April 28, 2020

"If an American president loses more Americans over the course of six weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War, does he deserve to be reelected?"

That was the last question at yesterday's Task Force press briefing. Transcript. The reporter was Olivia Nuzzi of New York Magazine.

Here's the response it provoked from Trump:
So yeah, we’ve lost a lot of people, but if you look at what original projections were, 2.2 million, we’re probably heading to 60 thousand, 70 thousand. It’s far too many. One person is too many for this. And I think we’ve made a lot of really good decisions. The big decision was closing the border or doing the ban, people coming in from China. Obviously other than American citizens which had to come in. Can’t say you can’t come back to your country. I think we’ve made a lot of good decisions. I think that Mike Pence and the task force have done a fantastic job. I think that everybody working on the ventilators, you see what we’ve done there, have done unbelievable. The press doesn’t talk about ventilators anymore. They just don’t want to talk about them and that’s okay. But the reason they don’t want to talk… That was a subject that nobody would get off of. They don’t want to talk about them. We’re in the same position on testing. We are lapping the world on testing and the world is coming to us. As I said, they’re coming to us saying, “What are you doing? How do you do it?” We’re helping them. So, no, I think we’ve done a great job and one person, I will say this, one person is too many. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.
That was a good, moderate answer, never mentioning the election, only taking the cue to discuss the basis for thinking that he is deserving. Importantly, he resisted the temptation to speculate about whether his opponent would have done better. Who knows what Joe Biden would have done in the same circumstances?

But that's the comparison. That's what I think about when I hear the question, and I'm going to assume that President Biden also would have lost more Americans over the course of six weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War. If losses to a sudden contagious disease are the test of whether a candidate deserves our vote, then we'd just be voting based on which person happened actually to be President at the time the disease hit.

I suppose many people like to think a different President would have done better. Theoretically, things could have been done better. Our dream President would have done better. But would Joe Biden have done better? Anyone who answers yes is, I suspect, someone who was already going to vote for Biden for some other reason.

Anyway, Trump got the question he got, and he didn't get bogged down in the kind of speculation that I'm blogging about here. He just made the pitch that he's done a good enough job — which is, in Trumpspeak, "a fantastic job."

161 comments:

rwnutjob said...

Are we really going to play the 'it's all the president's fault people died' card now and compare it to war? It's like one melodramatic whackjob comes up with a bizarre talking point and it becomes the NEW SPIN.

With this logic:
Abe Lincoln was responsible for 620k deaths.

RMc said...

Who knows what Joe Biden would have done in the same circumstances?

Joe Biden (nor any D) would even get that question. And if anyone tried to ask it, the other members of the press corps would gang-tackle him.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Biden is the Trojan Horse the progs have waited for all these years. Ironic, though, a Trojan preventing a virus. Whatta concept. Notice that Jill's lips don't to move much when Joe speaks.

Fernandinande said...

If an American president loses more Americans.. six weeks

What an incredibly stupid question.

Obama lost an average of 320,000 Americans every six weeks for eight years.

Ann Althouse said...

There was also the temptation to go backward, into the past election. Trump could also launched into speculation about how Hillary Clinton would have handled things and injected the usual complaints about Hillary into the off-the-cuff analysis.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Imagine this question pointed at Obama or any D.

Never.

Mike Sylwester said...

President Hillary Clinton would have created open borders and maximum airline traffic from China.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Trump:
Obviously other than American citizens which had to come in. Can’t say you can’t come back to your country.

that was a swipe at Malig-Nancy's latest attempt to re-write history with her current BS pivot to the idea that we should have banned Americans coming back.

Riiiight Nancy. riiight.

Mike Sylwester said...

New York magazine has good journalists.

A Voice of Reason said...

"If an American president, facing predictions of over 1,000,000 potential deaths, takes early and effective action that keeps the total far under 100,000, does he deserve to be thrown out, relegated to one-term status?"

Fixed it for her.

Michael K said...

Another reason why the Q&A is useless.

Gusty Winds said...

"Who knows what Joe Biden would have done in the same circumstances?"

Professor: What do you mean 'Who knows'? Biden told us. For one, we know he would have issued the Xenophobic China travel ban in late Jan. Really?

ngtrains said...

when does Biden get a 'gotcha' question?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Trump is giving credit to his team and Mike Pence. If Obama or any D were prez, the media would be trumpeting all the successes. The media ignore every single sucess accomplished by this president and his team because they are all hacks. We do not have an honest press. They are all democratic operatives.

The hack-D press - the press -they HATE Mike Pence. He's a Christian and they HAAAAATTTTTEEEEEE him. He's an R so they HAAATTTEEEE him. The media are democratic operatives. period.

Mike Sylwester said...

I don't watch CNN, but everyone else in my home does. Last evening, I was walking through the living room and happened to hear a few seconds of a CNN interview. The guest mentioned that President Trump had banned airline traffic from China. The host immediately sneered -- sneered -- that 40,000 airline passengers entered the USA after Trump declared the ban.

How many days did it take for 40,000 airliner passengers to arrive from China into the USA?

Jeff Weimer said...

Based upon statements made at the time and since, Biden and/or Hillary wouldn't have shut down air traffic and would have implemented total one-size lockdown on the whole country - late, so we would have more cases and deaths *and* a worse economic outlook.

Shouting Thomas said...

Obviously, nobody died of viruses before Trump was elected.

tim maguire said...

Such an outrageously stupid question. Did Wilson or Lincoln or Roosevelt deserve reelection?

If Trump had asked a question of equal stupidity, it would be screaming headlines everywhere. But since it was a reporter and the quesiotn was anti-Trump, her praises are being sung. Good for Trump for not taking the bait and actually getting some useful positive information out despite the best efforts of the anti-American wing of the media.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

Once again I am left to wonder, are these reporters really this stupid or are they propagandists? Perhaps I need to embrace the power of and.

Sally327 said...

Vietnam was a long time ago. For the boomers it means something still, I suppose, but mostly not to anyone else. It's too bad we didn't lose more in Iraq or Afghanistan, then she could have used a more contemporary war for comparison. Maybe she should have shortened the time period, if an American president loses more over the course of a week (two weeks?) than died in the entirety of the Afghanistan War does he deserve to be reelected? Not that Afghanistan or Iraq means much more to anyone than Vietnam does these days.

jaydub said...

