WA GOP Ignores Americans’ Rejection of Trump’s Failed Leadership

Trump’s desperate racial grievance politics fail to distract from incompetent coronavirus response

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | July 6, 2020

SEATTLE — With multiple daily records broken for new COVID-19 cases in the last week due to states like Arizona and Florida following President Trump’s lead to reopen prematurely, Donald Trump’s complete failure to respond to the pandemic has never been clearer.

Trump’s complete and total refusal to do his job resulted in his lowest approval rating to date in 2020: 38% among all Americans and 31% here in Washington.  The only group remaining by his side amid our nation crossing 130,000 COVID deaths? Washington state Republicans.

Even as Trump proves he has no grasp of the gravity of the pandemic by falsely claiming “99% of COVID-19 cases are ‘harmless’”, the WA GOP has not wavered from their full-throated support of Trump and his agenda.

To distract from his abject failure on the pandemic response, Trump again resorted to pathetically desperate attempts to stir up racial grievance on Twitter over the 4th of July weekend.

Trump and the WA GOP’s failure to reckon with the scope of the public health challenge facing us isn’t only a sign of their repugnant and racist message, it demonstrates their lack of readiness to lead us through the worst economic conditions we’ve faced since the Great Depression. Without a public health recovery, there can be no sustained economic recovery. But Trump fails to grasp that basic reality while he crows about a sugar high in the stock market.

What we need is real economic relief to states bearing the brunt of costs to deal with testing and contact tracing and national support for a rapid testing infrastructure to supplement responsible state-level measures like mask-wearing mandates to control the spread of the virus. Instead, the WA GOP has stood with Trump and McConnell as they advocate letting states like Washington “go bankrupt.”

“We know that we can control this virus because other countries already have. The only difference in America is Trump’s inexplicable focus on spreading racism instead of preventing the spread of the virus – which has left us sicker, poorer, and more isolated than ever,” said Tina Podlodowski, Chair of the Washington State Democratic Party. “If the WA GOP keep ignoring the reality that voters are living through every day to cover up for this inept president, they’ll pay the price at the ballot box this November.”