By Denny Gulino
WASHINGTON (MaceNews) – There were moments in the week just past when everything made sense, virus deaths were leveling in many areas including the New York City metro, the government’s efforts to massively ramp up the acquisition and production of medical gear were on track and the markets were moderately positive.
The serenity was interrupted a bit, of course, when the oil market went crazy. Oil insiders were shaken regardless of some explanations of a mere financial squeeze on paper. Oil was suddenly worth less than nothing.
When CDC Director Robert Redfield was thrown in front of reporters to contradict The Washington Post story about his warning of a possible fall confluence of influenza and Covid-19 and then had to say he was quoted correctly after all, it was a small public reverse for the president.
There was another ripple when President Trump at one point declared, “I don’t agree” with the star research figure on his Task Force, Tony Fauci. He had said yes, as Redfield had told the Post, the virus will be with us in the fall.
As the week progressed and showed the oil deal Trump had brokered with Saudi Arabia, Russia and Mexico was now irrelevant there was a hardly any acknowledgement in the White House. Yet there was a vague feeling some crucial threshold had been passed. Maybe it could all be fixed with that tweet that there would be government support for the Oil Patch.
When the president acknowledged that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was out of line in opening up high-contact personal service businesses before any compliance with Task Force guidelines there was a hint something fundamental had gone awry. When the next day Trump said publicly he wasn’t happy with Kemp yet he could do what he wanted, another leadership ratchet seemed to have slipped.
At another point in the week, when Trump was asked about a Joe Biden comment, he seemed particularly intense when he said he didn’t know what would happen in the election, given the hostile press he said he was facing. That triggered a passing thought that maybe he was sincerely in doubt, an uncharacteristic stance.
Then that Fox News poll was published showing the Trump brand behind in three battleground states compared to the Biden brand, and more than 20 points behind with women – repeating a Fox poll, not an MSNBC or CNN poll – another thought, perhaps that was weighing on the president’s mind.
The exchanges with reporters had become particularly contentious. “You don’t have the brains you were born with,” and so much else, suggested a president under pressure, increasingly defensive.
Then Thursday arrived. Sure, the president said something dumb, questioning whether a disinfectant could be ingested, and sure, the media jumped on it, and sure, just as White House aides insisted, the media repetition was overdone. How could it not be?
Within that podium exchange about disinfectant, however, was one of those instants on the TV screen than seemed to flash like a lightning bolt. The reverse camera, on the side of the briefing room that can swing around to show the room, instead shot past the vice president and the president to catch Deborah Birx sitting watching the podium.
Her stone-faced visage while her body language showed her uncomfortableness was captured as Trump turned to her, asking if some kind of light treatment along with some kind of disinfectant internal cleanse was something she and the government scientist next to her could look into, that instant seemed to say volumes.
Were she to acknowledge even with a turn of her head some signaled assent to what must have seemed a wildly ridiculous question, her standing at the summit of the community of government medical experts would plummet. It seemed she was frozen in place while being publicly embarrassed by the president of the United States.
For Trump, the end of the work week Friday would not be kind either. His midday photo-op as he signed the Paycheck Protection Program replenishment along with hospital aid and federal testing funds featured one of those extended question and answer sessions. It would last 42 minutes.
It went south quickly as he faced the inevitable question.
Mr. President, can you clarify your comments about injections of disinfectant? They’re quite provocative.
His answer. Not the smooth bon mot that would be somewhat self-deprecating but would lightly and ever so slightly acknowledge a faux pas.
He could have said something like, “You know, that reminds me. I have a special treat for my friends in the media. We’re going to go beyond the usual virus test and administer to each of you a free injection of disinfectant. Our featured brand will be Lysol.”
Instead there was a somewhat sneering reply that carried the message that he had no answer, that he resented the question, that he had become a victim of his own inflexibility.
“No, I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you, just to see what would happen,” is what the president actually said.
It didn’t get better. “I was asking a sarcastic — and a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it, and it would kill it on the hands, and that would make things much better.”
“But you were asking your medical experts to look into it. Were you being sarcastic with them?”
“No. No, no, no, no. To look into whether or not sun and disinfectant on the hands — but whether or not sun can help us.” And on and on. All on camera.
Of course reporters for CNN and MSNBC weren’t buying it. Nor other talking heads or the anchors. So what? That happens every day.
What doesn’t happen every day was what was on the the president’s portal to the outside world, the Fox News network. First one reporter, having just viewed the White House exchange, instead of turning it around somehow to the advantage of the president, sounded more like what was happening on CNN. He wasn’t buying it either.
The president wasn’t talking to reporters, he said. He wasn’t being sarcastic. He was asking his world-renowned medical experts whether you could inject a disinfectant.
Not long after, the Fox News White House reporter did the same kind of report. He had been watching very closely and what he saw was the president had been asking a question of his medical experts, not being sarcastic with reporters.
Later, shortly after 2 p.m., the Fox News White House reporter was back with a package report the president, an avid Fox watcher – or his Tivo – might have caught. It presented the video of the Thursday night exchange and then the video of the president’s explanation back to back. It was not a good look.
In between on several of the cable networks, nurses were still complaining they still did not have enough personal protective gear. Unemployed people were saying they could not get their government’s special unemployment money for one reason or another. On CNBC a paper billionaire defended his $4.1 million obtained from CARES Act funds. And the nation’s virus death toll blew through the 51,000 mark.
Which brings us to Friday evening. As the few reporters for whom there is still space in the socially distanced White House press briefing room waited in their seats for the usual appearance of President Trump with the Corona Virus Task Force, a White House staffer approached the “pool” reporter, the volunteer who represents all those who are not in the press room.
Let’s turn to the words of the “pooler.”
“A White House official instructed the print pooler to take CNN’s seat in the briefing room because the seating would be swapped for the briefing. Given the seating assignment is under the jurisdiction of the White House Correspondents’ Association, not the White House, pooler refused to move.”
What would be the point? That would have placed the CNN reporter farther back in the briefing room, where she could more easily be ignored if she asked a question. Back to the pooler.
“The White House official then informed the print pooler swapping wasn’t an option and the Secret Service was involved. Again, pooler refused to move, citing guidance from the WHCA. The briefing proceeded with both CNN and print pooler sitting in their respective assigned seats.”
But it wouldn’t be the usual briefing, in which the president dominated the proceedings, taking most of the questions. And for whatever reason, Drs. Birx and Fauci were not there.
The FDA commissioner was there, took one question. Vice President Mike Pence took the podium and recounted material already made available previously.
Then something extremely uncharacteristic happened, in fact something unprecedented for the evening briefings. The president took no questions. He turned and walked out, with Pence trailing behind. The entire briefing that often lasts an hour and a half or more was this time only 21 minutes long.
What did the week of ups and downs tell us? Maybe nothing.
Perhaps everyone will forget about injectable disinfectant in 24 hours. It’s likely Drs. Birx and Fauci and the CDC’s Redfield will reappear at the president’s side Sunday or Monday night.
Perhaps Georgia and the other states that are beginning to follow its premature reopening will find no new surge in virus cases, no second wave of deaths.
Perhaps the oil price will rise enough, to $30 or more, so there won’t be so many bankruptcies in the Oil Patch after all, no reason to find many more billions for Houston and environs.
Perhaps the president’s poll numbers will improve. Perhaps he’ll stop fighting with reporters from CNN and NBC and CBS.
His Fox News pals who fill the network’s evening hours have already renewed their fealty. He can forget about those earlier Fox reporters who refused to close their eyes.
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Contact this reporter: denny@macenews.com
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