Al Gore Says Trump's Coronavirus Response Shows He's "Engaging in Magical Thinking Again"

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Former Vice President Al Gore criticized President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying that reopening the economy will endanger more American lives.

“I think we’re in grave danger,” Gore told Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta during an appearance on CNN. “I have to tell you both. I think that we are seeing the start of a botched reopening. I think that the President appears to be engaging in magical thinking again. And what I mean by that is, you know, a couple of months ago he said one day it’s just going to magically disappear.”

“It seems as if he may be recklessly rolling the dice hoping that he can goose the economy just enough in the third quarter of this year to enhance his reelection prospects, hoping that he can divert the blame for the extra tens of thousands of Americans who the doctors tell us will die as a result of this and blame it on the Chinese or former President Obama or whoever instead of doing what a president needs to do,” Gore continued.

Gore continued to take Trump to task, saying the crisis shows his presidency is a “failure.”

“The warnings were ignored. I spent eight years starting every single day with a lengthy report from the intelligence committee, and there were very few occasions where there was a stark warning about grave danger to the country, and whenever there was such an occasion, we stopped and said, hold the show here. Get the FBI. Get the CIA. Get whoever was involved over. We need to learn about this,” Gore said, adding that Trump is doing “the complete opposite of what the United States of America needs in the presidency right now.”

You can watch footage of Gore’s remarks below.

"He has failed as President, particularly on this challenge. The warnings were ignored."

Former Vice President Al Gore says President Trump and his administration have failed to properly handle the Covid-19 pandemic. #CNNTownHall https://t.co/BNNfapZSWp pic.twitter.com/jPPfFQlVa2

— CNN (@CNN) May 8, 2020

Gore’s comments come as more than 40 states prepare to at least partially reopen their economies against the advice of health, policy, and science experts.

Earlier this week, for example, The Daily Beast broke the news that Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) admitted during a private call with lawmakers that reopening the economy would spread the coronavirus even as he publicly announced that he would end an executive stay-at-home order.

Yesterday, an exclusive report from The Associated Press revealed that the Trump administration shelved a 17-page report by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) team titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework.” The report, the AP notes, “was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen.”

The document, which contains more detail than the “Opening Up America Again” guidelines released by the White House last month, was set to be published last Friday, but a CDC official who spoke to the AP said that agency scientists were told it “would never see the light of day.” The document was later leaked by CDC officials.