Conservative columnist urges Americans to distance themselves from Trump for their own health
March 22, 2020
By
Sarah K. Burris
Conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin urged Americans across the country to distance themselves from President Donald Trump for their own mental health and emotional wellness.
Her Sunday column made the suggestion because the daily briefings from Trump will only “infuriate and sadden you.”
Trump was slow in reacting to the coronavirus threat after believing that the virus was a myth, nothing more than the flu, and overblown by the media and Democrats. As the facts have finally become known, it turns out the media and Democrats weren’t “fake news” after all. Rubin noted that Trump has also delayed in activating the Defense Production Act that he announced he was going to use. After other officials told him to enact it, he said that he was, and then never did.
“Things have gotten so bad that the renowned immunologist helping us navigate through the crisis, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, can barely stand to watch the president mislead the country,” she wrote, quoting a report of Fauci watching Trump have a meltdown in the press room this week. The good doctor was then tasked with trying to calm the nation and an angry president.
Former Director of National Intelligence Susan Rice revealed this week that she did at least 12 hours of a briefing and handed over over 100 documents to the incoming administration where she made it clear that the country should be prepared for outbreaks and pandemics.
“U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February about the global danger posed by the coronavirus while President Trump and lawmakers played down the threat and failed to take action that might have slowed the spread of the pathogen, according to U.S. officials familiar with spy agency reporting,” The Post reported.
So, if the stress level of the American people is high over all of their daily struggles, it’s likely not being made better with the likes of an erratic and irrational president.
“In addition to tuning out Trump, you should tune in to governors’ news conferences, even if the governor is not your own,” Rubin suggested. “The briefings by New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) have become daily displays of candor, reassurance, unvarnished truth-telling, and decisive leadership.”
His comments have provided candor and served as a kind of therapy session where he can connect his own family struggles with those of the rest of the country.
“Beginning this week, you will have another source of reassurance: shadow briefings from the presumptive Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden,” Rubin also suggested. “His campaign already put out an informative video explaining how we got to where we are and what we should be doing.”
“While the ‘what we should be doing’ section is somewhat vague, read through Biden’s highly detailed plan,” she continued. “We will need to muddle through the remainder of the year, relying on Congress, governors, and local leadership. The economic picture will look grim. But both the coronavirus and the Trump era will not last forever. Though so much is uncertain and our lives have been put on pause, we will hold elections in November. We will be able to replace Trump and his exasperating band of buffoonish advisers.”
She closed by saying that it’s a favor for yourself at a time when everyone is struggling to get through it: stop watching Trump and look to other, more competent leaders.
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