Donald Trump says he assured the American people that everything would be fine, that the coronavirus would fade away, even though he knew a deadly pandemic was coming because he wanted to prevent panic by telling everybody to "stay calm."
“I don’t want to jump up and down and start screaming ‘Death! Death!’ because that’s not what it’s all about. We have to lead a country,” Trump said adding, “There has to be a calmness.”
Calmness. Yes, precious calmness.
It's hard to stay calm when Covid 19 deaths keep rising -- 192,000 at today's count -- and when anybody with any brains knows that if the looming pandemic had been handled honestly, effectively and intelligently, many of those deaths would have been avoided.
It's also hard to stay calm when at least six school teachers have died from Covid 19 as Trump insists that schools must open regardless.
This pandemic has caused havoc in everyone's lives; the stories abound.
A woman in South Carolina who suffers from asthma explained in an email how she was sent home from her job at major drug store chain because she can't wear a mask as it restricts her breathing.
So, she has lost her income. She applied for unemployment benefits in May, but is still awaiting approval. She has sought other assistance, to no avail. She is becoming increasingly desperate.
Here's some of what she said:
"I keep hearing about how we should protect the vulnerable from this pandemic. The hard truth is only the affluent can truly socially isolate during this time. The working class has been thrown to the wolves.
"There are many working poor with extreme risk factors that are forced to put themselves in danger every day just to survive. The sad part is their paltry paycheck barely keeps them afloat.
"We need an economy that works for everyone, not just the rich. Worker rights have been eroding over the years. I feel that the Republican party has sold us out to the highest bidder."
It's hard to stay calm when you hear stories like that from people who are hurting because of the irresponsible actions of the Trump administration.
Scare Tactics
And while Trump says we all need to stay calm, he is doing everything he can to scare people into voting for him and his Republican ass kissers.
“If I don’t win, America’s Suburbs will be OVERRUN with Low Income Projects, Anarchists, Agitators, Looters and, of course, ‘Friendly Protesters,’ ” Trump tweeted Thursday morning.
That's just the latest example of the hateful, divisive rhetoric that Trump is using to solidify his base and attract those mostly White Americans whom he feels can be lured from supporting his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.
Trump continues to warn of dangers that lurk everywhere. It's been a hallmark of at first, his campaign for election, and then his presidency.
He warned that citizens of majority-Muslim countries would bring terror to America's shores. He warned that MS-13 gang members would overtake peaceful communities.
Using scare tactics, prejudice and hate, he warned that “caravans” of “illegal aliens” that traveled through Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border would bring crime, sickness and disease. And, oh yes, they would take American jobs.
Trump loves to warn that Democrats will steal everyone’s guns, obliterate the economy and destroy the country with socialism. Democrats, led by Biden, are the “radical left” who will endanger families and wipe out livelihoods in suburbs everywhere.
Trump: “No one will be safe in Biden’s America.”
In late July, Trump promised to protect the suburbs from low income-housing being built in their neighborhoods, in a direct effort to stir up racist fears.That was when he announced the administration's plan to roll back an Obama-era program to combat racial segregation in urban housing.
It's hard to stay calm when the president of the United States calls in federal troops and uses tear gas against American citizens who are lawfully protesting brutal police killings of unarmed Black suspects, just so he can get his picture taken toting a Bible in front of a church near the White House.
It's also hard to stay calm when he continues to spread falsehoods about voting by mail, trying to scare people into not voting, presumably, as surveys show that more Democrats than Republicans intend to vote by mail instead of going to the polls in person.
“Mail-In Ballots will lead to massive electoral fraud and a rigged 2020 Election,” he tweeted in July, in a message that he continually attempts to reinforce. In fact, he's issued such a warning more than 100 times, according to The Washington Post.
It's hard to stay calm, too, as the Trump campaign attempts to brand lawful protestors as criminals.
A new Trump campaign video, "Meet Joe Biden's Supporters," ends with slow-motion footage of Biden kneeling in a Black church in front of a row of Black leaders. Words on the screen read “stop Joe Biden and his rioters” as Vice President Mike Pence declares “you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
Ironically, the scenes in the video occurred during Trump's America. Not Biden's, because he's not the president.
Not yet.
November 3.