How Coronavirus Is Already Being Viewed Through a Partisan Lens
Rob Maness, a Republican commentator, recently wrote a column, outlining his concerns about how the coronavirus outbreak could disrupt supplies of medicine. He was not ready for the backlash — from his fellow conservatives.
“I got accused of being alarmist and trying to hurt the president,” said Mr. Maness, a staunch President Trump supporter, describing the response on social media. “I actually said the government’s doing a pretty good job.”
The coronavirus does not discriminate between political parties. But as Mr. Trump and his allies have defended his actions and accused Democrats and the news media of fanning fears to “bring down the president,” a growing public health crisis has turned into one more arena for bitter political battle, where facts are increasingly filtered through a partisan lens. Democrats accused Mr. Trump of failing to respond adequately to the health threat and then politicizing it instead.
At a rally on Friday in South Carolina, Mr. Trump called Democrats’ concerns about coronavirus “their new hoax,” reprising a term he used to dismiss his impeachment and the special-counsel investigation into Russian election interference. He walked that back somewhat the next day, saying he wasn’t claiming the coronavirus was a hoax. But unlike other political fights, this one is a matter of public health. And some scientists and officials say they are worried that sparring over a growing outbreak, which has now spread to California, Oregon, Washington State and Rhode Island could undermine the public’s trust in government responses or even goad skeptics into dismissing any real threats as Fake News.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-coronavirus-is-already-being-viewed-through-a-partisan-lens/ar-BB10Bmc8?li=BBnb7Kz
Heckuva job Trumpy
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