Each week during the nationwide fight against the coronavirus, I am looking at 10 leaders – usually politicians but not exclusively – whose voices matter to addressing the pandemic and working to find solutions to get the country through this. (You can see last week’s list here.)
My latest list is below. And worth noting: This is not organized by who is doing the best job when it comes to leading. “Leadership” tends to be a hard thing to agree on, especially in these moments. Rather, it’s simply a look at whose voices truly matter most right now.
1. Andrew Cuomo: The New York governor has become the single most important voice in the country on coronavirus. Unfortunately for Cuomo, it’s for a very difficult reason: His state – and New York City in particular – is the absolute epicenter of the outbreak. But Cuomo has stepped up to this enormous challenge, with facts, honesty, compassion and, when necessary, anger.
2. Donald Trump: The President is still, well, the president. And he has now understood the power of a daily briefing on coronavirus to praise his friends and punish his enemies. Trump, who at times last week struck a tone that seemed to suggest he understood the gravity of this situation, returned more to normal this week – spending 40 minutes on the phone with Sean Hannity Thursday night denouncing those who don’t give him the credit he thinks he so greatly deserves.
3. Chuck Schumer/Steve Mnuchin: I am cheating a little bit here by naming two people for one spot, but the treasury secretary and the Senate minority leader were linked at the hip all week as they sought to find a way to “yes” on a $2 trillion economic stimulus bill designed to keep the economy solvent until the coronavirus pandemic passes. And, to their credit, Schumer and Mnuchin got it done – with a 96-0 vote in the Senate and successful voice vote in the House today.
4. Anthony Fauci: The dominant storyline surrounding the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases this week was whether Trump might get rid of him. But Fauci remains on the job – and is still the medical truth-teller of choice for most Americans. His pushback on Trump’s desire to reopen the country by April 12 – Fauci said, “You don’t make the timeline, the virus makes the timeline” – was much needed.
5. Mike Pence: As Trump has come to commandeer these daily coronavirus task force meetings more and more, the vice president has receded somewhat. But he deserves credit for, when he does speak, largely doing what the President should do: Providing facts and updates on the administration’s response to the virus.
6. Deborah Birx: As Fauci has stepped back somewhat, Birx, the coordinator of the coronavirus task force, has stepped up. She has poured cold water on some of the worst-case projections about the virus and shared a personal story about her grandmother contracting Spanish flu and then passing it on to her family.
7. Gretchen Whitmer: The Michigan governor is growing increasingly vocal about what she needs (and isn’t getting) from the Trump administration as every expert suggests Detroit is one of the next likely epicenters. And now Trump is demeaning her as a “young, a woman governor” and suggesting she is just complaining. Oh, did I mention Whitmer is also a possible VP choice for Joe Biden?
8. Phil Murphy: New Jersey now has the second most cases of coronavirus in the country – at more than 8,800 as of Friday afternoon. That makes Murphy, the state’s governor, a central player in efforts to combat the virus. “[New York’s the] canary in the coal mine,” Murphy said this week, adding: “I think we’re right behind him [Cuomo], unfortunately.”
9. Joe Biden: The de facto 2020 Democratic presidential nominee spent this week trying to get himself in the conversation – setting up a coronavirus “bunker” at his house and offering press availabilities to make sure his voice was part of coronavirus crisis. Biden was more present than last week but barely.
10. Bill de Blasio: There’s no question that Cuomo has become the face of the coronavirus fight in New York. And that the New York City mayor has faded a lot. (This New York magazine piece on BDB is brutal.) But he remains the mayor of the city with the biggest coronavirus outbreak in the country, which still matters.