CNN network contributor David Gergen said President Donald Trump dismissing the coronavirus shows the country was “in the grips of a madman,” on Monday’s broadcast of “The Situation Room.”
Anchor Wolf Blitzer said, “David Gergen, you’ve advised presidents of both parties of these years. Have you ever seen a president behave as this president is behaving right now saying what he’s saying, doing what he’s doing? So many clearly can see as totally irresponsible.”
Gergen said, “Never. And I hope we never do again. I wake up some days, Wolf, practically feeling like we’re in the grips of a madman, and it’s going to take a while to get out, get back to normal. I think we should all be pleased the president has made this progress and is going home, but to Abby’s point, I think we should be alarmed by the lessons the president is taking with him. The very idea that people should not be afraid of COVID. He’s doubling down on the biggest mistake of his presidency, which was to take COVID in a cavalier fashion, to begin with, to downplay it, to sugarcoat it. Now he’s sending this same signal out to millions of people in his base. He’s saying they don’t have to worry about it. Why would you have to use a mask, you don’t have to worry about it? If you’re not scared of it?”
He continued, “I think he’s going to get a lot of people killed as a result. Starting with the White House itself. Got some 90 people in the residence. Blacks and Latinos who look after the first family year after year they are now increasingly at risk The Secret Service is increasingly at risk. That should be unacceptable.”
He added, “His team, the Trump team, is now saying ‘Well, he’s come through COVID. He’s proved he’s macho, he’s a man and he understands it. He gets it.’ I’m afraid he does not get it, and they think they’ve got some superior argument against Joe Biden. How many around Trump right now in his inner circle have been struck down by this disease recently? At least a dozen people have gone down. How many people in Joe Biden’s circle have been struck by this disease recently? The best I can tell, zero. One approach works, and the other one doesn’t. We ought to be very clear about that.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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