As the Republican National Convention pumped lies onto screens for four straight days, nearly 4,000 more Americans died across the country. Trump and his allies used the time to pretend the crisis is behind us and that their efforts heroically defeated the virus. However, the truth is that the picture painted at the RNC was a bold-faced lie – a harsh reality that the loved ones of more than 180,000 Americans who’ve died during this pandemic know all too well.
Trump’s RNC Speech Was Just as Misleading as the Lies He Has Pushed Throughout the Pandemic
TRUMP… LIE?: “Thanks to advancements, we have pioneered the fatality rate.”
- Though it’s not quite clear that what the President means by “pioneering” the fatality rate, what is clear is that thousands of Americans are still dying each day from COVID-19. The average daily death toll has hovered at around 1000 lives lost for the month of August — 1,129 today alone.
TRUMP LIE: “America has tested more than every country in Europe put together, and more than every nation in the Western Hemisphere combined. We have conducted 40 million more tests than the next closest nation.”
- Raw numbers mean nothing as a metric in gauging the United States’ test capacity, or its coronavirus response. What matters more is testing per capita, a metric by which the United States still trails other countries like Russia and Australia.
- The other thing to note is that the United States must continue to test at high levels because it still has the worst outbreak in the world — the result of Trump’s failure to ramp up testing early on. Whereas other countries slowed the virus and have scaled back testing accordingly, the United States still adds tens of thousands of new cases each day.
- The United States is still only testing at 52% the levels recommended by experts, and only 10 states currently meet testing targets. Testing across the country has also been dropping.
- And testing efforts in the United States have been constantly plagued by problems that President Trump failed to resolve — supply shortages, delayed results, and false results have allowed the virus to spread uncontrolled throughout the country.
TRUMP LIE: “And we are recovering at a much faster rate than anybody. Over the past three months, we have gained over 9 million jobs, and that’s a record in the history of our country.”
- While the United States may have added 9 million new jobs, that’s fewer than half of the jobs lost in March and April. The unemployment rate remains at 10.2% — higher than at any time during the great recession.
TRUMP LIE: “To save as many lives as possible, we are focusing on the science, the facts and the data.”
- Since day one of this crisis, Donald Trump has often sought to undermine his own experts who dared to follow the science rather than his lies – most notably his efforts to sideline Dr. Anthony Fauci who routinely was viewed by the White House as too vocal in his opposition to Trump’s approach.
- This week, Trump was caught exerting political pressure on both the FDA and the CDC, pushing them to announce changes in policy that ignored science and more closely adhered to his personal agenda – which drew widespread backlash from the scientific community.
- Trump has a history of elevating disproven miracle cures and pushing junk science – evidenced in his obsession with hydroxychloroquine – and elevated fringe figures like the now infamous, demon-sex doctor, Dr. Stella Immanuel.
TRUMP LIE: “We shipped hundreds of millions of masks, gloves and gowns to our front-line healthcare workers. To protect our nation’s seniors we rushed supplies, testing kits and personal … to nursing homes, we gave everything you can possibly give and we’re still giving it because we’re taking care of our senior citizens. “
- According to the New York Times, at least 68,000 residents and workers have died from the coronavirus at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities for older adults in the United States — more than 41% of the nation’s overall death toll.
- Testing problems continue to plague nursing facilities, which say they are receiving contradictory guidance from federal agencies about equipment and are struggling to refill kits.
- Throughout the pandemic, the Trump administration and FEMA routinely sent damaged, expired, or otherwise useless PPE to states struggling to get the virus under control. In June, a National Nurses United survey found that 87% of 23,000 respondents were forced to reuse single use N95 respirators.
- More than 1,000 healthcare workers have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
TRUMP LIE: “We developed a wide array of effective treatments including a powerful antibody treatment known as convalescent plasma. You saw that on Sunday night when we announced it. That will save thousands and thousands of lives.”
