One of the reasons it's hard for many of us who live in New York City to think that all the blame for the pandemic lies with Trump is articles like this in the NYT. Where you learn: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/nyregion/new-york-coronavirus-response-delays.html

The former head of the CDC and the NYC Health Department "said that if the state and city had adopted widespread social-distancing measures a week or two earlier, including closing schools, stores and restaurants, then the estimated death toll from the outbreak might have been

reduced by 50 to 80 percent." AND

Ohio, led by a Republican governor and a Republican legislature, shut down the schools on March 12, when there were only five confirmed cases of COVID-19—a full three days BEFORE New York City closed its schools, on March 15, when there were already 329 cases. AND

In early March, De Blasio was reassuring New Yorkers that COVID-19 was not something you could catch on the subways or trains. Meanwhile (this is not reported in this piece but in a piece by Politico), as of yesterday,

33 of 55,000 transit workers have died from the virus—a death rate of 60 out of 100,000, which exceeds the death rate of the Fire Department's emergency medical services. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/new-york-playbook/2020/04/08/new-york-sees-highest-one-day-coronavirus-death-toll-city-budget-slashed-campaigns-adapt-to-social-distancing-era-488835

One more factoid from NYT. Andrew Cuomo on March 2: "Excuse our arrogance as New Yorkers — I speak for the mayor also on this one — we think we have the best health care system on the planet right here in New York. So,

when you’re saying, what happened in other countries versus what happened here, we don’t even think it’s going to be as bad as it was in other countries.”

I know that for more liberal and mainstream and centrist Democrats, a lot of the commentary from people like me seems like some sort of willful hatred of all that's good in the Democratic Party, based on an ignorance of how bad the Republicans are. But as someone who wrote

the book that set out just how toxic and dangerous conservatism has been from its very beginnings—a claim that many liberals profoundly disliked when I first made it—I can assure you, I'm well aware of the GOP's pathologies. But as I listen to sirens every night, and look around

what is going on in my city, and find out about friends who are transit workers and nurses who are now sick with COVID-19, and then read the NYT report on how Cuomo and De Blasio bungled this, and think about the continuing refusal of some Dems to deal with the systemic problems

of healthcare, it's hard for me to take seriously commentary that simply focuses on the symptom that is Trump and not the underlying disease.