Despite the bold action and fast response taken by President Trump and the Coronavirus Task Force, critics continue to find fault in the administration's every move.
The most oft-heard complaint is the president's use of the term "Chinese Virus" to describe the COVID-19 coronavirus strain.
The issue was raised at Tuesday's noon briefing when a reporter told the president that "China and others have criticized you for using the phrase 'Chinese virus.'" He then asked if he planned to continue using the phrase.
Trump observed that he was merely setting the record straight after China accused the U.S. military of creating the outbreak.
When advised that "critics say that using that phrase creates a stigma," Trump threw it right back at him.
"No, I don't think so," he said. "I think saying that our military gave it to them creates a stigma."
Nonetheless, Hindustan Times journalist Harinder Baweja, who claims to be equally critical of the right and left, called Trump a "serial offender" for his repeated use of the phrase, adding, "he repeats the words 'Chinese Virus' again."
Last week CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta claimed, "The president referred to the coronavirus as a 'foreign virus.' It's going to come across to a lot of Americans as smacking of xenophobia to use that kind of term in this speech."
Earlier, Democratic Coalition co-founder Scott Dworkin blasted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for his own use of the phrase.
"If you label the coronavirus as a 'Chinese' coronavirus, you are a racist," he said. "It's that simple. Stop playing politics with the coronavirus. You're not go fooling anyone. @GOPLeader is a racist."
However, as Breitbart News reporter Hannah Bleau observed last week, Democrats and media outlets have been using variations of "China" "Chinese" and "Wuhan" to describe the outbreak long before they acquired their "newfound outrage over members of the GOP using what they consider problematic descriptions of the virus."
She then listed 12 left-leaning print, cable, and web-based news outlets that have used one or more of those variations in the past, including CNN, The Washington Post, NPR, BuzzFeed and Bloomberg.
Moreover, the origin of epidemics have been used to identify them for centuries, including Japanese smallpox the Italian Plague, the London Plague, the Russian Flu, the Spanish Flu, and German measles.
There was also the Asian Flu and the Hong Kong flu. The Ebola virus was named after West Africa's Ebola River, and the West Nile Virus first emerged in the West Nile District of Uganda.
In addition, if any single country deserves to have the name "Chinese" attached to a pandemic, it's China, which did all it could to conceal the outbreak rather than contain it, as Human Events managing editor Miles Cheong reported.
"For weeks, China covered up the coronavirus pandemic. And in the days and weeks after the situation was evident, China left its airports and borders open, allowing the virus to migrate internationally," he observed Tuesday. "China ensured that it would not be the only casualty to the economic fallout."
Cheong continued, "As China recovers, it has mobilized its manufacturing sector to make gear that no one would've needed had it closed off in the first place. It's trying to paint itself as a hero riding to the world's rescue." He added, "China must be held accountable for the pandemic."
Not all liberal media figures have condemned Trump, however, and some of the praise has come from surprising sources, beginning with California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
"He said everything I could have hoped for. And we had a very long conversation and every single thing he said, they followed through on," he said.
"Every single thing ... has been consistent with expectation we'd repatriate these passengers and do it in a way that does justice to the spirit that defines the best of our country," Newsom added.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters that "I think the president was 100 percent sincere in saying that he wanted to work together in partnership in a spirit of cooperation. I can tell you the actions he has taken evidence that. His team has been on it." He added "they've been responsive late at night and early in the morning."
Even CNN's Dana Bash was complimentary after one of the presidential coronavirus news briefings.
"When you look at the big picture, this was remarkable from the president of the United States," she told her on-air panel. "This is an important thing to note and to applaud from an American standpoint, from a human standpoint. He is being the kind of leader ... that people need, and want, and yearn for in times of crisis and uncertainty."
Maybe there's hope for the republic after all.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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