As we make our way through holy week in this country — a notable week for the religious communities marking the end of Lent and the beginning of Easter celebrations — New York is now burying their dead in mass graves, with refrigerated trucks all over the state containing the bodies of the deceased that they just don’t have anywhere to put, as the deadly coronavirus outbreak continues to hammer down on the northeastern corner of the United States.
And that’s just New York. The rest of the country continues to see increased infections and heart-breaking deaths with each passing moment as we all grasp for a turning point that doesn’t seem to be near.
It’s also worth noting that our president wanted to have the nation opened back up and the “churches packed” by this coming Sunday, for massive Easter celebrations.
For the Nth time in his presidency, Donald’s declaration once again didn’t age well.
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He has this pesky habit of opening his mouth and making proclamations that he simply can’t guarantee — and then someone else is always left to clean up the mess he made with his premature announcements.
And this time is no different.
The backlash of Trump’s untimely and irresponsible plan to have the churches in this country back open for business by this weekend has ultimately landed in the lap of his right-hand man and czar of the Coronavirus Task Force, Mike Pence.
And according to a new report from Politico, the Vice President and a handful of senior administration officials were stuck begging the religious community to ignore what Donald said during that dreadful Fox News interview.
“We want to both encourage them to keep the faith and to encourage them to maintain social distancing,” one senior White House official stated. “Now is the time to lean into the guidance, not to lean out.”
According to the report, Pence and his team of officials ultimately had to put together conference calls to their allies in the evangelical communities to essentially walk back Trump’s invitation to Easter church services and double down on the CDC guidelines for social distancing as the pandemic continues to grow at an alarming speed, and the administration is now terrified of the consequences mass church gathers could amass.
Pence and his team used the calls as an opportunity to paint Trump in a flattering light, telling evangelical leaders that POTUS was making the decision to call on them to make a sacrifice for the good of the nation in the wake of several religious Trump allies defying state stay-home orders and holding church services anyway.
Mark Burns, a pastor in South Carolina who took part in one of the conference calls states, “I’ve been privy firsthand to what the White House and this president are doing. and he is very serious about protecting Americans and slowing the spread.”
It’s a pretty sad sight when the vice president is forced to beg people not to go along with what the president said.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
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