"The utter carelessness of it all is staggering."

[babylonsister]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/10/trump-knew-exposed-maskless-campaign-trail-hope-hicks-showing-symptoms.html


The White House Knew Trump Had Likely Been Exposed to the Virus. He Traveled and Held Events Anyway.
By Elliot Hannon
Oct 02, 20205:58 AM

snip//

The New York Times reports Trump advisers knew it was likely that Hicks had contracted the coronavirus Wednesday when she publicly began exhibiting symptoms during a presidential campaign trip to Duluth, Minnesota. After the rally, Hicks reportedly quarantined for the return flight to Washington on Air Force One, and on Thursday, a test officially confirmed what senior White House officials already knew. The White House, however, hoped it could keep Hicks’ diagnosis from becoming public, Trump aides told the Times. It’s hard to overstate how closely Hicks works with the president and how intertwined their days reportedly are. Instead of taking precautions to protect those around him, however, Trump basically did nothing different. Instead of laying low, he traveled; instead of isolating, he met with people at campaign events; instead of protecting those around him, he knowingly risked spreading the virus further.

From the Washington Post:

After White House officials learned of Hicks’s symptoms, Trump and his entourage flew Thursday to New Jersey, where he attended a fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster and delivered a speech. Trump was in close contact with dozens of other people, including campaign supporters, at a roundtable event.

The president did not wear a mask Thursday, including at the events at his golf course and on the plane, officials said. He was tested after he returned to the White House, but he also appeared on Sean Hannity’s TV show from the residence by telephone.

It wasn’t just Trump who carried on, potentially harming those around him—it was the rest of his staff, too. And they knew about Hicks; they knew what was coming. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who was also on the plane to Minnesota with Hicks, held a briefing with reporters without wearing a mask as if nothing was wrong. The utter carelessness of it all is staggering. And it obviously starts at the top with a president that derides mask-wearing as a sign of weakness.

[EarlG]

1. This is the story

Not that TRUMP IS OUTFOXING US ALL ONCE AGAIN WITH HIS INCREDIBLE SMARTS (thanks, Michael Moore).

The story is Trump's recklessness and irresponsibility coming back to bite him in the ass.

And 200,000 people dead from this thanks to the same reckless, irresponsible message that he's been pushing.

[Bev54]

2. I agree

and I am tired of people lecturing about how we should ignore it all and wish him well. Sorry no can do.

[gratuitous]

3. He flicked lit matches around a room full of gasoline and it exploded

But let's all not get judgy, because . . . ? Because we're better than that? Is that what you're hearing from your conservative acquaintances? Because they don't think we're better than them, even if they say that while scolding us.

Because this is a very serious situation and we shouldn't make light of it? A lot of things are very serious situations, and I don't see conservatives reining themselves in when it comes to mocking our concern for (one example) refugees at the border whose families have been atomized and whose children are in cyclone fence cages. Remember the "Fuck your feelings" t-shirts?

I may decline to comment on every last aspect of conservatives' personal agony at this time, but I am disinclined to ease their pain. They have demanded the full measure of this evil, and I'll consider sympathy once they have drained this cup to its dregs. Not before. They're being taught something, and I won't interfere with the teacher.

[Salviati]

4. Well said.

[dalton99a]

5. Kick