Academia, Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Politics

American University Professor Calls For Trump Impeachment Over The Coronavirus Response

Professor Chris Edelson, assistant professor of government at American University, has penned an opinion column calling for President Trump to resign or be impeachment for his handling of the coronavirus crisis. It is just the latest in a long line of such impeachment theories that reflect a fundamental misconception of the function and standard for the removal of an American President.

Edelson has concluded that it is now “essential” to force Trump’s resignation or removal “[a]t each stage, he has lied, he has created confusion, he has made reckless predictions, and he has, once and for all, demonstrated his manifest unfitness to serve.”    Edelson offers a series of a conclusory statements to support this conclusion like “it is so plainly the right thing to do” or it is clear that “Donald Trump cannot do his job.” Thus, “[i]n a functioning system, elected officials from both major political parties would call for the president’s resignation, and he would be forced to leave office or face impeachment and removal through the constitutional process.”

Such an impeachment would be facially abusive and baseless. Impeachment is not means to remove a president who you are dissatisfied with the performance of a president. As I have previously written, critics have largely misrepresented the standard as a type of no-confidence vote. The Edelson column reflects the continued disregard of the history and text of the impeachment provisions to avoid precisely what he has suggested.

However, Edelson’s call for impeachment or removal is nothing new. Not only did he support past impeachment calls, but, just a couple months into the Trump presidency, he was advocating a Rube-Golberg-like process to force a new vote on the presidency before the Trump family was actually all living at the White House. In that column, Edelson simply declared that “after just two months, there is no question that the Donald Trump presidency is an unmitigated disaster.” So here is what he suggested:

“Here’s how it could work: Each chamber of Congress, the House and the Senate, would have to vote by a two-thirds majority to hold a special election. three-quarters of state legislatures would have to ratify the amendment. The amendment would call for a one time special election, allowing qualified political parties (the Republicans and Democrats, and other parties who can meet a threshold to qualify for the ballot) one month to choose a nominee and then one month for a general election, to be held on a national holiday. The amendment would make clear this is a one-time event. After the election is held, we would revert to pre-existing constitutional procedures, for example, with a presidential election held every four years. The amendment could also provide for a national unity government to occupy the executive branch while the short election campaign goes on.”

As wacky as that proposal may seem, it still thrills many readers. Removal has become a rallying point for rage and it does not matter that the subject of impeachment has changed from opposing NFL kneelers to disproven Russian collusion to Charlottesville to the Coronavirus. The premise is the same: we must remove Trump as an existential threat. Another premise is that we need a “new constitution” which Edelson often demands because the constitutional standard and process did not allow for the removal of Trump.

Edelson and others have called for the type of impulse impeachments that the Framers feared in drafting the Constitution. This is the thrust of his call for removal that has remained consistent from two months after the election to the present day: “In calling for Trump’s resignation we are refusing to accept the assumption that Trump exists outside of normal rules. We know he isn’t up to the job.”  Thus, the “new constitution” that Edelson has demanded would allow for such cathartic measures whenever a majority opposed a president because he “isn’t up to the job.” Imagine if Republicans had that unfettered option with Obama. Would Edelson be praising the power of removal in that case? Edelson and his supporters believe that nation would be more stable and stronger with the ability to remove presidents on such a fluid, facile standard.

Edelson is also a Fellow at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies and holds a B.A. from Brandeis University and a J.D. Harvard Law School.

265 thoughts on “American University Professor Calls For Trump Impeachment Over The Coronavirus Response”

  1. Pingback: The Schiff Standard

      1. He humiliated Hillary, the pollsters, the high and might liberal now debunked news industry….Biden will dirty his pants way before the election

    2. “The Trump Presidency Is Over”
      ***************
      It’s another Mark Twain moment. About No. 675 for the MSM and their wishful thinking.

  4. chris Edelson is a liberal moron ! Graduate of harvard which is now a who re house for liberals and cry babies !

    1. Oh … you cry-baby supporting maga moron do understand who a cry-baby is. Don’t you.

  6. I’m guessing Professor Chris Edelson is a demonut? What amazes me , is they have no recourse in how they would have handled this ‘crisis’ any differently?

    1. Trump and Bolton made the wrong call when they disbanded the pandemic response team a couple of years ago. Let’s start with that.

      https://twitter.com/SenSherrodBrown/status/1238582557689683968

      Sherrod Brown
      @SenSherrodBrown

      Two years ago, President Trump fired the entire global health security team at the White House. Their job?

      Managing pandemics.

      Now we’re all paying the price for President Trump’s decisions.

      1. Hey, because Trolling Obama is so important to our insecure President.

      2. Well before the corona flu existed the President created the National Influenza Vaccine Task Force. He was visionary.

        “By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:

        Section 1. Findings. (a) Influenza viruses are constantly changing as they circulate globally in humans and animals. Relatively minor changes in these viruses cause annual seasonal influenza outbreaks, which result in millions of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and tens of thousands of deaths each year in the United States. Periodically, new influenza A viruses emerge from animals, including birds and pigs, that can spread efficiently and have sustained transmission among humans. This situation is called an influenza pandemic (pandemic). Unlike seasonal influenza, a pandemic has the potential to spread rapidly around the globe, infect higher numbers of people, and cause high rates of illness and death in populations that lack prior immunity. While it is not possible to predict when or how frequently a pandemic may occur, there have been 4 pandemics in the last 100 years. The most devastating pandemic occurred in 1918-1919 and is estimated to have killed more than 50 million people worldwide, including 675,000 Americans.

        (b) Vaccination is the most effective defense against influenza. Despite recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that nearly every American should receive the influenza vaccine annually, however, seasonal influenza vaccination levels in the United States have currently reached only about 45 percent of CDC goals.

        (c) All influenza vaccines presently in use have been developed for circulating or anticipated influenza viruses. These vaccines must be reformulated for each influenza season as well as in the event of a pandemic. Additional research is needed to develop influenza vaccines that provide more effective and longer-lasting protection against many or all influenza viruses.

        (d) The current domestic enterprise for manufacturing influenza vaccines has critical shortcomings. Most influenza vaccines are made in chicken eggs, using a 70-year-old process that requires months-long production timelines, limiting their utility for pandemic control; rely on a potentially vulnerable supply chain of eggs; require the use of vaccine viruses adapted for growth in eggs, which could introduce mutations of the influenza vaccine virus that may render the final product less effective; and are unsuitable for efficient and scalable continuous manufacturing platforms.

        (e) The seasonal influenza vaccine market rewards manufacturers that deliver vaccines in time for the influenza season, without consideration of the speed or scale of these manufacturers’ production processes. This approach is insufficient to meet the response needs in the event of a pandemic, which can emerge rapidly and with little warning. Because the market does not sufficiently reward speed, and because a pandemic has the potential to overwhelm or compromise essential government functions, including defense and homeland security, the Government must take action to promote faster and more scalable manufacturing platforms.

        Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to modernize the domestic influenza vaccine enterprise to be highly responsive, flexible, scalable, and more effective at preventing the spread of influenza viruses. This is a public health and national security priority, as influenza has the potential to significantly harm the United States and our interests, including through large-scale illness and death, disruption to military operations, and damage to the economy. This order directs actions to reduce the United States’ reliance on egg-based influenza vaccine production; to expand domestic capacity of alternative methods that allow more agile and rapid responses to emerging influenza viruses; to advance the development of new, broadly protective vaccine candidates that provide more effective and longer lasting immunities; and to support the promotion of increased influenza vaccine immunization across recommended populations.

        Sec. 3. National Influenza Vaccine Task Force. (a) There is hereby established a National Influenza Vaccine Task Force (Task Force). The Task Force shall identify actions to achieve the objectives identified in section 2 of this order and monitor and report on the implementation and results of those actions. The Task Force shall be co-chaired by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, or their designees.

        (b) In addition to the Co-Chairs, the Task Force shall consist of a senior official from the following executive branch departments, agencies, and offices:

        (i) the Department of Defense (DOD);

        (ii) the Department of Justice;

        (iii) the Department of Agriculture;

        (iv) the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA);

        (v) the Department of Homeland Security;

        (vi) the United States Food and Drug Administration;

        (vii) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;

        (viii) the National Institutes of Health (NIH);

        (ix) the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); and

        (x) the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

        (c) The Co-Chairs may jointly invite additional Federal Government representatives, with the consent of the applicable executive department, agency, or office head, to attend meetings of the Task Force or to become members of the Task Force, as appropriate.

        (d) The staffs of the Department of State, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the National Security Council, the Council of Economic Advisers, the Domestic Policy Council, the National Economic Council, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) may attend and participate in any Task Force meetings or discussions.

        (e) The Task Force may consult with State, local, tribal, and territorial government officials and private sector representatives, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law.

        (f) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Task Force shall submit a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The report shall include:

        (i) a 5-year national plan (Plan) to promote the use of more agile and scalable vaccine manufacturing technologies and to accelerate development of vaccines that protect against many or all influenza viruses;

        (ii) recommendations for encouraging non-profit, academic, and private-sector influenza vaccine innovation; and

        (iii) recommendations for increasing influenza vaccination among the populations recommended by the CDC and for improving public understanding of influenza risk and informed influenza vaccine decision-making.

        (g) Not later than June 1 of each of the 5 years following submission of the report described in subsection (f) of this section, the Task Force shall submit an update on implementation of the Plan and, as appropriate, new recommendations for achieving the policy objectives set forth in section 2 of this order.