What an ignorant question! Johnson was a president who purposely sent Americans to VN where many died, who placed them in the position to become a KIA and who did little to prevent their loss. Trump as president was presented with a sick population and was trying his best to intervene to keep them alive, all the while being second guessed by a disingenuous press and a hostile political opposition.

Craig said...

It doesn't matter. Trump was a lucky bank shot to send the game into overtime, but the Democrats were always going to win. The media corporations and tech companies will make sure of it this time.

Evidence: a barely sentient Joe Biden is leading Trump by double digits in the swing states.

Howard said...

It's like the press wants Trump to be re-elected by all of these silly questions.

Eric Weinstein sat down with James O'Keefe for a 2-hour interview discussing the problems with modern journalism.

James O'Keefe on the portal

Gusty Winds said...

We don’t even know if he 50K number is accurate with all the padding, hospice patients, etc… We don’t even know who actually perished from the disease alone. I’m not saying it’s zero, but the numbers are whacked.

Laslo Spatula said...

Adjusting for total population, Lincoln would've lost 226,000 people in that average time period during the Civil War.

So somewhere between the Viet Nam War and the Civil War is a percentage that allows for reelection but anticipates John Wilkes Booth.

I am Laslo.

Psota said...

1. No Democrat would ever have to answer a question like this.

2. What time does Xi's daily press conference start? Has anyone ever asked him a question like this?

Todd said...

Does this Trump total also include the morons that drank or were given fish tank cleaner (the wife did it), the folks killed and/or raped by the criminals the different governors and mayors let out of prison, the folks infected and killed when Nancy winebox told everyone to PARTY!, when NYC mayor told everyone to go to China town and PARTY!, when all the Democrats said Trump should NOT have shut down flights from China (before they changed their minds and said he didn't shut it down soon enough)?

Or is it ALL on him? Asking for a friend...

William said...

Almost none of our casualties in Vietnam were elderly nursing home patients with co-morbidities.

Wilbur said...

Fernandistein said...
If an American president loses more Americans.. six weeks

What an incredibly stupid question.
**************************************************************
Exactly my reaction.

I wonder if they (the Olivia Nuzzis of this world) realize in what utterly low regard they are held by many?

William said...

Has such a question ever been addressed to Gov Cuomo?

Expat(ish) said...

It's interesting that the press is stuck in Vietnam, still. I'm 56 and while I had friends whose older brothers went to war, it was a super small blip on the radar. If I hadn't read so many books all I'd know about the war is Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and FMJ. Well, that and some John Wayne movies. Thank you Sunday Million Dollar Matinee.

I assume they are playing toward a specific demographic.

-XC

Browndog said...

I tuned in just in time to catch that live. It'll be the last of the 'rona rallies I see for a while.

Slapping around cocky reporters is great fun....for 5 minutes.

My biggest problem right now is it appears to me Trump has lost his footing, and is being led by the nose by Birx and Fauci.

Tuning out.

Sebastian said...

"press briefing"

"press"?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

If the only argument you have is that another person may, and I say may, have done no better than you did, then you are screwed.

If you look at other countries; Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, or even Germany, obviously things could have gone much better. These are real world comparisons. Biden's performance is unknowable. It is likely, however, that he would have had competent people in key positions, who would have performed vastly better than the labradoodle breeders.

M Jordan said...

Trump played this whole virus hysteria about as well as he could have. He stated his instincts (Can’t let cure be worse than the disease), followed the science, iffy as it was, closed down traffic from China early, gave daily updates, and most importantly, let states decide how to handle things both going in and coming out. I give him a B+. I deny him an A because he should have followed his instincts a bit more and reigned in Fauci a bit. But politically he probably had no choice.

The world went on a stampede egged on by lefties. The cattle are exhausted now and guideable. The goods news is in the process we as a species got inoculated from a future stampede. Next time it could be smallpox and we won’t shut the globe down.

Automatic_Wing said...

A virus would not have dared to infect anyone under the Blessed Obama.

William said...

There is an optimum response to the virus, but we will not know what that response is for many years.....If it turns out that that anti-malarial drug has some positive effects on the virus, should we hold the press responsible for counselling against it....The press seems to be really ginning up the hysteria and preaching a monolithic response of lock downs until forever. If it turns out that they are wrong will they ever be held responsible? The implicit assumption in all these dumb questions is that the reporter knows better, and, of course, when you look at the record, the media have been stupendously wrong on any number of issues over the years.

Limited blogger said...

Trump's reaction, or lack of a reaction, to that ridiculous question augers well for the future. He looks like he has been refreshed and is ready for the next few months of challenges.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

No speculation needed. Look back. What DID happen to a (truly racist) president when he lost so many so quickly to the Spanish flu? Twice?

PB said...

We've always had evidence that lockdowns provided little additional benefit, and now we're seeing evidence that social distancing had little additional benefit over improved hygiene, isolating the sick and focusing on nursing homes (there's a reason people are in nursing homes that places them at high risk to this and the flu/pneumonia). It seems this thing is running its course.

And we severely damaged an economy and violated civil rights because politicians were ignorant and too scared of losing their jobs to care about our jobs.

bgates said...

Imagine this question pointed at Obama or any D.

"Sir, first and most importantly, thank you sincerely for allowing us into your home to hear your inspiring words during this troubled time. I speak for all of us when I say it's the greatest privilege of our lives. Second, our statisticians have gone back to look at America's population at your inauguration in 2017 compared to today, and they found that scientifically, you are responsible for five and a half million lives created or saved. I have a two part question, sir: How does it feel to be the greatest lifegiver in American history, and if I could convince you to make an uncharacteristic detour into politics, how many more lives do you think could have been saved if it weren't for the simple fact that Republicans thirst for the death of us all?"

Birches said...

No Western Head of State has done markedly better than Trump. Maybe the Germans. It's a short list. So it seems silly to imagine a different President would do better. I can imagine worse though.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Shouting T- Even better - Nobody ever died before. Dying is new. According to the sneer factory D-hack press.

RK said...

Questions like that just continue to turn people away from journalists. Everyone knows what's going on. The profession is just a joke.

gilbar said...

fun question
in Which states, has the number of Covid-19 deaths been higher than traffic fatalities during the same time?
Of course, traffic fatalities are WAY down (in iowa, 25% down from last year)
it turns out! that, iowa is losing people to Covid, this year; at about the rate that we lost to Traffic, in 2016

WHY ARE WE NOT BANNING CARS? DON'T WE CARE ABOUT PEOPLE'S LIVES?

wendybar said...

Only an asshole would ask a stupid question like that. And you wonder why he doesn't want to do press conferences with the idiots who pose as journalists??? Embarrassing!!!

Michael said...

ARM
If we subtracted the very poorly administered states of NY, NJ, Michigan and Mass our death rate would have been cut in half. These Democrat ran their states by whining and expecting Trump to pull ventilators out of the WH basement. Terrible terrible crisis management.

The deplorables did so much better.

Sebastian said...

Meanwhile in the real world, from Minnesota, via Power Line:

"yesterday’s daily briefing Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm provided an update on the data. Twelve of the 14 new decedents were residents of long-term care facilities. Of the 14 new decedents, she reported, six were in their 90’s, one in his 80’s, three in their 70’s, three in their 60’s, and one in his 50’s (“also a long-term care resident”). Malcolm did not report that the median age of decedents rose yesterday, from 83 to 86"

Mike Sylwester said...

My own comment at 8:14 AM
How many days did it take for 40,000 airliner passengers to arrive from China into the USA?

How many of the 40,000 were American residents returning home from China to the USA?

Known Unknown said...

"These are real world comparisons."

None of those countries you listed are alike. And none are comparable to the United States geographically, demographically, nor socio-economically.

Lurker21 said...

On a per capita basis the current reported US death rate is lower than Spain, Italy, France, Belgium and the UK. Plus, different countries are counting different things. US death rates are padded somewhat. China's and Iran's are kept lower than they should be. Germany has stricter criteria for covid deaths. We aren't Germans, and certainly wouldn't be like Germans if Biden were president. Nor is the US as easy to isolate as Australia or New Zealand. Even with the best government in the world, we wouldn't be able to shut off foreign travel as well as they can.

Rick said...

If losses to a sudden contagious disease are the test of whether a candidate deserves our vote, then we'd just be voting based on which person happened actually to be President at the time the disease hit.

It's well understood this is exactly how we respond to economic events, not just Americans but everywhere. When the Great Depression hit whichever party happened to be in control was seriously damaged, in America at least so significantly Reps still haven't recovered.

roesch/voltaire said...

Not compared to other countries and leaders, but then I guess Trump is so special he deserves the low bar.of expectations given by Althouse and others.

Rick said...

If you look at other countries; Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, or even Germany, obviously things could have gone much better.

We don't have to look at other countries. We can compare NYC to say...Dallas and conclude Cuomo and De Blasio killed 30,000 people. Then we can note Democrats think this a qualification for President and and conclude politics has left them unable to reason.

Matt Sablan said...

2 million vs. maybe 200,000 -- what other president has saved nearly 1.8 million lives?

Oso Negro said...

I find myself deeply pessimistic about the nature of government itself. The term "authoritarian" is thrown at some governments, but I can think of no government that operates on donations from its citizens and offers guidelines and suggestions for desired behavior instead of mandates and the threat of punishment. All operate from the threat of force. Further, all bureaucracies are peopled by the likes of Dr. Fauci, who I wouldn't trust to change the oil in my pickup truck, let alone be the decider of when and where I should drive it. And further yet, I despair of the capacity of the average human to behave reasonably in assessing risk and consequences of potential actions. Yet, here we are, and I am going to have breakfast now. If the Democrats win in November, I think we will enjoy a prolonged economic depression.

Spiros said...

Ronald Reagan is still blamed for the AIDS crisis. During the early part of the crisis, most of the victims were homosexuals or drug addicts. Because Mr. Reagan believed that there were no gay Republicans or drug addict Republicans (which is hilarious), he underestimated the severity of the crisis. These people were outside the conservative coalition and, as a result, were expendable. His press secretary even joked with journalists about the epidemic using the term "gay plague." By the end of his presidency, close to 90,000 Americans had died of AIDS.

alan markus said...

@ ...RM If you look at other countries; Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, or even Germany, obviously things could have gone much better.

Or things could have gone much worse if you look at other countries, based on Deaths per Million rates. USA at 330 Million. Death rate is 172/Million. 56,803 deaths.

Spain - 510/M x 330M = 168,300
Italy - 446/M x 330M = 147,180
France- 357/M x 330M = 117,810
UK - 311/M x 330M = 102,630
Sweden- 233/M x 330M = 76,890
Ireland 223/M x 330M = 73,590

Right now USA is ranked #16 worldwide on deaths/million

New York is 1153/M. 1153 x 330M = 380,490






Bob Boyd said...

An average of 7,700 people die in the U.S. every single day.

1,900: strep throat
3,000: food poisoning
5,000: choking
6,946: accidental hanging
7,450: pedestrians hit by a car
7,740: obesity
12,316: pregnancy-related
20,108: inflammation resulting from food or liquids getting into the lungs
35,000: antibiotic-resistant bacteria
35,823: alcohol-induced deaths
36,336: falls
40,922: blood poisoning resulting from bacteria
47,173: suicide
55,672: flu and pneumonia
64,795: accidental poisoning
83,564: diabetes
121,404: Alzheimer’s
160,201: chronic lower respiratory disease
169,936: all accidental deaths
250,000: medical errors
599,108: cancer
647,457: heart disease

Is the sitting President responsible for all those deaths?

Francisco D said...

BleachBit-and-Hammers said... Imagine this question pointed at Obama or any D.

Imagine Obama or Biden giving answers without a teleprompter.

bagoh20 said...

It was caused by a foreign nation, our primary world competitor, and that nation's actions in this have been supported and defended by a number of Americans in the media. Shouldn't there be trials for treason?

bagoh20 said...

"Biden's performance is unknowable. It is likely, however, that he would have had competent people in key positions,..."

Yep, Top Men no doubt. Probably have Hunter Biden in charge of the CDC. They got lots of drugs that need managing, and Hunter seems to be an incredible polymath.

DarkHelmet said...

Birx and Fauci are labradoodle breeders? I didn't know that.

Leland said...

I think it was a dumb question, but since it is out there; can we ask progressives about removing some other leaders with worse records in this pandemic? After all, De Blasio is above the curve compared to almost any leader in the world. Forget elections, shouldn't he be removed?

Matt Sablan said...

"Right now USA is ranked #16 worldwide on deaths/million"

-- I wonder what happens if we remove New York City, since it is such an outlier.

bagoh20 said...

Aren't total deaths from all causes down this year? Doesn't that mean Trump saved American lives?

A stable genius and a hero for all Americans!

Dave Begley said...

