 It's Wednesday. It's 11 o'clock. It's Trump week. I'm Tim Apachello, your host. I'm here with Winston Welch, Stephanie Dalton, and Cynthia Sinclair. Aloha, everyone. Aloha, Tim. Nice to see everyone. Well, again, a roller coaster week for Trump, and particularly as it pertains to COVID-19. So let's talk about the first topic of the day. That is Donald Trump this week basically has taken a bold step to blame China for COVID-19. He wants to sidestep, in my opinion, the fact that he blew this thing off as far as its importance from the latter part of January all through February and into the first couple of weeks of March. That was six precious weeks that we weren't attacking COVID-19, and it has resulted in over a million, 1.1 million cases, and we're now up to close to 70,000 deaths. So Secretary of State Mike Pompeo basically said he's seen evidence that would indicate that China had been, this COVID-19 virus somehow got out of the laboratory in Wuhan. But at the same time, when scientists have debunked that, saying that it was not manufactured, they've researched the gene trail on this, and it was not manufactured, Pompeo didn't disagree with that. So he's 180 degrees on thinking that it was manufactured in a lab, and then at the same time saying he had no reason to disbelieve it wasn't manufactured in a lab. It was a convenient scapegoat, and I suspect that's one of the reasons why Donald Trump is hanging onto this one. Winston, what are your thoughts about Pompeo and Trump basically trying to deflect the last six weeks and pinning this on China all of a sudden? It's just anyone else is to blame for any problem. You know, China, of course, hasn't been extremely forthcoming in whatever information that they may have had, but in any event, Anthony Fauci came out and said, there's no credence to this. Across the intelligence community, they said there's no credence in this. This one has fallen flat and hard, but it doesn't matter. They will continue to pound this and look for any shreds of anything to continue to promote it so that they don't have to accept any responsibility at all whatsoever. Shock of the week though, Mike Pence saying he should have worn a mask at the Mayo. I almost fell over that someone actually took some responsibility in any tiny simple way of saying I might have done something differently as simple as that, but I was shocked. Good point. Yeah, no, I caught me off guard to and how rare is it that for any administrator under Trump's administration to take responsibility for not doing the right thing. I think he realized the message he was sending, not only to his constituents, but to the country as a whole, as far as how we socially distance, and now the proper way to stop the spread of COVID-19 and I commend Mike Pence for that too. I think that was a good point you're making. Stephanie, what do you think about the transference of responsibility from the Trump administration over to China and having Secretary Mike Pompeo be his mouthpiece on this point? Obviously, to me, Pence is CYA, cover your butt, right, so we can admire him as a positive side to it, but he's CYA because he probably still has a career ahead of him. He's disappointed in Pompeo, continuously disappointed. Don't know what that's all about or how that serves him, his integrity, his future service to the nation. I just, I don't get what he's doing. Let me ask you this, let me ask you this. Do you think there's a correlation of them suddenly trying to deflect to China and the blame to China? Do you think there's a correlation with the fact that this week we heard about all the intelligent reports that Donald Trump received in January about the seriousness of COVID-19? Do you think that had anything to play to it? Surely, Tim, I think that analysis is very insightful. Absolutely. That's continuously what they're doing is deflecting and the shiny object. Let's go someplace else. Let everybody worry about this big investigation into China, which is totally irrelevant now and unneeded. We need to be focusing on all of the issues that we have to take care of. So it's so frustrating and it's so transparent, but evidently people are going to go over there and spend their time worrying about that. There's decades to go to do this unfolding and unpacking and editing what went on and having controversy on it. We don't. Right now, we need to be doing something else because one thing that just came up in the news I read actually this morning, it's about children from two to 15, numerous of them, dozens have been hospitalized. They don't know that it's COVID-19 yet, but they have symptoms that way. It may not be, but it's a huge red flag and it takes us back to the science of this and let's get on with the work, please. That's a very good point, Stephanie, because I think sometimes Trump's loyal followers ignore the science of this virus and they go to the politics of whatever their fearless leader says and does about it. And the fact that this now could affect their own children