President Trump assigns Vice President Mike Pence to handle Coronavirus response.

President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. NBC News/Reuters.

President Donald Trump has assigned Vice President Mike Pence to handle the Coronavirus response. NBC News. In a press conference held today, where the President announced the decision he praised the efforts to prevent the spread of the virus to America. He also said that America was very well prepared for the virus and downplayed concerns that the country wasn't ready. Both Trump and Pence said the chance of the virus becoming widespread in America is still low but warned both local officials and American citizens to be prepared. Fear of the virus is widespread and is believed to have caused a slump at the stock market. 

My Comment:

Seems like President Trump is trying to downplay things while at the same time trying to let people know that they should be prepared. He has to draw a fine line as if he causes a panic he could crash the stock market and cause chaos but if he downplays too much he could cause people to not be prepared. 

It's a fine line to walk and I think he did the best he could but I think he probably was too much on the downplay side. I think that there is a good chance that the virus makes it to America and becomes widespread. That's probably a ways off but I think it will happen. I think that Trump and Pence are right, at least in the short term, that the danger is low but unless the new countries with the virus, South Korea, Iran and Italy, get their act together, I'm pretty sure long term we will see the virus here. 

That being said, I do think that the government's response to the Coronavirus has been adequate. I do think that President Trump deserves credit for shutting down travel from China. This is something that a Democrat would not have done as they would have seen it as "racist" even though doing so probably, at the very least, bought us some critical time. 

The conservative response to the Coronavirus in the past few days has been somewhat shocking to me. People like Rush Limbaugh have gone way too far on the downplay side. Limbaugh and others have been attacking a CDC spokesman for saying the virus will likely come here. This attack is stupid because President Trump has praised the official in question (who is Rod Rosenstein's sister), and the CDC official is probably right. 

That being said, I do think that the left is unfairly attacking President Trump for his response. For too many people the idea that the virus is serious and that the media is unfairly attacking the President are mutually exclusive, while I think both things are obviously true. The media is lying about the budget where cuts were proposed but not actually implemented and they would love to see the economy crash. 

As for Mike Pence, I think he's a decent choice to run things. The Vice President doesn't usually have that much to do so giving him this job makes sense. Pence is pretty savvy as well so I think he will do a good job.