April 25, 2020
As the COVID-19 death toll in USA recently surpassed 20,000 the Gazette predicted the Trump Administration would deflect responsibility onto a scapegoat, probably China. The body count is now over 50,000, a Yankee Stadium‘s worth of dead Americans. Many of them died because this President treated, and continues to treat, a deadly pandemic like it’s a joke, calling it a hoax and predicting zero cases 2 months ago: “And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”
Yesterday, for example, he spitballed the notion that injecting disinfectant directly into a patient’s lungs might just cure COVID-19 in under a minute. Today, confronted with a tsunami of push back from the medical community and Poison Control, he informed America he was just messing with the reporters at his news conference: “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen.”
Why he thinks 50,000 pandemic deaths call for sarcasm or joking is another thing. Any decent human being would express sorrow at the loss of 15x more lives than on 9/11 and even order the nation’s flags flown at half staff to honor all of those lives. When four Americans were killed in Benghazi there was no disputing by the Republican Party that it was 100% the Obama Administration‘s fault and that Secretary of State Clinton was a heartless monster for asking, ‘what difference at this point does it make?‘ what motivated the attackers. Four Americans died. Not fifty thousand.
The new plan to blame China was distributed to Republican politicians so they can ‘flood the zone‘ with synchronized talking points and fool some of the people some more of the time. Politico got a copy of the memo entitled, ‘Corona Big Book,’ and you can read it here. Highlight: “Don’t defend Trump – Attack China”
The following is an excerpt:
Summary of message
1.SHORT VERSION
●China caused this pandemic by covering it up, lying, and hoarding the world’s supply of medical equipment.
○China is an adversary that has stolen millions of American jobs, sent fentanyl to the United States, and they send religious minorities to concentration camps.
●My opponent is soft on China, fails to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party, and can’t be trusted to take them on.
●I will stand up to China, bring our manufacturing jobs back home, and push for sanctions on China for its role in spreading this pandemic.
2.EXPANDED VERSION
China did this:
●The Chinese Communist Party caused this pandemic. They arrested doctors who tried to warn us. They covered up the number of deaths. They lied and pretended the disease could not be transmitted. China bought up the world’s supply of face masks and medical supplies, and then stopped exports out of the country when we needed them.
●China is not an ally, and they’re not just a rival –they are an adversary and the Chinese Communist Party is our enemy.
Likely attacks / questions:
Q: Isn’t this Trump’s fault?
Note -don’t defend Trump, other than the China Travel Ban –attack China
●This is China’s fault. The virus came from China and China covered it up. Because China lied about the extent of the virus, our public health officials acted late.
●I wish that everyone acted earlier –that includes our elected officials, the World Health Organization, and the CDC.
●I’m glad that President Trump acted early to ban travel to China –that’s something my Democratic opponent did not support and that Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi criticized as xenophobic and racist.