The Dem narrative is already out. This is Trump's Vietnam and it is ALL his fault.

Any ordinary and reasonable person knows that Hillary or Biden would have kept the border open much longer.

The CCP wants Trump out and wants THEIR man in. That's Joe Biden. Trump has to push back hard on this Dem narrative. It is insane.

bagoh20 said...

Who didn't expect this lie to be run up the flagpole regardless of the outcome.

From the early reporting it seems now that Trump somehow saved 11 million lives, or at leats 2.2 million, or 1 million, well, a whole bunch anyway.

Narr said...

Most of my near and dear are anti-Trump. From the beginning and every day since; almost any conversation with them turns to Orange Man Bad quickly.

In the last few days the "Who could have done better than Trump?" query has been answered by several people, even though I didn't ask it--

"Hillary Clinton!"

"Obama!"

"A real statesman . . . like Bernie Sanders!"

Now the Vietnam/CCV-19 comparison is simply apples and hand grenades. Trump made a mistake bigly by emphasizing that this is a War-- it opens up a whole new area of operations for the MSDNC nitwits to rampage through in search of metaphors and analogies that make them sound Real Smart to the motards (Am. colloq.) that lap their spew.

Narr
I am starting to laugh at the opinions of most of my F&F, aloud, often.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I’m sure the stubborn refusal of liberal mayors to shut down gay bath houses had at least as much to do with that high body count as an offhand remark by a staffer. Also another Fauci fuck up in there if you look hard enough. But go ahead blame Reagan.

Jamie said...

It's specious to compare a tiny nation, either population-wise (as in Australia) or area-wise (as in South Korea), to a huge one like the US. And to compare the US, with 1% of its resident population (that number may actually be Chinese-Americans, not including resident workers - I didn't dig) of Chinese descent and some additional 3 million Chinese visitors per year, to Germany, with less than a tenth that many Chinese residents (though a little less than a quarter of the US's total population) and half the US number of Chinese visitors per year, also doesn't make sense, when talking about a virus that originated in China and was disseminated by tourists and/or returning residents after a huge celebration in China. And then there's the counting problem: Germany was - is? - only counting COVID19 deaths that occur in hospitals, versus the US's (incentivized) counting of all deaths of people with the virus as deaths from the virus.

I'm sure there are ways, statistically, to tease out actual comparisons among nations. But just naming them off is not one of them.

I'm Full of Soup said...

The Vietnam meme started somewhere before the press conference because I heard the same comparison on Sunday when I spoke to my far left liberal brother.

DarkHelmet said...

Compared with Europe the US has done pretty well apart from the NYC metropolitan area.

The 'press' is simply the PR/propaganda wing of the Democrat party. They are a net detractor from the nation's wellbeing.

William said...

Was JFK ever asked a skeptical or hostile question by the press before he committed us involvement in Vietnam? Towards the end LBJ caught a lot of flak but in the early days of the build up the press applauded his determination and resolve.

Enlighten-NewJersey said...

The U.S. annual death rate during Trump's term has been less than the annual death rate every year during the Vietnam War.

n.n said...

It was caused by a foreign nation, our primary world competitor,

The pandemic's "big bang" near a lever-4 biolab is suspicious. The abortion-level (several hundred thousand excess deaths annually?) event of a viral contagion timed to coincide with Democrat-lead witch hunts and warlock trials is suspicious.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I think it is time to bring up the fact that Bill Clinton failed, more than once, to take the opportunity to kill Bin Laden. And how different the last 20 years would have looked, especially for the Twin Towers and the Middle East, if Clinton had had the balls to do his damn job.

Ken B said...

I have no patience for the “If you voted for who I said it would have been different” crowd. No major western politician was on this early. Tom Cotton was the only one I know of. And if he or she had been on it and acted there would have been an uproar. We saw what happened with the mild travel ban. Imagine Trump or anyone closing the border in January, and requiring quarantine to be allowed in.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

And if anyone tried to ask it, the other members of the press corps would gang-tackle him.

Or left a pissy passive-aggressive note on her chair asking if that question helped to stop Coronavirus.

Ken B said...

Meade mentioned the Vietnam Nam war death toll earlier. He said that if the death toll exceeds those we lost in that war he would want revenge on those who counseled us to ignore the threat. We will be at that point soon.
Is meade still feeling vengeful?

Jamie said...

Obviously the only truly responsible public policy measure, going forward, is to close all our borders completely. It's the only thing that could have prevented all these virus deaths, after all; everything we've been doing since the virus came onshore is just catch-up. And since we now know that the virus got here much earlier than we thought, we clearly need to close the borders immediately and keep them closed forever. Likewise all goods coming from overseas. This is self-evident: if we want to prevent excess deaths from illnesses arising in foreign lands, the only way to do so is to prevent their vectors from coming here.

I wonder whether Olivia Whatsername thought that through before she asked her question.

tim maguire said...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...If you look at other countries; Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, or even Germany,

If you look past the hype, the US and Germany are comparable. If you remove the greater New York area, the US puts Germany to shame. New Zealand, Australia, and South Korea are all oranges to our apples for different but fairly obvious reasons.

n.n said...

facing predictions of over 1,000,000 potential deaths, takes early and effective action that keeps the total far under 100,000

Yes, that expert prediction was the basis for the action/reaction, but unlike other expert predictions, the consequences are observable in the near-term, not modeled over decades, centuries. It's the same measure of leadership that would be made in response to an man-made conflict, to reducing presumptive "burdens", etc.

CWJ said...

ARM and r/v are so cute when they pretend that all countries would be motivated to, much less, actually use identical standards and methods when counting covid deaths.

Dave Begley said...

The thing of it is that many dopey people will agree with the "Trump's Vietnam" fallacy. If Trump loses the election over this, then China will have won. China desperately wants Trump out and Joe in as POTUS.

Greatest political trick of all time and, what, only 400,000 dead Chinese? A total bargain.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

If Trump's performance was poor, the media wouldn't have to waste everyone's time with dumb gotcha questions. They could attack him on the facts. The lack of seriousness in their questioning tells you everything you need to know. Although I will admit the Tiger King question did show some imagination.

n.n said...

the fact that Bill Clinton failed, more than once, to take the opportunity to kill Bin Laden

Also, the persistence of the Iraq war, but, to his credit, the ceasefire was a negotiated experiment with a State actor with borders.

rcocean said...

Obama lost more Americans to the flu in six months, than died in the entire Vietnam war. Clinton lost more people to heart disease in one year, than died in the Civil war.

