During UW-L lecture, White House reporter thinks COVID will be the main issue of the fall election

The presidential election of 2020 probably will be decided based on how Donald Trump handles the coronavirus crisis. 

That’s the feeling of White House reporter Kenneth Walsh, who spoke on-line yesterday as part of a U-W-La Crosse lecture series on current events. 

Walsh’s topic was “Presidential Leadership in Crisis,” the name of a new book he’s written, and the correspondent for U.S. News and World Report said the health emergency is an unfamiliar type of situation for Trump.

“He’s used to dealing with adversaries and opponents who he can throttle, who he can ridicule…who he can make a deal with or not, depending on what he wants to do with a given issue” said Walsh.  

Walsh thinks one of the most badly botched crises in recent American history was an attempt to rescue hostages from Iran, 40 years ago this week. 

President Jimmy Carter authorized a rescue mission in April of 1980 which ended abruptly with a deadly helicopter crash, and Walsh believes the plan for the rescue was too complicated to succeed.