New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, listens as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference Tuesday Nov. 13, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
The national press have predictably been wildly partisan and unrelenting in their criticisms of President Trump’s handling of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, blaming him for everything from allegedly downplaying the seriousness of the virus, to the supply shortages in some states, including New York and California.
Journalists have even accused him of “dangerously” over-hyping the “unproven” hydroxychloroquine drug as a potential treatment for the Wuhan coronavirus, and for being responsible for the death of a man in Arizona who swallowed fish tank cleaner after Trump began touting hydroxychloroquine during task force press briefings.
But as the pandemic wears on, MSM reporters appear to be taking a harder look at what’s happening in their local communities, and some news outlets normally hostile to Trump have begun turning on Democratic leaders in their respective states as a result.
One example is the L.A. Times, which did a piece in late March on how California “once had mobile hospitals and a ventilator stockpile” but dismantled the programs that maintained them for money, thanks to then-Governor Jerry Brown (D) and the state legislature.
The same now holds true for the New York Times who, after falsely accusing Trump Monday of only pushing hydroxychloroquine as a treatment because he had “financial interests” in the drug, have taken a bulldozer to NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio for their leadership failures in their handling of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.
You can read the full article here, but the tweets below pretty much say it all:
https://twitter.com/Michael_Calia/status/1247856270494838786
On March 12, NYC health commissioner told De Blasio and others 70% of city could be infected, and even then he waited days to close restaurants or schools https://t.co/bziTbYTvxf
— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) April 8, 2020
This…
"From the start, Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Cuomo projected as much concern about panic as they did about the virus."https://t.co/VRsc5R777Q
— John Robb (@johnrobb) April 8, 2020
Former CDC chief Tom Frieden said ifNew York had adopted widespread social-distancing measures a week or two earlier that it did the estimated death toll from the outbreak might have been reduced by 50 to 80 percent. https://t.co/ASb6vOiXVg
— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) April 8, 2020
“New York City as a whole was late in social measures,” said Isaac B. Weisfuse, a former New York City deputy health commissioner. “It has become the major issue in the transmission of the virus.” https://t.co/ipn53ZBiBK
— Lisa Chamberlain (@LisaCham1) April 8, 2020
What I thought was most interesting was how the Times noted “old political rivalries” between the Cuomo and de Blasio camps played a key role in the breakdown and lag of New York’s response time:
And even as aides to the mayor and governor, both Democrats, worked closely together on the response, old rivalries crept in. Though the two leaders put up a unified front at the outset of the outbreak, it was clear by the middle of March that a high-stakes version of their longstanding political battles was playing out. The March 2 news conference has been their only appearance together.
The mainstream media can continue to dunk all they want to on the Trump administration for their alleged failures in handling this pandemic, but it’s been clear – even well before the New York Times wrote this surprisingly harsh piece – that the worst failures of all were at the local and state levels in New York.
This is information the people of New York needed weeks ago from their home state newspaper, not now, but at least the truth is finally coming out.
(Hat tip: Twitchy)
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