Even Fauci can't tolerate Bob Woodward's lies about Trump and COVID
A conservative friend of mine called me in some distress. Her elderly parents, who are politically conservative, are voting for Biden because they think Trump mishandled the Wuhan virus. Democrats are targeting this demographic — aged people who still reasonably fear getting infected — which is why they're trumpeting Bob Woodward's claim that Trump lied about the virus and that people therefore died unnecessarily. The allegation is false and needs to be debunked hard and fast.
The Democrats' current problem is that the Wuhan virus is receding, which decreases people's sense of panic, an emotion that Democrats have been using to help position Biden as the "safe" choice. Although people are still getting infected, they're younger, so the mortality rate has plummeted.
When it comes to the elderly, who are the most vulnerable, states such as New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have already killed them thanks to the policy of forcibly introducing infected patients into nursing homes. Other states protected their elderly and are steadily getting better at treating them, limiting their chances of dying.
The people who are getting infected now are younger people who have almost no chance of dying from the Wuhan virus — and for those unfortunate enough to get seriously ill, again, we know better how to treat them. Additionally, it appears that the body will repair the damage that the virus causes to people's hearts and lungs.
Governor Andrew Cuomo is hoping people have short memories and has decided to blame Trump for the extraordinarily high virus death rate in his state:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo: "Donald Trump caused the COVID outbreak in New York. Donald Trump caused the COVID outbreak in New York." pic.twitter.com/KVoz89xYQW
— The Hill (@thehill) September 8, 2020
Hot Air offers facts showing that, as the virus drama unfolded, Trump acted quickly, even as New York, from Cuomo on down, did nothing at all. And when finally Cuomo acted, as noted above, one of his primary acts was to turn nursing homes into plague houses. (I have no proof, but I can never escape the feeling that Cuomo, in keeping with all supporters of socialized medicine, was weeding out the elderly, who draw on the system but no longer pay into it.)
It's to be hoped that most people, other than hardcore leftists, will remember Cuomo's actions and his total control over New York State's Wuhan virus policies. However, the media are always willing to try the Big Lie — and it's clearly swaying some people.
The newest line of attack is Bob Woodward's book, which purports to break the shattering news that Trump engaged in a virus cover-up. The only problem is that this isn't new; it's old news.
The Woodward tapes are from March, when information about the virus was still spotty and confusing. It was in this context that Trump was talking about not wanting to cause a panic — which is an entirely reasonable position for a national leader to take. Moreover, Trump had already started taking the virus quite seriously, even as every leftist politician and media outlet in America was claiming he was a hysterical xenophobe:
They’re rewriting history... pic.twitter.com/1oQPEL9MFv
— Kynan brown (@KynanB33) April 19, 2020
Astute thinkers who noticed that Woodward has been sitting on the tapes since March pointed out another significant problem with his sudden denunciation of Trump:
And THIS.
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) September 9, 2020
If this is true...Woodward let people die for book profits...right?https://t.co/ZFc2XhW40j
There’s one more yuuuge problem with the "Trump lied, people died" narrative that the Democrats are trying to kick-start today. Dr. Fauci said Trump fairly accurately repeated what he was hearing from his science team, led by...Dr. Fauci (h/t Twitchy):
Fauci on Fox responding to the Woodward book: "He didn't really say anything different than he discussed when we were with him."
— Jake Lahut (@JakeLahut) September 9, 2020
Fauci on Fox: "Often he would want to, you know, make sure that the country doesn't get down and out about things, but I don't recall anything that was any gross distortion in things that I spoke to him about."
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) September 9, 2020
Dr. Fauci on Fox right now providing some good answers to this Woodward news boomlet.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) September 9, 2020
Fauci also suggests Woodward's account that he (Fauci) criticized the President are false, points out that Woodward got quotes attributed to Fauci second- or third-hand.
QUESTION: Did you get any sense that President Trump was downplaying the coronavirus.
— Jon Nicosia (@NewsPolitics) September 9, 2020
"No, no, I didn’t. I didn’t get any sense that he was distorting anything." - Dr. Anthony Fauci pic.twitter.com/LXANZOY8P2
If you've got elderly relatives who are abandoning Trump solely because of the Wuhan virus, take the time to tell them the facts. Also, you might want to show them this chart, which suggests state-specific problems, not national ones:
If the US had the death rate of NY/NJ we’d be at half a million. Instead the rest of the US looks like this https://t.co/qC7HFNvSNI pic.twitter.com/2DsImBBw5A
— Eric (@IAmTheActualET) September 7, 2020
In the upcoming election, every vote counts with an urgency we've never had before. To have a significant cohort of voters walk away because of lies would be a tragedy.
Image: Bob Woodward (altered in Pixlr), LBJ Library, public domain.