rather than a age classification of over 65, this may actually get their attention. So good point. Cynthia, what do you think about Donald Trump's attempts to deflect this to China? Is there any sudden reason for it? Well, we know that China did hesitate in getting the word out to the rest of the world that they have this virus going on. But I don't believe, I believe Dr. Fauci when he said there's no evidence that proves that or shows that. And so I go with the scientists and not the politicians. The politicians are saying that it was China and the scientists are saying that it wasn't. I don't listen to the politicians, I listen to the scientists. Good point. Well, I'm going to jump on my list of items to discuss and that's going to take me down to Donald Trump had mentioned or had indicated that he was going to disband the COVID-19 Task Force. There may be a lot of reasons for that. And I understand the update today is that he's not going to do that. He's going to let it continue. Why do you think Donald Trump was actually playing with the idea of dismantling the Task Force and the press briefings? Cynthia. I think it's because he wants to keep the numbers low. He doesn't want people to be focused on the virus. He wants people to focus on the reopening and how everything's going to be so wonderful once we start to reopen. And he wanted to keep the focus on that. Let me, let me, let me throw this in. Do you think Dr. Fauci and Dr. Bricks were upstaging him? Yes. The very next thing I was going to say is that I think he wanted to shut those guys up. And so by getting rid of the Task Force, he basically has shut them up. Well, if you remember a week and a half earlier, he retweeted a text about termination of Dr. Fauci. I think that was very difficult because Dr. Fauci's poll numbers of credibility and trustworthiness far exceeded Donald Trump's as it pertains to discussions of COVID-19 virus. I think Donald Trump had a hard time figuring out how he could get him off the stage because he was more popular and more credible than our own fearless leader. So maybe this was a way for him to do it is just get rid of the show rather than the actor. That's exactly what I think he was doing. You know, there's others that speculated one of his possible motivations was to get the blame off of him. When these, when the death toll starts to exceed 60, 70, 80,000, that it's now going to deflect back to the governors of each state and he'll point the finger at them for the tragedy and loss of life. That was one of the ideas behind it or the fact that he wanted to deemphasize the case numbers and the deaths and start emphasizing the, the, the ability to get the economy to rebound. Therefore, better his chances for reelection. But if you could take the focus off the cases and the deaths, that would be a good thing for him. Right. Well, you know, I also think that they were directly contradicting what he said. So Trump would say one thing and then Fauci and Dr. Birx would say another thing. So he was constantly being contradicted. So I think that was part of it too. It wasn't just they were more popular than him, but they're saying the truth and he's not and he doesn't want to have anybody that's going to, you know, show his lies. Yeah. Hey Winston, did you have any thoughts about why Donald Trump was going to get rid of the task force meetings and press briefings. Oh, the whole bleach thing was a disaster and I encourage viewers to go look at Sarah Cooper on Twitter. She's a comedian who just took his words verbatim. It's his voice and then her remixing and saying, this is insane, but he had people in white coats behind him. And when you take it out and you say, okay, here's another person saying this is patently insane and he got hit hard by this to the point where you shut it down. As a new press lady who told us she wouldn't lie. Why would you even say that? Of course, well, number one, of course, she's going to lie why she's no use to the administration if she doesn't live with everything. But you know, I think it's all about trying to control the narrative. And one of the important things here. I think he's losing Fox News. He's been critical of them again and again. He's jumping over to this one American network that maybe he'll take over when you mentioned the word re re-elected. I shuddered for a moment thinking it's such a nightmare to contemplate. But what really is interesting. Obama will come up real presidents, real leaders, we may have disagreed with certain policies on them. Obama is going to be giving a speech NBC ABC Fox and CBS going to have the high school commemoration speech across the nation, all four networks simulcasting. That is important. And I'm sure that Donald must be spinning for losing Fox to Obama in a nationwide address, essentially. So it's an interesting time. When is that going to take place? I just read about it yesterday and it's coming up soon. They're going to have other people, you know, performers and whatnot. But I think