In a column for the Washington Post, conservative -- and confirmed "Never Trumper" -- Jennifer Rubin claimed that Donald Trump keeps undercutting his own health experts in an effort to cater to the beliefs of his anti-science base and that will only lead to more needless deaths due to the coronavirus.
Rubin notes that Trump, with an eye on the November election, needs to keep his followers in his camp if he has any hope of re-election and that means brushing aside any bad news about the pandemic.
"It has never been clear why right-wingers think that climate experts, trained for years in the hard sciences, are some left-wing cabal trying to pull a fast one on the industrial world — but the climate-change deniers no doubt will have some explanation," Rubin wrote. "They likewise seem suspicious of epidemiologists, physicians, public health professionals and anyone who can speak from a position of authority on the pandemic. That’s a shame, given the dangerous consequences of pandemic denial and the plethora of sane advice coming even from current and past advisers to President Trump."
Regarding the president's attempts to get states to lift stay at home advisories that have led to street protests by his fans, Rubin noted the comments made by Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx on Fox News on Sunday, where she warned, "It’s devastatingly worrisome to me personally because if they go home and infect their grandmother or their grandfather who has a co-morbid condition and they have a serious or a very — or an unfortunate outcome, they will feel guilty for the rest of our lives.”
"Birx’s boss had dubbed these some 'very good people' and previously seemed to encourage such protests (Liberate Michigan!)," she wrote. "Whatever advice Birx might offer is diluted by Trump’s enthusiastic defense of the people who are anything but 'good,' but rather endanger others and attempt to intimidate democratically elected officials."
Rubin went on to point out that Trump's rhetoric has trickled down to Republican lawmakers, as well as some GOP governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis who is pandering to the same crowd.
"DeSantis, like his political soul mate Trump, cannot be bothered with scientific warnings, no matter how dire," she wrote before noting a Washington Post report stating, "DeSantis said he doesn’t see the point in strict enforcement, especially as Floridians are cooped up with quarantine measures in place,” that also pointed out that DeSantis is ignoring his own experts.
"This has been the story from the get-go: Trump minimizing, ignoring and contradicting expert advice as part of his magical thinking that refuses to grapple with reality, especially when reality reflects poorly on him," the conservative columnist explained. "Where Trump leads, his cult will follow. Trump can rely on his base’s anti-science bent, especially when he drowns out or ignores his own advisers."
"If he does not pay attention, why should his followers?" she added.
You can read more here.
