Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said on Thursday that no president has ever mismanaged a national crisis as badly as Donald Trump has bungled the federal coronavirus response.
During an interview with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, Schmidt said Trump’s response to the outbreak has been “the most inept” in American history.
“We look at a president, who is so clearly in over his head and out of his depth, who has been dishonest, who has been imprecise, who’s been inaccurate, and whose deadly indecision will be paid for with the lives of tens of thousands of Americans,” the ex-GOP strategist said.
He added, “We see every night all of the qualities you never, ever want to see in a leader in a crisis when lives are at stake.”
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Schmidt said
I think the White House has done, historically, very poorly in this. This is one of the most significant crises in American history. It’s certainly the largest American crisis of our lifetimes, and it’s been the most inept response by the executive, by the president, think, with regard to any crisis in American history but, certainly, any crisis in our lifetimes. And we look at a president, who is so clearly in over his head and out of his depth, who has been dishonest, who has been imprecise, who’s been inaccurate, and whose deadly indecision will be paid for with the lives of tens of thousands of Americans, as this virus escalated to a place it never need have gotten. And that is all because of the wasted month of February, where the president was hate tweeting, firing people that he was angry with over impeachment, going on campaign rallies and golfing. And, now, the country is paying the price for that. We should be careful to understand that when the same guy says, ‘Well, it’ll be back in September but we’ll make it go away really quick,’ is the same guy when there were 15 cases in the country, said, ‘Soon, it would be gone to zero and it would disappear like magic.’ The lack of credibility in these evening news events is epic and unlike everything we’ve ever seen. It’s a Baghdad Bob show every night of the week, day after day, the airing of the grievances, the airing of his anger issues. The attacks on the governors. We see every night all of the qualities you never, ever want to see in a leader in a crisis when lives are at stake.
Throughout U.S. history, the American people have had to live through some pretty disastrous presidencies when the commander-in-chief failed to meet the moment.
Some presidents were simply too incompetent and unprepared to manage an unexpected crisis, while others were unable to rise above politics to do the right thing when it mattered most.
In Donald Trump, the American people have seen the worst of both worlds – a grossly incompetent president who is obsessed with doing whatever he thinks will help his reelection effort.
This disastrous combination has had devastating consequences as more than 30,000 Americans have died.
As PoliticusUSA’s Jason Easley wrote earlier this week, “Trump was a bottom ten president before the coronavirus pandemic. After his failed performance handling the virus, he is a lock to be last.”
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