Should Trump's handling of the pandemic be a campaign issue? (continuing a thread that got off-topic in another discussion. )

What struck me was how much more irrational he sounds now than in the clips from the pandemic. I don't know if he's playing to his base or if he is declining mentally. 

I can never forget the image of the refrigerator trucks being stacked with bodies or the mass graves. He has showed no sadness for the victims. The clip from the video I posted, which shows him interrupting a first responder talking about his colleagues suffering from PTSD, in order to pass around souvenir pens, makes his paper towel toss to hurricane victims look benevolent. 

Presidents are allowed to make mistakes, but they should as least make an effort to put people ahead of politics. 

Yes, presidents make mistakes, but the really good ones admit it, they don't try to blame it on someone else.

P.S.  I don't recall ever hearing anyone refer to Trump as being empathetic or sympathetic.  The only person of importance in his orbit is himself. This post was edited by Spunky at June 17, 2024 2:39 PM MDT

Before my time, but they still talked about the sign on his desk 'the buck stops here'. That's what it means to be President.

Thank you. I hope voters here have as good a recollection of events as you do. In my mind, Trump has blood on his hands. 

I also think Trump has blood on his hands. And I think some of it is extra red because it has spite in it. I figure the reason Trump ignored Obama’s Pandemic action plan was because it came from the Obama administration and Trump would have none of that even if it meant saving life's. Cheers!

I wouldn't let him handle my trash.

If he was listening to Fauci, why the travel ban, why telling people not to wear masks? As much as you want to blame Fauci, Fauci was not the President.  Remember posting this?

Trump isn't exactly known for his reluctance to fire people. BTW, Fauci said the travel ban was too late, the virus was already here and spreading.  In other words, Trump waited too long, his ban from China came after 45 other countries had already done it, and still allowed thousands of Americans to return from China, carrying the virus. Meanwhile, the virus was coming in freely from Europe and Trump waited another six weeks to shut that down.

There was a stockpile of PPE, but congressional budget cuts did not allow it to be replenished to full capacity. Obama had a contract to replenish it, Trump cancelled it. I could go on, but there is plenty of information out there about Trump's bungling should you want the truth.

This was one thing he did on his own. While Fauci was still saying we did not need to worry.

March 8 2020: Dr Fauci says “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended consequences — people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep touching their face.” 
Then switched it up mask mandates and lockdowns beginning of April. Again, this is when I stopped listening to Fauci.  

Trump's mistake was listening to an evil vile man, Fauci. 

Fauci has a long evil history and belongs in prison for what he has done to grown people, minority infant orphans and beagle puppies.  

Fauci isn't running for president. If Fauci had such a bad reputation, then Trump either didn't do his due diligence or he didn't care. You can keep ranting about masks, but the real issues are much deeper than that.  You pretend it doesn't matter that Trump had 3 years to prepare for a pandemic that the last 3 presidents warned about and planned for. He disbanded the Pandemic Task Force, he ignored his intelligence officers who told him China was lying about the outbreak, he cancelled a contract for restocking PPE. He downplayed the virus and took no action until it was spreading. He showed no empathy for the victims or their caregivers. I am not defending or discrediting Fauci. I am talking about the person who was in charge of the country and showed his complete lack of leadership. We can't take that risk again.

Fauci has been in his position for decades.  Trump had no reason to think this man was not qualified to be one of the head people on the covid 19 task force.    This is a flaw Trump has, he trusts some people who should not be trusted.  Fauci and many other establishment politicians.   I do hope he has learned from those mistakes.  But even if he has not, he is still 1000 times better than Creepy Uncle Joe. 

That's odd. You post all these photos from decades ago and claim he was even portrayed in a movie as being bad. But somehow, no one brought this to Trumps attention. Odd. 
  
I am not asking about Fauci. So far your only defense of Trump is just making Trump look stupid. Fauci didn't screw up the PPE supply chain, Fauci didn't put a trade deal with China ahead of the interests of the American people. Fauci didn't tell people not to worry, it would all be gone by April. Fauci didn't say that no one could have predicted this. He actually did predict it. 

Try defending what Trump did without saying Fauci or Creepy Joe. Deflection is not a defense.

The movie is called Dallas Buyer's Club, the star was Mathew McConaughey.  

This real picture is what the movie is about. 

Again, Trump made it possible to get the clot shot (he also chose not to make it mandatory), he got the needed PPE, he got the ventilators,  he did the travel ban, he held a televised meeting daily with media and medical people, he looked for every possible way to help the people, including using therapeutics etc.  Gave people stimulus and unemployment because their STATE and LOCAL government shut them down.  

The US has 4% of the world population and 30% of Covid deaths. Trump had 3 years to prepare, but he ignored it. When Covid started to emerge, Trump played golf and held campaign rallies while other world leaders were taking action. I have posted information which I doubt you watched. It's pointless to continue this discussion with you.

When covid started to emerge???  Trump played golf and had rallies in Mar and Apr 2020???? Nope.

