分散在第一个晚上的共和党全国代表大会对总统的好评如潮唐纳德·特朗普s反应去冠状病毒大流行:兜售治疗方法，停止从中国来的旅行，重振美国经济。
但是所有关于总统处理病毒的传言都与现实形成了鲜明的对比。
美国广播公司新闻4月份的一项调查显示，340万游客进入美国在12月、1月和2月的关键时期，来自包括中国在内的几个国家。
六个月后，美国现在在全球领先新冠肺炎死亡但是在周一晚上，没有提到有将近18万人死于这种病毒。
“一位领导人采取了决定性的行动来拯救生命，”在一段高度制作的RNC视频中，一位解说员称赞特朗普签署了关怀法案他宣布国家进入紧急状态，并向各州发放个人防护装备。该视频还指责民主党人和世界卫生组织降低了病毒的严重性，并使用了民主党州长的赞扬，他们感谢特朗普送来了紧急救援物资。
解说员说:“从一开始，民主党人，媒体和世界卫生组织就把冠状病毒搞错了。”
3月初，医院和一线工作人员面临着呼吸机、罩袍、口罩、手套和其他治疗新冠肺炎病人的用品的严重短缺，这导致自联邦政府以来各州竞相供应最初没有协调分配。
RNC国家新闻秘书曼迪·梅里特在对美国广播公司新闻的一份声明中重申了我们在周一晚上的节目中听到的内容，指出特朗普关闭了从中国的旅行，补充个人防护设备，以及民主党州长如何赞扬总统的努力。
梅里特说:“与许多民主党人和他们的主流媒体盟友所描绘的情况相比，事实告诉我们的情况大相径庭。”
但在整个大流行期间，特朗普反复强调低调处理这种病毒作为一种威胁，攻击了他自己的国家冠状病毒特别工作组的健康专家，包括安东尼·福奇博士和Deborah Birx博士，尽管当地卫生官员呼吁不要举办大型面对面的活动。
2020年6月20日，在俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨市的博克中心，唐纳德·特朗普总统在冠状病毒(新冠肺炎)爆发的几个月中首次参加连任竞选集会时挥舞着拳头。
早在6月，特朗普就举行了他现在臭名昭著的塔尔萨的竞选集会，这导致了他的竞选班子的大规模人事变动降级长期竞选经理布拉德·帕斯凯尔。
尽管俄克拉荷马州的病例正在上升，卫生官员恳求总统重新安排时间，直到安全，但活动本身还是举行了。事件发生后，官员们表示，很可能会举行大型面对面的集会导致案件激增在这个地区。
特朗普竞选代理人和前共和党总统候选人赫尔曼·凯恩在参加活动后不到两周就住进医院，死于冠状病毒。该隐的发言人发布了一条声明当他在7月2日住院并说“没有办法确切知道”他是如何感染病毒的时候。
2月29日报道了美国首例冠状病毒死亡，但是特朗普称之为“恶作剧”前一天晚上，在南卡罗来纳州的一次竞选集会上，直到3月份美国死亡人数超过4000人，特朗普才承认会有重大生命损失。
也是在三月初，总统声称“任何需要”冠状病毒测试的人可能会有一个，称这些测试是“完美的”和“美丽的”，只是在同一个星期被他的卫生和公众服务部部长亚历克斯·阿扎尔纠正了。他还声称早期广泛的测试是“不必要的。”"
尽管总统在一月份停止了从中国的旅行，疾病控制数据中心这表明他在3月13日禁止从欧洲旅行的禁令如果来得更早会更有效，而且冠状病毒在颁布时已经扩散到纽约市。
在大流行过程中，特朗普淡化了病毒的严重性，称它将“消失”或“消失”消失并提出了注射消毒剂或利用阳光治疗新冠肺炎的想法。他还就是否使用口罩发出了含混不清的信息。
直到特朗普重新开始他的冠状病毒工作队简报在7月，也就是流感大流行的几个月之后，总统终于鼓励美国人戴口罩，说“它们有影响。”这些话是在他第一次出现在公众面前戴着面具参观沃尔特·里德国家军事医疗中心的几天后说的。
周一晚上，特朗普还在白宫东厅与一线工作人员一起出现在一段视频中，视频中没有人戴口罩，也没有什么社会距离，因为总统一再将话题转向他为应对冠状病毒所做的工作。
2020年8月20日，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在宾夕法尼亚州老福吉的一次竞选活动上发表演讲后，在参观阿卡罗和杰内尔餐厅时拿着一个比萨饼。
