THE TRUMP BRAND:

When Joe Biden came into office, we were literally right at the peak of the winter wave of infections that began in the fall of 2020 shortly after Donald Trump resumed rallies and hosted a super spreader event in the White House. Of the nearly 400,000 who have died since January 20, nearly half were in the tail of that wave. I don't know anyone on Earth who expected COVID-19 deaths to suddenly drop to zero the day Biden came into office.

But now you see both the dishonesty and the meaninglessness of this stat. During the first three weeks of January, we were having the equivalent of a 9/11 every day. By counting deaths from January 1 to January 20 in Biden's "column" instead of Trump's, these weasels are able to shift a whopping 60,000 deaths in the blame game.1

Now, has Joe Biden's response to the pandemic been perfect? Of course not. But it's been better than Trump's. We've put actual scientists back into advisory positions and listened to their advice. Biden hasn't run out and started telling people not to fear the virus or mocked anyone for wearing a mask. He's enacted a vaccine mandate which has caused vaccinations to resurge over the last few months. There are criticisms I would lob: elites not wearing masks and going to social events while the rest of us are supposed to follow the rules is a big problem. But having an Administration that can stay on message -- even if that message is sometimes garbled -- has been an improvement.

And I would say that, up until mid-summer, the results spoke for themselves. Vaccinations rates have been decent, if not great. And by July, it was looking like the pandemic was fading. [...]

But the second point is why this blame game with Biden crosses me as so offensive. Because as the winter wave receded, Republicans made a choice. They decided that they were going to oppose almost all pandemic mitigations. With governors in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas leading the way, they banned masks in schools. They refused to enact any social distancing measures. They screamed that vaccine mandates were unconstitutional and filed lawsuits until they found a partisan court that would side with them. And almost all of the anti-vaxx hysteria and lies have been on the Right wing.

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