GOP Rep. Aderholt: I Think the American People Want Trump ‘to Set a Tone of Optimism’

Although it is the prerogative of some in the media to be critical of President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the president still has support from many Republicans on Capitol Hill. That includes Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), whose congressional district gave Trump more than 80% of the vote in the 2016 presidential election, which made it Trump’s strongest district in the country.

During an appearance on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN on Monday, Aderholt gave Trump “high marks,” and argued the public wanted a tone of optimism from the commander-in-chief.

“I think personally he is doing a great job,” Aderholt said. “It’s interesting to hear the political pundits on TV criticize him for if he’s too optimistic, then they criticize him. I think the American people want the president to set a tone of optimism. I don’t think they want it to be gloom and doom. Now obviously, he is not a doctor. He doesn’t even play one on TV. But he does surround himself by the people who know what they’re doing. And obviously, he turns to them for guidance and direction, and sometimes they may articulate a little different than he would.”

“But that’s to be expected,” he continued. “If we were speaking and we had gotten consultation from a doctor on how to deal with this, it would be different from what we would say verbatim. So sometimes, it comes across as a little bit silly how some of them will just parse his words. But I think the president is doing a good job and he’s trying to communicate that we’re going to get through this. This is something that’s very unusual. I mean, nobody that’s living today, or very few people that are living today were living during 1918. There’s nobody that really has memory of 1918 that’s still living. This is just uncharted territory.”

He added, “I think under the circumstances, we could never have really expected — I mean there are ways we could have been better prepared on the federal level, no one really expected this to come. There were signs showing what was happening in the early part of this year in China, but we had no idea it was going to come to the point it was here. So, I give the president high marks for what he’s doing overall.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor