President Trump is a "self-proclaimed wartime president," CNN's Anderson Cooper said on Wednesday night, yet on the day the United States coronavirus death toll surpassed 150,000, he made no mention of the "American lives lost on the battlefield that he himself is absent from."
"I wish I could tell you the president of those 150,000 dead and their families and all of us said something about those deaths today, about the grief so many families are feeling, but he did not," Cooper said. "Today, crossing that miserable milestone of 150,000 deaths, the president ignored it. Nothing about the 197 lives lost in California or the 216 in Florida. When confronted with the civilian casualties of his misbegotten, so-called 'whole of government' approach, this self-proclaimed wartime president has little to say."
Trump was in Texas on Wednesday, and could have talked about the Americans who have died or Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), who was scheduled to accompany him on the trip but had to stay behind when he tested positive for COVID-19. Instead, Trump vaguely told a crowd of oil workers that "together, we will end the plague from China" and said Democrats "want to uproot and demolish every American value."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The death toll of 150,000 that Trump won't acknowledge is "neither just a number nor a statistic," Cooper said. "It is one parent, one grandparent, a lost child, an absent friend, one less measure of love in the world and many more tears — that times 150,000." Catherine Garcia
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.