Behind the evolution of Trump's tone on COVID-19
The 'Outnumbered' panel reacts after a somber press conference from the White House coronavirus task force.
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The Boston Globe's editorial board released a scathing op-ed on Monday in which it argued that the president's "colossal failure of leadership" on the coronavirus cost American lives.
"The months the administration wasted with prevarication about the threat and its subsequent missteps will amount to exponentially more COVID-19 cases than were necessary. In other words, the president has blood on his hands," the editorial board wrote.
The piece laid out a series of complaints the Globe had with Trump's response to the pandemic, calling for a "reckoning" in November "for the lives lost."
"The pandemic reveals that the worst features of this presidency are not merely late-night comedy fodder; they come at the cost of lives, livelihoods, and our collective psyche," the editorial board wrote.
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Monday's attack was just the latest in a series criticizing the president for not taking the pandemic seriously enough and taking too long to respond appropriately. Criticism has also come in the form of attack ads from outside groups, suggesting he was responsible for the rapid growth of cases in the U.S.
The president has been holding daily briefings on the virus, offering updates alongside members of his task force for handling the pandemic. But according to the Globe, Trump's performance fell flat.
"It’s not too much for Americans to ask of their leaders that they be competent and informed when responding to a crisis of historic proportions," the editorial read.
"Instead, they have a White House marred by corruption and incompetence, whose mixed messages roil the markets and rock their sense of security. Instead of compassion and clarity, the president, in his near-daily addresses to the nation, embodies callousness, self-concern, and a lack of compass. Dangling unverified cures and possible quarantines in front of the public like reality TV cliffhangers, he unsettles rather than reassures."
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The Globe also took issue with Trump's refusal to acknowledge that his administration's response was "a failing." The editorial board appeared to be referencing a quote from Dr. Anthony Fauci, who's leading the administration's coronavirus response, during congressional testimony.
Fauci criticized the U.S. system for testing but didn't specifically blame Trump.
"The system is not really geared to what we need right now -- what you are asking for -- that is a failing ... Let's admit it," he told Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla.
"The fact is the way the system was set up is that the public health component ... was a system where you put it out there in the public and a physician asks for it and you get it. The idea of anybody getting it easily, the way people in other countries are doing it -- we're not set up for that," Fauci added. "Do I think we should be? Yes, but we're not."
Trump has maintained that his administration would see the country through the crisis. He's also received praise from Fauci, who defended his sweeping restrictions on travel from China and Europe.
While the Trump administration has urged social distancing, it resisted a national stay-at-home order. Trump said earlier this week that he and members of his administration have discussed issuing a stay-at-home order but it was “pretty unlikely” for now. Then on Tuesday, the White House offered “sobering” new projections that 100,000 to 240,000 Americans will likely succumb to the coronavirus even if current social distancing guidelines are maintained.
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Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Wednesday noted in a series of television interviews that the U.S. federalist system leaves much of the authority on how to properly respond to catastrophes to individual state governors and local officials.
“We trust the governors and the mayors to understand their people and understand whether or not they feel like they can trust the people in their states to make the right decisions,” Adams said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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