Is It Finally Time for Republicans to Cut the Crap?

President Trump leaves the White House for Walter Reed medical center on Friday.Sarah Silbiger/CNP via ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

As of this writing, here’s the list of people who have contracted COVID-19 in the outbreak among DC politicians:

  1. Donald Trump
  2. Melania Trump
  3. Hope Hicks
  4. Sen. Thom Tillis
  5. Sen. Ron Johnson
  6. Sen. Mike Lee
  7. Chris Christie
  8. White House staffer
  9. Another White House staffer
  10. One reporter
  11. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president
  12. Ronna McDaniel, chair of the RNC
  13. Fr. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame
  14. Bill Stepien, Trump campaign manager

It’s inevitable that eventually some Democrat will report testing positive for the coronavirus, but it’s striking that so far it’s 12 Republicans out of 14 cases (plus two unknowns who attended the announcement ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett). Doesn’t this have to be a wakeup call for Republicans? As a matter of pure self-preservation, don’t they have to cut the crap and start urging everyone to wear masks and maintain social distancing? We’ll find out, I guess.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate