Rachel Maddow Burns Trump Down After He Tweets Her Clip With Thanks
President Donald Trump tweeted a clip from “The Rachel Maddow Show” and thanked the TV host in a tweet on Friday.
In response, Rachel Maddow took the opportunity to slam the president for “leading the worst national response” against the coronavirus of “any industrialized nation in the world.”
Trump expressed gratitude to Maddow for an interview Thursday night with Gen. Todd Semonite, chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, that highlighted the work of armed services members to help communities deal with the devastation of COVID-19. Trump framed it as evidence of how “GREAT a job the Federal Government is doing!”
Thank you to Rachel @Maddow for putting our Military on full display, and showing how GREAT a job the Federal Government is doing! Also, a special thanks to General Semonite, a Patriot of the highest order and a truly talented engineer and builder! pic.twitter.com/JRQlNpLbxv
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
Maddow wasn’t having it.
“Hi, Mr. President,” Maddow, typically a scorching Trump critic, responded in a surprisingly friendly tone. “Thanks for tweeting that interview.”
Then her response started to take a turn: ”Gen. Semonite and the Army Corps are indeed doing great work, but at nowhere near the scale that is needed.” she added.
Maddow noted that the U.S. is “hundreds of thousands of hospital beds behind, months behind schedule, and we’re about to see the number of sick patients surge and hospitals overflow in multiple US sites at once.”
Then she got down to it, telling Trump flatly: “You personally are leading the worst national response of any industrialized nation in the world, in what is now the largest COVID-19 outbreak on earth.”
Hi, Mr. President -- thanks for tweeting that interview. Gen. Semonite and the Army Corps are indeed doing great work, but at nowhere near the scale that is needed.
We're hundreds of thousands of hospital beds behind, months behind schedule, and... https://t.co/FdBAyDH49Y— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 27, 2020
...we're about to see the number of sick patients surge and hospitals overflow in multiple US sites at once.
This is not an NYC problem or even just a city problem. The apex patient surges will not happen tidily, one after the other, they'll flare up all over, overlapping.— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 27, 2020
Mr. President, with all the heroism and good work we're seeing from Americans around the country, you personally are leading the worst national response of any industrialized nation in the world, in what is now the largest COVID-19 outbreak on earth.
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 27, 2020
Maddow called the U.S. response a “catastrophe.” She then launched into a lengthy Twitter thread detailing critical problems and several suggestions to improve the Trump administration’s response, including: “Stop talking about yourself and hyping unproven treatments and demanding people compliment you and all the rest of the nonsense.”
I say this without any malice at all, but please know that the US response is a catastrophe that is on track to cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
Stop talking about yourself and hyping unproven treatments and demanding people compliment you and all the rest of the nonsense.— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 27, 2020
She also suggested nationalizing supply chains for critical medical supplies, which “should have been done months ago.” In addition, Maddow urged: “Get people like VP Pence and your son-in-law out of the way and bring in actual, experienced pandemic response experts and scientists to lead the response and brief the nation.”
Her final conclusion to Trump? “You are failing to do any of it. Any of it ... Find experts who can do this for the country and please, sir, get out of the way.”
Check it out here:
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(1) Nationalize the supply chains for critical medical supplies -- you should have done that months ago. Fifty states fending for themselves is idiotic, but it persists day after day, week after week. You can fix this now.
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 27, 2020
(2) Get people like VP Pence and your son-in-law out of the way and bring in actual, experienced pandemic response experts and scientists to lead the response and brief the nation.
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 27, 2020
(3) Some Governors are following your zig-zagging and dithering lead and refusing even now to institute clear stay at home orders to slow the spread of the virus -- tell them unequivocally to change course, now.
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 27, 2020
(4) Prisons, jails, detention centers will be death traps for prisoners/detainees and staff. They'll also become leaking reservoirs of infection for every community -- order emergency decarceral measures, now, before it spreads wildly everywhere people are kept behind bars.
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 27, 2020
(5) We're going to need mass testing, a massive effort to isolate those with the virus (separate and apart from uninfected people staying home), a huge data-driven contact tracing effort, and a wartime-level mobilization of health workers and people to support them.
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 27, 2020
Her final conclusion for Trump? “You are failing to do any of it. Any of it,” she tweeted. “Find experts who can do this for the country and please, sir, get out of the way.”
You're failing to do any of that. Any of it. Any of it. You're failing on every measure, and it is worse by the day. Find experts who can do this for the country and please, sir, get out of the way.
Thank you again for tweeting that interview.— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 27, 2020
No word from Trump — yet.
Maddow also asked: “By the way, did anyone show you the rest of the show from last night?”
(By the way, did anyone show you the rest of the show from last night?)
CLIP: https://t.co/CsWx5twR6z— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) March 27, 2020
Damn. Maddow for the drag. 👍
— BadNewsB (@TheBadNewsB) March 27, 2020
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.