The first case of coronavirus was diagnosed in the U.S. on January 21, but the president knew that this was definitely something to keep an eye on at the end of December 2019. That’s when Wuhan, China, the reported epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, had been investigating an “outbreak of respiratory illness in the central city of Wuhan.”
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He didn’t care in January. Well he cared a bit.
Six days after the first U.S. diagnosis, Trump tweeted:
Two days after this tweet, he told his South Carolina rally crowd that the deadly coronavirus was the Democrats’ new “hoax.”
Almost a month later, Trump tweeted that the coronavirus was under control in the U.S.:
Two days later, Trump tweeted that the “fake news media” was trying to make the coronavirus look bad:
As recently as March 9, Trump compared the coronavirus to the common flu. But, according to two White House sources who spoke with the Washington Post, Trump changed his tune thanks to a likely Trump source: a human-speed bump, a world-renowned dumbass, a man who, if he were in a debate with a boot, you’d be an idiot to bet against the boot: Fox News host, Tucker Carlson.
According to Business Insider, after Carlson declared that the pandemic wasn’t a hoax and allowed his thin white lips to parse “this is real,” Trump decided to change his mind.
Carlson has for a long time been Trump’s third testicle. He actually asks to be called “Big Barron” when he visits the White House. He’s worn pajamas in the Oval Office during Christmas and has asked Trump to read to his favorite children’s book “The KKK’s Guide to ABC’s” during bed time, which Trump doesn’t do because he has trouble reading.
So Carlson used his platform to pull his father’s coattails.
“People you trust—people you probably voted for—have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem,” Carlson said.
“It’s just partisan politics, they say. Calm down. In the end, this is just like the flu, and people die from that every year. Coronavirus will pass, and when it does we will feel foolish for worrying about it.”
He added: “Maybe they’re just not paying attention, or maybe they believe they’re serving some higher cause by shading reality ... And there’s an election coming up. Best not to say anything that might help the other side. We get it. But they’re wrong, “
Carlson also called the coronavirus a “major event,” stressing, “It’s definitely not just the flu.”
From Business Insider:
Commenting on the 500 cases that had at that point been recorded in the US, he said: “The real number is without question far higher than that — soon we will have a better sense of just how much higher.
“By then, this epidemic will have caused economic damage whose effects may dog us for years. People you know will get sick — some may die. This is real.”
Carlson’s stark warning contrasted with the approach taken by other Fox News personalities, some of whom spent weeks claiming the disease was being exaggerated by Democrats and the larger news media as part of a plot to damage Trump’s presidency.
So thank you, Tucker Carlson. On a scale of “sad sack of shit” to Donald Trump, well, you’re still a sad sack of shit, but you helped your piece of shit father find his way. Now if you could kindly ask him to stop being racist by calling the coronavirus the “Chinese virus” that would be great.
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