Playground antics of Trump and media get in the way of fighting the virus
SAN DIEGO -- Americans have more urgent things to do than police another schoolyard fight between President Trump and the media.
I get that. But this dysfunctional relationship is everyone's concern -- especially now. We're facing two wars. And the war between Trump and the media threatens to get in the way of fighting the war on the invisible but deadly coronavirus.
Trump is right that many in the media -- especially the White House press corps - are dishonest, unfair and agenda-driven.
But the media are right that Trump has a gift for snatching incompetence from the jaws of leadership.
Given the difficulty that many Americans are having in adhering to the "stay-at-home" order, why would the president even talk about returning to "an open country, an open economy"?
On Tuesday, the president made clear that he is in a hurry to declare the
United States re-opened for business by Easter.
Weeks? It'll take that long to get people to stop treating a quarantine like a vacation where they go to beaches and parks.
Last week, Trump hit his stride by using daily White House press briefings on the virus to convince Americans to take this global health crisis seriously. Now he undermines those efforts by projecting the image that he himself doesn't take the situation seriously.
No wonder I keep having this dream where New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo -- whose briefings are clear, informative, reassuring and, best of all, not about Cuomo -- confronts Trump and the Democrat essentially says: "Look at me. I am the president now."
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