        Sec. 4. Agency Implementation. The heads of executive departments and agencies shall also implement the policy objectives defined in section 2 of this order, consistent with existing authorities and appropriations, as follows:

        (a) The Secretary of HHS shall:

        (i) through the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and BARDA:

        (A) estimate the cost of expanding and diversifying domestic vaccine-manufacturing capacity to use innovative, faster, and more scalable technologies, including cell-based and recombinant vaccine manufacturing, through cost-sharing agreements with the private sector, which shall include an agreed-upon pricing strategy during a pandemic;

        (B) estimate the cost of expanding domestic production capacity of adjuvants in order to combine such adjuvants with both seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines;

        (C) estimate the cost of expanding domestic fill-and-finish capacity to rapidly fulfill antigen and adjuvant needs for pandemic response;

        (D) estimate the cost of developing, evaluating, and implementing delivery systems to augment limited supplies of needles and syringes and to enable the rapid and large-scale administration of pandemic influenza vaccines;

        (E) evaluate incentives for the development and production of vaccines by private manufacturers and public-private partnerships, including, in emergency situations, the transfer of technology to public-private partnerships — such as the HHS Centers for Innovation and Advanced Development and Manufacturing or other domestic manufacturing facilities — in advance of a pandemic, in order to be able to ensure adequate domestic pandemic manufacturing capacity and capability;

        (F) support, in coordination with the DOD, NIH, and VA, a suite of clinical studies featuring different adjuvants to support development of improved vaccines and further expand vaccine supply by reducing the dose of antigen required; and

        (G) update, in coordination with other relevant public health agencies, the research agenda to dramatically improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability of influenza vaccine production;

        (ii) through the Director of NIH, provide to the Task Force estimated timelines for implementing NIH’s strategic plan and research agenda for developing influenza vaccines that can protect individuals over many years against multiple types of influenza viruses;

        (iii) through the Commissioner of Food and Drugs:

        (A) further implement vaccine production process improvements to reduce the time required for vaccine production (e.g., through the use of novel technologies for vaccine seed virus development and through implementation of improved potency and sterility assays);

        (B) develop, in conjunction with the CDC, proposed alternatives for the timing of vaccine virus selection to account for potentially shorter timeframes associated with non egg based manufacturing and to facilitate vaccines optimally matched to the circulating strains;

        (C) further support the conduct, in collaboration with the DOD, BARDA, and CDC, of applied scientific research regarding developing cell lines and expression systems that markedly increase the yield of cell-based and recombinant influenza vaccine manufacturing processes; and

        (D) assess, in coordination with BARDA and relevant vaccine manufacturers, the use and potential effects of using advanced manufacturing platforms for influenza vaccines;

        (iv) through the Director of the CDC:

        (A) expand vaccine effectiveness studies to more rapidly evaluate the effectiveness of cell based and recombinant influenza vaccines relative to egg-based vaccines;

        (B) explore options to expand the production capacity of cell-based vaccine candidates used by industry;

        (C) develop a plan to expand domestic capacity for whole genome characterization of influenza viruses;

        (D) increase influenza vaccine use through enhanced communication and by removing barriers to vaccination; and

        (E) enhance communication to healthcare providers about the performance of influenza vaccines, in order to assist them in promoting the most effective vaccines for their patient populations; and

        (v) through the Administrator of CMS, examine the current legal, regulatory, and policy framework surrounding payment for influenza vaccines and assess adoption of domestically manufactured vaccines that have positive attributes for pandemic response (such as scalability and speed of manufacturing).

        (b) The Secretary of Defense shall:

        (i) provide OMB with a cost estimate for transitioning DOD’s annual procurement of influenza vaccines to vaccines manufactured both domestically and through faster, more scalable, and innovative technologies;

        (ii) direct, in coordination with the VA, CDC, and other components of HHS, the conduct of epidemiological studies of vaccine effectiveness to improve knowledge of the clinical effect of the currently licensed influenza vaccines;

        (iii) use DOD’s network of clinical research sites to evaluate the effectiveness of licensed influenza vaccines, including methods of boosting their effectiveness;

        (iv) identify opportunities to use DOD’s vaccine research and development enterprise, in collaboration with HHS, to include both early discovery and design of influenza vaccines as well as later-stage evaluation of candidate influenza vaccines;

        (v) investigate, in collaboration with HHS, alternative correlates of immune protection that could facilitate development of next-generation influenza vaccines;

        (vi) direct the conduct of a study to assess the feasibility of using DOD’s advanced manufacturing facility for manufacturing cell-based or recombinant influenza vaccines during a pandemic; and

        (vii) accelerate, in collaboration with HHS, research regarding rapidly scalable prophylactic influenza antibody approaches to complement a universal vaccine initiative and address gaps in current vaccine coverage.

        (c) The Secretary of VA shall provide OMB with a cost estimate for transitioning its annual procurement of influenza vaccines to vaccines manufactured both domestically and with faster, more scalable, and innovative technologies.

        Sec. 5. Termination. The Task Force shall terminate upon direction from the President or, with the approval of the President, upon direction from the Task Force Co-Chairs.

        Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

        (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

        (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

        (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

        (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.”

