The US faces an unprecedented emergency, and we need our leaders to work together to solve the many problems. Unfortunately we have been seeing many Democrats and their allies in the media work to turn the crisis to their political advantage. Here is a timeline of examples:
On February 1, Joe Biden lashed out at Trump for the China travel restrictions announced the day before:
“This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia - hysterical xenophobia - and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science."
See video starting at 8:15 and Hill article for the quote and more details:
In response to the China travel ban, the Biden and his friends in the media slammed Trump for not listening to experts . . .
. . .the same experts who were still downplaying the risk of human-to-human transmission for most of January:
Health authorities believe that the virus probably originated in an as yet unidentified animal species and was transmitted humans by contact with animals at a live animal market in the central city of Wuhan. The World Health Organization tweeted on January 19: “An animal source seems the most likely primary source of this novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, with some limited human-to-human transmission occurring between close contacts.”
. . . Dr. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, notes that “We don’t have evidence of clusters in distant geographic locations as we did with SARS. This is what we would anticipate if the virus were highly transmissible.”
And experts at the CDC, FDA, and Washington State government did their best to prevent testing that ultimately proved that community transmission was occurring:
Meanwhile what did Democrats in congress do to protect the American people? They were wasting precious time and resources to distract and obstruct the administration using a politically motivated impeachment trial.
And they were encouraging people to ignore the risks of the coronavirus:
“Currently, the risk for novel coronavirus in New York City remains low, while our preparedness as a city remains high. There is no reason to avoid public settings, including subways and—most of all—our city’s famous Chinese restaurants and small businesses,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot. February 13, 2020
In March they joined Europeans who slammed Trump for preventing travelers from Europe from bringing the disease here:
The EU was eventually forced to adopt severe restrictions both between member states and the outside world. In response to the crisis Governor Cuomo bragged about the openness of New York to incoming diseases:
“Because we welcome people from across the globe,” he said. “We have people coming here, we have people who came here from China, who came here from Italy, who came here from all across the globe. . .I had no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than we even know,” he said. “And I have no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than it was in any other state, because those people come here first.”
Arguably New York’s complacency to the potential epidemic has already contributed to hundreds of deaths.
Now in response to President Trump’s mention of a possible quarantine of the New York area and travel restrictions from other states, Cuomo is threatening lawsuits to prevent travel restrictions that would limit the ability of the infected New Yorkers to travel and spread the disease throughout country.
“We’re talking to Rhode Island now. If they don’t roll back that policy, I’m going to sue Rhode Island,” Cuomo said on CNN Saturday evening. “No state should be using police to limit interstate travel.”
Apparently Cuomo is saying that the right to travel is absolute even during a dangerous epidemic. At the same time he and many Democrats are more than happy to place severe restrictions and licensing requirements on second amendment rights:
Protecting the right to keep and bear arms is not the same as forbidding all regulations on that right. We can protect that right and still require background checks, permits, and training. We can still regulate when, where, and what kinds of guns are allowed. In some cases, we can regulate who can obtain guns, imposing restrictions on, for instance, felons, the mentally ill, and known terrorists . . .
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/12/second-amendment-allows-for-gun-control.htm
My opinion is that we need to work together. We may have to make painful choices to avoid an epidemic of massive proportions. That may include quarantines of cities, states, or large regions of the US. Threats and obstruction will only result in more deaths.
