The Coronavirus Election
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 30 March 2020
⏱️ 20 minutes
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Summary
It’s been just over a month since Donald Trump tweeted for the first time about the coronavirus—saying, in essence, that the virus did not pose a substantial threat to the United States. Why did he so dramatically underplay the risks of COVID-19? “With Trump, sometimes the answer is pretty transparent,” The New Yorker’s Washington correspondent, Susan B. Glasser, told David Remnick, “and, in this case, I think the answer is pretty transparent. He didn’t want anything to interrupt his reëlection campaign plan, which entirely hinged on the strength of the U.S. economy.” Even as the virus spreads, Trump has criticized widespread self-isolation orders and made overtures toward reopening businesses to revitalize the economy. Meanwhile, Joe Biden, Trump’s likely Democratic Presidential opponent, has refrained from openly antagoniz ing the President. Glasser weighs this tactic: “Do you attack Trump right now, or do you just sort of stand out of the way and let him shoot himself in the foot?”
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| 1:11.9 | I'm Dorothy Wickenden. On today's Politics and More podcast, David Remnick talks with |
| 1:17.5 | New Yorker staff writer Susan Glasser. They'll discuss how COVID-19 has affected policymaking |
| 1:23.6 | in Washington. We're in a time now of terrible uncertainty in just about every aspect of our national |
| 1:32.3 | life, not least in our politics. |
| 1:35.3 | Whether the pandemic brings us to a greater sense of common good really remains to be seen. |
| 1:41.1 | Some in the business community and on the right are now arguing that widespread death may be |
| 1:46.1 | preferable to the economic depression that follows from containing the virus. And President Trump, |
| 1:52.4 | meanwhile, is insisting that the country be brought back to work by Easter. And all through this, |
| 1:58.6 | there's a presidential primary race still going on, and we have no idea how the pandemic will affect the November election. |
| 2:06.7 | To get some insight on all of this, I called up the New Yorker's Washington correspondent, Susan Glasser. |
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