THREAD: Ok, I’ll bite. First, I think it’s undeniable that Trump downplayed the virus for far too long & the WaPo piece over the weekend paints a pretty damning picture of too much WH indecision, denial and dithering. I made these points in a Monday piece: https://twitter.com/timodc/status/1247200168648175616

Also, Trump — as the elected president — bears more responsibility and has more access to intel than others.

Even many Trump critics will concede, as you have, that a bunch of BDB’s March comments about Coronavirus were just godawful. Some of his worst came March 2-5...

I’d note that actions often matter as much, if not more, than words (some of BDB’s actions were also terrible). *Days* after the NYC mayor’s oft-replayed greatest hits, both Biden & Sanders held crowded campaign rallies (yes Trump did too & took longer to axe upcoming ones)...

March 10 was quite some time after the Feb 25 dire cdc warning you reference. It came after a national lockdown had been imposed in Italy. It came after community spread was widely suspected/assumed in portions of the US. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/coronavirus-dna-testing-washington

None of this is a defense of Trump, who should be accountable for his bad/good decisions & for his inaction/action. But it does push back against a notion that Trump was an outlier in the US media/political class, even in early-mid March, in terms of lax attitude & actions...

Media panels were still filled with talking heads sharing studios well into the month, and campaign rallies weren’t abandoned until after the March 10 primaries (even Gov DeWine’s primary postponement the next week seemed a little extreme to many)...

If BDB telling NYers that subways & bars were fine in early March now looks obviously problematic, holding big rallies a week later (in a state that emerged as a hotspot) was also irresponsible, in retrospect. Indeed, a lot of people were too chill for too long, in retrospect...

...including nearly all of the political class, across the spectrum. Some are now pretending that this was all obvious to anyone paying attention back in January. That’s revisionism. This does not excuse reckless rhetoric or insane downplaying well after the threat was clear...

...which has undoubtedly occurred and even blossomed in some precincts on the Right. This has received a great deal of scrutiny. I’m willing to let Trump take his deserved lumps & have/will dish some out myself...

But I’m unwilling to pretend the rest of political class, on either side, was terribly prescient & ultra-responsible by comparison — based on their own actions — during those pivotal weeks.

Full disclosure: I personally didn’t start taking any serious mitigation steps until early March & didn’t really clamp down until right around the time Dem rallies started getting canceled. This thread isn’t exactly a rebuttal to your point, but it attempts to make a related one.