Commentary: Democrats’ Attempt to Use Coronavirus to Take Down Trump Will Be Strike Three
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Commentary by Tom Borelli originally posted at The Epoch Times.
After failing to deal a lethal political blow to President Trump with the Russia collusion hoax and the Ukraine impeachment sham, they are now using the coronavirus crisis in another last ditch effort to undermine the president.
Politicizing the coronavirus is different than the previous efforts to damage the Trump presidency.
The Russia collusion and impeachment strategies were manufactured crises by Democrats and amplified by the anti-Trump media.
In contrast, with the coronavirus, the president’s adversaries are exploiting a natural phenomena to inflict damage on the president.
All three efforts were designed to remove the president from office but differ with the mechanism.
With Russia collusion and Ukraine the end was having Congress remove President Trump from office, but with the coronavirus the goal is to blame the president for the virus spreading across the United States. The decline in the stock market and negative economic impact can then be exploited to prevent the president’s reelection.
The sense of urgency is rooted in the sudden change in direction of the U.S. economy. Previously, Democrats knew President Trump’s economic accomplishments had him on the way to reelection but now they are pouncing on the coronavirus crisis to stop the president.
During a recent interview on CNN, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) blamed President Trump for the deaths of Americans saying he did not act fast enough adding, “But as the President fiddles, people are dying.”
Blaming the president for killing Americans was only the first salvo. Now Pelosi is creating a special House committee to investigate the administration’s handling of the public health crisis and she added the committee “would have subpoena power, that’s for sure.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is writing legislation to establish a “9/11-style commission” to analyze actions taken by the president and the administration. Judging by his comments during an interview on MSNBC, Schiff appears set to indict the president for a poor response to the crisis that resulted in “catastrophic consequences.”
Well before the negative economic consequences of the social distancing policy were apparent, The New York Times wrote about the potential of the coronavirus to negatively impact the Trump economy.
A March 1 story, “A Virus Spreads, Stocks Fall, and Democrats See an Opening to Hit Trump,” describes and deviously promotes the Democrat strategy to connect the president’s leadership regarding the coronavirus and the stock market drop.
Both former Democrat presidential candidates Michael Bloomberg and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are quoted in the story. Bloomberg challenged the president’s ability to address the crisis and Warren outlined a litany of “brutal” economic consequences.
About three weeks later, The New York Times wrote a story noting the fall in the stock market at that time erased all the gains it had achieved since Trump became president.
The story mentioned how the president took credit for the previous surge and now he “arguably set himself up to be blamed for its record fall.”
The idea of a big downturn in the economy to damage the president is not new.
Last June, HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher said, “One way you get rid of Trump is by crashing the economy. So please, bring on the recession.” He later assured his panelists that he wasn’t kidding. “It would be worth it.”
Before the coronavirus Black Swan, the president’s economic policy was one of the strongest arguments for President Trump’s reelection.
The president’s tax cuts and regulatory relief effort boosted the economy and led to a fifty year low in the unemployment rate.
Minority groups were especially benefiting from the Trump economy with Blacks and Hispanics reaching historically low unemployment rates.
The pandemic abruptly changed the positive economic impact for the United States, including for minority groups. The March jobs report found a loss of over 700,000 jobs with a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent from 3.5 percent and black unemployment rising to 6.7 percent from 5.8 percent.
In the last two weeks, almost 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits and with state lockdown policies remaining in place the economic outlook will only deteriorate.
The dramatic shift in the economy does not in itself ensure Democrats will win control of the White House, because President Trump is showing solid leadership during the crisis.
Under his direction the president has mobilized the private sector to produce medical equipment and he has pushed the FDA to approve drugs and devices to help save lives.
Americans are recognizing the president’s efforts. Gallup found 60 percent of U.S. adults approve of the way President Trump is managing the crisis and his overall job approval reached its high at 49 percent.
Trying to exploit the coronavirus pandemic to take down President Trump will be strike three for Democrats and their media allies.
Tom Borelli, Ph.D., is a contributor to America’s Voice News and a TV and radio political commentator.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
