Kushner and Trump Call Coronavirus Response “Success Story” and “Great Job”: A Closer Look

-Hello everyone and welcome back to the attic. As many of you know, I have been doing the show from home despite some less than ideal circumstances, specifi

call

y I only have three t-shirts and they come in three different varieties: blue, teal, and a slightly lighter blue. And, yes, I'm aware that this makes me, as the kids say, "basic," but to be fair, I've been a little distracted from the costume questions by the fact that there are wasps, actual wasps buzzing around my head. . And if you don't believe me, here's one that flashes by during Tuesday's monologue. But do not worry.

That's not just any wasp. That's Nick, our wasp transition writer, and speaking of transitions, the White House is

call

ing his

response

to the

coronavirus

pandemic a

success

story

even as the country traverses grim new milestones. You've done it again, Nick! To learn more about this, it's time for "A Closer Look." ♪♪ We have surpassed one million

coronavirus

cases and 60,000 deaths in the span of approximately two months. Now, regardless of where he stands politically, this is a staggering and heartbreaking number, or as Donald Trump said at the end of his press conference on Monday, job well done. -Let's do one more, please, back. -If an American president loses more Americans in the course of six weeks than died in the entire Vietnam War, does he deserve to be re-elected? -So, yes, we have lost a lot of people, but if we

look

at the original projections, 2.2 million.

We're probably headed for 60,000, 70,000. There are too many, one person is too many for this and I think we've made a lot of really good decisions. I think we've made a lot of good decisions. I think Mike Pence and the task force have done a fantastic job. I think everyone who works on the ventilators, you see what we've done there, they've done incredible. The press no longer talks about ventilators. They just don't want to talk about them and that's okay. But the reason why they don't want to talk... That was the topic that no one would come out of.

They don't want to talk about them. So no, I think we've done a

great

job. -Oh boy. I shouldn't have answered one more question because it was a brutal way to end a press conference. When they heard that question in the Fox News control room, they basically said, "Quick, let's cut to an Acorn stairlift commercial. What do you mean you don't have one? No, we always have to have one ready. Well, for reasons like this." Trump must have punished himself for taking one more. It was like that moment when you start trash-talking during a game of Jenga. "Yeah, I'll grab another block with one eye closed.

Oh." And you know, as soon as he heard the word "Vietnam," he probably thought to himself, "Vietnam, am I going to have to dodge you again?" He's so discouraged that you can't use imaginary bone spurs to get your way out of questions about Vietnam. I'd love to give you an answer, but unfortunately, I'm feeling, uh, what I'm afraid is a tick in my bone, again, so I'll have to call it a day. And, of course, the press doesn't want to talk about ventilators. No one wants to talk about a critical shortage of life-saving medical equipment. The reason it was such a hot topic for a while was because everyone was afraid we would run out.

With Americans staying home to flatten the curve and states sharing equipment with each other, we avoided the worst-case scenarios. Not thanks to you. You're like the mayor who shows up at the end of "Jaws" and says, "Oh, so I guess the press doesn't want to talk about sharks anymore? Okay. Well, I'd love to know. Because I'm "The mayor and I are still a big fish in this city. If we're not talking about sharks, let me know." In fact, that's how useless the president was in getting much-needed ventilators to the states. BuzzFeed News reported Wednesday night that a random guy tweeted at Trump that could make ventilators, and then the White House helped that guy get a lucrative contract to make ventilators, which he never produced.

On March 27, Trump posted on Twitter to urge Ford and General Motors to start making ventilators now. Of the thousands of

response

s the tweet attracted took on an equally urgent tone. “We can supply ICU ventilators, invasive and non-invasive. Someone call me. Urgent." Its author was an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley. A specialist in mobile phone technology, he currently has only 75 followers on Twitter and has no apparent experience in government contracting or medical devices. Honestly, how long will it be until he responds to a spam email offering free erection pills? I mean, I guess we'll know exactly how long the day lasts when you turn to Dr.

Birx in the middle of a press conference and say... There's also the possibility of that... Correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Birx, that erection pills could be an effective treatment for the virus, so if someone had a surplus of erection pills, that person could be a hero. ?Dr. Birx, I see you've wrapped your head in scarves again. I can't hear you. It's muffled when you talk through the scarves, it just sounds like it's a scarf. alert. First of all, there are big companies that make ventilators, so if a guy with 75 followers is tweeting at you, he's probably not a power player.