What a stupid question. Its not even a question - its a DNC talking point!

Readering said...

When he said we're probably heading to 60000 deaths he was being sarcastic.

rcocean said...

Reagan lost more people to AIDS than died in World War I. Eisenhower lost thousands to Polio till Salk saved his bacon. Ike sure was a dummy.

rcocean said...

Why isn't anyone asking Trump about Biden's problem? Guess only anti-Trump questions are allowed.

Temujin said...

This is exactly why the media in this country is hated and not trusted. They are among the least intelligent, least curious, most degreed group of people in the history of the world. This is a moron question that has nothing to do with the coronavirus and EVERYTHING to do with playing "Gotcha Trump!". Imagine trying to get people who protested the Viet Nam War to compare the horrors of that war with...with...a global pandemic started in China.

I missed her asking this question at any point during the last 10 or so flu seasons. Like, 2018. 2015.

These people, and their censor masters at Google, Facebook, and Twitter could have been the shining stars of their generation. Instead they are the disgrace of their generation. They are disgusting. They are a disgrace. New York Magazine, anyone?

tastid212 said...

all gotcha, all the time.
absolutely no questions of fact or insight.
sad. these white house reporters are pathetic. so sad.

wendybar said...

So that's this weeks talking point?? That's all Progressives are...talking points

Michael K said...

Because Mr. Reagan believed that there were no gay Republicans or drug addict Republicans (which is hilarious), he underestimated the severity of the crisis. These people were outside the conservative coalition and, as a result, were expendable.

Boy, scratch a leftie and see a hater.

stevew said...

Not a serious question. Trump gave it as much respect as it deserved by not answering it. By the way, the theme of this question was fed to this reporter by Adam Schiff during an interview on one of the Sunday shows. A quite lame attempt to place those dead from the virus at the feet of Trump.

Temujin said...

I get why Trump has blown up at these charlatans over the past month or so. This administration has moved mountains to get things in place when starting from zero. They've had to work with Governors who, let's face it, had no idea whatsoever what their supply stock was, and how to even begin to deal with this. They have moved mountains and the only thing these dumbfucks can come up with is, "Well...you've killed all these people. What do you have to say about it? Huh? You made people drink fish tank cleaner. You made them then drink bleach. Your voters are racist. How can you berate us? We're the shining lights here. I mean, look at us. Look at us."

CWJ said...

Bagoh20 at 9:02 hit the nail on the head. Michael k also mentioned this some days ago. Total deaths week over week over a number of years seems to me the only way to tease out the contribution of this "pandemic" over and above all the other causes of death with which covid is being conflated. So far covid appears to be a total bust as far as world altering plagues go. The only world altering going on seems to be our reaction to it.

Jack Klompus said...

"It is likely, however, that he would have had competent people in key positions, who would have performed vastly better than the labradoodle breeders."

ARM has a smart person avatar so he's smart too.

CWJ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lurker21 said...

If the economy doesn't recover by November, a lot of voters will be asking that question. They won't really be thinking about the virus but about the economy and may be in the mood to blame the president and throw him out. Reagan's record on AIDS isn't as bad as many people want to think, but that's what they want to think, so they do. If enough people are mad about the economy it may be the same with Trump, and the media is/are doing their best to achieve that result.

hombre said...

What kind of moron asks a question like that? The intellectual bankruptcy of the Democrat press corps is a national disgrace.

Bruce Hayden said...

“What an ignorant question! Johnson was a president who purposely sent Americans to VN where many died, who placed them in the position to become a KIA and who did little to prevent their loss.”

I don’t think that is quite right. Rather, he inherited SecDef McNamera and his brain trust, who were applying modern management techniques to winning the war. Instead Of taking the war to NV, they instead tried to win the war through attrition. The idea seemed to be that if each American death resulted in ten enemy dead, they would run out of bodies before we would. And maybe it kinda worked, since the Vietnam Cong were mostly irrelevant after Tet in 1967. After that it was more fighting the NVA. But the bloody victories of that year are probably what really turned the country against the war, and against LBJ. Funny thing about that was that was the year of maximum casualties, and they declined steadily during the first four years under Nixon, until he was able to suspend the draft right before the 1972 election. I went 1A that June, expected to be drafted all that summer, but the draft number being drafted never got nearly to my number. And then it was effectively over. And, yet, almost all of the protesting was done under Nixon, who was winning the war, instead of LBJ, who screwed it up so badly. And had lied so blatantly about his intentions in 1964 when running against Goldwater, calling him a warmonger. Come to find out that he had planned before the election to add almost a half million troops right after the election, which he did.

hombre said...

Trump might have answered, “You’ll have to ask Gov. Cuomo and Mayor DeBlasio about most of those deaths.”

Bilwick said...

Like that reporter might have actually voted for Trump if no one had died of Coronavirus.

bagoh20 said...

"Meade mentioned the Vietnam Nam war death toll earlier. He said that if the death toll exceeds those we lost in that war he would want revenge on those who counseled us to ignore the threat. We will be at that point soon."

The CEO of Youtube said they will remove any video that contradicts the recommendations of the W.H.O. They did exactly that with an interview of two front-line doctors who had done 5000 tests,and claim the social distancing was a mistake.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/youtube-removed-viral-doctor-video-end-quarantine

The W.H.O. is about a complicit in this disaster as anyone precisely becuase we trusted their recommendations. The level of censorship in this country by high tech is disgusting, and un-American. There should be a price for that.

MayBee said...

It's interesting because two Dem Governors whose states are hurting a lot are getting a lot of positive attention. Whitmer and Cuomo. Florida has done quite well, and DeSantis has been excoriated constantly.

bagoh20 said...

They need to add that Trump did the same thing back in 2017-2018. He really is Hitler.

iowan2 said...

it turns out! that, Iowa is losing people to Covid, this year; at about the rate that we lost to Traffic, in 2016

Yes the pandering "one life lost is too many" reveals a level is idiocy that defies explanation. We, individually, and as a culture, and as a society, accept trading progress for lives.
This is not the first virus, nor the worst. Govt response, CDC, FDA, NHI, specifically, has been horrendous. These are the experts I am supposed to cede my freedom to, because of their vast knowledge and experience. All they did is tell everybody to hide in the corner and suck our thumb. We were told, to manage the healthcare infrastructure. Well, we did that.
What's the reason now? I don't know, all we get are vague references to "watching" to see what happens. Won't put hard numbers on anything. (Maybe they don't want to get slapped back, like 600,000 dead prediction got slapped back) Experts indeed.

