As details come out about the president and the last week we are seeing more and more about the depths of depravity within him and the rest of his administration. It quickly moves any rational person from a place of sympathy and empathy to out and out rage. So, let’s consider the events in the order to get an idea of how nightmarish this was.
Much of the reporting you will see comes from an article from NPR. I’ll try to keep it as succinct as possible. Obviously, there will need to be some commentary, but I will try to keep that to a minimum until we run through the entire week’s events.
Chris Wallace reported after the debate that the Trumps all showed up late to the debate. Apparently, a part of the procedure was for the candidates and their entourage to come in and get the rapid test before the event. The other part of the procedure was for the entire group to wear masks during the event. Neither of those things happened. Because of their late arrival, they were allowed in without testing on the “honor system” that they had tested negative. This was on Tuesday night.
The president’s physician Sean Conley reported on Saturday that the president had been diagnosed 72 hours earlier and had begun his experimental drug cocktail 48 hours earlier. That would have put him testing positive on Wednesday and beginning the cocktail on Thursday. It also means he would have tested positive before Hope Hicks.
On Wednesday, Trump flew to Minnesota for a fundraiser and a rally. Keep in mind that he would have already tested positive according to Conley’s first timeline. On Thursday, Hicks recieved the positive test results, but Trump still flew to New Jersey for an indoor fund raiser. According to some observers, he was already showing some symptoms at that event.
In all fairness, I should point out that Conley retracted his initial timeline and altered it to fit the initial one reported. Initially, it was reported that Trump and his wife tested positive for the first time on Thursday evening. He reported it early Friday morning just after midnight. So, as usual, there is some confusion as to when the deadline started.
As we’ve completed the timeline let’s consider both possible scenarios. In the first scenario he was just being his normal level of jackass through Wednesday’s events. However, even if you give him every benefit of the doubt, he never should have attended Thursday’s events. He was knowingly putting all of those people in danger.
If we consider Conley’s initial timeline (which was actually probably the accurate one) then Trump practiced criminal negligence on Wednesday and Thursday and his little maneuver on Tuesday for the debate takes on new significance. It means that he and the others might have endangered everyone there including Joe Biden, his family, and those from his campaign. It also means they would have endangered Chris Wallace and everyone else working that debate from the networks.
From here we probably need to answer some questions. First, why am I assuming that Conley’s first timeline was the correct one? Doctors first instinct is usually just to report the facts. They tend to be pretty detailed oriented, so I doubt he would get the timeline that wrong on accident. What’s more likely is that the administration caught wind of his timeline and realized it put them in a very bad spot. So, they had him revise it to meet the one they had already created early Friday morning.
Furthermore, the administration has a history of lying about the president’s health. He had that trip to Walter Reed last year and no one is really quite sure what for. The president insists it was for a physical. No one is buying that one. The president’s other physician Ronny Jackson asserted early in his presidency that he was one of the healthiest people ever. Somehow he came in one pound under obese. In other words, when you have a long history of being full of crap you don’t get the benefit of the doubt. Ever.
The second question is how in the hell did anyone at that debate ever justify using something like the “honor system” with the Trumps? The Trumps have no honor. They haven’t had any honor for decades. As my mother in law says, I wouldn’t trust him if his tongue came notorized. So, how in the hell did they allow them to bluster their way through without getting tested and without wearing masks?
Yet, this is where we are. It is remarkable how we can come out of every news cycle simultaneously shocked at how low it goes and also not shocked in the slightest. We all know Trump is a selfish son of a bitch that only cares about himself. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that he would put everyone’s health at risk. Somehow, we are still surprised. Somehow we are still outraged. That probably comes down to the fact that others are involved.
Chris Christie (who also tested positive) admitted that he coached Trump to interrupt Biden because that would trigger his stuttering. See, they could use clips of Biden stuttering in ads to show that he really does have dementia. This is the level of humanity we are dealing with. These are the people that surround the president.
Trump’s lack of character has been on full display since the 1970s. What is most disappointing and disheartening is not that he has no character. People like that exist in the world. What is most disheartening is that over 60 million people saw that on full display and said, “yep, that’s my guy.” What’s most disheartening is that people in Washington saw that and chose to jump on board and surrender their own humanity for a piece of the pie. What’s most disheartening is that this latest dumpster dive into the pits of hell might actually kill people. What’s most disheartening is that he probably won’t pay for any of this in any real way. So, my empathy and sympathy are gone. They’ve been transformed into rage.
halloffameindex 