冠状病毒大流行颠覆了选举年的传统竞选风格，迫使特朗普不得不停止在拥挤的体育场举办大规模集会。民主党总统候选人乔·拜登已经开始虚拟竞选从他在特拉华州的家里。
众议员马特·盖兹(Matt Gaetz)在RNC的演讲中说:“我在一个比乔·拜登的每日日程安排还要空的礼堂里讲话。”
当民主党人举办他们的惯例上周，特朗普和副总统迈克·彭斯在关键的战场州明尼苏达州、威斯康星州、亚利桑那州和宾夕法尼亚州展开竞选活动。
尽管特朗普的竞选团队没有将这些活动称为“集会”，但它们展示了特朗普过去的MAGA集会的外观、感觉和活力。进行了体温检测，提供了洗手液，分发了口罩，尽管支持者只是被“鼓励”戴上口罩，人群之间几乎没有社交距离。
卫生协议缺乏执行力度，这与特朗普、冠状病毒特别工作组负责人彭斯和高级卫生官员的信息完全矛盾，他们说美国人需要这样做戴上面具，避免人群和社会距离，以帮助遏制冠状病毒感染。
2020年8月17日，威斯康辛州奥什科什，唐纳德·特朗普总统在惠特曼机场的竞选集会上讲话
美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)在上周的活动中采访了特朗普的支持者，他们赞扬了袖手旁观总统及其对流感大流行的应对措施，并支持他继续亲自竞选的决定。
40岁的蒋曦儿·杰勒德说，这种流行病“没什么大不了的”，并为总统辩护，反对那些声称他也采取了行动的批评者反应缓慢感染病毒。
“根据他掌握的信息，我认为他做得很好。我认为现在它真的被政治化了，整个流行病，以及它的严重性。我不认为这有什么大不了。”
但是，尽管特朗普的冠状病毒反应可能仍然对他的基础有利，但大多数美国人不赞成总统如何应对。
根据最近的一项调查，在离选举日不到三个月的时间里，将近60%的美国人特别不赞成总统对这种流行病的处理美国广播公司新闻/华盛顿邮报只有14%的人说大流行已经完全或大部分得到控制。
甚至总统自己的一些支持者也承认特朗普在处理冠状病毒时犯了错误。
特朗普的竞选志愿者丹尼斯·奥斯斯克(Dennis Orseske)上周在总统威斯康辛州奥什科什(Oshkosh)的活动中工作，他告诉ABC新闻，尽管他继续支持特朗普，但总统在应对冠状病毒方面犯了错误。
“就冠状病毒而言，是的，我们都会犯错误，这是一件新鲜事，因为我们都在尽最大努力，”奥斯克说，他在活动中戴着口罩，拒绝透露具体细节。
但这些后见之明都没有成为RNC会谈的话题。
特朗普竞选宣传总监蒂姆·默陶(Tim Murtaugh)在给ABC新闻的一份声明中表示，总统一直“在抗击冠状病毒的斗争中走在前列，领导全国人民”，他指出了自己对从中国和欧洲进入美国的旅行的限制，以及自己为生产个人防护装备所做的努力。
“特朗普总统发起了一场前所未有的全国性努力，让政府和私营部门都参与进来，以生产必要的设备来保护美国人，并使医疗保健工作者能够完成他们的工作，”墨菲说。他补充说，特朗普建立了一个“前所未有的测试战略，并在测试中领先世界。”
“这与乔·拜登的做法形成了鲜明对比，他的做法是，除了批评、反对和建议总统已经在做的事情之外，什么也不做。”
总统的团队知道，11月3日，选民将会对他处理冠状病毒的方式产生重大影响。在RNC剩下的日子里，发言人可能会继续以积极的态度描述特朗普的回应，并使他的做法看起来像是在经历历史性打击后重振经济的最佳方式。但这并不意味着这是真的。
RNC praise for Trump’s COVID-19 response at odds with months of missteps: ANALYSIS
Scattered throughout the first night of theRepublican National Conventionwere rave reviews of PresidentDonald Trump'sresponseto thecoronaviruspandemic: touting treatments, shutting down travel from China and rebounding the American economy.
