On Friday, Mad King Donald ranted at the corona virus task force press conference he once again hijacked about how governors “should be appreciative” of the federal government, by which of course he means him, like Louis XIV of France: “L’etat c’est moi” (“I am the state”). Trump Again Bashes Governors Of Washington And Michigan Over Coronavirus:
Asked what more the president wants from governors, Trump answered: “I want them to be appreciative,” he said multiple times, adding that the Army Corps of Engineers’ recent work to revamp hotels to receive coronavirus patients “should be for governors to do, that should be for states to do.”
“I say, ‘Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington; you’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan. It doesn’t make any difference what happens.’”
“If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call,” Trump added, noting Pence is a “different type of person” who will “call quietly anyway.”
So the federal government’s response to states in dire need of medical supplies now turns on governors bowing before his majesty, Mad King Donald, to pay tribute and beg for his mercy and largesse? Is this still America?
This shit-show of a press conference should have been the very last one carried live by the media. But nooo, the media continues to behave irresponsibly by carrying these briefings live.
Mad King Donald returned on Saturday to hijack the corona virus task force press conference once again to rave about how he was considering imposing an “enforceable” federal quarantine on the tri-state region of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — a power he does not possess.
This sounds to me like Trump was pitching a screenplay for a movie sequel to “Escape From New York.” Is Kurt Russell still around to play Snake Plissken?
New York Magazine reports, Trump floats tri-state quarantine, Cuomo: ‘I don’t even know what that means’:
President Trump on Saturday claimed that he was considering a “short term, two week quarantine” of New York, New Jersey, and parts of Connecticut — restricting movement out of those “hot spots” in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Speaking with reporters, the president said that order may come as early as Saturday. He also said he had just spoken with Governor Andrew Cuomo. [He lied.]
Governor Cuomo later made it clear he had no idea what Trump was talking about after being asked by reporters about the possible order during his daily coronavirus briefing. “I don’t even know what that means,” Cuomo responded, indicating the two did not discuss such a measure in their conversation.
CNBC reports: “The governors in the tri-state region … said they were in the dark about Trump’s possible quarantine.” They were not consulted by Trump.
“I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable, and from a medical point of view, I don’t know what you would be accomplishing. … I don’t like the sound of it,” Cuomo added.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday in an interview with CNN that he didn’t believe a possible New York quarantine was legal and that it would be a “federal declaration of war” after President Donald Trump said he was considering such a tactic for the New York metro area as US coronavirus cases increase.
“It would be chaos and mayhem,” Cuomo told CNN’s Ana Cabrera. “It’s totally opposite everything he’s been saying. I don’t think it is plausible. I don’t think it is legal.”
“This would be a federal declaration of war on states,” Cuomo said, adding that he doesn’t think the President is looking to start a war with states.
Cuomo noted that a tri-state quarantine would dramatically affect the national economy, telling Cabrera, “I think it would paralyze the economy.”
“I think it would shock the economic markets in a way that we have never seen before,” he said. “I am not going to close off my borders. Trucks have to come in, food has to come in, mail has to come in.”
CNBC adds, New York Gov. Cuomo says Trump has no authority to impose quarantine: ‘It would be illegal’:
Cuomo, in an interview with CNN, said that preventing people from moving in and out of the tri-state would amount to a federally imposed lockdown, which he believes is illegal.
“A lockdown is what they did in Wuhan, China,” Cuomo said. “We’re not in China, and we’re not in Wuhan. I don’t believe it would be legal. I believe it would be illegal.“
Cuomo said he does not believe that Trump intends to impose a sweeping quarantine of the region but suggested he could sue if the administration did follow through.
“I’ve sued the federal government a number of times over the years. I do not believe it’s going to come to that on this,” Cuomo said. “This would be a declaration of war on states, a federal declaration of war.“
New York Magazine notes, No, Trump probably doesn’t have the legal authority to do that:
Here is what NBC News’s Pete Williams explained earlier this month on the legality of a national quarantine order:
Broadly speaking, the CDC has the power to detain people suspected of having a communicable disease, without getting approval from state and local officials. It comes under the public health laws that allow the federal government to impose restrictions either on people coming into the country or traveling from one state to another. … However, that authority is rarely used, and when it has been invoked, it was directed at individuals and small groups.
[The federal government’s quarantine authority] is limited to restricting the movement of anyone who “is reasonably believed to be infected with a quarantinable communicable disease.” It’s not at all certain how that would apply to large groups of people. Under the law, there is no explicit statutory authority for a blanket federal interstate quarantine, only for the isolation of individual people deemed infected.
Robert Chesney, an expert in constitutional and national security law, said the president’s authority depends on the definition of quarantine. Trump does not have the authority to order everyone in New York to stay in their homes, Chesney said, but he likely does have the authority under the Public Health Service Act of 1944 to impose what’s known as a cordon sanitaire, which would prevent people from moving in and out of a region such as New York.
Chesney, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin Law School, said such an order by the president would almost certainly be challenged in court as Cuomo indicated on CNN, but judges would most likely rule in the administration’s favor. The real question is how such an order would be enforced and whether or not Trump would use the military.
