Trump and Perdue continue to ignore the crisis as Trump says he hopes it will “just disappear”
Perdue today told CNBC on Georgia’s skyrocketing hospitalizations, “I think we are on track.”
Perdue and Trump downplayed the pandemic while Perdue traded medical and vaccine stocks
Atlanta, Ga. — Just now, President Donald Trump touched down in Atlanta for a taxpayer-funded one-hour photo-op as his support continues to slide in the Peach State, and he will be joined at the hip with his “favorite Senator,” his first-term “co-pilot,” his “man in the Senate,” Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.).
Trump and Perdue will pose for the cameras and say a few words about transportation, an issue they’ve neglected as four years have gone by without passage of any substantial infrastructure program.
But one big thing is missing from today’s agenda: a plan to combat the growing COVID-19 crisis in Georgia and nationwide.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are surging in Georgia. There have now been over 123,000 confirmed cases statewide, with over 3,000 deaths and over 13,500 hospitalizations. Nationally, the picture remains distressing, as states like Florida, Arizona, and Texas face outbreaks, while Trump and his allies systematically attack and discredit nonpartisan public health expertise from institutions like the CDC and NIH.
Meanwhile millions of Georgians have filed jobless claims and many face eviction, foreclosure, or bankruptcy as the economic crisis continues to damage household and small business finances.
In the early weeks and months of the pandemic, Trump and Perdue played down the crisis, echoing each other’s words virtually verbatim, assuring the public the risk to public health was “low” and that the economic damage would be “little,” comparing COVID-19 to the flu and automobile accidents, and saying it would “just disappear.”
Meanwhile, while downplaying the threat, Perdue was buying shares in a manufacturer of PPE and a Coronavirus vaccine maker while selling stock in casinos and hotels — too busy lining his own pockets to prepare his constituents for the virus.
In contrast, as Perdue and Trump ignore the pandemic today, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Jon Ossoff will hold a virtual “1 GEORGIA” town hall at 4 p.m. ET alongside Atlanta City Councilmember Marci Collier Overtstreet to take live questions from Georgia voters about the pandemic and discuss the way forward to solve this crisis together.
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