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I know you all want Birx to take on Trump in public. That will not happen. She's a presidential appointee. And the one place I will continue to defend her mealy-mouthing the answers is that I think she't trying to avoid a BIRX TAKES ON THE GOVERNORS headline. Which I get. /1
With that said: Yeah, I get it. She's been given a few softballs here, where if were were adept as a public speaker, she could say:
"Would I get a tattoo right now?"
*wait for the laughter in the press room*
"No, I wouldn't. Look at the data and match it to Phase 1."

/2
It would be great if she could do that. But she won't. In the meantime, I think she's doing more good than harm by being in there. Trump seems to listen to her and Fauci. A catfight between all of them right now is a bad idea, even if it's not what all of you want.
/3x
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Tom Nichols
@RadioFreeTom
My "end of year" file for work is always full. But like most professors, it's stuff that happens when we're not in a classroom and looks invisible to most people.
This is my short thread on defending the weird working life of professors. /1
First, are there lazy professors who just mail it in and then go home and spend the day watching Netflix in their bunny slippers? Yes, yes, there are. Productive and busy faculty do not like being confused with them, but yes. So don't @ me about your lazy professor BIL. /2
Also, professors are not high school teachers. We do not show up at 8, teach the same class five times, and go home and grade papers. That is a *harder* job and one that would break most professors. But it's not what we do; we have other professional responsibilities. /3
Read 10 tweets
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Tom Nichols
@RadioFreeTom
Trumpers losing their shit over the pandemic are evidence, yet again, that they are just angry *in general*, and their anger can be focused in almost any direction by entrepreneurs at Fox or in the White House. They don't even know what they're mad about; they're just mad. /1
You can see it in their inability to focus early in the pandemic, a few months ago. You could get them to play the "stupid media hoax" game. Now they've been repurposed toward "governors overboard" and "liberate [swing states]." Three years of Trump hasn't slaked the rage. /2
And this is perfect for the Angry White Trumper: People in blue states, guided by the elites and know-it-alls they hate, stealing a march on them by being better and more civic minded citizens than they are. So now it's "fighting tyranny," because they've got nothing else. /3x
Read 3 tweets
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Tom Nichols
@RadioFreeTom
And not just women. Last week, Outrage Twitter was all over Fauci for similarly wanting him to just explode at Trump, as if getting fired would help anything. "They should just quit" is dumb; these are not political jobs. /1
I don't think any decent person should take a political appointment with Trump; McMaster should never have done it, and Mattis should have spoken up. Tillerson should have walked. But these are doctors trying to manage a pandemic, not Cabinet guys who have to be on the team. /2
Telling these guys to quit just because Trump is a moron is like telling senior military officers to just walk out of their commands. People are relying on them, lives are at stake, and the replacements *will* be worse. /3
Read 4 tweets

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