Do You *Remember* How Badly Trump Handled COVID?
The past is a foreign country.
Programming notes: I announced this last week but for those who missed it, I’m going to pull back on Thursday Night Bulwarks. The weekly livestreams were a product of COVID and seemed essential in the bad old days of 2020-’21 but now more of you listen to the podcast versions instead of joining live. Plus, we’re producing many more shows now than when we started TNB. So we’ll do the livestreams once a month and give you all more notice so you can plan accordingly.
Good news: We’re adding Bill Kristol and Will Saletan to the lineup for our Philly show on May 1. I hope everyone in the area will come see us and meet the other folks in our community. Tim will lick faces, Sarah will fill hearts, and I will take Xanax and enjoy the journey. Plus, if you bring three friends—your ticket is on us.
1. Trump: The Covid Year
When someone puts a bunch of Donald Trump’s decisions surrounding COVID in one place, the weight of evidence becomes kind of shocking, even though we all lived through it.
That’s what Stephen Robinson has done here and I’m going to quote from it liberally.
Preparedness: Did you remember that Trump was the president who dismantled the pandemic response program that George W. Bush and Barack Obama had built? People were concerned about this even before COVID, because they recognized that it was a dangerous decision.