David Gergen: I Wake Up Some Mornings Feeling Like We Are In The Grips Of A Mad Man

By Ed Scarce — October 5, 2020

The normally prudent Gergen didn't hold back tonight after watching Trump's bizarre escape from Walter Reed.

Longtime presidential advisor David Gergen, who has worked in four different White Houses, pulled no punches in describing President Donald Trump’s reckless behavior flouting CDC guidelines and dismissing the Covid virus currently infecting him, saying that the country is now “in the grips of a madman.”

Trump, who had reportedly been agitating to be discharged from Walter Reed Medical Center on Sunday, announced via Twitter on Monday that he would be returning to the White House that evening. In his tweet, he also irresponsibly advised the public “don’t be afraid of Covid” of a pandemic that has claimed 210,000 American lives so far and then boasted he hadn’t felt as good in two decades. Trump is currently being treating with a unique therapeutic drug cocktail that includes powerful steroids.

BLITZER: “Have you ever seen a president behave as this president is behaving right now saying what he’s saying, doing what he’s doing? So many clearly can see as totally irresponsible.”

GERGEN: “Never. And I hope we never do again. I wake up some days, Wolf, practically feeling like we’re in the grips of a madman and it’s going to take a while to get out, get back to normal. I think we should all be pleased the president has made this progress and is going home but to Abby [Phillip]’s point, we should be alarmed by the lessons the president is taking with him. the very idea that people should not be afraid of Covid. He’s doubling down on the biggest mistake of his presidency, which was to taken Covid in a cavalier fashion to begin with, to downplay it, to sugarcoat it and now he’s sending this same signal out saying they don’t have to worry about it.”

I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2020

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