Presidents Kennedy, Carter, and Reagan were each responsible for monumental policy failures. Yet, they emerged from these crises with their honor and integrity intact.
We cannot, sadly, say the same of President Trump.
To appreciate how wrong and contemptible President Trump’s lies and evasion of responsibility are re: his administration’s weak and tardy response to the coronavirus, it is helpful to review how other America presidents have responded when they erred and failed at times of national crisis.
Kennedy. Here is what President Kennedy said after the Bay of Pigs debacle:
There’s an old saying that victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan.
I’ve said as much as I feel can be usefully said by me in regard to the events of the past few days. Further statements, detailed discussions, are not to conceal responsibility, because I’m the responsible officer of the government… and that is quite obvious—
But merely because I do not believe that such a discussion would benefit us during the present difficult situation.
Kennedy was not excessively self-critical, and he did not wallow in self-abasement. However, he did man up and forthrightly accept responsibility for the Bay of Pigs debacle.
The American people respected Kennedy for owning up to his failure, forgave him, and rallied to his side with a spectacular 70-percent-plus approval rating. The country moved on.
Late yesterday, I cancelled a carefully planned operation which was underway in Iran to position our rescue team for later withdrawal of American hostages, who have been held captive there since November 4. Equipment failure in the rescue helicopters made it necessary to end the mission…
I made a decision to commence the rescue operations plans. This attempt became a necessity and a duty. The readiness of our team to undertake the rescue made it completely practicable.
Accordingly, I made the decision to set our long-developed plans into operation.
I ordered this rescue mission prepared in order to safeguard American lives, to protect America’s national interests, and to reduce the tensions in the world that have been caused among many nations as this crisis has continued.
It was my decision to attempt the rescue operation. It was my decision to cancel it when problems developed in the placement of our rescue team for a future rescue operation. The responsibility is fully my own.
Carter ended up losing the 1980 presidential election in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, in no small part because of the Iranian hostage debacle. However, in the aftermath of the failed hostage rescue attempt, Carter’s support did not collapse.
To the contrary: a Gallup poll conducted roughly a week later (May 1, 1980) showed Carter with a 51-36 percent lead over his Democratic primary challenger, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Carter, moreover, would go on to narrowly lose the Michigan Caucuses to Kennedy, 48-46 percent, before winning 11 of the next 12 primaries en route to capturing the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
Again, the American people were quite forgiving of presidential failure. They understood that, despite whatever disagreements and doubts they had about Carter, he was nonetheless a good and decent man trying his level best to do right by them and the country.
Reagan. Here is President Reagan acknowledging to the American people that, despite his intentions to the contrary, his administration did, in fact, sell arms for hostages to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism:
My fellow Americans, I’ve spoken to you from this historic office on many occasions and about many things. The power of the Presidency is often thought to reside within this Oval Office. Yet it doesn’t rest here; it rests in you, the American people, and in your trust.
Your trust is what gives a President his powers of leadership and his personal strength, and it’s what I want to talk to you about this evening.
For the past three months, I’ve been silent on the revelations about Iran. And you must have been thinking, “Well, why doesn’t he tell us what’s happening? Why doesn’t he just speak to us as he has in the past when we’ve faced troubles or tragedies?”
Others of you, I guess, were thinking, ”What’s he doing hiding out in the White House?”
Well, the reason I haven’t spoken to you before now is this: You deserve the truth. And, as frustrating as the waiting has been, I felt it was improper to come to you with sketchy reports, or possibly even erroneous statements, which would then have to be corrected, creating even more doubt and confusion.
There’s been enough of that.
I’ve paid a price for my silence in terms of your trust and confidence. But I have had to wait, as you have, for the complete story.
Notice how Reagan emphasized presidential trust and candor, and the importance of speaking truthfully to the American people. Notice, too, that he felt the need to apologize for not being communicative enough! (Of course, they didn’t have Twitter back then.)
Reagan explained that he had appointed a special review board to investigate what had happened, and that the board had just issued its findings.
