Here’s how Trump’s recklessness affects us all and the
VP debate
Opinion by
Columnist
Oct. 2, 2020 at 9:56 a.m. CDT
President
Trump announced early Friday that he and first lady Melania Trump tested
positive for the novel coronavirus, two days after close aide Hope
Hicks displayed symptoms. While appalling, it should be no surprise
to learn, as The Post reports:
After
White House officials learned of Hicks’s symptoms, Trump and his entourage flew
Thursday to New Jersey, where he attended a fundraiser at his golf club in
Bedminster and delivered a speech. Trump was in close contact with dozens of
other people, including campaign supporters, at a roundtable event.
The president did not
wear a mask Thursday, including at the events at his golf course and on the
plane, officials said. He was tested after he returned to the White House, but
he also appeared on Sean Hannity’s TV show from the residence by telephone.
This is
grotesquely irresponsible, but no more so than Trump’s insistence on eschewing
masks (and mocking former vice president Joe Biden for wearing one, as recently
as the debate on Tuesday), holding large rallies, pushing quack remedies, lying
to the public about the severity of the pandemic and goading local officials to
reopen schools. All these actions reflect his utter lack of regard for others,
his inability to think of the welfare of anyone but himself.
We
should also note that unlike the Biden family, the Trump contingent reportedly
entered the debate hall wearing masks, took them off and refused to put them
back on despite a request from a doctor with the Cleveland Clinic, which hosted
the debate. They share Trump’s contempt for others’ well-being.
No one
should wish Trump or his family harm, but neither should his illness — which
potentially wreaks havoc in government — excuse his recklessness. It matters
little whether those affected by his actions are his closest aides, a crowd of
supporters or hundreds of millions of Americans. Trump acts in whatever way he
thinks is in his interest at the expense of others.
Trump’s
dishonesty and willingness to endanger others have set the tone in a White
House where masks are frowned upon. ABC News White House reporter Jonathan Karl
pointed his ire to White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who held a
news conference Thursday despite having been exposed to Hicks’s symptoms
herself.
Karl tweeted: “My question for @PressSec: What did
you know, when [you] went into a room full of reporters for your briefing
yesterday at 11:20am?” And if she did not know, why did the small coterie of
aides who did know about Hicks’s condition not inform her so she could protect
White House journalists? The disdain for others’ health and lives is
gob-smacking.
This
news will take Trump off the campaign trail and may well prevent his appearance
at the next debate scheduled for Oct. 15. (It was not clear that he was going
to appear anyway, given the debate commission’s determination to impose new
rules to keep him from disrupting the event and embarrassing the country in
front of the entire world.) In any event, the Trump family should be required
to wear masks or be barred from entry at further events.
The
news also puts a spotlight on the vice-presidential debate. According to two
sources with knowledge of the negotiations between the teams for Vice President
Pence and Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), Pence’s team is demanding the
candidates be seated just seven feet apart from one another. While six feet is
the recommended distancing for casual conduct, it is not enough,
especially for a 90-minute debate that could result in a shouting match or
raised voices, which increases the potential for emission of airborne
particles. In the last VP debate involving a woman, Sarah Palin, then
vice-presidential candidate Biden acceded to her request to stand. It is
unsurprising that Pence would want to avoid facing Harris’s commanding
presence, but in light of the health risk, it becomes an outrageous and
irresponsible demand.
Fortunately,
Pence has tested negative, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has not
interacted with Trump in months. Whether Mark Meadows, who regularly appears
unmasked at the U.S. Capitol, or other White House aides have spread the virus
to others will become clear in the days ahead. Likewise, we do not know
whether, for example, the news forces Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett
(who appeared maskless in
the Rose Garden with her family on Saturday) to quarantine. Congress might want
to reconsider its decision not to utilize regular testing.
The
Republican tendency to wish away reality to “own” Democrats has had deadly consequences.
That contempt for science and unpleasant facts now comes crashing down with the
news that the leader of the anti-reality cult himself is infected.
Fortunately,
the voters can hold Trump and his Republican enablers, who have refused to
condemn his efforts to deceive the public, accountable four weeks from Tuesday.
It will not bring back the more than 200,000 Americans we have lost, but it
will honor their memory. A Trump defeat would be an emphatic statement that a
president must put the lives and concerns of others before his own.