One of the things that most people find disgusting is hypocrisy, especially when it comes from a person in a position of power, standing at a podium with a microphone and pretending to be holier-than-thou while preaching about a topic. Yet, when they’re away from the podium, their actions are something entirely different — “Do as I say, not as I do.” This appears to be the case with former vice president Joe Biden, but we’ll come back to that in a moment.
It goes without saying that President Trump never should have sat down with Watergate reporter Bob Woodward. To be frank, I can’t understand why the president continues to talk with reporters who, as the adage goes, “don’t mean him any good.” It’s no secret that media outlets such as MSNBC and CNN are not fans of Trump, so why does the president keep putting himself in this predicament? Why does he give reporters who seek to malign him the time of day? It just doesn’t make sense. Some of the president’s advisers also must not have his best interests at heart; if they did, the Woodward interview would not have occurred.
Woodward has a new book coming out, titled “Rage.” To build momentum for the book, he released tapes of his interviews with the president. The resulting major media spin was that Trump knew how deadly the COVID-19 virus was, acknowledging this privately but hiding it from the American people. But is this spin the truth? In the Woodward interview, the president stated that he “didn’t want to incite panic,” which, ultimately, was the right decision for a president to make. At the time, there were still many uncertainties about the virus that required more research and debate among experts. It would have been grossly negligent for Trump to cause a national panic without being able to articulate why or present evidence to back it up. Instead, as early as January he took decisive steps to limit the spread of the virus, such as banning travel from China, where the virus originated.
Yet the president’s explanation wasn’t enough to appease Joe Biden, who went on the attack against him in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. Unsurprisingly, Tapper did not challenge Biden on his own positions on COVID-19. Had he done so, he might have revealed Biden’s hypocrisy: The Democratic nominee is attacking Trump for not wanting to incite panic, yet he took the same steps when he said on Feb. 28: “I want to take a moment to say it’s not a time to panic about coronavirus, but coronavirus is a serious public health challenge.”
Biden repeated this line, that people should not “panic,” during a speech about coronavirus on March 12, the day after the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. President Trump has said he was attempting to maintain calm, and Biden also has suggested that people should not panic, but somehow Trump is the only one in the wrong. It’s a typical double standard by those on the left.
Democrats and their leftist media allies have chosen to work against President Trump at every turn, instead of attempting to unite the country and keep Americans safe. They’ve opted to score political points, despite the fact that some Democrats have made similar statements as the president regarding the virus.
For example, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) downplayed the severity of the virus when she visited Chinatown in San Francisco on Feb. 24, saying afterward: “It’s very safe to be in Chinatown and I hope that others will come. It’s lovely here. The food is delicious; the shops are prospering; the parade was great. Walking tours continue. Please come and visit and enjoy Chinatown.” Pelosi did this to not incite panic and fear among her constituents toward the Asian community, despite knowing that the virus was dangerous. Let’s also not forget that Pelosi also criticized the White House travel ban from China.
This makes Biden and Pelosi hypocrites — hypocrisy that some in the media have ignored while pouncing on Trump — and it appears the Democrats will even use the deaths of Americans during a pandemic to try to win the elections. For that, they should be ashamed. After Woodward’s tapes were released, some Democrats, such as Rep. Ted Lieu of California, even went so far as to suggest that Trump’s actions were “reckless homicide.” Why the double standard? The answer is simple: It suits the Democrats’ agenda.
In short, President Trump did the right thing by trying to keep Americans calm until more was known about the virus, and he continues to do the right thing today — leading with a steady hand as we continue to navigate the pandemic’s effects on the nation. That’s precisely what we need in a president.
Armstrong Williams (@ARightSide) is the owner and manager of Howard Stirk Holdings I & II Broadcast Television Stations and the 2016 Multicultural Media Broadcast Owner of the Year. He is the author of “Reawakening Virtues.”