But all the spin on the president's handling of the virus is in sharp contrast with reality.
An ABC News investigation in April showed that 3.4 million travelersentered the U.S.from several countries, including China, during the critical time period of December, January and February.
Six month later the U.S. now leads the world inCOVID-19 deaths, but on Monday night there was no mention of the nearly 180,000 who have died from the virus.
"One leader took decisive action to save lives," says a narrator in a highly produced RNC video that praises Trump's signing of theCARES Act, his declaring a national emergency and dispatching PPE to states. The video also blames Democrats and the World Health Organization for diminishing the severity of the virus and uses praise from Democratic governors who thanked Trump for sending emergency supplies.
"From the very beginning, Democrats, the media and the World Health Organization got coronavirus wrong," the narrator says.
In early March, hospitals and front-line workers faced dramatic shortages of ventilators, gowns, masks, gloves, and other supplies to treat COVID-19 patients, which resulted in states competing for supplies since the federal governmentdidn't initially coordinatethe distribution.
In a statement to ABC News, RNC National Press Secretary Mandi Merritt reiterated what we heard on Monday night's program, pointing to Trump's shut down on travel from China, replenishing PPE and how Democratic governors praised the president's efforts.
"The facts tell a widely different story than what many Democrats and their mainstream media allies are portraying," Merritt said.
But it was Trump who throughout the pandemic has repeatedlydownplayedthe virus as a threat, attacked health experts on his own National Coronavirus Task Force, including both Dr. Anthony Fauci andDr. Deborah Birx, and has continued to hold large in-person campaign events despite calls from local health officials not to.
President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he enters his first re-election campaign rally in several months in the midst of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 20, 2020.
Back in June, Trump held his now infamouscampaign rally in Tulsa,which resulted in a massive staff shake-up of his campaign and contributed to thedemotionof long-time campaign manager Brad Parscale.
The event itself was held even as Oklahoma was experiencing a rise in cases and as health officials pleaded with the president to reschedule until it was safe. Following the event, officials said the large in-person gathering likelycontributed to a spike in casesin the area.
Trump campaign surrogate and former Republican presidential candidateHerman Cain, who attended the event without a mask, died from the coronavirus after being admitted to the hospital less than two weeks after attending the event. A spokesperson for Cain released astatementwhen he was hospitalized on July 2 and said "there was no way of knowing for sure" how he contracted the virus.
The first coronavirus death in the U.S. was reported on Feb. 29, but Trumpcalled it a "hoax"the night before during a campaign rally in South Carolina, and it wasn't until the U.S. death toll surpassed 4,000 in March that Trump admitted there would be a significant loss of life.
It was also in early March that the president claimed "anybody that needs" a coronavirus testcould get one,calling the tests "perfect" and "beautiful, only to be corrected by his Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar that same week. He also claimed early on that widespread testing was "unnecessary."
Though the president shut down travel from China in January,Centers for Disease Control datashows that his ban on travel from Europe on March 13 would have been more effective had it come earlier, and that the coronavirus had already spread to New York City by the time it was enacted.
