So this afternoon my wife saw on her twitter feed that Al Franken had said this:
Another piece of advice from the President: Trump suggested today that Americans wash their hands with boiling water. When asked to comment, Dr. Birx said, “the President was just spitballing.”
— Al Franken (@alfranken) May 1, 2020
It turns out he was joking. But Al, you can’t joke about the genius this way. My first reaction was to believe it, and why not? I only confirmed it was a joke by doing a search on my RSS app and finding that no one else had reported it. After all, it’s totally on a par with suggesting we drink Clorox. The line about Brix was spot on as well, since it’s basically what she’s been saying to cover for the guy every time he spews disinformation.
If people start showing up at the ER with blistered hands, Franken has no one to blame but the stupidity of a large percentage of the American population. But that doesn’t relieve him of responsibility, because anyone telling such a joke should bear that stupidity in mind.