On CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday, British commentator Piers Morgan gave Donald Trump an F for his response to the coronavirus crisis, noting that “all the tricks” Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson “used to become popular and win elections are now being tested in a very different way.”
“It’s not about partisan politics anymore, it’s about plain war crisis leadership,” said Morgan. “And it’s a very different thing. And what I’ve noticed with Boris Johnson and with Donald Trump is an apparent inability to segueway into being war leaders. They’re still playing the old games of party politics.”
Morgan then noted that he considers Trump “a friend” who he’s known for a long time, but has been watching the daily briefings “with mounting horror.”
“The President of the United States right now is an incredibly important person in the world,” Morgan continued. “And not least to Americans who are dying in the tens of thousands. … And all that is required from the president in those moments, and any world leader, frankly, is they have to be calm, show authority, they have to be honest, they have to be accurate, entirely factual with what they’re telling the people and they have to have an ability to show empathy. And on almost every level of that, Donald Trump at the moment is failing the American people. He’s turning these briefings into a self-aggrandizing, self-justifying, overly defensive, politically partisan—almost like a rally to him.
“Almost like what is more important is winning the election in November. No it’s not, Donald Trump!”
