Trump declared the following in a press conference on March 13:
“I want to thank Google. Google is helping to develop a website. It is going to be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past, to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location.
We have many, many locations behind us, by the way. We cover the–this country and a large part of the world. By the way, we’re not talking about the world right now. But we cover very–very strongly our country, stores in virtually every location. Google has 1,700 engineers working on this right now. They’ve made tremendous progress”
A real-time Google search of the terms “Trump Covid Website” results in the following (as of 3/13/2020):
- Trump on coronavirus: Google to launch site to locate COVID …www.usatoday.com › story › tech › 2020/03/13 › google-website-to-f…
4 hours ago – President Donald Trump announced details at a Friday news conference, but the website does not have a launch date. With most local doctors …
- Contrary to Trump’s claim, Google is not building … – The Vergewww.theverge.com › google-coronavirus-testing-screening-website-dr…
3 hours ago – That same website will apparently also be where people can go to … We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing.
- Trump Caught Google Off Guard With a Bogus … – Wiredwww.wired.com › story › coronavirus-donald-trump-google-website
2 hours ago – Google’s not making a nationwide coronavirus testing website. … effort is underway” for Verily to “aid in the COVID-19 testing effort in the US.”.
- Trump said Google is building a site to help people find … – Voxwww.vox.com › recode › google-coronavirus-site-trump-verily-white…
4 hours ago – The president said the site, which is supposed to direct people to … a website that will help Americans find screening tests for the Covid-19 …
Google is not building a Covid-19 website
Google is not planning, nor is it ready to deliver a Covid-19 website, period. There is no website that will be ready March 15 that will guide individuals through whatever symptoms they are feeling. That’s what Trump claimed. In essence Trump has lied again. In a big way. In a way that should not be allowed to slide by. Google, or more specifically Verily, is developing a website for the San Francisco Bay area that will help patients locate nearby health centers, that’s all. Verily is not ready, nor is it contemplating in the near future, to release a website for national consumption. It’s important to get this timeline straight: Trump promised a Google website that Google says does not and will not exist in the near future.
This is yet another Covid-19 lie from Trump, but this lie has enormous consequences. No website will be available anytime, anywhere soon that conforms to his claim of government and industry cooperation. Trump is still banking on the idea that the whole Covid-19 issue will go away because he wishes that it will go away. He thinks he can make up lies about Covid-19 because he believes–in his inimitable anti-scientific way–that Spring weather will make the virus go away in time for the November elections.
Tell that to the millions of Americans who are finding themselves forced to work from home, furloughed, or being sent home without compensation. The disease is nowhere near done infecting the US population.
This would be funny, but for the tragic truth that the government waited for Jared Kushner to “research” Covid-19 before taking action. This is a sick joke considering the seriousness of the situation.
How can Democrats respond to Trump’s false claims? Firstly, both Biden and Sanders should make a point that there is no website, that the whole thing is in Trump’s imagination and that spreading misinformation is dangerous. Is this petty? No, it’s not petty, it is holding Trump accountable for a serious claim he made in an address to the American people. Think Hillary’s emails.
Subsequently, Bloomberg’s team should put together a supercut of Trump’s misinformation about Covid-19: “it’s not dangerous,” “it will pass,” “it is no different than the flu.” It’s not necessary for Democrats to wait to see how this debacle will play out. There is already plenty of evidence that Trump is not up to the job of being a president under crisis. His lack of leadership, his willingness to point fingers at others; the dissolving of the office set up by Obama that would have been absolutely necessary to deal with the pandemic. It all reveals that Trump is not presidential material. This is the sober, not shrill message to send to independents: that Trump is a failure and that four more years of his presidency will be calamitous. America is not safe under Trump.
There is no need to wait to find out how the markets will react, or what the economic consequences will be. The truth is now. The time to attack Trump’s lack of leadership is the present.