Schiff Introduces Bill To Create Coronavirus Commission

Representative Adam Schiff has submitted a bill that would create a Senate commission to investigate the country’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Schiff: “Comprehensive and Authoritative Review Required”

Schiff had announced the creation of the commission at the start of the month, claiming that the country needed a 9/11 and Pearl Harbor style commission to “review our response and how we can better prepare for the next pandemic.”

On Friday, Schiff said that he had created a bill with Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris to establish such a commission.

“Though we are still in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis, over 16,000 Americans have died,” Schiff tweeted. “It’s clear we’ll need a bipartisan commission to ensure we’re better prepared for the next pandemic.”

“After Pearl Harbor, September 11, and other momentous events in American history, independent, bipartisan commissions have been established to provide a complete accounting of what happened, what we did right and wrong, and what we can do to better protect the country in the future,” Schiff said in a statement. “And though we are still early in this crisis, over sixteen thousand Americans have died so far. It is clear that a comprehensive and authoritative review will be required, not as a political exercise to cast blame, but to learn from our mistakes to prevent history from tragically repeating itself.”

The commission would be composed of 10 individuals, 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans, none of whom would be current federal officials, would possess subpoena power, and would proceed to make a full report on the outbreak and the nation’s response.

Impeachment 2.0!

This follows an announcement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the creation of a Congressional committee to investigate the coronavirus. They will investigate the management of the bailout package to help coronavirus victims (which amounts to over $2 trillion of government spending), and the general response from the White House, President Trump and his administration to the pandemic.

We can all see what this is: it’s nothing more than “Impeachment 2.0.” Schiff and the other Democrats are still salty from the fact that President Trump is still in office, and want to batter him over the head with this deadly pandemic that has claimed over 18,000 American lives so far.

Schiff said the commission will be “bipartisan,” so why haven’t any Republican congressmen supported his bill? Surely a bipartisan commission, if necessary, would gain the support of legislators from across the aisle?

The fact that it hasn’t should be huge red flag.

The post Schiff Introduces Bill To Create Coronavirus Commission appeared first on The Political Insider.

Republicans have a message for Trump: Shut. Up.

Donald Trump may think his coronavirus briefings are going swimmingly, but Republican lawmakers who could very well pay a price for Trump's dreadful incompetence on the pandemic are clearly desperate to muzzle him. So they did what everyone does when they can't get Trump's attention privately, they went to the press in hopes that he might get the hint.

Here's what several GOP lawmakers told The New York Times:

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, up in 2020, encouraged Trump to turn the briefings into "a once-a-week show" (i.e. less is more) West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, up in 2020, said the briefings were "going off the rails a little bit" and recommended that Trump "let the health professionals guide where we’re going to go” Indiana Rep. Susan Brooks, who isn't seeking reelection, was even more blunt: “they’re going on too long”

Even the Wall Street Journal editorial board is desperate for Trump to take a seat. "The President’s outbursts against his political critics are also notably off key at this moment. This isn’t impeachment, and COVID-19 isn’t shifty Schiff. It’s a once-a-century threat to American life and livelihood," the board wrote Thursday.

GOP lawmakers and aides alike are encouraging Trump to move away from his lie-laden coronavirus briefings that sometimes drag on for two hours and start focusing on the country's looming economic recession. Trump's internal campaign polling has shown exactly what public polling is showing: he's losing the PR battle and his tragically self-involved briefings are clearly a part of the problem. 

But Republicans pushing Trump to focus on the economy should be careful what they wish for. There's an entire conservative brigade at Fox News and within Trump’s own White House that is clamoring for Trump to reopen for business as soon as possible, regardless of what the scientists are saying. And what the scientists are saying at the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services about reopening too soon is very bad, according to new projections obtained by the Times. Lifting social distancing and stay-at-home orders after just 30 days will “lead to a dramatic infection spike this summer and death tolls that would rival doing nothing.”

Replacing a daily coronavirus briefing with a daily recession briefing isn't likely to go any better, especially if Trump’s impatience to jumpstart the economy comes at the price of a major resurgence of the virus. The only real solution to avoid the electoral liabilities of being led by an incoherent narcissist in a moment when incompetence means the difference between life and death is to muzzle him completely. Good luck with that. Trump’s too desperate for the attention to cede the stage, even when’s he’s creating an epic disaster. 

