 So lately on this program, we've been talking a lot about how Donald Trump's approach to COVID-19 has been to functionally pretend like it's no longer a thing. His staffers have reportedly said that they just hope people grow numb to the deaths eventually. So, you know, if you can't beat it, then just pretend like it doesn't exist. That's been his strategy. And needless to say, this strategy has been a colossal failure because people are dying. And regardless of what excuse you want to use for cases rising, people want this to go away. They want you to be a leader and take action. So if you actually want to have a shot at being reelected, you can't pretend like COVID-19 isn't a thing. You have to at least pretend, do window dressing, but you have to at least make it known that there's an inkling inside of you that you care. So now, because his numbers are on freefall, because his approach to this has been such a huge failure, you can't even really describe how harmful it's been to his re-election campaign. He is now forced to do a 180 and actually start trying to at least pretend to take it more seriously again. He resumed daily press briefings again this week saying, I think it's a great way to get information out to the public as to where we are with the vaccine, with the therapeutics, and generally speaking, where we are. And after weeks of his own supporters making matters worse because they refuse to wear masks because Liberty, well, he tried to encourage them to wear masks by tweeting out a photo of himself in a mask and suggesting that it's actually patriotic to do so saying, we are united in our effort to defeat the invisible China virus. And many people say that it is patriotic to wear a face mask when you can't socially distance. There is nobody more patriotic than me, your favorite president. Now he may be insufferable in the way he promotes people to wear masks. He may be racist, which I unequivocally denounce. But you can tell here he wants to get this under control. He knows now that he's not going to stop hemorrhaging support and votes if he doesn't at least pretend to try. But it's not just Donald Trump because other Republicans know that if Trump's in danger, they're in danger too. And even Mitch McConnell is changing his tune, now suggesting that the next COVID-19 relief bill will in fact include another stimulus payment to Americans. Now, I want you to understand that these actions are being taken. These statements are being made out of necessity, not out of concern for the American people. The reason why they're doing this is because they are terrified that not only they're going to lose the White House, but they're going to lose the Senate possibly. They're really close. Like if you watch some of the ads, some of which were featured possibly before this video, there's an ad of Chuck Schumer, excuse me, of Mitch McConnell fear mongering about how Chuck Schumer only needs four seats to get the majority. So they're worried. They know that if they don't turn this around at least somewhat before November, they're going to lose and they're going to lose badly if nothing changes. So they don't actually care. Like what we're seeing, even if you can argue like the encouragement for his supporters to wear a mask is a good thing. This is nothing more than political theater. This is window dressing because they don't want to lose, but make no mistake about it. They're not actually trying to solve this crisis. In fact, behind the scenes, they're making matters worse because during this unprecedented crisis that we're facing, they know that 32% of households missed their July housing payment. They know that 23 million families could face eviction come October because of this pandemic. That's why they're changing their tune. That's why they want you to think they're taking this seriously because they know you're suffering and they don't want you to blame them. But they're only going to do what they can publicly so you think that they care about you. But behind the scenes, they're trying to actually make matters worse. Because for example, because of this pandemic, because so many people are now unemployed, well, the demand for food stamps has increased by about 17%. And as a result, food stamp benefits have been expanded to accommodate the increased demand. But Republicans, rather than trying to keep this demand or expand food stamps further, well, they're trying to end the expansion that was made during this pandemic to accommodate people. That means people who are newly unemployed will have less food on the table. They may go hungry. People may die because of what they're doing and I'm not being hyperbolic. And that's not all because as cruel as Republicans are, they at least try to expand funding for COVID-19 testing or at least that's what they want to do. But Trump has made it very clear he's not interested in doing this, presumably because he really does believe his own bullshit lie that more tests equal more cases. So as Republicans try to get this under control, which requires testing, Trump is saying, No, I don't want to do that. This is all happening behind the scenes and you can tell that they're scrambling because they don't know what to do. They waited so long and now there's four months before the election and they're trying to hold it together. But it's all coming apart. It's all unraveling before their very eyes. They waited too long and their lack of empathy for the Americans they're supposed to look out for. It's coming to finally bite them in the ass if these numbers do in fact hold. This is damage control. And even if you want to give Donald Trump credit for recommending that it's patriotic to wear masks because that's the idiotic message that will resonate with his supporters, like he's not willing to actually be serious about it. He's not willing to take it a step further to actually stop the spread of the virus because in an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News, he