In Tulsa on June 20, President Donald Trump announced that he had asked “his people” to go slow on virus testing, explaining that if you do more tests, you have more cases (which would be embarrassing). Spokespersons said the next day that Trump had spoken “tongue in cheek.”

This was after doctors standing next to the President at numerous press conferences had explained repeatedly that testing is essential to controlling an epidemic, as it allows directing of efforts, quarantining and contact tracing. It avoids having contagious staff infect nursing home residents, and young people bring the virus to their grandparents. At those conferences, Trump insisted repeatedly that we a world leader in testing.

Clearly what we have here is one of three things:

Either Trump doesn’t comprehend the need for testing, in which case he is an idiot; or he jokes about a pestilence that has killed 130,000 citizens, in which case he is a callous jerk; or he intentionally directed a course of action that would cost tens of thousands of lives, in which case he is a killer — his knee on the neck of patients who can’t breathe.

Trump bragged he could stand on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and get away with it. His Attorney General says he can’t be indicted, and his senators thwart impeachment. So, we must be the judge — on November 3.

Newsletter