Trump’s White House is finally preparing for something: Beating back oversight of coronavirus relief

Coronavirus is going to give the Trump White House another opportunity to put into play the obstruction tactics it honed during the impeachment inquiry. There’s $2 trillion in economic stimulus, including a $500 billion relief fund for businesses, about which Trump told reporters “Look, I’ll be the oversight. I’ll be the oversight.” Which, no.

Trump then nominated a White House lawyer, i.e. someone who’s been selected for loyalty to Trump, as special inspector general for pandemic recovery. Brian Miller helped obstruct investigations into Trump’s extortion of Ukraine, and now Trump wants him to do the same for investigations into pandemic recovery funds, in the guise of an inspector general—someone who’s supposed to exercise oversight rather than defend against it.

House Democrats have already started asking for documents relating to Jared Kushner’s work on supply chains for personal protective equipment and ventilators. “We are troubled by reports that Mr. Kushner’s actions—and those of outside advisers he has assembled and tasked—may be ‘circumventing protocols that ensure all states’ requests are handled appropriately,’” Reps. Bennie Thompson and Carolyn Maloney wrote. “We are particularly troubled that Mr. Kushner’s work may even involve ‘directing FEMA and HHS officials to prioritize specific requests from people who are able to get Kushner on the phone.’”

But while the Trump White House wasn’t prepared to fight coronavirus, it’s certainly prepared to fight attempts at congressional oversight, including subpoenas.

Much of the House oversight will be run through a special select committee Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week, to be headed by Rep. Jim Clyburn. Expect it to involve a series of protracted legal battles as White House lawyers move to block any and all information. Can’t have the peons knowing what Prince Jared’s been doing, after all. Let alone the would-be king, Donald.

A few Republicans furrow their brows over Trump’s inspectors general purge

Donald Trump’s firing of two inspectors general and public attack on a third, amid reports that he plans a broader purge of inspectors general, is drawing bipartisan concern—for now, anyway. 

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is working on a letter asking Trump to explain his firing of Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community IG who referred the Ukraine call whistleblower’s report to Congress, helping to trigger Trump’s impeachment. Of course, that right there is the explanation for Trump’s firing of Atkinson, so asking for information is kind of performative. Sens. Mitt Romney and Susan Collins are backing Grassley’s letter—but we know that only one of those three people has any possibility of actually standing up to Trump rather than plastering on a furrowed brow and folding.

“It is our responsibility to confirm that there are clear, substantial reasons for removal,” a draft of Grassley’s letter viewed by The Washington Post says. Which there are! They’re just totally corrupt reasons. And since every Senate Republican but one has let Trump know that they will never put any teeth in their concerns about him, he can safely ignore this like he has every other attempt at congressional oversight.

Trump also fired the acting inspector general for the Pentagon just before he was to take a position heading the panel conducting oversight of the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus. You know, the one where Trump claimed “I’ll be the oversight” amid concerns that he would use the money as a slush fund to reward allies.

Additionally, he publicly attacked Christi Grimm, the Health and Human Services inspector general who issued a coronavirus response report that didn’t make the Trump administration look great.

Democrats are drafting bills to strengthen oversight of coronavirus stimulus funds and to protect inspectors general from firing without “evidence-based good cause,” in addition to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s formation of a select committee to look into the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic by issuing subpoenas that will be ignored.

Donald Trump is a corrupt and lawless president and he intends to use this crisis to free himself further from accountability and oversight.

Rep Dan Crenshaw Lights Hillary Clinton Up Over Her Latest Attack on Trump

Rep. Dan Crenshaw fired off a brutal response after Hillary Clinton posted yet another attack on President Trump and his coronavirus response.

The former First Lady shared a Washington Post story and quote with her social media followers which falsely alleges the President took over two months to treat the pandemic seriously.

“Replace this man in November,” she added.

Crenshaw Fires Back

Crenshaw responded to the bitter two-time failed presidential candidate as he often does – using facts to thoroughly embarrass those trying to score cheap political points.

“Denial?” Crenshaw (R-TX) shot back. “From the man who restricted travel in January [and] saved lives, while your party celebrated his impeachment?”

Indeed, the administration’s CDC reported the first case of coronavirus in the United States on January 15th.

That same day, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was signing articles of impeachment over to the Senate and handing out commemorative pens to fellow Democrats in celebration.

RELATED: Ted Cruz: Too Many In The Media Are Actively ‘Rooting’ For Pandemic To Get Worse

Hammers the Washington Post

Not only did he eviscerate Hillary, but Crenshaw took down the Washington Post for running an article suggesting the President’s lack of response cost people their lives.

“You may be confusing him with the Washington Post, telling America to get a grip. That COVID-19 wasn’t scary, [and] that we should be wary of an aggressive [government] response,” he added.

Bolstering his argument, the Republican lawmaker provided screenshots of past columns from the Post.

“Get a grippe, America,” reads one headline published days after Trump had already implemented travel restrictions from China. “The flu is a much bigger threat than coronavirus, for now.”

“Why we should be wary of an aggressive government response to coronavirus,” another conveys days later.

Now, the liberal rag and a petulant Clinton want you to think it was the President who didn’t take things seriously.

RELATED: Watch: Trump Levels ‘Third-Rate Reporter’ Jonathan Karl

Trump Saved Lives

Crenshaw has previously made a fool of Hillary for being unable to get Trump out of her head, taking shots at him during a time of crisis.

“He did promise ‘America First,'” Clinton wrote in a classless joke on the day media outlets were ignoring China’s false reporting and declaring America to be the number one nation in coronavirus cases.

“Delete your account,” replied Crenshaw. “This isn’t the time. This can’t be the new normal, where American tragedy is applauded for the sake of political opportunism.”

There’s what goes on in Hillary’s head, and then there’s reality.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has repeatedly credited President Trump with saving countless lives through swift action.

Dr. Ronny Jackson, former lead White House doctor appointed by Barack Obama, has made similar arguments.

The President’s actions, he surmised, would “save countless American lives.”

Seems the only people in denial right now are the Democrats.

The post Rep Dan Crenshaw Lights Hillary Clinton Up Over Her Latest Attack on Trump appeared first on The Political Insider.

Trump’s new press secretary on Feb. 25: ‘We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here’

On Tuesday the White House announced that scam artist phantom Stephanie Grisham was out as press secretary. Vapid right-wing talking head Kayleigh McEnany was announced as the new White House lying machine. While Grisham decided to be mysteriously invisible during her time as the White House’s main liaison to the media, McEnany has a more boisterous personality with a more storied history of spewing lies and wrongheaded predictions. For example, here she is on Fox News with now-fired Trish Regan on Feb. 25 of this year. What’s she predicting? That Trump will stop the spread of COVID-19 by way of a travel ban on China? Yes. Let’s hear about it, Kayleigh!

KAYLEIGH MCENANY: This president will always put America first. He will always protect American citizens. We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here. We will not see terrorism come here, and isn't it refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama.

You can even watch her saying it!

On the same day Larry Kudlow said coronavirus was �contained� on Feb. 25th, Trump�s campaign spox made an even more bold claim. �We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here..and isn't it refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama." pic.twitter.com/O0DDH3Rvkw

— andrew kaczynskiðÂ�¤Â� (@KFILE) April 4, 2020

McEnany has been auditioning for this part for some time now, as has virtually everyone who appears regularly on state misinformation channel Fox News. She’s checked all of requisite boxes of fealty, like saying impeachment proceedings—and in fact any criticism of Donald Trump—amounted to participating in a coup d’etat of our government

McEnany began her right-wing career speaking on CNN as a talking head, but quickly found that running into even the most modest of pushback on her talking points led to her stressing out and blinking strangely, as can be seen in this clip from a couple of years ago.

McEnany has done all the things one expects. She’s called the Mueller report an “exoneration” of Donald Trump; she’s done the softball interviews of truly awful Trump cabinet members like Betsy DeVos; and she’s tweeted out real through-the-looking-glass misinformation, like this:

BIG NEWS from President @realDonaldTrump�s Chinese Virus task force briefing! Dr. Birx shared that 40% of the country now have "EXTRAORDINARY LOW NUMBERS" of cases�� 19 of 50 states have less than 200 cases!

— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) March 26, 2020

But what may have finally gotten Kayleigh the job is her loud, fact-free, and enthusiastic delivery of conservative talking points with seemingly no shame whatsoever. But let’s never forget McEnany’s humble, racist, beginnings.

The new White House press secretary, ladies and gentlemen pic.twitter.com/y3m9YAPtAr

— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) April 7, 2020

Tuesday, Apr 7, 2020 · 7:44:15 PM +00:00 · Walter Einenkel

This quote from Grisham, given to Axios before she was officially replaced, is worth adding here: “Sounds like more palace intrigue to me, but I’ve also been in quarantine. If true, how ironic that the press secretary would hear about being replaced in the press.”

Pelosi And Schiff Plan Another Witch Hunt Against The President

As the nation fights for its life against a deadly pandemic and the economy is in serious trouble, what do the Democrats think is their greatest duty?

To launch another unfair partisan hoax against President Trump, this time on his handling of the response to the virus. Pelosi and Schiff have proposed, and Pelosi will be going ahead with, a House investigative committee much like the impeachment committees.

Comments Pelosi, “The committee will be empowered to examine all aspects of the federal response to coronavirus, and to assure that the taxpayers’ dollars are being wisely and efficiently spent to save lives, deliver relief and benefit our economy.”

The president is not happy and let it be known last Thursday.

“We have seen Americans unite with incredible selflessness and compassion. I want to remind everyone here in our nation’s capital, especially in Congress, that this is not the time for politics, endless partisan investigations. Here we go again. They’ve already done extraordinary damage to our country in recent years.”

He continued.

“It’s witch hunt after witch hunt after witch hunt. And in the end it’s people doing the witch hunt who are losing — and they’ve been losing by a lot. And it’s not any time for witch hunts.”

What were the Democrats doing to prepare for the virus?

Politico reports, “…that the Trump administration held a briefing on the coronavirus for senators, but it was ‘sparsely attended’ in part because it “was held on the same day as a deadline for senators to submit their impeachment questions.’ ”

So as the Democrats investigate the president again, timing it no doubt to coincide with the fall election, the question should be asked: what were they doing? After all, the legislative branch is coequal with the executive branch in our system. Just what did the Democrats not do to warn of the virus and for how long did they dawdle?

This piece was written by PoliZette Staff on April 6, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
Senator McSally of Arizona calls for resignation of WHO chief
The five most irresponsible liberal news networks
Why Candace Owens could be hard to beat in a CT House race

The post Pelosi And Schiff Plan Another Witch Hunt Against The President appeared first on The Political Insider.

Biden Suggests Trump Should Have Announced China Air Travel Ban Sooner — ’45 Nations Had Already Moved’

On ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden said President Donald Trump should have stopped air travel from China sooner in the effort to battle the coronavirus pandemic, adding that 45 nations had already blocked “China personnel from being able to come to the United States.”

‘We have to move more rapidly’

Commenting on President Trump’s approach to the crisis, former vice president Biden said, “I would tell him what we went through a similar crisis, you have to move swiftly. We have to move more rapidly.”

 

RELATED: AOC, Omar, And Bernie All Calling For Sanctions To Be Lifted On Iran During Coronavirus Crisis

“You have to implement the Defense Production Act, empower a supply commander, create, you know, a Defense Production Act for banks for small business loans, you got to faster than slower, and we started off awfully slow,” he added.

“He indicated that I complimented him on dealing with China,” Biden continued. “Well, you know, 45 nations had already moved to keep — to block China personnel from being able to come to the United States before the president moved. It’s about pace. It’s about —it’s about the urgency, and I don’t think there’s been enough of it.”

Dems Originally Bashed Trump’s China Travel Ban

Keep in mind that while Biden now says Trump should have implemented the travel ban sooner, when he actually did so, many Democrats were calling it racist.

Biden referred to it as “hysteria” and “xenophobia”– and now he’s changing his tune?

 

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, claimed in an interview last month that President Trump’s travel ban was key to America not getting hit as hard by the coronavirus crisis as other nations.

RELATED: Dr. Fauci: President Trump’s Travel Ban Is What May Save This Country From Becoming Italy

 

Democrats Were Distracted By Impeachment During Coronavirus Spread Early Days

In late January, a time when coronavirus was spreading and we can ostensibly believe Biden thinks Trump should have enacted a China travel ban, Democrats were obsessed with just one thing – impeachment.

Joe Biden or any other Democrat accusing Trump of taking his eye off the ball in this moment is laughable at best.

The post Biden Suggests Trump Should Have Announced China Air Travel Ban Sooner — ’45 Nations Had Already Moved’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Anyone Still Dumb Enough To Vote Democrat Is Betraying Their Country, Family And Friends

To be honest, with all of the crap the Democratic Party has done to the American people and President Trump, they should not be able to get one candidate through.

Americans Need To Include Term Limits For Elected Leaders

We need to change Congress Laws, so we have term limits, equal justice for Congress and Citizens, the same health benefit privileges if we are willing to pay and penalties for those that break their Constitutional oaths. We also need laws in place that can run for Congress. They must not be running under any agendas, not Constitutional, and must be a born USA Citizen. We have learned a lot, and only the best of us should be able to run for Congress!

MORE NEWS: Surgeon General Says This Week Will Be America’s ‘Pearl Harbor’ And ‘9/11’ Moments

I will go even further. The Democrats, after all, are the party of malcontents, societal reprobates, underachievers and non-achievers, substance abusers, and people in other ways uncomfortable in their skins.

People who ARE comfortable in their skins and with a healthy level of self-respect with few exceptions don’t vote Democrat because the Democrat Party has absolutely NOTHING to offer them except a LOT of self-destructive attitudes and policies.

Pelosi And Democrats Are Blind Leading The Blind

Pelosi and her conga line of Democrats in the three houses, the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Mainstream Press were all looking the other way, concentrating on impeachment, obstruction, trying to re-tie the ship of State back to the pier of malaise, or boring holes in the hull below the waterline, and even claiming the COVID-19 (coronavirus) was no big deal, but President Trump was just racist and xenophobic to do anything about it, including to refer to its origination hot spot!

Virtually every major city in the US is run by Democrats, which means run by corrupt incompetents. To keep their jobs, democrats have made the inhabitants of their cities as dependent upon handouts and graft as they can. That and importing illegal aliens they can use as additional illegal voters. Then combining the corruption with an ideology designed to make people act against all logic and reason while making themselves more powerful, they have hollowed out the strength of every city for themselves.

MORE NEWS: Joy Behar Desperately Tries To Get CA Gov. Newsom To Bash Trump On ‘The View’ – He Responds With Only Praise For President

New York is typical. Left on its own, as it would be, if the US were not in pandemic shutdown, de Blasio and his Democrats would quickly kill 10% of the city population. Remember into mid-March, about three weeks ago, the mayor and his people were promoting ignoring the virus. The people flooding hospitals today are the result, and every death is killing another Democrat. Of course, they will remain loyal Democrat voters.

PELOSI IS ABOUT ABOUT DESTROYING HER POLITICAL ENEMY

The answer to Pelosi lies with her daughter, who notably told us the truth about the evil, vindictive Democrat leader. She, in so many words, said to us that her mother would stop at nothing to destroy someone whom she perceived as an enemy of her political aspirations. In other words, the woman has no moral compass other than to get her way regardless of who or how many it hurts.

According to the Democrats, Trump didn’t do enough. He didn’t declare martial law and take over the entire healthcare sector. You know if Obama were in charge, that’s exactly what he would have done, just taken over everything! Who needs elections, communists just TAKE! Remember this every time you hear Trump didn’t do enough!

MORE NEWS: NRA Sues New York Governor Cuomo Over Gun Store Coronavirus Closures

Folks let’s pray that our president and his advisors have supernatural wisdom and insight in this situation, that he listens to voices that tell him the truth. Believe Dr. Anthony Fauci must go. Bind up the spirits of deception and confusion that are continually in the propaganda in the airwaves in Jesus’ name.

Although the New World Order may think this is a perfect storm for more power, God has a greater plan.

Wayne’s Recommendations:

The post Anyone Still Dumb Enough To Vote Democrat Is Betraying Their Country, Family And Friends appeared first on The Political Insider.

By making the pandemic a battle of ‘us vs. them,’ the pro-Trump media set their audience up to die

Long after the COVID-19 pandemic has passed and the bodies have been buried or cremated, historians will try to understand how a country that made up only 4.25% of the world’s population somehow managed have 22% of the worldwide number of people infected with the virus.

They’ll puzzle over statistics showing huge numbers of deaths in the rural American South and Midwest, far away from the most populated areas. They’ll consult physicians and epidemiologists for a rational explanation, but will find none. They’ll look at per capita income and marvel at the fact that this country harbored the wealthiest people on the planet, with even its middle class enjoying a (relatively) prosperous standard of living compared to other nations caught up in the pandemic.

Why then, they’ll ask, did so many people die? Why were so many infected in the first place?

As reported by Jeremy Peters in The New York Times, the media had something to do with it.

A review of hundreds of hours of programming and social media traffic from Jan. 1 through mid-March — when the White House started urging people to stay home and limit their exposure to others — shows that doubt, cynicism and misinformation about the virus took root among many of Mr. Trump’s boosters in the right-wing media as the number of confirmed cases in the United States grew.

It was during this lull — before the human and economic toll became undeniable — when the story of the coronavirus among the president’s most stalwart defenders evolved into the kind of us-versus-them clash that Mr. Trump has waged for much of his life.

The Times carefully traces back the response by the right wing in this country to what is rapidly emerging as the greatest public health threat in U.S. history. That response was striking in its knee-jerk, reactionary cynicism. From Candace Owens' sarcastic tweeting in late February, laughing about the dire warnings of medical professionals as a “Doomsday cult of the ‘Left’” (she actually doubled down just this week, advising her audience to consider the number of deaths with “a little perspective”), to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, who in February called the virus “a new pathway for hitting President Trump,” to the sudden about-face of Sean Hannity—in exact tandem with Trump’s vacillating messages about the seriousness of the pandemic.

The blaming by the right continues to this day, as media figures continue to try to concoct new distractions for Americans from Trump’s abysmal negligence and disregard, even as the horror unfolds in Americans’ living rooms, broadcast from hospital floors in living color on the nightly news. As Peters notes, this blame game is also nothing new.

The pervasiveness of the denial among many of Mr. Trump’s followers from early in the outbreak, and their sharp pivot to finding fault with an old foe once the crisis deepened, is a pattern that one expert in the spread of misinformation said resembled a textbook propaganda campaign.

A “propaganda campaign” it was, and continues to be. Modern conservatism and what we understand as the “right,” with its torch-bearer, the Republican Party, does not thrive in this country based on its inherent ideas or philosophy. The absolute dearth of legislation passed by the Republican-dominated Congress during the first two years of the Trump administration (beyond a singularly skewed tax cut for corporate America) is the best evidence of that. Republicanism and conservatism do not exist because of their “ideas,” because, frankly, their ideas are largely repugnant to most Americans. That is why they rely on inflaming division and prejudices in their base while seeking to suppress the votes of as many non-Republicans as possible. Their “ideas,” to the extent they have any, are toxic and unpopular.

So the right wing always needs an enemy to blame, someone "conspiring" against them, and they need a media apparatus to stoke fear of that enemy in their supporters. The enemy can be African American, Latinx, Muslim, or a member of the LGBTQ community; the villains can be teachers, government employees, or even college professors. More generically, that enemy can be the “media,” “liberals,” or “Democrats.” And even more broadly, “financial elites”—which, roughly translated, usually means “Jews.” It really doesn’t matter.

Tobin Smith, a former Fox News contributor and anchor, explained last year in an op-ed for The New York Times how the network deliberately creates enemies for its viewers, to bind them to the network by providing them a sense of grievance, of someone conspiring against their interests. He explains the psychology as activating the Fox viewer’s “fight or flight juices,” making the viewer feel as if he is being attacked. He compares it to the administration of a highly addictive drug, prompting the viewer to come back again and again for another “conspiracy fix.”

Believing in conspiracy theories is a psychological construct for people to take back some semblance of control in their lives. It inflates their sense of importance. It makes them feel they have access to “special knowledge” that the rest of the world is “too blind,” “too dumb” or “too corrupt” to understand.

The COVID-19 pandemic has offered the right a litany of enemies on whom to place blame. The Times identified a systemic pattern among right-wing media’s response to the coronavirus—so systemic that the Times was able to categorize four stages of blame-shifting at various times by the right, as they continued to deny, deflect, and above all, defend Donald Trump. The stages were, in the order they were rolled out: 1) Blaming China; 2) minimizing the risk (and in some instances, ridiculing it); 3) sharing “survivor” stories to further minimize the risk; and 4) blaming the left (or “Democrats”).