        1. We are hearing a lot of talk from Anonymous the Stupid, Paint Chips, the Anon’s and a few others but none of them seem to be able to understand what they read and have even more difficulty accurately repeating what was told to them.

          When one mixes fresh milk with sour milk one ends up with sour milk. That is what we are seeing from this group of people that are more interested in a shift of politcal power (to a candidate who forgets what state he is in and sometimes doesnt know the position he is running for) than the lives of American citizens.

          Today we are paying a price for outsourcing too much of our industry to our enemies that can use our own stupidity against us. Donald Trump warned us of these things in multiple speeches throughout his lifetime but these ignorant folks don’t seem to know or remember. We have had too many Presidents that were more interested in politics than getting things done. That is why President Trump created the National Influenza Vaccine Task Force. If the previous organization had done its job we would have been more prepared for this pandemic and we wouldn’t have had the problems with testing. Unfortuantely we have to put up with the stupidity of the above mentioned group rather than having true discussions on what is actually happening.

            1. Just another example of Anonymous the Stupid proving true to his name. Has he mentioned anything of use? NO. Did he even touch on the National Influenza Vaccine Task Force? No. Did he add anything to the discussion other than mixing sour milk into good milk? No. He is a waste and worthless.

              1. Technically, after the age of about 3, all humans lose the digestive enzyme capacity to digest dairy products. The cause of much flatulence. I see why you’ve become enamored of the metaphor, Allan. It suits you.

                1. The metaphor of mixing sour milk with fresh milk making sour milk essentially is what you do. I don’t blame you personally for that because intellectually you are gravely lacking so even that simple metaphor goes over your head. That is why instead of discussing the topic you discuss flatulance.

                    1. The writer is not experienced in science or at least not in virus’s. All of his charts are obtained from other sources and are rewritten from other sources as well.You obviously have no experience in the subject and that is fine so this article which I scanned in less than a minute might suffice. It was too repetitious.

                    3. Note your knee-jerk reaction. Not well thought out at all, but I guess from your perspective no one can be as knowledgeable as you. Dunning–Kruger effect.

                    4. And to be clear, your scanning this in less than a minute let’s me know you missed completely the thrust of the questions addressed and their importance. All good. You’ll have as much success understanding Covid 19 as you do the stock market. Have at it, bud.

                    5. Allan’s the Blog Idiot. One can’t (and shouldn’t) expect much. Most of us just ignore him.

                      Thanks for posting the medium article, Paulie J.

              2. Not everyone lives here, Allan, just as not everyone cares to devote much time and energy to the comments section of a blog.

                Post the link and a short excerpt, buddy. Sometimes more is less.

                But you’re Allan the Blog Idiot, so no one expects you to get it.

                1. Anonymous the Stupid you like things short because you can’t absorb anything long. You seem to live here responding to virtually anything I say. In earlier times you were worried about how many posts would be attributed to you. Dealing with stupid people takes 3 minutes or less. Dealing with you takes less than that.

                  I take note of the fact that not one comment you made was dedicated to that post.

                  However, thanks for worrying about me and my time. I have plenty.

                  1. Allan about time: “I have plenty.”

                    We all have the same amount of time.

                    And you are irrelevant, from my perspective.

                    3. Anonymous the Stupd we all have 24 hours a day, but in your years past you didn’t use that 24 hours wisely and that has led to you being an extremely stupid person. You might even have a degree, be able to read and learn some facts, but your ability to put things together is on a very low level perhaps due more to your personality than your brain.

                      Of course I am irrelevant from your perspective. That is why you remain stupid. Your mind is shut tight whether you recognize it or not.

        2. “Well before the corona flu existed the President created the National Influenza Vaccine Task Force. He was visionary.” -Allan

          “Well before,” according to Allan, was just this past September — late September of 2019.

          Let’s not forget this:

          https://twitter.com/SenSherrodBrown/status/1238582557689683968

          “Sherrod Brown
          @SenSherrodBrown

          Mar 13

          Two years ago, President Trump fired the entire global health security team at the White House. Their job?

          Managing pandemics.

          Now we’re all paying the price for President Trump’s decisions.”

          1. That is right Anonymous the Stupid, BEFORE COVID-19 existed. That is the essential piece of information. Are you going to complain he was too tied up with impeachment since before he even enterred the Oval Office? You are a fool and have always been one. I am not saying the President is perfect but he has acted in a way that other Presidents haven’t. Take note how he did the Chinese Travel ban while people like you complained laughing at him or calling him a racist.

            What did the global health security team do? You are impressed by names. That is because you are incompetent and can only talk about names but know nothing about substance. You swallow talking points whole without knowing the data or understanding it. You are worthless.

            1. You need to read the comment by “bythebook,” below. Dealing with a global pandemic isn’t the same as trying to boost the effectiveness of our current flu vaccines.

              More to the point, Trump should never have disbanded our pandemic response team.

              1. “Dealing with a global pandemic isn’t the same as trying to boost the effectiveness of our current flu vaccines.”

