#30 COVIDCalls 4.24.2020 – The Trump Pandemic with Virginia Heffernan

What explains President Donald Trump’s disastrous response to COVID-19 and can he politically survive the pandemic? What do Trump and his vices say about our society and why can’t we look away? Virginia Heffernan, a journalist for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Political and more, discusses President Donald Trump, his White House’s response to the pandemic, and the effect it might have on his re-election campaign. Heffernan also questions what Trump, and our inability to ignore him, says about our present era. Heffernan talks about how Governors like Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsome of California, as well as collections of states are trying to counter Trump’s ineptitude and chart their own paths in the pandemic. She also discusses the power the “canon of plague literature” has for helping us cope with the COVID-19 Pandemic.  For further reading: “What Donald Trump Doesn’t Get About Disasters” “Is COVID-19 Donald Trump’s Hurricane Katrina?” The Captain and the Glory “Journal of a Plague” “Mitch McConnell's Bankruptcy Campaign Makes Zero Sense on Any Level” “The Literature of Plagues Gives Us Words to Live By”