US Politics, March 2020 — There’s a very good chance you’re not going to die.

Narrator: they weren’t happy

My fellow Americans, I would like to address some of the untruths currently being propagated by our president regarding the coronavirus outbreak. Number one... (turns and wanders out of frame while continuing to speak, walks back into frame shirtless twenty minutes later)

That makes me a bit happier to see Biden talking shit.

He's alive!

jay rosen concurs with shakey:

It is believed by many people who follow me that tougher, more confrontational questions — and more determined follow-ups — are the answer to press briefings on the virus that allow Trump to elude accountability.

I disagree. It's is one of my least popular conclusions. THREAD 1/

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) March 20, 2020

[It is very widely believed — among people who talk to me on this website, but also among journalists who report on politics — that tough questions and determined follow-ups can prevent the president from using the briefings to inject falsehoods into national discourse.

lol nobody thinks this, do they? The reason to counter his lies is because they are lies. Not because anybody thinks he’s going to stop lying

This is the impeachment debate redux

Cable news, man

Jay Rosen is completely otm in that thread

I can understand that it's impossible for any news network to stop airing the press conferences but they should treat them as if they are separate and distinct from actual information. Trump needs to stop being made the main character of the news

"Biden plans shadow coronavirus briefings"

Trying to imagine how much that headline would have baffled me a year ago.

Waiting for a pool reporter to push back at being chewed out by 45 and call bullshit but that’s never gonna happen, right?

There's no time allotted to push back. The system is built so that "pushing back" means you have to shout over the POTUS and every other reporter in the pool all at once. Some other clown is always going to have a question they want to ask, so you get one shot and that's it. Collective action problems.

I was taken by this in WaPO:

“President Trump has taken historic, aggressive measures to protect the health, wealth and safety of the American people — and did so, while the media and Democrats chose to only focus on the stupid politics of a sham illegitimate impeachment,” Hogan Gidley said in a statement. “It’s more than disgusting, despicable and disgraceful for cowardly unnamed sources to attempt to rewrite history — it’s a clear threat to this great country.”

What is a Hogan Gidley? How did Hogan Gidley come on the scene without me noticing?

Hogan Gidley, Robot P.I.

he's apparently been around. I think he used to work for Santorum. I refuse to google further

I looked him up, he's exactly as Alex P. Keaton as I hoped.

https://celebsiren.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/hogan.png

that’s terrible hair

Looks like somebody slapped it on with cheap glue

looks like Generic Gangbang Guy #47

that final (15th) Rosen tweet makes me think there's a personal story being alluded to

a lot of people have lived with malignant narcissists, the lucky ones figure out what they're dealing with and the extra-lucky ones have the wherewithal to move on

JUST IN: 55% of Americans approve of Pres. Trump's management of the coronavirus crisis, compared to 43% who disapprove, according to new @ABC News/Ipsos poll. https://t.co/oNg6ZipDN2 pic.twitter.com/yVcGO0CpbD

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 20, 2020

we discussed that poll yesterday

sorry missed it, thread moves fast

Pathetic. This is shaping up as the biggest failure of Pelosi’s career—both strategically re how to use her considerable leverage and normatively re the failure to grasp that we are headed into a depression and the biggest, smartest income support bill *must* be passed. https://t.co/JNnBMSEVOr

— Richard Yeselson (@yeselson) March 20, 2020

Trump is the first incumbent president to be trailing at this point in the general election cycle (i.e. late March in the election year) since Harry Truman in 1948.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/21/politics/trump-vs-biden-poll-of-the-week/index.html?

chuck schumer on tv now repeating liz warren talking points about the upcoming airline bailouts

pretty good

I’m baffled by that poll too but I still think that reality has not set in for most of America yet. Once they’re jobless and locked in their houses for 2 months with relatives and friends getting sick and possibly dying I feel like his numbers will slide. As far as I can tell every world leader is getting an approval bump right now.

"hey I'm still alive NOW!"

Approval rating for how leadership is handling a crisis has next to nothing to do with how leadership is handling a crisis. People project their deep wish to have strong leadership. As things get more grim I'd expect it only to rise.

GWB dropped into the mid 20s

Carter's approval rating soon after the Iranian hostages were taken, for instance, was very high. The first Iraq War, 9/11, there's always initial rallying-around.

http://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/10/archives/survey-finds-carters-popularity-has-risen-sharply-in-iran-crisis.html

(Which is not to say that Trump's 35% will ever desert him.)

Right, eventually when things die down hopefully there's a more sober assessment. But mid-crisis is different. How high was GWB's right after 9/11 and how long did it take to get to that mid-20s? Granted the mismanagement of that response was overseas so out of sight out of mind for many Americans.

Reporters should respond to Trump lies with audible groans.

Sanders was correct at the top of the last debate: We need to shut this mass-murdering motherfucker up. Stop covering his pressers as much as possible.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/trump-touts-unproven-coronavirus-drug-cocktail-as-one-of-the-biggest-game-changers-in-the-history-of-medicine/

Bernie is definitely the only person who ever voiced that idea

I get that he’s the only democratic presidential candidate who said it but c’mon, people have been pointing out that covering Trump pressers is bad since the second time Trump gave a presser

Ahem

first time

oh wait - sorry. before the first time.

no one cares when ILX says it, we're lower than Tulsi Gabbard

GWB dropped into the mid 20s

― frogbs, Saturday, March 21, 2020 12:19 PM bookmarkflaglink

that was at the end of his second term. he was slightly above 50% by the time the Kerry election came by.

and he still barely held that milquetoast off

Approval rating for how leadership is handling a crisis has next to nothing to do with how leadership is handling a crisis. People project their deep wish to have strong leadership. As things get more grim I'd expect it only to rise.

― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Saturday, March 21, 2020 12:16 PM bookmarkflaglink

also....approval rating of handling a disaster does not equate to approval rating. somebody could be saying "he's doing an ok job at this but he's an asshole otherwise".

Yes ^

how could anyone think he is "doing an OK job at this"? he was saying it was the same as the flu less than two weeks ago

Yeah, it’s dispiriting. And literally 4 hours ago he was tweeting about how 2 malaria drugs are definitely going to save the day and pushing everyone to try them immediately

i know. and i mean, every single press conference is just him talking about himself, how unfair the media is, blah blah blah

i would not underestimate to the degree to which approval rating w/r/t a tragedy carries over into general overall approval

we saw this happen in real time w/ Giuliani, people get desperate for even the illusion of comfort, even from a monster, all you need is broad shouders or a bullhorn