was asked, would you actually institute some sort of federal mandate? To whatever extent you can do that legally speaking. And he said, no. Then there are masks. From the first day that the CDC said that people should wear masks on April 3rd, you said you weren't going to. You wore a mask for the first time in public at Walter Reed this weekend. Question, the CDC says if everybody wore a mask for four to six weeks, we could get this under control. Do you regret not wearing a mask in public from the start? And would you consider, will you consider a national mandate that people need to wear masks? No, I want people to have a certain freedom. And I don't believe in that. No. And I don't agree with the statement that if everybody wore a mask, everything disappears. Hey, Dr. Fauci said don't wear a mask. Our Surgeon General, terrific guy, said don't wear a mask. Everybody was saying don't wear a mask. All of a sudden everybody's got to wear a mask. And as you know, masks cause problems too. With that being said, I'm a believer in masks. I think masks are good, but I leave it up to the governors. Many of the governors are changing their more mask into, they like the concept of masks, but some of them don't agree. I do say this, schools have to open. Young people have to go to school. He still makes matters worse because he says, I want people to have a certain freedom. And I don't believe it. So on one hand you say, hey, everyone, let's wear masks because it's patriotic. But on another hand, you are basically legitimizing their idiotic argument that it's somehow tyrannical to wear masks in the first place. Therefore you won't mandate it. So you're saying please wear a mask, but you're also right that it violates your freedom. I mean, he can't help himself. He can't not fuck up. And he said, you know, I just want to leave it up to governors. As he put it, they're more mask into. Okay, well, what if the governor in a particular state is a complete moron endangering his or her people? I mean, take Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia, for example. He's literally trying to block local governments from mandating masks. What then? Well, I'm assuming his answer would be, well, that's just freedom. States rights. So I mean, he's not serious about this. Oh, and also he said kids should still return to school. So I mean, he wants you to think he cares. He wants to ameliorate your suffering. Republicans are looking out for you finally. But then he says, no, we're going to send your children to school to act as guinea pigs to see how far this is going to spread. If we continue acting like it's normal. So I mean, do you understand? Are you seeing the pattern here? Even as they do political theater and try to get people to think that they care at all, they still end up showing their true colors. They end up revealing who they are. It's still mask off. I mean, it was already mask off when your staffers reportedly were saying that they hope people grow numb to the deaths. Right. I mean, you can't really put that cat back in the bag. People know about that now. And we know that you don't actually care. We know that this is all for political purposes. But if somehow you stumble upon, you know, the right strategy that actually makes you effective at combating this, that's a good thing. Like I'm not hoping Trump fails at stopping the spread of COVID-19 because of the election. I want to stop the spread of COVID-19 because this is a highly contagious, deadly pandemic. I'm removing political considerations from the equation here because dealing with the pandemic seriously in and of itself is a good. It's a good for America and it's a good for the world. But Donald Trump can't help himself. He doesn't know how to seem authentic. His actions will be driven by what he believes is going to best help him get reelected. And currently, I mean, it's statues using federal agents to occupy democratic controlled cities under the guise of defending statues. That's exactly what he thinks is going to help him get reelected. And the same is true for Republicans. I mean, they're going to do what helps him get reelected. It's not necessarily unusual for politicians to act this way. But I mean, they're so bad at pretending to care that they can't even hold the facade for like five seconds before they end up showing their true colors. We care about you. We want to give you another stimulus, but we're also going to roll back them food stamps. We're also going to not going to extend that $600 bonus for unemployed people. I mean, they cannot help themselves. That's how little they care. So I mean, it may be too little, too late for Donald Trump. Like it's certainly a good thing that, you know, there's this inkling within his administration that you have to at least try to take on COVID-19, even if you're pretending. And maybe if you pretend you accidentally end up being effective in some way, I don't know how. But I mean, going in this direction to try to take this seriously is important because at a minimum, maybe this will signal to your supporters that it's not a hoax and that they should wear masks because if you take it seriously or at least present yourself as someone who takes this seriously, maybe they'll follow you. But I mean, who knows? So I just, I can't see this getting under control. And I think that he waited too long. Like functionally speaking, just pretending like this isn't a thing hurt him so bad that I don't know that he's able to undo the damage that he caused, but we'll have to wait and see because this is America. This is 2020. Anything is possible. But it is interesting how quickly he abandoned that strategy, how, you know, this shouldn't even be surprising. But of course you can't just pretend that a pandemic isn't a thing when this is unprecedented, when people are losing their jobs and their loved ones because of this pandemic. Like of course that's going to fail. What are you thinking? Thank you.