'This is Trump's plague' and the 'blood' on his hands will doom his re-election: Charles Blow

In a column for the New York Times, Charles Blow makes the case that Joe Biden would be smart to lay low -- and thus avoid making major gaffes that could hurt his presumptive Democratic presidential nomination -- and let the focus remain on Donald Trump who has cratered his re-election chances with his mishandling of the coronavirus health crisis.

Blow began his column by making a pointed observation by writing, "As the United States’ death toll raced toward 100,000, Donald Trump went golfing."

Writing, "Trump put politics, his own political fortunes, over the lives of the American people, and the result has been catastrophic," he further explained, "The number of deaths never had to reach such a staggering figure — and it will surely climb far beyond it — but it did because in the early days, Trump made excuses for the Chinese response, dragged his feet on an American response, and repeatedly made statements that defied truth and science."

Noting that president prematurely congratulated himself on March 10th when there were only 959 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 28 deaths -- telling reporters "We’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away” -- Blow claimed the president did too little until it was likely too late.

"The virus wasn’t aware of the politics of the moment. The virus wasn’t aware that he had been lying and deflecting. The virus wasn’t aware that it should wait until the American president was cowed into correct action. It was doing what viruses do: It was spreading and it was killing," he explained. "Trump dragged his feet, trying to con his way through a pandemic, to rewrite reality, to pacify the public until the virus passed, and that has led to untold numbers of people dead who never had to die."

"There is not only blood on Trump’s hands, he is drenched in it like the penultimate scene from the movie 'Carrie,'" he charged.

According to the columnist, nothing Trump can say, including blaming the Chinese for the virus or governors in the U.S. battling to stem the tide of the pandemic-related deaths can absolve the president of his responsibility for the damage that has been done.

"In America, this is Donald Trump’s plague, and he is yoked with that going into the election in November," he predicted.

You can read more here.