Mulvaney calls U.S. coronavirus testing abilities 'inexcusable,' breaking from Trump
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Monday criticized the U.S. coronavirus testing process, calling his family’s difficulties in obtaining tests and delays in the results “inexcusable” in the seventh month of the pandemic, splitting from his former boss’ repeated boasts about testing.
“I know it isn’t popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a testing problem in this country,” Mulvaney wrote in an op-ed for CNBC .
Mulvaney, who served in Congress before leading the White House budget office and becoming chief of staff, said that his son had recently been tested for the virus and had to wait up to a week for the results, and that his daughter was turned away from getting a test before she went to visit her grandparents.
“That is simply inexcusable at this point in the pandemic,” Mulvaney said.
Mulvaney’s anecdote comes as the Trump administration — and especially President Donald Trump -- have touted the ramped-up testing capacity in the country since serious missteps early on hamstrung testing operations.
In an interview Friday with Telemundo’s José Díaz-Balart, the president declared that “our testing is far superior to anybody,” and just days earlier, he had proclaimed that “the U.S. is, by far, number one in testing” in the world.
And the White House initially tried to dismiss a new surge in cases throughout the South and West over the last month by attributing the new crush of cases to increased testing availability. But local leaders in areas where the new outbreaks are cropping up have raised concerns about the need for better testing, and the White House was forced to reverse course on a plan to wind down federal support for testing sites in Texas.
The editorial from Mulvaney, who now serves as the administration’s special envoy for Northern Ireland, was centered on his suggestions for lawmakers as Congress works to pass a fourth stimulus package later this month.
“Any stimulus should be directed at the root cause of our recession: dealing with Covid,” he wrote, focusing on money for research, temporary hospital beds or therapeutics rather than a stimulus check for families or travel incentives — though tens of millions of Americans remain out of work.
The statement from Mulvaney that the health crisis is still raging comes as the White House seeks to push forward with its plans to reopen the economy, taking the form in recent weeks of an aggressive push for schools to reopen in the fall, despite parts of the country reporting record numbers of infections.
Most of the president’s allies have adopted that line of thinking, arguing that Americans must learn to live with the virus before a vaccine can be developed, and Trump has even begun to wage a public campaign questioning his health officials offering dire evaluations of the pandemic.
Mulvaney wasn’t always so alarmist about the health crisis — at the CPAC conference at the end of February, the then-chief of staff accused the media of over-hyping the virus because “they think this is going to be what brings down” the president. Though he conceded the virus might be dangerous enough to shutter schools and public transportation, he sought to reassure attendees that the White House was equipped to handle the issue.
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Oh common Mick.... everyone knows that Covid is a hoax, and even so... We have the bestest testing... and everything is going to just one day disappear..../s
We have multiple (small) cracks in the GOP breaking from Trump at the same time the Trump propaganda channels are saying everything is super cool. Oh and the Dems in swing states are cleaning up in online funding.
For me, it just comes back to lives...... We didn't have to be going through this EG.
Just imagine if Trump would have early on said it's our patriotic duty to America to wear a mask. We would have protected our people and our economy at the same time.
If it weren't for tRump denying EVERYTHING things would not be as they are now.
He could have sold MAGA masks. But the short fingered vulgarian is vein and paranoid of looking weak.
Biden should be selling "Go Joe" M95s. A win-win.
Of course progressives don't seem to be the ones with the mask problem...... thus sales wouldn't be that robust.
Do we need to remind you again that this out of control Covid problem here in the US is Trump's fault, or are you still under the impression that the buck stops with everyone else but him?
It all happened on his watch XD....
President Trump wandered around the country infecting American citizens.
And yes.... Tulsa is spiking Covid cases there after his rally.
How come all of the EU countries have managed to drive down their infection and death rates where American can't? Do they have better medical systems? Do they have better technology? The only difference is that those countries had leadership with respect to the pandemic, whereas Trump isn't up to the challenge.
Including Texas, Floriduh, and Arizona?
They're top blue states?
Do tell. . .
And Arizona after that mega 'church' 'rally'
"I guess we're not all that bad after all."
Three week old statistics . . NEXT!
Here's a rather nifty link for comparative Covid data that the two of you might want to learn from....
As you can see, by both charts, the US rates of change in both infections and deaths is increasing at rates that far exceed those of the developed European nations. I included India, Mexico, and Brazil just for comparison.
I find it truly astounding that you two Trump lovers would rather see the US burn to the ground than admit how fucked up this administrations response to the pandemic is.
By the way.... this data is up to date rather than three weeks old.....
That will be the day when Donald disappears.
It almost seems like he said this just because something happened to him. He had to wait for results and his daughter was refused a test.
Well of course it is, until it affected him or his family, he obviously didn't give a shit about us peons, he still doesn't give a shit about us peons.
And only I can fix it...
..."millions of beautiful tests"...
Well as Donald (as well as the entire Trump Crime Family) have said from the very beginning-- its just like the regular Flu, not serious at all ...and yes, we have it totally control!
Saluting the Heroes of the Coronavirus Pandumbic
“Any stimulus should be directed at the root cause of our recession: dealing with Covid,” he wrote, focusing on money for research, temporary hospital beds or therapeutics rather than a stimulus check for families or travel incentives — though tens of millions of Americans remain out of work." I agree with him.