People will still contract the disease, and the experts will continue to ignore those most at risk. So "every life is precious" rings hollow.

TreeJoe said...

You know, it's not hard to go back in time 2-3 months and find out for yourself "What was the leading democrat president saying about coronavirus and how does that compare to trump and his actions."

Given that no NEW intelligence came out, nor any signs that Trump knew things Biden or Pelosi did not, you can evaluate their actions and words at that time.

And the answer is we would have had more deaths. Biden took it less seriously and called Trumps early acts racist, Pelosi did the same and actively campaigned for public events in san francisco during the early stages of the US outbreak.

So, by the reporters measure, Trump should be re-elected compared to Biden. Because the actions an executive can take in the midst of an outbreak aren't to fix the failed protocols and testing development of the CDC, who failed in it's mission, nor fix the WHO and it's failed containment and investigation of what was actually happening in China....what an executive can do is control the flow of people and begin setting up emergency management and communication. And on those fronts Trump Trump'd Biden and Pelosi

This is fairly straightforward.

Bruce Hayden said...

Pretty much any Democrat would almost assuredly screwed up our response much more than Trump did. One thing they wouldn’t have done was shut down Chinese coming here, then the Italians and other Europeans. But esp the Chinese. But as importantly, they would have trusted the bureaucracy to do their job. And that would have been deadly. They had screwed up and weren’t prepared. They were fighting against discrimination against trannies, etc, instead of preparing for the next pandemic. Their stores of ventilators and PPEs had become depleted under Obama, and hadn’t been replenished, since they had much more important goals now. Meanwhile they had centralized testing, but screwed that up too. Early on, not only were our (their) testing woefully inadequate, the testing was also so inaccurate that the results couldn’t be used successfully to make good policy decisions. Trump and Pence were able to step in, kick some butt, and engage Yankee ingenuity and American manufacturing capabilities to turn things around in such a short time.

The Democrats mostly (I am potentially excluding Bloomberg here) couldn’t have done this. They wouldn’t have recognized the problems as quickly, and they would have trusted the permanent bureaucracy to do its job, which it couldn’t do, esp after eight years of Obama letting them do whatever they really wanted. There is a fairly strong alliance between the Dem party and the permanent bureaucracy. That has become starkly obvious over the last four years as that bureaucracy utilized DNC and Crooked Hillary funded opposition research, much based on shoddy research and wishful thinking, and turned that into three years of attacks on Trump by the government that is supposed to report to him, and depends on him for their Constitutional and moral legitimacy. In short, the relationship between the Dem party and the permanent federal bureaucracy wouldn’t have allowed the sort of drastic measures by the President and his VP that allowed them all to react so decisively and innovatively. We would likely still have the bureaucracy sole sourcing testing, while slow walking new tests, therapeutics, and vaccines. Moreover, as someone above pointed out, they probably wouldn’t have shut down entry visas or the country quickly enough, would have done it unilaterally, based on a one size fits all (meaning NYC centric) solution, and then probably screwed up reopening the country too.

Sam L. said...

Well, lessee here. Viet Nam... What did that have to do with The Donald? Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Nothing. He had no involvement. COVID-19? Damned Commie China.

Birkel said...

Trump reacted to the MSM paranoia but the governors deserve most of the blame.
The fact is most people were taking appropriate actions and the heavy hand of government regulation did not improve things.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/do-lockdowns-save-many-lives-is-most-places-the-data-say-no-11587930911

The data say no.
The government lockdowns were not helpful.

Sorry, Karen.
I mean Ken B.

Kevin said...

If Hillary was President would she get this question?

Hahahaha.

THAT'S why the press is fake news.

They can't even discuss Tara Reade.

Scott Patton said...

Even allowing for the figurative nature of ..."American president loses more Americans"...
I object to the framing and comparison to soldiers in war. The president is Commander-in-Chief. The phrase is applicable in that context. He or She is not in charge of the other citizens in the same way. It is a distasteful aspect, similar to casually saying the president "runs the country". A phrase used much too often, even by Republicans and libertarians. Likewise with "leader of the free world".
Ick.

Michael said...

Years from now when serious scholars look back at the Trump years, they'll note his ability to drag parts of the establishment out into the sunlight so that all may see their true nature. The legacy media being #1 among these.

Martin said...

We have lost about 1/5 as many dead as in World War 2, twice as many as in World War 1. About 1/12 as many as (both sides) in the Civil War. About 3 times as many as in the War of 1812. About 50 times as many as in King Philip's War.

So what? The question is total nonsense, and exactly what I would expect from the New Yorker.

Big Mike said...

There was also the temptation to go backward, into the past election. Trump could also launched into speculation about how Hillary Clinton would have handled things and injected the usual complaints about Hillary into the off-the-cuff analysis.

Trump resisted the "temptation to go backward," but I won't. Hillary Clinton would be botching this left, right, front, and back. Instead of taking advantage of federalism to let governors tailor their responses to the local situations, she wouldn't be able to resist the opportunity to take control of everything herself -- and she's not competent enough to do so.

stever said...

Sam Stone was not available for comment

Hey Skipper said...

BCARM:

If you look at other countries; Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, or even Germany, obviously things could have gone much better. These are real world comparisons.

That is a statement of such gargantuan statistical ignorance the better part of the morning would be needed to unpack it all.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

SteveW - 9:37.

By the way, the theme of this question was fed to this reporter by Adam Schiff during an interview on one of the Sunday shows..

It's so obvious the hack-D press coordinate talking point with The Party(D).

Our media is a Potemkin village

Andrew said...

I seem to remember a surgeon general named C. Everett Koop who handled the AIDS crisis extremely well. Who appointed him? Who resisted pressure to fire him?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

President Hillary would have declared Hug A Chinaman Day. Biden would just hug Chinagirls, and sniff their hair.

Prove me wrong.

Jeff said...

Did Wilson or Lincoln or Roosevelt deserve reelection?
No, yes, no.

Gk1 said...

"The Vietnam meme started somewhere before the press conference because I heard the same comparison on Sunday when I spoke to my far left liberal brother."