                In this case it is. Use your brain. Use history. What was the response to polio? A vaccine. What has been the response to most flu?
                A vaccine. What did we need? We needed to be able to create vaccines fast and efficiently as the virus changed or a new virus appeared. What are we facing today. A flu like other Corona virus’s but with a slight change so that the vaccines don’t work. Growing vaccines on egg product is slow and inefficient. If you note many feel they are close to a vaccine (close doesn’t mean tomorrow, next week or a month etc.). It means they are closer than they generally would be because they are able to use the prior flu vaccine, RNA, etc. and alter it so the process is faster.

                Yes, the President was exactly correct in focusing on vaccines. Use your brain.

                1. Save your breath, Allan. You’re like a chicken with its head cut off.

                  (Allan loves pointing fingers at others, when it’s him who is lacking.)

                  1. “Save your breath, ”

                    Anonymous the Stupid, where in your answer did you demonstrate any intellect? You haven’t here or elsewhere. Earlier I decided to consider the fact that you were smarter than you sound but it is obviousl now that you aren’t. I was wrong to even consider that.

            2. “That is right Anonymous the Stupid, BEFORE COVID-19 existed.” -Allan the Blog Idiot

              lol, Allan

              Yep, it was put on paper a month “before covid-19 existed.” And it’s about boosting the effectiveness of existing vaccines…

              Our pandemic response team — that was in place at the start of Trump’s term — was disbanded a couple of years ago. What a terrible and short-sighted move.

              1. one month = “well before” in Allan’s little mind

                nevermind that the initiative isn’t something that will help with our current covid-19 problems

                smh

                1. It was in September prior to the world knowing about COVID-19.

                  Tell us in the years the pandemic team existed what it did that is helping us today with COVID-19?

                    1. Are you saying it wasn’t in September? Can’t be because it is date stamped.

                      OK if it’s September then he formed the task force before COVID-19 existed.

                      He was thinking ahead if we weren’t facing a crisis at the time which we weren’t, but what I can’t understand is why you don’t recognize that?

                      Is your ego so small that you have to convince yourself that others are clueless in order to feel that your ego exists?

        3. The “creation” of the National Influenza Vaccine Task Force was an executive order and did not include a funding source, nor did the order, the president, or anyone in the administration direct or encourage Congress to create funding, and it hasn’t. Coupled with Trump’s attempt at cutting the CDC budget, this EO is a bad joke and a nullity. Prior to this, Trump disbanded the WH based pandemic task force created by Obama, including it’s NSC seat. Unlike the Trump EO, which was mostly about improving standard flu vaccines, not pandemics, the pandemic task force was intended as an early warning and action group on crises like the coronavirus.

          1. You have no knowledge as to what funding they needed, could use or used. You have no knowledge of what the “pandemic force” did. They certainly didn’t get us prepared for what we have today.

            ” Unlike the Trump EO, which was mostly about improving standard flu vaccines, not pandemics”

            Not so. The standard flu vaccine is not the problem. We already have them but new strains develop all the time just like the present Corona virus that belongs to a class of virus’s that includes SARS and MERS. Look up the word pandemic. It is not a virus and any virus if its transmission rate is high enough can reach the pandemic level. That is what the EO was all about. Read the EO completely and get someone to help you understand it.

      3. What price may I ask? We have roughly 325 million people in the US and 7,700 people quarantined with Corona. I would call that a huge success to our response , but you won’t see the media say that. To them, it’s all Trumps fault we even have 1 case of corona virus in the US. Give me a break.

  7. CHAOS AT WHITE HOUSE

    The scramble for solutions is occurring in an overriding atmosphere of trepidation of saying something that Trump might perceive as disloyal and of fear that their fumbles could cost the president his reelection in November.

    “The problem is no one is sure who is in charge,” a senior administration official said. “Unless someone comes to you and says, ‘I was with the president five minutes ago,’ and you know they’re telling the truth, getting irreversible direction is a little difficult.”

    This portrait of Trump and his administration’s management of a pandemic that in a few short days has completely altered American life is based on interviews with 19 senior administration officials and other people briefed on the internal deliberations, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to share candid assessments.

    Although Trump is the final decision-maker, as his aides are quick to remind people, a number of principals operate as power centers with their own fiefdoms. They compete with one another over ideas, often developed by their own staffs, and at times move to undercut rivals in meetings.

    Grogan, for instance, has privately been agitating to try to expedite testing and warning about both the health and political ramifications of the outbreak.

    There also have been tensions between the White House press and communications staff and Pence’s team, which has been overseeing most of the administration’s public messaging on the coronavirus. Stephanie Grisham, who holds three titles — White House press secretary, White House communications director and communications director to the first lady — has played a secondary role during the biggest crisis of Trump’s presidency, in part because of a directive that everything be routed through the vice president’s office.

