Thursday, September 10, 2020
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary Bauer
Time To Panic?
The media were in a frenzy yesterday over excerpts of Bob Woodward's latest book in which President Trump stated that he downplayed the threat of the coronavirus because he didn't want to create panic in the country. Liberal politicians and pundits accused the president of deliberately lying to the American people.
While the media are treating this like a major revelation, it's not new news. In March, CNN's Jim Acosta criticized the president for downplaying the severity of the virus. President Trump said, " I want to keep the country calm. I don't want panic in the country."
That's the exact same thing Trump said to Bob Woodward. Yet now Woodward's rushing out a new book and the media are trying to whip the public into a frenzy over something the president said publicly more than five months ago.
Meanwhile, there were plenty of progressives, like Nancy Pelosi and Bill de Blasio, who were downplaying the severity of the virus. Watch this montage. And here's Joe Biden on February 28th also telling Americans not to panic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci – Saint Fauci to the left – defended President Trump yesterday. Asked whether he felt Trump had not taken the coronavirus seriously or misled the public, Fauci replied:
"No, I didn't. I didn't get any sense that he was distorting anything. . . I didn't see any discrepancies between what he told us and what we told him, and what he came out publicly and said."
It's curious that this latest media smear hit just as new polling shows that Americans are increasingly optimistic about the Covid situation. For the first time since June, a majority of Americans believe the situation is either getting better or staying the same.
What Leadership Looks Like
On December 8, 1941, a significant part of the U.S. Navy had been destroyed at Pearl Harbor and Hitler controlled Europe and North Africa. The American military was virtually non-existent. Many military analysists had serious doubts about our ability to defeat Germany and Japan.
Nevertheless, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who famously told Americans "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself," rallied the country. We lost many battles in the early days of the war, but we ultimately prevailed.
In response to the coronavirus, President Trump banned travel from China on January 31st. As a reminder, the World Health Organization said on January 14th that there was no evidence that Covid-19 was contagious.
Trump marshalled the resources of the country and ordered the massive production of ventilators.
He supported calls for a national shutdown to slow the spread of the virus.
In short, he did everything the medical experts asked him to do. And Dr. Fauci praised the administration's initial efforts, calling the "all-hands-on-deck" action "impressive," adding, "I can't imagine that under any circumstances that anybody could be doing more."
Progressive Panic
Speaking on Fox News last night, President Trump hit back at his critics, saying, "I'm the leader of the country. I can't be jumping up and down and scaring people." While I am glad the president is staying calm, we know that the left panics easily.
Every hurricane that hits the country is presented as the worst ever. The left predicted mass famines that never materialized. How many times have we been told that global warming would destroy the earth by now and that it's all our fault? (Read these failed progressive predictions here.)
Remember the "peak oil" panic of 20 years ago? We're producing more oil now than ever!
We have a handful of questionable police shootings each year that occur out of millions of police/public encounters. The left panics every time and tells us that the whole law enforcement system is racist.
The left is very good at blaming Americans first, and its Chicken Little act is getting old.
Trump's Judges
As we noted in yesterday's report, President Trump has released an updated list of potential new Supreme Court justices. There are some very impressive names on the list, including: Senator Tom Cotton, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Josh Hawley and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. You can read the list here.
As President Trump said in his remarks yesterday, the nomination of Supreme Court justices is among the most consequential actions any president will take. While presidents serve for four or eight years, federal judges serve decades as a lasting legacy.
As one columnist noted, the late great Antonin Scalia was Ronald Reagan's gateway to the 21st Century. Scalia served on the Supreme Court for 27 years after Reagan left office. My good friend Clarence Thomas, appointed by George H.W. Bush, is currently the court's longest-serving justice, with nearly 29 years on the high court.
So President Trump is being honest and upfront with the American people about the kinds of judges he will appoint. And he challenged Joe Biden to do the same.
Defending Our First Freedoms
The Department of Education has announced a new rule upholding President Trump's executive order requiring colleges and universities to respect free speech and religious liberty.
"Students should not be forced to choose between their faith and their education," Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said.
Colleges and universities that tolerate left-wing efforts to shout down speakers or that discriminate against faith-based student groups now run the risk of losing federal funds.
This is an important step toward countering the "cancel culture" and breaking the intolerant left's grip (here and here) on our institutions of higher learning.