The Times amply documents all of these tactics, as evidenced by Fox News, Limbaugh, Hannity, and the entire right-wing apparatus. China-blaming started early on, with Fox News as the “launching pad” for halting all travel from China, the promotion of the phrase “Chinese virus,” and the conspiracy theories of Republican politicians such as Tom Cotton, who suggested that the virus had been concocted in a Chinese bioweapons lab. This China-bashing continues to this day, with administration officials peddling the “Wuhan virus” designation to inflame their base’s sense of xenophobia and anger.

As the Times reports, minimizing or ridiculing the risk was a staple of right-wing propaganda from January onward, with recent Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Rush Limbaugh exclaiming: “Flight attendant working L.A.X. tests positive. Oh, my God, 58 cases! Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” and Sean Hannity gleefully feigning fear: “The apocalypse is imminent and you’re going to all die, all of you in the next 48 hours. And it’s all President Trump’s fault,” the Fox News star said, adding, “or at least that’s what the media mob and the Democratic extreme radical socialist party would like you to think.” Limbaugh claimed that the coronavirus “appear[ed] less deadly than the flu,” but warned that the media kept “promoting panic.” The Times notes that a Breitbart news editor named Joel Pollak merrily published supposedly “scientific” articles minimizing the threat and emphasizing the “best possible outcomes.”

Just one day after Pollak urged Americans to “chill out” about the pandemic, the first American died.

Their audience smiled and nodded, sure that this was all a liberal plot. While thousands around the world were becoming sick and dying from the virus, the “tone of the coverage from Fox, talk radio and the commentators who make up the president’s zealous online army remained dismissive.” This is probably what will be most remembered by those future historians, perplexed at the startling body counts in places like Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, because governors in all these states took their cues directly from such dismissiveness from people in power, and people with a platform.

The idea that this was all a “liberal hoax” was not only articulated by Trump himself, but amplified a thousand times over by Fox News and its ilk. That this cynical gamesmanship was occurring not in reference to a political campaign but a dire public health threat seemed not to matter to any of these people. They were collecting their fat paychecks, and that was apparently all that mattered to them.

After the deadly effects of COVID-19 became impossible to ignore, Fox & Friends ran a segment happily celebrating how its impact would really be quite minimal. “Survivor stories” such as Jerri Jorgensen’s were highlighted, suggesting to viewers that the virus was not a “big deal.” Limbaugh picked that one up, joking to his 15 million listeners that callers expressing concern about potential exposure weren’t phoning him from “beyond the grave.”

Finally, as the pandemic became more and more prevalent and could not be disregarded, came what Peters characterizes as the “Blame the Left” phase.

By the middle of March, the story of the virus on the right was one of how Mr. Trump’s enemies had weaponized “the flu” and preyed on the insecurities of an emasculated America.

Mr. Limbaugh blamed “wimp politics — which is liberalism.” Mr. Pollak, whose tone grew more serious, said the virus had spread while Democrats stretched out the president’s impeachment. “We now know the cost of impeachment,” he wrote.

Frank Luntz, the veteran political strategist who advises Republican leaders, said many on the right were applying the scornful, “own the libs” mentality of social media to a deadly and frightening health crisis.

We’re still at the tail end of that phase now, with conservatives and rightwing trolls attacking coronavirus task force expert Dr. Anthony Fauci with death threats, and others who have successfully punctured the right’s toxic bubble blaming January’s impeachment proceedings for Trump’s gross negligence and inaction, and, once again, blaming the Chinese. It’s not clear who the right will blame next for Trump’s colossal failure. But by the time they get around to it, many of their followers will already be dead.

Because all of this had an impact—in our politically polarized nation, how could it not? It caused millions of Americans who trusted such sources—who trusted Donald Trump—to let down their guard, to throw caution to the wind. It caused Republican governors to ignore the harrowing warnings of established science and advise their constituents to carry on as if the threat did not exist. It led those citizens to genuinely believe everything was going to be all right.

But we’re not going to be all right. Thanks to these monstrously amoral and unconcerned purveyors of Republican propaganda, many, many people are going to die who could have and should have lived. Families that should have remained intact are going to suffer the loss of people they love. And people who did actually understand the gravity of this pandemic are going to be infected by those who were lulled into complacency by that propaganda.

The full horror of what the right-wing media has done is just now becoming apparent, but in the coming weeks it will be impossible to ignore.