General Electric's CEO doesn't spend all day responding to individual people on Twitter: "I can get you a microwave. Someone call me. Urgent." Secondly, making mobile phones has nothing to do with making fans. Fans help you breathe, while phones, at least in the meantime, help you hyperventilate. Oh, I just got an alert. The president says: "Ingesting bleach cures male pattern baldness. Oh my God. Oh, I'm hyperventilating. And yet, incredibly, Trump actually took this guy seriously. Three days later, the state of New York paid Oren-Pines 69...wait for it: millions of dollars. The payment was for 1,450 ventilators, at least triple the standard retail price of high-end models.

State officials said New York entered into the contract on a recommendation. direct from the White House Coronavirus Task Force. This is crazy. I mean, we're talking about a guy who is the most powerful person on Earth. There is literally a law that allows him to force companies to manufacture. fans, and he's digging. His Twitter replies like he's starting a band: "Oh, okay. This guy has his own amplifier. "That could really... that could really come in handy if we had someone with their own amplifier." Trump had the opportunity to act early to prevent a public health and economic crisis, and instead chose to ignore and downplay the threat, or as he put it yesterday at the White House... -This plague should have never happened, but people decided not to stop it. -Oh, why are you so timid? , who are these people you're talking about?

This plague should have never happened, but someone really dropped the ball. I'm not going to name names, Mike Pence. Hey, maybe he was talking about his spectral son. has reportedly played a central role in the administration's response to the coronavirus, and on Wednesday he said this to "Fox & Friends": We're on the other side of the medical side of this, and I think we've hit all the different milestones that we. They are needed. So the federal government rose to the challenge and this is a

great

success

story

. -Is this a success story? You're not even a success story.

You're only in the White House because Ivanka lost Tom Brady's phone number in one of his factory bags. You shouldn't be near the White House. You should confess that to Christopher Meloni at the end of an episode of "Law & Order." Seriously, we have a million cases, 60,000 deaths and 30 million out of work. If this was a success, what would the failure have been like: the Statue of Liberty getting fired and developing a habit of smoking marijuana in quarantine? Kushner also defended the administration's push to prematurely reopen the economy before plans are in place to effectively contain the spread of the virus. -The goal here is to get people back to work.

The eternal lockdown crowd may make jokes on late-night television, but the reality is that the data is on our side. -Oh Lord. First of all, thanks for watching. Sorry about that Tom Brady joke, how stupid. But I'm also terrified that you're watching. Now I'm going to have nightmares about that little door creaking open and seeing Jared Kushner's face in the shadows. Secondly, nobody wants eternal confinements. If I see another one of my friends holding a loaf of homemade bread on Instagram, I'll run out and lick a railing. We want a plan to reopen things safely. You think I don't want things to open up?

I used to do a show with several t-shirts and zero wasps. I worked in a building that had 50 lunch options. Now the only thing on the menu is what the kids don't finish. Which isn't much, of course, because the 2-year-old eats like a horse and has the nonsense to prove it. I just changed his diaper. Do you know when I'll have to change the next one? According to recent patterns, at any time. You know what this, brother? Do you know what this is here? It is a space heater. And I have it because I'm cold all the time.

I always feel like you just

look

ed at me. I mean, I used to have an audience of human beings who would laugh at jokes. Now the only thing staring at me are the dead black eyes of a stuffed rocking elephant. So yes, I want to get back to normal too. Now, not only is the administration's response not a success story, we're actually learning that the death toll is almost certainly an undercount, according to analysis of CDC data by "The New York Times" this week. And if you're looking for a metric to compare our supposed success story to real success stories in other countries, there's this one: We recorded our first coronavirus case on the same day South Korea recorded theirs.

And this week, as we surpassed one million cases, South Korea reported that it had reported no new domestic cases of COVID-19 for the first time since February. That's how it is. In South Korea, new domestic cases have dropped to zero, while here, the president suggests we should bite into Tide To Go pens like they're breadsticks. And not only is our caseload much higher, but the federal government has also not provided any leadership to respond to that caseload. In fact, Trump has failed so spectacularly to provide coherent federal coordination that states have essentially split into regional associations to work together, essentially forming federal mini-governments.

