NEW YORK: Reeling from another crisis of his own making, President Trump tried to refocus attention on his Democratic rival at a rally in Michigan on Thursday as he pushed to move past revelations that he purposefully played down the danger of the coronavirus last winter. He also invoked former UK PM Winston Churchill and US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, claiming that like them he was only trying to project calm.
But the virus controversy followed him as he faced new pushback from local officials worried about the growing size of his rallies and his campaign’s repeated flouting of health guidelines intended to halt the Covid-19 spread. Trump, however, revelled in the crowd of several thousand, packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a cavernous airport hangar, mostly without masks. “This is not the crowd of a person who comes in second place,” he declared to cheers.
Before departing the White House, Trump denied he had lied to the nation as he continued to grapple with fallout from a new book by journalist Bob Woodward. In a series of interviews with Woodward, Trump spoke frankly about the dangers posed by the virus even as he downplayed them publicly. “Trump knew all along just how deadly this virus is,” Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said in a virtual fundraiser. “He knew and purposefully played it down because all he was concerned about was his re-election, didn’t want to affect economic growth.”
Trump, answering questions at the White House, insisted “there was no lie” in his often dismissive public comments and said he was only tying to project calm. He offered a similar explanation to his Michigan supporters while comparing himself to Churchill leading the British through Nazi bombings in World War II. “As the British government advised the British people in the face of World War II, ‘keep calm and carry on’, that’s what I did,” Trump said. Churchill, however, was known for being direct with the public about the possibilities ahead. Trump also invoked Roosevelt’s quote “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself”, which Roosevelt said during his 1933 inaugural address as the US struggled through the Great Depression. However, again, Roosevelt used that line in a speech that also stressed the importance of being honest in tackling crisis.
But Trump seemed to have no issue leaning into fear. He lobbed several unsubstantiated accusations at Biden and Democrats, including charging that they want to shut auto plants and would terminate travel bans, overwhelming the state “with poorly vetted migrants from terrorist hot spots”. Condemnations from Democrats continued with vice-president nominee Kamala Harris saying: “He deliberately misled Americans because he thought it would look bad for him. This is the president of the US”.
But the virus controversy followed him as he faced new pushback from local officials worried about the growing size of his rallies and his campaign’s repeated flouting of health guidelines intended to halt the Covid-19 spread. Trump, however, revelled in the crowd of several thousand, packed shoulder-to-shoulder in a cavernous airport hangar, mostly without masks. “This is not the crowd of a person who comes in second place,” he declared to cheers.
Before departing the White House, Trump denied he had lied to the nation as he continued to grapple with fallout from a new book by journalist Bob Woodward. In a series of interviews with Woodward, Trump spoke frankly about the dangers posed by the virus even as he downplayed them publicly. “Trump knew all along just how deadly this virus is,” Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said in a virtual fundraiser. “He knew and purposefully played it down because all he was concerned about was his re-election, didn’t want to affect economic growth.”
Trump, answering questions at the White House, insisted “there was no lie” in his often dismissive public comments and said he was only tying to project calm. He offered a similar explanation to his Michigan supporters while comparing himself to Churchill leading the British through Nazi bombings in World War II. “As the British government advised the British people in the face of World War II, ‘keep calm and carry on’, that’s what I did,” Trump said. Churchill, however, was known for being direct with the public about the possibilities ahead. Trump also invoked Roosevelt’s quote “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself”, which Roosevelt said during his 1933 inaugural address as the US struggled through the Great Depression. However, again, Roosevelt used that line in a speech that also stressed the importance of being honest in tackling crisis.
But Trump seemed to have no issue leaning into fear. He lobbed several unsubstantiated accusations at Biden and Democrats, including charging that they want to shut auto plants and would terminate travel bans, overwhelming the state “with poorly vetted migrants from terrorist hot spots”. Condemnations from Democrats continued with vice-president nominee Kamala Harris saying: “He deliberately misled Americans because he thought it would look bad for him. This is the president of the US”.
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