    Some White House communications and press aides were already sensitive because Trump recruited a pair of outsiders, Tony Sayegh and Pam Bondi, to help manage the communications strategy on impeachment — largely refused to help the vice president’s overwhelmed staff, at least initially.

    Senior officials and members of the task force also said they have to spend significant chunks of their day dealing with leaks, especially as officials try to escape blame for the testing issues that have plagued the response.

    Among those seeking to avoid such blame is the president himself. Asked at Friday’s news conference whether he accepts responsibility for the continued shortage of test kits, Trump said, “No, I don’t take responsibility at all.”

    Edited From: “Inside The Administration’s Troubled Corona Response”

  10. Two recent comments of mine on this thread have disappeared. Oh well, those were eembarrassingly wrong anyway.

    — David B Benson

  12. TURLEY LATE TO DISCUSSION 

    From Professor Edelson’s column:

    During the Friday press briefing, Trump bragged to the press about his supposed scientific expertise, suggesting that he has “a natural ability” to understand the issues associated with coronavirus. One reporter who witnessed the briefing said that “the president’s statements to the press were terrifying.”

    Some experts have suggested that we simply have to accept that we have a president who is incapable of handling the crisis and work around that reality. Crisis-management expert Juliette Kayyem concluded that “a crisis finds a nation as it is, not as its citizens wish it to be.”
    …………………………………………………..

    As Professor Edelson notes, Trump’s mindless bragging, and inability to get facts straight, is now a major handicap in America’s response to this crisis.  Yet Professor Turley cannot bring himself to acknowledge this reality.  

    This column marks Professor Turley’s first serious attempt to address this national crisis.   For about 3 weeks Turley has ignored said crisis while writing irrelevant pieces concerning ‘Poor Bernie Sanders’.  And now, when Turley belatedly joins this discussion, his first column is to chide another academic for saying Trump is unfit.

    This week investors clearly told us Trump is unfit to command.  Wall Street impeached Trump and Mitch McConnell couldn’t do anything to stop it.  This was the crucial test of Trump”s leadership where conservative allies were helpless to assist. ‘All the kings horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again”.

    1. Phyllis, judging by your situational ethics on threatening public officials, you’re part of what’s wrong with society today.

      2. I’m guessing you are about 16-18 years old “bythebook” and spend way too much of your time in front of the mirror. Take care, because when it breaks you might cut yourself.

        1. Gainesville is 74 years old and runs a small construction business in Alachua County, Fl. (either that, or someone has appropriated that man’s identity to comment here). Has a grandson in South Florida. I know, I was poleaxed too.

        2. Phyllis, no, but why would it matter?
          Maybe try staying with the issues.

  15. The 25th amendment should have been called after Trump’s inauguration speech. That speech alone, alerted the people with the straight jackets that this man-child is not fit for the office of the President of the United States.

    1. 63,000,000 people disagree with you, especially considering the dreadful alternative.

    2. But you will vote for Biden who says he will become president in a couple of years…errr…November…err, January except that sometimes he says he is running for the senate and often calls members of the public names and invites them outside to fight.

      Your taste in politicians deserves notice.

  16. What “flatten the curve” means: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/

    Many people’s mindsets is if they are young and healthy, they refuse to change their behavior. There is no need to panic. But it is all of our responsibility to flatten the curve of new infections. It saves lives and keeps our hospitals from being overwhelmed.

    If you only think of yourself, you are callous to everyone you infect who have to play the odds. 80% mild symptoms. 15% on oxygen. 5% on a ventilator.

    The elderly and those with respiratory problems, like asthma, are hardest hit.

    Don’t be a Typhoid Mary.

    2. A large part of our problem Karen is that the President has been the cheerleader for ignoring the warnings and even lying about known facts, all in service to his driving and daily goal – feeding his weak ego, and with complete disregard for others. It’s a character flaw that is amazing you are still able to overlook. Typhoid Donald is our President.

      1. bythebook:

        I do not consider asking people not to panic to be blowing it off. Trump closed the borders, and was heavily criticized for doing so. It appears he was on the right track.

        Trump was also not in the lab at the CDC in Atlanta, developing the field test assay kit. There is a bottleneck with reagents from a company based in Germany in Spain.

        Neither I, nor Professor Turley, ignore Trump’s faults. It’s safe to say the man is not Jesus Christ. But we also do not fall prey to the politicization of a health criss.

        I never thought I would be capable of being disappointed in the media, still, but I am. Rather than sending the message that it is the civic responsibility to flatten the curve, and give advice on how to prepare, the media has sent everyone into a panic. People are taking every roll of toilet paper and cough medicine off the shelves, leaving the elderly and those who have a hard time getting to the store to do without.

        Pandemics happen with regularity. It is inevitable that there will be more of them. This should be like earthquake, flood, or tornado drills. We should all use this opportunity to find where the holes are in our ability to deal with a disaster.

