Originally Posted by
ukpumacat
It was both.
His travel ban move was great. No issues there at all. And it likely did help slow the spread and he deserves credit for that.
But the biggest issue is that he completely downplayed this early on. And that was not only unwise but was very political. These are exact quotes from him in the last few weeks:
“the 15 (cases of Coronavirus), within a couple of days, is going to be down to close to zero. That’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”
When asked about school's having preparedness plans just in case they need to shut down:
“I don’t think it’s going to come to that, especially with the fact that we’re going down, not up,” he said. “We’re going very substantially down, not up.”
"Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) &
@CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus (his misspelling not mine) look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape!"
"The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!"
He downplayed this badly and then Fox News and Rush, etc carried that mantle for him. He was wrong on every one of those statements. Those aren't, "Let's not panic here" statements. Those are just outright wrong.
A huge part of not causing a panic is being forthright and correct in your public assessments as President. When a President makes statements like that mere weeks or days before things get worse (and most of us knew they would) it causes complete public distrust in a time of crisis.
HE is the leader. Those statements are not leading. They are simply politicizing.