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‘We Like It the Old Way’: Trump Mocks Social Distancing, Denounces Testing as ‘Overrated’ in Pennsylvania Speech

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President Donald Trump flew to Allentown, Pennsylvania Thursday afternoon, where he visited the Owens & Minor medical supply facility, which makes personal protective equipment. As usual he delivered a speech and as usual, he undercut the CDC guidelines designed to keep Americans safe from the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

During his speech the President mocked and disparaged social distancing efforts and all but denounced testing, seeing both as remnants signaling the pandemic is still present. (In fact, the “curve” is flattening, but in comparison to many other countries, is not really going down.)

“Thank you, all that social distancing,” Trump sarcastically told his audience as he stood in front of stacks of boxes of PPE. “You people all spread out – six feet. That’s pretty impressive.”

“But we like it the old way,” Trump continued, as if to admonish himself for praising the audience for literally taking life-saving measures. “A little bit better, don’t we?”

“We’ll be back, we’ll be back to that soon, I think, I really believe it.”

Later during his speech, which was an official White House taxpayer-funded trip yet laced with partisan rhetoric including attacks on his presumptive opponent, Joe Biden, and the press, Trump disparaged the very idea of coronavirus testing.

“And we have the best test, tests two months ago didn’t even exist. Our great companies came up with things, Abbott Laboratories and so many others, they came up with things that – Roche – they came up with things that nobody even believes,” Trump bragged.

“So we have the best testing in the world,” he continued, changing from “tests” to “testing.”

“It could be that testing’s frankly,” he said, taking a long pause, “ah, overrated?”

“Maybe it is overrated. But whenever they start yelling, ‘We want more, we want more’ – ’cause they don’t want to give you credit, then we do more, and they say, ‘We want more.'”

“But we have the greatest testing in the world. But what we want is we want to get rid (clip ends).”

Trump went on to claim, “we have more cases than anywhere in the world. But why? Because we do more testing.”

That is a lie. The United States, due to President Trump’s refusal to ensure there were enough tests early in the pandemic, has more cases and more deaths than any country on earth. On a per capita basis the U.S. ranks 38th in testing, and 13th in deaths, where number one is the worst. And the U.S. is getting worse. Two weeks ago the United States ranked 16th in deaths, out of 214 countries and other localities.

Seeming to be unable to differentiate between actual cases and statistics, Trump went on to explain why he opposes testing.

“When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing we would have very few cases.”

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AMERICAN IDIOT

Watch: Director of National Intelligence Appears Dumbfounded Over GOP Senator from Alabama’s Questions

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1 year ago

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May 10, 2022

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U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines appeared politely dumbfounded by questions from Alabama freshman U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, as he seemed to suggest the United States Intelligence Community should not be assisting Ukraine in Russia’s unprovoked and illegal war.

“Good morning, Director Haines,” Tuberville, a former college football coach began in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday. “In your best assessment does Russian intelligence closely monitor our Secretary of Defense?”

“Russian intelligence tries very closely to monitor all of our senior leaders,” Haines patiently replied.

“Thank you,” Tuberville continued. “So you believe that noted that when he or ah, when he or said that Russia weakened and that the U.S. will move heaven and earth to arm Ukraine, do you believe that’s right he should say that?”

“Yes, I think Secretary of Defense should say –” Haines responded before being cut off.

“Do you believe Russia blames the U.S. intelligence community for helping Ukraine shoot down a Russian plane carrying hundreds of people?” Tuberville asked.

“I’m sorry, sir. Can you repeat the question?” Haines, not understanding what Tuberville was talking about, requested.

“Do you believe Russia blames us, our intelligence agency, for Ukraine shooting down a plane with hundreds of troops on board? Do you think Russia blames us for that?” he asked.

“Which plane are you thinking of?” Haines inquired.

“There was a plane recently that was shot down, a Russian plane that had 100 troops. Do you believe that they blame our intelligence agency for that?”

“I don’t know sir.”

“Okay. Do you believe that Russia blames our U.S. intelligence for sinkin ah their flagship, Moskova? Do you think they blame us for that?”

“I don’t know sir. We haven’t seen any direct reports –”

“To what extent you access [sic] that Russia believes it is at war with the west and United States? Do you think that they believe they’re at war with us?”

“Russia has historically believed that they are in a conflict, in effect, with NATO and the United States on variety of issues including in cyber and so on.”

“So you believe that they’re fighting us? That they’re they’re fighting us as well as they’re fighting Ukraine? Correct?”

“In a sense, their perception. Yeah.”

“Because we’re arming them and we’re talking. Okay.”

