Admittedly, it’s getting tougher to keep up with Trump news as we head toward Election Day. I was all set to write about something else, and now the Woodward interviews are all over the news.
To summarize, it seems President Trump had a series of 18 interviews with Bob Woodward between Dec 2019 and July 2020. Woodward is an investigative journalist of Watergate fame, as he was involved in the news reporting back then. In the taped interviews, Trump appears to tell Woodward that he knew of the severity of the Coronavirus, and that he preferred not to tell the American people to avoid panic.
I’m sure there’s more… but that is the main gist.
This has set off the predictable media firestorm on both sides of the Great American Divide. Trump critics are railing about Trump intentionally lying to the American public, causing thousands of needless deaths and millions of lost livelihoods. Trump fans are defending him with their usual zeal, coming up with a myriad of excuses and counterattacks.
Defense #1: Trump didn’t mislead the public. He was merely expressing calm.
That’s pretty weak. If, as seems obvious, Trump was saying one thing publicly and something completely different in his interviews… I’m not too sure how you can defend that by saying he was trying to express calm. Imagine the captain of the Titanic privately knowing the ship was going to sink, but in order to avoid panic he told all passengers that is was just a little scratch and they’d soon be on their way.
Defense #2: He really wasn’t downplaying COVID because it has killed less than originally thought.
Well… at this writing the U.S. death toll is approaching 200 thousand but hey… it’s not the million or so that some had predicted. This defense is pretty pathetic and really not worth much discussion. It does however, perfectly illustrate the lengths some will go to defend the President.
Defense #3: Other countries were downplaying the pandemic so as to avoid panic.
I remember from my childhood my mother admonishing me saying, “So if little So-and-So decides to jump off a cliff, are you going to do it too?” Yeah… let’s point fingers at other countries and conveniently forget our own realities. Even being told the harsh realities by health authorities, many in the U.S. decided to start their own little Mask Wearing Civil War.
Defense #4: It’s the fault of the states and cities… not Trump’s.
Right… deflect. Something as hugely critical to life and health as a pandemic… and Trump decides to pawn off the decisions and directives to individual governors and mayors. How convenient. That way nobody can blame him, only others.
Defense #5: Why did Woodward sit on this information for so long?
Actually this is more of a counterattack. Forget what Trump was doing. Let’s focus on Woodward and why he chose now to go public with these interviews. Woodward’s timing or reasons are outside the scope of this article, and will surely be scrutinized appropriately. The point here is Trump once again lying and contradicting himself.
Defense #6: Oh, it’s just another Left/Dem/Media attack on Trump.
Ehh… no. It’s actually Trump, who can’t seem to get out of his own way, nor give his fans a chance to come up for air between his controversies. No Woodward interviews… no controversies… nothing to report. Doesn’t get much simpler than that.
But I’m actually disappointed in some glaring omissions here. Where is the Fake News defense? Whereby the interviews are actually a sophisticated fabrication and never really took place?
Ok… now to focus on my next article, which was going to be about Sports and the Pandemic. I just hope I get the chance.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Add to that the ostrich defense of some Republicans who instead of answering the question opt to pretend that it doesn’t exist: “Oh, I don’t follow those gotcha books.” said one illustrious member of the senate over and over when asked about what Trump said on tape.
Like a child with his face covered in crumbs insisting that he did not get into the cookie jar, Trump supporters have no recourse left but to blatantly lie and deflect and keep on lying and deflecting in the hopes that we just give up and forget about it. It’s beyond pathetic and just cements the cynical attitude that many of us have toward politics. These people have no moral compass. They don’t care about the issues, principles, and values they purport to uphold. They just want to win. I’m sure the same goes for a lot of Democrats as well. If this situation weren’t so dire it would be funny.
“Ostrich defense” indeed. Ha-ha-ha… nice one. It is the perfect description for those who just wish the whole issue would magically go away by ignoring it. You’d better believe that same Senator would be all over those same “gotcha books” if it was a high-ranking Democrat being targeted.
We share the same nauseous feelings about politics these days. Just when you think the bar has been lowered as far as it will go… someone finds a few more notches to drop.
Sometimes I become introspective and wonder if maybe I’m one of those “hysterical liberals” that Trump and his band of gophers love to label as such. Then I quickly come to my senses and realize that “of course not.” Any decent human being with more than an ounce of common sense would be shaking their head at what passes for government officials these days.
Thank you for your comments, Angela.
Credit where credit’s due; I read an article that referred to the head-in-the-sand strategy that many republican politicians are adopting of late. I just adapted it a bit to fit your article.
And yes, I often have those moments as well of questioning myself and my bias. That’s what we all should do. Question, read, think and repeat this process to keep ourselves in check.
Precisely what you invite us to do with your blog.
Erich Fromm was on to something when he said: “That millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.”
Thank you Angela. Your well-written and insightful comments are always appreciated. Regarding these introspective moments… I believe it is the healthy thing to do. If we don’t stop and auto-examine to make sure we’re not allowing ourselves to be consumed and biased by the dreadful news that keep “one-upping” themselves on a daily basis, we could easily fall into the trap of losing our own objectiveness. Trump fans in an Internet forum I belong to cannot seem to comprehend how someone can give credit to Trump on the one hand, while lambasting him over other issues.
Polarization in public opinion is probably one of the worst scourges in society today. You’re either all in, or all out. No room for middle ground, or objective thinking.
For the first year and a half of my blog I avoided Trump issues, so as to not seem biased one way or the other. But the approaching elections, coupled with the complete mess these two major issues have become (handling of COVID-19 and the racial battles), do not allow me to simply ignore the topic any longer. I see myself writing more and more about politics in the coming months, because I believe the situation calls for it.