President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he may implement a short-term enforced quarantine on “hotspots” of the novel coronavirus, including New York state, New Jersey, and some parts of Connecticut—though it’s not clear he has the power to do so. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo quickly hit back Saturday, saying “I don’t know what that means,” and asserting that the president had not discussed the […]
Donald J. Trump
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President Donald Trump lies as a matter of habit, but in the midst of the pandemic his lies can kill. He touted a malaria drug as a coronavirus cure, and a fearful couple ingested a fish tank cleaner bearing a similar name; one of them is dead. Now Trump is asserting that “real people” should join in his call to “open up our country” by Easter […]
Shortly after the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus pandemic reached 1,500 on Friday, President Donald Trump took to the podium at a White House press briefing and complained that certain state’s governors are not “appreciative” enough of the federal government’s help—so much so that he said he’d told Vice President Mike Pence, the leader of the coronavirus task force, to skip calling governors of some […]
Speaking to listeners on his radio show Friday, Sean Hannity briefly addressed the controversy surrounding cable news networks’ decisions to air President Donald Trump’s daily coronavirus press briefings. But while producers and journalists at CNN and MSNBC have expressed concern about Trump daily spreading misinformation to the American people, the Fox News host has another idea about why they might not want to give free airtime […]
LONDON—Earlier this month, while other countries were deploying powerful counter pandemic measures, Boris Johnson paid a visit to Kettering General Hospital an hour and a half north of London. Afterwards, he boasted that he had taken no precautions. “I’m shaking hands continuously,” he said with a smirk during a press conference on March 3 that was called ostensibly to warn people of the upcoming threat. “I […]
The dire shortage of protective medical gear needed to handle the spread of coronavirus is not some great secret. For weeks, hospital administrators, medical professionals, and political leaders warned that this was a looming crisis. Increasingly, it’s not even looming. Over the past few days, photos have gone viral of nurses resorting to wearing trash bags and makeshift protective masks as they treat highly infectious patients. […]
Into an already toxic brew of political discord and hyperventilating social media, a pathogen of foreign origin arrives. To fight it, the country must unite. At the same time, the coronavirus makes us more vulnerable to manipulation, especially if people are scared and nobody seems to have good answers. Some of that manipulation is from Russia, and some from China, and while the two countries are […]
Trevor Noah landed the first late-night interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases appeared remotely on Thursday night’s edition of “The Daily Social Distancing Show.” Fauci began by characterizing the coronavirus as the “worst nightmare” from a pandemic perspective, more “frightening” than Ebola because it spreads more easily and is more “insidious” than the seasonal flu […]
As medical professionals and local authorities across the country sound the alarm over shortages of life-saving equipment due to a surge in coronavirus patients, President Donald Trump on Thursday shrugged off their warnings because, as he put it, “a lot of equipment is being asked for that I don’t think they will need.” Calling into Fox News host and unofficial presidential adviser Sean Hannity’s show on […]
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro found himself on the receiving end of a verbal buzzsaw Thursday afternoon when CNN anchor Brianna Keilar relentlessly grilled him on the administration’s lack of preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic, explicitly telling him he was “wasting everyone’s time.” With casualties from the deadly coronavirus surging across the nation and hospitals running out of needed supplies as they become overrun with […]
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was trashing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday night when Fox News host Martha MacCallum hit her with a rude awakening. Conway accused the mayor of “lying to America” when he said he’s “been on top of” the coronavirus crisis from the beginning, pointing to tweets in which he encouraged New Yorkers to go out despite early warnings […]
President Donald Trump lashed out at a reporter Wednesday when pressed on whether his hope to have the country “opened up” by Easter amid the coronavirus pandemic has more to do with politics than public health. “The media would like to see me do poorly in the election,” Trump said after being asked at a White House briefing to explain the basis for his plan to […]
The first episode of Full Frontal to air during our collective quarantine opens with a beautiful view of a peaceful forest. Samantha Bee calmly approaches the camera holding a small bouquet of daffodils. “Look, I know it’s easy to feel down right now,” she says. “I mean, of course it is, that’s only natural. But if I can pass on the immortal words of my beloved […]
The nation’s television news outlets, especially the three major cable-news networks, are grappling with a nagging paradox as President Donald Trump continues to orchestrate his White House briefings on the novel coronavirus pandemic. On the one hand, their ratings have never been higher, and viewers’ appetites for the live sessions have shown no signs of dwindling. On the other hand, journalists and executives at MSNBC, CNN […]
Days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, then-Senator Joe Biden had been advised that he should make an address to a frightened nation before the National Press Club. Instead, he phoned Oprah. Biden, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, decided that The Oprah Winfrey Show, the highest-rated daytime television show in the country at the time, was the best way for his […]
Drew Angerer/Getty After days and days of referring to the coronavirus as the “Chinese flu,” President Trump’s statement Monday about how Asian-Americans aren’t to blame for it was too little and too late. It’s too little because he didn’t acknowledge, let alone apologize, for calling COVID-19 the “Chinese flu.” And it’s too late because he’d already sounded a dog whistle for harassment of and violence against […]
HONG KONG—In mid-March, a woman in her twenties who was living in Albuquerque, typed up three posts for Twitter—what she called her “shower thoughts.” She had started to wonder if COVID-19 had popped up in the United States much earlier than officials let on, maybe even in early January, well before the disease was recognized as a serious issue within American borders. Beatrice is not a […]
Ed Asner would very much like Betty White to live. Also Carl Reiner, William Shatner, Mel Brooks, and Cloris Leachman. Oh, and himself. On Tuesday afternoon, the Emmy-winning TV legend (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant) directed a tweet at Donald Trump in response to the president’s comments which insinuated that he plans to reopen the country in weeks. Doing so would defy the pleas […]
Donald Trump is half-right. At Monday’s news conference, Trump correctly noted that our society balances human lives against other values (freedom, prosperity, profit) all the time. We do it every time we set a speed limit, knowing full well that letting people drive faster will cause some of those people—and their innocent victims—to die. But when you run the numbers on the novel coronavirus, Trump is […]
It seemed pretty weird when Seth Meyers delivered his most recent “A Closer Look” segment without a studio audience. Eleven days later, it got even weirder as Meyers brought his latest take on the novel coronavirus pandemic to viewers from an empty hallway in his house. “It may be weird to do this from a hallway,” the Late Night host said. “But at least I’m not […]
Last Friday, Lou Dobbs was unable to host his own show because he had entered self-quarantine after someone on his staff had tested positive for COVID-19. On Monday night, he called in to talk to fill-in host David Asman and had nothing but good things to say about how President Trump has been handling the crisis. During their conversation, Asman brought up what he described as […]
Former Vice President Joe Biden kicked off what he promised to be frequent addresses to the nation on Monday by outlining his vision for what a successful emergency response looks like, using President Donald Trump as an example of what not to do. “Donald Trump is not to blame for the coronavirus,” Biden said in one of several critical remarks about the president. “But he does […]
After wasting months of precious time, one week ago, Donald Trump bowed to reality and started taking the coronavirus pandemic seriously. This included following the advice of Dr. Anthony Fauci and other experts, and encouraging social distancing to “flatten the curve” and slow transmission of the virus. And that lasted….a week? Guess he got tired of being a “wartime president.” Trump is now signaling he might […]
Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that the coronavirus task force, in coordination with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, would issue guidance this week about how people exposed to the virus could return to work by wearing a mask. His statement comes as the number of coronavirus cases continues to surge in the U.S. On Sunday, the number of people infected with COVID-19 surpassed 30,000. […]