Chuck Todd sees the new coronavirus spreading throughout the world to a “test” for President Trump akin to the “Iran hostage crisis.”
NBC’s “Meet the Press” host told viewers Sunday that COVID-19, the disease that first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, may have the same political ramifications as the 444-day hostage crisis that took place while former President Jimmy Carter occupied the White House.
Iranian students took control of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, after Islamic fundamentalists ousted the pro-American Shah of Iran.
“Matt, you and I were talking about it before the break. What the Iran hostage crisis was to the final year of Carter’s presidency — not his fault, but it’s a test in real time. This is what this seems to be for Trump,” the host said during a segment with Washington Post columnist Matt Bai.
“It’s one thing when all the Republicans in Washington say, ’he says some crazy stuff on tax policy or this or that, but we’ve got it handled,’” Mr. Bai replied, NewsBusters reported. “It’s a different thing when the president is out there leading publicly in a crisis like this and people are seeing it in real time, taking their cues from it.”
The columnist said that prolonged anxiety, in the aggregate, was likely to catch up with Mr. Trump’s polls at some point.
“I’m frankly surprised that the exhaustion from that chaos has been as slow in coming as it has in the American public, but this does hold the potential if it goes badly to become a kind of Jimmy Carter-like scenario where the public just says, ’can’t wake up with this anxiety every day. We’ve got to have some kind of leadership.’”
Mr. Trump has insisted that his administration is doing everything within its power to safeguard the nation against the virus, which can cause organ failure.
The White House anticipates spending at least $2.5 billion to combat the virus as a task force lead by Vice President Mike Pence and Health Secretary Alex Azar continues its work.
“The BEST decision made was the toughest of them all, which saved many lives,” he tweeted Monday. “Our VERY early decision to stop travel to and from certain parts of the world!”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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