My God what a horrible press conference by Trump. I had to have heard "very, very" 30-50 times. He seemed confused, almost like he didn't know how to get out of campaign mode and struggled to maintain a strong, confident, somber, Presidential demeanor. The man was all over the place, seeming to talk forever but say nothing noteworthy.
Luckily he turned things over to Pence who sounded like a President should sound when giving press conferences like this. While Pence was talking Trump looked like he was falling asleep. Maybe he is massively jet lagged.
so evidently Pence is now in charge of the US response to the coronavirus. Does Pence know anything about organizing health teams, pandemic approaches, I mean ANYTHING related to this? Shouldn't this be a scientist / heath professional who is organizing this? No wait, that would make sense.
And Azar said the vaccine, when it's available, will not be subsidized for people who can't afford it? what a bunch of morons running our country right now.
I don't really think this is a fair take. The CDC and appropriate health professionals will be in charge of the nuts and bolts, putting a well-connected politician at the head of something like this makes sense for a couple of reasons. First, it signals how seriously the administration is taking this. Second it will help cut through red tape and bureaucracy. It's fine to hate on this administration if you want to, but it's totally fine to make Pence the point person on this.
I completely understand that Pence is nothing more than an administrator that will help the CDC. But I also realize that Pence isn't a great administrator. Yes better than Trump, but we have a CDC for a reason, or at least we used to. Pence also doesn't have a great track record of health crisis management. I just would rather see the Surgeon General, or some other respected scientist or physician lead the effort. I have literally zero expectations that the public will get the truth (good honest information) from Pence or Trump. Trump would lie to the whole nation saying everything is ok if it helped him get re-elected.
The Trump administration gave a classified briefing to the US Senate which both Republicans and Democrats were frustrated with saying the administration is 'asleep at the wheel' regarding preparation for the coronavirus. Schumer, Blumenthal, John Kennedy, Mitt Romney all had critical comments about the administration's response.
So how often does that happen? Seriously how often do the Rep and Dem Senators agree on something that comes from the Trump Administration? Maybe the Syria thing?
If Pence can fix this, great. I haven't seen anything in 3 years that makes me think he is going to be any more honest with the US public about the coronavirus than Trump would be. Now Trump gets to blame Pence when everything goes to blank. How does that help the US public?