        One weakness is our global markets. They are quite sensitive. In addition, the following jobs and industries are especially hard hit by natural disasters and plagues:

        1. Self employed – construction, cleaning crews, and other industries that need access inside people’s homes. People would be more likely to allow their gardener to continue to landscape outside than they would allow a cleaning lady to go from house to house.
        2. Landlords – as people have to stay home, they will have trouble paying rent. Some landlords have mortgages
        3. Homeowners – this could lead to a mortgage crisis
        4. Healthcare – while there may be bunny suits at hospitals, the infection of nurses means that either they don’t know how to strip them without contamination, or they are lacking additional equipment, such as negative pressure. Hospitals are not BSL4 labs. They don’t have airtight doors, dedicated influx and exhaust airflow, positive pressure suits, or negative pressure rooms. I don’t think covid-19 needs BSL4 level biosecurity, but it apparently needs more than some hospitals have. Hospitals already have infection control policies in place because infections spreads within.
        5. Education. Out here in CA, schools have closed. The work that is available to the kids online and in paper packets has been deemed optional. That is because they need to lower the bar so that everyone is equal. Since not all kids have access to the internet, and parents who can help them, no one can be required to do the work. This means that every time this happens, kids get really behind. I teach my kid extra after school anyway. The public schools out here have low test scores, and Common Core is no way to do math. So I’m prepared to homeschool my kid during the break. I think most parents will treat it as a vacation and blow off school. That will affect CAASPP scores. This might impact school funding.
        6. Manufacturing. It is a weakness for so much to be manufactured in China. Anything made in China could be in short supply or gone. How many industries will that affect? Medical, Automotive, and a great many other critical areas.

        The world economy is taking a deep hit. We need to rethink our supply chain, and diversify.

        1. Karen, forgive me for not reading your entire post. I don;t have that much patience or time.

          However, a few quick comments on what I did read.

          Trump did not merely ask Americans “not to panic”. If that’
          is all he did, along, with a warning that we were facing a potentially serious and deadly health challenge which we must be responsible in dealing with, he would have been doing what his predecessors did and would warrant praise. You know as well as I that he told people it would probably pass in a short period, that we would go from 15 cases to 0 (that was only 2 weeks ago) when every expert knew and said otherwise, that we had test kits and vaccines that we don’t have and in the case of the latter may not have for a year or more. On Friday – day before yesterday – he again said this would pass quickly. You have to be hiding to not know this.

          As to test kits, we turned down kits from the WHO 2 weeks ago, and no one will say who in the administration gave that order.

          As to the fallback on how smart Trump was to ban travel from China, it wasn’t a ban and 300,000 traveled from there in the previous month when the virus was running amuck. Until recently, Americans were allowed and did go back and forth to China and none of the Democratic Congressional leaders or presidential candidates criticized the move.

          We agree that pandemics are semi-regular events, which is why Trump’s dismantling of a permanent pandemic task force within the NSC, including a seat, was another stupid unforced error. It seems trolling Obama is the 2nd thing our president things of after his own ass.

          Wake up Karen. The man is a selfish and infantile lowlife. How much evidence will it take for you to get the obvious.

          1. Karen, I scanned the rest of your post. Are you aware of the fact that Trump’s tariff on Chinese goods related to health care are causing shortages disadvantaging us in the virus crisis? This was warned in testimony against this policy in 2018.

            We live in a global economy and that is also the future, unless you want to see a shrinking of human economic activity and an increase of destabilizing nationalism. Capitalism is working as a force for peace by the interweaving of our national economies. Good! It is not painless and there are problems, but going backwards is not an option.

            “An alarming unintended consequence of President Donald Trump’s misguided trade war with China has suddenly threatened to cripple the US fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration’s tariffs on Chinese medical products may contribute to shortages and higher costs of vital equipment at a time of nationwide health crisis. In the last two years, Trump’s policy has forced China to divert the sales of these products—including protective gear for doctors and nurses and high-tech equipment to monitor patients—from the United States to other markets, and now the US medical establishment faces looming trouble importing these necessities from other countries, which may be hoarding them to meet their own health crises.

            To deal with this issue, the Trump administration quietly announced on March 10 and 12, 2020, that it would temporarily reduce some tariffs imposed on Chinese products to treat the coronavirus pandemic. But those actions, which effectively acknowledged that trade wars can endanger public health, covered only a handful of urgently needed products. Trump’s tariffs had been slapped on nearly $5 billion of US imports of medical goods from China, about 26 percent of all medical goods imported from all countries. Now that there are potential supply shortages globally, the US health crisis demands that the administration comprehensively and permanently reverse these policies of self-harm.

            This calamity was hardly unforeseen. In August 2018, the Trump administration’s US TradeRepresentative convened a hearing to ask the public whether it should impose tariffs on such products. Matt Rowan, president of the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA), warned against the impact that Trump’s tariffs would have on the American health sector. “These products are essential to protecting healthcare providers and their patients every single day,” he said with shocking prescience. “The healthcare products on the proposed list are used widely throughout healthcare settings and are a critical component of our nation’s response to public health emergencies.”

