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RepublicansRepublican leaders fiddle while Covid burns through their own supporters Governors of states such as Florida and Texas, where the Delta variant is surging, have made masks and vaccines a partisan issue, in a lethal mix of ignorance, irrationality and nihilismDavid Smith in Washington@ More
OpinionUS politicsWhile Delta spreads, Republicans deflect and resort to Trump demagogueryRobert ReichTrump Republicans are falling back on their proven method of deflecting attention by blaming immigrants crossing the southern border Sun 8 Aug 2021 08.36 EDTLast modified on Sun 8 Aug 2021 10.03 EDTAs America reaches the milestone of 70% of adults with at least one dose of a vaccine, the highly contagious Delta variant is surging.Public health officials are trying to keep the focus on the urgent need for more vaccinations.But with unvaccinated Americans – notably and conspicuously residents of states and counties that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2020 – succumbing to the Delta strain in large numbers, Trump Republicans are falling back on their proven method of deflecting attention by blaming immigrants crossing the southern border.Last week, Trump issued a characteristic charge: “ICYMI: “Thousands of Covid-positive migrants passing through Texas border city,” linking a New York Post article claiming that “nearly 7,000 immigrants who tested positive for Covid-19 have passed through a Texas city that has become the epicenter of the illegal immigration surge.”Trump has employed this racist-nationalist theme before. For years he fixed his ire on Mexicans and Central Americans from “shitholes”, as he has so delicately put it. He began his 2016 campaign by charging that “criminals, drug dealers and rapists” were surging across America’s southern border, and then spent much of the subsequent four years trying to erect a fence to keep them out.Trump acolytes are adopting the same demagoguery.As hospitalizations in Florida surged past 12,000 this week, exceeding a record already shattered last weekend, Florida governor Ron DeSantis accused Joe Biden of facilitating the virus by not reducing immigration through the southern border.“Why don’t you do your job?” DeSantis snapped after Biden suggested DeSantis stop opposing masks. “Why don’t you get this border secure? And until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about Covid from you, thank you.”The Trumpist media is quickly falling in line behind this nativist rubbish. In the last week, Fox News’s Sean Hannity has asserted the “biggest super-spreader” is immigrants streaming over the southern border rather than the lack of vaccinations.The National Review claims “Biden’s border crisis merges with his Covid crisis” and asserts that “the federal government is successfully terrifying people about Covid while it is shrugging at the thousands of infectious illegal aliens who are coming into the country and spreading the virus.”A columnist for the Wall Street Journal insists that “if Biden Is Serious About Covid, He’ll Protect the Border.” The Washington Examiner asserts “Biden hypocrisy endangers American lives on southern border.” Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire warns of “Covid-Positive Illegal Immigrants Flooding Across The Border.”Can we please stop for a moment and look at the actual data? The Delta variant is spreading fastest in interior states like Missouri and Arkansas, far away from the Mexican border.It was first detected in India in December, and then moved directly to the United States in March and April according to the CDC.GISAID, a nonprofit organization that tracks the genetic sequencing of viruses, has shown that each of the four variants now circulating in the United States arrived here before spreading to Mexico and Central America. International travel rather than immigration over the southern border brought the viruses to America.Haven’t we had enough demagoguery and deflection? Haven’t Trump and his ilk done enough damage already?The blame game must stop. Let’s be clear: The best way to contain deaths and hospitalizations from Covid is to get more Americans vaccinated. Period.TopicsUS politicsOpinionRepublicansCoronavirusDonald TrumpFloridacommentReuse this content More
FloridaFauci backs new masks guidance as Florida reports highest one-day Covid case total
State is national epicenter as 21,683 cases reported
Hospitalisations record also falls amid mask mandate ban
America mulls vaccine mandates – will they work?
Richard Luscombe in Miami@ More
US newsUS states brace for ‘avalanche’ of evictions as federal moratorium ends Housing advocates are concerned that delays in rental assistance mean tenants will suddenly owe months of paymentsAmanda Holpuch in New York@ More
FloridaFlorida urged to ramp up vaccination effort amid ‘alarming’ Covid rise State accounts for almost a quarter of new US infections as frustration grows at what experts say is governor’s mixed messagingRichard Luscombein Miami@ More
FloridaAs Covid cases rise in Florida, Governor DeSantis digs at Fauci with merchandiseRepublican governor is hoping to ride Trump’s coattails to the White House and generate cash to fund 2022 re-election campaign Ed Pilkington in New York@ More
RepublicansRon DeSantis: is the Trump-aligned Florida governor plotting a White House run? The fast-rising Republican is topping polls and raising millions of dollars – but what if the former president wants his job back?Richard Luscombe in Miami@ More
Aides to Gov. Ron DeSantis questioned Trump associates about whether the event on Saturday night in Sarasota should proceed given the scope of the tragedy in Surfside.Former President Donald J. Trump held a Fourth of July-themed rally on Saturday night in Sarasota, Fla., across the state from where a tragedy has been unfolding for more than a week as firefighters, search dogs and emergency crews search for survivors in the collapse of a residential building just north of Miami Beach.The political rally in the midst of a disaster that has horrified the nation became a topic of discussion among aides to the former president and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Trump ally whose growing popularity with the former president’s supporters is becoming an increasing source of tension for both men, according to people familiar with their thinking.After officials from the governor’s office surveyed the scene of the condominium collapse in Surfside, Fla., Adrian Lukis, chief of staff to the governor, called Michael Glassner, a longtime Trump aide who is overseeing the Florida event, according to people familiar with the discussion. In a brief conversation, Mr. Lukis inquired whether the former president planned to continue with the event given the scale of the tragedy, two people said.He was told there were no plans to reschedule.A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, Liz Harrington, said that the rally in Sarasota was “three-and-a-half hours away, approximately the same distance from Boston to New York, and will not impact any of the recovery efforts.”She added that the former president “has instructed his team to collect relief aid for Surfside families both online and on-site at the Sarasota rally.”After a brief moment of silence for the victims and families of the tragedy as he took the stage, Mr. Trump quickly launched into a castigation of cancel culture and of the Biden administration’s immigration policies.He dismissed charges filed this week against his business, the Trump Organization, by the Manhattan district attorney’s office as “prosecutorial misconduct.” And while he appeared to deny knowledge of any possible tax evasion on benefits, he also seemed to acknowledge that those benefits occurred.“You didn’t pay tax on the car, or the company apartment,” he said, adding, “Or education for your grandchildren. I don’t even know, do you have to put, does anyone know the answer to that stuff?”Much of what followed was a familiar list of his grievances, but he drew an enthusiastic crowd that waited for hours in pouring rain to hear him speak. Mr. DeSantis, who met on Thursday with President Biden when the president visited the site of the disaster, originally wanted to attend the rally but ultimately decided he could not go. “He spoke with President Trump, who agreed that it was the right decision, because the governor’s duty is to be in Surfside,” his press secretary, Christina Pushaw, said, adding, “Governor DeSantis would have gone to the rally in normal circumstances.’’In an interview with Newsmax ahead of the rally, Mr. Trump said he told Mr. DeSantis not to come.But during the rally, when he thanked local Republican leaders in Florida, he notably did not mention Mr. DeSantis.The governor, an early supporter of Mr. Trump, has been eager to play down any perceived tension with the former president, who endorsed his campaign for governor in 2018 and could cause him a political headache if he turned against him.“Governor DeSantis is focusing on his duties as governor and the tragedy in Surfside, and has never suggested or requested that events planned in different parts of Florida — from the Stanley Cup finals to President Trump’s rally — should be canceled,” Ms. Pushaw said after the Washington Examiner reported that Mr. DeSantis had pointedly asked Mr. Trump to delay his rally.Gov. Ron DeSantis had originally planned to attend Mr. Trump’s rally in Florida but no longer plans to do so.Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesThe recent conversation between Mr. Lukis and Mr. Glassner was not the first time Mr. DeSantis’s staff had expressed reservations about the timing of Mr. Trump’s event. Before the condominium collapse, Mr. DeSantis’s office had suggested to the Trump team that the fall was better timing for a rally, given the perils of hurricane season in Florida, two people familiar with the conversation said.Mr. Trump ignored the suggestion. Shut out of Facebook and Twitter, Mr. Trump has been eager for an outlet to have his voice heard and has been chomping at the bit to return to the rally stage, aides said.Mr. DeSantis is seen as a top-tier Republican presidential candidate for 2024, and may end up in a political collision with the former president, who himself has hinted that he is considering a third try for the White House.People close to Mr. Trump said he had become mildly suspicious of a supposed ally. He has grilled multiple advisers and friends, asking “what’s Ron doing,” after hearing rumors at Mar-a-Lago that Mr. DeSantis had been courting donors for a potential presidential run of his own. He has asked aides their opinion of a Western Conservative Summit presidential straw poll for 2024 Republican presidential candidates, an unscientific online poll that showed Mr. DeSantis beating Mr. Trump. More
