Coronavirus testing is as perfect as Ukraine call!

[struggle4progress]

UPDATED MAR. 6, 2020
By Chas Danner

President Trump had a lot to say after he toured the CDC on Friday, and very little of it will make anyone other than President Trump feel better ... At a press conference in an empty CDC lab .. the president compared the federal government’s failed efforts to boost U.S. testing for the coronavirus to the phone call which got him impeached, claimed he had “a natural ability” to understand the outbreak, attacked the governor of the worst-hit state, implied he was superficially motivated to keep the number of U.S. cases down, and asked about his Fox News ratings.

... More than 270 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the U.S. — most of them in less than a week — and many more cases are expected. 14 deaths from the virus in the U.S. have been reported since Sunday. And thanks to the lack of testing around the country, public officials in multiple states have been warning they still have no idea how many people have been infected or exposed.

... This morning, the president’s top economic advisor claimed the coronavirus was contained ... Trump and his allies .. downplay the threat of the coronavirus, falsely blame others for the botched response, and insist any evidence otherwise is part of a politically motivated attack ...

... Trump offered an unorthodox comparison from the last enormous crisis to swamp his presidency. The tests are just like his impeachment-causing attempt to pressure a foreign government to help him get reelected. “The tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good,” Trump told reporters after falsely stating, again, that anyone who needed a test right now could get one ...

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/trump-coronavirus-testing-as-perfect-as-ukraine-call.html

[pat_k]

1. Every other thing out of his mouth...

... in that ridiculous appearance was even more jaw-dropping than usual.

Along with the same old ridiculous superlatives ("perfect" and "beautiful" ) and his bizarre, knee jerk comparison of the scandalous and unreliable CDC test to his other scandalous actions, he had to tout his own brilliance with laughable claims of the vast medical expertise that has somehow been bestowed upon him in the family genes.

Wouldn't it be nice if the rest of us mere mortals could forgo reading and analyzing and simply inherit knowledge?

“I like this stuff. I really get it,” Trump boasted to reporters during a tour of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he met with actual doctors and scientists who are feverishly scrambling to contain and combat the deadly illness. Citing a “great, super-genius uncle” who taught at MIT, Trump professed that it must run in the family genes.

“People are really surprised I understand this stuff,” he said. “Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.”

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[struggle4progress]

2. "I solve every problem by talking out of both sides of my enormous self-esteem"

[pat_k]

3. Love it!

The magnitude of his narcissism is proportionate to the weakness of his eggshell ego.

[Shermann]

4. Let's see...

...as the President how can I phrase this so only half the country is reassured, while the other half is even more alarmed?

FAIL

The Trump Administration runs on half-truths and full-fledged whoppers. They have gotten away with it time and time again as the economic gravy train keeps rollin' along. Any hey, you can't PROVE those unfalsifiable exaggerations and misrepresentations weren't true anyway.

Fast-forward to a fast-moving global pandemic crisis. Now that the focus is elsewhere, this culture of cronyism doesn't work. Fear has replaced greed. Falsehoods (like the epidemic being contained or risks being low) are suddenly in falsifiable territory and are laid bare just a few days or even hours after they are carnival-barked out. It's easy to marginalize the doctors and scientists until they are needed again, and they aren't too keen on alternative facts.

This is Trump's "Emperor's New Clothes" moment.

[Pachamama]

5. Translation in Trump Speak: "Testing has gone all wrong I F*cked this up too"

I can only imagine what little Donny Trump was like when having to answer to Mary and Fred.

I am sure his narcissistic sociopath personality started spinning grand tales and explaining his brilliance when he was caught doing something wrong.

He probably has thought since he was a kid what a stable genius he is indeed.... A perfect kid.