Sunday, April 26, 2020

As Dr. Birx Continues To Defend Trump's Disinfectant Comments, She Deserves Nothing But Contempt; Trump Considers Not Attending Future Press Briefings Because Of "Hostile Questions"

Could everyone please stop praising or saluting Dr. Deborah Birx for looking stunned and embarrassed as Donald Trump made his idiotic (not sarcastic) suggestions on Thursday about treating the coronavirus by ingesting household disinfectants?

Birx is the White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator. She knows EXACTLY how stupid and dangerous Trump is — and yet she is STILL defending him in televised interviews. She has been a loyal Always-Trumper from the very start. Birx may have once been respected, but her partisan actions over the past two months have permanently destroyed her professional reputation.

Interviewed by Jesse Watters on Fox's "Watters World" last night, Birx said this about her boss:
When he gets new information, he likes to talk that through out loud and really have that dialogue — and so that's what dialogue he was having. I think he just saw the information at the time immediately before the press conference and he was still digesting that information.
On Friday, Watters was a guest on Fox's "The Five":
I'm having Dr. Birx on my weekend show, and I actually asked her, "You were there, Dr. Birx, do you think the president would say anything dangerous?" She said no, she said he was probably, as he does, thinking out loud and trying to come up with a good idea. And just talking to the person at DHS.
Trump suggests on live television that ingesting disinfectants might be a positive treatment for the coronavirus and Dr. Birx — seemingly forgetting the Hippocratic Oath — had absolutely no problem with that.

A medical professional who is not a card-carrying member of the Trump Cult, made a more intelligent observation. Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center: "My concern is that people will die. People will think this is a good idea. This is not willy-nilly, off-the-cuff, maybe-this-will-work advice. This is dangerous."

Since Trump made his comments, at least 100 people in the United States, including 30 in New York State, have been admitted to hospital after ingesting household cleaning products and medical services support staff across the country have fielded hundreds of calls from people asking about such products.

Birx was also asked "Do you believe the media in this country have been fair during this pandemic?". Even though the mainstream media has far too often bent over backwards to portray Trump as a normal president and has failed to press him on his lies throughout the pandemic, Birx gave a very Trumpian answer:
I think the media is very slicey and dicey with the way they put together sentences in order to create headlines.
The day after his comments, Trump refused to answer any questions during his daily press briefing. He made a short statement and then turned and walked out of the room. Some of the previous 49 briefing have lasted in excess of two hours. This one was only 21 minutes. Afterwards, CNN's Wolf Blitzer called Trump "chicken", saying he seemed to be "afraid to answer questions". The debacle has prompted White House officials to consider reducing Trump's participation in news conferences.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany (who, in her previous life, though still an idiot, proudly stated "I don't believe the president has lied" on August 28, 2019 (!); in late February, she predicted: "We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here.") said that Trump will decide if he appears at future briefings. "He is always fact-driven. There is always statistics sprinkled through what he shares. ... I believe the president's at his best when he's speaking directly to the American people."

Last evening, Trump tweeted that the briefings are "Not worth the time & effort!" because he's asked "hostile questions" by the press.
Every news conference is shown live. Unedited footage of Trump speaking is broadcast later. (And a  transcript is posted on the White House website.) And yet, over the past two months, Trump has complained bitterly when his words are accurately repeated back to him by reporters. This tweet is no different. Trump is trying to get us to believe broadcasting his words verbatim is a hostile and dishonest act. (Though the ratings are through the roof, believe me!)

Trump threw another Twitter tantrum a few hours ago (perhaps prompted by this).

He's lying throughout, of course. I doubt he's ever worked "early in the morning until late at night" in his entire life. He says he has not left the White House "in months". He held numerous propaganda rallies in February and at least one in March (in which he assured his loyal fans that the virus was nothing to take seriously). In the first tweet, I love the humbleness and excessive bragging in the same sentence.

Uh-huh. Perfectly sane.
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