For those who cannot read the story, the gist is that at the same time that Trump was “down playing” the threat from the virus senior members of his administration gave private briefings to the Board of the conservative Hoover Institution and other major supporters that were far less sanguine. A hedge fund consultant wrote a memo about these briefings which circulated among the fat cats and fueled the sell-off that we saw.
From the article . . . “But the memo’s overarching message — that a devastating virus outbreak in the United States was increasingly likely to occur, and that government officials were more aware of the threat than they were letting on publicly— proved accurate.”
From the article . . . “traders spotted the immediate significance: The president’s aides appeared to be giving wealthy party donors an early warning of a potentially impactful contagion at a time when Mr. Trump was publicly insisting that the threat was nonexistent.”
Another MAJOR scandal in this Scandal-a-day Presidency.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
Drain the swamp!!!
“Lock him up!!!” “Lock him up!!!” “Lock him up!!!”
Not really, just get the president a nice send off. A new TV show. “Putin, Xi and Me”. 😇
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With Special Guest stars Duterte and Erdogan.
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So, members of Trump’s staff gave a less optimistic evaluation of the possibilities of a virus outbreak to a think tank, and from the conversations at that think tank, a hedge fund manager saw possible bad economic effects and wrote a memo which circulated in the financial community on which many of them acted.
And you think that is a scandal?
If the hedge fund manager’s evaluation had proved to be wrong, and the large investors had been harmed by selling off unnecessarily, would that be a scandal too?
What I see is 4 degrees of separation between Trump and those who sold off stocks, which hardly makes a conspiracy.
You are getting really desperate for someone who thinks his side is sure to win the election.
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It IS a scandal when accurate assessments of a looming threat are given to Trump supporting fat cats while the President and one of the same officials – Kudlow – are telling the American people a different story. I will say that what constitutes a scandal is a matter of opinion. I consider it scandalous. You don’t. You are fine with fat cats getting inside information so they can bail out of the market ahead of you. Okay, that’s you.
The consultant’s memo was about what was said. Unless it was all a lie – it wasn’t – it is hard to know what you mean with your hypothetical – “had he proved to be wrong?”
I did not allege a “conspiracy.” I did not say Trump was directly involved. The story described events. I shared the story.
Whether you agree that this is yet another scandal is not of much import. Your bias is as well-known as mine. At least this scandal is based on evidence of what actually happened. That cannot be said of the countless “scandals” alleged by Trump and parroted by his supporters.
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Thems that got, shall get,
Thems that not, shall lose.
So the Bible says, and it still is news.
Mama may have,
And Papa may have,
But God Bless the child thats got its own.
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Wow. For months Trump critics have been screaming the administration didn’t know the pandemic risk, didn’t “follow the science,” and didn’t respond to the pandemic. Now the NYT is reporting:
Requested $2.5 billion in pandemic response funding from Congress even before Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, and
Reached out to a major think tank with public-facing operations to share what it knew.
This is a scandal? Doesn’t look like a scandal to me.
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LOL!
Yeah, they were concerned. And they believed the science. Too bad they lied about what they believed to the public and did NOT follow the science in organizing a response.
The funding requested was a pittance. The Democrats said so at the time even as the President continued to “play down” the threat.
Your spin on the two PRIVATE briefings to the fat cats sitting on the Board of Hoover Institution is the most LOL! of this post. They may have “public-facing operations” but there is zero evidence that they shared the content of these briefings with the public as word was being passed around among fat cat Trump supporters to bail on the market.
We obviously have very different ideas what scandalous behavior looks like. I think briefing deep pocket supporters on the real threat while lying to the public is a scandal. You don’t. Fine. It is just a matter of opinion. I will note, however, that your apparent threshold for what is scandalous for Trump is pretty damn high and almost non-existent when it comes to Obama, Clinton or Biden.
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RE: “I think briefing deep pocket supporters on the real threat while lying to the public is a scandal. You don’t.”
You don’t know my thinking, which makes your projection an excursion into Humpty Dumpty land.
You also don’t know who at Hoover received the administration briefings because the NYT names only one of the participants. That makes your smear phrase “fat cat Trump supporters” a kind of lie in that you don’t know it to be true.
I have no problem with the administration briefing the eggheads at Hoover in a different manner than they briefed the public. At the time, the public was just learning of Covid-19. It made perfect sense to compare Covid-19 with the flu (if that’s the “lie” you think the administration told), because the comparison was edifying. It still is in many ways.
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Still LOL!
The “Board” consists of MANY individuals no matter how many were named in the article.
Maybe you do not know what a Hedge Fund is nor the kind of people who run them. If you did you might not object quite so much to the term “fat cat.” As for “supporters,” the Hoover Institution has trashed Joe Biden and endorsed Donald Trump. They ARE “supporters.”
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Like I said: “an excursion into Humpty Dumpty land.”
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Eh . . . who cares. I mean really; who really cares?
Not the GOP in Congress, that’s for certain and not the adoring trumpers who will or already have voted for Trump in this election.
Is anyone surprised to learn this about the heads-up by Trump to his wealthy buds and contributers? Well, no; not if you have followed the way this guy has rolled ever since we first heard the Trump name – years ago.
I voted the 1st day of Virginia’s early voting at the Registrar’s office. That’s all I can do. I’m sick of the money-ed hillbillies that cheated, lied and slithered their way into the WH and have begged for help from every foreign entity that fawned over him.
If we get stuck with him again, such is life. It’s just what he & Putin and the dishonest GOP have worked so hard for.
Maybe it won’t be a full 4 years. Hope reigns eternal.
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This is so stupid it isn’t funny. If the pope farts the market reacts, if oil supply gets slightly affected the market reacts, if a pandemic is a possibility the market really reacts. The market crash started Feb 20th with little information about any global economic affects as a result of COVID. The first US case was identified only one month before but by this time, the scare was already entrenched and markets reacted as expected. You are putting way too much stock in supposed secret meetings between Trump and “fat cats” at the expense of the public. Kind of funny actually….better yet, just stupid…
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Well, thanks for responding in what for you is a reasonably civil way. I will disagree that seeing this as scandalous is “stupid.” Telling the public rosy untruths while briefing the investor class on the true state of affairs is a scandal to my mind especially since it allows them to loot the assets of everyone whose 401K is invested in stocks.
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Lying to Main St. while informing Wall St is part and parcel of the GOP model. Keep the fat cats happy and Joe the Plumber in the dark. Feed him fertilizer and it will grow.
In the meantime, the Senate GOP is fast tracking a SCOTUS nomination instead of discussing and providing relief to the people. You know, the people they are supposed to represent? Billionaires are getting richer so all is well in GOP land. The people, “Let them eat twinkies. Or Ho-Hos. Or G-d forbid Sno-Balls.”
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