By Daniel Bobinski
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed Trump for some coronavirus deaths while (virtually) visiting her friend Jake Tapper at CNN this past weekend. The attack was not unexpected. When it comes to Pelosi’s observed pattern of behavior when talking about Trump, her pattern is predictable: 1) attack, 2) attack, and 3) attack.
The whole world knows that Pelosi and her Leftist media pals have been working overtime to undermine Trump since before he assumed office. But in February, Pelosi made a huge mistake. Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services Secretary declared a public health emergency on January 31, and between that date and February 22, when Trump appointed Vice President Pence to oversee the coronavirus task force, Pelosi attacked Trump for everything she could EXCEPT his approach to the virus.
Pelosi’s virus radar didn’t blip the day she tore up the President’s State of the Union speech on February 4. Her radar didn’t blip when Trump was acquitted on February 5. It didn’t blip on February 6 when she defended her ripping up of Trump’s speech, or when she got in front of cameras to criticize Trump’s budget on February 9. It didn’t blip on February 13, when she attacked Attorney General Barr for “damaging the rule of law,” nor when she criticized President Trump for politicizing the intelligence community, nor when she accused the President of Abuse of Power, all on the same day.
No, Pelosi’s virus radar didn’t blip at all until after Feb 22. That was when President Trump appointed Pence to oversee the coronavirus task force, and it was then that Pelosi realized she had another avenue for launching an attack.
Waiting until then was Pelosi’s mistake. It exposed her hypocrisy. If you go back and look, no articles or interviews or statement about Pelosi’s concern about the virus were published between January 31 and February 22. That tells us that COVID-19 was not important to Pelosi until after Pence was overseeing the task force.
Therefore, for the Speaker to grandstand and say the President didn’t do enough is laughable to the extreme. Pelosi’s behavior has become quite predictable: Manipulate every crisis to slip her fascist agenda into relief bills, and attack President Trump at every turn.
When Pelosi and the Leftist media express their anguish about the deaths from COVID-19, I want to ask, “Why don’t we see them going bat-guano crazy over 25,000 – 50,000 Americans dying from the flu each year?” The answer is easy. Because the flu is not sensational. Not only will flu deaths not sell advertising, flu deaths don’t give Leftists and their media lapdogs an opportunity to smear President Trump.
When I talk like this, people ask, “How can you be so cold hearted? People are dying!!!” To which I say, “People die from the flu every year, too. It’s called ‘flu season.’”
If the situation allows, I’ll ask people, “Do you know how many people died from the H1N1 virus? We weren’t fearmongering the country to the point of trashing our economy back then. Why not?”
“Yeah, but the Coronavirus is different!”
Yes, I agree. They’re different viruses. And Leftists in Congress and Leftists in the media responded differently to H1N1, too. After all, there was a Leftist in the White House, so why smear a President who was lock step with your ideological agenda?
You could bet 2.2 Trillion to one that if Trump responded to the H1N1 scenario the same way as Obama did, we’d be seeing impeachment articles being written up faster than Nancy Pelosi’s bar tab.
Before I show the comparisons, let me note that according to the CDC, “from April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010, there were 60.8 million H1N1 cases, with 274,304 hospitalizations and 12,469 deaths in the U.S. alone.” The CDC also estimated that that year, between 151,700 to 575,400 people died from H1N1 worldwide.
Let’s look at how each President handled their “virus crisis.”
H1N1 on Obama’s watch
April 25, 2009: The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) declares a public health emergency regarding H1N1.
April 26, 2009: Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary declares a public health emergency. The United States had 20 reported cases and no American deaths.
June 11, 2009: W.H.O. declares H1N1 a global pandemic.
October 24, 2009: Obama’s White House announces a declaration of national emergency. For the record, Obama signed the declaration on Friday, the White House announced it on Saturday, and CNN got around to reporting it on Monday, October 26. Not exactly a hot story.
It’s worth noting in the 195 days between the HHS Secretary’s public health emergency declaration on April 26 and Obama’s declaration of national emergency on October 24, more than 1,000 H1N1 US deaths had occurred.
COVID-19 on Trump’s watch
January 30, 2020: W.H.O. declares a global health emergency for the “China coronavirus.” (For the record, that’s what CNBC called it.)
January 31, 2020: Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary declares a public health emergency, which included the first American quarantine in 50 years. The United States had seven reported cases and no deaths.
March 11, 2020: W.H.O. declares COVID-19 a global pandemic.
March 23, 2020: Trump’s White House declares COVID-19 to be a national emergency. In the 42 days between the declaration of public health emergency and the declaration of national emergency, 40 US deaths had occurred, 22 of which were at a single senior health care facility in the State of Washington.
Lest anyone think I’m making up these dates or figures, everything is verifiable. So let’s compare:
- Obama waited 135 days after the W.H.O. declared a global pandemic on H1N1 before declaring a national emergency.
- Trump waited 12 days after the W.H.O. declared a global pandemic on COVID-19 before declaring a national emergency.
- There were more than 1,000 American deaths from H1N1 and 195 days between Obama’s HHS Secretary declaring a public health emergency and Obama declaring a national emergency.
- There were 40 American deaths from COVID-19 and 52 days between Trump’s HHS Secretary declaring a public health emergency and Trump declaring a national emergency.
If Trump had waited 195 days before declaring a national emergency like Obama did, we’d be looking at mid-August.
Democrats mocked Trump
How quickly the legacy media forgets, but Leftists were all too eager to criticize Trump and call him a xenophobe for restricting travel from China and putting people in quarantine.
And how quickly we forget New York’s leaders encouraging people to go out and mingle after Trump had expressed concerns about the virus. Their clear implication was Trump was over-reacting. Sadly, New York is now paying for that arrogance with the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the country.
And Pelosi has the chutzpah to criticize Trump and not the Leftists who ignored his warnings? She has the gall to say Trump didn’t act fast enough? Does she not remember that Obama waited until there more than 1,000 US deaths before he declared a national emergency?
Well, if we remember that Pelosi’s predictable behavior pattern is 1) attack, 2) attack, and 3) attack, it makes sense.
And it’s a good thing that makes sense, because Pelosi doesn’t.
In fact, in my professional view as a behavioral analyst, I say Pelosi’s credibility is in the toilet. If she had expressed any genuine concern about COVID-19 between January 31 and February 22, I might give a level of credence to her comments. But because her clearly observable pattern is attack for the sake of attacking, her comments on how Trump has handled the pandemic do not hold water. Pelosi clearly has zero credibility and should be ignored.
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Daniel Bobinski, M.Ed. is a certified behavioral analyst, best-selling author, columnist, corporate trainer, and keynote speaker. He’s also a veteran and a self-described Christian Libertarian who believes in the principles of free market capitalism – while standing firmly against crony capitalism.
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