March 11, 2020

As Coronavirus Spreads, Republicans Are Worried That Trump is the Real Victim

They shared their angst at a House Oversight Committee hearing.

Oliver Contreras/AP

The coronavirus is a rapidly developing news story, so some of the content in this article might be out of date. Check out our most recent coverage of the coronavirus crisis, and subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.

“Is the worst yet to come, Dr. Fauci?” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) asked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Yes, yes it is,” he replied. As confirmed US cases of the novel coronavirus topped 1,000 and 31 deaths have been recorded so far, Dr. Fauci alongside Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified before the Oversight and Reform Committee in the US House hearing on the coronavirus response and preparedness.

States are taking drastic measures to stop the spread of the disease by shutting down schools, banning large gatherings, and businesses are urging those who can to work from home. So far, 13 governors have announced states of emergencies. The shortage of coronavirus tests have obscured the true number of cases, and public health officials are worried that the US hospital system could struggle under the weight of the outbreak. But during a hearing when lawmakers have a chance to discuss the issue with public health officials, some Republicans are focused on one key issue: How Democratic leaders have criticized the way President Donald Trump has handled the outbreak.

“I am incredibly disappointed in the politicization of this COVID-19 response,” Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said referring to the outbreak by the name of the illness it causes. “The 24/7 criticism that the president is undergoing is unwarranted at a minimum and absolutely maligns the hard work done by [public health agencies].” Complaining about politicization while politicizing absolutely everything has become a signature move of the president and Republicans. For weeks, members of the GOP have been claiming the “panic” over coronavirus is some kind of plot to discredit Trump.

Green, who once had to walk back his false comments that vaccines might cause autism, then listed the timeline of the Trump administration’s response to the virus, including his February 26 appointment of Vice President Mike Pence to lead the coronavirus task force (which has been suffering from some serious infighting). “Yet, according to the leadership of the other party,” Green said righteously, “our president has failed us.” And while it’s true that public health agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services have been working tirelessly to mitigate the spread, Trump has spent the last few weeks downplaying the virus, contradicting his own public health officials, and making some downright dumb public statements.

Last month, when there were only 15 confirmed cases in the nation, Trump claimed that we’d soon be at zero. When the World Health Organization said that the fatality rate for coronavirus was 3.4 percent, the president told Fox News that number was false—based on a hunch. And while public health officials have been warning that the coronavirus is not just the flu, Trump has tweeted comparing the two illnesses to make the point that the flu is more serious. 

As a rejoinder to Green’s insistence that Trump is handling the outbreak with competence and grace, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) reminded the committee and the witnesses that Trump has spent weeks making bizarre statements. He noted a truly baffling one at a press conference at the CDC. “When the president says he has an uncle who went to MIT in the 1930s and he has a natural ability for this,” Lynch said, “it’s got to raise some red flags.”

The House Oversight Committee hearing was recessed so the witnesses could attend a White House meeting. It is set to resume later today.

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate