Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Trump’s Coronavirus Update
President Trump resumed the Coronavirus Task Force briefings yesterday, appearing alone to talk to reporters in the White House briefing room.
Trump avoided being drawn into debates with reporters who attend the briefings with the goal of making news and advancing their careers by getting into heated exchanges with the president.
Instead, Trump reviewed the challenges we still face as a nation, predicting that the virus may get worse before it gets better. But he also talked about the progress that’s been made — and it’s been extraordinary.
Trump corrected some misperceptions about the virus that, like the virus itself, never seem to go away. He emphasized that 90 percent of those hospitalized with the virus had underlying medical conditions. He also stressed that the chances of children succumbing to Covid-19 are vanishingly small. He further mentioned that, despite what the media would have us believe, coronavirus fatalities nationwide have not been surging. In fact, they’ve fallen 75 percent since mid-April. That’s partly because testing capacity has increased 400 percent since mid-May. Trump also noted that his administration currently has zero unfilled requests for medical equipment, including ventilators.
The administration is working with Congress to advance the next economic relief package. It is also providing major investments in companies that are developing a vaccine so that, once a breakthrough occurs, it can be manufactured and dispersed quickly. The president touted the tremendous progress being made toward developing a vaccine for the virus, noting that two vaccine candidates are entering their final stage of clinical trials this month.
It’s plausible that a vaccine could be announced in the next few months. But Trump's opponents seem to fear that a vaccine would help Trump politically. In fact, they've opposed many of the steps the administration has taken to combat this pandemic.
They opposed Trump when he cut off travel from China in January, a decision that saved countless lives. When the president called it the “Chinese virus,” Nancy Pelosi and the media were furious. They accused him of smearing China. Yesterday, Pelosi referred to it as the “Trump virus.” Predictably, that smear was met with silence by the media.
The Battle Over Columbus
Often when the word “battle” is used in politics, it’s not meant to be taken literally but as a metaphor for the intense debate between conservatives and progressives. But more and more, the struggle between those who love America and those who want to tear it down, root and branch, resembles an actual military conflict.
That’s because the left is increasingly willing to take up arms against anything they oppose — the police, monuments to America’s founding, Donald Trump, etc.
Here’s the latest example. Chicago police on Monday showed footage of an organized riot at a monument to Christopher Columbus near Grant Park. The video shows rioters armed with weapons attacking police. But these weren’t anarchists randomly attacking whoever they could get their hands on. This was an extremely well-organized riot that had the hallmarks of a military operation.
The video shows hundreds of protestors proceeding behind banners held up by metal piping with slogans such as “Black Lives Matter” and “Defund the Police.”
Once the protestors got to Grant Park, the banners were held up to shield the group behind them, who opened umbrellas, changed into all-black clothing and began handing out rocks, frozen cans and frozen water bottles among the mob.
The rioters then moved toward the statue in what the police superintendent later described as “a platoon-like fashion.” The rioters attacked the cops for 30 minutes with the metal piping and the projectiles. They restocked the rioters from shopping carts throughout the attack. Some 49 officers suffered injuries, including one who suffered an eye injury when he was hit by an incendiary device.
This was, in effect, a military operation. The tragedy here is that most Americans will never learn about this incident. They wouldn’t have heard about it in any of the mainstream national media outlets. Kudos to Breitbart for bringing it to the public’s attention.
This is one more indication that the forces rioting in cities across the nation are much more dangerous than they are being portrayed.
More Chinese Infiltration
The Justice Department has identified two Chinese hackers who were engaged in a hacking campaign into the computer systems of hundreds of American companies and the U.S. government. In some cases, the hackers stole information on behalf of the communist Chinese government. The hacking campaign targeted, among others, high tech manufacturing, medical device, pharmaceuticals and defense companies. More recently, the hackers were in the middle of trying to hack computer networks of companies developing Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and testing technology.
Later in the day, the Trump Administration ordered the Chinese government to close its consulate in Houston, Texas, because we have evidence that for years they have been involved in the theft of intellectual property and other nefarious activity against the U.S. government and American citizens.
Within hours of this announcement, the Houston Fire Department was called to the consulate, where smoke was seen rising from an outdoor courtyard. Footage broadcast on local TV stations showed people hurriedly burning documents on the consulate’s premises.
There are likely hundreds or thousands of Chinese doing this type of espionage within our borders. The two indicted Chinese nationals had been hacking into our networks since early in the Obama administration. The Obama Administration didn’t take this seriously. Finally, we have an administration that is.