*CNN (banned) – Page 3 – * Failed Pols

Many Americans wondered how long it would take for the White House to launch a smear campaign against Dr. Anthony Fauci. Dr. Fauci, a world-renowned infectious disease expert and member of the White House coronavirus task force, has displeased Donald Trump by daring to allow science to contradict Trump’s narrative about COVID-19. Last week, the Trump administration doubled down on its verbal attacks in efforts to discredit Fauci.

The world has become accustomed to Trump’s need to vaporize officials and others who disagree with him. Even experts presenting scientific facts are not immune; Trump sees adherence to scientific facts—at least those that are not in line with his messaging—as political ideology to be disempowered. Since science disagrees with the truth as created by Trump, science must be discredited. It’s not as surprising as it is disconcerting that Trump has attacked Fauci.

What’s a malignant narcissist to do, though, when he learns that 67 percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic? Or when he sees that X percent of Americans are taking the virus more seriously than Trump wants them to? What other option is there, really, than for Trump to detract from the crisis and sow doubt and mistrust for the medical expert who, according to polls, Americans trust more than they trust Donald Trump? (And who, for that matter, has been portrayed affectionately by Brad Pitt on Saturday Night Live?)

Fauci has not undercut the president, publicly undermined him, or attempted to discredit him. He has simply spoken the truth, however grim and frightening, about the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 135,000 Americans to date. Truth has rarely aligned with the president’s agenda and world view, though, so Fauci must be dealt with.

As early as April, Trump was criticizing Fauci in response to Fauci’s candidness about COVID-19, and even retweeted a call for him to be fired. The two have not spoken in recent weeks.

Trump needs for the virus to just go away so that businesses can reopen, children can return to school, the economy can boom, and Trump can be re-elected. The way for the virus to go away, in Trumpworld, is to simply gaslight it away (along with “slowing the testing down, please,” since in Trumpworld, the reason we’re seeing more cases is that we’re doing more testing).

Fauci presents us with the facts about why COVID-19 continues to spread (we’re not following the recommended health and safety guidelines, which are just too inconvenient for some Americans to tolerate); and how we can help contain it and keep the death rate down until a vaccine is available (take responsibility, follow the recommended health and safety guidelines, and take the virus seriously). Recently, Fauci corrected Trump’s claim that “99 percent” of coronavirus cases in the United States are “totally harmless.”

“Obviously, that’s not the case,” said Fauci.

One only has to look at the statistics across the U.S. for proof that Fauci is right about that, as well as about his recommendations for social distancing and mask-wearing. Those states that have more closely followed the public health guidelines have had greater success in containing the virus; those states, such as Florida and Arizona, that went along with Donald Trump’s narrative about the virus and refused to follow guidelines as closely, are now paying the price with skyrocketing numbers of cases and deaths.

Again, truth is often not palatable in Trumpworld. Better to malign the tellers of truth than acknowledge an error of one’s own, or take leadership and address the pandemic head-on. And what more subtly effective way than to plant the idea that the truth spoken by Dr. Fauci is not reliable?

“Dr. Fauci is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes,” Trump said last week.

White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro said, “Dr. Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have ever interacted with him on.”

It’s helpful to keep in mind this administration’s tenuous relationship with truth-telling.

In a different administration, President George W. Bush once called Fauci, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, his hero.

In addition to its demeaning personal comments about Fauci, the Trump administration’s tactics have included using a video clip taken out of context where Fauci appeared to be downplaying the virus and advising against masks. Viewed in context with the cut portions of the video, it’s evident that Fauci was advising Americans early in the pandemic, based on what information was available at the time. Since then, as new information has come to light about the virus, Fauci has been candid about updating his advice.

Along with the video clip, the White House provided some journalists with what resembled opposition research on Fauci, as if Fauci were a political opponent instead of a member of the president’s own White House coronavirus task force.

On Saturday, a White House official said that “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things.”

The White House has shown that they have to resort to vague comments, aggressive “research,” and cherry-picked, out-of-context video clips and quotes in its attempts to denigrate Fauci.

Donald Trump would have difficulty firing Dr. Fauci, who has served under six different presidents as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Not only would Fauci need to be fired for cause by a direct supervisor, it would be a lengthy process. It’s much easier and faster, then, to try to go about damaging Fauci’s reputation and credibility. Unfortunately for Trump, that may be a challenge, since Fauci is widely regarded as credible and competent by a great number of Americans, including members of Congress.

Donald Trump is not threatened by world leaders. He doesn’t care who is smarter than he is, though he likes to proclaim how smart he himself is. He’s not daunted by those who have made Nobel-worthy contributions to mankind. He is threatened by those who are more popular than he is, and that includes the people that others tend to give credibility.

Though it’s clear that Trump has many things to envy about Dr. Anthony Fauci, what gets to Trump is that people are listening to Fauci, whose science contradicts Trump’s meaningless and senseless happy talk, and interferes with Trump’s goal to pretend that the virus will just fade away and all will be well again. Americans trust Fauci.

Fauci’s goal is to help save Americans. Donald Trump’s goal is re-election. To get to re-election, Trump has shown that he needs to take down whatever, and whomever, is in his way. The coronavirus is in Trump’s way, and Anthony Fauci, by virtue of his response to the coronavirus, is also in Trump’s way. Perhaps Trump thinks that if he could just succeed at his smear campaign against Fauci, his coronavirus nightmare would be extinguished, as well.

