Yesterday the death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed the death toll from 9/11. I wrote about it here.
That piece sparked an email exchange last night with a buddy of mine. He's super smart. Works in the health sector. Is not a Trump guy by any means. His argument to me was that the failings in the executive branch were less the fault of Trump, personally, than failures of the health agency bureaucracy generally.
I don't buy that, for two reasons:
First, if you're the president and, by early February, the coronavirus isn't top of mind for you, then you're too stupid to hold the office.
And if a possible global pandemic is top of mind for you, then your #1 and #1(a) priorities have to be riding herd on the rapid development / procurement of tests and the stockpiling of critical medical supplies. If you fail to do this, then you're too incompetent to hold office.
But those are the real-world reasons why I think it is entirely fair to hold Trump accountable for the executive branch's failure to properly prepare to manage the coronavirus during the critical period between its emergence in China and its arrival in America.
There's another reason: Trump himself told us that the president is accountable for bad things that happen on his watch.
At a Republican debate on February 13, 2016, Trump got into an exchange with Jeb Bush in which he argued that President George W. Bush should have been impeached for the Iraq war and was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Here's the transcript:
BUSH: And while Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. And I’m proud of what he did.And he has had the gall to go after my brother.
TRUMP: The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign, remember that.
BUSH: He has had the gall to go after my mother. Hold on. Let me finish. He has had the gall to go after my mother.
TRUMP: That’s not keeping us safe. . . .
RUBIO: I just want to say, at least on behalf of me and my family, I thank God all the time it was George W. Bush in the White House on 9/11 and not Al Gore.
And you can—I think you can look back in hindsight and say a couple of things, but he kept us safe. And not only did he keep us safe, but no matter what you want to say about weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein was in violation of U.N. resolutions, in open violation, and the world wouldn’t do anything about it, and George W. Bush enforced what the international community refused to do.
And again, he kept us safe, and I am forever grateful to what he did for this country.
TRUMP: How did he keep us safe when the World Trade Center—the World—excuse me. I lost hundreds of friends. The World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush. He kept us safe? That is not safe. That is not safe, Marco. That is not safe.
RUBIO: The World Trade Center came down because Bill Clinton didn’t kill Osama bin Laden when he had the chance to kill him.
TRUMP: And George Bush—by the way, George Bush had the chance, also, and he didn’t listen to the advice of his CIA.
So those are the rules of engagement, as laid out by Donald Trump himself.
And if you want further evidence, last week a reader sent me a picture of a piece of mail he received from the CDC. Take a look: |
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You like that? When the CDC screws up, Trump has nothing to do with it. Not his fault! When the CDC successfully sends out guidelines, they've literally got "President Trump's" personal brand on them.
He can't have it both ways.
He did this.
thebulwark
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