“There is a huge question of how they would enforce that if the state didn’t want to cooperate,” Chesney said. “It’s not like there’s a huge number nonmilitary personnel to draw on.”
Mad King Donald apparently had administration lawyers sit him down and explain to him that he does not have the authority to impose a federal quarantine on three states — he is not a dictator, yet — and talk him down from his Saturday obsession.
Vox.com reports, CDC issues travel advisory to residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a travel advisory on Saturday night calling on residents of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to avoid “non-essential domestic travel” for the next two weeks to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
The travel advisory is far less stringent than the “enforceable” tri-state quarantine that President Donald Trump had floated several times earlier on Saturday, an idea that caught New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) off guard and that caused confusion about the legality and logistics of such a maneuver.
Trump tweeted late on Saturday that he asked the CDC to issue the guidance after consulting with the three states’ governors [did he?], and decided “a quarantine will not be necessary.”
Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday that Trump settled on the advisory after “very intensive discussions” at the White House Saturday evening.
“After discussions with the president we made it clear and he agreed, it would be much better to do what’s called a strong advisory,” Fauci said. “The reason for that is you don’t want to get to the point that you’re enforcing things that would create a bigger difficulty, morale and otherwise, when you could probably accomplish the same goal.”
According to the CDC, the travel advisory does not apply to “employees of critical infrastructure industries, including but not limited to trucking, public health professionals, financial services, and food supply.” The agency says the governors of the three states have “full discretion” to implement the advisory.
Trump’s decision to go with a travel advisory after causing confusion — and anger — over his seemingly spontaneous suggestion of an “enforceable quarantine” underscores the extent to which his leadership during the coronavirus crisis has been defined by chaotic messaging and poor coordination with states.
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Trump’s quarantine idea — and that Cuomo was evidently in the dark about it — suggested he was contemplating pushing for what could be a hugely consequential policy change without consulting the relevant local policymakers.
“The specifics & impact of this new directive by tweet are unclear & uncertain,” tweeted Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal (CT) on Saturday. “The effect may be more confusion than confidence.”
Moreover, it was unclear if Trump was issuing a new policy or was simply floating an idea he hadn’t actually thought through and had no real intention of implementing. In recent weeks, Trump has made dozens of false claims, such as falsely promising that anyone who wants to get tested for coronavirus can get tested. Trump has also been touting hydroxychloroquine as a miracle drug for Covid-19, even though there has been no substantial evidence proving whether it’s effective, or even safe. Meanwhile, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis patients are experiencing a shortage of the drug as people heeding Trump’s message are stocking up.
Trump’s slapdash messaging surrounding a possible New York quarantine seemed par for the course in his ongoing response to the coronavirus crisis.
UPDATE: Axios reports, Cuomo: Trump’s mandatory quarantine comments “really panicked people”: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a press conference Sunday that President Trump’s unexpected Saturday announcement of a possible “short-term” quarantine of New York, New Jersey and parts of Connecticut to curb the spread of the coronavirus “really panicked people.” Though Trump ruled out the mandatory quarantine later that day, Cuomo said people still called “all night long” asking about the comments and many likely fled the New York area — possibly spreading the virus further.
The media has to stop giving Mad King Donald a live television audience. The corona virus task force press conferences should be recorded and edited for any newsworthy content, and fact checking added where necessary for airing later after the news conference. Take away Mad King Donald’s ability to use and abuse the media to “catapult the propaganda” for his own narcissistic selfish interests. He is only making things worse.
UPDATE: E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post is emphatic about this last point. Trump’s quarantine con should be the breaking point (excerpt):
The quarantine caper ought to be the straw that breaks the hustler’s back.
There was Trump telling reporters in the early afternoon: “There is a possibility that sometime today we’ll do a quarantine, short term, two weeks, on New York, probably New Jersey, certain parts of Connecticut,” he said, expressing worry that “a lot of New Yorkers are going down” to Florida.
Media-wise, all hell broke loose.
Of course he had never spoken to the governors of the affected states beforehand. Of course this was a way of shifting blame for his own incompetence to the stricken people of three Democratic states that would never vote for him. Of course he never considered whether he even had the power to do what he claimed he might do.
And of course it was all fake.
Having milked the “possibility” for a long news cycle, he informed the world on Twitter at 8:19 p.m. Saturday: “A quarantine will not be necessary.”
There are two lessons here. The first is that the media must treat Trump the way they treat anyone else who regularly offers lies along with idle but explosive conjecture. His daily journey before the White House cameras is no different from any of his other swindles, and his “briefings” should be treated with the contempt they deserve.
The second lesson is more important for the long run. We are learning, in both good ways and bad, about the importance of competent, energetic and empathetic government. For the past week, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has been offering a running seminar on this subject for all who will listen, both in a floor speech and in a phone interview from his home in Brooklyn.
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Success depends on denying Trump the ability to displace our focus from the things that matter to his carnival of fanciful proclamations, reprisals against enemies, and sweeping promises that are as disconnected from reality as he is from the truth.
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