***. “It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness; and I pronounce it as certain that there was never yet a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.” [ Benjamin Franklin ]
This post presents excerpts from Anthony Fauci’s diary from 2020. YOU get raw data on this eminent scientist’s review of how it was to deal with Donald Trump early in the COVID-19 epidemic.
THE. MAJOR. QUESTION for YOU; did ‘your” president seem to be concerned about the impact of tjis deadly disease on the American people. – or. – was his primary concern to “manage” the crisis so that it didn’t hurt his re-election campaign?
***. “The Trump presidency is about Trump. Period. Full stop. He says so himself all the time.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” ]
1] Late February, 2020: Fauci “encouraged him not to underplay the seriousness of the situation since if it turns out bad, it would look like he is covering up…..I thought that he heard what I said, but the next day, he again underplayed it.”
2] March 27, 2000: “Very laborious press conference where the POTUS rambled on. He wasted the opportunity to just focus on the relief package and went into his diatribe against the previous administrations.”
3] March 28: “AMAZING interaction with POTUS…. I led the discussions since the POTUS kept referring to me. It was a disturbingly rambling discussion since he kept talking about TV ratings, and HC [hydroxychloroquine], and influenza and virtually everything else as I was trying to keep him on track [with the help of the VP]……I insisted through the rambling and lack of attention span that the POTUS explicitly say that this is NOT a quarantine.”
***. “When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.” [ Thomas Jefferson ]
4]. July 10: “..he had an “important meeting” with Mike Pence, during which Fauci told the vice president he would be “coldly honest.” “I then told him that he is completely losing credibility when we have >60,000 new cases with increased hospitalizations and deaths and he starts off at the Pressers saying “We are in a good place.”
5] July 15: “He wanted me to be ‘positive’. I took the opportunity to say, ‘Mr. President, with your permission, can I be absolutely frank with you? We have a problem and we need to own it. We need to admit that the situation is serious, otherwise we completely lose credibility….he was not entirely happy with this..”
6]. August 4: ‘..he had to directly explain to Trump – whom he described as “throwing around the F- word” and “raving that we are seeing more cases only because we are doing more testing”. – that increased testing does not cause cases. “All in all it was a manifestation that he is [desperate] and still does not understand the pandemic.” [NOTE: read this again, and again. this is how “your’ president thought, and governed]
***. “But McMaster and his team almost immediately realized the president wasn’t reading any of the briefing books, or even the concise three-page version….As one of Trump’s confidants said, “I cal the president the two-minute man. The president has patience for a half page.” [ Pulitzer Prize winners Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig: “A Very Stable Genius” ]
7] August 8: “POTUS acting even more erratically. Keeps insisting that increased case numbers are due only to increased testing, ignoring the increases in percent positive, hospitalizations and deaths [ >1000/day}.”
8] November 1: “…Tony, you have to be positive. I do not want to keep you off TV, but when you are out there, you have to be positive.”
9] November 16, 2000: “Continual surge: 138,000 new infections yesterday. POTUS has no interest at all in the pandemic. He is focusing on blocking Biden from being POTUS. He is embarrassing the USA.” [NOTE: read THIS again, and again… Trump “has no interest at all in the pandemic.” “Your” president doesn’t care about you and your family getting very sick. – it’s more important to prevent Biden from taking over. – as in January 6…]
***. “If the misery of others leaves you indifferent and with no feeling of sorrow, then you cannot be called a human being.” [ Jimmy Carter; 39th U.S. President ]
II. Please think on the following, from. “the Atlantic,” July/August, 2024, pages 21-28. Dr. Fauci reviews general handling of COVID-19:
“Although the CDC struggled, there was no mistaking the message delivered on February 25 by its director of immunization and respiratory diseases, Nancy Messonnier. She told reporters that a pandemic in the United States was no longer a matter of if but when, and that we should prepare to close schools and work remotely. “Disruption to everyday life may be severe,; she announced. Nancy did the right thing: She told Americans the truth. But not surprisingly, her statement caused a firestorm. The media erupted, and the stock market plummeted nearly 1,000 points. Trump was furious. The next day, he announced that Vice President mike Pence would take over for Alex Azar as the head of the White House coronavirus task force.”
III. “Nationally, a study by the American Medical Association determined that “the excess [COVID] death rate among Republican voters was 43% higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters.” [ Gene Lyons: “Silencing Scientists, Doctors in the Name of ‘Freedom'”; The Progressive Populist; ll/1/23 ]
*** “And you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” [ John 8: 32 ]
With Justice For All 