And most of those were in NY, CA etc where they put Covid positive patients in Nursing homes where people were at the most vulnerable to death from the virus are at....and those were Dem Governors who did that...not President Trump.  In fact, he said made the Naval hospital available for use to prevent that....but Governor Coumo did not use it.  Again NOT President Trump's fault Coumo did not protect his elderly population from the virus. President's are not dictators and Trump could not force Coumo to use it.   
My state did not do all that BS and we faired much better.  

3 years to prepare....no one knew this was coming.  And if they did the Obama should not have allowed the supplies to be depleted.  Fauci knew he was funding the gain of function illegally but he did not know it was going to escape his Wuhan lab.  He should be in prison for for that....

You are badly misinformed and/or have a selective memory. The pandemic was predicted for years, the PPE was not totally depleted, the virus was first identified in January. Trump wasn't just negligent, he got rid of all preparation and plans fron previous administration's. Unless you are willing to watch this timeline, you have only one side of the story. It is facts, not propaganda.

They predict every year that their will be pandemic.   

I remember  SARS, Zika, Swine, Ebola, MERS, Avian, Covid (SARS-2),  monkeypox and of course they are going on about Virus X....so sure they are predicting the next one now.....media love to try to scare the public. So yeah, they predicted it.  Of course,  Fauci knew what he was working on....

He never took action until it was too late. I blame Trump for the majority of deaths. You can spin it whatever way you want. A decent person,  let alone a president, takes ownership of things that happened on his watch. Trump has no problem taking credit for things he didn't do. If he was so competent we would not have done worse than every other country. 

And just maybe, all those viruses weren't as bad, because we had competent leadership. 

Bye Felisha.

Blame who you want, bit Trump was a President not in charge of the states. Governors are in charge of states, and many of them failed to protect their by endangering those individuals who were most vulnerable.  Nursing home patients....and then told people to stay inside (sunlight kills this virus and many more)

I blame Fauci and co for all the deaths and heart issues from the clot shot.  They knew and hid it from everyone.  They censored and tried to silence any Dr who disagreed. Now they are giving the shot to infants....a shot that they know causes heart disease, blood clots, etc.  

So to recap Trump:
1. Travel ban from China in Jan 2020
2. Funded and gave support to get the vaccine, (Jan 2021)...did not mandate anyone to be a lab rat for the Fauci and co. Trump got millions to take the shot.
3. Looked for other possible treatments 
4. Replenished PPE that Obama allowed to deplete (even though he was warned my the 2 previous Presidents of the incoming pandemic) 
5. Got ventilators that were said to be needed
6. Provided 2 naval hospitals to help treat patients...liberal Governors chose not to use them 
7. Asked the entire country to stay home, use a mask and social distance for 2 weeks to flatten the curve.  After that the crazy state and local governments mandated BS for months to years.  
8. Provided stimulus for most Americans 
9. Provided unemployment bonus to Americans who.lost their jobs because of covid
10. Provided forgivable loans to businesses to help the stay open and keep workers
11. Provided rental protection to people 
12. Hosted Daily televised briefing about the latest news on the virus.  (Of course,  the media used these to twist President Trump's statements about the virus.  (Nothing new there) 

Biden:
1. A candidate for President both Biden and Harris discouraged people from getting the shot. (They accidently correct but only for political reasons)
2. Biden tried to take credit for getting millions to take the shot. 
3. Threaten Americans and American businesses to make the shot mandatory for their employees  (implied that there would be OSHA violations which are extremely large fines. 
3. Made the shot mandatory for Federal employees, causing American military and others to have to choose between the shot or being a lab rat for a experimental "vaccine." Take the shot or pay you mortgage etc. 
4. Issued a smaller stimulus for most Americans
5. ????

I will take Trump all day every day.  

I could respond point by point, but no one is paying attention anymore, and your mind is closed. Looks like a nice list, but so much out of context, facts twisted, taking credit for things he didn't do, touting things he did too late to matter, and so on. Not to mention the flat out lie that is your number 1 point against Biden. 

Anyhow, my vote will cancel yours, so I'm done with this. You can have the last word, but no one is going to read it.

We don't live in the same state....your vote has nothing to do with my vote.  Thankfully, we have the electoral college keeping both our votes value.  Without it the only ones here who votes would matter are Stu, Spunky, Thriftymaid, Shanuk and Randy D.

#1 .....

• Joe Biden: Biden said he trusted vaccines, but not a politicized development process. He expressed concerns that President Trump was trying to rush vaccine approval for political gain. He stated, “I trust vaccines. I trust scientists. But I don’t trust Donald Trump, and at this moment, the American people can’t either.”
• Kamala Harris: Harris said she wouldn’t take a vaccine if it was approved by the Trump administration. She stated, “I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump” on the reliability of a vaccine. She also expressed concerns about Trump’s track record of contradicting his own health officials and suggested that a vaccine would “probably” be available in October for the virus.

It’s clear that both Biden and Harris had reservations about trusting a vaccine under the Trump administration due to concerns about political influence and the potential for rushed or unsafe vaccine development.