Tuberville’s apparent defense of Russia, his apparent implication that the U.S. Intelligence Community should not be assisting Ukraine is not only ill-founded and wrong, it lies in his tragic misconception of what is actually happening.

“As the Alabama Republican sees it,” MSNBC reported in February about Tuberville, “Russia invaded Ukraine because it’s a ‘communist country’ in need of ‘farmland.’ That’s not even close to being true.”

In October, before Alabama voters chose Tuberville over incumbent Democratic Senator Doug Jones, “the Alabama Media Group’s Kyle Whitmire noted, ‘Tuberville is in hiding,'” that same MSNBC report stated. ” The columnist added, ‘[I]f a campaign won’t let its candidate speak openly because he can’t do so without saying dumb things that hurt his chances of winning the election, what the heck is going to happen when he’s in the United States Senate?'”

Now we know.

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AMERICAN IDIOT

‘Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’: Trump Mocked After Saying He Aced the ‘Aptitude’ Test (It Was a Dementia Test)

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1 year ago

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April 21, 2022

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Donald Trump Thursday evening stood in front of an audience at an event hosted by the right-wing Heritage Foundation and bragged about “acing” an “aptitude” test near the end of his one term as president.

He was either forgetting what the test was, lying about it, or had been lied to.

“They actually were thinking about an Article 25 when I said that,” Trump declared, referring to the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that provides a mechanism to remove a president from office other than via an impeachment conviction.

“They don’t think about it now, the 25th Amendment. They don’t think about that now at all, they never mention the 25th. But they would never – any time I had a great idea they would mention –’25th Amendment, there’s something wrong with him.'”

“I took the aptitude test and I aced it according to Doc Ronny,” Trump continued, referring to then-White House Physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, who is now a Republican U.S. Congressman and under ethics investigation.

“And a whole group of doctors, I aced that aptitude test,” he falsely claimed. “And that’s a test that even some geniuses in this room will not do that well on. It’s not that easy a test.”

Trump is wrong on all counts.

As The New York Times reported at the time, “‘Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’ Didn’t Mean What Trump Hoped It Did.”

“The president said on Fox News that he had to remember those words as part of a test that he said demonstrated his mental acuity. But the test, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, is meant to detect signs of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or other conditions.”

This was Trump in 2020:

And this was Trump Thursday evening:

Numerous people on social media tweeted, “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.” in response.

More:

“You tried to buy Greenland.”

“I don’t think he understands this actually makes him look bad, not good.”

“And to think, there are people who would debase themselves for this man…”

“I’m so thankful for Biden and every single person in his family and administration. Yes, our government needs work. It always will. The disgust I felt when this guy was ‘in charge’ is something I’m still trying to recover from. A pure revolt that I was forced to take head on.”

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AMERICAN IDIOT

‘Let Me Explain How Diplomacy Works’: Psaki Forced to Explain US Response to Russian Attack to Fox News’ Peter Doocy

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2 years ago

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February 25, 2022

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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Friday was forced to explain to Fox News’ Peter Doocy how diplomacy in international conflicts works.

Doocy tried to suggest that President Joe Biden has done nothing to restrain Russian President Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine, even as world leaders have presented a united front in the face of Putin’s illegal war, and even as the hosts on the top shows on Doocy’s network have been praising Putin.

“There’s a report in The New York Times,” Doocy told Psaki, “that you guys kept asking China to help you stop Russia from invading Ukraine, and they didn’t. So what have you guys done throughout this slow moving Russia crisis that has worked?”

Stunned at the ignorance of his question, Psaki asked: “In what capacity?” forcing Doocy to actually list some of the many things President Biden and his administration have done over the past month or more to try to silence Putin’s drums of war.

“Well, the President talked to Putin,” Doocy began. “He talked to the G-7. He threatened sanctions. He put sanctions in place. Now he says the sanctions are going to take 30 days, or about a month. Do you guys think the people in Ukraine have about a month?”

“Well, Peter, let me just take a step back and explain to everyone how diplomacy works and how our approach from the United States has worked,” Psaki replied. “What the President has done is he has built a global coalition to stand up in the face of President Putin and President Putin’s aggression and invasion of Ukraine. What he has done is he has rallied the world, our European partners, even at cost to them in some capacities, to put in place significant sanctions, historic sanctions, that would have an enormous impact on the Russian financial sector. It is President Putin’s choice to go to war and invade Ukraine. That is what he has done. It is our choice and our responsibility and the role of the President in the United States to rally opposition and make sure they feel significant pain from that choice. That’s exactly what we have done.”

 

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