Same. The Journolist lives on and on. This talking point started on FB on Monday morning even before this "question" was raised. I think it could just be a coincidence of like minded bird brains trying to find a metric to hang Trump by. The death count of 9/11 is much too small, like 3,000 people give and take. Not exploitable enough. I think they are hoping the daily run down of deaths will mimic Walter Cronkites evening news death counts but the problem is 88% of viewing audiences no longer watch news networks and they ones that do are in rest homes.

walter said...

More abuse of the metric system.

Kevin said...

He just made the pitch that he's done a good enough job — which is, in Trumpspeak, "a fantastic job."

In Trumpspeak there are only two levels of performance review: "a fantastic job", or "you're fired".

The press struggles with this, because they want to say he was the worst president ever.

This is patently false to anyone who's old enough to remember another president.

Ken B said...

“Mr Trump, you have killed more Americans than LBJ, destroyed more jobs than Herbert Hoover, screwed more hookers than JFK, and told people to eat Tide pods. Is that why you are planning to cancel the election?”

Birkel said...

Nearly 60,000 people die every week.
The reporter is an idiot.

HistoryDoc said...

I think Trump is honing his debating skills against hostile questioning for future presidential debates. This is like debating practice for him. His democratic opponent will have faced none of this, and will be at a dis-advantage when forced to defend positions from an even mildly hostile questioner. Trump will have a major advantage during the debates against whoever his opponent is.

HistoryDoc said...

I think Trump is honing his debating skills against hostile questioning for future presidential debates. This is like debating practice for him. His democratic opponent will have faced none of this, and will be at a dis-advantage when forced to defend positions from an even mildly hostile questioner. Trump will have a major advantage during the debates against whoever his opponent is.

brylun said...

New York Magazine reporter doubles down as outrage grows over alleged home invasion of Corey Lewandowski’s DC crash pad

“...socially I would probably thrive in jail,” she [Olivia Nuzzi] tweeted Monday night.

Josephbleau said...

“I suppose many people like to think a different President would have done better. Theoretically, things could have been done better. “

And Theoretically things could have been done worse. Theoretically he could have done the same as he actually did. Logical trichotomy does not inform us here.

effinayright said...

rcocean said...
Reagan lost more people to AIDS than died in World War I. Eisenhower lost thousands to Polio till Salk saved his bacon. Ike sure was a dummy.
**************

And let's not forget our Anointed Saviour Baraka presided over a cure for HIV.

Oh wait...

bagoh20 said...

"We're all in this together" was always pure bullshit pushed mostly by those who had the least in it to lose.

Tomcc said...

What a ridiculous premise. Pathetic.

Yancey Ward said...

The TDS panic brigade will be to blame when Trump gets elected- it was them that set the bar of deaths so high (at least 240,000 dead with proper mitigation is the number Trump bought in at) that no president could have failed to meet.

At current trends, we will come in well under 100,000 COVID deaths by November minus a second wave, or some creative back dating in deaths (and this will be tried by Democrat governors).

JMW Turner said...

"The intellectual bankruptcy of the Democrat press corps is a national disgrace. " Olivia Nuzzi looks the personification of a 27 year old who knows nothing.

Lurker21 said...

Lady does have a sense of humor ... sort of:

Olivia Nuzzi
@Olivianuzzi

I’ve been so bored during quarantine that it’s been nice to have so much human interaction over the last 24 hours even if it’s primarily people telling me to kill myself!
10:08 AM · Apr 28, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

Darkisland said...

 Spiros said...

His press secretary even joked with journalists about the epidemic using the term "gay plague."

Isn't it?

How many people have contracted AIDS via hetero sexual sex? Perhaps 1%?

We kept hearing about heterosexual aids and how it would hit us "real soon now(tm)" it never did.

Gay anal sex and needle sharing, not mutually exclusive, account for about 95%of all cases.

John Henry

bgates said...

In each week for the past two months, more American 90 year olds have died of coronavirus than died in combat in all of America's wars combined.

Stephen said...

First, the Trump defense is not very persuasive. The China order was a good idea, which Trump did not follow up on. Moreover, it was followed by the failure to issue a timely European order, which had disastrous consequences in the New York region and elsewhere. In addition, the feds were relatively slow on social distancing, as Fauci has publicly noted. The claim re testing is nonsense. And of course there is nothing about his own crazy statements and their impact on both behavior and morale.

Second, the hypothetical comparison would be not between Trump and Biden, but between a Trump administration and a Biden administration. And if you frame it that way, the answer is obvious:

1. A Biden administration would not have ignored the Obama administrations warnings re pandemic.

2. A Biden administration would not have abolished the pandemic group in the NSC.

3. A Biden administration would not have ignored for two months the internally briefings warning of the dangers that were coming, because it would not have mistrusted the deep state scientists and intelligence sources that were providing it.

4. A Biden administration would not have sidelined the government's leading respiratory pandemic expert for correctly warning that the US would suffer substantial disruption from the pandemic. Nor would it have sidelined its leading virus expert for insisting that the drugs recommended by the President were unsafe. Nor would it have leaked that the President was thinking about firing one of the two key scientific leaders in the government.

5. A Biden administration would not have turned the critical issue of testing over to a family member with no public health, government or political background, and it would not have punted the issue of testing technology and supplies to the states.

6. A Biden administration would not have put out the unmitigated crap that Trump has spouted throughout. Biden's policy statements, still available on line, have been massively more coherent and sensible that Trumps initial reckless denials and his more recent repeated falsehoods (notably re testing) and his a-factual rants.

7. Biden would have shown more empathy, and would have been less nakedly self interested and partisan (recall, this is a man whom McConnell and Graham both praised for his character and ability to work across the aisle) and would have hungered less for the spotlight--and that too would have made life easier and likely produced better outcomes.

So maybe the real question is, what possible basis is there, other than the China order, for thinking that Trump has done as well as Biden would have done?

mikee said...

Remember the South Park episode about cable TV jewelry sales to old folks?
Remember that it ends with caller after caller suggesting the salesman kill himself?
Remember that he does?
I'm not saying that Lurker21 comment above reminded me of that, but I'm thinking of it.
For some reason.

Nichevo said...


Mike Sylwester said...
President Hillary Clinton would have created open borders and maximum airline traffic from China.

4/28/20, 8:07 AM



I daresay she would have quartered COVID patients in the homes of registered Republicans. Then welded the doors shut. Then, bought crematorium stocks!

mikee said...