            His warnings, echoed by many others over the next year, went unheeded.[1] Trump’s reversal earlier in March served as an implicit indictment of his administration’s own policy….”

            https://www.piie.com/blogs/trade-and-investment-policy-watch/trumps-trade-policy-hampering-us-fight-against-covid-19

        2. It’s obvious that the Corona Virus outbreak is being politicized by the left. The economic windfall in the US and the world will be devastating. But , hey, this is what the left wanted. Chaos and instability, just so they can blame Trump and hope that this crisis will improve their chances to de-throne him in the next election. It will fail as miserably as the attempt at impeachment. Good luck to them in 2024 , Trump will have another 4 years.

      3. And Obama waited six months with 1000 US deaths before finally declaring a national emergency with H1N1. Based upon your standards, Obama should be drawn and quartered for his lack of timely response.

        1. Ivan, that’s false:

          “The Obama administration declared swine flu, or H1N1, a public health emergency six weeks before H1N1 was declared a pandemic.

          No H1N1 deaths had yet been recorded in the United States.

          Six months after that initial declaration, when more than 1,000 deaths had occurred, Obama himself declared H1N1 a national emergency…..

          the Obama administration’s public health emergency declaration came more than six weeks before the pandemic designation….”

          https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/04/facebook-posts/president-obama-declared-h1n1-public-health-emerge/

      4. By the book, Trump has strong, relentless enemies in the governors of Washington, California, and New York, yet all three have praised the administration response to the crisis.

        Would you prefer he flap his arms and yell we are all gonna die? Seems like.

        Even his enemies know he is doing well–except for you but you have no stake in it unlike the governors of the states.

        1. Young, the reaction is mixed – see Dem Illinois Gov Pritzker and Republican Delaware Gov Hogan – but the praise mostly goes to the “federal government”, i.e., what the right calls the “deep state” but the rest of us recognize as civil service professionals hired based on a meritocracy instead of partisan patronage and nepotism. Trump is too busy preening and tweeting to do any heavy lifting and can’t muster either the empathy or vision for national leadership. In times past our presidents would also attempt international leadership during a world crisis like this.

          https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/us/coronavirus-governors-trump.html

          1. By The Book, Yet the same deep state apparatus you admire fumbled badly when Obama was president and we had H1N1 loose.

            The differencce is leadership.

            The only real problem the Left has with Trump is that he put ketchup on a steak and that he loves America.

            Beyond that he must be doing well because the Obama cult keeps trying to steal credit for Trump’s success.

            1. Young, that’s false.

              “Obama’s acting director of health and human services declared H1N1 a public health emergency on April 26, 2009.

              That was when only 20 cases of H1N1 — and no deaths — around the country had been confirmed.

              The Obama administration declared swine flu, or H1N1, a public health emergency six weeks before H1N1 was declared a pandemic. –

              H1N1 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on June 11, 2009.

              In other words, the Obama administration’s public health emergency declaration came more than six weeks before the pandemic designation.

              No H1N1 deaths had yet been recorded in the United States.

              Six months after that initial declaration, when more than 1,000 deaths had occurred, Obama himself declared H1N1 a national emergency…”

              https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/04/facebook-posts/president-obama-declared-h1n1-public-health-emerge/?fbclid=IwAR0MJXbS971xGVRSaBiPuyl1vcyfSlGSBD1870zALgjBIrozWrHGZOKm7Ow

              By the way, Obama set up a permanent WH pandemic task force with a seat on the NSC. Trump eliminated that in 2018, which is partly why we are so far behind the curve. We also turned down test kits from the WHO 2 weeks ago, and no one in the WH will say who made that call.

  17. Trump is an existential threat to the extreme leftist, power hungry, Constitutional anarchists, who would tear up the Constitution and sink the American Republic into oblivion rather than let the American people select their leaders with the consent of the governed through Constitutional means.

  18. Another TDS liberal sinks himself into irrelevance. Why can’t they just step a tad further and go into obscurity?

  19. I know a Democrat who has argued with me for years against the Second Amendment. He thought people should call the police if they were in danger. There was no reason for anyone to have a firearm. He hates the NRA. He said Republicans who argue for guns support mass shootings.

    He is currently panicking about the covid19 pandemic, terrified there will be unrest, looting, loss of services. He doesn’t know what to do and is unprepared.

    He asked a friend to teach him how to shoot. I should make sure to tell him that if looting starts, he cannot borrow a gun from that friend or else it will be a felony.

    1. Karen, That response is common with the left. I had a friend who used to tell me we should never have used atomic bombs on Japan but after 9-11 she was yelling we needed to use atomic bombs on Tora Bora in Afghanistan. Their attitudes change when the dangers dismissed when having lunch at a friend’s home suddenly appear at the front door.

      I read that a lot of people are frightened and buying guns now. No surprise when places like California and New York have given up enforcing the law.

      1. Once written. Either you are joking or you have never relied on the police when you were in immediate danger.

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