Voter Sentiment on Pandemic Response Hits New Low

[struggle4progress]

BY ELI YOKLEY
June 1, 2020 at 1:31 pm ET

Forty-one percent of registered voters approve of Trump’s management of the public health crisis while 53 percent disapprove, according to a May 29-June 1 poll, his worst marks since Morning Consult began tracking public opinion on the pandemic in February. The survey polled 1,989 registered voters and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points ...

https://morningconsult.com/2020/06/01/trump-pandemic-response-polling-low/

[struggle4progress]

1. Failures of leadership keep compounding

By Paul Waldman
Opinion writer
June 1, 2020 at 1:11 p.m. EDT

... We have now seen Trump tested twice in rapid succession, called upon to provide leadership that goes beyond the practical management of the federal government or the selection of policies that turn out to be wise. That leadership is spiritual and emotional, the kind that gives Americans hope that we can solve our problems and emerge from our current nightmare. And his failure worsens by the day.

Over the past few weeks, as the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic approached and then passed 100,000, Trump could not bring himself to do what a president must at such a time. He offered almost nothing in the way of empathy, reflection or even acknowledgement of the cost that has been paid. He didn’t tell the stories of those who have died, or speak to our pain, or show us that he feels what we as a nation are feeling.

All presidents have to do it at some point, in the wake of some kind of tragedy. They have to provide Americans with comfort, to reinforce the bonds between us and help us make sense of what we, or at least some of us, have endured.

But Trump can’t. It’s partly because he clearly believes that any acknowledgement of the cost of the pandemic only reflects poorly on his handling of it. But more importantly, it’s clear by now that he is simply incapable of feeling or expressing human empathy ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/01/trumps-failures-leadership-keep-compounding/