When I compare responses to pandemics, versus deaths from wars, I want to use something more apropo than the Vietnam War- in which the US fought a soleley defensive action against a superpower-supplied opponent from halfway around the world for over a decade, and lost exactly zero territory to the enemy. That's too easy. Our casualties were estimated to be 1/10 that of our enemy, and we kept hundreds of millions of Asians free from the scourge of Russian and Chinese domination via communist ideology, which is as pernicious as any polity ever devised.

How about we compare the losses from Chinese Flu to one battle in WW I?
The Hundred Days Offensive: 1,855,369 total casualties
The Battle of Somme. 1,219,201 total casualties
The Battle of Verdun 976,000 total casualties
Third Battle of Ypres 848,614 total casualties

This gives one a better proportionate sense of the scale of warfare since teh early 1900s. I, for one, prefer to recognize that the US crashed its economy to save a million lives or two million lives up front, who might indeed die from the virus over coming years, because saving those lives prevented destruction of our health care systems, th eloss of all social cohesion, and millions more deaths. Look out for that happening in less developed nations, by the way. Coronavirus COVID-19 is one bad, ugly germ. And we've survived its greatest risk already.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Stephen said...
And of course there is nothing about his own crazy statements and their impact on both behavior and morale.


While they didn't affect my behavior they did generally improve my morale. Who doesn't like to warm themselves by a fire in a dumpster.

Iman said...

I'm Full of Soup said...
The Vietnam meme started somewhere before the press conference because I heard the same comparison on Sunday when I spoke to my far left liberal brother.


Your brother "I'm Full of Shit"?

Ken B said...

It's basically been Vietnam Nam in a month. A month ago, when the denialists were busy denying, there were about two thousand deaths. As of now, when the denialists are busy denying, it's almost fifty nine thousand deaths. With the mitigation the denialist deny was needed.

Iman said...

While they didn't affect my behavior they did generally improve my morale. Who doesn't like to warm themselves by a fire in a dumpster.

Just make sure you are keeping a safe distance between you and the other tweakerbums.

Yancey Ward said...

Ken, do you have any clue how many people died in the US since March 1st? Any clue at all? Let me fill you in- half a million people have died in the US since March 1st- half a million. Covid to this point is barely a blip on that scale.

Drago said...

Ken B: " With the mitigation the denialist deny was needed."

Nations that did not mitigate experienced similar death rates.

Ken B cannot explain that and Ken B's inability to explain that makes everyone else a Confederate flag waving racist murderer.

Ken B is just smart that way. Not dumb, like some people say. But smart. And he wants some respect for his virtue signalling.

Interesting Note: Just a handful of days ago Ken B was proudly declaring that shutting down the US economy and shoving it into a depression was the very thing that kept the US from suffering an economic collapse.

At that point most began to realize that Ken B, at best, isn't handling the lack of a million deaths very well.

Drago said...

Yancey Ward: "Ken, do you have any clue how many people died in the US since March 1st? Any clue at all? Let me fill you in- half a million people have died in the US since March 1st- half a million."

Yancey, those people don't count. Especially the ones who have died due to the lockdown from delaying of other medical procedures, suicide etc.

What "good" are those deaths if Ken B can't virtue signal off them?

Ken B said...

Memorialization. Yancey Ward “ Covid to this point is barely a blip”.

Here is the difference between us Yancey. I fear that could prove to be true, and you don’t.

CWJ said...

Ken B wrote -

"Here is the difference between us Yancey. I fear that could prove to be true, and you don’t."

You fear that this could be a "blip." I'm not a member of the pile on Ken B brigade but that is just sick.

Ken B said...

CWJ
Why? The epidemic has infected only a fraction of the country. Why is it sick to fear it will get much worse? Yancey is the one dismissing 59000 deaths as a “blip”, not me.

CWJ said...

If that's your point you could have been a lot clearer. Tell me how what you wrote could be interpreted as anything other than you feared that "covid to this point is barely a blip" could prove to be true. Your very words.

Ken B said...

CWJ
It seems clear to me. I am hoping the death toll is not a lot bigger than that in the end. I am hoping the current count doesn’t look small in comparison.

Ward dismissed the deaths as small compared to the total deaths of half a million for two months, calling it a blip. I fear the death count could be much higher, making the current number look small in comparison. I think it entirely possible the covid death count could exceed half a million. And I hope not.

Stephen said...

Re blip.

Many of the analyses I have seen suggest that absent a vaccine or meaningful treatment, the disease is likely to come back this fall and winter, potentially with more intensity than this first wave. How strongly depends on issues like how many people were infected in the first wave, how much immunity having been infected confers, how much co-immunity people get from having had the other coronaviruses, how much seasonal variation there is in R-naught, and how bad the regular flu season is. All these variables are unknown. Sixty thousand (plus the hugely costly measures required to keep it down to that number) may, sadly, be only the beginning and the next round could be worse, as it was in 1918. The excess hospital capacity under construction now may well be needed then. Hard tradeoffs ahead.

CWJ said...

"It seems clear to me." Of course. My apologies. Sorry for reacting to what you wrote, rather than you meant to write.

Ken B said...

CWJ
No, you reacted to what you want me to write. But enough of responding to you as if you were sincere I guess. I give everybody one try, but only one these days. Just smear away, you know you want to.

The Gipper Lives said...

"If an American President loses more Americans over the course 6 weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War, does he deserve to be re-elected?"

You could hear the hate dripping off of Olivia Nuzzi when she asked it.

She thought Obama deserved re-election when he "lost" thousands and thousands to H1-N1. On the day we reached ten thousand deaths, Obama finally declared an Emergency--and promptly went golfing. She never asked him, though. It never would have even occurred to her.

Nor would she ever ask China's Xi, even though if there is a president who "lost" them, it is President Xi. But Democrats never blame China.

Acosta also tried a different version of "MUH Grim Milestones!(tm.)" and he failed, too. He failed because President Trump has done everything humanly possible to stop the suffering from the very beginning--and Americans know it.

But the insipid question does show what is truly important to Democrats about this virus: beating President Trump at all cost. In other words, the Usual.

Of course it is a gutter question by a stupid hack, comparing the Virus to Vietnam. Presidents don't "lose" epidemic patients except in the heads of deranged journalists.

But on second thought, in Vietnam, we fought against Asian Communists and their American Communist allies to stop the spread of death and the imposition of tyranny on a brave country called South Vietnam.

Today, we fight against Asian Communists and their American Communist allies to stop the spread of death and the imposition of tyranny in a brave country called the United States.

Whaddaya know? Olivia Nuzzi is right;

It's Just Like 'Nam after all.