Donald Trump’s sinking White House has become the Titanic
Donald Trump hunkers down waiting for the inevitable, joining Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush in losing their reelection efforts. In the process, this has become Super Spreader White House in a number of ways.
First, for the second time in recent months, it appears that the White House is the location of another super spreader event. Mark Meadows has tested positive, having attended a White House watch party on election night where nobody was wearing a mask. When Amy Coney Barrett was announced in the Rose Garden ceremony last month, numerous people also became ill with the coronavirus.
Second, Trump is a super spreader of disinformation about the election. On Friday he tweeted: “I had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by. Perhaps these leads will return as our legal proceedings move forward!”
This is inaccurate and a lie, and Twitter has been labeling many of his posts as “misleading.” In states like Pennsylvania, the GOP legislature decided that no early votes would be counted until election day. This means Joe Biden had the lead from the beginning; the votes were just not counted due to the approach by Republicans, who in instances like this intended for the arguments being made now to win the day for Trump.
Finally, as we have seen in recent days, the coronavirus is out of control, with much blame for the super spreading laid at the feet of the administration. Recall the promises of an imminent vaccine from Meadows and Trump, and the bull that we were “turning the corner” and that the coronavirus would be gone on November 4, as it was political. Four days running, the death rate is over 1,000 per day, and more than 100,000 are testing positive per day, with hospitalization numbers approaching the pandemic’s previous peak.
The SS White House is a super spreader, and President Joe Biden will soon take charge and clean up the dereliction of duty caused by the current captain of the ship.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.