Is Trumpvirus making you feel awful? You’re not alone
So, our Coronavirus Czar is going to be ... Mike Pence. Feeling more secure?
“I know full well the importance of presidential leadership,” the vice president said as soon as he was introduced in his new role.
Totally qualified. First criteria for every job in this administration is capacity for praising the gloriousness of our commander in chief.
Yeah, when you think of Mike Pence you maybe don’t think about Pandemic Fighter Supreme. But as President Trump pointed out repeatedly, he has already run Indiana.
Well, it probably could have been worse. Having a czar does make you feel there’s somebody in charge. At least Trump didn’t come before the cameras and announce solemnly, “Today I’m asking every American to cross your fingers.”
Our president had to be going crazy over a problem that involves both declining stock prices and germs. This is the guy, after all, who thinks shaking hands is “barbaric,” who is followed around by aides bearing sanitizer.
Meanwhile, he’s come up with a totally new explanation for the stock market skid. It turns out investors were not frightened so much by the pandemic as the Democratic debate.
“I think the financial markets are very upset when they look at the Democrat candidates standing on that stage making fools out of themselves,” Trump told reporters.
Plus that virus thing is ... not necessarily a big deal. What really “shocked” him, Trump said, was his discovery that “the flu in our country kills 25,000 people to 69,000 people a year.”
So the problems are the Democrats and the flu. The answers are Mike Pence and ... reminding the public once again that Nancy Pelosi’s district has a big homeless problem.
Virus Week hasn’t really provided a whole lot of comfort to citizens who wanted to believe the president’s replacements were super high quality.
The nation got its first real look at Chad Wolf, the acting homeland security secretary, who appeared before a Senate subcommittee and admitted he had no idea how the virus was transmitted, how dangerous it was, or ... pretty much anything.
To be fair, he’s only been on the job since November. He’s the fifth head of Homeland Security Trump’s had in the last three years. Good thing he has a deputy to help. That would be Ken Cuccinelli, who made news when he went on Twitter to ask for tips on how to find an online map of coronavirus sites posted by Johns Hopkins University.
Losing faith in presidential appointees for health protection? Stop being so negative. They’re all vetted by the Presidential Personnel Office, which is now headed by John McEntee, 29, who was previously fired from another White House job because of concerns about a history of gambling problems and tax issues.
Also part of the new coronavirus response team is Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services — a former pharmaceutical lobbyist.
At a congressional hearing Wednesday, Azar was asked if he’d consider using some of the billions for Trump’s border wall to combat the health crisis.
Azar just chuckled. Actually, this is probably not a theme we ought to be pursuing. Chances are, if the president is encouraged to mix the subjects of coronavirus and Mexico walls, he’ll suddenly announce we need a barrier much bigger and more expensive, so it can stop immigrant germs.