Jennifer Rubin
There was a time when Jennifer Rubin truly was a conservative and I used to read her column regularly. All of that changed abruptly when New York businessman Donald Trump announced his bid for the presidency. As if a switch was flipped, Rubin became not only one of Trump’s fiercest critics, but her whole political ideology shifted to the left. So completely afflicted with TDS, her commentary has become divorced from reality.
In her latest op-ed, she lists all of the things we can blame on President Trump once the current crisis is over. The piece sounds like the ramblings of a borderline psychotic. Rubin writes:
What if we had acted earlier? The country deserves to know at least in rough terms the number of deaths that could have been avoided had Trump responded quickly to his advisers’ warnings dating back to November or even to the end of January, when the WHO sounded its alarm.
the Trump toll, when we are done, will likely include tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths, massive unemployment, trillions of dollars more in debt and trillions of dollars in lost wealth not to mention emotional hardship and educational disruption https://t.co/piGNbudj0G
— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) April 15, 2020
The warning she refers to in November never happened. You might recall ABC News’ attempt last week to conjure up a story that, as far back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials had warned President Trump that a contagion was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region, changing the patterns of life and business and posing a threat to the population. The writers cited “two officials familiar with the document’s contents” as their sources. I posted on this story here.
This story was a complete fabrication. So much so that the Pentagon issued a statement to debunk it, something they rarely do. The statement read:
As a matter of practice the National Center for Medical Intelligence does not comment publicly on specific intelligence matters. However, in the interest of transparency during this current public health crisis, we can confirm that media reporting about the existence/release of a National Center for Medical Intelligence Coronavirus-related product/assessment in November of 2019 is not correct. No such NCMI product exists.
Rubin’s piece was so riddled with lies that Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) felt a need to set the record straight which he does in the evidence-based Twitter thread below.
Full text of Crenshaw’s remarks, followed by the original tweets:
STOP. REWRITING. HISTORY.
Instead of attempting to spin the public into a hateful, frightened frenzy, let’s try reporting some facts with the correct context. Here’s what that might look like:
On March 3rd, the day after you claim Trump should have shut our economy down, this is how the WHO downplayed the virus: “COVID-19 spreads less efficiently than flu, transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not sick.” [Link]
Would the American public really have accepted millions of jobs destroyed for a virus that had infected just 102 people by March 2? Especially considering Italy would not lock down until March 10th, Spain on March 14th, and the UK on March 23? A bit of context is in order here.
I want to respond to this particular comment: “Because we did not act earlier to ramp up testing at a massive scale and prepare our health-care system, social distancing — shutting down most of the economy — was required.”
Not sure where the magic COVID-19 testing switch is. The truth is that long-standing regulations – in place for decades – prevented us from doing so. [Link]
Additionally, you falsely state that social distancing should have been a “last resort.” But this has no basis in fact. Experts have long said flattening the curve via social distancing is the only way to prevent the initial case spike that would overwhelm hospitals.
First, you argue that we should have shut down the economy weeks before we did. Then, you argue that the shut down, resulting job loss, and economic devastation are his fault too.
Which is it? You can’t have it both ways.Your analysis makes it seem like our government deliberately decided not to buy more PPE. The truth is there was a global production shortage when China began stopping exports, and demand soared. This is still happening. [Link]
While you argue that Trump ignored early warning signs, you ignore the headlines that ran on the pages of your paper in January and February. Here are a couple: [Link]
When it’s all said and done, this bad-faith analysis isn’t fact-based and lacks important context. Hating Trump is not an excuse for lazy argumentation and emotional reasoning.
Now, more than ever, we need critical thinking and productive deliberation.
On March 3rd, the day after you claim Trump should have shut our economy down, this is how the WHO downplayed the virus:
“COVID-19 spreads less efficiently than flu, transmission does not appear to be driven by people who are not sick”https://t.co/BNWzEViKJn
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) April 16, 2020
I want to respond to this particular comment:
“Because we did not act earlier to ramp up testing at a massive scale and prepare our health-care system, social distancing — shutting down most of the economy — was required.”
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) April 16, 2020
Additionally, you falsely state that social distancing should have been a “last resort.” But this has no basis in fact. Experts have long said flattening the curve via social distancing is the only way to prevent the initial case spike that would overwhelm hospitals.
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) April 16, 2020
Your analysis makes it seem like our government deliberately decided not to buy more PPE. The truth is there was a global production shortage when China began stopping exports, and demand soared. This is still happening.
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) April 16, 2020
When it’s all said and done, this bad-faith analysis isn’t fact-based and lacks important context. Hating Trump is not an excuse for lazy argumentation and emotional reasoning.
Now, more than ever, we need critical thinking and productive deliberation.
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) April 16, 2020
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