What did Trump know … and when did he know it?

The latest anti-Trump political narrative oozing out of the left-wing elitist media like sewerage from a drainpipe is that EVERYONE saw this pandemic coming except President Trump.  In fact, they cite examples of people predicting the pandemic – many of whom warned Trump.  The political assertion is that Trump ignored their warnings and thousands of people died needlessly.  Pretty damning.

The problem is that none of that is true.  To show how ridiculous the narrative is, those promulgating it started citing so-called “warnings” all the way back to President Bush the Second and his expressed concern in 2005 for pandemics as an issue the nation MAY have to face sometime in the future – just one issue of many that government futurists think about in strategic analyses.  (As an example, back in the 1960s, I was in a reserve military unit that developed plans for the occupation of Russia and Soviet Union captive nations in the event we had to take control after a shooting war with Moscow.  We never did, but we talked about it a lot.)

Since President Obama’s administration allowed our national stockpile of emergency medical equipment to get depleted, I guess they did not hear or heed what is now interpreted as Bush’s prescient warning.  The media hopscotches over any Obama dereliction  in what might be called “politically selective reporting.”  Actually, it is what I DO call it.

They blame Trump for what they initially said was dismantling the White House national health office.  The propaganda press had to somewhat back down from that claim because the office was never dismantled.  It was simply relocated outside the White House complex – doing the same job they had been doing all along.  It was just a location change.  The misreporting is still being used to explain (ascribe blame) for what they claim was a slow response to the COVID-19 crisis by Trump – and only Trump.

The anti-Trump narrative requires the absolution of others who are arguably more responsible for any lack of preparation.   That would include New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio.  One reason that New York City has been hit so hard is because they were not shutting down the city as soon as they could AND they did not have enough medical supplies to handle a pandemic.  That is particularly egregious because they bear primary responsibility for the public hospitals, staffing and public emergency supplies.  But, blaming them, however, does not fit with the partisan anti-Trump narrative.

To make their prosecutorial case against Trump, the media stitches together irrelevant comments and spins them to make it APPEAR that in January “everyone” (the media’s word) knew the pandemic was coming – including Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden.  He is included to create a false impression that he would have handled things better – and they say they are not being political or partisan.  Balderdash!

While they like to replay clips of Trump suggesting that COVID-19 would not necessarily be severe in the United States, the liberal networks do not show the clips of Dr. Anthony Fauci – the pre-eminent authority on the subject — saying the very same thing – because that would suggest that Trump was actually listening to the top medical authorities.  That’s right.  Those the media hold up as the best authorities on the pandemic were saying the same thing – minimizing the threat to America.  Mayor de Blasio was telling New Yorkers to go about their normal life activities well into March.  He was very late to close the schools.

The mendacious media narrative fails to mention that in January, Trump stopped travel from China – an act that the top medical professionals credit with significantly mitigating the spread of the virus in the United States.  Rather than embrace that action at the time, the left piled on Trump as xenophobic – including Biden.

The FACT is that in January, virtually no one was predicting the domestic impact of COVID-19.  Most of the authorities were assuring we the people that it would be very limited and mild.  The same thing that Trump was saying.  The media allegation that “everyone knew” in January is an abuse of hindsight.

In fact, at every step of the way, Trump imposed policies and programs recommended at the time by the medical professionals – the members of the White House Task Force that he assembled.  Despite selective interpretation by the media, I have never heard Fauci express any disagreement or disappointment with Trump.  In fact, he advised the media not to engage in such speculation.

If you pay any attention to “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, you will see how Trump hatred has utterly and totally corrupted what the networks claim is a news program.  The entire show is crafted to attack Trump.  The panelists are little more than shills for the false narratives – gaining their place on national television and a few more shekels to add to their million-dollar fortunes by parroting the pre-conceived partisan narratives.

Jon Meacham – a “Morning Joe” regular – is the resident historian.  He is perfect for the part.  No movie studio could come up with a better image of an academic historian.  He has the looks, the voice and the vocabulary.  Unfortunately, he is one of those political hack “historians” who regurgitate history with a partisan viewpoint.  He is a propagandist for the #NeverTrump Resistance Movement.

In every way, his analysis of Trump and historic comparisons are geared to reinforce the misleading narratives.  After one of his classic diatribes against Trump, Meacham declared that he was not saying things in “a partisan manner.” He then continued in a strident partisan manner.

The entire CNN/MSNBC narrative-of-the -day – that Trump was told in January what COVID-19 would visit on America and he ignored it out of hubris – is a lie.  It relies on claiming that people said things they did not say or did not say things they did say.  The evidence of the media’s bogus narrative is out-of-context statements that are made to appear to have a meaning they did not have – the anti-Trump meaning.  In fact, they expressed the opposite meaning.  That can only be done by extreme media trickery based on political partisanship.

The extreme to which elements of the mainstream media will sacrifice journalistic integrity in the hope of defeating Trump and Republicans in November is unprecedented and mind-boggling.  It reflects an angry and irrational frustration that has poisoned the pens of too many erstwhile journalists since Election Day 2016.

So, there ‘tis.