There is a Western States Compact that includes California and Oregon, a Midwest partnership between Illinois and Michigan and five other states, and a regional advisory council of seven states, including New York and New Jersey. First of all, I just want to say that I'm really happy to see New York and New Jersey working together after years of dispute over who really owns the Jets. "It's you." "No, no, no, no, no, no. You take them. We're fine." "No, no, no, I think it's definitely you." Second, look at this: I knew Republicans loved the confederacy, but I don't think they literally wanted to break up the Union.

The country is divided into districts, we are facing a meat shortage and the postal service is warning that it could collapse. We're about a week away from Trump announcing the first annual Hunger Games. Pennsylvania, who are you sending as a tribute? We send a most tempting creature. Pretty good Philly accent. His name is Gritty. In fact, just to give you an idea of ​​how miserably Trump has failed at even the most basic aspects of his job, here's a truly crazy story about what Illinois officials had to do just to get masks for healthcare workers. without federal leadership.

Illinois officials located a supply of 1.5 million potentially life-saving N-95 respirator masks in China through a broker in the Chicago area and negotiated a deal to purchase them. One day before they expected to complete the purchase, they received a call from the supplier, informing them that he had to send a check to the bank by 2:00 p.m. that day, or the deal was off. Other bidders had emerged. Illinois Deputy Comptroller Ellen Andrés jumped into her car and sped north on I-55 with a check for $3.5 million. They agreed to meet in the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant just off the interstate and there they made the transfer.

That's crazy. We're talking about protective gear for frontline healthcare workers and states are being forced to make million-dollar deals on McDonald's parking lots like they'rebuying methamphetamine from Walter White. If New Mexico wants to buy fans, it will have to go to the basement of Los Pollos Hermanos. So, needless to say, it's hard to get good news these days, but on Wednesday we finally got some really good news when it was announced that a potential therapy for COVID-19 had been shown to be effective in a randomized clinical trial, as Dr. This was explained by Anthony Fauci during a meeting in the Oval Office. -Right now I can bring you one of the best headlines since the coronavirus took over the United States.

Here is the potential for a real treatment. There are currently no approved medications for coronavirus. But recently, the nation's top infectious disease expert said that the result of this randomized controlled trial for this drug called remdesivir is, according to Dr. Fauci, very good news. Why do you ask? Because he showed that remdesivir seemed to be effective and helped people recover more quickly once they got sick. -Data show that remdesivir has a clear significant positive effect in decreasing recovery time. This is actually very important for several reasons and I'll give you the facts. It is very significant.

It is a very important proof of concept. Because what has been proven is that a drug can block this virus. -You know, when Trump heard that, he wanted so badly to speak up and say: Okay, that's good news, but maybe we should combine that with lights? Next time we do a study, will we give them that? You know, remdesivir and then maybe a lava lamp or something like that could double the effectiveness, and then we'd both be right, you know, the scientists who spend time on clinical studies and then me, the guy who said "light." But what's especially notable about this genuinely promising news is that it comes after months in which the president proposed one unproven miracle cure after another, each becoming more desperate and more dangerous than the last. -It's a bit like the common flu, for which we have flu vaccines and essentially we will have it fairly quickly.

If you get a solid flu vaccine, don't you think that will have an impact or a big impact on corona? -No. -I think they will have vaccines relatively soon, and they will have something that will make you feel better and that, we believe, will happen even sooner. And I hope they use hydroxychloroquine. It will be a godsend and it works. Is there any way we can do something like that? By injection inside or almost a cleaning? I would like you to talk to the doctors to see if there is a way to apply light and heat to heal. -When you heard an 18th century doctor say "apply light and heat to cure", you knew you were lost. "So, bad news, the leeches didn't work.

But we can still try the light and heat. Although, maybe you'll get your affairs in order." It's not hard to look at countries like South Korea and see what a real success story would have been like. We could have had an early and robust response to contain the spread of the virus and allow things to remain open. Instead, I'm stuck here in my attic dodging wasps while trying to tell... -Jokes on late night TV. - -This has been "A

closer

look". ♪♪ We have been talking about City Harvest during this crisis and you have really been helping.

So if you can, continue to donate. Unemployment is rising, but City Harvest keeps its trucks full to feed the growing number of New Yorkers who turn to them to put food on their tables. If you're watching this online, if you can, please hit the "Donate" button. Stay safe. Wash your hands. We love you.