Matt Margolis - Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump

Also by Matt Marg olis

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A BOMBARDIER BOOKS BOOK

An Imprint of Post Hill Press

ISBN: 978-1-64293-695-7

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-64293-696-4

Airborne:

How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump

2020 by Matt Margolis

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Post Hill Press

New York Nashville

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

CONTENTS

On January 15, 2020, Nancy Pelosi ceremoniously signed the two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, one letter at a time, using golden commemorative pens with her name on them, which had been delivered to her on silver platters. Her handpicked House impeachment managers then hand -d elivered the articles of impeachment to the Senate, and the golden pens were handed out as souveni rs.

The first confirmed U.S. case of coronavirus wouldnt happen for another six days, but while the country was distracted by the endless impeachment coverage, the Trump administration was taking action to protect Americans from the spreading virus. Most of these actions probably went unnoticed because the media was obsessed with impeachment, but they were crucial steps that saved the United States from experiencing the same calamities experienced in Italy and Iran.

But, even before impeachment was over, the liberal media was ready to pounce on the next story they hoped would take Trump down. The media decided that they would make the coronavirus Trumps Kat rina.

Maybe they were right. Kurt Schlichter predicted this in Townhall. He wrote: Understand this, and you probably dont know because our media is garbage and most media people know nothing, but the federal disaster response to Katrina was amazing. Huge numbers of personnel and vast quantities of supplies poured into the stricken area in an incredibly short time. The incompetence came fromshockerthe Democrat leadership locally, but the media hung it around George W. Bushs gentlemanly neck.

The media is aching, yearning, begging for the chance to do the same thing to Trump. And the stage is being set to do that, Schlichter continued. The impeachment circus is going to end with the Democrats humiliation soon, meaning suddenly the media will soon need a new shiny object to chase. Coronavirus is that shiny object. The media will not be honest or accurate or fair. It will lie, cheat, and give voice to leftist leakers with agenda s.

Schlichter wrote this on January 30, 2020. This was before most Americans even knew what the coronavirus was, before Trumps travel ban with China, before the first confirmed American death, before the declaration of a global pandemicand boy, did it come true.

The medias disinformation efforts were extensive. They rushed to paint President Trump as a racist xenophobe for his travel ban with China, only to flip -f lop months later and then blame Trump for not doing it sooner. They willingly spread the lie that Trump called the coronavirus a hoax, even though he said no such thing. They accused him of giving false hope for pushing a drug that showed promise in treating the disease. They perpetuated the narrative that Trumps response to the outbreak was slow, even though hed been taking action while theyd been too busy covering the impeachment. By the time impeachment was over, Trump already issued travel warnings with China, implemented screening at airports, started the White House Coronavirus Task Force, started the development of a vaccine, cut red tape to allow private labs to develop testing kits, and banned travel with China, among other things. Dr. Ronny Jackson, who served as the White House physician from 2013 to 2018, also credited Trump for his decisive response to the coronavirus epidemic. The president has done everything he needed to do in this case, he said. Hes acted quickly and decisively. He did what he always has donehe went with his insti ncts.

Another prevailing narrative from the media was that President Trump spent months downplaying the coronavirus, lulling the country into a false sense of security. Trump was ridiculed for challenging the World Health Organizations estimate of a 3.4 percent fatality rate of the coronavirus. Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number, Trump said, before expressing his belief that the fatality rate was actually way under 1 percent. Of course, Trumps hunch was proven right after testing increased: the mortality rate went down significantly, and several studies have suggested that the fatality rate is actually below 1 percent. Of course, when models predicting that one to two hundred thousand people would die of the disease were revised downward to sixty thousand, Trump was then accused of pushing excessively high projections so he could take a victory lap when they were revised downward. The media couldnt decide whether he was downplaying the virus or fearmongering, so they just picked whatever fit the narrative they needed to push at a given mo ment.

One example of the medias proof that Trump downplayed the coronavirus is the claim that he called it a hoax. Many people still believe that Trump said this, even though he said no such thing. While the country was distracted by the impeachment, the Trump administration was busy addressing the coronavirus outbreak, taking various measures to limit the spread of the virus in the United States. The impeachment quickly faded, so they decided to aggressively politicize his response to the coronavirus outbreak. President Trump responded to these allegations during a rally in South Carolina, calling the Democrats politicization of the coronavirus the new hoax. The media jumped on this line, claiming that Trump called the virus, not the Democrats reactions to it, a hoax. The lie spread like wildfire in the m edia.

Trumps comments were repeatedly taken out of context or even deceptively edited to make him look bad. Mara Gay, a member of the New York Times editorial board, claimed that President Trump told governors this morning they are on their own, when he did not. Maggie Haberman, White House correspondent for the New York Times, claimed Trump demanded praise from governors in exchange for federal assistance, even though he di dnt.

The media also spread the false story that the World Health Organization (WHO) had offered the United States coronavirus testing kits, but Trump had refused to accept them. It wasnt true. No discussions occurred between WHO and CDC about WHO providing COVID -1 tests to the United States, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris explained. This is consistent with experience since the United States does not ordinarily rely on WHO for reagents or diagnostic tests because of sufficient domestic capacity. According to WHO, its priority was to send testing kits to countries with the weakest health sys tems.

Former Obama administration officials claimed that President Trump had dissolved the White House pandemic response team, and because of that, they were slow to respond to the virus. This lie was debunked by Trump administration officials and independent fact -c heckers , but that didnt stop others from reporting it as true. Even Joe Biden repeatedly made this claim during debates and on the campaign t rail.