Comments on Trump’s Georgia phone call
Kudos to Kathie Baeuerlin for bringing some much needed levity into our political lives. It is good not to take yourself too seriously.
But it is hard not to take certain facts seriously. In a world where the number he ought to be paying most attention to is 354,000, a number – and a pandemic – that escaped mention in his Georgia rally yesterday, President Trump instead tweeted, “The number of cases and deaths of the China Virus is far exaggerated in the United States because of the CDC’s ridiculous method of determination compared to other countries.” My sense is that the President has little knowledge of the statistical methodology used by the CDC, let alone by any other country. That he was subsequently contradicted by Dr. Anthony Fauci and by his own Surgeon General seems to support that. I suspect most hospital workers would agree.
No, the President is fixated on another number. In a phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have (need to win in Georgia)” and “And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.”
There are two possible interpretations of the President’s remarks in that phone call: 1) the President is abusing his power and trying to steal the election; or 2) there was massive election fraud in Georgia. But the facts and the courts agree that there is no evidence whatsoever for any large-scale election fraud in Georgia or anywhere else. You decide.
These are difficult times and keeping our sense of humor will certainly help but, personally, I don’t see anything funny about the President’s apparent lack of concern about this democracy’s future and the welfare of its citizens.
Paul Mack
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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