The Chinese Gambit

Unless you have been under a rock…you have heard President Donald Trump lay blame at China’s feet. This is after praising President Xi for their amazing response to the virus over the course of January and February. Yes, he would like you to pretend that it didn’t happen. And yes, there is both video and Tweets to mark the occasion.

Why is President Donald Trump following the post-911 gambit and trying to get the intelligence he desires? That is that COVID is a lab escapee? Quite simply, this is the ultimate shift in blame from his lack of action. Remember, while Trump was praising Xi, he was calling this nothing more than a bad flu season. He was also telling us the media was exaggerating (to be kind) and calling it a Democratic hoax.

Yes, there is tape as well.

What the president was not doing is reading his daily brief, and taking this seriously. He was not preparing the American people for what was coming. As a populist, he knew death is hard to spin.

Yes, there are some things that we should critical of China. For their own internal reasons, the local government tried to suppress bad news from their national leadership. This was the reverse from American governors who got far more serious way before the president did. It partially has to do with the American system of federalism.

For example, see Democrats Gavin Newsom and Jay Inslee. Governor Andrew Cuomo took a tad longer, but when he acted, he did with force, wit the facts and the science. Mike DeWine of Ohio did as…