into crystalizing relief.
Even though Mr. Biden didn't really help himself all that much during a debate where he also made a few regrettable remarks, referring to the president as a clown, but it was clear that Mr. Biden went into the debate hoping to have some semblance of normal discourse where it was clear that that was not Mr. Trump's intention at all. Americans are literally sick and tired, and the realization that after four years, the president still can not demonstrate the capacity for empathy and helpful thought-out solutions to the country's ills is the reason why Mr. Biden has a 14 point lead on Mr. Trump.
Do we need more debates? Interestingly both Rich Lowry and Peggy Noonan, connected in Republican circles, both feel that we've seen the last one in the 2020 election cycle. Maybe they know more details about the president's health that the rest of us do not. The president's health aside, as Jeh Johnson said, it would be very helpful to have more debates, but not like this last one.
Panel: Jennifer Palmieri, Democratic Strategist; Jeh Johnson, fmr. Security of Homeland Security; Rich Lowry, National Review; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal
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