These are my observations and opinions from my select news of the day.
IN THE INTERERST OF FULL TRANPARANCY, on Friday, President Trump again addressed the American public, and the world for that matter, on the latest progress involving the Coronavirus, highlighted by his declaration of emergency. The emergency declaration cuts red tape and unlocks funds to deal with the issue.
He introduced pharmaceutical executives and other health industry individuals, who are assisting the government in addressing the issue, and members of his virus task force to provide updates. At the conclusion, he opened the session to questions from the media, during which he patiently responded to the mostly impertinent and inane questions.
WHICH REMINDS ME of a Tweet by Elaina Plott, a reporter for the New York Times and an analyst for CNN @elainaplott, she wrote: “I have been talking to lots of Trump supporters across the country these last couple of days, and the disdain for and distrust of the media right now is worse than I’ve seen at any point throughout his presidency.”
SEAN DAVIS of The Federalist appropriately responded to Plott’s concern with his Tweet written @seanmdav: “Y’all have earned it. First the Russian hoax, then Kavanaugh, then the impeachment hoax, and now people’s businesses and livelihoods are being destroyed by the media’s deliberate panic-inducing hysteria. It’s evil.”
NARCISSI CRAIG, writing in Valley Girls blog, believes, “The media is irresponsibly sensationalizing the Coronavirus by leapfrogging over the facts into the saga to diminish the president’s accomplishments, instigate fear, and politicizing the fallout.”
“Something that the media types are only to happy to report,” she says recognizing that election day is on the horizon.
ASHE SCHOW of the Washington Examiner wrote @AsheSchow: “Can someone provide me an honest, sober, non-partisan explanation for why the H1N1, which killed more Americans, was not elevated to the level the coronavirus has been? As in, based on numbers, why was there not as much panic?”
“Because Trump wasn’t up for reelection,” was the clever response by autocorrect @poltimamiRN.
IN A SURPRISING TURNABOUT, MSNBC’s Joy Reid, no friend of the Trump administration Tweeted @JoyAnnReid: “Wow … Kasie (Hunt) reported that Republicans’ objections to the House Democrats’ emergency coronavirus bill includes issues related to abortion. What does that have to do with COVID19?”
The Daily Caller reported that Nancy Pelosi sought funding for what was described as a “loophole” around the Hyde Amendment, which outlaws taxpayer-funded abortions, among other things – poison pills – included in the bill.
As I prepared to publish this edition, I understood that the House was about to vote on a virus bill …. minus the abortion coverage … after at least a dozen telephone conversations during the day between Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin.
WELL, DUH! – For weeks now, President Trump’s virus task force of our nation’s top health experts from the National Institute of Health, the Center for Disease Control, Health and Human Services, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have been meeting daily.
Joining the team early on to give it a “whole of government” approach, were the Surgeon General, the Medicare and Medicaid administrator, the Treasury Secretary, the National Security Advisor, and representatives of the State Department, Department of Transportation, the Domestic Policy Council, the National Economic Council, and the Office of Management and Budget. He also brought Ambassador Deborah Birx, a public health expert, back to the U.S. to assist. Vice President Pence was named to head the task force.
In preparation for President Trump’s Friday declaration of a national emergency, Leon Panetta, former director of the CIA and secretary of Defense under President Obama, in a guest appearance on Fox News Channel, was asked to comment on what was needed to assure the public at this time.
Now get this … Panetta responded by telling host Bill Hemmer that what was needed was “a well-coordinated task force in the White House.” You just can’t make this stuff up. Not exactly an endorsement of the Panetta Institute for Public Policy he founded with his wife, Sylvia, and chairs.
(Courtesy Scott Santis/Chicago Tribune)
THERE’S NO INTEGRITY in the campaigns of Apology Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, but then you already knew that. At a time when President Trump has called for unity, saying, ”we are all in this together,” they continue to politicize the administration’s handling of the virus issue.
In my last blog, I briefly noted Apology Joe’s criticism of President Trump’s leadership in response to the Coronavirus outbreak, likewise with Bernie Sanders. After careful review of each candidate’s remarks, I found that most of their suggestions have, in fact, already been done or are in progress.
A GOOD POINT – While lawmakers are debating ways to prevent future FBI abuse of its surveillance authority, Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly A. Strassel writes, “they have an obligation to address their own privacy transgressor, Rep. Adam Schiff.”
In a letter obtained by Strassel, she notes that FCC Commissioner Brandon Carr to the House Intelligence Committee, in which he wrote that Schiff spent months conducting secret impeachment hearings, setting up his own surveillance state.
Schiff issued secret subpoenas to phone carriers, to obtain and publish the call records of political targets – Rep. Devin Nunes, Rudy Giuliani and journalist John Soloman.
“The House (Schiff chairs the Intelligence Committee) has little credibility to lecture the FBI on surveillance abuse if it won’t rein in its own snoopers,” suggests Strassel.
LAUGH-OF-THE-DAY – Following the president’s Wednesday night address, CNN’s Brian Stelter thought it was another time to again go after his nemesis Fox News Channel when he Tweeted @brianstelter: “Trump’s Oval Office address was exactly what his Fox wingmen needed – now Sean Hannity et al can celebrate the new travel ban – while evading the real scourge of community spread within the U.S.”
One America Network correspondent Emerald Robinson obviously couldn’t resist, responding @EmeraldRobinson: “No one can hear you now because the airports are empty.”
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
