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“Breaking news: Congressman Massie has tested positive for being an asshole. He must be quarantined to prevent the spread of his massive stupidity.”
— Former Secretary of State John Kerry, on Twitter, in response to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) stalling House approval of the $2.2 trillion economic relief package.
“For a narcissist, the most immediate personal need is the most important one. So Trump viewed the burgeoning crisis as a threat to him, not the nation, and he took the steps he usually does in so many circumstances: He denied the threat, claimed he knew better than the experts, and relied on bluster and BS. He did all that instead of adopting early measures that could have slowed the transmission of the virus. … But beyond the narcissism, two other fundamental elements of Trump’s character are likely shaping his response: his obsession with revenge and his sense of fatalism. And both are exceedingly dangerous for the American public.”
“I just think these numbers right now are not relevant. Whether they’re bigger or smaller in the short term… the good thing about this bill is, the president is protecting these people.”
— Asked on CNBC about the record joblessness report, which totaled nearly 3.3 million people, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin downplayed the report.
“In short, the Trump administration forced a catastrophic strategic surprise onto the American people. But unlike past strategic surprises—Pearl Harbor, the Iranian revolution of 1979, or especially 9/11—the current one was brought about by unprecedented indifference, even willful negligence. Whereas, for example, the 9/11 Commission Report assigned blame for the al Qaeda attacks on the administrations of presidents Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush, the unfolding coronavirus crisis is overwhelmingly the sole responsibility of the current White House.”
“Please do not take medical advice from a man who looked directly at a solar eclipse.”
— Hillary Clinton, on Twitter, mocking President Trump’s repeated suggestions for coronavirus treatments.
“That is the dumbest shit I have heard in a long time. This is a day-by-day crisis. Italy damn near saw 1,000 people die in one day, and there are people proclaiming we got this and have it solved in 15 days?”
— Florida state Sen. Oscar Brayon (D). “While New York, California and other states shutter their economies to keep the coronavirus at bay, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is refusing to follow the herd,” Politico reports.“His cure-can’t-be-worse-than-the-disease approach has put the Republican governor under a glaring spotlight locally and nationally as cases of the virus in Florida surge past 1,400.”
“I think we have a responsibility to our students — who paid to be here, who want to be here, who love it here — to give them the ability to be with their friends, to continue their studies, enjoy the room and board they’ve already paid for and to not interrupt their college life.”
— Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr.“As the coronavirus threatens to spread across the Lynchburg region, Liberty University officials are preparing to welcome back up to 5,000 students from spring break this week,” the Lynchburg News & Advance reports.
“We’re not going to give away our supply chains right now because it is that competitive.”
— County Executive Ryan McMahon (R), the top official in New York’s Onondaga County, said he had acquired 60 ventilators to be on hand when desperately ill patients with COVID-19 need help breathing, but he won’t say where he got them, the Syracuse Post-Standard reports.
“No one reached out to me and said, ‘As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?’ And if that’s the exchange, I’m all in. … I want to, you know, live smart and see through this, but I don’t want to see the whole country to be sacrificed, and that’s what I see.”
— Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), chiming in to support President Trump’s new focus on the economy over fierce warnings from public health officials, suggested that he would rather die from the rapid spread of coronavirus than see instability in the American economic system, theTexas Tribune reports.
“I’d rate it a 10. … I think we’ve done a great job, and it started with the fact that we kept a very highly-infected country, despite all of the, even the professionals saying it’s too early to do that. We were very, very early with respect to China and we would have a whole different situation in this country if we didn’t do that.”
— President Trump told reporters that he would rate his administration’s response to the coronavirus a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, The Hill reports.
