A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.

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[ [link removed] ]45's Falsehoods and Failures: Weekly Coverage of Trump During COVID-19

PFAW Member,

On September 22, the United States hit the grim milestone of 200,000
American deaths due to COVID-19. But despite the magnitude of this toll,
Donald Trump continues to minimize the pandemic. On September 21, he
argued that “it affects virtually nobody” – a lie that is even more
dangerous, as the fate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) hangs in the
balance after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The [ [link removed] ]6.7 million Americans that have contracted and survived COVID-19
now have a preexisting condition that necessitates health insurance
coverage to protect them. But Trump has only reacted with undisguised glee
at the prospect of installing a new Supreme Court justice. And he has
[ [link removed] ]already promised that any Supreme Court justice he would nominate would
vote to strike down the ACA.

This week, COVID-19 is on the rise in [ [link removed] ]at least 22 states. The pandemic
is far from over – yet Trump and his Republican enablers have put the
passage of meaningful coronavirus relief on the back burner to prioritize
the immediate confirmation of a still-unnamed Supreme Court justice.

* During the same (maskless) campaign rally where Trump [ [link removed] ]claimed that
the virus “affects virtually nobody,” he also repeated the lies that
the virus affects “nobody young,” and that it affects mainly “elderly
people with heart problems and other problems.” Of course, his lies
directly contradict his own [ [link removed] ]admissions to reporter Bob Woodward
that “it’s not just old people, Bob … [it also [ [link removed] ]affects] plenty of
young people.”
* On September 24, Trump [ [link removed] ]announced that he would sign executive
orders that would purportedly address health care protections for
COVID-19 and those who have preexisting conditions. Experts largely
[ [link removed] ]dismiss the toothless orders as “little more than a public
relations ploy” and yet another promise that lacks the substantive
policy detail to substantiate his claim.
* The New York Times reported on September 19 that U.S. Secretary of
Health and Human Services (HHS) and Trump loyalist Alex M. Azar II
[ [link removed] ]barred the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other federal
health agencies from signing any new rules regarding the country’s
vaccines, foods, medicines, medical devices, and other products.
* Trump raised his attacks on the FDA again on September 23, when he
accused the agency of playing politics over its plan to tighten the
guidelines for the authorization of a vaccine. He [ [link removed] ]told reporters
that the White House “may or may not” approve the new guidelines,
which [ [link removed] ]underscores the unlikelihood of a vaccine before Election
Day.
* Yet Trump remains [ [link removed] ]fixated with promising his base a working
vaccine prior to the election. Bloomberg News reported on September 23
that his administration has [ [link removed] ]shifted billions of dollars away from
the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National
Strategic Stockpile (which provides health and medical supplies during
public health emergencies), and other critical health agencies into
its push to fast-track a vaccine.
* The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP)
convened a hearing on September 23 on the political influence in the
approval and timeline for a coronavirus vaccine. Despite recent
guidance changes from the CDC and the FDA over the last few weeks, CDC
director Dr. Robert Redfield and FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn both
disavowed the notion that political pressure has guided their
decision-making.
* Olivia Troye, a former aide to Mike Pence, former member of the White
House coronavirus response team, and self-described lifelong
Republican, last week severely [ [link removed] ]criticized Trump’s interference in
the White House’s coronavirus task force. Troye said that Trump’s
“flat-out disregard for human life” confirmed that his “main concern
was the economy and his reelection.”
* At his September 22 campaign rally, Trump [ [link removed] ]reiterated his call for
educators nationwide to “Open your schools; everybody, open your
schools.” Evidence continues to mount that Trump’s push to reopen
schools has had disastrous consequences: A new study [ [link removed] ]reported that
colleges and universities that reopened for in-person classes likely
caused about 3,200 cases per day that would likely not have developed
had schools not reopened.
* Even though the American public has suffered for too long without
continued federal COVID-19 relief, Senate Republicans are singularly
focused on filling the late Justice Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme
Court. Despite [ [link removed] ]claims from several Republican senators that "what
we need to be focused on right now” is pandemic relief, virtually none
of them have come forward to oppose voting on a new Supreme Court
nominee while the American public continues to struggle in the absence
of urgently needed relief.

The fall surge of COVID-19 cases that experts have predicted for months is
[ [link removed] ]already upon us. Yet Trump is fixated on forcing through a Supreme
Court nominee who will help to rescind the ACA and strip health care from
millions of Americans.

It has never been clearer that this year’s general election is a fight for
our lives and that we must vote Trump – and his Republican allies – out of
office this November.

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The [ [link removed] ]Falsehoods and Failures series will appear every Friday on our
blog. [ [link removed] ]You can find the previous post here. For ongoing coverage of
Trump and the Right Wing's response to the coronavirus, check out PFAW's
[ [link removed] ]Right Wing Watch.

Thanks as always for your ongoing support – stay safe and healthy!

– Sarah, PFAW

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