Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing.

And I'm Jake Sherman. American history tells us citizens tend to rally around our political leaders in times of crisis.

But those crises, terrorist attacks, wars, and other global disturbances often involve unpredictable actions by volatile and hostile foreign actors.

In this case, the Trump administration

saw a virus shut down cities of tens of millions of people and told us it simply couldn't and just

wouldn't happen here. Now it is. Just three weeks ago, the president told reporters in the capital

that the coronavirus, which has now killed more people than did the September 11th attacks,

would just go away,

so we should stay calm.

The weather would take care of it.

Medicine would come quickly.

Some elixir would make it all disappear.

Now, the Trump administration is saying that its policies could result in the deaths of

between 100,000 and nearly one quarter million Americans.

Ask why his predictions were so rosy and frankly wrong.

Trump said it's easy to be negative, but he'd rather be a cheerleader for the United States.

The White House now says the country is going to go through a very tough two weeks.

The Trump administration is now trying to convince the American people. It has a handle on a

situation that, using its own metrics and projections, has spiraled. The Trump administration is now trying to convince the American people. It has a handle on a situation

that, using its own metrics and projections, has spiraled wildly out of control.

Even the rosiest of scenarios have 50,000 people dying from this virus. That's roughly the

death toll of the Vietnam War all in one single year. The White House is left making the argument that in the absence of

...