Trump takes aim at Dr. Fauci as coronavirus cases surge nationwide |
CBSN [2020-0713]

As COVID Infections Soar, Trump Attacks Dr. Fauci, CDC & Pushes Schools to Reopen at All Costs | Democracy Now! [2020-07-13]

Donald Trump has failed this country over and over in the past 3 1/2 years, but the murder by police last week of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, along with the nation’s ensuing distress, offered Trump another opportunity to show up as president. Alas, Trump once again chose not to accept the opportunity.

Racism has always thrived in the United States. Donald Trump didn’t start it, and though he can’t singlehandedly stop it, either, he has a powerful platform from which he could condemn the systemic racism that infiltrates American institutions, and that has led to the brutality and murder of so many people of color, including George Floyd.

We’ve all witnessed how Donald Trump’s base hangs on his every word and places their trust in him, despite his cheating in business, cheating on his wife, degrading women, making fun of disabled people, telling more than 18,000 lies while in office (as documented by The Washington Post), and having a long list of corrupt close associates. Imagine if Trump said words that condemned the racism and supported those who want change. Imagine how his base might, though momentarily confused, begin to change their rhetoric.

Clearly, the above scenario is fantasy. But even if all Donald Trump did were to condemn the police violence against black people that has brought us to this point, or, if he even addressed the nation in some sort of attempt to be empathetic or induce calm, it might offer, even momentarily, some reassurance that there is, after all, someone in the White House who is trying to lead.

But Donald Trump has chosen not to condemn police violence against black people.

Trump has instead turned his condemnation toward the Democrat leaders of states and cities where protests have taken place. Trump has repeatedly told Democrat leaders in Minnesota, including Governor Walz and Mayor X, of Minneapolis, that they need to “get tough” on protests.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted, “Liberal Governors and Mayors must get MUCH tougher or the Federal Government will step in and do what has to be done, and that includes using the unlimited power of our Military and many arrests.”

On Monday, during a phone call with the governors, Trump called them “weak.” Though he berated governors and urged them to be “tough,” Trump himself had hidden in the White House bunker on Sunday, after crowds outside the White House became hostile. It’s possible that the Secret Service persuaded him to retreat to the bunker, but Trump has chosen to hide in a bunker, literal or figurative, each time the country has faced a crisis (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) that called for a president’s leadership.

And on Monday evening, as a group of protesters in Washington, D.C. demonstrated peacefully, Trump decided that, after hiding in the bunker over the weekend, he needed to show that he was a tough guy. It was more important for him to “dominate” the scene than it was to connect with the demonstrators and empathize with their pain.

At Trump’s bidding, and after Trump’s having just said a moment before that he was on the side of the protesters, U.S. Military Police moved in on the peaceful demonstrators. Without provocation, the MPs deployed tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. They were making way for Trump, who wanted to take a stroll through the park to a church so that he could pose for a photo op with a Bible in his hand and impersonate a godly president.

During Monday’s bizarre and disturbing spectacle, Trump also announced that the states should deploy their Army National Guard forces to help with the protests. If states don’t bring in the National Guard, said Trump, he’ll send the U.S. Army.

Despite beating his figurative chest about the protestors and proclaiming himself “the Law and Order President,” though, Trump has remained silent on the topics of police brutality and the police murder of George Floyd.

Now, as in the past, he points to, and magnifies every issue but the real one, taking to Twitter to promote divisiveness, blame, falsehoods, conspiracy theories, and, especially in the case of the current demonstrations, violence.

Earlier last week, in reference to the demonstrations and unrest in Minneapolis, Trump tweeted, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” which was widely seen as a threat to shoot demonstrators. Trump tried to walk back this comment on Twitter, saying that he really meant that shooting was a natural consequence of looting.

Donald Trump either doesn’t understand the difference between the peaceful protesters and the opportunistic looters and rioters, or he just doesn’t care. Or, more likely, he does understand the difference, and is taking delight in the confusion, rallying his base as he provokes the “opposition.”

When the difference between those who simply want to exercise their right to a peaceful demonstration, and those who only come to a demonstration for the looting and vandalism gets blurred, it also blurs the line between the good actors and the bad, giving false justification for the police to “get tough” on all demonstrators. It also perpetuates the narrative that black people who demonstrate, as well as those who demonstrate along with them on their behalf, are “thugs.” Trump knows all this.

The time for Donald Trump to step up and be a president instead of an inciter has passed. Trump has proven beyond doubt that he is not interested or able to take the country successfully through a crisis.

In the span of less than three months, Trump let the country fall into a pandemic that has now killed more than 100,000 Americans. In the span of one week, the nation, under Trump, has become a mass of violence, fire, and fury ignited by a brutal act of racism that Trump has not directly addressed.

We can, and must, vote to protect our unraveling nation from the likes of Donald Trump. With six more months till Election Day, and the country still in the throes of both COVID-19 and the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, however, it’s terrifying to think of how much more damage Donald Trump could do.

Trump tells governors to ‘dominate’ protesters | CNN [2020-06-01]

George Floyd riots: Donald Trump rushed to bunker as protesters surrounded White House | 7NEWS Australia [2020-05-31]

Category: *CNN (banned)

Editorial: Does Trump Think His Fauci Smear Campaign Will Make the Coronavirus Go Away?

Editorial: Donald Trump’s Opportunity to Show Up as President Has Passed