Trump Repeats Coronavirus Failures in Push to "Reopen" Economy: A Closer Look

-Hello everyone and welcome back to the underground attic space. On Monday, we answered a question many viewers have been wondering about: what's behind that little door when my kids escaped at the end of "Closer Look." Now, many people online have said that they were adorable and too cute for words, and I assure you, they are... in nine-second snippets. Also, some of you might be

look

ing at me right now and wondering: Does Seth know he's already worn that shirt? And yes, I know. I promise you, I know. And I wish I had a larger list of t-shirts, but in my defense, no one warned me multiple times about the possibility of a pandemic because I'm not the president.

That's a transition. And now, even after ignoring those warnings, the president is

push

ing to prematurely

reopen

the

economy

, threatening to repeat the mistakes he made at the beginning of this crisis. To know more about this, it's time for "A Closer Look." ♪♪ When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, this was exactly the kind of nightmare scenario everyone feared: What would happen in a global crisis if the most powerful man in the world were a racist game show host who failed at virtually all? in his life, except for pretending to be a successful businessman on television? and he's not even good at pretending.

Look at him pretending to be president. He just

look

s straight into the camera and doesn't even bother to at least put some fake documents on his desk. You can almost hear the dial tone coming out of the phone. He looks like a tourist taking a photo on the set of "Deep Impact." "Wow. Is this the phone Morgan Freeman used? You know, everyone was scared by the asteroid in that movie, but it ended up being no worse than the regular flu." The thing is, this is the crisis everyone feared. In fact, before Trump took office, President Obama's outgoing team attempted to prepare Trump's incoming team for this exact scenario. a scenario that experts had warned about for years. -Days before Donald Trump took office, some of President Obama's advisers guided the incoming president's team through a hypothetical scenario remarkably similar to the one we are experiencing now.

It was a briefing on what would happen if a fast-spreading virus spread through London and Seoul, and in that scenario, they featured governments imposing travel bans. There were shortages in hospitals across the country, and today, about two-thirds of the Trump administration officials who participated in that simulation are no longer in the government. -That's how it is. Most of the Trump officials who worked for him back then aren't even there anymore. They're in jail, on Fox News, or in the bargain bin at Barnes & Noble. "Hello, excuse me. This Sean Spicer book only has blank pages." "Hey, look at that.

I guess you're the first person to open one." This White House has more staff turnover than a Six Flags during summer vacation. The Six Flags mascot was named Secretary of Commerce. What Obama's team should have done is run a simulation of what would happen when a sociopathic president dismisses repeated warnings from intelligence officials and public health experts that a pandemic is coming. and he dismisses anyone who has made any plans for it. Well. So the first thing you should do in that case is call Netflix and ask them to release an emergency bonus episode of "Tiger King" as soon as possible.

You know, think of it as a... I don't know... a where are they now situation. You know, maybe someone has new teeth. And again, obviously, let's pray that it never comes to this. In fact, as we've now learned, a former Trump official, national security adviser Tom Bossert, was part of a group of people trying to warn the government in a series of exchanges called the "Red Dawn" emails. The emails were nicknamed after the 1984 Patrick Swayze movie, but if you're going to pick a Swayze movie, I feel like "Ghost" would have been a better choice since the government's response is clearly being led by one.

I mean, oh! Look at it. Jared Kushner seems to have appeared out of nowhere after someone read an Edgar Allen Poe story in a broken mirror... and then demanded he pay for the mirror. It's strange that the public health response is led by a guy who looks like he would sneak into your hospital room and shut off your IV until you told him where the microfilm was. "It's a simple question." So in those "Red Dawn" emails, we discovered that Bossert and others had expressed concern about Trump's slow and incoherent response, such as when Trump announced a hasty and confusing European travel ban that led to airports crowded in cities like Chicago after there were already documented cases of community spread here in the US, Bossert wrote: "Can anyone scientifically justify the European travel restrictions?

Seriously, is there any benefit? I don't see it, but I'm hoping there's something I don't know." That's how we all feel, but it's never like that. With Trump, things are always exactly as they seem. For example, we see him using every muscle in his face to squint at the teleprompter as if he were looking at a "Magic Eye" sign and say, "I guess the president can't see, but I hope there's something I can't see." can see." I don't know." And then you tune in to his deranged press conference in the Rose Garden on Tuesday night, where he announced, in the middle of a global pandemic, that he was defunding the World Health Organization, and You see this. -I ordered my team to use the Defense Protection Act.

And the Defense Production Act was used very strongly. very powerful. We see light. We are starting to see it more than ever. We have maintained our... rhythm, the numbers, everything we have done. We have been very, very... strong and very powerful. a quote that receives lines through an earpiece and the transmission just cuts out. The light in your eyes is so... It's so... Well, it's light. You know. When your brain melts, your words are loud and powerful. It's like you're listening to a focus group on truck advertising. "Okay, folks. What are some words that might make you want to buy a Ford F-150?" "Strong!

Uh, powerful! See-- very powerful! That would be another word for me. If you want to leave that for me." And by the way, that's the guy the news networks have decided to broadcast unfiltered during a national emergency, the guy who can't even read his own script. If that's the content you want, cable networks, just livestream my grandfather at his next eye exam. And, by the way, it doesn't make things better when you give it a negative chyron, as CNN did on Monday, with "Angry Trump Turns Briefing Into Propaganda Session." You know what else turned that into a propaganda session?

Point your camera at him. Before you showed up, it was just, "Crazy lawn man does his thing." You cannot broadcast a propaganda session and criticize it. It's like MTV aired "Jersey Shore" with the disclaimer: "Change the channel. This show sucks." And that's what it was, a propaganda session. In fact, the White House edited a campaign-style video highlighting Trump's various statements about the crisis, and Trump actually had people within his administration, paid for with his tax dollars, make that video. -I have never seen a video like this played in this room. It looks a bit like a campaign ad.

Who produced that video for you? -That was done by a group in the office. -Yes, this was done by Dan and a group of people. -Oh! Oh, Dan and a bunch of people did it. First of all, it is curious that only Dan was named, and all the others who were accomplices of this bull were grouped into a group of people. Trump knows how to accidentally embarrass someone by giving him credit for something terrible. "Dan? Dan, do you want to come here and talk about the propaganda video you made with taxpayer money? Are you shaking your head, Dan?

Dan? Dan, do you want to come here? Dan, show everyone your face and take credit for what you did. No? Fauci? And you, Fauci? Do you want to say a few words about Dan? He made you touch the face again, Fauci in particular. from China but, experts say, the ban only served to buy the White House time to increase testing and hospital capacity and initiate community mitigation efforts, time they wasted, and when asked to explain what it did with it all. That time in February, Trump decided to fight with CBS reporter Paula Reid, who asked the question. -Thousands of lives for... -The argument is that you bought some time.

You didn't use it to prepare hospitals. increase the evidence. -You are so... You are so... You are so embarrassing. It's so embarrassing the way you say that. Let me just... Listen. I just went over it. I just went over it. Nobody thought we should do it, and when I did... But what did you do with the time you bought? -Do you know what we did? -The month of february? That was a gap. -Do you know what we did? What do you do for a living? -The entire month of February. -What do you do when you don't have any cases in the entire United States? -You had cases in February. -Excuse me, you reported it.

Zero cases, zero deaths on January 17. -In January. February, all of -- -Janua-- I said in January. -Your video has a complete void. -On January 3. -What did the administration do in February with the time given by its travel ban? -A lot. -That? -Many, and in fact we give you a list. - "Dan? Dan, can you give us that list you made of everything we did in February? You're shaking your head, no, Dan, but I know you have a list of everything done in February that this lady told me about. ask". . February's list, Dan! It will be between the January list and then the March list.

Don't make me tell everyone your last name, Dan? Also, thanks for reminding Trump to his face that this has real-world consequences. for the thousands of people who have died and their loved ones, the nearly 20 million who have lost their jobs, the millions who have lost their health insurance, the brave healthcare professionals who put themselves in harm's way on the front lines. and all the essential workers delivering mail and packages and working in grocery stores and on public transportation and doing the hard, dangerous work while the rest of us scroll to the end of Netflix, looking for another trashy reality show to watch. "Honey, have we seen 'Island' yet?" Correct.

Yes we did it. Oh wait! Honey, there's a new bonus episode. Oh, they got divorced, honey. Yes. Yes, I suppose once the couples returned from the mainland, they realized that the connections they made on the island were not as lasting as they had been led to believe. "I guess the romance is dead, honey." And now Trump is once again rushing to prematurely

reopen

the

economy

, even though public health experts have almost unanimously warned that such a move could lead to a second wave of the outbreak. Dr. Fauci warned about this On Sunday, Bill Gates said we won't return to normal until there is a vaccine Dr.

Ezekiel Emanuel said concerts, conferences and sporting events likely won't return until fall 2021 at the earliest. and a Harvard study said yesterday, some social distancing measures may be needed until 2022. So, yeah, I'll have to rewatch every episode of "Island" with the director's comment: "You know, we were originally going to do it." on Isthmus, but." "We thought it was too difficult to say isthmus, so we chose an island." And yet our split-personality president has gone back and forth, in a matter of days, between claiming that he has unquestionable authority to force unilaterally urging states to reopen economies, to suggesting that he will simply work with states to allow them to implement their own plans. -What authority do you have? -Well, I have the highest authority.

The president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do, which is very powerful. The president of the United States makes the decisions. I have the absolute right to do it if I want. When someone is the president of the United States, the authority is total, and that is how it should be. -Is your authority total? -Total. It's total. -Again, I think part of the problem here is that Trump only knows three words, which include absolute, powerful, and total. He used the word total the same way teenagers use the word "random." "My authority is so total." The president and his allies ignored repeated warnings that a pandemic was coming, and now, in the face of evidence, he is

push

ing to prematurely reopen the economy and repeat the same mistakes once again.

When the time of reckoning comes, we must remember that this was not inevitable and that a long sequence of

failures

led to this moment. City Harvest is the largest food rescue organization in New York City and they are now working hard to support thelocal families who are out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If you're watching this online, hit the donate button. Stay safe, wash your hands, we love you.