- There are no peer-reviewed, randomized trials affirming the efficacy of convalescent plasma. According to STAT, “no one knows how much plasma to give, who is a good donor, when is the best time in the disease course to transfuse convalescent plasma,” or “how much, if any it actually improves survival.”
Ivanka Trump
TRUMP LIE: “I watched him take the strongest, most inclusive economy in a lifetime, the lowest unemployment in a half century and the highest wage increase for working families in decades, and close it down to save American lives.”
- President Trump waited weeks (until March 16) to issue social distancing guidelines, even then refraining from shutting down the economy in its entirety. Epidemiologists estimate that had President Trump implemented guidelines just two weeks earlier, 90% of deaths from the virus’ first wave could have been prevented.
- Then, President Trump prematurely forced the economy to reopen — catalyzing a deadly summer surge across the south.
Throughout the Convention, Republicans Pretended That Americans Were No Longer Dealing With the Virus… Or That It Didn’t Exist at All
- Speaking on night 2 of the convention, White House economics adviser Larry Kudlow referred to the coronavirus in the past tense, the same day that 1,100 Americans died from the virus.
- On night 3 of the convention, Republicans spent less than 8 out of the 165 minute program discussing the coronavirus.
- On night 4 of the convention, attendees were not tested for covid and did not adhere to social distancing or mask wearing guidelines.
[Twitter, @jaketapper, 8/27/20]
On Night 3 of the Convention, Vice President Mike Pence’s Brief Acknowledgement of the Virus Was an Unbroken Stream of Falsehood
PENCE LIE: “And then, the coronavirus struck from China. Before the first case of the coronavirus spread within the United States, the president took unprecedented action and suspended all travel from China, the second largest economy in the world.”
- The United States identified its first known case of the virus on January 21, 2020. Trump’s “ban” did not take effect until February 2, 2020.
- President Trump didn’t stop “all travel from China.” On the contrary, nearly 40,000 people came into the United States in the two months after the travel restrictions, and by April, more than 400,000 people had entered the United States since the virus was first identified.
PENCE LIE: “Now, that action saved untold American lives, and I can tell you firsthand it bought us invaluable time to launch the greatest national mobilization since World War II.”
- If anything, the Trump administration squandered valuable time after ignoring multiple warnings about the virus, and about the nation’s unpreparedness.
- Rather than undertake a mass mobilization of national resources, the Trump administration failed to adequately use tools like the Defense Production Act to shore up supplies and protect the supply chain. Supply shortages continue to persist.
PENCE LIE: “[Trump] directed us to forge a seamless partnership with governors across America in both political parties. We partnered with private industry to reinvent testing and produce supplies that were distributed to hospitals around the land.”
- The administration’s relationship with governors has been… anything but seamless. From the beginning, President Trump forced states to compete with one another and the federal government supplies. The federal government intervened to redirect shipments of supplies from states facing devastating outbreaks. Several governors — including members of his own party — have spoken out about the Trump administration’s failures.
- Trump even said that, for blue states to receive aid from the government, their governors “have to treat us well.”
PENCE LIE: “Today, we are conducting more than 800,000 tests a day, and we have coordinated the delivery of billions of pieces of personal protective equipment for our amazing doctors, nurses and health care workers.”
- More than 1000 health care workers have died throughout the pandemic amid persistent supply shortages.
- As late as June, a National Nurses United survey found that 87% of 23,000 respondents were forced to reuse single use N95 respirators.
- The United States has tested fewer than 700,000 people a day every day this week.The country as a whole is only testing at 52% the levels recommended by experts.
PENCE LIE: “We built hospitals, served medical military personnel and enacted a rescue package to save 50 million American jobs. As we speak, we are developing a growing number of treatments, known as therapeutics, including convalescent plasma, that are saving lives all across America.”
- Again, there is no substantiated evidence that convalescent plasma actually works.
PENCE LIE: “I’m proud to report that we are on track to have the world’s first safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year.”
- Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that the chance of scientists creating a “highly effective” vaccine is “not great.”
