The Most Qualified President Ever April 8, 2020April 8, 2020 But first: “Some Good News” with John Krasinski. (You know: the guy from” The Office.”) It’s had 8 million views, so I might not be the first one to suggest it you. (Thanks, Upworthy.) If you just want to get out of your room for a bright, sunny — calming — walk in the woods, close your eyes and breathe in the cold pure air. And now: Back to to dystopia. Don’t believe everything you read! (“What We Pretend to Know About the Coronavirus Could Kill Us.”) It’s a really important, scary story about the way misinformation is spread. It reminds me of the ease with which a man turned his shed into the #1-rated restaurant in all of London . . . even though it had never served a meal. Or of how my college classmate came to believe Hillary diverted $2 million from the Clinton Foundation to pay for her daughter’s wedding. Or of how your fellow reader, Tom, ends all his emails with: “Donald Trump, the most qualified President ever!” Consider this timeline: Jan 8th – First CDC warning Jan 9th – Trump campaign rally Jan 14th – Trump campaign rally Jan 18th – Trump golfs Jan 18th – HHS Secy Azar tries to warn of pandemic, but Trump focused on flavored vaping ban Jan 19th – Trump golfs Jan 20th – First diagnosed case of coronavirus in the US. Jan 22nd – “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.” Jan 27th – Joe Biden lays it all out in USA Today Jan 28th – Trump campaign rally Jan 29th – Navarro memo warning of 500K deaths and $6 trillion cost Jan 30th – Trump campaign rally Feb 1st – Trump golfs Feb 2nd – “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.” Feb 10th – Trump campaign rally Feb 12th – Dow Jones closes at all time high — 29,551.42 Feb 15th – Trump golfs Feb 19th – Trump campaign rally Feb 20th – Trump campaign rally Feb 21st – Trump campaign rally Feb 24th – “The coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” Feb 25th – “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling coronavirus.” Feb 25th – “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.” Feb 26th – “The 15 [cases] within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.” Feb 26th – “We’re going very substantially down, not up.” Feb 26th – “This is a flu. This is like a flu.” “Now, you treat this like a flu.” “It’s a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for. And we’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner.” Feb 27th – “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” Feb 28th – “We’re ordering a lot of supplies. We’re ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn’t be ordering unless it was something like this. But we’re ordering a lot of different elements of medical.” Feb 28th – Trump campaign rally March 2nd – “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.” March 5th – “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!” March 6th – “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.” March 6th – “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.” March 6th – “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.” March 6th – “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.” March 7th – Trump golfs March 8th – Trump golfs March 8th – “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine-tuned plan at the White House for our attack on coronavirus.” March 9th – “This blindsided the world.” March 17th – “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” March 23rd – Dow Jones closes at 18,591.93 March 25th – 3.3 million Americans file for unemployment April 2nd – 6.6 million Americans file for unemployment April 3rd – McConnell blames Impeachment for the response to coronavirus. April 6th – “You should say, ‘Congratulations. Great job,’ instead of being so horrid in the way you ask a question.” (A Fox News reporter asked about testing.) There were warnings. So many warnings. Stay safe.