both President Obama and Michelle Obama are going to speak with some other people as well. So I don't think Trump was on the invite list. It would be interesting to see if he shoe horns himself in this. Stephanie, your thoughts about why Donald Trump might have been anxious to end the task force? Well, first of all, I'm a former K-12 teacher. So all of this dog ate my homework stuff because he's not doing the work is just so transparent. And then the other thing that he's doing is contingency managing everything. If it isn't me, if it isn't my self interest, then we don't play this. In other words, you don't get what you want. So it's not, oh, I'm not useful to this presentation with Fauci and Bricks. Then, well, you know, I'll drop back out and I'll go do some homework I should be doing on this topic. Like some strategy, national federal strategy. No, no, no. It's like, oh, we're canceling the whole thing. Okay, you didn't like it. You didn't like it. Doesn't matter. And it was me that doesn't. I'm not going to call home and we're not playing the game anymore. Not for me. Precious feedback that can help me correct and get it right and then align with what's going on in this precious presentation, which I hear the polls say that the country does value the presentation. It just didn't get more specific about without let with less Donald Trump. That's right. That's what he's managing. Everything is either him or it all goes away. It's his contingency management. I want to talk about Donald Trump definition of success as it pertains to tackling the COVID-19. And that is if you remember earlier last week, Donald Trump was going on and on about how successful the administration will be if we can keep these deaths down to 50 or 60,000 deaths of US citizens. Now that number has changed dramatically. We're, you know, we're way up above that we're in the 70 going on to 80, and he acknowledged that recently with his interview with Fox in front of the Lincoln Memorial, and he had he acknowledged that yes the numbers are climbing even higher. But did you find it disturbing that he ties his success of the administration's handling of this virus to a death rate. So if the death rate goes to a quarter of a million, will he continue to say how successful the administration is on how they handled it. I think he will. It doesn't matter what number it is, he's going to say we were successful. Did you, did you catch a sense of that this week. Who are you asking. For that would be for Stephanie. Oh, oh yes. Um, that's another part of this contingency management, you know, I am your reward. Okay, I am the reward. And everything I'm doing is really great. And everybody should value this. And if you don't value it somehow, then I pull everything, all of your toys, not only my ball but I take everybody's ball off the court. Okay, this member of the whole class at the state and every school are doing recess instead of Jack, Jack Jones here who was the problem. Yeah, so I'm appalled that it's okay for him to do that and why we have no options, no, no way to give him that feedback, other than the election. And that's just such a blunt instrument, literally. But how is it that we endure this. He's I think we just ignoring we're using the ignore mechanism. I find it appalling and I'm going to jump to Cynthia on this one. I find it appalling I think he's trying to desensitize the deaths of all our Americans, and he's trying to desensitize it by just saying no matter what the number is, we're successful. And I think it's appalling. I don't think he's taking recognition of the impact of the loss of all these lives. And I just think no matter what the number is, he's just trying to get public used to the fact that there's going to be deaths and there's going to be a lot more deaths. Cynthia, what do you think about that? Well, you know, if you think back a little ways, he at one point said that it could be one to two million. So if you know, if we've got anything under a million, then we're doing well. So 100,000 200,000. He's keep changing his numbers so often that, you know, just this last week he's changed his numbers three times. But if you go back about a month, he's changed him five or six times, and not just in the way of saying, well, you know, I originally said 50,000, but now it's going to be more because we have some more cases and all of this. No, he actually started much higher. So that way, when he has a lower number, it makes it look like he did better. And I think it's appalling also that he would try to decide how well he did by how many people are dead. That's just awful to me. I agree. Winston, your thoughts? You know, we take no joy in having to go over Donald Trump and his missteps and just his behavior. It is appalling. It's sad and none of us want to be even be here doing this, but he is a brilliant self promoter and strategist and he has hypnotized half this nation to believe anything that he wants them to believe. They trust him more than Fox News now, which is