After
prefacing a question at Donald Trump's press conference Friday (March
20, 2020) by recounting current statistics of the sick and deceased
due to COVID-19, NBC's Peter Alexander asked the president a
straightforward question: “What do you say to Americans who are
watching you right now who are scared?” Instead of offering
comforting words or giving practical advice, (i.e., being
presidential) Trump shot back, “I'd say that you're a terrible
reporter . . .” and called it a “nasty question,” accusing
Alexander of “sensationalism.” He topped off his rant with the
schoolyard taunt of calling the reporter's employer (NBC owner,
Comcast) “Con-cast.” Brilliant stuff from the mind of an
eight-year-old who's been given the keys to our nuclear arsenal.
It
was a perfectly valid question, the kind of question to which
understandably frightened Americans deserve an honest, measured,
useful answer. Unfortunately “useful” is not an adjective
that can be remotely applied to this narcissistic, ignorant conman.
Instead of giving Alexander's question the answer it deserved, Trump
immediately sensed that he was somehow being attacked (because of
course, everything is always about him) and responded like the
pouting child he is.
Newsflash,
Donald: So you wanted to be president. Well, guess what? Presidents
get hard questions. It's part of the job. Just because a question
in inconvenient to you and your titanic ego, doesn't make it a bad
question. Quite to the contrary, your answer was a bad answer. An
answer (like the eternal font of asinine things you say) that
demonstrates how categorically unprepared and unfit you are for
office.
As
I previously noted in this space, COVID-19 is not Trump's fault. But
everything about his response IS his fault. First, he denied it was
a problem. Then he minimized the problem. And when he could no
longer deny it, he finally addressed the problem – at least a month
too late. (Of course he now pretends that he was on top of it from
the start.) That delay has cost many, many lives. Not to mention
that, compounding his incompetence and making matters worse, in 2018
he actually dismantled the NSC pandemic response team that President
Obama had created.
Trump
has amply demonstrated that he's a corrupt, incompetent liar. He
avoided impeachment only because his Republican enablers have refused
to acknowledge the truth about his wrongdoing: Ukraine, nepotism, the
emoluments clause – take your pick. But now he's clearly
demonstrated that he's fundamentally unqualified for his job. A job
that's far beyond his capabilities to fulfill or even remotely
understand.
November
can't come soon enough.
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