Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Is Woodward's 'Rage' Revelatory About Trump's Incompetence Or Just More Nonsense?
The Wall Street Journal: Woodward’s Non-Revelation
The books professing dark revelations about President Trump appear to be lined up from here to Election Day, like aircraft heading into LaGuardia. This week it’s Bob Woodward’s turn, with the big news reportedly being that Mr. Trump told him in a taped conversation on Feb. 7 that he had played down the coronavirus despite knowing it was “deadly stuff.” This is not news. We know Mr. Trump played down the virus threat at the time because he said so publicly many times. We wrote an editorial about it on March 12, “The Virus and Leadership,” warning Mr. Trump that voters would judge his Presidency largely on how he handled the virus. (9/10)
The Washington Post: When Americans Needed Honesty Most, Trump Gave Them Lies And Fantasy
When President Trump was told by advisers on Jan. 28 that he was facing the most formidable national security threat of his presidency with the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China, the danger was already evident in Wuhan. The grave warning to Mr. Trump, as described by Post associate editor Bob Woodward in his new book, “Rage,” made a strong impression on him, as he revealed to Mr. Woodward at the time. What is astounding and indefensible is that in the months that followed, Mr. Trump willfully deceived the nation about the seriousness of the threat. Mr. Woodward’s recorded conversations with the president expose a grave dereliction of duty. (9/10)
Boston Globe: A Day With Lessons For Protecting American Lives
It will be a day of wreath-laying and solemn remembrance as it always is. But if the deaths of some 3,000 human beings on American soil can continue to tug at our consciences, how then to acknowledge, mark, remember the more recent deaths on these shores that today approach 200,000? Where is their memorial? And, as this editorial page asked Thursday, where is the special commission that will eventually assign blame for all of the failures of leadership and political will that brought us to this day? (9/11)
Fox News: Why Woodward's Trump Book Is Being Misread By Democrats
This week’s effort to bury the Trump presidency is called “Rage” and it comes from famed Washington Post Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, who’s releasing a follow up to his 2018 Trump Tell All entitled, “Fear." Like its made for TV predecessors, “Rage” has a dramatic title guaranteed to generate big headlines and bigger sales, but I believe it will ultimately end up doing very little to hurt the president. (Jimmy Failla, 9/10)
Los Angeles Times: Trump Lied And Americans Died
So now we have irrefutable proof that President Trump lied to the American people virtually from the start about the threat of the coronavirus. Sadly, this is no great surprise. Trump lies so much, and with such astonishing abandon, that it’s safe to doubt the veracity of anything that comes out of his mouth. (9/10)
The New York Times: Trump’s Coronavirus Response Was Beyond Incompetent
Until this week I thought that Donald Trump’s disastrous mishandling of Covid-19 was basically negligence, even if that negligence was willful — that is, that he failed to understand the gravity of the threat because he didn’t want to hear about it and refused to take actions that could have saved thousands of American lives because actually doing effective policy isn’t his kind of thing. But I was wrong. According to Bob Woodward’s new book, “Rage,” Trump wasn’t oblivious; he knew by early February that Covid-19 was both deadly and airborne. And this isn’t a case of conflicting recollections: Woodward has Trump on tape. Yet Trump continued to hold large indoor rallies, disparage precautionary measures and pressure states to reopen business despite the risk of infection. (Paul Krugman, 9/10)
Boston Globe: An Incompetent In The White House
Playing it down — while chastising state and local leaders who gave COVID-19 the serious response it deserved — set the stage for a preventable catastrophe. Almost 200,000 Americans have died, while countless others have lost jobs and endured major disruptions to life. The United States leads the world in coronavirus deaths, a grim testament to the federal government’s limp response to the virus. Had the president merely told Americans what he told Woodward in February — and, better yet, acted on that information with strict public health measures and vigilant preparation — thousands of victims might still be alive. (9/10)
The Washington Post: If Trump Lied, So Did Fauci
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden accused President Trump of “a life-and-death betrayal of the American people” on Wednesday, after Bob Woodward revealed that Trump was warned in January about the potential deadliness of covid-19. The president’s failure to act, Biden said, was “beyond despicable. It’s a dereliction of duty, a disgrace. He knew how deadly it was. He knew and purposely played it down. Worse, he lied.” Well, if Trump lied, so did Anthony S. Fauci. (Marc A. Thiessen, 9/10)