Over the course of the pandemic, Trump has downplayed the severity of the virus, saying it will "go away" or "disappear" and has suggested the idea of injecting disinfectant or using sunlight to treat COVID-19. He has also sent mixed messages on whether to use masks.
It was not until Trump restarted hiscoronavirus task force briefingsin July, months into the pandemic, that the president finally encouraged Americans to wear face coverings, saying "they have an impact." Those words came days after he was first seen in public wearing a mask during a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
On Monday night Trump also appeared in a video with front-line workers in the East Room of the White House in which nobody wore masks and there was little social distancing, as the president repeatedly turned the conversation toward what he's done to address coronavirus.
President Donald Trump holds a pizza during a visit to Arcaro and Genell restaurant after speaking at a campaign event, Aug. 20, 2020, in Old Forge, Pa.
The coronavirus pandemic has upended the traditional style of campaigning during an election year, forcing Trump to refrain from hosting large-scale rallies in packed stadiums. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has taken tovirtual campaigningfrom his home in Delaware.
"I'm speaking from an auditorium emptier than Joe Biden's daily schedule," Rep. Matt Gaetz said during his RNC speech, ridiculing Biden for not holding in-person events amid a pandemic.
As Democrats hosted theirconventionlast week, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were campaigning on the ground in the critical battleground states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
While the Trump campaign didn't label the events "rallies," they featured the look, feel and energy of Trump's MAGA rallies of the past. Temperature checks were taken, hand sanitizer made available and masks were distributed, though supporters were only "encouraged" to wear them, and there was little to no social distancing among the crowds.
The lack of enforcement of health protocols is in complete contradiction to the messaging from Trump, Pence, who heads the coronavirus task force, and top health officials, who have said Americans need towear masks, avoid crowds and social distance to help curb coronavirus infections.
President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Wittman Airport, Aug. 17, 2020, in Oshkosh, Wis.
Trump supporters who ABC News spoke to at events last week stand by the president and his response to the pandemic and support his decision to continue in-person campaigning.
Nichole Gerard, 40, said the pandemic is not "that big of a deal" and defended the president against critics who claim he acted tooslowly in respondingto the virus.
"Given the information he had, I think that he did a great job. And I think right now it's really politicized, the whole pandemic, and the severity of it. I don't -- I don't think it's that big of a deal," she said.
But while Trump's coronavirus response may still play well with his base, most Americans disapprove of the how the president has dealt with it.
Nearly 60% of Americans disapprove specifically of the president's handling of the pandemic with fewer than three months until Election Day, according to a recentABC News/Washington Post poll, and just 14% say the pandemic is completely or mostly under control.
Even some of the president's own supporters admit Trump stumbled in handling the coronavirus.
Dennis Orseske, a Trump campaign volunteer who worked at the president's Oshkosh, Wisconsin, event last week, told ABC News that while he continues to support Trump, the president has made mistakes in his response to coronavirus.
"As far as coronavirus goes, yes, we all make mistakes and it's something new for all of us is doing the best you can," Orseske said, talking through his mask at the event and declining to go into specifics.
But none of that hindsight has made it into the talking points at the RNC.
In a statement to ABC News, Trump Campaign Communications Director Tim Murtaugh said the president has been "out front and leading the nation in the fight against the coronavirus," pointing to his restriction on travel into the U.S. from China and Europe and his efforts to produce PPE.
"President Trump launched an unprecedented national effort, engaging both the government and private sector, in order to produce the equipment necessary to protect Americans and enable health care workers to do their jobs," Murtaugh said, adding that Trump built up an "unprecedented testing strategy and leads the world in tests performed."
"This is in contrast to Joe Biden's approach, which has been to do nothing but criticize, oppose, and suggest things the president has already been doing."
The president's team knows perception of his handling of the coronavirus will weigh heavily on the minds of voters on Nov. 3. Speakers for the remaining days of the RNC will likely continue to portray Trump's response in a positive light and make his approach seem like the best way to rebound an economy after a historic blow. But that doesn't make it true.