saying something you asked about when that is that graduate together is the hashtag. It's on the 16th of May. That'll be there. And I, you know, it's, it's important to realize there's a lot of other people stepping up and giving us hope and truth and reality breaks besides what we get from the administration and especially Donald Trump. So as the more that he becomes marginalized in the types of messages that he's giving out to people, I think the healthier our nation is going to become because we're realizing we cannot rely on this administration to give us straight facts, shoot straightly to advocate on behalf of all Americans. It just hasn't happened. So when we have other stepping up and even inside of the administration, when we have the Fauci's and the Berks stand up, that helps too. But as we regionalize and have others, you know, nonprofits and, and governors and mayors and whatnot stepping up and ordinary individuals, that is where we need to look for leadership right now. Alrighty, let me change it up a little bit. By chance, did you happen to note the interview that he gave in front of the Lincoln Memorial, and he basically for me played himself as the victim once again, that it was Abraham Lincoln did not receive the slings and arrows about Rage's fortune, as he has with the media. Did you catch any of that. This is for Winston. I didn't see that I can't, it's astounding that that he would compare himself to, well, he doesn't need to compare himself to anyone he is in a class by himself and he just, and that's okay. But comparing himself to Lincoln. And come on. Well, he said he's been treated worse than any president and certainly worse than Abraham Lincoln so I found that to be. Yeah, he's been treated worse than everybody put together in the entire history of the planet, times 10 times infinity. Yes, of course, he is a victim of the first of the first order and yeah, he just deserves our praise and adulation. Okay, I will put Stephanie, did you catch that and did you feel like he was playing the poor pity, the poor pity pity me role as president. That's been picked on by the media and you can't catch a break from anybody. Did you get that sense from his comments. I heard you say slings and arrows. He did he also didn't get the bullet. And so really, really wondered if he knows if if his, his knowledge of history gives him the full picture. Obviously it doesn't give him the full picture no matter that he might know the dramatic events and especially of Lincoln's demise, which was was horrific but so now we're we're we're sorely missing in any form of leadership or competence or capacity evidently as he might not be there anymore I guess with his age but no I see absolutely no value or worth in these expressions that that he's providing us with and it is again just a matter of the self self indulgence and the self interest, and to get himself some point somehow with whoever it is that can can digest what he's and many of us are not. Cynthia, a little bit later this week. I saw but George Bush put on a sponsored a beautiful video of of how Americans should come together unite put aside our political differences are cultural differences in order to combat this virus and it was really well played and true informed Donald Trump tweeted about it and basically stated that where was George Bush, when he was being impeached, I found it appalling once again I mean, you know, one, one thing after another in the last week, I just my, my jaw drops yet again. What were your thoughts about President Trump tweeting that he he didn't hear from George Bush during his impeachment, and therefore the value of his video was negated it didn't mean anything to him. What do you think. Well, you know, it's just another example of how it is us and them it is Democrats and Republicans. It's not Americans. He doesn't, doesn't ever put things forward as we're doing this together as Americans. It's either you're and if you're a Republican and you don't support him, then you're not really a Republican, you know, and it's basically the way he comes across. He's never a big fan of George Bush, but by the same token, and I never in a million years would have thought that I would think he was eloquent by any stretch. But after this last little speech he gave I, I, gosh, that's eloquent in comparison to the what we hear out of our current president. I think you're right. He's the his disdain for any any Democrat and it particularly played out a little bit when Donald Trump said that Dr. Fauci was not going to testify in front of the House of Representatives, because he blamed the Democrats of being enemies against him and basically was part of a big part of why he was impeached. I didn't know he could prevent someone from testifying because they are Democrats. I would think that would be an executive privilege as a response to why someone may not testify in front of of the House of Representatives, not certainly because they are Democrats and he doesn't trust them any longer. I