Opinions The conspiracy cupboard is bare
You can understand why Republicans are desperate to change the topic. Three million more Americans filed unemployment claims last week, bringing the unemployment numbers to 36.5 million, a stunning figure. Republicans are stuck defending their opposition to more aid, the death toll inches toward 90,000, and President Trump’s handling of the pandemic is getting lousy ratings. (CBS News reports: “President Trump’s handling of the outbreak continue to drop from March and are now the lowest he has received. Today, 43% say he’s doing a good job, 5 points lower than three weeks ago and 10 points lower than in March.”)
Rather than change their unpopular positions or govern competently, Trump and his flunkies are resorting to increasingly incoherent conspiracy theories. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) can see his majority slipping away. (The latest bad news: North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr’s stock deals are reportedly under investigation by the FBI for insider trading.) McConnell’s answer to the pandemic is to shield businesses from lawsuits. Not a crowd-pleaser. What does he do then? Accuse President Barack Obama of leaving the country with no game plan (more than three years ago).
Put aside that blaming your predecessor more than three years into a presidency is simply pathetic; in this case, it is not even true. The Post’s Glenn Kessler cries foul (or Pinocchio!): “McConnell is wrong to say the Obama administration left ‘no game plan’ to deal with a pandemic; the Obama team crafted a detailed document setting forth questions and policies that should be considered, as well as put in place programs that might have helped spur action sooner,” Kessler writes. “The Trump administration ignored that document and pursued its own course when confronted with a once-a-century health crisis.”
However wrong, at least McConnell’s distraction of the day is explainable. Trump cannot even articulate what his made-up conspiracy — which alleges the Obama administration tried to frame top Trump officials, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, during the Russian collusion investigation — is all about. Mediaite captured Trump’s hilarious attempt to explain the issue in what was supposed to be a softball interview by Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/opinions-the-conspiracy-cupboard-is-bare/ar-BB1456NX?li=BBnbfcL
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