The Daily Fuckup — February 20, 2020

Edition · February 20, 2020

The Daily Fuckup — February 20, 2020

Stone gets hammered, Barr’s credibility keeps leaking, and Trump’s coronavirus shrug is starting to look less like bravado and more like negligence.

A very Trumpy Thursday: Roger Stone was sentenced in federal court, the judge made plain he was not being punished for loyalty to the president, and the whole spectacle once again dragged Donald Trump’s interference in the case back into the spotlight. At the same time, Trump kept downplaying the coronavirus threat even as the public-health warning signs were mounting and his own January-to-February messaging aged badly by the hour. The result was a day that combined legal embarrassment, ethical rot, and the kind of public-health denial that tends to look stupider the longer history gets to sit with it.

Closing take

By the end of February 20, Trump-world had managed to turn both justice and disease into self-inflicted problems. The Stone sentencing underscored how corrosive it is when a president openly softens up for his allies; the virus messaging showed the opposite vice, a reflex to minimize danger until the bill comes due. That is the Trump formula in miniature: deny, distort, intervene, then act surprised when the mess hardens into precedent.

Ranked by how bad the fuckup was

5 stars means maximum fallout. 1 star means a smaller self-own.

Story

Stone Gets 40 Months, and Trump’s Dirty Shadow Is Still Hanging Over the Case

Stone fallout Confidence 5/5

★★★★☆Fuckup rating 4/5 Serious fuckup

Roger Stone was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison, a major blow for one of Trump’s longest-running political fixers and a fresh embarrassment for the White House. The judge made clear Stone had not been punished for backing the president, undercutting the latest round of Trump-world victimhood. The sentencing also kept the Justice Department’s credibility crisis alive after the administration’s extraordinary meddling in the recommendation process.

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Story

Trump’s Coronavirus Minimizing Is Aging Into a Full-Blown Messaging Failure

Virus minimization Confidence 4/5

★★★★☆Fuckup rating 4/5 Serious fuckup

As the coronavirus threat grew more serious, Trump kept leaning on upbeat assurances and dismissal, a posture that was starting to look wildly out of step with the public-health reality. By February 20, his earlier comments about warmer weather and the virus fading had become an obvious liability. The gap between the president’s tone and the emerging risk was becoming a political problem as well as a public-health one.

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