- Public health experts warn that President Trump’s push to have officials speed up approval of a vaccine could have dangerous consequences. Paul Offit, a vaccine developer at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has said: “The vaccine is our best way out of it at this point. And to shake the American confidence further with either an unsafe or ineffective vaccine would be, I think, a disaster.”
PENCE LIE: “Who do you trust to rebuild this economy? A career politician who presided over the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression or a proven leader who created the greatest economy in the world?”
- President Trump presided over the worst economic contraction on record. 58 million people have filed for unemployment since the pandemic began, more than a million people filing new claims almost every week since March.
On Night 1 of the Convention, Republicans Produced a Propaganda Video That Told the Alternate Reality of Trump’s Failed Coronavirus Response
Some facts that they didn’t tell you in the video:
THE LIE: “One leader took decisive action to save lives…”
THE TRUTH:
- President Trump has downplayed the threat of the virus since the very beginning, falsely claiming that it would “disappear.”
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- Trump repeatedly downplayed and ignored warnings about the severity of the virus during “the lost month” of February by calling the virus a “hoax”, comparing it to the flu, praising the Chinese government’s response, and saying it was under control.
- On February 27, Trump promised: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.”
- On March 31, Trump said: “It’s going to go away, hopefully at the end of the month. And, if not, hopefully it will be soon after that.”
- Trump said on April 28: “I think what happens is it’s going to go away. This is going to go away.”
- On August 5, Trump still claimed: “This thing’s going away. It will go away like things go away.”
- President Trump refused to listen to the advice of experts who tried to keep our country safe, routinely ridiculed masks, and pushed junk science
- President Trump has attacked his own experts — including Dr. Anthony Fauci — and embraced fringe conspiracy theories.
- President Trump has aggressively pushed junk science and dangerous “miracle cures” like hydroxychloroquine.
- Trump repeatedly ridiculed mask wearing. He stated in July that Americans “don’t need” a mask, in June that people were wearing masks to show disapproval, mocked a reporter for wearing a mask at The White House in May and has flouted mask-wearing guidelines at his campaign events.
- President Trump has attacked his own experts — including Dr. Anthony Fauci — and embraced fringe conspiracy theories.
THE LIE: President Trump’s Decision to Ban Travel From China and Coronavirus Epicenters Saved Lives
THE TRUTH:
- President Trump’s Leaky Ban Allowed Thousands to Enter the United States Before and After It Was Implemented
- President Trump’s European Travel Ban Was Too Little Too Late
- Research indicates that the virus began circulating in New York City (which was, for a time, the epicenter of the United States’ outbreak) as early as mid-February — and that travelers brought the virus from Europe. President Trump did not implement a travel ban on Europe until mid-March.
THE LIE: Video Falsely Claims Trump Provided Relief to American Families, Workers, and Businesses
THE TRUTH:
- President Trump’s botched response allowed the virus to get out of control, causing the worst economic downturn in american history.
- President Trump Left Americans to Struggle While He Bailed Out Donors and Corporations
- President Trump first allowed enhanced unemployment benefits to expire on July 31, and then slashed payments and excluded the lowest-wage workers.
- As much as $273 million in PPP loans were provided to more than 100 companies that are owned or operated by donors to Trump.
- President Trump and Republicans walked away from the HEROES ACT that was passed by House Democrats in May and let enhanced unemployment benefits expire for Americans that were relying on them after losing their jobs.
THE LIE: The Video Falsely Claims President Trump Got Enough PPE to States
THE TRUTH:
- President Trump’s Mismanagement of Supplies Put States and Care Workers at Risk
- Trump ignored a 69 page National Security Council playbook that said the Administration should have begun procuring personal protective equipment in January.
- As the virus spread in late March, Trump declared that states, “have to get that gear themselves.”
- President Trump’s sparing use of the Defense Production act has left frontline workers struggling to protect themselves throughout the pandemic.
- President Trump Failed Care Workers on the Front Lines
- A July 10 administration briefing noted that states had only received a fraction of the PPE requested to fight the pandemic.