Donald Trump’s coverup attempt falls apart
Last week, we had the battle of Alabama and, despite it being college football season, it had nothing to do with the Crimson Tide. Rather, it was the Crimson Trump, apoplectically insisting that Alabama was in the storm path of Hurricane Dorian. Despite repeated debunking of his “facts,” Trump insisted he was correct.
Turns out, the statement made by the Birmingham office of the National Meteorological Service that was overridden by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration may have been pursuant to a policy or directive from the NOAA: “Alabama will NOT see any impact of #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts of Hurricane #Dorian in Alabama will be felt. The system will remain too east.”
That statement by the Birmingham office of the NMS was overridden by a followup by the NOAA supporting President Trump.
On Saturday, the Washington Post reported about emails and warnings that went out from the NOAA on September 1, NMS (or National Weather Service, as more commonly known) providing a directive that NMS staff was to “only stick with official National Hurricane Center forecasts if questions arise from some national level social media posts which hit the news this afternoon.”
The NOAA and NMS provide crucial information that literally can be a matter of life and death for those in the path of national weather emergencies. To send out such a directive is dangerous to those who receive false information. The meteorologist quoted in the Washington Post piece indicated they had never experienced such pressure and that the directive would impede their ability to “dispel inaccurate rumors.” This is just the latest dangerous position the current administration has undertaken in order to protect the eggshell skinned POUTUS. This is NO (W)AA(Y) to run a nation.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.