Let’s start with the part that is the most controversial. A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that is true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.
As the Tower board reported, what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated in its implementation into trading arms for hostages. This runs counter to my own beliefs, to Administration policy and to the original strategy we had in mind.
There are reasons why it happened but no excuses. It was a mistake.
I undertook the original Iran initiative in order to develop relations with those who might assume leadership in a post-Khomeini Government. It’s clear from the board’s report, however, that I let my personal concern for the hostages spill over into the geopolitical strategy of reaching out to Iran.
I asked so many questions about the hostages’ welfare that I didn’t ask enough about the specifics of the total Iran plan…
As I told the Tower board, I didn’t know about any diversion of funds to the contras. But as President, I cannot escape responsibility…
Now what should happen when you make a mistake is this: You take your knocks, you learn your lessons and then you move on. That’s the healthiest way to deal with a problem.
This in no way diminishes the importance of the other continuing investigations, but the business of our country and our people must proceed…
You know, by the time you reach my age, you’ve made plenty of mistakes, and if you’ve lived your life properly, so you learn. You put things in perspective. You pull your energies together. You change. You go forward.
My fellow Americans, I have a great deal that I want to accomplish with you and for you over the next two years, and, the Lord willing, that’s exactly what I intend to do. Goodnight and God bless you.
Reagan’s Triumph. And God Bless President Reagan. He did, in fact, go on to deliver one of the greatest and most historically consequential speeches in world history: at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, June 12, 1987.
General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
The walls were torn down; Eastern Europe was liberated; the Soviet Union was defeated; and the Cold War was won. America, meanwhile, enjoyed continued peace and prosperity; and Reagan finished up his second term a highly popular, successful, and respected two-term president.
Now, compare that to how President Trump has handled the coronavirus. NBC News White House correspondent Geoff Bennett has compiled a timeline of Trump’s key remarks dating back to January when the coronavirus first emerged in the public consciousness:
To this disgraceful list we should add other damning Trump statements or admissions. NBC News reports:
Asked Friday at his press conference by NBC News’ Kristen Welker whether he should take responsibility for the failure to disseminate larger quantities of tests earlier, Trump declined.
“I don’t take responsibility at all,” he said.
Trump also responded testily to a question from another reporter about a decision made by the administration in 2018 to disband the White House’s National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense — a unit sometimes referred to as the White House pandemic office.
Trump called the question “nasty” and replied, “I didn’t do it.”
“You say we did that, [but] I don’t know anything about it,” Trump said.
In addition to having insisted for weeks that he had the outbreak under control, Trump has also propagated personal beliefs about the coronavirus that contradict those of veteran health officials and experts.
Then today, Trump tweeted this bald-faced lie:
This tweet would be laughable were the matter not so serious, with tens of thousands of American lives hanging in the balance.
Again, as we have reported here at ResCon1, Trump’s China ban was the one praiseworthy decision that he made early on in this crisis. However, it was hardly a game changer, because it never was combined with rapid and comprehensive testing to prevent community spread of the virus.
Forgiveness. In any case, mistakes and errors are forgivable and can be excused. In fact, as our history shows, the American people are quite forgiving of presidents who make mistakes, acknowledge their error, and seek forgiveness.
What is unforgivable, though, is refusing to acknowledge error and then compounding the error by lying repeatedly about it. And that, unfortunately, describes the all-too-characteristic behavior of Trump. George Conway captures this character flaw well:
But responsibility? Never. Ever the blameless narcissist, Trump always insists that the buck stops wherever convenient—for him, personally.
For Trump, success always has a single father—himself. Failure has a hundred—everyone and anyone else: The media. The Democrats. The “deep state.” Disloyal staffers. Prosecutors. Judges.
Anyone who doesn’t do his bidding or sufficiently sing his praises.
And the common thread between his taking credit and shifting blame? Trump’s standbys: Lying, deceit and exaggeration. All have come into play throughout his presidency, and all now have come home to roost.
Feature photo credit: Associated Press via the Los Angeles Times.
