ajax18 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 10:16 pm
Do you honestly believe that? The deep state and the Democrats were the ones crucifying Trump during the scamdemic for opening too soon. Now if you were to argue that DeSantis would have stood up to them and fired Dr. Fauci, I can see your point. But for any Democrat to say that Trump was the reason people were going to jail, getting fined, and being called murderers for getting up and going to work, that's just not intellectually honest. Whether Trump was President or not, that was the Democrats and the uniparty driving the scamdemic, and shutting down anyone who had a different opinion as antiscientific. It's also that same uniparty who is making sure that China is not held accountable for it. I'm sorry bro but blaming Trump for the draconian iditiotic scamdemic response is ridiculous. It's as crazy as saying Biden and Veritas want the border enforced while Republicans are trying to let them all in.
Yes, I honestly believe that by virtue of being under HHS, that the CDC is technically part of the executive branch. While Fauci (and others at the CDC) are protected by federal civil service regulations, since they aren't political appointees, they could still have been easily pressured and had disciplinary actions initiated under the request and direction of the director of NIH (a presidentially appointed position), or the HHS secretary (another presidentially appointed position). In other words, Trump could have heavily influenced and guided the directions of the CDC, Fauci, and the whole kit-and-kaboodle... if he had wanted to (or was smart enough to).
Incidentally, do you not remember when I shared with you Trump's guidelines for Governors to follow? It was an internet archive link to the Whitehouse website while he was President. He issued a booklet for Governors on when to shut down businesses (it even broke down types of businesses), schools, etc., for how long, and what steps would need to happen before gradually reopening. His guidelines were more harsh and stringent than what any Governor or Mayor (Democrat, Independent, or Republican) did.
The grand irony is that he issued his guidelines literally days before he started Tweeting about "freeing" states. Freeing them from Governors who were doing LESS than what Trump literally told them to do days prior. He was criticizing people for doing LESS than what he literally just told them to do, and his base ate it up (and still eats it up).
You're right though, placing all of the blame Trump for the responses to the pandemic is pretty ridiculous. On that I 100% agree. He's far too incompetent and ineffective to receive credit or blame. We probably would have done just as well with a potato wearing a flag pin.