We have tested more people than anyone in the world if I am reading this graphic right. 40.28 million tests
For some, it's never enough.
In total tests we are #2 behind China
In tests per million in the population we are about #5 cleaning the clock on Belarus but being beaten by Russia.
What is important is the percentage of our population that is tested - not just a raw number.
So we've tested about 19% of the population - maybe - since many of them, like health workers, first responders and politicians are being tested many multiple times. At the beginning we were only testing the obviously sick with is not as helpful as testing everyone.
Don't forget that a large percentage of the early tests, and a still significant amount of the later (antibody) tests were/are defective.
So Jim..... Just for the record, why can't we achieve what Europe has done with their infection and death rates? (Sweden being the exception for stupid...)
Because we are Americans.
We have idiots throwing parties, bashes, and streaming specials in crammed houses and apartments with very few wearing masks. There are contests with people trying to see who can catch Covid-19 first. There are beach goers that think the open air will save them; even as they cram shoulder to shoulder with their fellow beach goers.
Then throw in the protesters, rioters, arsonists.
Not forgetting the morons that will never wear a mask under any circumstances, anywhere, at any time.
Or how about the moron governor Cuomo of NY. He handled things really well by forcing nursing and retirement homes to take those infected by Covid 19; when they couldn't handle them.
Of course Trump is no better. Refusing to wear a mask, and holding rallies where attendees were allowed to not wear masks. I guess he never heard of video conferencing or streaming. He would have been better off holding a pay per view online rally. But I guess that technology will be forever beyond all politicians grasp (I started bitching about failure to use this basic technology when the Democrats chartered hundreds of planes to attend the Climate Change Conference. The irony.)
You can threaten violators with arrest (good luck as everyone knows prisons are already a breeding ground for the virus), fine them, and threaten stores and companies with fines and losing their business licences; but you still will not be able to stop them.
What the hell do you expect Trump, or any president for that matter, to do? The governors and mayors have tried, and you can see how far that has gotten. Whitless has gone full blown Nazi in her seizure of power; and Michigan is still seeing a spike in Covid 19 cases. Hey, maybe Trump can put US forces everywhere in the US to force us to obey edicts by the federal government, governors, and mayors. I am sure that would go over well. Think the protests are bad now? Wait until it turns into an armed conflict going from street to street.
But Trruuummmmppppp!!!!!!!
A very small part of me hopes that Biden wins the election; so the left can STFU! Of course that will never happen, the Trump bashing will just grow louder as Joe proves he has no idea on how to fix anything.
You can't stop Americans from being Americans. All you can hope is the Darwin award winners will die off first, affecting as few innocents as possible.
Well, as Dear Leader has often said-- we have more cases because we do so we do so much testing.
The more we test, the more cases we have.
The obvious solution?
Stop testing!
Oh my, oh my, oh my.
Say do you all remember the last 30 seconds or so of High Noon with Gary Cooper?
Remember he goes to the church to get some help - he gets squat. Fights it out on his own with his wife (finally).
Then after the fighting is over, the entire town blunders out ("Hey - were right there rooting for you." "I' wuz ready to jump in there but you kilt 'em too quick" etc.
We are now about to see the last 30 seconds of High Noon recreated - the Republican politicians are starting to carefully wander out into the street...
Yes but his fight is with congress and unfortunately he's going to lose.
"The editorial from Mulvaney, who now serves as the administration’s special envoy for Northern Ireland, was centered on his suggestions for lawmakers as Congress works to pass a fourth stimulus package later this month."
Not to worry-- Dear Leader will soon throw him under the bus!
It's difficult to feel any sort of compassion for this silly man or his family. Mr. 'Get over it' is appalled that his family isn't being treated like he thinks they should? Big fat tough titties, Mr. Mulvaney. Welcome to the cheap seats.
And PS: Get over it yourdamnself.
What I just said. More or less.
Now he speaks up when he didn't get treated the way he thinks he should have been.
Ya know that boy ain't quite right in the head. (Mulvaney)
Sister sister such strong language. Pretty soon it's dominos for a penny a point, country western music Friday nights, then ...
Have compassion for the poor politicians desperately trying to see the blinking EXIT sign through the fog of their own self generated methane.
Sad day when the response from the Whitehouse is to attack Fauci, who says he hasn't spoken to the Whitehouse in months.
Well.... Trump is always looking to make it someone else's fault.....
How come Europe has driven their infection and death rate down, and we can't? It comes back to the lack of national leadership in the WH. There is no other explanation.
Not just the White House but as Mulvaney is saying the stimulus funds from congress are not being directed at the root cause of the problem. Trump should have vetoed the first three stimulus packages and I don’t expect him to veto the next. Mulvaney isn’t going to get what he wants.
The Dems want more testing, more UEI and direct payments - Trump likes the idea of direct payments - The Reps conceded to less direct payments, employment bonus instead of UEI and business protection from law suites. This business protection is now the sticking point between the Senate and the House. Personally I don't think greed & negligence should be protected - but also businesses that are really trying to do the right thing should not be punished with frivolous litigation. There has to be a balance there.