agree with the law on that. I mean, that's a really good question Tim. Is that that's his power? Does anybody know? I don't believe he can get away with it, but that's what he stated as his rationale. And now we know Dr. Fauci will testify in front of the Senate, but as a basis for preventing him from testifying the House, I don't think he has that justification. That's just me though. I don't think he does either. I don't see how he could, that was my first question, is how can he possibly say that he can't testify? I mean, I guess it's the National Institute of Health, so it's a government agency and maybe that's why, but it's still right that he can do that. And I would like to hope that Fauci would just do it anyway. I would like to see him stand up and do what's right. Winston, do you think Donald Trump has any basis to prevent Dr. Fauci from testifying in front of that committee? You know, it's just astounding that he would even say that, but we have seen time and again, there are no norms, rules, laws that are, that are just ignored, that it doesn't matter. So the fact that he's open about it is, well, at least it's honest, if nothing else, but casting half of the nation as your enemy, as enemies, that's very dangerous. We saw this play out in the Michigan State House where you have people with their Uzzies essentially taking over houses of government, which is insane and having a president essentially saying there's good people on both sides again. This is a non, a non argument that a president should never, ever take. And that's also an astounding thing that happened this last week that is still reverberating deeply. And a lot of our consciousness that says, are we, is this what we are now? And we're having a president? I think what's happening is we're seeing so much so fast that we can't digest it all. And you're right. The fact that he called them good people on both sides, they're carrying Confederate flags swastikas, they're, you know, they're, they're sending automatic weapons. I don't think that qualifies them to be stated as good people. I'll go with Hillary Clinton, and some of them were out and out deplorable. So, but yet, Donald Trump got, got his words in edgewise. And again, that satisfies the people that are his loyal followers. So there you go. We're running out of time. Winston, where do we go from here? What's, what's in store for us next week, do you think? It's like you said, it's so much. It's like trying to drink from a fire hose. And, you know, of course, as Americans, we support people's rights of free speech, the right to protest. Those folks have been out there with signs saying liberate us. But the reality is, are we a nation of laws? Do we all have to obey the same laws when it says you have to have a mask to enter the store? Do some people not get to wear the mask, because they don't feel like it? I think that these are really fundamental questions that Donald Trump has really unleashed. So we're going to see a lot more of that coming down the week. And a lot more tough news, but we're going to see a lot of inspirational news too. So we've got to look for what's positive as well as the destruction that's going on at the same time. All right, Winston. Thank you. Stephanie, real quick, what's in store for us next week? Real quick. Okay, I think I just want to say, Cynthia, I think it's on the right track and that Donald Trump is ultimately the boss of the NIH as either commander in chief or whatever. And that's where Fauci works. So technically, he can, you know, ask him as boss to do something. But this shows us his lack of any strategy, nuance or much not even tactics. You know, he's just knee jerking and disallowing his performance before the house. And other people, I can't say that other people haven't done this sort of thing as a tactic to protect themselves or some issue. But they wouldn't have been as open and blatant about, but I'm going to keep this person from testifying to the... All righty. We're almost out of time. I want to get Cynthia in here one last comment. Cynthia, real quick, what's in store for next week? Well, you know, we have a whistleblower that has come out just recently here at the end of this week. And I think that is a big step and I think we're going to really start to hear more about this whistleblower. I think hopefully we're going to see more of an investigation into the IG that he fired because she spoke out against him and spoke out and said we still don't have enough PPE. We still don't have enough medical supplies, so he fired her. And now he's trying to put in this other pony friend of his to run the national stockpile. So I think those are the things that we're going to start seeing over this next week. All right. Thank you, Cynthia. Yes, thank you to Cynthia for your comments about that. Winston, Stephanie, Cynthia, thank you so much for joining us at Trump Week. Let's come back together again next Wednesday at 11 o'clock for Trump Week. I'm Tim Appatello, your host, Aloha.