These daily reports from the Covid-19 SuperFriends no longer serve any real purpose except as infomercials for the president*’s re-election campaign, and as demonstrations of what a world-class ass-kisser Mike Pence is. The serious people—Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx—are often rendered little more than nodding set decoration. (On Tuesday, it was Birx who was chosen to barber the facts about the testing kits offered by the World Health Organization that the administration idiotically had turned down early in the outbreak. I hope whatever actual work Birx and Fauci doing is worth this daily ritual humiliation.) Sooner or later, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago comes barging in with some of his patented wounded fee-fee concerning how people have failed to recognize his true genius, and the whole business goes spinning off among the haunted stalactites in what’s left of his mind.



On Tuesday, Jonathan Karl of ABC News asked him about how he’d claimed to be depoliticizing the crisis while attacking Governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Andrew Cuomo of New York. We have had presidents who could have slid past this obvious bear-trap of a question, demonstrating an ability to rise above politics while answering a question about whether he could do it. However, we never have elected a guy who so vigorously drives nails into his own palms at every opportunity.



I only do that when I have to respond. And I will continue to do that. If they are not going to play fair, because they have the media on their side, I don't. I just have me. If they are not going to play fair, I will do that. If they are going to play fair, there will be nobody better than Donald Trump in terms of bipartisanship. But if they are going to say things that are false, like the story that was written yesterday, somebody—I think I know who—they taped a conference call I had with the governors. I assume somebody will tape it. They handed it to various people and one of them was the New York Times, and the New York Times chose to write a totally—right totally inaccurately about it. They do a lot of bad journalism. We respond to that. And actually, people get it. I wanted to be bipartisan and no one will be better than me. When they attack me or the people, these incredible people behind me, I'm not going to let them get away with it.

The president* often plays the martyr. We don't need it. Drew Angerer Getty Images

When you talk about politics, I watched the debate. Not too exciting. But what they said about me, and we've done a great job, when you talk about not being bipartisan what they said about me, and if you look at swine flu, the whole thing, and I guess it was 2009, and the mistakes they made they were terrible. They were horrific mistake spirits 17,000 people died. I will be honest. They should not be criticizing because we have done a fantastic job. The only thing we have not done well is to get good press. We have done a fantastic job but it has not been appreciated.

Jesus, people are stuck in their houses, eating their shoes and trying not to wonder how their loved ones would taste en brochette, and he’s worried about why nobody’s thrown him a parade yet. There is no reason to hold these events every day, and certainly no reason to televise them all, thereby spreading self-pity and disinformation. (What he said about swine flu were barefaced non-facts.) We need to find a way to arrange for him to resign his office in all our daily lives. There are people who are doing the work and who are telling us the truth.

And why we should listen to a guy whose initial response was to arrange for his own personal hot zone. From Vanity Fair:



One reason the president’s attitude may be changing is that coronavirus showed up at his doorstep, literally: Mar-a-Lago is now a hot spot. Last weekend, Trump interacted with a Brazilian government official who tested positive for COVID-19. The appearance of coronavirus inside the president’s bubble jolted the president’s inner circle that up until that point treated the virus more like a Democratic plot. With coronavirus lurking on the property, about a hundred guests sipped cocktails by the pool at a 50th birthday party for Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, former Fox News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle. RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced after attending the party that she was self-quarantining after experiencing flu-like symptoms. Another turning point was an intervention by Guilfoyle’s former colleague Tucker Carlson. A source who attended the party told me Carlson went to Mar-a-Lago to confront Trump directly about his failure to take the virus seriously.



We should avoid exposure to this president*. For all intents and purposes, he is the Red Death.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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