During 2020—the last year of the first Trump administration and the worst year of COVID—President Donald Trump offered 11 different steps for defeating COVID-19.

Nine of those steps have been revealed. Here are the last two:   

11.   Learn to Live With It:  According to a July 3 story by NBC News: “Eager to move forward and reopen the economy amid a recession and a looming presidential election, the White House is now pushing acceptance. ‘The virus is with us, but we need to live with it.’”    

12.  Victory Over Coronavirus:“ “Advisor to the President” and First Daughter Ivanka Trump wrote: “Over the past four years, President Trump’s policies and investments in science and technology ensure that America stands ready to solve America’s most pressing problems and that our workforce is prepared for tomorrow’s innovations.”

Ivanka Trump has absolutely no scientific or technology background.

And Trump’s fellow Republicans proved just as anti-science and anti-education as himself.

Donald Trump

In March, 2020, as COVID-19 raged unchecked throughout the country, an NBC News poll found that that only 30% of Republicans said they would actually listen to the advice of doctors to stay away from large, crowded areas to avoid Coronavirus. 

By 2026, 23% of Republicans expressed confidence in higher education, while 50% of Democrats did.

Peter Baker. the chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, appeared on the July 31 episode of Washington Week. Offering his own commentary on Republicans’ attempt to shame and destroy Anthony Fauci, he said:

“I think they’re making an awful lot out of, you know, what would be pretty normal in those early days when we did not know a lot, right? Scientists were of multiple opinions about the origin of it, they were of multiple opinions about how it was transmitted, and there were multiple opinions about what the best course of action was….

Anthony Fauci speaking to the White House press corps

“It’s not just that he was wrong, it’s that he is evil, and that he….should go to jail. I mean, he’s literally compared to Hitler and Mengele. This isn’t a scientist who just got things wrong, and maybe he did get something wrong. This, in this case, in Rand Paul’s world, it’s good and evil.”   

* * * * * * * * * *

On July 26, 1946, Chief United States Counsel Robert H. Jackson delivered his closing remarks against the major Nazi defendants for war crimes at Nuremberg. He might as well have been speaking about Donald Trump and his cheerleading—and misleading—chorus on Coronavirus:

“Lying has always been a highly approved Nazi technique. [Adolf] Hitler, in Mein Kampf, advocated mendacity as a policy. {Foreign Minister Joachim] Von Ribbentrop admits the use of the ‘diplomatic lie.’

“….Nor is the lie direct the only means of falsehood. They all speak with a Nazi double talk with which to deceive the unwary….’Final solution’ of the Jewish problem was a phrase which meant extermination. ‘Special treatment’ of prisoners of war meant killing. ‘Protective custody’ meant concentration camp.

Imagine this:    

For two and a half years—1929 to late 1931—Elliot Ness and his special unit known as “The Untouchables” conduct Intensive operations, surveillance and brewery raids against the criminal empire of Al “Scarface” Capone. 

Six years later, a Senate subcommittee subpoenas Ness and brutally grills him on how his unit carried out those raids:

“Why did you target Al Capone—did you have something personal against him?”

“You never did convict him, did you? That was done by the IRS for tax evasion.”

“Capone was just a businessman. He never hurt anybody.”

“Your unit is famous for not taking bribes. Wasn’t Capone offering enough?”

“There’s no such thing as a Mafia.” 

Imagine, also, how such a brutal attack on a celebrated lawman would have damaged the morale of countless other lawmen—and would-be lawmen.

Elliot Ness

So it’s easy to imagine how Republicans’ brutal attack on Anthony Fauci affects current members of the medical profession—and would-be members of it. 

Fauci is an American physician-scientist and immunologist who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022 and as Chief Medical Advisor to the President–—Joseph Biden––from 2021 to 2022. 

So what did this man—who has dedicated his entire adult life to protecting Americans against infectious diseases—do to ignite such hatred?

He had merely spoken the hard medical truth about Coronavirus. In doing so, he had at times contradicted then-President Donald Trump’s ignorance- and lie-riddled statements.

For example: Trump had loudly touted hydroxychloroquine, used for treating malaria, as a miracle cure for the Coronavirus.

Yet Fauci dared to point out there had been no scientific trials of the drug for its effectiveness against Coronavirus. Moreover, given the medical condition of some patients, it could even prove fatal.

Statements like this infuriated Trump’s base of—at best—half-educated fans.

Donald Trump

On July 31, Susan Glasser, a journalist who writes a column for The New Yorker, appeared on Washington Week, a PBS public affairs television program.

Commenting on the “death match” between Fauci and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Glasser said: “Yes. I mean, look, the historical analogy that leaps to mind is not a reasonable bipartisan commission to look at lessons learned from a national tragedy. It’s a witch hunt. It’s McCarthyism.

“You know, we do, unfortunately, have a long history of that as well. And to see an 85-year-old public servant who spent 50 years of his life combating terrible diseases in this country and around the world, you know, it was a painful sight.

“You know, especially to see a bunch of senators accuse Fauci of the best they could come up with, you know, was a diary in which he was dazzled, you know, to meet celebrities and, you know, admitted that he butt-dialed Barbra Streisand….

“The person who was accountable ultimately for America’s failed initial handling of the pandemic in 2020 was someone named Donald Trump.” 

