It Wasn't Just Trump Incompetence-- It Was an Outright Cover-up

There has been a lot of reporting on how the Trump administration ignored its own intelligence, its own CDC, and the urgent warnings of the medical community, from as early as January and well into February of this year.

But now NYU professor Ryan Goodman and student Danielle Schulkin conclude that the Trump's administration inactions were not just negligence.   As reports of what was actually known to Trump, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow begin to take shape, an unmistakable picture of calculated malfeasance has emerged.

They knew it was serious, and they knew it would or could kill hundreds of thousands of Americans. But they continued to lie.   Goodman and Schulkin write, “Over the last five days of February, President Trump and senior officials did something more sinister: They engaged in a cover-up.”
As you may remember, it was the February 25 public statement of the CDC's Dr. Nancy Messonier, that first caused a shit storm at the White House/

“As we’ve seen from recent countries with community spread, when it has hit those countries, it has moved quite rapidly. We want to make sure the American public is prepared,” Nancy Messonnier told reporters.  “As more and more countries experience community spread, successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder.  Disruption to everyday life might be severe,” Messonnier said, adding that she talked to her children about the issue Tuesday morning. “While I didn’t think they were at risk right now, we as a family ought to be preparing for significant disruption to our lives."

At the time, senior officials knew the coronavirus was an extreme threat to Americans. Thanks to information streaming in from U.S. intelligence agencies for months, officials reportedly believed that a “cataclysmic” disease could infect 100 million Americans and discussed lockdown plans. The warnings were given to Mr. Trump in his daily brief by the intelligence community; in calls from Alex Azar, the secretary of health; and in memos from his economic adviser Peter Navarro.

What did the administration do in response to Dr. Messonnier’s public warning? They lied, intentionally and knowingly. Trump claimed he didn’t want to “upset” the stock market.  In reality, Trump probably realized that a full-blown pandemic was likely to sink his re-election campaign. 

He decided to concoct a veneer of phony assurances, and his collaborators, Kudlow, Esper and Azar, were only too happy to oblige. That very Tuesday afternoon, just hours after Messonnier’s statement, Azar held a press conference, stating that “Thanks to the president and this team’s aggressive containment efforts,” the novel coronavirus “is contained.”  On that same Tuesday afternoon, Kudlow appeared on CNBC, and said the virus was “contained.”

The next day, Mark Esper told U.S. military commanders to provide him with advance notice of any measures they might be taking that might “run afoul” of the president’s messaging, indicating that he was well aware of the scope of the pandemict, and the fact that it contradicted the administration’s contrived “happy talk.”

Millions of Americans took solace in these deliberate lies that were broadcast to the country. On that same Wednesday, Trump himself came out with his infamous suggestion that only “15” Americans were likely to catch the virus.  As Goodman and Schulkin point out, Trump and Azar continued to spew these lies—Trump at his political rallies, and Azar in public appearances—over the next few days. Five days of lies, in total.

Trump’s COVID-19 failure was not simple negligence, but an intended, malicious cover-up of the actual facts, all to create a false sense of assurance in the American people while the administration grappled to find an acceptable political escape—a way to salvage the impending disaster from the electoral fallout that was sure to follow for Trump.