Susan Glasser

During 2020—the last year of the first Trump administration and the worst year of COVID—Trump offered 11 different steps for defeating COVID-19:

1. Denial: COVID entered the United States on January 19. By January 27, Trump didn’t think the virus had spread widely throughout the United States.
2. Lies: On January 22, Trump said “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.” By March 10, he was saying: “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” 
3. Republican subservience to Trump’s denial and lies:  During the vital months of January and February, Republicans refused to challenge Trump’s unwillingness to take the virus seriously—before it gained a foothold in the United States.
4. Chaos:  Like Adolf Hitler, Trump likes to pit individuals and organizations against each other. This creates needless duplication of efforts and wastes resources. But it ensures that Trump—like Hitler—remains the final voice of authority, since so many others are competing for his favor and direction.
5. Extortion: Trump and Republicans used a deadly plague as a weapon against those Americans they hate. This included seizing medical supplies slated for Democratic states and sending them to Republican ones.
6. Propaganda Disguised as News: Since Easter weekend, President Donald Trump held almost 50 daily press briefings at the White House. Their purpose: To serve as a substitute for Trump’s hate-filled political rallies, which had been canceled and have been likened to those staged by Germany’s Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, at Nuremberg.
7. Quackery as Medicine: On April 23, Trump raised the possibility of preventing or curing the Coronavirus by use of ultraviolet light—or even injection of disinfectant.
8. “Reopen the Country”: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged Americans to wear masks and keep at least six feet from their fellows. And most of the nation’s governors issued stay-at-home orders that banned large gatherings—including visits to parks and beaches. Yet Trump openly encouraged defiance of those orders. 
9. Ignore the Danger:  Although health experts expressed fears about large gatherings during the Coronavirus pandemic, Trump and his Republican allies—such as South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem—held tightly-packed, mask-free political rallies. 

Days before grilling Anthony Fauci at a Senate hearing, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) released more than a thousand pages of Fauci’s personal diary entries and work records.     

These had been made available to him by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—a notorious foe of vaccines. 

Fauci blasted the move by the senator as an attempt at “embarrassing and intimidating” him.

As a result, Fauci did not answer a single question from any lawmakers during the entire three-hour hearing, invoking the Fifth Amendment 111 times: “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

Republican senators, in turn, attacked Fauci over COVID-19 pandemic guidance—and his refusal to testify.

Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) gave voice to that antagonism:

“It was about six years ago today that I decided I’m going to give up my businesses, sell them all, run for office, run for United States Senate. And here I am sitting in front of you six years later, saying who the fuck do you think you were for doing that? It is a total disgrace what you did to this country.” 

Moreno called Fauci a criminal and said he was more concerned about being a celebrity than helping the American people: “There is no defense of what you did. You may have had a 50+ year legacy of public service, but it ends in total and complete disgrace.” 

Bernie Moreno

Moreno asked Fauci to apologize to people, business owners and military members the Senator said were harmed by COVID restrictions.

As if inconveniencing business owners was a far greater sin than taking steps to save lives.

Others blasted Moreno for his questioning, with several pointing out how he had largely remained silent when his daughter accused her ex-husband, Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), of physically abusing her. Moreno had called it a “private, personal matter.”

“Did Senator Bernie Moreno call out his son in law who beat his daughter with any of the same vigor as he did fauci?” former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger wrote in a social media post.

Senator Gary Peters, (D-MI) the top Democrat on the committee, looked beyond the hearing to its impact on history and science:

“It’s tempting to turn one person into the scapegoat for a crisis that hundreds of officials across both the Trump and the Biden administration were responsible for handling.

“This is only going to, unfortunately, deter other scientific experts from public service to understand that this is what they would have to go through as they provide their advice to us.” 

Gary Peters

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that the hearing was an effort “to rewrite this history” of the pandemic: [“it is] shameful that in a country like ours, a dedicated public servant like Doctor Fauci has experienced persistent threats to his life since the pandemic because of the lies that are told about him.”

And he called the proceeding “an insult to the memory of more than one million Americans who died from COVID-19.”

Paul challenged Fauci over his Fifth Amendment right, warning him: “It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions for your refusal to testify.”

Fauci’s attorney David Schertler called the hearing part of Paul’s “public crusade” against the scientist. And he repeatedly tried to speak up after Paul threatened Fauci but was silenced by Paul.

PAUL: “You will respect these proceedings. You were told not to sit at the table. You insist on sitting at the table and we told you you would not be recognized. You are not invited here for testimony, sir. You are being disruptive.”

Schertler continued to speak with Paul, and Senator Gary Peters asked for the attorney to be given an opportunity—but was denied.

PAUL: “There’s a row behind you, sir. That’s where you were told to sit … and now you’re disrupting the proceedings. 

“That’s the way you want to be remembered, and that’s what you’re going to do. You are not recognized, sir. Security, please remove him from the room.”

Upon exiting the hearing room, Schertler told reporters that Fauci “has a valid Fifth Amendment privilege and he has the right to assert it and that’s what I was trying to tell the committee.”

After the hearing, Paul told NBC News that the committee would vote next week on holding Fauci in contempt of Congress.

“We will schedule a vote. It’s already been scheduled for next week, for a vote on contempt of Congress, referral of contempt of Congress. If the vote is affirmative, it will be sent to the Department of Justice, and they will have to make a decision whether to pursue this.

“We believe that with his liability, his immunity from criminal liability, that he didn’t need to hide behind the Fifth Amendment, and that maybe the Fifth Amendment doesn’t attach when you have a pardon in place.”

The vote was expected to occur at a Department of Homeland Security business meeting scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on August 5.